Anybody who can drive … can drive a Porsche … right?
By: Keith Verlaque
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Assuming you have the basic skills required to drive a car, driving a Porsche really is no great feat. So why is it such a big deal?
All Porsche s, irrespective of model, are recognized as being above average in build-quality and performance, both of which provide satisfaction to the driver. Porsche cars are an excellent tool for driving – why? Because the philosophy behind the design and build of every Porsche is to give the driver feedback. To provide the driver a concise feel of exactly what is going on all the time. It is this feedback that causes people who experience driving a Porsche for the first time make comments such as “it feels really connected to the road” or “it corners like it’s on rails“.
A person’s driving ability can be a very sensitive subject, many of us can shrug off an insult, but significantly fewer can shrug off being told they’re not a good driver. Yet surprisingly, a very small percentage of us make the effort to improve our driving ability and gain the skills to avoid simple mistakes.
Even if you think of yourself as just an average driver, it makes sense to think about polishing up your skills because owning a high performance vehicle comes with the responsibility to drive it with respect and good judgment.
Drivers who have either made bad decisions or simply don’t understand the consequences of their actions cause most of the problems you encounter on the road today.
PCA San Diego Region Chief Driving Instructors are acutely aware of the gap between the ability of most Porsche drivers and their car and would like to offer our members an opportunity to work on becoming a better and, above all, safer driver.
When first acquiring a Porsche, most owners typically tend to use significant financial resources to obtain the best model that they can afford and then often choose to further enhance its performance by opting for expensive performance upgrades, but they frequently neglect to consider improving the driver who, quite frankly, the majority of the time, is the weakest link.
In some cases, the highest performing vehicles which would take an extremely talented driver to utilize even 60 percent of the vehicle’s capability, are being driven by people who have had no driver training since the Ford Fairlane that they learned in when they were in high school.
“EVERY Porsche model – has a weak link in its driving system.”
To help rectify this, twice a year San Diego Region hosts a three-day non-competitive Performance Driving School (PDS) which is not intended to teach attendees how to drive, but to help our members who already are accomplished drivers, with varying degrees of experience, become better, safer drivers and increase their enjoyment of their Porsche.
If you take pride in being a good driver, or would like to work on being a better one, our PDS provides the ideal opportunity for you to do so. SDR provides attendees with a full weekend of exercises and activities to bring drivers “closer” to their cars. We will basically help you to understand what your Porsche is telling you as you drive it. In the majority of cases, the car will let the driver know long before it reaches its limits that conditions are about to change.
Our PDS provides attendees a Friday evening classroom environment to learn and understand some of the physics and theory of performance driving. You will learn about “contact patches,” “understeer vs. oversteer” plus “E-M-L Apexing” and much more.
On Saturday attendees undergo a whole day of exercises – most performed on a skid pad such that what would normally occur at 50-60 mph will occur at 25-30 mph,
Sunday is another full day and gives the opportunity to practice everything that was learned in the classroom and on the Saturday exercises SAFELY with an instructor by your side the whole time. Having all this instruction and then experiencing the practical side of things is extremely rewarding and also very empowering. Most attendees are surprised at just how much they learn and come away appreciating their Porsche significantly more.
Most Porsche owners learn pretty quickly that $600 dollars does not go very far, but… if you do happen to find anything Porsche that is better value than this school … you owe it t0 the rest of us to let us know!!
The PCA-SDR Spring 2020 PDS is the weekend of June the 5th, 6th and 7th and the price is only $595 which includes food on Fri evening, plus Saturday and Sunday breakfast and lunch.
This event fills up quickly and usually sells out so if you would like more information don’t hesitate, go to our website calendar for the weekend of June 5th 2020 or click on the link below.
PCA-SDR June 5 thru 7 2020 Performance Driving School
So while it may be true that anybody who can drive .. can drive a Porsche…..… few can drive a Porsche really well.