Crown

Just finished the Porsche Racing Experience at Vallelunga. A 5 day course from Porsche with full support from Manthey Racing.

We have real racing for the last day, a team endurance and individual sprint races. 

They used a 918 as our safety car, and during one of the races it was needed. I was the 1st place car following the 918.

Porsche brought in Joerg Bergmeister as the safety car driver. He was absolutely at the limit of the 918 during corners just to stay ahead of the Cup cars even at safety car speed.  I wasn't even close to the professionals in skill level and in the Cup car, I wasn't even trying around corners while the 918 was already sliding sideways. But once on the straight, the 918 is gone. Like gone. No chance to even keep up. 

He took one of the Manthey mechanics as a passenger and that poor guy puked out the side window onto the track during the safety car laps. Twice. 

Will do a more thorough posting when I get home, heading to airport now.

Sounds like a brilliant week.

Look forward to some photos  

The summary already sounds exciting, curious to hear about the details. 

Can't wait for more of this...

"Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out."

Ha ha ha, I’ll let Nick write the summery and correct it if he’s too far of the track.... But it will be correct that I ended second after him two times, but the second victory was probably bought by bribing the race director....

Still in Rome, so only got time for this short post. But if you look back in this thread, you will see that the question about if it was worth the price was asked. I say hell YES!!! 

It is a lot of money, but it’s NOT expensive! Top notch all the way. What a great five days of my life

How much was it?

https://www.porsche.com/specials/en/international/porsche-racing-experience/upcoming-events/

Really looks cool. Looking forward to hear more 

Some customers probably get compd or.deep.discounts depending on their profile. 

49k EUR?

Tesla Model S P100D & Model X P90D & 2016 BMW i8 & 2017 Sept 991.2 GT3 ordered. 2020 Porsche Mission E on order

first some pictures.

pretty sure farmer also have some nice ones too.

The farmer:

Ha ha ha, I’ll let Nick write the summery and correct it if he’s too far of the track.... But it will be correct that I ended second after him two times, but the second victory was probably bought by bribing the race director....

Still in Rome, so only got time for this short post. But if you look back in this thread, you will see that the question about if it was worth the price was asked. I say hell YES!!! 

It is a lot of money, but it’s NOT expensive! Top notch all the way. What a great five days of my life

Don't think I needed to bribe, I was 3/4s of a lap in front of you, I could do 2 drive through penalties and still come out ahead of you 

For our race, the Race Director wasn't clear on which rule he was applying, but then he clarified with the drivers of the 2nd session so that's why they got penalized for false start.

Anyway, even with the slight car movement my wheels where still within the box and hence he didn't impose a penalty on me, that's his explanation to you too.

Anyway,

Our event started on Sunday night, when everyone arrived and checked in. Our room was packed full of 'goodies'.

Full racing gear, from helmet to racing suit to shoes, 4 undershirts, 2 underpants and 2 balaclava and 4 pairs of cocks. Together with a helmet bag and a big suitcase for all the stuff. Plus a 4 inch binder of study material AND a Sony Zeiss VR googles with a Sony phone. 

Welcome introduction dinner at the hotel happened on Sunday. We were introduced to Mark Webber same night as he is the guest instructor. 

The event officially starts on Monday morning. There are 10 of us attending and we were split into 5 pairs with an attached instructor. Who is also our chauffeur to and from the track everyday, driving a Panamera Turbo. 

First was the introduction to Cup car, and some dynamic driving for us to get use to a Cup car.

Lead and follow sessions after lunch and full data telemetry support to familiarize with the track.

Tuesday was more of the same, lapping session with a choice of lead follow or solo runs. I picked solo runs. Some others keep the lead follow routine. Passing is allowed.

Porsche also fit in some blocks for us to be 'interviewed' for our goals for the week. We also spent Tuesday doing a doctor's interviews.

Porsche/Manthey Racing also sent in their full support staff, trainers, medical doctors, nurses, a physiotherapist is also on hand and also a physiological doctor.

Dinner is at the track, every day inside the temporary hospitality tent, which is also where lunch is, and it has a full locker room with showers. 
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On Wednesday, it is classroom day, there were no driving activities but we have our full physicals in the morning and classroom session in the afternoon followed by license exam.

