Porsche Experience Day

[pvr]

A couple of days ago, I took my son to the Porsche Experience day in Silverstone. This is an event you receive an invitation for when you buy a new Porsche. Fortunately, even though my son is only 20, he was allowed to share the afternoon driving session which was great (and also, we could take the pictures when the other person was driving).

Leaving Sussex at 9 in the morning, we arrived at 11 in Silverstone. My favourite parking spot



We started with a lunch provided which was actually very good. The "human body" experience as well as the pre-drive talk was a little boring / unnecessary but was fortunately only half an hour.

The car we were given to drive (with instructor), was the 50th Anniversary number 0118 (manual gearbox). Only 1600 miles on the clock ...



The outer track was for some fun driving at speed with the instructor changing the settings of the car each time to feel the difference (Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus).





The Low Friction area was fun for using your accelerator to balance the car through the bends and to feel the understeer / oversteer points.





The Compact Ice hill simulator was fun to feel what the car does, and at various speeds we tested the corrections until you push the car too far ....









We were extremely lucky with the weather as it was terrible later on, but we had sun all the time during the afternoon.

The return trip (left at 1715) was horrendous traffic wise with a 3.5 hours crawl around London but it trip was well worth the event.

[Sanj]

Nice one buddy - glad you and your son enjoyed it. Or is he not bitten by the car bug?

[pvr]

Oh yes, that is in the genes. )

[X5Sport]

Did you get above 20mph? >:D

[Sanj]

[quote="X5Sport"]
Did you get above 20mph? >:D
[/quote]

Ouch - thought I was Captain Slow!

[AW8]

Glad you both had a good day....I did a simar experience with prodrive in my RX-8.

I think it is very important and beneficial for owners to get to know their cars closer to the limits.

[pvr]

Agreed, the learning on how to steer your car with just the accelerator is interesting, just like losing control on the ice hill or with the kick plate.

The different settings of the car and dampers etc was also good to feel how the car would behave different on the track part.

And X5Sport - not much going over 20 mph on the kick plate and skid part though ...

[DoubleD]

I was lucky enough to go to the Porsche Experience Centre yesterday. I was there as a guest of my friend who is a Cayenne owner.

Had a great day which consisted of:

- driving 911s around the 2 handling tracks and also doing full bore launch control starts. Drove both a manual Carrera 2S Coupe and a PDK Carrera 4S Targa.
- drove both a Cayman GTS and Boxster GTS on the ice hill and kick plate.
- drove a Macan, Cayenne and Panamera on the roads around Silverstone.
- had a passenger ride in a Cayenne on the off road course.

All in all a really fantastic day and a brllliant way of showcasing the products. One of the instructors told me that Porsche are playing the long game in terms of building brand with existing and potential owners. There was no hard sell, but there expectation is that visitors will come to the mark within 3-5 years. Interesting I thought...

I wonder if BMW are planning to create a similar facility. I appreciate ithe average selling price of a BMW is lower than Porsche, but I still think this type of facility is a great way to build brand loyalty.

Finally, I really enjoyed driving both the Cayenne and Macan. Both were standard diesel models but had huge punch and handling was fantastic. I hope I feel the same about my new X5 xDrive40d SE on 20" wheels when I take delivery in Oct  :-[

[535dboy]

WAs also there last week ..............

Those parking spaces are huge, even you could manage it

I took a proper car though and took the RS !

[pvr]

[quote="535dboy"]
WAs also there last week ..............

Those parking spaces are huge, even you could manage it

I took a proper car though and took the RS !
[/quote]

Just ashame you can't drive though …  )

[535dboy]

[quote="pvr"]
[quote="535dboy"]
WAs also there last week ..............

Those parking spaces are huge, even you could manage it

I took a proper car though and took the RS !
[/quote]

Just ashame you can't drive though …  )
[/quote]

Time before I made the instructor sick, too fast for him I think

Was Kat there?

[pvr]

More like you could not drive fluently …

Who is Kat? There were some women there yes.

[535dboy]

[quote="pvr"]
More like you could not drive fluently …

Who is Kat? There were some women there yes.
[/quote]

Quickest out there !

Bloody hot instructor up there !