Post by Big Blue on Jun 14, 2018 23:59:34 GMT
Last year I went to the Dealer launch of the Panamera Sport Touring at Porsche West London, which I still refer to as AFN because I’m a curmudgeonly old bastard that refuses to modernise. Mr Racing accompanied me and during the evening we saw the leaflets for the Porsche Experience centre and he advised me that they were actually good value for money. So I took one home and casually left it on the G-Plan coffee table in the drawing room, which the children are not allowed in so no fucking drawing goes on in there! (our house is overwhelmed with the scribblings of no1 daughter)
So when Christmas came I was surprised to receive as a joint gift from my mother and w2.0 the Porsche GT Experience. I booked it for June because I didn’t fancy a half day in a load of GT powered 911s in the cold and / or wet. And how right I was: not too sunny; not at all cold the day was set for me to enjoy myself.
The day
I arrived early because I didn’t want to be late due to M25 / M40 / A3 / Worcester Park traffic. This gave me time to look at the Porsches in the reception area and lo! I found a video game, turned on and no one about. So I played that like a teenager, racing a 917 round Monza. Ed will confirm I like playing driving games, as does he I note from RR3 activity.
There was a three-course lunch and the chefs are more than just good. Lovely food and during this time your instructor comes to join you. Mine turned up with four keys and a big smile. It turned out he is a former Renault Cup racer who now races in 600cc SuperSport bikes and is at a BSB meeting I had the opportunity to attend but can’t make. He’s been at the centre for all 10 years it’s been there. Anyway, we spoke about bikes and racing over a very nice lunch.
The cars
First up is a new 911 Carrera 4 GTS with rear wheel steer, PDK and probably other exciting options I’ve never heard of. Initially I was cautious, and the instructor said as much. “It’s not my car” I replied; “That’s alright, it’s not mine either” which kind of set the tone. And there’s the rub: there’s no form of limit aside from the track layout and your own ability / bravado / stupidity. This was my first ever 911 drive and I must say they’re very nice aren’t they? Very balanced and easy to chuck about and boy, they stick to the road. Essentially this first car just gets you used to the track layouts and, at least in my case, a 911.
Next up was a 997 GT2 RS manual. Let me say, this car sounded a lot more agricultural than the new GTS and having a manual gearbox for me was a minor issue as my leg and the shifter became good friends. GT2, then: another turbo car. Very nice gearbox to use and as the guy said, don’t rush or snatch the changes. It’s nice to hang on to the gears and listen to the flat six (more and better on that next car….) and the handling is such that I stepped the rear out a fair few times and just caught it – lift off oversteer as opposed to any Lauda-esque rear wheel steering apart from one big powerslide which the guy said he felt a bit nervous about until it was apparent I was holding it. I can understand why people like manual boxes and the steering on the 997 was better than that on the 991. All in all this was a much more old-skool experience than the other three cars and no worse for it.
So 991 GT3 RS next. I say, these are nice. By now, of course, I have the knowledge of the tracks and lost any fears of it being someone else’s car. I used the paddles a bit (complete anathema to me – it’s an auto for a reason) and the engine note is what I would call “proper”. I was banging it into the limiter at every opportunity and the front end goes where you point it with millimetric accuracy. Fabulous car. I was most upset that we did some Launch Control runs in this car. I feel this is brutal exercise and there was plenty of axle/drivetrain tramp to suggest I’m not wrong. It’s impressive (as are the phenomenal brakes) but as someone with more than a little mechanical sympathy I couldn’t make a habit of it. The instructor pointed out to me that the car had over 21k miles on it, all spent at the Experience Centre and it had done untold numbers of Launches – the PDK is a good box.
