Last week Rita & I attended a Porsche Range Experience Day courtesy of Porsche Belfast (who we bought our 718 Boxster from in August 2017). I thought I’d just put together a piece for those who haven’t been to one of these fantastic days. We had been to PEC Silverstone before when we ordered our new Macan so knew what to expect & our driving consultant at the time (Mike) said if we ever got an invite to a Range Experience Day to grasp it with both hands - so it was a no brainer when the invite came out!
We travelled down the night before as you need to arrive between 8:00-8:30 for registration & breakfast. We were taken up to the restaurant & chose from the menu (full English for both of us) - beautifully presented & set us up for the day ahead.
There were 56 of us here for the day so we were split into 4 teams - depending on your lanyard colour was which cars were driven in what order. We were on the red team which worked really well as we finished on a high with the 911’s on the handling tracks.
After a short briefing, we were then split up & taken in a Cayenne Turbo to the ice hill where our first car (lava orange 718 Cayman) was waiting - a quick demo in the Cayenne to show what was required then we each took turns driving up the hill at 15mph through the water jets & controlling the back end sliding out. A useful exercise.
Next the kick plate in a Carmine red 718 Boxster S - you drive over a metal kick plate at 18mph & the plate kicks the back end of the car out simulating losing control & the idea is to control the slid - well I have to say I must have been overthinking it - the first run I went too fast & did a good impression of an ice skater performing a triple axle, the second I went too slow & it didn’t get much better in subsequent runs. Rita on the other hand was getting praise from the driving consultants through the 2 way radio - I’ll never live it down!
Time for a quick coffee break the it’s onto the Panamera & Macan test drive on public roads. First up a Panamera Turbo in crayon (560bhp of V8 loveliness!) - a brilliant car restricted by the fact I got stuck behind a police car for most of the country road section which was a shame. Rita had a better unrestricted run. Loads of space in the rear & extremely comfortable on its air suspension.
Next up was a brand new Macan S which only had 300 miles on the clock - now I have to say having briefly owned a Macan, this brought back all the reasons why I didn’t like it. The tight footwell with little room for your left foot, the mass of switches on the centre console & even the access involves a brief hop to get into the 18 way sports seats. In addition the engine seemed a bit underpowered to me & the PDK gearbox was slow to react - it might have been due the engine still being tight but it was the least impressive car we drove in my opinion.
Lunch was next - a 3 course meal again beautifully presented - it wouldn’t have looked out place in a Michelin star restaurant. You don’t get a lot (very nouvelle cuisine) but well worth it.
After lunch it was onto the Cayenne off road course - very impressive with the car climbing almost vertical cliff edges & sideway angles up to 45 degrees. I got into conversation with the driving consultant saying “I see they’re bringing out a Cayenne Coupe” to which he responded “are you sure, I don’t think so - that must be the next Macan” - well the very next day there was the press release. I knew I was right!
Next a drive in a Cayenne S on local roads around Silverstone - we had a mahogany metallic one with an absolutely awful dark brown leather interior - I know they spec cars to show what is available but I think they’ll have trouble moving that one on.
Another tea break then our final stint in 991’s on the handling circuits - first a White Carrera with 2 wheel drive & PDK followed by a Carmine red 991GTS manual with 4 wheel drive. My driving consultant was impressed that I was using the paddles on the PDK car so we had a good blat around the main handling circuit doing at least 12 laps (he kept saying, “go on do another one” so I did!). We then moved onto the smaller handling circuit & demonstrated launch control, again doing a number of laps.
After that it was the 991GTS - manual gearbox & 4 wheel drive. You could definitely feel the extra weight & on the smaller handling circuit the car seemed to skip sideways on its bump stops. The main handling circuit, I asked the driving consultant what gears he would use for driving around & he said these cars thrive on revs so 2nd & 3rd gears so that’s what I stuck to with the revs regularly in the 6,000 rpm range.
Great fun but the 2 wheel drive with PDK won the day for me.
Our final “treat” was a demonstration drive in 997GT3RS’s on the low friction circuit doing lots of power slides & donuts - each of us taken out separately - my choice was a gen1 in orange while Rita had the Gen2 in atlas grey metallic. Brilliant fun although Rita wasn’t so impressed!!
The day finished around 4:00pm where afternoon tea was served but we skipped this as we had a 4 hour journey home.
Most impressive car (apart from the 991’s) was the Panamera Turbo & least impressive was sorry to say the Macan.
