What has been the experience of others with the Porsche Driving School in Birmingham, Alabama? <https://www.porschedriving.com/Sports-Driving.aspx>

Precision - (One-Day High Performance Driving Course): $1,800
Performance - (Two-Day High Performance Driving Course): $3,200
Masters - (Two-Day Advanced Driving Course): $3,800
Masters Plus - Race License - (Three-Day Competition Driving Course): $5,700
2-Day 911 GT3 Cup Experience - (Two-Day Advanced Driving Course): $10,000

Are these courses really worthwhile and worth the investment, I am considering the 2-day PERFORMANCE for later this year. Are there other better courses offered at other locations?

 

I did the one day Precision class in early September. Best day of my life. Will probably do the 2 day later on in the summer.

 

I would be interested in hearing feedback on this too, as it is on my short list!

 

I am registered for the May 10 one day course. First time for me. Really looking forward to it!

 

I was just looking at this the other day. The dates book fast. I was thinking of doing the performance 2 day course. Anyone scheduled for this. It would be fun to get a group of 6 Speeders to sign up for the same date(s).

 

Wish they had picked a better location for the driving school. Nothing in the area to get my wife interested as vacation.

 

I've done the 1 day at the school. It was a dealer sponsored event and I got to experience the track and the skills of the instructors. It was stupendous! I can't recommend it highly enough and is definitely the best "mod" one can invest in.

The track at Barber is fantastic. It's a manicured a meticulously kept facility. I can entirely understand why Porsche would want to use it. There is nothing like it anywhere. I was blown away when I saw it.

Pics and event write up here:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...pic-heavy.html

 

I did the 2 day Masters Level 1 couse in Oct 2012. The course was on the top of my favorite ones prior to me driving COTA last month which is now at the top.

Instructors were all first class and yes even Hurly Haywood rode shotgun with me and gave me pointers. I had never auto x'd before and that was a ton of fun doing so in a new boxter with pdk. The panamera GTS with Pccb's was amazing around the course but my favorite car to drive around the course was the 997.2 GT3 with pccb's!

My only complaint was that for someone who is used to doing alot of HPDE's per year and runs race pads and high temp brake fluids that get changed/bled very often. The 991 C2S with stock brakes left me wanting badly.

I cooked the fluid in 3 cars and went off the course 3-4 times with a pedal that went to the floor. The maint cheif and I had some chuckles over it all and he told me I was "over driving the car". He told me they stick to the standard oil and brake fluid change cycles per miles or for time which led me to believe the fluid was likely already desparately in need of a flush prior to me even getting in the cars. Did not have this issue with the PCCB cars.

Also, I think what contributed to this in the 991 C2S is that with PTV, there is a fair amount of rear inside wheel braking going on to help rotate the cars which further builds up the heat in the systems.

I am glad I did it, but for me I can see that the same amount of money invested in professional coaching in my own car would be a better investment.

 

I did the two day performance class last summer and had a great time. It's a bit pricey but the facility and instructors are world-class. You get quite a bit of time on the track along with autocross, skidpad, braking, heel-toe and other drill rotations. The highlight for me was getting to do some launch control starts in a new 997 turbo.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...4th-5th-2.html

 

I have a few years of HDPE's and found the masters not too valuable. Yes, instructors, track, area, and students were great, but to me, it was not private enough to achieve the next level of HDPE's / club racing. I also thought enabling PSM, which is mandatory, as a drawback, as it corrected my mistakes without the instructors, and/or me knowing it.

Dollar for dollar, I believe private coaching in my car, at the tracks I normally go run at to be more valuable

 

Nice writeup. Will have go try it myself.

 

I went last fall for the 2day. I wanted to experience the car on the track without using my car. It was great and I learned a lot. We got to experience various cars in different ways. The off road in the cayenne was the scariest.
My only complaint is they never let us loose to go flat out. We always had to stay behind the instructor. Maybe that was good as I probably would have wrecked a car. they said if I took 3 more courses I could do laps on my own. If you already track your car or have done a lot of track time this may not be for you. But as an initial track experience I think it was great. A number of the guys were really tired after a full day. I mountain bike race all summer so found no real stress. Your might want to work out a little before you go if your not in very good shape!

 

I did the two day course as my first experience on the track and have done many PCA and other HPDE events since.

IMO you will get more out of the course if you can get to one or two HPDE events before taking the course.

If you can't and can foot the bill its a great experience.

 

Interesting. Also at CoTA last month with my new 991c2 and felt brake pedal held up but it was softer than I was used to. Had a Z06 with upgraded brakes before
Do you think the short hilly Barber course is harder on brakes?

 

It is a great time and definitely worth the money. The instructors were professional and very nice. I am planning on attending the next level course in the near future.