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    Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Just spent an awesome weekend in Leipzig and thought to share it with you guys.



    After driving off in Switzerland in the middle of the night and roughly 650km, we arrived in Leipzig around 11.00 on Friday morning just in time to join the factory tour. 2 1/2 hours of impressions of the Cayenne and the Carrera GT production line. That factory is stunning. It is so silent and clean, you could eat off the floor and take a nap without being disturbed by any noise. Very impressive. The Cayenne bodys are coming from the VW plant in Bratislava by train, are unloaded and transported through a tunnel directly into the factory, with almost no manual intervention. The interior is already almost complete when they arrive. In Leipzig, they "only" complete the marriage, add some panels on the outside, the audio system and the steering wheel and fill in all the fluids. Afterwards a couple of quality checks are done before they drive each and every car on the test track for a couple of kilometers (roughly 20 minutes if I recall correctly). Afterwards, the cars are washed, some more quality checks are done and then the cars are "packed" for shippment. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take a closer look at the GTs being produced than from 4 meters away. But still, very impressive to see that this beast is produced at just 8 or 9 stations by the snowmen (so called by the coworkers because of their white dresses). Afterwards, the small museum was shown to us and a little snack was served. The whole tour took about two and half hours.



    The other morning, we had to be back at the factory at 8.00 in the morning for the start of the driving course. I had made a reservation for 911 and got a 996 Targa for these two days. I must confess that I would have preferred a 997 but they just didn't have enough of them and I was obviously to late with my registration. The whole saturday consisted of 8 stations with different driving situation to train (oversteering, understeering, braking, high speed lane change, slalom, offroading in the Cayenne, etc).



    Unfortunately, the weather was just crap and made the briefings at the start of each section a pain as we had to get out of the car for instructions. On the other hand, it made most of the execises even more interesting.



    Shortly before lunch time, they offered as a special treat to take a closer look at the Carrera GT production line! Wow, unlike the day before during the official tour, we were allow to step right up to the cars. Touching was not allowed tough. The training lasted until 17.00. Later on, the instructors picked us up at the hotel for the organised dinner in a nice restaurant in downtown Leipzig. The other morning, we started again at 08.00h. The track was divided into 4 different section each of which we drove for almost an hour after having being thaught about the ideal line. After another excellent lunch in the restaurant on the third floor of the Porsche "tower", Sunday afternoon was dedicated to free driving and taxi rides with the instructors. Each group got to drive 4 stints of about 15 minutes. We had a blast. This was only interrupted for a short "show-driving" with the Carrera GT. That car is not from this world. Just hearing it gives you goose bumps. Jochen Albig, the head instructor in Leipzig, really knows how to tame that beast. It was amazing.









    Overall, an amazing weekend. I recommend this two-day course for everyone interested in improving his skills and driving on a track which includes reconstructions of some of the most famous curves from various race tracks around the world (BusStop from Spa, Mobil 1 S from Nürburgring, Loews from Monte Carlo, etc.).

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Awesome report Matt C!
    Thanks a lot!
    I am actually considering doing it, looks like fun!

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    That was a great report! what a fun packed weekend

    Thanks for sharing

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    how much is it? I should start saving up Would you happen to have that Carrera Gt picture in high resolution? Looks fun

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Quote:
    CarreraGtRacer said:
    how much is it? I should start saving up Would you happen to have that Carrera Gt picture in high resolution? Looks fun



    The cost are:

    Driver: Euro 850.00
    Passenger: Euro 165.00
    Hotel: Euro 140.00/night
    911 Rental: Euro 820.00/2 days
    Total: Euro 1975.00

    I have some more GT pics in high resolution. If you send me your mail address, I'll mail them to you (let me know the max size per mail).

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Thanks Matt!

    Great report. That tour looks like an extraordinary experience!

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Thanks so much Matt!

    My husband and I booked the same training for Sept 17/18. We'll rent a Boxster for it. I had planned flying in on Friday anyway but now I have a reason to come in time for the factory tour.

    We were planning on hiring only one Porsche for both of us and were told that's fine. Do you reckon we would miss out on much individual driving time because of that?

    For those who wonder: Instructions are available in English as well, I was told.

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    My pleasure, glad you liked it.

    @Ente: Make sure you get in touch with them beforehand to arrange for the factory tour on Friday (provided that you arrive early enough). The factory is right next to the airport. Should be a 10 minutes taxi drive max. Our tour started at 11.30h. I don't know if there's was another starting later in the afternoon.

    Regarding one car for two. I was in a group with only "single starters" so I can't really tell. However, as the other groups with double starters didn't have more time, I would imagine that you only get half the time for each. Except for the "free" track driving on Sunday afternoon, during which they let the second driver run with the second group while the first starts with group 1. So I would probably rent two cars if money is not the issue.

    English instructions are indeed available. I was in a mixed group. Each group has two instructors. They split up the group during the briefings and gave instructions in German and English.

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Thanks again Matt. We'll probably opt for another hire Boxey then and I'll call for information on the factory tour.

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Matt the pictures are amazing!

    Thanks alot for sending them to me

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    I just got off the phone with Ms Ruethz from Porsche Leipzip and she clarified the hire-one-car-for-two-people policies during the two day advance driver training. It's the so-called "doublestarter" configuration whereby each of the two participants pays the full course fee (850 E each) but shares one hired car. The doublestarters are then usually packed into different groups with a much smaller number of cars, e.g. 10 singlestarter cars in group 1, 5-6 doublestarter cars in group 2, so everyone gets approximately the same mileage on the tarmac.

    The Boxster hire cars seem to be all S specimen. She confirmed that they have the 987 models for hire if you're booking early enough (360 E per day per Boxster).

    Well what can I say.. September is too far away. I'm so looking forward to this event it's almost embarrassing. The staff seems to be great

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Ah I see, that does make sense. I didn't notice that the group was smaller than ours.

    To ease the "pain" of waiting here are some other pics:








    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Can you rent the Carrera GT or does one of Porsches test drivers drive it around with you as passenger?!

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    Unfortunately not - you can neither rent nor get a ride as a passenger unless you're able to take part in one of the exclusive "potiential buyers events". But not even these guys get to drive it.

    Re: Driving Course and Factory Visit in Leipzig

    If you want to experience Porsche Leipzig as well as laps in a Carrera GT check out www.autobahn-adventures.com It's part of the tour.

     
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