I promised to give some feedback on my freebie driving experience which you now get as part of buying a 997. First thing to say was it was a great few hours and I would love to do it again. I had Dickie Attwood as my instructor who was great. I got to drive two 997's. The first was a C2S with PASM and ceramic brakes. The second ws a C2S with sports suspensipon and ceramic brakes. I would go for the PASM car but thirty years ago it would have been the other one which was great at speed but very hard at town speeds.
After lunch at hotel drove to Millbrok which is an impressive facility. Loads of different things to try and Dickie encouraged me to push things prety hard. On the mile straight I did three standing start runs managing to hit over 150 MPH but braked too early otherwise could have gone faster. On the third run Dickie encouraged me to do a very late brake so was brown trousers time but car very impressive.
On the high speed oval was pulling over 150mph when Dickie quitely pointed out we were limited to 130 without helmets.Next time I take 2 helmets as car was stable and pulling hard at 150 with loads still to come.I managed a couple of laps at 75MPH without holding the wheel and steering the car on the throttle up the banking. Not as straight or as stable as Dickie could mange but still a lot of fun
I did loads of circuits of what they call the hill track (more like a mountain in places) which has some challenging corners and fast downhill sections where I was able to be flat out in third so pretty quick on a small track with some very tight corners. Also did quite a few laps on a smaller flatter and tricky circuit.
Also did emergengy stops both in a straight line from high speed (85 MPH) and on what they call the steering circuit which is a small oval where you can hang the back out.
I have done quite a few track days in my 996 but this was the best fun I have had in a car in a long time so my advice if you get the chance then do it. After this day I would also consider doing the driving experience where you have to pay Porsche and use your own car. I felt I learnt a lot from Dickie and would welcome the chance to learn some more. Apparently if you pay you get to choose your instructor.
Hope this has helped. In my view Porsche did a good job and let me use their product in the way it was intended
After lunch at hotel drove to Millbrok which is an impressive facility. Loads of different things to try and Dickie encouraged me to push things prety hard. On the mile straight I did three standing start runs managing to hit over 150 MPH but braked too early otherwise could have gone faster. On the third run Dickie encouraged me to do a very late brake so was brown trousers time but car very impressive.
On the high speed oval was pulling over 150mph when Dickie quitely pointed out we were limited to 130 without helmets.Next time I take 2 helmets as car was stable and pulling hard at 150 with loads still to come.I managed a couple of laps at 75MPH without holding the wheel and steering the car on the throttle up the banking. Not as straight or as stable as Dickie could mange but still a lot of fun
I did loads of circuits of what they call the hill track (more like a mountain in places) which has some challenging corners and fast downhill sections where I was able to be flat out in third so pretty quick on a small track with some very tight corners. Also did quite a few laps on a smaller flatter and tricky circuit.
Also did emergengy stops both in a straight line from high speed (85 MPH) and on what they call the steering circuit which is a small oval where you can hang the back out.
I have done quite a few track days in my 996 but this was the best fun I have had in a car in a long time so my advice if you get the chance then do it. After this day I would also consider doing the driving experience where you have to pay Porsche and use your own car. I felt I learnt a lot from Dickie and would welcome the chance to learn some more. Apparently if you pay you get to choose your instructor.
Hope this has helped. In my view Porsche did a good job and let me use their product in the way it was intended
