Porsche World Roadshow - Dubai
Discussion
Hi all,
I had the pleasure of spending a day thrashing most of the model range on road and track at the weekend and I thought I'd share it with you.
The Porsche World Roadshow is a simple concept - they take various specced cars from Germany, stick them in containers, along with all the promotional stuff, and take them to international cities and invite prospective and current owners to sample the cars - they want to prove that they make the best sports cars in the world.
I like!
So, we were assigned to a group - yellow group in my instance - and we then have an itinerary for the day. Ours was as follows.
1. Road Trip
2. Handling
3. Brake Test
4. Timed slalom - think short autocross here
5. Instructor Demonstration laps
6. Prize giving
Our group had the perfect set up as the timed slalom was a competition - within the group and over all the groups for the day - and it allowed us to get our driving heads on for the timed test.
First of all we met for breakfast and were introduced to the day and the instructors. Very civilised.
1. Road Trip
We had the briefing, usual stuff about road etiquette, safety etc... and then led us out to a range of cars and asked to take our pick. I'm really liking this day already. So Con and I, we got paired up, decided to take a C2S, Speed Yellow, out. So it's basically a trip so you can see how the cars are in every day driving - pretty restrained but the odd opportunity to get the foot down - usually at roundabouts!
2. Handling test.
Awesome: Club circuit at the Dubai autodrome. As my memory serves me the cars for the test were.
C2S with Aero kit and power kit.
Targa Tip
C4S Tip
Cayman Tip
Cayenne S
The C2S with 380bhp (?) was the best of the lot - I connected with it immediately and nailed the lines and was extremely pleased to hear Bjorne, the Porsche instructor, say that I couldn't really improve on the laps (I bet he says that to all the guys). Stunning car - even the aero kit grew on me. The interior had red on the dials, red finishing and red piping - a bit OTT but seemed to work. I just felt fluid with the car and clicked.
Didn't bother with the Targa as it was Tip and I wanted to do more laps in the C2S.
C4S Tip - hated it purely thanks to the gearbox. I haven't spent enough time with a Tip box and hated waiting for it to catch up and when I tried to do it on the buttons, I was concentrating on that and screwed everything else up.
Cayman: Non S variant - Slow. With a Tip box. Say no more. Shame - I'm a huge fan of the Cayman S with a manual.
Cayenne S - Biggest surprise of the day so far. Slow (compared to the C2S) but the way it can be driven made me laugh. You can chuck this big boy about and it does the business. Cracking brakes too. Was great fun and a real surprise. My 4x4 is a Grand Cherokee!
Lunch - lovely
3. Brake test.
Ok. Take one 997 Turbo, add a bit of a straight, chuck in a coned approach, a fella with a red flag telling you which way to go, a coned wall and two conned exits. You floor it from the line, when the instructor says brake, you slam on the anchors and then steer into which ever direction the flagman says - it's meant to simulate an RTA happening in front of you.
Bloody hell - how fast does that car accelerate! Jesus H! I've had fast bikes but this defies reality. Evern better, after a few runs, when I asked if I can hold the car on the brakes until the turbo is at 0.6 bar before releasing (tip box) -
ing hell!
Pure violence - it does make me question how valid that car is in the real world though. Still, took my breath away.
4. Timed Slalom.
Not just a single slalom but a short timed course to show off the Cayman S (Tip... grrrrrrrrr).
Very tight, very technical, and great fun!
The Cayman S really does handle brilliantly, stunning car - people that owned various 911s and Cayennes said that it was a complete revelation and that they had to now think hard whether to get the 997 or the Cayman!
5. Demonstration laps.
A car, an instructor with you as a passenger.
Cars: GT3, Turbo, C2S powerkit, Cayman S, Cayenne Turbo. - You pick a car, jump in, the instructor turns the PSM off and you hoon about the club circuit with the Porsche instructors showing you what the car can really do. Oh yeah.
Oddly, it was the Cayenne that surprised the most - what a beast - and when you have a champioship winning rally driver at the helm..............
I pissed myself all the way round - so funny.
To wrap up - a stunning day. Great people - I made some great friends with the guys in my group - all petrolheads and all Porsche officianados - James, Padraig & Con. The insructors were fantastic, suberbly organised and ultimately I will be ordering a Porsche in the very near future - it's tipped me over the edge.
Some pics from the day - the 911S is James's - top fella.
Sorry for pulling the silly face.
I had the pleasure of spending a day thrashing most of the model range on road and track at the weekend and I thought I'd share it with you.
The Porsche World Roadshow is a simple concept - they take various specced cars from Germany, stick them in containers, along with all the promotional stuff, and take them to international cities and invite prospective and current owners to sample the cars - they want to prove that they make the best sports cars in the world.
I like!
So, we were assigned to a group - yellow group in my instance - and we then have an itinerary for the day. Ours was as follows.
1. Road Trip
2. Handling
3. Brake Test
4. Timed slalom - think short autocross here
5. Instructor Demonstration laps
6. Prize giving
Our group had the perfect set up as the timed slalom was a competition - within the group and over all the groups for the day - and it allowed us to get our driving heads on for the timed test.
First of all we met for breakfast and were introduced to the day and the instructors. Very civilised.