Sven Stoppe from DMSB flew in to be our guest 'teacher' for the course. He stayed till the end of the event to also answer questions from us. 

Porsche pretty much pulled out all the big guns to stage the event, 60+ employees just to support 10 playing customers. 

Thursday morning we have more practices and data analysis and the afternoon was a practice of how to warm up cold new slicks then a qualifying session with another set of brand new tires in preparation of the races on Friday. There was also an hour session with the mental coaching and also another interview with our goals, as in informing us of racing options next year.

Friday morning was sort of a wash out as the fog rolled in and stayed for a while. But more practicing sessions follows, and practice for drivers change, rolling starts, standing starts, procedures for safety car starts, etc. 

Yours truly was paying attention but someone else here wasn't, and it came back to haunt him in the afternoon...........

A endurance race happened before lunch, as it happens, the pole sitter lost the start but battle back and regain 1st place after the 2nd lap, but the 2nd place car had an accident on track and the safety car came out for a few laps. That's when the passenger of the safety car did he throw up on track thingy haha.

It's also when I caught someone napping behind me and I pulled out a 4 corner lead before he even crosses the start finish line. The gap kept increasing and the 30 mins session ended up with me having a 30 second lead before we all got called back to the pits for a drivers' change for the 2nd half of the race. 

My partner had an unforced error with 5 mins left so our team ended up with a DNF, he felt terrible about losing and going off but it's all part of the learning experience, all good.

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The very last thing of the event was individual races. Each gets a 30 mins sprint race.

I ran in heat 1. That certain someone here qualified 2nd. 

As he mentioned, I had a false start, and I knew it. I wheeled off blistering lap after lap thinking I was gonna get a call from race control for a drive through penalty, I wanna pull out a big enough gap that I can serve the penalty and still coming back within striking range. Our friend here on the other hand decided to spend the 1st lap complaining on the radio, thinking I was gonna get a penalty and he can drive 'slowly' to a victory. Another mental mistake on his part.

On paper he is close, only 1/2 a sec behind me, should have been a close race and if I had gotten the penalty I would have a hard time catching back to him. But because he wasn't in race mode and I was, after about 4 laps I was already out of sight of him, and by that time the Race Director had already decided no penalty was going to be assessed.I was too far way from him to be able to catch me especially when I was still in full attack mode. At the end of the 30 mins sprint race I had a margin of almost 3/4 of a lap, race control took note of lap timing and figured that a drive through wouldn't have matter anyway in any point in the race. 

In the 2nd heat, my partner also had a false start, started 2nd, he was gonna get a penalty as the race director had already briefed them about the start. The leader mistaken though he was the one getting the drive through so he came in and serve a penalty, everyone is confused. My partner came in not long after to serve his, he didn't get rattled and drive his own race, battled back to 2nd place even after the penalty. The funniest thing is that the 3rd place car also had serve a drive through for not obeying track limit, after he had done that he immediately got another drive through penalty for crossing the pit exit white line. He came back in again and did the drive through at almost idle speed, but he did a burn out on pit exit and almost got another white line violation, as in within inches. This guy ended up in 4th place. 

After the 2 races in the afternoon is done, we were treated to a proper podium ceremony, with champagne! That was fun!

We also did a exit feedback interview with Porsche/Manthey. 

This is their first ever event that goes above the Master RSR love and they wanted feedback from us.

Mostly it was a well rung event, there are some teething problems but overall it's pretty much perfect.

Yes the cost was 49,911 euro per person. Sounds expensive, but consider what they had brought in for the week, they are actually losing money for the week.  They bought in 6 primary cars and another 6 back ups. All 991.2 Cup cars. Plus another 4 991.1 Cup cars for the dynamic sessions. 

All of us earned the International D license after the event.

Manthey Racing had already secured 4 spots for us to race in the Deutsch Sport Cup series next year, Like 6 races. That will cost us almost 240k euro if we want to do it, and that's our level 2. 

And they will have another level 1 course like the one we just did in April and another one towards the end of the year. They already have another 50 people signed up.

It is quite expensive for the 'experience'. But We were ran pretty much like a works team, with full factory support, and some thing will be happening if we do the level 2 races. Basically full factory support, and that's something that's don't happen in the Sports Cup series. 

