Jimmy and Jobbo's Grand Day Out At The Porsche Experience

[Jimmy Choo]

“Would you like to come and drive some Porsches?” Jobbo enquired. “ I’ve got a second ticket for the Porsche Experience at Silverstone because I’ve ordered another one.”

I believe my response was “Hell, yeah!”

A stupid o’clock alarm clock got me out of bed and in the car by 6:30 and off on a lovely country drive through the Cotswolds and on towards Silverstone. The destination was just behind the Hanger straight and I pulled up next to some primer coloured MX5 and met up with Jobbo. We had breakfast including petit fours, which was a novelty.

The usual briefing and a pitch for the human performance centre and we wandered out to the cars. We had agreed to try a 718 and 911S and I went out in the 718 first. We put the roof down and went for a couple of slow laps of the first circuit. Aside from warming the car up, I suspect it was so the driving coach could make an initial assessment. Passing was strictly by consent and on the instructions of the driving coach. So, the 718. It’s great. It’s really great. It’s not noticeably turbo’d and with 350 odd bhp, it shifts. Aside from the noise, the highlight was the steering. It just follows your eyes. Even as I built up speed, it was direct and with my driving style, it wasn’t understeering and if anything, I was leaning on the rear tyres and had a couple of oversteer moments.

We did some skidding on low friction wet surfaces and worked on faster correction, constant and consistent throttle, and extending my focus into the further distance. The improvement from just those simple steps was massive.

After a quick break, Jobbo and I swapped cars. The 911S is feral! The jump up to 450bhp is remarkable and they deploy it in vastly different ways. The 911 is a phenomenal thing. Yes, it’s monstrously fast, very stable and sounds glorious but the brakes were the most remarkable. We did a launch control start up to 62mph, hard on the brakes to a stop, a second launch control start up to 62mph and back to zero in under 300m! The more technical and trickier circuit had 100mph+ straights, off camber corners, a hairpin at the bottom of a hill and some faster sweeping corners. I also got the coach to take me on a couple of laps so I could watch how he was so much smoother and faster than me.
Parking up at the end, Jobbo asked me to touch the tires. They were not only hot but sticky. Properly sticky! I’ve never seen that on a road car before. I’m sure Jobbo can remind me what tyres they are.

After that, there was a spot of lunch and a trip to the Silverstone Museum. If you’re in the area… don’t bother, really. As a museum, it’s badly laid out, doesn’t seem to understand what story it’s telling and is £27 to look at a few dozen interesting cars.

[IanF]

Very cool!

So, which one did you prefer? Would that change if you were keeping one car for 10 years? And did you buy a Porsche cap and now lean on 911s that you don’t own??

[Jimmy Choo]

Very cool!

So, which one did you prefer? Would that change if you were keeping one car for 10 years? And did you buy a Porsche cap and now lean on 911s that you don’t own??

I don't think there's a wrong answer here. They're both great. If I had enough money for a 718, I'd get that. If I had enough money for a 911, I'd get that.

I think the 911 would be a 10+ year ownership prospect anyway but I suspect the 718 would be a stepping stone to the 911, giving me longer to save money/rob banks/sell shoddy PPE to bridge the £60k difference.

I don't need a cap to lean against a Porsche. I'll do that anyway.

[Explosive Newt]

Been a few years since I went but I really enjoyed it (and wound up buying a Porsche, which is presumably the function of the place!).

Did you do the gravel rally circuit too? IIRC there were two handling circuits when I went.

[mik]

Sounds like good VFM.

Were you using all/part of the circuit?

[Jimmy Choo]

Been a few years since I went but I really enjoyed it (and wound up buying a Porsche, which is presumably the function of the place!).

Did you do the gravel rally circuit too? IIRC there were two handling circuits when I went.

Yeah, I'd really, really like a Porsche now. Sadly, I'd prefer a house.

They didn't really encourage us to use the rally circuits in the road cars but I think the cayenne that was there did.

[Jimmy Choo]

Sounds like good VFM.

Were you using all/part of the circuit?

It's not on the Silverstone circuit but next to the track.

[Jobbo]

Jimmy has saved me typing out a long post about the day so I'll add my thoughts. You get an invitation to the Silverstone Porsche Experience Centre when you order a new Porsche and I hadn't used the one from the Macan. When I investigated taking a friend I realised the second person only gets to eat, not drive a car. So having a second one from the Cayenne order I finally invited Jimmy and arranged it. From memory they charge you about £350 if you cancel the car order.

I took more photos of the food than the cars, but that's mainly because I didn't get my phone out except back in the restaurant area. I took a photo as we had our full Englishes, thinking it would be good to get one before the cars all disappeared; looking back, they had only got half of them out yet. Yellow cars seemed to be everywhere. Don't buy a yellow one.



I wanted to drive a 911 back to back with a Boxster to see if I really did need to spend all that extra money. The 996 and 986 were basically identical underneath in many ways and I'm sure there's a lot of commonality between 718 and 992. As it turns out, they're not as similar as I thought they would be and not just in chassis balance. Porsche have definitely spent a lot of time trying to differentiate them.

