Porsche Track Experience

By Stephen Schutz, MD

I just did the best manufacturer track day of my life, the Porsche Track Experience at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

For the record, I have spent many days at race tracks, mostly at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA, but also Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, CA, Thunderhill Raceway north of Sacramento, CA, and now, Barber Motorsports Park. And in case you’re wondering, I paid for the experience, receiving neither a freebie nor discount from the $2000 price tag from Porsche.

Most of my time at tracks has been for automotive journalist gatherings or manufacturer events, but I have also done official BMW, Lexus, and Audi track experiences as well. Until my time with Porsche in Alabama, Audi’s at Sonoma was the best one, with BMW’s near Palm Springs number two, and Lexus’ at Laguna Seca a (very) distant third.

Ultimately the Porsche event at a relatively obscure track just north of Birmingham was better than the others because you get more laps at higher speeds, among other pluses.

For starters, Porsche does an excellent job, “concierging” customers through the process. Once you sign up there are logistics galore, as there are with most automotive and non-automotive trips: airplane tickets, hotel reservations, ground transportation, meals, etc. Porsche helps with those challenges by coordinating with a terrific luxury hotel close to the track, the Grand Bohemian Birmingham, providing a very responsive Porsche liaison there, and offering shuttles to and from the airport. Could the liaison arrange charging for my Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) press car at the hotel as well as dinner reservations for eight at an excellent restaurant after my day at the track? Yes she could, and did.

Promptly at 7AM the morning of my track day a Mercedes Sprinter van drove us to the venue for breakfast and a “chalk talk”, during which our lead instructor went through the dos and don'ts of driving on the track (do pay attention to your surroundings, don’t crash the car). I’ve listened to many chalk talks, and this was the first one done while I ate a meal—thank you Porsche!

After that orientation, my group headed off to do off-track performance drills: acceleration/braking while turning, skidpad and autocross. Accelerating and braking while turning takes concentration, autocross takes concentration and is fun, and the skidpad took little brainpower and was uproariously fun.

Then we hit the track, where we drove three different Porsche sports cars, all very quickly and for many laps, as noted above.

First up was the Porsche Cayman GTS, which has less power than the 911 GTS and Turbo models that we drove later, but which may have been more fun than those cars because it had less power and grip and was therefore easier to take to its handling limit.

Next was the 911 Turbo S, which was so capable, thanks to prodigious power and All-Wheel Drive (AWD), that I felt more like it was driving me than I was driving it.

Finally, we hit the 911 GTS, which felt just right—more potent and with higher cornering limits than the mini-me Cayman, but more approachable than the all-conquering Turbo. Part of my preference for the 911 GTS may have been due to the fact that my daily driver is a 2022 911 S, but two of my team members who don’t own Porsches agreed with my assessment.

Anyway, the Barber track is a technical 2.4 mile circuit with sixteen corners, so achieving big MPHs on the two (relatively short) straightaways is less important than maintaining your speed through those many corners.

Like most manufacturer track experiences, Porsche uses a lead-follow driving technique where three or four cars driven by students follow a lead car piloted by an instructor. As the day progressed the instructors increased their speed, to the point where, not very long into the program, the students had to hustle to keep up.

And I do mean hustle—I spent most of my time on track close to or at my limits. Did things ever get uncomfortable? Not really, probably because following an expert driver behind the wheel of exactly the same car you’re driving with exactly the same tires is very reassuring—if he’s not flying off the track then I probably won’t either—but we were certainly driving fast.

Why do I think that Porsche’s track experience is better than its competitors’? While BMW and Audi let us drive quickly but rationed laps, and Lexus limited speed severely and rationed laps, Porsche let us run and gave us many laps. So many laps, in fact, that I lost count and was exhausted when they finally told us that we were finished. Exhausted and exhilarated, of course.

If you’re thinking of doing a manufacturer track experience, my strong recommendations are: 1) do it, you won’t regret it despite the cost, and 2) choose Porsche. It’s the best one.

As always, call Phil Hornbeak, the Auto Program Manager at BCMS (210-301-4367), for your best deal on any new car or truck brand. Phil can also connect you to preferred financing and lease rates.

Stephen Schutz, MD, is a board-certified gastroenterologist who lived in San Antonio in the 1990s when he was stationed here in the US Air Force. He has been writing auto reviews for San Antonio Medicine magazine since 1995.

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