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I went to the Porsche Experience Centre in Silverstone yesterday so I thought I'd give a review of the day for anyone who was thinking of doing it. Forgive the basic nature of this but when I was looking for reviews there weren't really any detailed write ups.
I assume this is the same for all new purchases but we were given a single half day (2.5 hour) experience in a Macan 4S as part of the purchase of our 4S. We decided to book it straight away as we were still waiting for the car to be delivered. As it happens, the experience was this Tuesday (July 21st) and I'm collecting the car this Friday (July 25th). I hadn't actually driven the car prior to ordering so this was going to be my first experience of the Macan EV. Pretty impressive first test drive! My wife also decided to pay for own half day at the same time. She could have paid £30 to just come for the food but didn't want to pass up the opportunity to get some seat time with someone who knew the car really well and where she could push it without feeling nervous.
The PEC is within Silverstone, alongside the Hangar Straight. I'd actually spotted it a couple of weeks before when I was at the Silverstone GP. Arriving, you're greeted on the ground floor where there are a few display vehicles. Unfortunately no heritage stuff there. The most special things were a GT3 RS and a Spyder RS. There was a silver Macan 4 with red interior which looked nice.
We were there for the morning session which meant a breakfast first, followed by a safety briefing and then driving from 10-12.30 ish with a quick coffee break in the middle, finally, a three course lunch. I'd recommend this over the afternoon session as you're really throwing the car around and a full lunch right before isn't the best idea; especially after a few launches and emergency stops.
Every driver is accompanied by your own PEC driver who can talk you through everything from seating position and how to set various controls in the car to how to get the most out of the vehicle across each of the circuits there.
At PEC Silverstone, there are 6 (+1) circuits: two handling circuits, a drag strip, an ice hill, a kicker plate and a low friction skid pad. The +1 is an off-road bit but I think only Cayenne's can go on that. In the 2.5 hours, I got to experience all but the low friction one. There are some little paragraphs and videos (click play on the images) about each here: https://silverstone.porsche.com/en/handling-tracks/
We headed to the smaller of the two handling tracks first as loads of people rushed to the kicker plate and low friction. My instructor walked me through some of the main markers around the course; which cones to break at, look through, turn in at etc then observed as I hacked my way around. Then they started to correct some of my habits and offer guidance on where to bring in trail braking etc. I saw quick improvements in opening up corners etc. The itself handled everything very well. We flicked between normal and sport modes to see the difference in body roll. It's still a big and heavy car so you can't hide the weight but it's still a step up on any car of that size / type I've driven previously.
After 15/20 mins of that, we headed to the drag strip / straight. Taking turns with other cards to do standing starts and emergency stops. It's wild how quickly the car comes to a complete stop and definitely one to avoid if you get car sick easily! We practiced at various speeds and modes and also tried the emergency stop where the passenger holds the 'P' button as well as hard emergency stop whilst changing direction.
That was probably 25 mins as there's quite a bit of down time waiting for the car or cars in front to do their thing. We rounded out the morning before coffee break with a couple of laps of the larger handling circuit. There's a good bit of variety here in terms of types of corners, undulations etc. The instructors guidance here was much more to the point about where to look, where to turn in, brake etc. Felt like it only took a lap or two to start getting the best out of the car.
We headed in for a drinks break where they served a little cake too. Caught up with my wife at that point. She'd taken it much easier, mainly focussing on getting used to the car (the instructor took her for a lap of the Silverstone service roads to get used to it) but also doing a little of the ice hill.
Heading back out, we went for the Ice Hill which was running up hill (driving from bottom to top). It switches at some point to down hill but we didn't get to try that. We took turns in heading up the hill. The surface is low friction red plastic with water spraying on it, simulating icy conditions. Driving around the jets of water like a slalom, you could feel the car working to prevent over / understeer. We also tested braking up hill both fully on the low friction surface and half on / off. Both times, you could feel the car modulate the brakes on each wheel to maintain yaw and stop in the quickest time. Very impressive. We then tried to create some 'mistakes' by stabbing the power when turning both with and without PCM on. With PCM on, it basically killed the mistake dead and carried on as if nothing had happened. With PCM off, the back stepped out in a controlled way before understeer kicked in on the front.
Finally, we headed to the Kicker Plate. This was easily the most fun thing to do. Driving over it at 20 miles an hour or more, it kicks the rear wheels 1m to the left or right at random, giving you a split second to try to catch it. First go through, i went 22mph and caught it fairly quickly with PCM on. Then we turned PCM off. Second go around I went too quickly (26mph) - even a small increment in speed gave so much less reaction time. Round and round I went in a lovely pirouette. Third time around at 24mph, I had it locked in. My instructor noticed I was looking where we were heading and told me to fix my position directly forwards. From then, I caught every slide like a driving god. I watched 911s and caymans spinning in circles whilst I waited for my turn before showing them how it was done.
We wrapped up with a few more laps of the large handling circuit before heading back for lunch.
Three courses were lovely - a tuna sashimi followed by roast lamb and then a passion fruit posset. We ended up leaving around 1.30pm.
Porsche clearly recognised years ago that making customers feel valued and special, even for a day, is a really strong way to connect people to the brand and to their own purchase. This is my first Porsche but so far, it won't be my last.