There was a full documentary crew tagging along, not just one but 2 photographers and a full video crew also, we also have post race interviews with a video camera. Porsche also send their best instructors, their most senior and experienced. Farmer got a ex-F1 driver Christian Klein and I had Matthias Huffsummer. Jens Richter is also part of the instructor crew.

Sascha Maassenn is also on hand full time representing Manthey Racing to coordinate everything.

seriously impressive

Wow, what an amazing-sounding event.  Thanks for the write-up - you guys must have had a lot of fun!

2015 911 GT3, 1964 Type 1

Not as good photographer as Nick, but here’s som more

Amazing event! 

⇒ Carlos - Porsche 991 Carrera GTS

To say it's an amazing event is an understatement.......

Oh, here is our tire usage.

We practice standing starts on Thursday afternoon, 2 starts each as 2 drivers share one car, each car got 4 of those in a short period.

The mechanics work late after dinner to do clutch changes over the night.

Just like a race weekend. 

One final note about the cost,

Us participants did some rough calculations and have guessed, correctly, with confirmation from Porsche/Manthey that they are actually losing money on the event.

10 of us paid them half a million euros total for the 5 days, so 10k per person a day. Car rental, track rental. We go through at least one set of tires a day, have full time mechanics on duty, their top instructors giving practically 1 on 1 coaching. Trainers and doctors on site every day, all the personal racing equipments. catering with excellent food, hotel stay for their staff of 60 (the top brasses and instructors stayed with us at Rome Cavalieri), it all adds up. Flying in Mark Webber is also not cheap as he has to take a detour to us before heading Austin for F1.

There was no official confirmation of numbers but our best guess is that the event was subsidized by at last 100k from them if not more. 

My brother' s Cup's racing week ends cost him about 20k . That includes a full team ( mechanics , engineer ) shared with other pilots , tire, transport etc and his car .

Based on that , I would say you paid a very faire price for 5 days .

Now the only serious question : Have you placed the order for one ? 

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 964 Carrera 4 --  997.2 C2S , -20mm --  991 GT3 RS 

Got a good offer for one by the Swedish importer, but I’m thinking of doing the level 2 i.e 6 races in Porsche sports cup Germany. If I do, porsche will provide me with 2 cars/weekend, so no need for one next year if I do that.....

But let’s see how things fall out and how the schedule looks. Still in Rome, so need to get back home first, so I can think this through properly and see if it’s doable schedule wise.

But one of the guys bought one the same night as we ended the event (and some of the other participants already had one, so no need for one more...)

If you search for Jens Richter on Facebook you’ll find more photo’s of this event 

Looks like a truely amazing experience!

Tesla Model S P100D & Model X P90D & 2016 BMW i8 & 2017 Sept 991.2 GT3 ordered. 2020 Porsche Mission E on order

Whoopsy:

One final note about the cost,

Us participants did some rough calculations and have guessed, correctly, with confirmation from Porsche/Manthey that they are actually losing money on the event.

10 of us paid them half a million euros total for the 5 days, so 10k per person a day. Car rental, track rental. We go through at least one set of tires a day, have full time mechanics on duty, their top instructors giving practically 1 on 1 coaching. Trainers and doctors on site every day, all the personal racing equipments. catering with excellent food, hotel stay for their staff of 60 (the top brasses and instructors stayed with us at Rome Cavalieri), it all adds up. Flying in Mark Webber is also not cheap as he has to take a detour to us before heading Austin for F1.

There was no official confirmation of numbers but our best guess is that the event was subsidized by at last 100k from them if not more. 

Well...50k for five days...sounds  like a bargain.   (just kidding, I know how expensive the material can be, not even talking about the personell and logistics needed to run the show).

Still: 50k is probably the sum I need for me and my family to live for a year. This excludes vacations and luxury expenses of course. My wife would kill me if I spend 50k for such an event but if I could afford it, I would definitely be there. Nick's photos alone made my mouth watering...  

More of this stuff PLEASE...  

RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet (2015), Porsche Cayenne S Diesel (2017), Audi R8 V10 Plus (2016), Mini JCW (2015)

Wow. Just wow. 

It must have been extraordinary. I'm speechless. 

Thanks for sharing 

Vicarious enjoyment. Thanks for sharing.