Quote:
Steve do you believe for one minute that the journalist were not screened by Porsche before handing the keys to a $440,000 vehicle to them? Make no mistake, there were credentialed drivers.
Really?
Here's a re-post about "credentialed drivers":
"Many years ago, I attended the International Motor Press Association's "Test Day" at Hockenheim in conjunction with the IAA. The event reminded me of a 3-ring circus! There were "journalists" of every stripe imaginable, all competing to get a drive in the "hot" cars before they were degraded by general abuse.
The driving-skill pool was quite varied. The auto-motor-und-sport guys were quite talented and very professional. The USA contingent of Auto Week, Automobile, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and Road & Track all had high skill drivers, many of whom had competition licenses and drove very well.
Then there were the offbeat or small-circulation publications from the homeland that needed an excuse for a day away from the office. These people covered "transportation issues" for style magazines or road accidents for the "dorf gazette". They were quite scary to observe while circulating amidst the hot shoes.
All the major German manufacturers had samples of their cars to drive, with the notable exception of Porsche. When I asked about this, I learned that Porsche used to attend, but there had been more than one bad accident and some vehicles had been destroyed at the previous Test Day. Porsche had decided that the environment of the IMPA event wasn't helping them sell cars proportional to the costs and risks involved. They wouldn't be back.
Out on the track, the event reminded me of an American Showroom Stock race -- but without helmets or Nomex! Everyone was dressed in "business casual" and simply found an unoccupied vehicle, got in, and drove off. The speed differentials were a bit nuts. I recall one lap where I was passed by an M6, a Mercedes 190 E 2.3-16, and some other blur, all while I was passing a VW Camper and a Gelandewagen was doing some very fast off-road testing in the grass beside the track.
At one point, I must have insulted the pride of an Opel Kadett hatch-back (with a bullet-train nose) while I was behind the wheel of a Golf GTi. He put his nose inside my rear quarter at the entrance to a high-speed sweeper around the back side of the track. I worried that if I shut the door on him to take the line, he might not know what was coming and there might be a big crash, since he wouldn't back off one inch. I decided to stay off the line and just tough out the corner and see what happened. Of course, I ran out of road at the exit by about 1 meter and dropped just the outside wheels off the track, into some gravel. I did manage to keep it straight at about 150 KPH, and caught myself accelerating to regain the lead over the provocateur.
At that point, I decided that I was stupid and pulled into the pits for the last time that day. Like I said, it was just like a Showroom Stock race without helmets. Automotive journalism at its best. Imagine that environment with the Carrera GT "
