Porsche Sport Driving School

spyderman · 10-22-2009, 08:30 AM

Anyone taking part in these courses?

Porsche - Porsche Sport Driving School - Precision One-Day High Performance Driving Course

Girlfriend is asking me what I want for x-mas, and I think this would be cool. Is it worth the money? Better options? Better programs?

tonythetarga · 10-22-2009, 08:42 AM

$1795 buys a lot of DE's. You could hire a private instructor for a day and have a sh**load of money left over.

spyderman · 10-22-2009, 08:49 AM

Not sure my car is up to the DE challenge, and why crack up my car? I have thought about that as well. I'm new to the area out here in MD, and don't know the clubs and tracks around here.

tonythetarga · 10-22-2009, 08:54 AM

PCA offers event coverage for DE's if you're worried about cracking up your car. With a PCA instructor, you should not get to the point of overdriving your car to be in a position to crack it up. You should join a regional club and do some car control schools or an autocross and learn your car before taking it out on the track for a DE.
Then again, if you think it is money well spent, go ahead and do the school.

I did a F2000 racing school 10 years ago, and in the early stages of my DE driving. Without the base knowledge you get from DE's it was a waste of money in retrospect. After a good learning curve in your own car then doing something like that would be a good idea but it is a big ticket for starting to drive at speed.

robmog · 10-22-2009, 08:58 AM

i did it. it was a fun but pricy gift.
basically a porsche commercial you drive.
get to drive a bunch of cars really hard.
what i found depressing is all these "older" rich guys there who OWN these cars already.
ones i can never afford. talk about envy
i would not do it again.

Formerly Steve Wilkinson · 10-22-2009, 12:40 PM

I've done a number of these courses of one sort or another, including the ones Porsche offers, as a car writer--for free, natch--and although they're amusing, you really retain little of what you learn in a single day. It's like drinking out of a fire hose. It's really intended to be "an experience," not educational. It's like going to a one-day Ivy League philosophy class, or working out at a great gym for one day. If you think that's worth it, go for it.

What does work is regular DE's. You don't have to do one a week, but one a month during the spring/summer is great, in terms of learning.

As for whether or not your car is "up to the DE challenge," if it's a Porsche and isn't weeping oil and doesn't haves bald tires, it is up to the "challenge." These aren't racecars. My wife took her bone-stock Boxster to a DE. (I don't think she ever went over 80.) If tech inspection (not the superficial one at the track, the one you need to attend to have your car signed off in advance) turns up anything lacking, it'll be something like a loose wheel bearing, which the tech inspector can quickly correct. At most PCA DEs, you don't even need a helmet (they'll lend you one) or stuff like a fire extinguisher for your initial DE.

The only way you'll crash your car is if you're insane, and if you are, your instructor will immediately spot it and send you home. At worst, you might spin, and you'll probably be doing a moderate speed. Racetracks are designed to allow safe spins in the kinds of situations you'll find yourself. And besides, DE instructors don't volunteer to ride in order to be a passenger in a crash.

Paulporsche · 10-22-2009, 01:02 PM

Well put!

And BTW

[QUOTE=Formerly Steve Wilkinson;4967522]I've done a number of these courses of one sort or another, including the ones Porsche offers, as a car writer--for free, natch--

Sounds like "The Gold Plated Life"!

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Formerly Steve Wilkinson

And besides, DE instructors don't volunteer to ride in order to be a passenger in a crash.

You bet we don't!!

Take your car to a DE, you aren't far from New Jersey Motorsports Park (two VG tracks) and Summit Point in WV (an ok track). Go once, if you aren't hooked after the first couple runs (and understand how little you really know after all) you will be one of a minuscule minority...

burgermeister · burgermeister's Garage

Stephan pretty much sums it up.

On your first day on a track, your 911 will likely have far more power than you'll know what to do with anyhow - why pay extra for all the fancy new cars?

spyderman · 10-23-2009, 04:59 AM

So I'm hearing that this is not a stocking stuffer. Thanks guys. That's kind of what I figured since I had never heard anyone on the board raving about one of these kinds of things.

Took a look online, and it seems I just missed the deadline for signing up for next weekend's DE at Summit Point, so I'll have to wait until next year. I might take the drive anyway, and just see what it is all about.

I'm not a crazy driver, but I would like to learn how to drive my car better. Might even get the G-friend to bring her Boxster with her.

Again thanks for the advice.

jhynesrockmtn · 10-23-2009, 05:27 AM

Make sure you check pre requisites with your local club. When I started doing track days the local PCA and other clubs required you take their one day drivers school or another sanctioned school before you could sign up for a DE event.

Our track has a "resident" racing school (Proformance) and their one day course for performance driving is about $500. The PCA driver school was less than $100. The main difference was the performance school done by Proformance Racing included half a day of lapping with an instructor. The PCA day included some autocross but no lapping. I've since also done the PCA school.

Careful, it's addicting. 5 years later I'm racing vintage.