Last up was a Gen 2 991 GT3. Revs 200rpm higher than the Gen 1 GT3 RS and has real glass, less vents on the body and a narrower chassis. In short: this is the one to have. Let’s begin by tempering my thoughts on this car by remembering that I am by now fully 911-ed; I know how it handles; I know the track and am comfortable using the paddles. I know the brakes are fade-free (all were on ceramics) and that only my psyche is the limit. This car is fabulous. Further down you’ll read what I managed but it feels right, steers right, handles right and even though I’m not the slimmest the seats are comfy, the driving position is easy to find and the whole package feels made-to-measure.
The tracks
There are 2 main layouts, one with varying elevations and one a lot flatter with a longer straight. I think it was Franki that said they’re too short to get up to speed and indeed 4th gear is not troubled but the point is not about driving in a straight line: 911s are fun at going round corners and the Gorilla is at least as fast in a straight line anyway.
The drag strip is used to demonstrate launch control and then there are two wet bits. One is downhill and used to demonstrate ABS and the stability of the cars when asked to brake hard and steer in the wet and the other is a skid pan – with a kick plate in front of it. The kick plate is a moving piece of road that throws the tail out and you have to catch it on the wet bit.
My failures
So, that skid pan then. The kick plate and then catch the car I can manage but then trying to hold a slide in the wet resulted in a spin. I must’ve done more spins than Darcy Bussell during my time on the pan and I wouldn’t say I was in control for much of it. So some advice: if you’re with me in the car and it starts raining ask me to pull over and you take the wheel. To be honest the forcing the car to slide and catching it is utterly contra to my driving mentality that I couldn’t get my head into it. Hence I could catch the first slide and correct it but beyond that it was “why would I want to do that?”
So the other failure was a “naughty” episode. In the very first car I moved onto the 2nd circuit and after a lap or so came behind another 911 that was travelling at what I might describe as “milk-float speed”. As per trackdays you’re only supposed to overtake when the car in front indicates but this car dropped down to the hairpin so slowly with brakes on for seconds before I’d even consider moving my foot across that I just nipped underneath it with my instructor saying “oh fuck, no…”
The radio then lit up with some heavy Glaswegian reminders of “protocol” etc. I apologised to my instructor who shrugged and said I was fully in control of the situation and when we spoke about it later over tea I said to him, another biker, remember, that on a bike you have to be decisive and I was in executing the overtake with which he agreed.
There were other fails in terms of poor lines, shit entry speed, changing line mid corner, early braking, late braking but that’s just normal shit driving. I kept it on the black bit throughout so that’s good.
My successes
I was mainly happy that I used the paddles later in the day as I was resolutely on the side of keeping to auto but it is more fun hanging on to the gears and the gearboxes hang on when you’re using full throttle more but sometimes other cars and your own mistakes mean you need to make the gearbox get back with the programme.
Finally on the last run I passed another GT3 that had just joined about three laps behind me. As I noted earlier I’m now fully dialled-in as much as a 50-year old overdeveloped ape can be so I pushed on a bit. They’re short laps but it took me 2 laps to re-catch him and I got the next pass on them too. I actually really enjoyed that no matter that the other car could have been being driven by a limbless giraffe with one eye.
My conclusion
Firstly, this is the bollocks of a gift. I was in the cars for over 2.5 hours stopping only to swap and have a cup of tea and a pee after the first two drives. I loved it.
In terms of the cars, the N/A engines are the ones to have meaning in terms of brand new it has to be a GT3 as the base models are all Turbos now. I’d only look at a PDK ‘box as for the majority of driving that’s what you need and the paddle swapping gives you all the control you crave if you’re a manual box freak. I’ve liked the idea of 911s all my life and now I know I was right to do so. They are so easy to drive, they handle and steer as well as any sportscar should and that flat six is such a lovely noise that you could just park it in the garden and rev it in lieu of watching TV.
