I got a late notice invite for a session on Tue afternoon due to a cancellation. I met up with Alex and his brother for some lunch and then had 2 hours of fun in the afternoon. The basic structure of the Experience is as Alex states: 12 people split into 2 groups of 6, with the groups being split into 2 different sets of activities. One group of 6 were driven anti-clockwise by the instructors around the outer Silverstone road to the Copse tunnel and to the inside of the circuit to a test track laid out where the Club pits get set up for Silverstone Classic and the like. We did the launch controls accels right through where the Ferrari Club car park was set up for the Classic meet this year!

The big point of the whole day to NB is that you’re jumping from car to car every 5-6 mins, apart from some of the test track work where you get longer in some of the cars. This is done to get you exposure to all the cars with the different options (to experience paddles (Option 840), PTV etc), so it’s good to do this, but it’s fast and furious, rather than getting consolidation in any particular car set-up (and is great fun overall!).

Like Alex I found launch control to be very much a ‘trick’ mode, which perhaps you’d only use to demo a few times to friends, with no ‘real’ road use application. Alex is absolutely right on how to engage launch control: into Sport Plus mode, left foot hard on the brake and then stamp on the throttle. If you are too slow with the throttle application then you don’t get into launch control mode, but have 5000 rpm levels of torque building against the brakes with both feet pressing hard down and the car sliding forward!

I have to say I thought that the mode has been made available to achieve the best possible 0-60/100 accel times and that my brain was mostly thinking about the torture that the drive train is suffering during the launch. I don’t believe many owners with any ‘mechanical sympathy’ would subject their own cars to much launch control work if they had it fitted! (I’d love to know what Porsche engineers actually think about the mode).

In comparison with my manual 997 Gen 1 Turbo I can’t say that things felt much quicker (apart from the initial launch, of course). The first launches were done up to about 60 against cone markers (you can see them in Alex’s YouTube video), followed by max braking, then later runs were up to about 100, followed by max braking. On the way back to the launch control start line there was a coned slalom course and then a ‘swerve’ event against a line of cones (simulating a swerve around an obstacle). You can start to get a feel for the stability of PTM and PSM in the slalom work and perhaps get a feel for the PTV option that one of the cars is fitted with. But this car (think it’s a blue one!) has the sports bucket seats that holds you more firmly laterally and I felt this gave one the impression of more overall stability, rather than anything else affecting things.

When I did my 997 Gen 1 Turbo experience day 2 years ago at Millbrook (in a tiptronic car) I found the accel work on the long straight there to be more exciting, due to the higher terminal speeds available on the longer straight. Similarly I enjoyed the high-speed bowl driving there and the longer circuit work.

Then it was back to the Experience Centre, a swap of instructors and out onto the test tracks. My recommendation here would be to have a well-prepared mental list of the things you want to try out. We had the chance to try 3 activities: the handling circuit, the ice hill and the kick plate, again jumping from car to car (different ones from used for the launch control work). I started on the handling circuit: this is set up as a country road with varying cambers and is quite tight with little run off available. In both manual and PDK cars I mainly used just 2nd and third gears, changing gears in manual mode in the PDK car using the gear lever rather than the steering wheel gearshift switches, driving both types of cars mainly in sport mode. Perhaps I should have used full auto mode in the PDK cars and played around with sport/sport plus modes more (as Alex managed to do) and maybe switched off PSM, but I found that I was concentrating more with driving lines around the quite tight circuit. My basic error was putting in too many steering inputs; the way the circuit is set up is that if you get to the right part of track then a fixed amount of steering will generally get you to the apex of the turns and smoothly out of them (so it’s slow in, fast out!). I then went on the Ice Hill which as is advertised allows you to explore car control with little available grip- this was a really great experience! Next was the kick plate, which again was extremely good value - I found that initially I was using opposite lock to counter the loss of traction and rear end ‘kick’, but also was starting to play around with powering out using throttle (and PSM). This is done at 20-25 mph (needs to be 20+ to get the plate to kick), but it would be interesting to try this at faster speeds. Remember to switch the wipers on!

As per the launch control work, you swap around between the various cars available, spending 10-15 mins in each. Again, a very worthwhile and engaging session.

Overall, the time goes very quickly and the chance to experience the cars and activities was extremely good value. I was very impressed with the professionalism of the instructors and their stoicism of what must be some fairly ‘interesting’ driving styles from the participants. My recommendation would be to prepare a check list ahead of the day of what you’d like to experiment with on the handling circuit: manual gearbox comparisons vs PDK, PDK auto and ‘manual’ work using both the gear lever and steering wheel switches (and also trying the paddles if available). Then take a look at the sport and sport plus modes as well. I’d also like to experiment with disabling PSM, but perhaps initially this should be done somewhere with more room available.

If you have time available rides in the Panamera Turbo and off road in Cayenne are there for the taking. I used some time to get my eyes checked out (I’ve worn glasses for some time and wanted to chat about the best ways of getting the best possible prescription). It’s also worth making time for some caffeine injections whilst you are at the Centre. There’s also an area set up where you can take a look at the various interior options, and I found it interesting to chat to other participants to see what they thought of the Gen II 997 Turbo. There’s also a car with Bose Surround Sound fitted that you can try out inside the Centre.

997 Gen II Turbo guides and price lists were available in the Centre and all the staff were unfailingly polite and helpful throughout the day. My thanks go to everybody there.

My overall impression: I still prefer the manual gearbox, but I’m sure that the paddle PDK set-up would bear looking at more closely out on the road. I’d also like to learn more about the PSM, PTM and possibly PTV modes, together with sport and sport plus modes, to get a better understanding of how they each work and interact with each other.

A great day out, well done Porsche!

Also - I agree with the OP that my modified 997.1 Turbos and even my Ruf RTurbo have more power than 997.2 generation. I would add the Ruf is 20/20