The All New Porsche Experience Center: 8 Reasons Why You Must Experience It

Porsche Cars North America recently moved into a new corporate headquarters next door to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. One Porsche Drive houses PCNA’s corporate offices, Porsche Financial Services, a conference center, a classic Porsche repair and service shop, and most importantly the first Porsche Experience Center outside of Europe. Since America is still Porsche’s largest market (though soon to be overtaken by China), the new digs are suitably impressive in a James Bond villain’s lair style that $100 million buys.

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We were lucky enough to be among the first group let loose on this veritable Disneyland for petrolheads and Porschephiles—perhaps Orlando would have been a more appropriate venue. To make everything just that little bit more special, the kind Porsche folks rolled out a selection of 911 Carreras, Caymans, Boxsters and Panameras in range topping GTS spec (more power and lots of ticked option boxes) from their fleet of eighty cars for us to romp on in an extended remix version of what is on offer to the general public.

You too can now experience the Porsche Experience (www.porschedriving.com for details on how) and here are eight very convincing reasons why you should. Even if you don’t bleed petrol…

HANDLING COURSE

If you have the very first world problem of deciding between a rear engined Porsche 911 Carrera or the mid-engined Cayman or Boxster, this is a good place to try them out back-to- back. Actually, this is a major reason for the PEC’s existence—to help with buying decisions.

Designed to mimic tighter country or canyon roads, the 1.6 mile course features moderate elevation changes, slow and fast corners, and enough straightaway to get those signature flat-six motors howling. Tightly surrounded with slightly intimidating Armco barriers, there isn’t much room for error, but—as with the rest of the PEC—an instructor in the passenger seat offered pointers for the safest fast way around. Going back-to-back in a Cayman GTS and 911 Carrera 4 GTS, I now know which flavor of Porsche I want. Call me old fashioned, but as amazingly balanced and perfectly fine-tuned as the Cayman is, the faster and more lively Carrera won me over. Plus there are back seats for the kids...

OFF ROAD COURSE

Given the Porsche Cayenne’s sleek styling and ubiquity in the city, it's easy to dismiss Porsche’s most popular vehicle as a soft roader. One lap of the PEC’s Off Road Course will quickly change that notion. Twenty-one off road obstacles, including a 1.1 ratio hill climb and a forty five degree vertical descent challenge that had us standing upright in the footwells, demonstrate that the Cayenne is truly off road ready.

The Cayenne Diesel, with its hill crushing electric motor-like torque, was more appropriate for climbing, water crossing, and railroad tie stomping than a GTS model, but the instructors assured us they’d successfully completed the course in a full boat Turbo S model. Impressive, eye opening and a lot of fun.

KICK PLATE

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of the rear end of your car swapping around mid-turn due to black ice, then you’ll understand the concept of the Kick Plate. At approximately twenty miles per hour you drive towards a two hundred yard long pad of watered, polished concrete with a hydraulic metal pad at the beginning that is triggered to randomly shoot the rear wheels left or right. First time up in the sweet handling mid-engined Porsche Boxster GTS and I was immediately launched into a neck snapping, twice-around spin. (Note: for the sake of the experiment traction, control was completely off).

After a couple of runs with some pointers from a very patient instructor, I was able to catch the spin and actually hold a drift along the full length of the pad. The 911 GTS with a signature rear mounted engine was definitely more of a challenge to catch. I could have spent a lot of time at the Kick Plate trying to master it.

DYNAMICS AREA

Take a big, wide, and long swath of tarmac, add around five hundred horse power from the whopping V8 in a red on red—that’s a lot of red—Panamera GTS, engage launch control (left foot brake to the floor, right foot gas to the floor, release left foot…) and trigger neck snapping acceleration that made a few in our group want to vomit. Slalom and emergency braking only added to the potential for motion induced nausea. Hoonigan mode activated and LOLZ all around…