I'd recommend that anyone who was offered one of these experiences takes it. The instructors are patient and keen for you to get the most out of the day; whatever that means for you.
I assume this is the same for all new purchases but we were given a single half day (2.5 hour) experience in a Macan 4S as part of the purchase of our 4S. We decided to book it straight away as we were still waiting for the car to be delivered. As it happens, the experience was this Tuesday (July 21st) and I'm collecting the car this Friday (July 25th). I hadn't actually driven the car prior to ordering so this was going to be my first experience of the Macan EV. Pretty impressive first test drive! My wife also decided to pay for own half day at the same time. She could have paid £30 to just come for the food but didn't want to pass up the opportunity to get some seat time with someone who knew the car really well and where she could push it without feeling nervous.
The PEC is within Silverstone, alongside the Hangar Straight. I'd actually spotted it a couple of weeks before when I was at the Silverstone GP. Arriving, you're greeted on the ground floor where there are a few display vehicles. Unfortunately no heritage stuff there. The most special things were a GT3 RS and a Spyder RS. There was a silver Macan 4 with red interior which looked nice.
We were there for the morning session which meant a breakfast first, followed by a safety briefing and then driving from 10-12.30 ish with a quick coffee break in the middle, finally, a three course lunch. I'd recommend this over the afternoon session as you're really throwing the car around and a full lunch right before isn't the best idea; especially after a few launches and emergency stops.
Every driver is accompanied by your own PEC driver who can talk you through everything from seating position and how to set various controls in the car to how to get the most out of the vehicle across each of the circuits there.
At PEC Silverstone, there are 6 (+1) circuits: two handling circuits, a drag strip, an ice hill, a kicker plate and a low friction skid pad. The +1 is an off-road bit but I think only Cayenne's can go on that. In the 2.5 hours, I got to experience all but the low friction one. There are some little paragraphs and videos (click play on the images) about each here: https://silverstone.porsche.com/en/handling-tracks/
We headed to the smaller of the two handling tracks first as loads of people rushed to the kicker plate and low friction. My instructor walked me through some of the main markers around the course; which cones to break at, look through, turn in at etc then observed as I hacked my way around. Then they started to correct some of my habits and offer guidance on where to bring in trail braking etc. I saw quick improvements in opening up corners etc. The itself handled everything very well. We flicked between normal and sport modes to see the difference in body roll. It's still a big and heavy car so you can't hide the weight but it's still a step up on any car of that size / type I've driven previously.
After 15/20 mins of that, we headed to the drag strip / straight. Taking turns with other cards to do standing starts and emergency stops. It's wild how quickly the car comes to a complete stop and definitely one to avoid if you get car sick easily! We practiced at various speeds and modes and also tried the emergency stop where the passenger holds the 'P' button as well as hard emergency stop whilst changing direction.
That was probably 25 mins as there's quite a bit of down time waiting for the car or cars in front to do their thing. We rounded out the morning before coffee break with a couple of laps of the larger handling circuit. There's a good bit of variety here in terms of types of corners, undulations etc. The instructors guidance here was much more to the point about where to look, where to turn in, brake etc. Felt like it only took a lap or two to start getting the best out of the car.
We headed in for a drinks break where they served a little cake too. Caught up with my wife at that point. She'd taken it much easier, mainly focussing on getting used to the car (the instructor took her for a lap of the Silverstone service roads to get used to it) but also doing a little of the ice hill.
Heading back out, we went for the Ice Hill which was running up hill (driving from bottom to top). It switches at some point to down hill but we didn't get to try that. We took turns in heading up the hill. The surface is low friction red plastic with water spraying on it, simulating icy conditions. Driving around the jets of water like a slalom, you could feel the car working to prevent over / understeer. We also tested braking up hill both fully on the low friction surface and half on / off. Both times, you could feel the car modulate the brakes on each wheel to maintain yaw and stop in the quickest time. Very impressive. We then tried to create some 'mistakes' by stabbing the power when turning both with and without PCM on. With PCM on, it basically killed the mistake dead and carried on as if nothing had happened. With PCM off, the back stepped out in a controlled way before understeer kicked in on the front.
Finally, we headed to the Kicker Plate. This was easily the most fun thing to do. Driving over it at 20 miles an hour or more, it kicks the rear wheels 1m to the left or right at random, giving you a split second to try to catch it. First go through, i went 22mph and caught it fairly quickly with PCM on. Then we turned PCM off. Second go around I went too quickly (26mph) - even a small increment in speed gave so much less reaction time. Round and round I went in a lovely pirouette. Third time around at 24mph, I had it locked in. My instructor noticed I was looking where we were heading and told me to fix my position directly forwards. From then, I caught every slide like a driving god. I watched 911s and caymans spinning in circles whilst I waited for my turn before showing them how it was done.
We wrapped up with a few more laps of the large handling circuit before heading back for lunch.
Three courses were lovely - a tuna sashimi followed by roast lamb and then a passion fruit posset. We ended up leaving around 1.30pm.
Porsche clearly recognised years ago that making customers feel valued and special, even for a day, is a really strong way to connect people to the brand and to their own purchase. This is my first Porsche but so far, it won't be my last.
I'd recommend that anyone who was offered one of these experiences takes it. The instructors are patient and keen for you to get the most out of the day; whatever that means for you.
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