I'm glad I drove the 992 first because I had most of 2 hours in it, and then had an hour in the Boxster as a counterpoint. So the order worked well for both Jimmy and me. I pushed the Boxster harder because I had started to learn the two tracks by then and found I over-drove it a bit so made it understeer; the extra power of the 911 (and throttle response - that was a bigger difference than the outright power) allowed me to turn in slightly slower and power out earlier so suited the way I like to drive. With a few more laps I realised the Boxster would do the same thing perfectly happily but it does your bidding; the 911 felt like it told you how it wanted you to drive it. Which I think means the 911 flatters the driver and the Boxster is more revealing of your skills.

Two things that particularly stuck with me: the braking - third or fourth stop from about 90mph the guy told me to take my hands off the wheel when stamping on the brake as hard as I could. It was eye-opening; undramatic while still ripping your face off. The brakes are lovely. Both our cars were on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres and both felt similarly warm and sticky at the end. And the skid pan sections. I could have done them all day.
The two circuits were both nice enough but I didn't know them or the cars at the start and they reminded me of the Lotus test track at Hethel - more intended to test a car than provide a nice flowing lap, so I didn't have any great desire to explore the limits of grip.

As for the Silverstone Museum, I mishead the till lady when Jimmy was paying and thought it was £7.50. Nope, £27.50. It seems they have a restored hangar and weren't sure what to do with it. Not worth it though I did take a photo of Red 5:



Oh, and 911 hands down. I don't need a GTS (I didn't think I did); an S would be perfect. But it needs the right spec; I had a play with the rear wheel steering and really liked that - I think it adds some agility at low speed and would spec it on a new one. Also sports exhaust is required; the quiet/feral distinction needs it, and that feral character when you want it is something that really appeals. Also, chatting to the chaps there I discovered that the last years of the pre-facelift 992 sound better and drive better than the first ones despite Porsche not saying anything about updates. Looking at used cars like this 991 Carrera S: https://finder.porsche.com/gb/en-GB/det ... ned-D5MD6L - 2012, up for £55k I think buying a late 992.1 Carrera S like this isn't financially mad: https://finder.porsche.com/gb/en-GB/det ... ned-GRRK80 provided I keep it 10 years. That's £5000 per year depreciation, give or take.

[ZedLeg]

I never thought I’d like a barbie dream car spec 911 but I do.

[Jobbo]

I forgot - neither of us mentioned the cars inside the Porsche building at Silverstone. An Aventurine Green Turbo S with heritage interior like the below looked stunning but the cloth of the seats was terribly rough to touch. I couldn't spec it for that reason.



And a Manthey 718 Cayman GT4 RS in what looked like Sapphire Blue (Paint To Sample) with blue wheels didn't work for me. I think it was the below car but with Manthey bits added like a carbon cover for the rear wheel. The wheels already looked weird because the blue didn't go with the paint:

[Explosive Newt]

Yeah, I'd really, really like a Porsche now. Sadly, I'd prefer a house.

They didn't really encourage us to use the rally circuits in the road cars but I think the cayenne that was there did.

A shame - sliding a 911 GTS on gravel made me appreciate all the weight out the back - and something I don’t think I would ever get to do again!

There was a quarter mile too which I think was to show off the brake tech as Jobbo mentions.

I never quite keyed into the handling circuit but that might have been my own ineptitude.

Must go back some time, I think my trip was 2018 or 2019.

[Jimmy Choo]

Yeah, I'd really, really like a Porsche now. Sadly, I'd prefer a house.

They didn't really encourage us to use the rally circuits in the road cars but I think the cayenne that was there did.

A shame - sliding a 911 GTS on gravel made me appreciate all the weight out the back - and something I don’t think I would ever get to do again!

There was a quarter mile too which I think was to show off the brake tech as Jobbo mentions.

I never quite keyed into the handling circuit but that might have been my own ineptitude.

Must go back some time, I think my trip was 2018 or 2019.

The low friction surfaces showed that off without them needing to repaint the cars before putting them in the Porsche used approved (one careful owner, never raced or rally'd) system.

That pink one is fab. I'd be happy to get that run in for you, Jobbo.

[GG.]

Sounds fun! I need to get myself to one of these.

Simon did you get tickets as part of the Cayenne purchase?

[Jobbo]

Got one invite from buying the Macan and one from buying the Cayenne - as soon as you order you get the chance to book. Each one is for one person plus a non-driving guest I believe, but that non-driving person is going to have a pretty boring time. The food is good though.

I think it's only for new car orders but now I've done it, I won't feel the need to order a new 911 instead of buying a used one

[duncs500]

Jimmy has saved me typing out a long post about the day so I'll add my thoughts.

That was the brief version?

Sounds like a great day , I've heard good things about these before, and that they really encourage you to push.

[Matty]

Nice

So Jimmy, who did you have to sleep with to get this invite?

[Explosive Newt]

We could do a forum experience day out but we’d all have to cough up the readies.

[Jobbo]

We could do a forum experience day out but we’d all have to cough up the readies.

I’m not sleeping with all of you.

[Ascender]

That looks like a tremendous day out

[Jimmy Choo]

We could do a forum experience day out but we’d all have to cough up the readies.

I’m not sleeping with all of you.

You promised!!!!!!