27th December 2022, 15:34
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| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangalore
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| Pics & Review : Porsche Experience at the BIC! This thread is my experience at the Buddh International Circuit with Porsche India.  The Porsche Experience has come to India for the first time. This is actually a mega event which will spend a couple of weeks in Delhi and the move to Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway. The experience is not just a few Porsche cars who have rented the track for a few days. It’s an entire experience with fantastic branding, food and the overall luxury experience, of course, centered around the Porsche brand and their cars. I first found out about this from another TBHPian Zebo. He told me that there is such an experience and I contacted Mr Nijish who is the head of Marketing for Porsche Bangalore. He offered me a slot at Kri Motor Speedway in October. I immediately confirmed my attendance but then just checked if there was a slot open at the BIC. To my good luck, he said that a slot had just opened up for September 11th. I thought a bit, planned my work and then the next day confirmed my attendance at this September 11th track experience. This is a paid event and I had to pay an amount of Rs 85,000+ tax. Read on to know what all we got for this (in hindsight) petty amount The communication till I reached Delhi was a bit slow. I had to book my own ticket and I did so happily. As I exited the Delhi airport, there was one guy holding a Porsche signboard. I went up to him, he checked my name against a list he had and then asked one of the cab drivers around him to accompany me. We got into an Innova Crysta and drove the Crowne Plaza hotel in Greater Noida. The drive was comfortable enough and luckily we didn’t get stuck in any major traffic jams and reached the hotel around 2:45.   It turns out I was the first to arrive for this batch and when I went there, the small check in counter dedicated ot the Porsche Experience was empty and then someone had to be called and then he was struggling to find my room and issue a keycard. So I went downstairs to the restaurant where the buffet lunch was ready and ate nicely and by the time I was done, my room was ready. The room was nice, it was a Crowne Plaza afterall, but the cool thing was the Porsche branded chocolates kept on the table. Along with that was a sheet with the agenda for the weekend and a badge for my suitcase.    The next morning, I was up bright and early and super excited! Went downstairs and met the other members of the team. There was a fairly big group from Bangalore including the owner of the Porsche Centre Bangalore, Arun Surendra. We were all just catching up and then we boarded our Innovas to head to the track. Once we reached the track, the excitement was really starting to ramp up. Just seeing the pheonomenal international standard race track was enough for my pulse rate to start rising.  I’ve been to BIC quite a few times (most memorable one here – My experience, behind the scenes at the 2013 Indian F1 Grand Prix - Team-BHP ) but every time I come here, I feel excited and nowadays, a tinge of sadness that such excellent infrastructure is just rotting away with no justice being done to the financial investment done here. Anyway, we entered the track and were taken to the paddock area and led upstairs to the hospitality lounges. A couple of them were take nover by Porsche’s marketing team and they had made them in a beautiful manner. All the old posters of the previous generation 911s, the 911 branding, the large Porsche display was fantastic and definitely gave out a very classy and premium feel.         They even had a small store where anyone could purchase Porsche official merchandise. We were told that this merchandise is different from the ones sold normally and these are original from Germany.   |
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27th December 2022, 15:46
| #2 |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangalore
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| re: Pics & Review : Porsche Experience at the BIC! The registration process was straightforward and simple – basically if anything happened to you, no one else is responsible for you! We were given a purple arm band which is a BIC armband and another Porsche arm band. They had a nice breakfast laid out with all the usual stuff. I was too excited to eat and I also get car sick easily, so I didn’t want to be uncomfortable while driving.  There were 4 instructors from the UK who were going to guide us around the track and the various courses. The briefing was a good overview and they made us understand the importance of safety and made sure we all stayed within our limits. They made it clear that this was not a race and no one was competing with anyone else.  The day was supposed to be divided into two main halves. The first half was on 3 different courses – Braking, Slalom and Cornering. The second half of the day was dedicated to lapping the circuit in the different cars. The cars we would be driving today – Porsche Panamera Turbo Cayenne Turbo Macan GTS 992 911 Convertible 991.2 911 GT3 RS 718 Spyder Manual Transmission Taycan     We were divided into three groups based on the colour of the armband we were given during registration. We were supposed to be 18 of us, but in our group there was one drop out, so we were 17 and we were divided into groups of 6, 6 and 5. Before we got into the car, one of the instructors got into the 911 and showed us how to adjust our seating position perfectly before starting any activity. He made it clear that the seating position was very important and we had to pay attention to it before starting. My group was taken to the braking course first. The Panamera Turbo was the car we were going to be using. The instructor showed us a couple of times and told us that we would have to accelerate as hard as possible and then slam on the brakes and swerve. He said this would be good practice for when w were going to be on track. I went second and I was struggling to brake as hard as possible. I thought I was braking hard, but clearly, for these amazing Porsche Carbon Ceramic brakes, it was not hard enough and I had to really stand on the brakes. It was only on my third and final run that I braked hard enough. However, I was focused on braking so much, I forgot to turn the steering wheel and went into the cones! I was also focusing on the cones rather than the small swerve I was supposed to do. The instructor had warned us all about this. He told us not to look at the cones we were not supposed to hit but to look at the empty space where we were supposed to go.  