Porsche Sport Driving School
For the right person, with the right skill set and the right inner drive, the new Porsche Sport Driving School could help an aspiring race car driver achieve manifest destiny.
Someone could move through different categories of proficiency, all the way up to earning a racing licence and maybe, just maybe, a drive at the 24 Heures du Mans.
That someone is not me, however.
As a city dweller who neither owns a car, nor drives on a regular basis, just getting north of 80 kilometres an hour can be an anxiety-inducing headache.
So the first assignment of the three in which we were to participate at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was going to prove particularly problematic – taking a Porsche 911 Carrera S up to 80 km/h, holding it, before braking fully on the command of the instructor, Lorne Banks.
Having climbed into the car and fired up the ignition, the feeling of 420 horsepower under my right foot was both awe-inspiring and fear-inducing at the same time and, combined with the ability to climb to 100 km/h in just 4.1 seconds, ensured moist palms were quickly in the offing.
Just hitting the required speed was all the prompting I needed to immediately hit the brakes well before Banks indicated and, while I was glad to reach a standstill once again, something dawned on me. As powerful as the machine was accelerating off the line, it almost exceeded that in its ability to scrub that speed off, a braking ability that proved relatively reassuring for a racing neophyte.
With that small comfort in tow, moving through the rest of the exercise – taking the car up to 90 km/h and then to 100 km/h before braking, which induced a little sideways shift as the car moved round a corner – was made slightly easier on the nervous system.
Imbued with the belief that I wouldn't have to beg off the rest of the morning's activities, I could approach the second exercise – a time-trial course at the wheel of a 718 Cayman S – with a little more confidence.
More than a little unfamiliar with both the car and the idea of trying to blast through a coned slalom course, a sweeping left-hander and then a double apex before stopping in a marked area, I was more than happy to let others go first.
My strategy was twofold. On one hand, it was simply nerves and not wanting to embarrass myself by plowing straight down the middle of the cones – a five-second penalty for each one hit – and secondly, I was actually hoping to borrow some tactics from the other, more experienced drivers on hand.
Thankfully, another driver took the direct route down the middle, unwittingly mowing down the slalom course to much derision from the instructors. With the day's award for most embarrassing moment having been bestowed on another, it was finally my turn to show what I could do.
As soon as I moved off the line, the stopwatch started and I found the Cayman very manoeuvrable, easily negotiating the cones without incident. I attempted to follow a racing line through the sweeping left-hander and, though I felt confident I had done a decent job in that regard, the double apex showed I had plenty of work to do in the braking department.
Bringing in too much speed forced me to fight my way through the corners, rather than simply guide a performance machine through them, inducing a lateral slide on both exits. And though I was able to come to a complete stop within the confines of the coned finishing box, I had lost too much time to be a factor in the day's leaderboard.
Though the instructor gave me plaudits for my drive, the final standings didn't lie and my time of 39.035 was a good six seconds off the winning time. Still, at least it was nice to know there was room for improvement!
While the full Porsche Sport Driving School consists of 12 disciplines over two days, this potted sampler consisted of just three. However, the school had saved the best for last, and having built up a certain amount of confidence over the first two events, a 20-minute sortie around the driver development track would put it to the test.
Taking the wheel of first the 911 Carrera S and then the 718 Cayman S, we followed instructors around the track in a convoy, each of us getting a chance to ride on the instructor's rear bumper to see how the pros do it.
The continuous nature of this exercise – each trip saw the drivers get in 10 or so laps with each car – really drove home some of the gains that we had made and really showed the limits of the vehicles. With the use of helpful cones placed at pertinent points, racing lines were gradually refined and honed, while braking points got later and later as trust in these high-performance vehicles started to rise.
Toward the end of the day – and particularly while piloting the mid-engined 718 – the idea that I might be "getting this" started to wash over me, helped in no small part from some kind compliments from the veteran car journalist in the passenger seat beside me.
While both machines demand the fullest of one's attention, even in automatic, they also give you a sense that they are always two steps ahead of you and that you'd have to try really hard to screw things up, a sentiment endorsed by the instructors.
For someone short of confidence behind the wheel of a high-speed machine, it certainly proved reassuring and, while the idea of one hour at Le Mans sounds like a nightmare, let alone all 24 of them, the course certainly showed that my self-imposed limitations are just that: self-imposed.
Porsche Sport Driving School is available at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont., and is priced at $2,495 plus tax for the two-day course.
Shopping for a new car? Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price.
Paul Attfield