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Porsche World Roadshow
Welcome to the Big Show
Once every five years, Porsche goes completely nuts and gives us hacks a chance to experience something special. That, in a nutshell, is the Porsche World Roadshow
Story by Botchi Santos; Photography by Chino Acosta
There's something sinfully exciting and exhilarating about thrashing someone else's car, especially if that car is a Porsche. Such a legendary brand, with the iconic 911 sports GT car for motoring journalists to play with, promises to be more than just the usual fun, but that of an altogether higher experience, not that much different from spiritual enlightenment.
The Porsche World Roadshow was a real eye-opener, blowing everyone away. You get to drive a Cayman S, Boxster S, Carrera 4S, a Carrera S with the GT3 aerokit with red-rimmed black wheels (which incidentally happened to be everyone's favorite), and a Cayenne Turbo, S and V6. There were lots of activities that we got to do so many times. Everyone was tired, spent, and giggling like little kids after doing something very naughty! We were lucky, though, that we were a relatively small group so we had several turns behind the wheel, doing various exercises with an instructor sitting beside us except on the Road tour and Off-Road section. We were broken down into five groups of six to eight persons, handled by Porsche-certified driving instructors.
SLALOM
I'm very poor at slalom, but with a Cayman S to try out, it was well worth the risk of embarrassing myself. The course was very tricky but relatively quick; lots of flowing sweepers followed by tight hairpins, then into narrow gates under light braking, powering out again into chicanes and another slalom section before coming to a screeching halt. All the runs were timed, as it was a competition for the media.
The Cayman inspires so much confidence that you just keep getting faster and faster with more seat time. It is the best Porsche for our tight tracks, rather than a 911 Carrera S. Small, light and hyper-responsive with very little understeer, the Cayman S is well-balanced, with just enough power to spin the rear tires if you are brusque with the pedals. I did a 40-second run but hit a cone so I got a two-second penalty. The pros were in the 35- to 37-second range, so I'm quite happy with my time. It even felt like I'd gotten lost in the maze-like course, because when you're hammering the Cayman S for it to rotate in the tight sections at manic pace, your perception of reality starts to get blurred.
BRAKING
You accelerate hard to about 85kph to 100kph through a course outlined with cones. Then the instructor shouts "brake," and a flagman from about 100 meters away signals you to swerve left or right. The direction is a surprise so you never know which way to turn until the last minute, simulating an emergency braking and lane-change maneuver. I only hit one cone, and as the exercise runs wore on, my instructor Kookie Ramirez would tell me to brake later and later as the speeds got faster and faster. We'd also line up further back to build more speed.
It was fun and the Porsche Carbon-Ceramic Brakes, an expensive option fitted on most Porsche models, are really the very best in the business. The hotter the tires and brakes got, the better it performed with zero drama. Iconic and legendary indeed. Kudos as well to the rear-engine layout of the 911, providing excellent minimal weight transfer to the front tires and allowing the rear brakes to work harder and share more load as opposed to conventional front or even exotic mid-engined cars.
ROAD TOUR
Here you get an hour behind the wheel of different Porsche models as you drive around Clarkfield. There's an area at the back traversing the perimeter of the Expo grounds where I hit a shade under 200 clicks in the Cayenne Turbo. Really mad stuff! The Cayenne Turbo was mildly surprising because the controls were American SUV-light. Not Porsche-firm but it held its course well as Kookie blasted through the chicanes and sweepers ahead in a C4S with me closely tucked in behind him. Here, I realized that the Carrera S with the GT3 aerokit is all the Porsche anyone will ever need-aggressive looks with an abundance of torque, power and grip. Yet the steering is as darty as a rally-rep, promising an intense and engaging drive. I only hit about 160-170kph on the red Carrera S since the driver up front was going way too slow to be in a Porsche. Given that same stretch with no traffic, 220kph would have been a breeze, thanks to the Carrera S's meaty 360-plus hp. Still, there was much in the way of civility, class and comfort in the Carrera S to be driven leisurely on the local high street, or on an out-of-town jaunt. I begged Kookie to let me stay behind him when I switched to the Cayman S so we could have fun and he most willingly obliged, with a sly grin on his face. The higher the speeds, the better, more composed, and more confidence-inspiring a Porsche becomes.