I made this error and a few poor cones bore the brunt of my mistake. After this, we walked back to the main track where we got into the SUVs. The new instructor was going to teach us how to corner, how to plan a corner, how to hit the apex, the braking point and the turning point. During the entire day, it was only us participants in our cars. No instructor sitting next to us baby sitting us. However, we were warned that if our behaviour or driving skill was not good, we would be pulled out of the driving experience and made to sit on the sidelines for the rest of the day. This was motivation enough for most of the people to behave properly and rive carefully. Back at the pitlane, I luckily ended up driving and it was a convoy of 3 SUVs. The Cayenne Turbo(which I was driving), the Macan GTS and another Macan. The instructor was driving a Cayenne Hybrid and he led us around the track at a slow speed showing us the various apexes, the braking points and the turning points. The way they had laid it out was very easy for anyone to understand. I’ve driven just once around the BIC and that was in my Civic about 8 years back and at that time I was just driving crazily with no clue about the apexes, nbraking points and stuff. So, I was keen to learn the proper way to drive around this track.  The instructors had placed big cones at the braking points. So, when we came to the first big cone, we were supposed to brake in a straight line. We then came to the second big cone which was the turn in point. At this point, we were supposed to turn the steering wheel and look at the small cone which marked the apex of the corner.   The instructor took us around the entire lap and then at the last corner he stopped and showed us how to take the last corner. He said that it was a tricky corner as the radius of the curve reduces. He then told me to drive and then use the tarmac run off to take a U turn, change drivers and then go back to the start point. MY co-driver then did the same, we swapped positions and then kept repeating this exercise. I was really appreciative of the good instructions and feedback given by the instructor. He was standing on the opposite side of the apex and watching us and telling us if we were too fast or too slow. At one point, he told me that this was the fastest this 2.5 ton car could go around this corner. He also made funny comments when someone missed the apex by saying “Oh, looks like you’re heading back to the city”. This was a good experience and this was the first time someone had properly trained me in track driving. We did this many times and the instructor told us that if we were quick with our driver changes, we could do more runs. We did I think 5-6 runs and then it was time to head back into the pits and head to the slalom course. The slalom course was the one I was looking forward to since the morning because I had seen the 911 GT3 RS being driven and the loud sound was always attracting my attention when I was on the braking course.     Even for the slalom course, we were more or less left to ourselves. The instructor went first with one participant in the red 911 convertible and showed her how to drive through the course. Then he got out of the car and told her to drive and show it to me(the second participant). She did three runs and then she got out of the car and it was my turn to drive and show the course to the next participant. While I was driving the 911 convertible, the first participant went to the GT3 RS and had 2 runs on the same course a few seconds behind me. This was a lot of fun. The slalom course was not an even course with equal gaps between the turns. It was on the second part of the course that we could accelerate a bit hard and do a fast turn and accelerate once more before braking hard. The instructors were keeping in touch with us all the time with walkie talkies in the car. We were not allowed to use them as such but we could hear the instructions from the instructor. Each group obviously had a different frequency so we were not picking up instructions from someone else in another group. The instructor was actually pushing us to go faster. Many times he was telling people that they were actually going too slow and could go faster. The slalom was by far my favourite part of the morning session. Pushing the car hard through the slalom course was fun. However, it was too short for me to really feel the car. The 911 sure felt fast but the course was so tight, I didnt even notice how fast I was going. Suffice to sya that if you are having so much fun that you don’t have time to see the speedo, you’re really enjoying the drive. After three runs in the 911, I was given a chance in the 911 GT3 RS. This model was specced by someone without an air conditioner! So, in ths hot weather of Delhi, I had to drive it without an AC! Even on a course as slow and short as this one, the GT3RS instantly felt much sharper and faster. The throttle was extra sensitive. Barely a gentle push on the throttle and the car was leaping ahead. The steering of the 911 was of course excellent but I didn’t pay much attention to it. However, in