Last week, on September 3 at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, I attended the Porsche Track Experiences Track Icons 1 Day Course, which is run by Manthey Racing. I took this course to familiarize myself with Spa prior to taking the much more intense and advanced two day Master Racecar course that was held on the following two days.

SUMMARY: This course is an excellent ten hour program (running from 8 am to around 6 pm) that provides an introduction to the Porsche brand and to driving a Porsche roadcar on track to participants with no prior track experience. This is not a course that is suited to advanced drivers or those who expect to receive advanced level race driving or advanced track driving instruction. Nor does the course have any one-to-one instruction.

This course provides great value for a relatively low price point of 2,299 Euros. You get track time in three of Porsche's great street legal track cars as well as the electric Turbo S, but it is at a fairly beginner level where you follow the instructor in large groups of about 6 cars where you split the driving with a partner. The instructor will try to teach you the racing line but there is no one-to-one instruction, no recording of or analysis of your driving data and no teaching of any advanced driving techniques such as trail braking or rolling back on throttle past the apex. This is to get you on track and give you a taste of just how great Porsche's street legal track cars really are. And you get a good overview of the Porsche brand and some of its latest technology in the classroom sessions.

THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE TRACK ICONS COURSE

After an initial safety briefing for the entire group (which had to be at least 60-80 participants) about the very basics of driving on track, the course then broke the participants into smaller groups of 9-11 participants (I will call them classes). Each class is led by a single instructor who has prior racing experience (not exactly a surprise given that the course, like all Porsche Track Experience Courses, are run by Manthey Racing.

The classes were rotated through different courses during the day, which was a full day of instruction.

The day's programs for each class consisted of two classroom sessions of about 45 minutes to one hour, a drag racing program using the electric Taycan Turbo S and three track sessions using the GT3RS, GT3, GT4RS and Taycan Turbo S. Next, I will describe each program.

THE FOUR ON TRACK SESSIONS WITH THE GT3RS, GT3, GT4RS AND TAYCAN TURBO S

To me, the best part of the course were the four sessions on the full Spa Francorchamps track (minus the pit straight, which was being used for the drag racing course) - the home of the Belgian Grand Prix and perhaps the most iconic circuit on the planet. This is the track with the famous and infamous, Eau Rouge/Radillion corner complex that has claimed several junior Formula racers' lives in the last 5 years including Anthoine Hubert and is the scene of many large crashes. Spa is a thrilling track with the great elevation change of any track used in Formula 1, is loaded with medium and high speed corners and, at over 7 kilometers, is the longest track on the F1 calendar.

I can assure you, as a driving experience, Spa never disappoints and it lived up to its billing during the Track Icons course.

During our track sessions, our class partnered up and we all got into the same type of car. First the Taycan Turbo S, then the GT4RS, then the GT3RS and finally the GT3. We got into a total of six cars and followed the instructor around the track, who would communicate with us using walkie talkies. After every lap we would drive into the pit lane and the car following the instructor would drop back and be overtaken by the car in back of it so that each car got a chance to be behind the instructor. Also, after a set number of laps, while in the pit lane, the driver and passenger within a car would switch. There were a few participants whose stomachs could not tolerate being passengers who dropped out of this activity along the way.

The pace behind the instructor was moderate but never very fast. This was because the skill level of most students was not great and many had never driven on track before. Eventually, me and my partner I was originally driving with, the two participants with the most prior track experience (he was a graduate of Porsche Track Experiences' Rennsport Academy Racing School and I have been through all the levels of the AMG Driving Academy other than Pro Plus), broke up so we could each ride with the lesser experienced students and help them learn braking points and the proper racing line.

I would say we got about a half hour or so in each of the 4 types of cars. My impression of the cars is as follows:

Taycan Turbo S - super fast in a straight line. Corners flat due to active suspension. Very heavy so it understeers if you corner hard with it. Shockingly well-behaved for a big and heavy large sedan. Did I really enjoy it on track? About as much as I can enjoy any sedan. Too heavy with too much understeer but darn good for a sedan. Sedans are not track cars.

GT4RS - this was the most fun car. This is the raciest street-legal version of the 718 (Cayman). It is also probably the loudest Porsche for occupants because it has the air intake in the cabin and boasts the same flat 6 engine as the GT3 and GT3RS. It has a few less horsepower than either of those but only a few but it is faster in a straight line due to less drag. It does not have as much ultimate grip as a GT3 - let alone a GT3RS which is the downforce king of the street legal car world -- but as a mid-engine car it has better driving dynamics that is more stable and less prone to oversteer than a 911. I have prior seat time in a 718 GT4RS and I adore the car. I loved driving it around Spa.

GT3RS - this is basically a street legal racecar. It is simply unbelievable that this track monster wears a number plate. The car has close to 2,000 pounds of downforce -- more than a McLaren Senna and more than a GT3 Cup Car. It even has DRS so get ready to unleash your inner Charles LeClerc, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso or Lando Norris. You will be going around some of the high speed corners in this beast faster than a Cup Car although a Cup Car, which is at least 400 pounds lighter and wearing slick tires, will still lap a bit faster than a GT3RS.

I cannot even begin to explain how utterly planted this car is in the corners and how hard it stops. It is a remarkable track car and it inspires confidence. To drive it really fast you must drive it much faster than you thought possible or safe because that is when the downforce works the most. I loved it as did every other member of my class. I did not want to get out of it. They almost had to pry the car's titanium shift paddles out of my cold dead hands. LOL.

GT3: After driving the might GT3RS, the GT3 was a total disappointment - a feeling shared by most of my class. The reason is the car's relative LACK of downforce. Simply put, it produces about the same power as the GT3RS but has about 1/3 the downforce. And you tend to forget that after getting out of the GT3RS. As a result most of us felt the rear end wanting to step out in corners because we were taking them close to GT3RS pace, which the GT3 cannot handle.

