'Porsche Sport Drive' event
 

Today was a great day, and I have to share it!
2 weeks ago, I got an email from one of the local Porsche dealers inviting me to a 'Porsche Sport Drive' event. It said space was limited, so I reserved my spot (and a spot for a friend) immediately.
This morning we went to a local technical college that has a 2.8 mile road course, a skid pad area, and they also set up an autocross course. I was surprised at how hard they let us drive the cars, especially the Boxter Spyders.
First, they had 4 2011 Cayenne S SUVs and 4 2011 Panamera 4S sedans for the road course. The lead car had an instructor, and we played 'follow the leader' at speeds up to 90 MPH. Everybody got 2 laps in each car, and a few of us (including me) got 2 extra laps in the Panamera 4S.
Next, we went to the autocross area where we got to drive the Boxster Spyder (without an instructor) through a practice lap and a timed lap. Again, a few of us (including me) got to take an extra lap.
Last was a wet skidpad area with a figure 8 laid out. They had a 911 Carrera and a Cayman S available. Each person got about a dozen laps through the figure 8 with an instructor. The PSM was turned off, and they wanted you to stab the throttle just before the straight part of the figure 8 to kick the back end out, then teach you how to catch the spin with countersteer.
The local dealers said they decided to skip the annual new car auto show at the local convention center last March, and spend the money putting on this event. Everybody voted that they do it again next year. I know I will be there if they do! :cheers:
I think this 'permagrin' will last a few weeks! :cool:

I know they take this event around the country, so has anybody else on this forum attended this event?

I'm going tomorrow with a guest who I've raced with for years, looking forward to it. The weather is gonna be much nicer, so we'll get to go closer to 10/10ths.

I'm taking my new ride too!

Cheers!

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!

'Bastard, gosh...I hope your arm is OK soon!

You may very well be right, Lil'. There's a reason these cars weren't being bought by many people, and it had to do with more than the pricetags. All I can see happenning is people getting a false sense of confidence in their abilities, pushing the car beyond its limits and well beyond their own to recover it, and a lot more Porsches getting wadded up on the road. Having a car with little to no handling aids just forces you to be a better driver and make smarter choices about when and how you push your car and yourself.

Ok, rant over, hahah. Hoepfully this event's happening somewhere in my neck of the woods. I think I'll go look for it. :D

Don't get me wrong, I definitely recommend the event.

I mean where else can you get an afternoon of thrashing someone else's multi-hundred thousand + dollar collection on a track for free?

PCNA did an excellent job as host. There was food and drink, canopies to shade you from the sun when you were in que, with a drink station at each one. There was a Porsche Boutique and even vans to drive you the couple hundred yards over the the next event.

But I went there to try and objectively judge their latest offerings. I'm not anti-porsche as Flavor 987S seems to infer, not at all. I just bought another one 3 weeks ago.

All I'm saying is that while these new cars may be faster, they're also much tamer. Speed isn't, and should not be, the only metric. I had wished to walk away with a serious case of the 'giggles' having read all the literature and heard tons of testimonials from others who've experienced these rides and technology. I didn't.

What I did walk away with was an impression that these 'driver aids' significantly diluted the experience and also that the cars lacked a certain ability to incorporate the driver. That without these aids, which we were told not to disengage, the cars and the experience would have been much more rewarding.

Cheers!

that would be fun to do.

LOL!! :D

You just don't get it, 'Bastard!

Porsche's NA sales were up 137% for June. One reason why? The Panomera sales. Just an additional reference point to consider.

OK... maybe so.

Enlighten me!

Cheers!

Jim, you're cracking me up! :) LOL. Good stuff, man.

Let's just leave it like it is. Much more entertaining this way.

Hey Nick, can you believe this guy??

L-B,

Me thinks the Flave-o thinks you might be pounding your own back a bit hard.

I think you're giving us a good perspective from a better than average experience level, but then I have more than average high performance experience, also.

The red monster looks as nice as Randy said it is!

Now if you could just put that engine in the middle, where it belongs........ :D

Well, that was certainly not my intention at all. If my post offended Flavoer or anyone, sorry. I don't think there enough bandwidth to list all the people I know personally who are better on a track then I am. At autoX I'm sometimes in the top 10, but seldom in the top 5. I enjoy it, but not fanatically. My skillset is just average.

Well, thanks, but I'm just an avg. guy and telling you what I came away with. Maybe some haven't been around as long and experienced the older generations of non-electronic cars as I, and many others here have. I can see where that would give you a different perspective.

Thanks. We're really enjoying it. I picked it up 6/16/10 w/ 20,300 in the clock and it's at 24,250 now (incl. the 1,800 it took to bring it home). I licensed it as a collector here and will have the plate: A90 964.

I wish I could find a way to cram that engine in the Boxster. The sound is intoxicating and it has gobs of torque. I've owned several mid-engine cars and I know they're superior for handling, no doubt. The chassis is fairly rigid, but vs the Boxster, it's no contest. I must say though, the build quality is better than the Boxster, but not by a large margin. Porsche was still mostly hand-building the 964 vs the production line Boxster and it shows. Still, IMHO, the build quality of the Boxster is excellent, it's just that the 964 seems a slight bit better.

Cheers!