the GT3 RS, the steering was just so precise. I’ve read about precise steerings and how “you can feel what the front tyres are doing”, “the steering is communicative”, “The front tyres talk to you” and so on in various automobile reviews. I finally know what that feels like. I didn’t hear the tyres talking to me though, probably because the engine was screaming it’s head off! After this major adrenaline rush, it was time to take a chill pill. We went to the lounge and enjoyed an excellent lunch. The entire catering was done by Crowne Plaza and the fish especially was excellent during lunch. The desserts were also awesome and I had to control myself from eating more. The real driving was yet to come. Post lunch, we were again taken downstairs and we retained our groups. I got to drive the Panamera Turbo first. I was the last car in my group. Our instructor was in the lead Cayenne and following him was the Cayenne Turbo, followed by the Macan GTS and then finally my Panamera. The Panamera turbo is an insanely fast car. Since this was the first lap of anyone around the full track, everyone was driving quite conservatively. I managed to hit about 160 kmph on the back straight before I had to brake as the car ahead of me braked. We had been warned to maintain adequate distance from each other and not tailgate. We were also warned that if one car dropped too far behind with the aim of having more space to accelerate, the group leader would slow down even more to close the gap. It all sounded very anti climatic but there was not much we could do about it. The Panamera felt really really quick as it should with 680 bhp! It also didn’t feel like a large sedan. IT felt vastly different to the Cayenne Turbo that I drove earlier. The body roll on the Panamera was non existent but the violence of the acceleration is what stayed with me. Absolutely phenomenal. After this, we stopped on the start finish straight and swapped drivers and went for another lap. Once we came back, we swapped cars and this time I was in the Cayenne Turbo. It felt a bit slow compared to the Panamera turbo but it was still fast enough to have a blast. This time, the instructor was also driving fastter than he had the previous time. So, I managed to accelerate from a slower speed and hit about 170 kmph on the back straight. The Cayenne felt so planted and stable at these speeds. Even during the corners, it was just mind blowing. It was amazing to see the handling characteristics of this big 2.5 ton vehicle. After the Cayenne Turbo, I drove the Macan GTS.   This turned out to be the surprise package and everyone unanimously loved this car and for many people who had come there with the intent of buying a Porsche sportscar, they were now convinced on the Macan GTS. It was fast and the handling was just in a league of it’s own. IT felt absolutey car like and didn’t feel like an SUV at all. Personally, I don’t know why but I was underwhelmed by the Macan GTS. Sure, it was fast but I had just driven the Cayenne Turbo which was way faster in a straight line. And during this experience, I was not really pushing the SUV in the corners to truly appreciate the nimbleness and cornering ability of the Macan GTS. So, somehow I just felt it was a bit slow in a straight line. After this, we went to the pitlane and our group now had to experience the Taycan. Sitting in the Taycan was a weird experience. It is like starting an electric appliance. You don’t know if the thing is on or not. There is a display that is on as long as the key is inserted and the door is open so I thought the car was switched on. I put it into D mode but nothing happened. Then I realized it was off. Turned it on, put it into D mode and started following the instructor through the pitlane. Driving this is a very spooky experience. I have not driven any EV Cars till now. So, I can happily say that the first EV I drove was a Porsche Taycan!     Anyway, no sound, no noise, no vibration, nothing and we followed the instructor out onto the main track. He then floored it on the back straight and so did I. IT does pick up speed very well. There is a whine which you can hear and a lot of wind and tyre noise, especially on the race track when you are doing 15-170kmph. I hit a max speed of 170 on this car. I am not exactly sure as I was a bit petrified by the end of the main straight. That was because I lifted off from the throttle and naturally expected a bit of slowing down from the car. However, being electric, there is no engine braking and for a second I panicked and then I remembered and had to step on the brakes. The brakes are fine and do their job in slowing down this massive car. The instructor for this round was quite aggressive and he was pushing his Macan around the track and I was trying to keep up with him and was really pushing the Taycan. I felt it understeering in most of the corners. At one corner on the second lap, I was pushing really hard and ended up whacking a few cones kept on the side. When I came back in, the instructor who had been observing me in his rear view mirror admonished me for that. He told me that the mistake I had made was that I kept my foot planted on the throttle even when I was understeering. There was more weight on the back tyres and less on the front tyres, so the front tyres had no grip to turn in. He told me I should have lifted off which would have allowed the weight transfer to come forward and increased the grip on the front tyres. I remembered this lesson and am happy to say that I applied this principle later on when I was driving the 718 Spyder when I faced a similar situation but I just lifted off slightly and regained grip at the front end. The Taycan was something everyone was keen to drive but overall, it was very boring for me. I am old school. I like a big engine, a lot of noise and driving has to be an experience. If we have to just get from one place to another, there are many better ways of doing it. The