[jb92563]

Went on my first Porsche "Tour" event today and have some first Impressions.

I was expecting a relaxing, but some what spirited drive through the country with the 35+ Porsches that attended but things did not exactly go that way.

All the cars staged at a Porsche dealer, who graciously sponsored the event with coffee, muffins etc

The drivers briefing emphasized safety and keeping the group together with good pacing and keeping the Porsche behind you in your sights thereby having the last car in the group set the pace. Sounds good in concept.

We were also advised that there are more accidents during "Tours" than at actual racing events SO BE CAREFUL.

So off I went in the last group of ~12 cars with me being 3rd from last on my first event.

The highway route to get to the scenic road with the twisties was a hairy nightmare since there were constant lane changes trying to follow the leader and lead to a few close calls as the cars tried to stay grouped and keep up with the lane changes.

The girlfriend did not enjoy the aggressive driving trying to stay positioned during a few of the many off ramps we had to scramble to make.

Seems like late changes made at the front of the group are amplified at the end with less reaction time to make the changes.

Once we got off the highways and on to the scenic roads thinks had calmed considerably thank god and the tension of the highway portion started to ease.

I did notice that I was on the gas and then on the brakes in the twisties and again built the tension as I was mirroring the car in fronts technique.

I decided I needed to do it in my own rhythm which is gear up and gear down with less braking required, and then I could finally start to enjoy the twisties. The car felt more balanced this way as well and grooved the twisties very nicely.

We got near our destination and we say a couple Porsches going what turned out to be the wrong way and followed them as a group for a couple miles before we realized we were lost.

Turned around and headed back and missed our turn to go back and had to keep going till a suitable turnaround could be found.
Caught the right turn off this time but by this time we were alone so we simply went back to the last town and gave up.

Had some pork sandwiches from a couple hillbilly looking guys who could not figure out how to make change at the cash. The apparently opened up this restaurant that same morning and did not even know what anything costs so had to figure out the prices.

The girlfriend whispered that she hopes we dont get tapeworms from their creations. I though about it and figured that the hillbillies may not be able to count, but they could BBQ pork just fine.

On our way out of town we found the Porsche destination and saw that it looked like we were not the only ones to get lost based on the reduced number of Porsches in the parking lot, but by this time we just wanted to get out of dodge and go home so we carried on for a relaxing drive home.

What I have come away with from this experience is that:

- Aggressive driving is not fun for passengers.
- Reaction time decreases the farther back in a group you are so beginners should be put at the front of a group.
- Porsche drivers like going fast even on "Tours", cant change the stripes on that cat.
- Even non-races are race like.
- Drive your own technique, not the other guys.
- Hillbillies make good Pork Sandwiches, but check their math.

Not sure if would go on another "Tour" since I'd be better of just doing auto-X
for that kind of driving.

Perhaps Tours are practice for Auto-X ?