It reminded me of something incoming F1 driver Ollie Bearman had told me during a breakfast at the Montreal Ritz Carlton earlier this year. He told me that after driving the F1 cars a lot, the F2 car feels different as it has a lot less downforce with a much less planted/looser rear end in the corners. Now I can appreciate what he meant. Basically, track time in the GT3RS ruined the GT3 for me and most of my classmates. I would never buy a GT3 knowing how much more performance there is in a GT3RS. IIt is literally night and day. Like what was described to me as the difference between driving an F2 car after a lot of seat time in an F1 car. A mega downgrade.

THE TAYCAN DRAG RACE

One of the more fun sessions of the day was a drag racing module that each class had on the pit straight using Taycan Turbo S cars. These are close to 1,000 horsepower and, powered by electric motors, have massive instant torque. In this exercise, the participants used launch control (put the car in sport plus, use full brake, the while holding the full brake use full throttle and then when the car indicates that launch control is now enabled, let go of the brake while maintaining full throttle).

As expected, the Taycans' acceleration was blazing fast from a stop given their electric motors. The stopping distance was not as impressive in my opinion due to the great weight of the cars. It was not awful but it is no 911 or 718.

I owned a heavily modified 911 Turbo S that I used to drag race a lot with race gas and Toyo R888 tires so I won just about all my drag races. This was a fun event for me and the class seemed to really enjoy it.

THE CLASSROOM SESSIONS

The course also had two classroom sessions. The first was a lecture on the history of Porsche taught by several Porsche band ambassadors including the legendary former racer and one of the prime movers being the GT3RS, Jorg Bergmeister. This lecture included showing us the legendary 911 RSR - the fast GT3 racing version of the 911 ever built. So expensive to operate that its spec, LMGTE, was phased out of the World Endurance Championship starting last season in favor of the less costly LMGT3 spec, which the 911 GT3 R fills. The price difference is reflected in the rental price. Manthey Racing will rent a qualified participant either of these two monsters for the day or for a shorter test drive. The RSR costs 48,000 Euros a day to rent while the 911 GT3 R costs 24000 Euros a day to rent. Ironically, both are said to be much more stable and easy to drive than the far less expensive 911 GT3 Cup car - with the 911 RSR (which is mid-engined) being the easiest of all to drive and drive fast).

The second classroom session focused on the technology in the fastest version of the Taycan - the Taycan GT. Indeed, Porsche brought the engineer who invented the car's pioneering active suspension to teach the class about it and demonstrate how powerful it is in preventing lift, dive and body roll. It can throw the car around like a car on bags from Pimp My Ride. Very impressive although I am a self-confessed petrolhead and electric cars don't do much for me.

THE BASIC NATURE OF THE TRACK ICONS COURSE AND PORSCHE TRACK EXPERIENCES MORE ADVANCED DRIVING COURSES

If you want to learn how to drive on track, Track Icons is not the course for that. The only purposes of this course as I see it is to familiarize you with the Porsche brand, its latest technology and give you a taste of some of its best street legal track cars on track. But that is it.

But Porsche Track Experiences offers other courses that do teach you advanced techniques of driving on track, beginning with the Precision and Performance courses (totalling 3 days) and then progressing through the Master program (another 2 days).

After the Master Program, Porsche Track Experiences offers more advanced courses such as Master GT3RS (a 2.5 day program focusing on the GTS3RS) or the Master Racecar Program (a 2 day program focused solely on Porsche racecars using the 718 GT4RS Club Sport for first time participants and progressing to the GT3 Cup car for repeat customers - and most of the customers in that course are not first timers). At the top of the learning pyramid is the Rennsport Academy - an invitation-only, super-intensive six day race school held once per year where you learn exclusively in the 992 GT3 Cup car racecar to prepare for racing and where you receive a racing license. This course culminates in a simulated sprint race and endurance race and costs approximately 80,000 Euros.

THE RACING GEAR: Manthey Racing provides participants with helmets for the track portion of the course. That is all the racing gear you need for this event.

THE RISK LEVEL: Driving race cars on track is not without risk. Especially at one of the world's toughest tracks like Spa with its frequent rain, frequent crashes, its notorious and its thrilling Eau Rouge/Radillion corner complex, where several drivers in the junior formula categories have perished in the last 5 years.

But this course is low risk. This is a beginner level course and the instructor, who was amazing, maintained a very reasonable pace, never pushing it and always keeping all six cars in sight - even if that meant slowing down to let stragglers catch up. All six cars were required to drive as a group.

GROUP MEALS AND GIFTING: Porsche supplied really nice hospitality and catering for the event in a dedicated very large tent, supplying a very high-end, breakfast, and lunch where participants of this program as well as instructors, could eat, talk and mingle. At the end of this program, each participant in the course received a brand new black Porsche hat and a model of the first 930 Turbo. A nice touch.

MY RECOMMENDATION: I strongly recommend the Track Icons course to anyone looking to experience Porsche's best street legal track cars on an actual F1 track and who wants to learn about the Porsche brand.

If, however, you are looking for in depth instruction about track driving and racing technique, this is not the Porsche Track Experiences/Manthey Racing course for you. Rather, take the ladder of courses starting with Precision and Performance, extending through Master, Master GT3RS, Master Racecar and culminating in Rennsport Academy.

Or if you just want trackdays after taking Precision and Performance and preferably Master or an equivalent at another school, try the GT Trackday or GT Trackday Racecar programs. There are also some course focused on drifting but that holds little interest to me. They also offer winter courses in Northern Finland that specialize in Ice Driving. Those, I believe, are already sold out for next winter.