My write up from today....
Earlier today I attended the 911 Invitation to Drive Event, at the Chobham facility in Surrey.
The day started at Foxhills country club nearby, which was about as obvious a display of wealth as I have ever seen; a beautiful old manor house with 4 golf courses and full leisure and restaurant facilities; Porsche picked well, although a tiny bit stuffy for my liking. The Porsche driving guys themselves though are completely grounded and soon get things back on an even keel with some coffee and bacon rolls before we head out.
I drove to the test facility in a C4S and we headed for the brake test area. I did numerous emergency style stops from 30 and 70 mph; without hands and including a lane change. Later in the day I was to take a C2S with ceramic brakes through a similar exercise for comparison. My opinion was the steel and ceramic seemed to stop you in the same time but that the ceramic was much more present (really hard to describe) and felt closer to the driver. I'd have it if it was free but I personally would not run to £5K for it.
We then did a little work on balance and control before heads around the track for a couple of sighting laps before what was to follow"¦.Here the instructor did one lap showing the turning and braking points before a did a couple and gained the feel of the track. The track was actually quite tough; for those that don't know Chobham it is an old military facility, so the track is by no means smooth and there is none; and I mean zero run off "" the edge of the track is literally 2 feet from the tree line "" this has the effect of making you very wary on the track and also dumping leaves on an already damp and greasy track.
Q the GT2 "" OMG "" and here I really do mean Oh My God"¦.I am still on a high "" this car is nothing short of magnificent. The first thing that hits you is the bucket seats which hold you perfectly in place; the next thing the gearbox which seemed heavy at low speed but which later proved itself to be perfectly weighted at high speed. Then, it is just all about the power and endless amouts of grip. One lap from the instructor then my turn. It accelerated quickly; second gear took me to 70 mph and I was quickly over 100mph where I seemed to stay. The circuit is quite sweeping with only a couple of real corners, which are taken around 70 / 80mph. The rest is a case of keeping speed high by maintaining the correct line"¦.the run into the straight allows two sweeping corners beforehand and entry from the last apex onto the straight at about 105mph "" on my first lap (when it was really wet) I floored it at the apex, 4th gear, just over 100mph and got wheel spin; unbelievable. I don't know how fast I got to be the end of the straight as with the tree line a couple of feet away I was just handing on for dear life and trying to avoid a payout on my life assurance policy! I was at the top end of 5th gear though so maybe approaching 160mph. I did about 6 quick laps before we had to take her in to allow the brakes and tyres to cool down"¦apparently I had been very aggressive with the car.
Next it was onto a C2S with ceramic brakes. Following the brake runs, see above we drove round in circles so I could learn about the over steer and under steer on the 911. This is definitely different to the Cayman, basically it you don't throttle balance correctly the back end spins wildly when you remove power, OK with PSM on but with PSM off I spun 540°!!
Then it was back to the track for a few more quick laps. The C2S was very quick and I seemed able to maintain similar speed as with the GT2 through the bends "" it just didn't respond as well when you floored it but still very fast, very balanced and very assured. I ran to about 140mph on the straight and never once thought I was going to die!
The instructors were great and gave me some really good feedback on my driving; apparently I now need to move beyond power "" brake "" gear shift "" turn "" power and fade the brake off more and balance the power in more"¦..that makes sense then!!! They advised some books.
I then drove the C2S back to Foxhills for some posh lunch before heading home"¦where I am still smiling!!
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