Porsche opens playgrounds
One-on-one coaches give personalised attention and bespoke programmes.
Porsche has a growing number of Porsche Experience Centres (PEC) going up around the world and since we were in Los Angeles, they thought it would be a good idea to let us play at their local 53-acre facility.
It is not just a high-speed facility, either.
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It is a facility that consists of a number of smaller tracks within a larger track and they are all mostly there to mimic country roads, with a number of corners and undulations to truly experience your Porsche’s capabilities within a controlled environment.
As luck would have it, it was raining on the day we attended the 90-minute experience, but not all was lost, as they had a few exceptionally slippery and already wet, oversteer and understeer modules we could tackle and then they set us up a special autocross through some cones for a bit of high-speed fun.
The PEC facility in Los Angeles offers eight modules designed to simulate everyday driving conditions and provide more challenging environments in which to experience the thrill of driving Porsche sports cars.
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The Porsche drive coaches work one-on-one with you, providing personalised attention and bespoke programmes.
Our weapons for the day, the 718 Cayman GTS and 718 Boxster GTS, were perfectly suited to the tasks at hand.
I doubt there is a better bang-per-buck-per-enjoyment sports car on the road today.
This is mostly thanks to near-perfect balance offered by their mid-engined layout and brilliant chassis.
The 10mm lower-to-the-ground GTS is a step up from the S and the S is a step up from the normal Cayman and Boxster.
In GTS guise you get 269kW of power and 420Nm of torque from the turbocharged 2.5-litre, four-cylinder powerplant.
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Not that we got to use all the power or speed potential on the day, but the 718 GTS is said to get to 100km/h in a mere 4.1 seconds, thanks to the fast-shifting dual-clutch PDK transmission, and should you be one of the few who want a manual gearbox, the six-speed version is said to go there in 4.6 sec, while the fun is claimed to only stop at 290km/h.
Inside is pretty racy too.
The seats are trimmed in Alcantara, as is the roof lining and a few other touch points around the cabin.
GTS badging finishes off what is a very good place to spend a day driving fast.
And the fact that it was PEC Los Angeles was even better.
Add R50 000 to the prices listed if you want to increase your three-year/100 000km Driveplan to five-years.
Pricing
- 718 Cayman R870 000
- 718 Cayman S R950 000
- 718 Cayman GTS R1 122 000
- 718 Boxster R884 000
- 718 Boxster S R965 000
- 718 Boxster GTS R1 137 000
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