Porsche Silverstone on 13th Feb, anyone else going?
Discussion
Just got back from doing the freebie morning session in their Boxster GTSs and the afternoon in my car, was great fun and far better than when I was there 5 years ago to do the YouDrive@Porsche thing. Learnt lots of useful racey-type stuff on wet/dry lines, how to drive a new unknown track and find the best line, how to drive Boxsters and 911s slightly differently, clung to the back of a 991 GT3 for 5 laps or so round their B-road track and practiced catching slides etc on the kick plate and ice hill. After that it got a little silly and the instructor started teaching me to drift my GT3 and do 360s for sh*ts and giggles 
Overall I was *mega* impressed with the BGTSs though, really excited about getting mine now. I was quite disappointed to find that the PDK (which I'm going to order) didn't have the sport design wheel and hence the paddles (I *loathe* the button rocker things), but it was good in a way as it let me just stick it in D and just concentrate on lines/braking etc.
The only real negative experience of the day was this:
<rant>
The gear-change on the manual GTS was absolutely sublime, a real triumph if you will, especially with the rev matching downshifts when you wanted a little less workload so you could concentrate on other things....which made it even more upsetting and frustrating in equal measure that it has such tragically long gearing
You never feel lacking for shove, but given that PEC's track replaces a spirited B-road drive and even knowing nothing was coming the other way and going for it, there was only about 3s where you could use 3rd. I'm sorry Porsche, but that is f**king ridiculous for a road-biased car, you've massively dropped the ball there. I genuinely can't believe journos haven't criticised it more, for me it spoils an otherwise epic drive. And to add insult to injury, if they shortened all gears bar say 6th by 10%, you've have a car that felt like it has 360bhp AND gave you more chance to interact with the fab gearbox, best of both worlds!
</rant>
Overall I was *mega* impressed with the BGTSs though, really excited about getting mine now. I was quite disappointed to find that the PDK (which I'm going to order) didn't have the sport design wheel and hence the paddles (I *loathe* the button rocker things), but it was good in a way as it let me just stick it in D and just concentrate on lines/braking etc.
The only real negative experience of the day was this:
<rant>
The gear-change on the manual GTS was absolutely sublime, a real triumph if you will, especially with the rev matching downshifts when you wanted a little less workload so you could concentrate on other things....which made it even more upsetting and frustrating in equal measure that it has such tragically long gearing
You never feel lacking for shove, but given that PEC's track replaces a spirited B-road drive and even knowing nothing was coming the other way and going for it, there was only about 3s where you could use 3rd. I'm sorry Porsche, but that is f**king ridiculous for a road-biased car, you've massively dropped the ball there. I genuinely can't believe journos haven't criticised it more, for me it spoils an otherwise epic drive. And to add insult to injury, if they shortened all gears bar say 6th by 10%, you've have a car that felt like it has 360bhp AND gave you more chance to interact with the fab gearbox, best of both worlds!</rant>
Edited by Mario149 on Friday 13th February 19:28
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