as every year I was invited by the local Porsche Center to test drive the current Porsche models on a local security driving school area

overall view:



yesterday - at perfect postcard wheater - they prepared two different stages

• the skid pad
• "racing" a little handling parcours

althought it's a rather small event their cars were a fine selection:

• Boxster S
• Carrera S Cabrio
• Carrera 4S
• Cayman S Tiptronic
• Cayenne Turbo

the skid pad was funny as usual

with PSM on I had no problems to get the cars under control
with PSM off it was more difficult as you can see by the next couple of photos
(I invited a buddy to join the event and his gf was so kind to take photos)

but the real fun was the racing part
everyone got the chance to race every car
the instructor lead a small convoi through the parcour, explaining the different sections on the radio

here are some impressions:

the yellow lines show you the skid pad section

the red lines show you the "track"
start/stop at the big red arrow

as every year it was an absolutely cool event
a little disapointing was the Cayman S - IMHO the Tiptronic is a big "fun killer", besides this the car was equipped with winter tyres, so there was too little grip ... at the narrow corners there was a big tendence to understeering

but I'm pretty sure that a manual shifter and appropriate tyres would increase the fun with this car ...

one of the most funny details was that we were told we had the most time of loud howling tyres of all participiants

Gustl

That's pretty cool! How do these cars handle compaired to the 914?

hard to tell (at least for me)
I didn't race a teener yet
my teener is an unrestored, high grade original car - so I won't race it

but I can tell you that the Boxster S with manual tranny is a real fun car
on that small handling parcours with narrow corners it was much better than the Carrera S and even the Carrera 4S (o.k. - that's my personal feeling/impression)

on the longest straight part (just before the "more than 180° corner") we had more than 7k rpm ... the tiptronic of the Cayman S shifted higher automatically even when we used the "manual" program - that was absolutely sh*t, because it didn't shift down automatically when I braked hard, so I was in a higher gear as I hoped to be and it was hardly possible to accelerate fine out from that "more than 180° corner"

in comparison, the manual shifter Boxster S waved it's back at the exit of this corner, even with PSM on
that's fun

the 911s are a little too heavy for such a small/narrow track, IMHO
but especially the Carrera 4S does really well ...

Gustl,
Sorry to hear you had such a boring day
As always, great pictures. Looking at the 'track', I would bet a 914 with swaybars and good tires would whip the new cars easily there. That little 1000 lb weight advantage...

nice! (note to self: i have to visit gustl next time i'm in his neck of the mountains)

as for the caymans, we had two (i think) at the AX yesterday and both did really well, i bet a "prepared" one could be a serious contender for TTOD ...
Andy

usually in September we have really nice and mostly dry weather

Gustl

What a beautiful facility and an awesome opportunity. Sorry to hear the Cayman was an automatic. The Boxster S is indeed a fun car to drive. It has very 914 like characteristics.

Gustl, how is it that you get invited each year to test drive new Porsches? What a beautiful facility... I'm very envious! Thanks for the pic's!

When I drove a boxster I had to trick it to downshift by nailing the gas right after apex and letting psm catch the rear(which will still step out), no rolling on the throttle there, just quickly let all the way off, then all the way to the floor. NOT ideal, but fun for autox

well, that's really great

in their EDV I'm listed as a Porsche driver
the local Porsche Center invites all their customers listed as Porsche drivers - I think they want to show us how cool their new toys are, so that the one or the other might buy a new one?
I'd say it's more or less a marketing thing - but hey, I like it