There is one bombshell though: I’ll never be arsed to buy a supercar or any of these 911s until I can afford a track or trackdays at will. You can’t seriously use these on the road to anywhere near their capability in terms of corner speed. You might argue, rightly, that I can’t use the R1 to anywhere near its ability either but because bike corner speeds are lower and the physics of turning a bike make it an all-involving experience at any speed there’s no comparison. To feel uneasy in a 911 you need to be hooning it to extremes that just aren’t justifiable – they’re supremely confident and capable vehicles that I now love but you really need to take them to the track….every week.
So when Christmas came I was surprised to receive as a joint gift from my mother and w2.0 the Porsche GT Experience. I booked it for June because I didn’t fancy a half day in a load of GT powered 911s in the cold and / or wet. And how right I was: not too sunny; not at all cold the day was set for me to enjoy myself.
The day
I arrived early because I didn’t want to be late due to M25 / M40 / A3 / Worcester Park traffic. This gave me time to look at the Porsches in the reception area and lo! I found a video game, turned on and no one about. So I played that like a teenager, racing a 917 round Monza. Ed will confirm I like playing driving games, as does he I note from RR3 activity.
There was a three-course lunch and the chefs are more than just good. Lovely food and during this time your instructor comes to join you. Mine turned up with four keys and a big smile. It turned out he is a former Renault Cup racer who now races in 600cc SuperSport bikes and is at a BSB meeting I had the opportunity to attend but can’t make. He’s been at the centre for all 10 years it’s been there. Anyway, we spoke about bikes and racing over a very nice lunch.
The cars
First up is a new 911 Carrera 4 GTS with rear wheel steer, PDK and probably other exciting options I’ve never heard of. Initially I was cautious, and the instructor said as much. “It’s not my car” I replied; “That’s alright, it’s not mine either” which kind of set the tone. And there’s the rub: there’s no form of limit aside from the track layout and your own ability / bravado / stupidity. This was my first ever 911 drive and I must say they’re very nice aren’t they? Very balanced and easy to chuck about and boy, they stick to the road. Essentially this first car just gets you used to the track layouts and, at least in my case, a 911.
Next up was a 997 GT2 RS manual. Let me say, this car sounded a lot more agricultural than the new GTS and having a manual gearbox for me was a minor issue as my leg and the shifter became good friends. GT2, then: another turbo car. Very nice gearbox to use and as the guy said, don’t rush or snatch the changes. It’s nice to hang on to the gears and listen to the flat six (more and better on that next car….) and the handling is such that I stepped the rear out a fair few times and just caught it – lift off oversteer as opposed to any Lauda-esque rear wheel steering apart from one big powerslide which the guy said he felt a bit nervous about until it was apparent I was holding it. I can understand why people like manual boxes and the steering on the 997 was better than that on the 991. All in all this was a much more old-skool experience than the other three cars and no worse for it.
So 991 GT3 RS next. I say, these are nice. By now, of course, I have the knowledge of the tracks and lost any fears of it being someone else’s car. I used the paddles a bit (complete anathema to me – it’s an auto for a reason) and the engine note is what I would call “proper”. I was banging it into the limiter at every opportunity and the front end goes where you point it with millimetric accuracy. Fabulous car. I was most upset that we did some Launch Control runs in this car. I feel this is brutal exercise and there was plenty of axle/drivetrain tramp to suggest I’m not wrong. It’s impressive (as are the phenomenal brakes) but as someone with more than a little mechanical sympathy I couldn’t make a habit of it. The instructor pointed out to me that the car had over 21k miles on it, all spent at the Experience Centre and it had done untold numbers of Launches – the PDK is a good box.
Last up was a Gen 2 991 GT3. Revs 200rpm higher than the Gen 1 GT3 RS and has real glass, less vents on the body and a narrower chassis. In short: this is the one to have. Let’s begin by tempering my thoughts on this car by remembering that I am by now fully 911-ed; I know how it handles; I know the track and am comfortable using the paddles. I know the brakes are fade-free (all were on ceramics) and that only my psyche is the limit. This car is fabulous. Further down you’ll read what I managed but it feels right, steers right, handles right and even though I’m not the slimmest the seats are comfy, the driving position is easy to find and the whole package feels made-to-measure.
