Porsche Driving Experience Centre at Silverstone
The Porsche Driving Experience Centre at Silverstone opened in September 2008 and on Wednesday 17 September, I was fortunate enough to be invited to put the new Porsche 911 Carrera S through its paces with tuition from a Porsche Driving Consultant. It’s the only Porsche owned track outside of Germany and it’s been designed without compromise. It’s a truly inspirational experience that left me with a huge smile on my face until bedtime.
The Programme Itinerary
The Porsche Experience Driving Centre is located inside the Silverstone race circuit and is situated alongside The Hanger Straight. As you arrive at the Porsche Centre, you’re right next to the Silverstone track so you can see and hear the cars going around the circuit and the noise and smell get you really revved up for the experience ahead.
I parked my car and walked to the main entrance where I was greeted warmly and asked to sign the usual indemnity documentation. To be able to drive here, you need to produce your driving licence and you must not have been banned from driving at any time - everything else is covered by Porsche Insurance.
After signing the forms, I was taken upstairs to the restaurant for a cup of tea and to meet my Porsche Driving Consultant for breakfast. The upstairs restaurant (see bottom left in the picture above) overlooks the Porsche driving circuits and I had a good 20 minutes to chat with my Porsche Consultant so that my driving experience could be tailored to my needs. After eating breakfast, the other drivers and I were taken downstairs to watch a video of what was going to happen during the rest of the day and all of the driving disciplines were explained with questions invited. Everyone was very quiet, we all just wanted to get behind the wheel!
After 15 minutes or so, we were taken to see the Porsche Human Performance and Well-being Centre, located inside the same building. The personnel here have experience working at the highest levels in world motor-sport and know what is required to succeed in a competitive racing environment. The Performance service provides motor sport specific fitness training and laboratory assessments to ensure that drivers are maximizing their physical performance. It was fasciating to see the rigorous training that racing drivers endure; there’s even a workout room that is heated up to 60 degrees to acclimatise drivers for races in hotter climates.
After this brief session, it was time to drive the cars. I could see the excitement on all the faces. I met up with my Driving Consultant who took me out to the new Porsche 911 Carrera S that we were going to drive. My body began to tingle as I had visions in my mind of Tom Cruise walking out to his F16 fighter place in the movie, Top Gun.
The Driving Disciplines
Stop!
First up was a brake test. Using the Silverstone circuit and under instruction, I drove the car up to 80 Mph and then hit the brakes as hard as I could. The car stopped with amazing acceleration and the Porsche Consultant explained to me the Porsche Benchmark for stopping, which is… Whatever the 0 - 60 mph time is for a Porsche, the 60 - 0 Mph must be 50% of that time. Example, the 911 that I was driving gets from 0 to 60 Mph in 4.7 seconds, therefore it must be able to go from 60 to 0 Mph in 2.35 seconds.
Lane Change
Still using the Silverstone circuit, I accelerated the car up to 85 Mph, hit the brakes as hard as I could and changed lanes at the same time, simulating an emergency on a Motorway or Dual Carriageway. The car behaved impeccably with the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) doing all of the work to keep the car in perfect balanace. Unbelievably impressive!
The Grand Tour
I drove the Carrera S off the Silverstone circuit back to the Porsche Driving Centre and handed it back to the Instructor who took me on a grand tour of all the driving disciplines on the Porsche Driving circuit. We drove back to the Porsche Centre and the Carrera S was handed back to me to drive.
Balancing The Car
I’m certainly no racing driver and I particularly wanted to know how to balance the car at high speed though corners. The Porsche Driving Experience has a short circuit that simulates an ordinary road with straights, tight bends and smooth corners. The Porsche Consultant taught me all about balancing the car on the throttle and a technique called “Fixed Input Steering”, which enabled the car to corner so fast and so smooth that I felt that I could take on Lewis Hamilton.
The Kick Plate
An area of track is coated with an epoxy resin so that it’s very smooth, then it’s constantly sprayed with high pressure, computerised water jets so that the surface has zero grip. I drove the Carrera towards this area and on entry, the car runs over a kick plate that throws the rear of the car to one side. The objective is to catch the car and gain control before it pirouettes’ like a ballerina. I drove over the kick plate around 10 times, not knowing which way the car was going to be thrown; excellent discipline for coping with winter conditions or when the car hits wet leaves or a diesel spill.
The Ice Hill
This is a steep down-hill gradient covered with epoxy resin, rivers of water flowing down for zero grip and large fountains of water spurting upwards providing barriers that should be avoided. I drive the car downhil is 1st gear at 15 Mph and turned the steering wheel to avoid the water fountains; easier said than done but after a few practice runs, I learned a lot about car handling.
The Low Friction Circuit
This is a series of left-right sweeping turns running downhill simulating snow and ice. The road surface has been meticulously hand polished to faithfully reproduce a surface that deliver somegrip, but not a lot! Accelerating though the corner to provoke and correct over-steer, the rear of the car swings out and it must be balanced with the throttle and steering wheel producing power-slides left and right all the way down the hill. The real challenge was to do this without a big grin on my face.
Decisions
After completing these different disciplines, my car handling skills and reactions had improved significantly and I was then given the of choice what I’d like to do for the rest of my session. I decided to go back to the track and drive the Carrera S through tight bends and corners at high speed to learn more about balancing the car. After a few high speed laps, I thought I was ready for Formula 1, that was until the Porsche Driving Consultant took over the controls and showed me how to do it properly…AWESOME!
In Conclusion
In my opinion, everyone who drives a car should have an experience such as this. Not only is it great fun, totally exhilarating and adrenalin pumping, it’s also the responsible thing to do, no matter what car you drive.
In building this circuit, Porsche has really excelled and pushed the boundaries of what is possible to learn about driving and handling a car in such a short period of time. When that car happens to be a Carrera S, the experience you gain will be remembered for a lifetime, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I’m not under any delusions that I’ll be starring in the next Fast and Furiousmovie, nor will I be taking to the race track in pursuit of a Formula 1 drive. However, I do feel that my driving skills have been enhanced significantly and the experience has been well worth while.
The Porsche Driving Experience Centre is open to people aged between 21 and 70 and everyone who buys a new Porsche will automatically be enrolled to enjoy the experience listed above.
If you’re not buying a new Porsche, you can use your own Porsche or you can use one of the Porsche cars that belongs to the driving centre at an extra cost. Bespoke half-day, full-day and off-road courses are also available. For further information or to book a place, contact the Porsche Driving Experience on 08443 575 911 or by email at drivingexperience@porscheevents.co.uk
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