Kate McLeod spends two heart-pounding, adrenaline-filled days behind the wheel of a Porsche.
You’re driving at, say, 110 miles per hour. Hairpin and corkscrew turns are involved. Apex your corner, move left gradually and touch the road on the opposite side, gradually move right, look for the next apex. Brake lightly, hit the accelerator and nail the turn. Your moves are smooth, your eyes are focused far down the road and the best part of all " there’s no beefy state trooper with a red face and a holstered gun waiting to give you a $180 ticket.
You’re outside Birmingham in Alabama, at the Barber Motorsports Park. That’s where Porsche Cars holds its precision driving course, Porsche Sport Driving School, and where we drove like bandits, but only after some instruction on how to drive one of the finest pieces of machinery ever conceived by man. "If you’re not having fun out there there’s something wrong with you," says instructor Brian Cunningham to a room full of slightly nervous people. Before the course is over you will have driven fast in a $132,600 Porsche Panamera Turbo with 500 horsepower, a Boxster S, a Cayman S, a 911 Carrera S and a 911 Carrera Turbo. You’ll even do a little off-roading in the Porsche Cayenne.
Throughout the year, Porsche offers several different courses including a couple that are exclusively for women. The instructors and the exercises at women’s driving school are exactly the same, sans testosterone. Joli Laughlin, a recent participant, is a Porsche owner and enthusiast. She’s never been to performance driving school. "I went to the Porsche Parade owners gathering in Colorado in 2009 and I won the class in a raffle. I was definitely intimidated, but that is past tense."
Driving school is at once intimidating, exhilarating and challenging. Porsche instructors work the participants hard, but at the end of two days, you are a much better and more knowledgeable driver.
The day starts with a classroom session, a basic understanding of vehicle dynamics and driving line " that means you become aware of where your car is under and around you so that you know what inputs are necessary to keep the car going where you want it to go. The instructors talk about things like your vehicle’s contact patches " that very minimal amount of tire that actually makes contact with the road and keeps you on the ground. Instructors take you through the principles of the friction circle, oversteer (rear) and understeer (front ) skids and weight transfer from the front tires to the rear tires and what that means to you as the driver. Soon enough the theory becomes real as you start the engines of your Porsches.
Before lunch, participants have spent a good three hours on the autocross, skid pad, performance driving technique and lane change exercises as well as the first turns on the track. I’ve driven on several tracks. The Barber Motorsports track is one of the funnest.
Our group started with autocross, which is a scaled-down racetrack with a series of corners. The driver must combine all driving skill elements " cornering, braking and acceleration " to do well. I mowed down a line of cones on my first attempts, though, as my confidence grew, I had clean runs.
We drove the skid pad next, a slick surface covered with water where you are encouraged to accelerate and brake in a figure-eight sequence to purposely send the vehicle into oversteer and understeer skids. The challenge for the driver is to correct the wheel spin and put the vehicle back where you want it to go �" straight. Again, I wasn’t the most precise because I was in overconfidence mode. "Ease the throttle, look where you want to go, pause and wait for the car to straighten," counseled my instructor. From my first attempt to my last, I picked up an amazing 4.5 seconds.
One of best things about driving school is that participants can test their limits. No one gets hurt, the car is fine, the cones get reset and you try again. You get to understand yourself as a driver. (Do take the $100-a-day insurance Porsche offers in case you mow down a guardrail. Otherwise you’re in for an up-to-$10,000 check-writing pity party.)
For performance drive exercises that develop basic driving techniques and visual skills, you drive the surprisingly agile Porsche Panamera. A lane-change exercise emphasizes shifting and braking, applying the correct amount of steering and throttle inputs to balance the weight transfer.
These are two long, physically demanding days. But by day two you’re working on heel and toe downshifting, a technique that combines braking and downshifting at the same time. The technique saves time, wear and tear when you drive the hell out of Porsches. Soon, you’re competing in the Michelin Autocross Challenge, cornering drills and track sessions, continually refining your skills. Your coda is hot laps with an instructor.
You’ll be too tired to explore Birmingham nightlife " gee. Kick back at the Porsche-recommended Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa, which is about 35 minutes from the track and pat yourself on the back. You can also watch the video recorded of your track time by an in-vehicle flash drive/camera setup. The resort gives driving school participants a group rate that includes transportation to and from the airport and to and from the track.
The two-day performance-driving course for women costs $2,995 and includes breakfast and lunch at the track. Guests can attend for $125 a day. Elaine Brunhoeber of Huntsville, AL, who drives an Acura TL and learned from friends who’d done other schools, chose Porsche because there’s more track time. What prompted Brunhoeber to spend the money and time? "My grandfather was a huge NASCAR fan and I always watched him listening to the races and I used to think it would be great to be a racecar driver. It takes me a while to learn things," says Brunhoeber, "but those last few laps I felt like I was on to something. I’m not a speed junkie but I like to peel around corners."
Maybe you are a speed junkie. Maybe you just like to drive. Maybe you’d like to be a better driver. The Porsche Sport Driving School combines a lot of fun with a great deal of learning.
