Photo Courtesy Porsche Cars, NA

Drove the 991S at the Masters school in Birmingham

Just got back from the Masters school at the porsche driving school. On the main race track we drove the Cayman R, 997.2S, 991S, and a little of the GT3 and TT/pdk.

The 991 was so much better in everyway then the 997.2. There was no loss in visceral raw driving feedback or anything else that people are complaining of. The steering was great, and not one of us 30 guys could feel the difference of the new electric steering compared to the older model. The chassis control around corners, the acceleration, exhaust note, and tranny were better. I had a lot of time going back and forth from the 991 to the 997. The 991 was better then the cayman R also, believe it or not.

The consensus of the guys there, rated the cars as follows:

991>Cayman R>997.2

The GT3 and TT, we only got a short drive in them, and they were amazing. It was hard to really assess them, as we had to follow the instructor in a lead car, which did not allow us to really push the car to our driving limits. Whereas in the 991 and 997, we had open lapping sessions, where we were able to pass other cars and push the car to our limits of control. You notice I did not say push the car to its limits, because the instructors showed us in the hot lapping session that none of us came close to pushing the car to its limits.

I thought I got much better by the end of the class and was probably in the top 3 of the 30 guys at the track, but I was not even 5/10ths at the level of the instructors.

They kept instructing us to have smooth steady inputs on the steering around turns, but they were dancing with the steering wheel, while they took corners at about 20mph faster then we were.

Overall my feeling was that the 991 would be an unbeatable DD for comfort/performance. Congrats to those of you who have one coming in!

 

Great write up - Thanks!

 

Very good observation here....as people get faster they dance on the steering wheel to load the tire and keep the car balanced.

They are very good instructors.

thanks for the write-up.

Can I ask...was passing allowed only with signals..or was it truly open passing.

thanks

 

Buckwheat,
passing was only allowed with signaling and only on certain straigts that were marked "passing zone". They are too many levels of common sense and driving abilities to trust us with their cars for true open passing.
Instructors have such a great attitude and are very helpful in providing tips to improve our skills.

 

thanks speed...that makes sense.

Good to see you had a great time and thanks again for the write-up and photos

 

Great writeup! I've been wanting to do the PSDS sometime soon. Did you start with their Performance Course? I'd be interested in your review and experience with that course, and whether you already hard HPDE experience before you took it.

 

The performance course is a pre-requisite for the Master course.

I took the performance course as my first experience on a track and learned allot. But my feeling is that if you can get a few days of PCA type DE first you will benefit even more.

 

Aerodude,
Buckwheat is right, it is a prerequisite. The will allow you to go straight to masters if you can document and prove that you have other track experience. The PSDS was very similar to Masters but had less track time and no 'open lapping' sessions. It was always follow the instructor in a his lead car and at his pace only, which limits you to the pace of the whole group. Which is not that bad because they constantly change the members in the group to make sure we are at equal level per group.
I had 2 different experiences with the BMW driving school but still started with the PSDS.
You will not regret it, its an awesome experience.

 

...nice review, great comparo!

 

Thanks for sharing - enjoyable read.

 

I really want to go! The write up was excellent. We should start a thread of 6speeders looking to go.

 

This is exactly what i found. The 991 was better everywhere and felt very satisfying to drive at any speed.

btw nice review. Looks like a great day if not a bit controlled, but i bet you found it much less controlled than a BMW driver traing session.

 

I go 23/24 of October. Submited my resume and as mentioned above was moved to the masters level 1 I think they called it. Pretty exited about it. Did you pay the extra $100 per day to limit your liability to 2k per occurance instead of 10k per occurance?

I am guessing it is cheap enough to do it even though I am not looking to wreck any cars.

 

Totally agree with all of the observations, great post!
Are planning to get into the 991 yourself?

Cheers!

 

thanks for the writeup. I will be going in June 19-20th. I'm very excited to be attending. I have heard wonderful things about the course and instructors