Happy Hallow818!

[wleehendrick]

This is my Jack-O-Lantern this year:




Pumpkin + Dremel = Messy!



P.S. I got a pre-Halloween 'treat' on Wednesday.... A friend of a friend works at the Newport Beach Porsche Dealership invited four of us to the Porsche World Roadshow at the AAA Speedway in Fontana. It's a 3 hour track event to show off their cars (beyond the scope of a test-drive on public roads, but short of a true race school/HPDE).

Overall, it was very well run, giving a good number of people time behind the wheel. However, it was a little frustrating, because I wanted more time and less restrictions. All the cars were PDK, and we were not allowed to turn stability control off... Boo. But, hey, driving brand new $75,000-100,000+ Porsches on the track for free? No complaints!



The first session was an Autocross with an instructor in the passenger's seat; we got to drive both the Panamera GTS and new Macan Turbo. The first lap in the Panamera I left a lot in reserve not knowing the course at all. It's fast and well-planted, but BIG and isolated. It's a sporty luxurious Q-ship, but just nowhere near a fun sportscar replacement, IMHO. The next lap, knowing what to expect from the course, I pushed the Macan harder. At the first corner I kept on the throttle past their braking cones until the instructor yelled to brake, but easily could have pushed much deeper (they were understandably conservative, given how ham-fisted some of the drivers there were). The rest of the lap I did pretty well for the first time behind the wheel... It's definitely the best handling 'SUV' I've ever driven, but despite their marketing hype of it having '911 dynamics', you do feel the extra ride height and body-roll. If you need the space, I still think a nice wagon is a better choice, but we have so few to choose from in our market. Although less powerful, I honestly prefer the handling of our 10 year old Audi A4 Avant (and it's a stick).

The second session was follow-the-leader around the in-field road course, one lap each in a Boxster GTS, Cayman GTS, and Targa 4S, rotating drivers through the cars. The first lap in the Boxster was a bit slow, as the driver in the Targa in the rear was lagging so the instructor kept the pace down. Even still, he almost went off on the 2nd to last decreasing radius turn. The second lap in the Cayman was much faster, although I still had to back off at times to keep from riding up on the Boxster in the corners. Very confidence inspiring chassis and brakes, I wanted moar lapz in that car! The final lap in the Targa was frustrating, as the driver of the Boxster (same goober from lap 1?) was in front of me and just all over the place . So I couldn't really get a good sense of the car near the limit.

Finally, we got a hot-lap ride along with an instructor in a 911 Turbo; 500+HP, 0-60 in 3 seconds. (no they wouldn't let us drive that beast!). Here's a video of my ride:



The acceleration and grip were impressive, but to be honest, it didn't really shock me, as the car and instructor were so smooth. What was jaw dropping is the performance of the massive carbon-ceramic brakes.

He hit ~135 on the back straight, while I managed a bit over 120 in the Cayman, which I think was pretty good, considering it's down almost 200HP compared to the Turbo.

This was the first time I'd ever driven a MR vehicle on the track, besides a kart, so it was good prep for my 818. And, yes... I wore my Factory Five 818 T-shirt!





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[Mechie3]

So that's what you look like. Reminds me of something....

[riptide motorsport]

Way cool!