Driver Experience Day at Silverstone - and some surprising impressions
Yesterday SWMBO and myself were invited to an all day driver event at the Porsche Driver Experience Centre at Silverstone, to drive the whole Porsche range of cars. As stated in the title we came away with some expected and some surprising impressions.
We drove up the previous evening and stayed overnight at the excellent Whittlebury Hall Hotel, www.whittleburyhall.co.uk only 15 minutes away in order that we could arrive fresh for the days event.
We arrived at 08:30hrs for reception and breakfast, and after the driver briefing with all the usual safety stuff we started. The attendees were split into four groups.
Cayenne Hybrid / Diesel
First up for us was an 45 minute outing in Cayenne, half in the Hybrid version and half in the diesel. Both were fairly high specced with air suspension and the diesel having the 20" wheels (which did make the ride suffer a little bit). The technology is truly impressive in the Hybrid version, earily quiet when it starts off in electric mode before the 3 litre petrol engine cuts in. Flooring it, when both the petrol engine and electric motor combine power was impressive for a 2 tonne vehicle. Comfort and refinement superb as is the driving position and all round visibility. Turning round in the confines of a pub car park where we changed drivers revealed an amazingly tight turning circle for such a large car. Swopping cars into the diesel just proved for us that the huge surcharge for similar performance and not so good economy is simply just not worth it, at least here in the UK. The low down torque of the diesel was simply effortless and just as refined as the hybrid at all times other than stationary (where the start / stop cuts the engine anyway unless shut off) and very hard acceleration. Later back at the Centre one of the Porsche driver experts took us for a turn on the awesome off road circuit not in a new Cayenne but an old pre-production left hand drive model that had done this torture every day. First up an 50% hill (1/1) down the other side, the same incline. A 45% angled side slope. A section of track that had concrete hillocks about 1 metre high diagonally spaced that left diagonally opposite wheels nearly a metre off the ground. The stress that must have put through the chassis !! Demonstrations then followed showing how the various diff - locks locks and hill brake assist worked. The amazing thing was that after years of day after day treatment there was no rattles, squeaks or any sign of wear and tear.
A truly impressive vehicle that prior to yesterday I just viewed as a shed on wheels.
Cayman / Boxster (981)
This drive was purely on the Experience Centre handling circuit together with the kick plate (to demonstrate oversteer) where a vast smooth steel plate coated in low friction surface soaked in water is moved either left or right suddenly as the car arrives on the plate, either left or right, and then the trick is to catch and control the resultant oversteer before a spin. This only works if the entry speed is between 17 - 30 mph as the kick plate mechanism won't ioperate outside of those limits. This becomes increasingly difficult as the speed increases and whilst it is reasonably easy to catch at the lower end above 25 mph I found it virtually impossible. It is a real awakener as once the tyres lose griop there is nothing PSM or anything else can do to help you other than skill and a great deal of luck. Then to the ice hill which you drive through a slalom of water jets on an incline at a target speed of 25mph to show car control and the abilities on PSM. The last runs were done with PSM off and as the car loses grip how PSM shuts down engine power and controls slides. Personally I really enjoyed it with PSM off with the tail sliing and controlling the power myself. We then did several laps on the handling circuit swapping cars. We drove a Cayman 2.9 manual followed by Boxster S (981) PDK.
The difference between 987 and 981 was really eye opening. The two cars felt 20 years apart, it was that different. The interior of the new Boxster (the car we drove had the lovely agate / pebble bi colour leather) is just in a different league and the everything about the new car is a sheer revelation. If we still owned our Cayman we would have come away mightily depressed!!!!
We then broke for an excellent and healthy 3 course lunch.
Afterwards :-
Panamera Hybrid / Diesel
Same trip out on the public roads as we did for the Cayenne, again didn't see the point of the extra money for Hybrid over the very refined diesel. Superbly comfortable and as with all Porsche the depth of engineering and quality very impressive. Truly luxurious in the rear and once driving the size of the car did seem to shrink around you. SWMBO was not as impressed with Panamera as she was with Cayenne, mainly due to the high driving position of the former. However if there is such a car as a sports limousine, then this must be it, the speed with which the car changes direction, the precision of the steering and how the car seems to shrink once driving it is very impressive.
991
We drove 991 (non S ) PDK with sports chassis, sports exhaust and PCCB, and 991 S manual with standard brakes over the Silverstone handling circuit only. PDK seems faster than before, but the new interior seems more Panamera luxurious than sports car. I think that compared with the similar Boxster dash its the vents that are small and rectangular in 991 and a much more modern design in 981. Strange that such a detail would make such a different impression. The engine sound whilst more vocal also sounded somehow artificial as it's acoustically "piped" into the car and sounded it. But the sports exhaust fitted to this car souneded wonderful with the addition of the overrun crackle and spit was just wonderful. The manual 991 S had what felt to be an overly heavy clutch pedal which the Porsche expert stated was not typical, but of course our own 997 being PDK I've no direct comparison. Engine note in the S is more gruiff than the standard car but still sounded a little bit artificial.
The car seemed more GT / cruiser in character than sports car, at least that's the impression created on our all too short experience. Maybe that's just the much more luxurious interior than 997.
Overall I wasn't as impressed with the improvements of 991 over 997 than I was 981 over 987. which was another big surpise.
We also spent 30 minutes in the "Wellness Centre" a sophisticated fully equipped gymnasium used by some of the Formula one drivers, rally drivers and other professional athletes. We all had a go athe "Batak" apparatus which is a wall mounted device about 2 metres high by 1.5 metreside with lights that come on at random that have to be hit out. This tests reaction times and peripheral vision. I did pitifully sadly!.
My surpises : How good Cayenne is, the light years difference between 987 and 981 and our lack of similar impressions with 991 over 997. In fact one of the driver consultants there said to us that the 981 is so good Porsche are going to have to do something pretty quick with 991 if it is not going to steal serious sales from the lower end of 991 range, even though loyalty from customers to the 911 brand will still be strong.
The day ended at around 17:00hrs after tea and cakes. I was anticipating getting back into our 3 year old 997 would seem an anticlimax but amazingly it didn't!
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Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. - Albert Einstein
Porsche 997 Carrera S PDK Aqua Blue / Black - Toyota Yaris D4D "Clockwork Rat"