'Porsche Sport Drive' event

[Lil bastard]

MN986 was right! Today's Porsche Driving Event was great fun!

The Panamera is an unbelievable car! The Boxster Spyder is really a dedicated Track car in disguise! The Cayenne... well whadda ya gonna say?

I decided to forego convention and really test the cars' limits. In the follow-the-leader in the Panamera, I was directly behind the instructor, but chose my own line(s) and brake areas (the ones laid out for the course were Uber-conservative). I had it in a tail slide, tires squealing, it is a terribly capable vehicle. Too expensive, with love it or hate it looks, but extremely capable. I was not prepared to be as impressed as I was given how large and heavy it is.

The B Spyder is quite a car. In the slolom/autox, again, I wanted to test the limits, forget about ET. I hit a cone on each of my runs, but was 3-4 seconds under the other times, and had the tires nice and warmed up for those following me. The Instructor came over and complimented me, then confided that if you weren't hitting cones, you weren't pushing hard enough, because the course was so conservatively laid out.

My Instructor for the skid pad (I chose the 911 because I just got one and felt it would have real benefit) was one of the guys I met at Barber Motorsport in April, so he gave me more instruction time than any of the others.

I have to say that all the electro-doohickies left me underwhelmed. They seriously insulate the driver from the more visceral experiences of a more 'Raw' car. The PSM, aka Please Save Me, was annoying. Even the much exalted PDK I felt was only marginally 'better' than the Tiptronic and left me wishing I was driving a straight manual box instead.

I did the follow-the-leader in the Cayenne, but when it came to my turn, I forfeited my laps to another driver in the car. After having done 9 laps as a passenger, I simply had no desire to take the wheel. It's an awful vehicle... an SUV which goes fast... but always still an SUV.

Porsche put on a very good show, and I'm glad I was invited and attended. But, on the way home in my vintage 911, my guest, an airline pilot (Lotus Elan, BMW M owner) and I agreed that while nice, there was not one car there that either of us would want to run out and buy.

Maybe that's the problem with Porsche now trying to make cars for everybody instead of their former, admittedly limited, market. It's good for their shareholders, but a step backward for the breed IMHO.

Cheers!