OVERSTEER/UNDERSTEER
Basically, we would induce lift-off oversteer in a Carrera around a laid-out coned-up track and see how the car reacts with the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) on and off. In case you didn't know, the 911 has always enjoyed a reputation as the widow-maker, adding to its allure, mystery and aura. Its rear-engine layout means that once you've breached the limits of adhesion, you have to possess God-like reaction speed and serenity to tame the rear back in line. Definitely not for the timid, weakhearted, novice, and ham-fisted drivers. But 40-plus years of evolution and revolution, particularly on the rear suspension geometry and kinematics, have helped solve the problem, or at least alleviate it to almost non-existent levels.
On the 997-series Porsche, the PSM has been tuned to such a very high level that you'll feel like a hero every time you thrash the car hard, without zeroing your bank account. As the 911 slides its tail out with PSM off, you really feel you can catch the car right before it spins completely. Even with my modest driving skills, I got to drift and counter-steer the Porsche almost all the time, much to Kookie's consternation since the whole point was to spin out. He'd yank the handbrake on us sometimes just so we'd totally lose it mid-corner.
I was laughing like a maniac by my second run, while Kookie was getting nervous because he said I sounded like a possessed lunatic, laughing like a crazed dog as the runs progressed. And to teach those professional drifters a thing or two, I even got to drift the 911 in a figure-of-eight pattern as we got closer and closer to one of the poles. Insane!
With PSM on, the Porsche simply grips and rotates around the corner, the electronic nannies working smoothly and cohesively, with none of the sudden, often jarring sensation that you are simply an unwitting passenger about to see a miracle happen. You feel totally in control, the PSM helping you get safely round the corner. Quite boring, but no doubt very helpful on a cold rainy day, going around a fast bend where a surprise happens to be waiting. This piece of kit will save many lives and even more pesos.
OFF-ROAD
Probably the most surprising and unforgettable exercise. We drove through very loose and fine sand, did a light-river crossing, drove through a 40-degree incline sideways, and went up and down a hill with the Porsche Cayenne's hill descent and ascent control. You basically come to a full stop at an incline or descent; the car then asks if you want to crawl up or creep down, and then she just goes, controlling speed and traction with the software. There was also a section that tests the individual wheel and axle articulation of the Cayenne. On some Cayennes fitted with optional unlocking suspension for hard-core off-roading, we went through purpose-dug holes on the ground wherein two wheels would be buried at a time, and see the PASM, PSM and who-knows-what electronic wizardry works its magic.
One Porsche Cayenne got stuck as it didn't have the unlocking suspension, so out everyone went to help recover the Cayenne, adding to a full-on off-roading experience of vehicle recovery. We failed miserably as we had to get a truck to pull out the Cayenne, but it was fun of the highest order indeed. What was so surprising was that the Cayenne was doing these off-road exercises on ZR-rated highway tires more suited to a sports car than a hulking SUV! When those lads in white coats in Zuffenhausen get their mind to it, they really can work magic! Deutschland Uber Alles!
In the end, we had so much fun, I wanted to get back out and do it all over again, especially the slalom since my performance there needed the most improvement. Among all the cars we drove, the Carrera S with the GT3 aerokit comes to mind again and again since it was the most intense and electrifying drive. It had an optional sports-exhaust fitted, a lightened flywheel that was made for blipping, heel-toe downshifting and other fancy footwork. I'd keep on blipping and heel-toe downshifting just for the heck of it.
The Carrera S felt so wired, like it was tapped straight into the brain. It had so much torque, I'd be in third gear for most of the way, and when I'd boot it from as low as 2,000rpm, I'd hear that beautiful flat-six rumble for an even longer period of time. You'll want to do it simply again and again because it sounds so spine-tingly good, for both the aural and visceral experience. It has all the rawness I want, yet has enough civility to be comfortable on a very long drive to Baguio or even to Pagudpud.
Driving the Boxster S top-down provided better aural entertainment: You are exposed to the elements, and you can really hear the flat-six work for all it is worth since it has less power than the Carrera S. It really does sound like music while things are rushing past you at 140-150kph. It's like...surreal: Cue "Cosmic Girl" by Jamiroquai on the radio. There was a 997 Turbo and a 997 GT3 on display, but sadly we weren't able to sample them due to time constraints. Perhaps next time then.
All the Porsches performed so brilliantly, so reliably, so consistently, that failure was truly unheard of from the German marque. I tried my best to be as brutal and as brusque on some of the exercises, but the Porsche seemed to just get better and better as time wore on. It was unbelievable considering how many days it spent being thrashed by countless people in Clark, truly living up to its reputation of being one tough piece of kit. It can be a comfortable cruiser, a hard-core track animal and anything and everything in between.
Porsche...there is just no substitute.
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Top Gear Philippines - December 2006
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