1. Road Trip
We had the briefing, usual stuff about road etiquette, safety etc... and then led us out to a range of cars and asked to take our pick. I'm really liking this day already. So Con and I, we got paired up, decided to take a C2S, Speed Yellow, out. So it's basically a trip so you can see how the cars are in every day driving - pretty restrained but the odd opportunity to get the foot down - usually at roundabouts!
2. Handling test.
Awesome: Club circuit at the Dubai autodrome. As my memory serves me the cars for the test were.
C2S with Aero kit and power kit.
Targa Tip
C4S Tip
Cayman Tip
Cayenne S
The C2S with 380bhp (?) was the best of the lot - I connected with it immediately and nailed the lines and was extremely pleased to hear Bjorne, the Porsche instructor, say that I couldn't really improve on the laps (I bet he says that to all the guys). Stunning car - even the aero kit grew on me. The interior had red on the dials, red finishing and red piping - a bit OTT but seemed to work. I just felt fluid with the car and clicked.
Didn't bother with the Targa as it was Tip and I wanted to do more laps in the C2S.
C4S Tip - hated it purely thanks to the gearbox. I haven't spent enough time with a Tip box and hated waiting for it to catch up and when I tried to do it on the buttons, I was concentrating on that and screwed everything else up.
Cayman: Non S variant - Slow. With a Tip box. Say no more. Shame - I'm a huge fan of the Cayman S with a manual.
Cayenne S - Biggest surprise of the day so far. Slow (compared to the C2S) but the way it can be driven made me laugh. You can chuck this big boy about and it does the business. Cracking brakes too. Was great fun and a real surprise. My 4x4 is a Grand Cherokee!
Lunch - lovely
3. Brake test.
Ok. Take one 997 Turbo, add a bit of a straight, chuck in a coned approach, a fella with a red flag telling you which way to go, a coned wall and two conned exits. You floor it from the line, when the instructor says brake, you slam on the anchors and then steer into which ever direction the flagman says - it's meant to simulate an RTA happening in front of you.
Bloody hell - how fast does that car accelerate! Jesus H! I've had fast bikes but this defies reality. Evern better, after a few runs, when I asked if I can hold the car on the brakes until the turbo is at 0.6 bar before releasing (tip box) -
ing hell! Pure violence - it does make me question how valid that car is in the real world though. Still, took my breath away.
4. Timed Slalom.
Not just a single slalom but a short timed course to show off the Cayman S (Tip... grrrrrrrrr).
Very tight, very technical, and great fun!
The Cayman S really does handle brilliantly, stunning car - people that owned various 911s and Cayennes said that it was a complete revelation and that they had to now think hard whether to get the 997 or the Cayman!
5. Demonstration laps.
A car, an instructor with you as a passenger.
Cars: GT3, Turbo, C2S powerkit, Cayman S, Cayenne Turbo. - You pick a car, jump in, the instructor turns the PSM off and you hoon about the club circuit with the Porsche instructors showing you what the car can really do. Oh yeah.
Oddly, it was the Cayenne that surprised the most - what a beast - and when you have a champioship winning rally driver at the helm..............
I pissed myself all the way round - so funny.
To wrap up - a stunning day. Great people - I made some great friends with the guys in my group - all petrolheads and all Porsche officianados - James, Padraig & Con. The insructors were fantastic, suberbly organised and ultimately I will be ordering a Porsche in the very near future - it's tipped me over the edge.
Some pics from the day - the 911S is James's - top fella.
Sorry for pulling the silly face.
Edited by Asterix on Monday 19th March 19:15
Sounds like great fun, and it looks like you had great weather for it. As you've said - shame so many cars were Tips, but then I suppose the Porsche team would be replacing clutches every session if they headed out with manuals.
Then again - f*ck 'em... that's what they're there for. So....... shame there were so many Tips.
Then again - f*ck 'em... that's what they're there for. So....... shame there were so many Tips.
What was a very good ad for the cars was the fact that they were getting hammered and they all never missed a beat. Unless you could see what the turbo went through (I have some vids but they never really captured the ferocity of the acceleration and braking) and after 10 days all they change is the pads. It was caned! Every time it just got up and got on with it.
Highly impressive.
I've said it before - the closer you get to being a postion to buy a good performance car, the posters of Ferraris you had on your wall as a kid, get replaced with the real world, day to day, performance of a Porsche.
I'm not rich enough to have a car that I can only do limited mileage in or have it in the workshop half it's life.
Edited by Asterix on Monday 19th March 19:13
Asterix said:
I've said it before - the closer you get to being a postion to buy a good performance car, the posters of Ferraris you had on your wall as a kid, get replaced with the real world, day to day, performance of a Porsche.
Very salient point that. Can't wait for the Roadshow to come our way.
freedman said:
Asterix said:
the posters of Ferraris you had on your wall as a kid
No Ferraris on my wall.
Pedro Rodriguez in a 917k and Ronnie Peterson in a Lotus 79
Mercedes SSK (sort of a Porsche anyway), Lotus Esprit and Porsche 930 Turbo for me. A 944 made it to the wall at one stage - I think I had decided the others were dreams but the 944 would with some certainty be mine at some stage. Probably why I still have a hankering for one.
Edited because this place is behaving wierdly this afternoon with quotes and stuff
Edited by loach on Tuesday 20th March 11:24
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