A brilliant day which we both enjoyed thoroughly and if you get the chance - do it!
To cap it all, we then had the 992 launch at Porsche Teesside on the Friday to end what was a Porschetastic week!
We travelled down the night before as you need to arrive between 8:00-8:30 for registration & breakfast. We were taken up to the restaurant & chose from the menu (full English for both of us) - beautifully presented & set us up for the day ahead.
There were 56 of us here for the day so we were split into 4 teams - depending on your lanyard colour was which cars were driven in what order. We were on the red team which worked really well as we finished on a high with the 911’s on the handling tracks.
After a short briefing, we were then split up & taken in a Cayenne Turbo to the ice hill where our first car (lava orange 718 Cayman) was waiting - a quick demo in the Cayenne to show what was required then we each took turns driving up the hill at 15mph through the water jets & controlling the back end sliding out. A useful exercise.
Next the kick plate in a Carmine red 718 Boxster S - you drive over a metal kick plate at 18mph & the plate kicks the back end of the car out simulating losing control & the idea is to control the slid - well I have to say I must have been overthinking it - the first run I went too fast & did a good impression of an ice skater performing a triple axle, the second I went too slow & it didn’t get much better in subsequent runs. Rita on the other hand was getting praise from the driving consultants through the 2 way radio - I’ll never live it down!
Time for a quick coffee break the it’s onto the Panamera & Macan test drive on public roads. First up a Panamera Turbo in crayon (560bhp of V8 loveliness!) - a brilliant car restricted by the fact I got stuck behind a police car for most of the country road section which was a shame. Rita had a better unrestricted run. Loads of space in the rear & extremely comfortable on its air suspension.
Next up was a brand new Macan S which only had 300 miles on the clock - now I have to say having briefly owned a Macan, this brought back all the reasons why I didn’t like it. The tight footwell with little room for your left foot, the mass of switches on the centre console & even the access involves a brief hop to get into the 18 way sports seats. In addition the engine seemed a bit underpowered to me & the PDK gearbox was slow to react - it might have been due the engine still being tight but it was the least impressive car we drove in my opinion.
Lunch was next - a 3 course meal again beautifully presented - it wouldn’t have looked out place in a Michelin star restaurant. You don’t get a lot (very nouvelle cuisine) but well worth it.
After lunch it was onto the Cayenne off road course - very impressive with the car climbing almost vertical cliff edges & sideway angles up to 45 degrees. I got into conversation with the driving consultant saying “I see they’re bringing out a Cayenne Coupe” to which he responded “are you sure, I don’t think so - that must be the next Macan” - well the very next day there was the press release. I knew I was right!
Next a drive in a Cayenne S on local roads around Silverstone - we had a mahogany metallic one with an absolutely awful dark brown leather interior - I know they spec cars to show what is available but I think they’ll have trouble moving that one on.
Another tea break then our final stint in 991’s on the handling circuits - first a White Carrera with 2 wheel drive & PDK followed by a Carmine red 991GTS manual with 4 wheel drive. My driving consultant was impressed that I was using the paddles on the PDK car so we had a good blat around the main handling circuit doing at least 12 laps (he kept saying, “go on do another one” so I did!). We then moved onto the smaller handling circuit & demonstrated launch control, again doing a number of laps.
After that it was the 991GTS - manual gearbox & 4 wheel drive. You could definitely feel the extra weight & on the smaller handling circuit the car seemed to skip sideways on its bump stops. The main handling circuit, I asked the driving consultant what gears he would use for driving around & he said these cars thrive on revs so 2nd & 3rd gears so that’s what I stuck to with the revs regularly in the 6,000 rpm range.
Great fun but the 2 wheel drive with PDK won the day for me.
Our final “treat” was a demonstration drive in 997GT3RS’s on the low friction circuit doing lots of power slides & donuts - each of us taken out separately - my choice was a gen1 in orange while Rita had the Gen2 in atlas grey metallic. Brilliant fun although Rita wasn’t so impressed!!
The day finished around 4:00pm where afternoon tea was served but we skipped this as we had a 4 hour journey home.
Most impressive car (apart from the 991’s) was the Panamera Turbo & least impressive was sorry to say the Macan.
A brilliant day which we both enjoyed thoroughly and if you get the chance - do it!
To cap it all, we then had the 992 launch at Porsche Teesside on the Friday to end what was a Porschetastic week!