You’re driving at, say, 110 miles per hour. Hairpin and corkscrew turns are involved. Apex your corner, move left gradually and touch the road on the opposite side, gradually move right, look for the next apex. Brake lightly, hit the accelerator and nail the turn. Your moves are smooth, your eyes are focused far down the road and the best part of all " there’s no beefy state trooper with a red face and a holstered gun waiting to give you a $180 ticket.
You’re outside Birmingham in Alabama, at the Barber Motorsports Park. That’s where Porsche Cars holds its precision driving course, Porsche Sport Driving School, and where we drove like bandits, but only after some instruction on how to drive one of the finest pieces of machinery ever conceived by man. "If you’re not having fun out there there’s something wrong with you," says instructor Brian Cunningham to a room full of slightly nervous people. Before the course is over you will have driven fast in a $132,600 Porsche Panamera Turbo with 500 horsepower, a Boxster S, a Cayman S, a 911 Carrera S and a 911 Carrera Turbo. You’ll even do a little off-roading in the Porsche Cayenne.
Throughout the year, Porsche offers several different courses including a couple that are exclusively for women. The instructors and the exercises at women’s driving school are exactly the same, sans testosterone. Joli Laughlin, a recent participant, is a Porsche owner and enthusiast. She’s never been to performance driving school. "I went to the Porsche Parade owners gathering in Colorado in 2009 and I won the class in a raffle. I was definitely intimidated, but that is past tense."
Driving school is at once intimidating, exhilarating and challenging. Porsche instructors work the participants hard, but at the end of two days, you are a much better and more knowledgeable driver.
The day starts with a classroom session, a basic understanding of vehicle dynamics and driving line " that means you become aware of where your car is under and around you so that you know what inputs are necessary to keep the car going where you want it to go. The instructors talk about things like your vehicle’s contact patches " that very minimal amount of tire that actually makes contact with the road and keeps you on the ground. Instructors take you through the principles of the friction circle, oversteer (rear) and understeer (front ) skids and weight transfer from the front tires to the rear tires and what that means to you as the driver. Soon enough the theory becomes real as you start the engines of your Porsches.
Before lunch, participants have spent a good three hours on the autocross, skid pad, performance driving technique and lane change exercises as well as the first turns on the track. I’ve driven on several tracks. The Barber Motorsports track is one of the funnest.
Our group started with autocross, which is a scaled-down racetrack with a series of corners. The driver must combine all driving skill elements " cornering, braking and acceleration " to do well. I mowed down a line of cones on my first attempts, though, as my confidence grew, I had clean runs.
We drove the skid pad next, a slick surface covered with water where you are encouraged to accelerate and brake in a figure-eight sequence to purposely send the vehicle into oversteer and understeer skids. The challenge for the driver is to correct the wheel spin and put the vehicle back where you want it to go �" straight. Again, I wasn’t the most precise because I was in overconfidence mode. "Ease the throttle, look where you want to go, pause and wait for the car to straighten," counseled my instructor. From my first attempt to my last, I picked up an amazing 4.5 seconds.
One of best things about driving school is that participants can test their limits. No one gets hurt, the car is fine, the cones get reset and you try again. You get to understand yourself as a driver. (Do take the $100-a-day insurance Porsche offers in case you mow down a guardrail. Otherwise you’re in for an up-to-$10,000 check-writing pity party.)
For performance drive exercises that develop basic driving techniques and visual skills, you drive the surprisingly agile Porsche Panamera. A lane-change exercise emphasizes shifting and braking, applying the correct amount of steering and throttle inputs to balance the weight transfer.
These are two long, physically demanding days. But by day two you’re working on heel and toe downshifting, a technique that combines braking and downshifting at the same time. The technique saves time, wear and tear when you drive the hell out of Porsches. Soon, you’re competing in the Michelin Autocross Challenge, cornering drills and track sessions, continually refining your skills. Your coda is hot laps with an instructor.
You’ll be too tired to explore Birmingham nightlife " gee. Kick back at the Porsche-recommended Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa, which is about 35 minutes from the track and pat yourself on the back. You can also watch the video recorded of your track time by an in-vehicle flash drive/camera setup. The resort gives driving school participants a group rate that includes transportation to and from the airport and to and from the track.
The two-day performance-driving course for women costs $2,995 and includes breakfast and lunch at the track. Guests can attend for $125 a day. Elaine Brunhoeber of Huntsville, AL, who drives an Acura TL and learned from friends who’d done other schools, chose Porsche because there’s more track time. What prompted Brunhoeber to spend the money and time? "My grandfather was a huge NASCAR fan and I always watched him listening to the races and I used to think it would be great to be a racecar driver. It takes me a while to learn things," says Brunhoeber, "but those last few laps I felt like I was on to something. I’m not a speed junkie but I like to peel around corners."
Maybe you are a speed junkie. Maybe you just like to drive. Maybe you’d like to be a better driver. The Porsche Sport Driving School combines a lot of fun with a great deal of learning.
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