The tracks
There are 2 main layouts, one with varying elevations and one a lot flatter with a longer straight. I think it was Franki that said they’re too short to get up to speed and indeed 4th gear is not troubled but the point is not about driving in a straight line: 911s are fun at going round corners and the Gorilla is at least as fast in a straight line anyway.
The drag strip is used to demonstrate launch control and then there are two wet bits. One is downhill and used to demonstrate ABS and the stability of the cars when asked to brake hard and steer in the wet and the other is a skid pan – with a kick plate in front of it. The kick plate is a moving piece of road that throws the tail out and you have to catch it on the wet bit.
My failures
So, that skid pan then. The kick plate and then catch the car I can manage but then trying to hold a slide in the wet resulted in a spin. I must’ve done more spins than Darcy Bussell during my time on the pan and I wouldn’t say I was in control for much of it. So some advice: if you’re with me in the car and it starts raining ask me to pull over and you take the wheel. To be honest the forcing the car to slide and catching it is utterly contra to my driving mentality that I couldn’t get my head into it. Hence I could catch the first slide and correct it but beyond that it was “why would I want to do that?”
So the other failure was a “naughty” episode. In the very first car I moved onto the 2nd circuit and after a lap or so came behind another 911 that was travelling at what I might describe as “milk-float speed”. As per trackdays you’re only supposed to overtake when the car in front indicates but this car dropped down to the hairpin so slowly with brakes on for seconds before I’d even consider moving my foot across that I just nipped underneath it with my instructor saying “oh fuck, no…”
The radio then lit up with some heavy Glaswegian reminders of “protocol” etc. I apologised to my instructor who shrugged and said I was fully in control of the situation and when we spoke about it later over tea I said to him, another biker, remember, that on a bike you have to be decisive and I was in executing the overtake with which he agreed.
There were other fails in terms of poor lines, shit entry speed, changing line mid corner, early braking, late braking but that’s just normal shit driving. I kept it on the black bit throughout so that’s good.
My successes
I was mainly happy that I used the paddles later in the day as I was resolutely on the side of keeping to auto but it is more fun hanging on to the gears and the gearboxes hang on when you’re using full throttle more but sometimes other cars and your own mistakes mean you need to make the gearbox get back with the programme.
Finally on the last run I passed another GT3 that had just joined about three laps behind me. As I noted earlier I’m now fully dialled-in as much as a 50-year old overdeveloped ape can be so I pushed on a bit. They’re short laps but it took me 2 laps to re-catch him and I got the next pass on them too. I actually really enjoyed that no matter that the other car could have been being driven by a limbless giraffe with one eye.
My conclusion
Firstly, this is the bollocks of a gift. I was in the cars for over 2.5 hours stopping only to swap and have a cup of tea and a pee after the first two drives. I loved it.
In terms of the cars, the N/A engines are the ones to have meaning in terms of brand new it has to be a GT3 as the base models are all Turbos now. I’d only look at a PDK ‘box as for the majority of driving that’s what you need and the paddle swapping gives you all the control you crave if you’re a manual box freak. I’ve liked the idea of 911s all my life and now I know I was right to do so. They are so easy to drive, they handle and steer as well as any sportscar should and that flat six is such a lovely noise that you could just park it in the garden and rev it in lieu of watching TV.
There is one bombshell though: I’ll never be arsed to buy a supercar or any of these 911s until I can afford a track or trackdays at will. You can’t seriously use these on the road to anywhere near their capability in terms of corner speed. You might argue, rightly, that I can’t use the R1 to anywhere near its ability either but because bike corner speeds are lower and the physics of turning a bike make it an all-involving experience at any speed there’s no comparison. To feel uneasy in a 911 you need to be hooning it to extremes that just aren’t justifiable – they’re supremely confident and capable vehicles that I now love but you really need to take them to the track….every week.
