Test Drives
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
For those who participated in the Porsche Sport Drive event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio two weeks back, it was an afternoon of smiles. Porsche offered select customers, guests, sports-car aficionados, and media representatives the chance to drive its vehicles on the challenging 2.4 mile, 15-turn course and Autocross course in what it called a “spirited test drives.”
In addition to Porsche’s national team, Fred Baker Porsche Audi of Bedford and Cascade Automotive Group of Cuyahoga Falls, two of the area’s premier Porsche dealers, hosted the event.
Porsche Test Drives
Driving instructors from the Porsche Driving School in Birmingham, Alabama were also on hand to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. They offered some basic driving instruction, as well as some important technical information on Porsche’s new vehicle lineup. Everyone got the chance to drive the company’s brand-new lineup of Cayennes, Boxsters, and Caymans.
When it comes to familiarizing its customers with its vehicles, no one does it better than Porsche. Gene Hauck, Porsche sales manager at Fred Baker, gave me the run down of the afternoon’s events at the lunch prior to the event.
“After lunch, we’ll break up into three different groups,” Hauck explained. “One group will head to pit lane to drive the sports cars, and another will head to pit lane to drive the Cayennes. The third will head to the Autocross course to have a little fun with the Boxster and Cayman. You’ll also get the chance to ride along with an instructor on the Autocross in a hot lap in each of the cars.”
“You should be familiar with the Autocross and the new PDK transmission,” added Pat Primm, a partner in the Cascade Auto Group.
Last month, Primm offered me the opportunity to test drive a Boxster on an Autocross course set up at DriveTeam, a driver’s educational facility near his dealership. I had the opportunity to experience Porsche’s new Doppelkupplungsgetriebe or PDK transmission…