Taycan is surely a great car and is revolutionary. There was one guy in our group who actually owns a Taycan in BLR and loves it. He says that he finds it very comfortable and easy to drive in BLR. Says the ground clearance is also satisfactory. After the Taycan experience, it was time for the sportscars. The 911 Convertible was the first one I drove. It’s a fantastic car. We drove with the roof up thanks to the heat and the fact that the AC works very well! The 911 felt so planted and sharp after all the bulky heavy cars I had drive till now. Every corner, the apex was so easy to hit! I just had to think about it and I could hit it. On the back straight the flat 6 turbo charged engine got me to 200 kmph before I had to slow down for the car in front of me. Just sitting in a 911 is a special feeling. We have all grown up dreaming of driving Porsches. I had to pinch myself that I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a Porsche 911 on a Formula 1 race track. IT was quite a surreal experience and the car sounds great as well for a turbocharged car. The lap was a lot of fun as I was trying to really nail my braking points and the apexes. Obviously I was no Sebastian Vettel but it was a lot of fun and the car really felt like it would take care of me if I made a mistake. We were not allowed to switch off any of the safety systems and frankly given the skill level and inexperience we all had, it was a wise instruction from the Porsche team. After the 911, it was my turn to drive the 911 GT3 RS. I had been looking forward to this all day and now it was finally my turn.     Seeing 9000 RPM on the tacho got my heart rate climbing!   As soon as we took off from the start line, the car felt eager to get going. Like a big tiger just waiting to be let off the leash. There is very little for me to say with regard to this car. At the end of the back straight when the engine was howling away at 9000 rpm, I felt like I was in a different dimension. It was almost a spiritual experience. I actually got goose bumps thanks to the vibrations, the noise, the speed, everything just synchronized so well that it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’ve been lucky enough to drive a few supercars in my life and this 911 GT3 RS experience is easily in my top 3 along with the 458 Italia at Monza. I was seriously at a loss for words when I had finished my lap in the GT3 RS. It was something that I had been anticipating for a long time and it was better than I could have ever imagined it to be. I got out of the car with the feeling that my day was complete and nothing I do from now on would ever compete with that feeling. I WAS WRONG The next car and the last one for the day was the 718 Spyder. In Manual transmission. Mentally I had dismissed this car as a slow 4 cylinder something or the other. However, when I sat in it, slotted it into gear and took off without stalling, I started realizing that this was going to be fun. I realized that this was not some poky 718 with a silly 4 cylinder engine. It was the full fat 4.0 litre Naturally Aspirated engine putting out upwards of 400 bhp! As I got into the flow of things, I really started enjoying this. It had been years since I drove a manual and even longer since I had drive a manual aggressively. I think the last time was in November 2016 when I had taken my Civic to the MMST track in Chennai. After I finished my first lap, my fellow participant told me that she didn’t want to drive as she was not confident of driving the manual transmission car properly. So, I was happy that I got a second lap in this cracker of a car! The video of the second lap is below. The instant throttle response and the light chassis, mid engine balance, everything combined to make this car absolutely amazing. I didn’t expect to like the car so much(because of my ignorance of the specs) and when I drove it, I was absolutely blown away. The overall experience at BIC was spectacular. The 1 lakh rupees I paid was peanuts considering the value I got from the entire event. I think they charged this nominal amount just to ensure that people have a sense of responsibility and feel like they have paid for it and they take it more seriously.  In reality, if Porsche had to break even with the airport transfers, the hotel accommodation, food and drinks, running the cars for the whole day, hospitality at the race track, everything else, they should have charged 4-5 lakhs per person. But they are doing it to showcase pretty much their entire range to their prospective customers and other car enthusiasts. This was truly an experience to remember. Porsche nailed the experience. It was not just about the drive in the cars. It was the entire experience, the hospitality, the branding in the lounge, everything. People like me have always had a fondness for the Porsche brand but being a part of such an experience just cements it.  |
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28th December 2022, 10:48
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28th December 2022, 11:06
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28th December 2022, 21:31
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28th December 2022, 23:58
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29th December 2022, 02:00
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29th December 2022, 07:41
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29th December 2022, 09:44
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| Distinguished - BHPian  | Re: Pics & Review : Porsche Experience at the BIC! Fantastic write up Nikhil and I am sure this is a experience you will cherish for life. On the amount you paid is actually pocket change for the experience and variety of cars you drove and plus the hotel accommodation. In comparison I paid close to 1.2 lacs a decade back (2012) for the Audi Sports-car Experience (ASE) without hotel accommodation or transport from the airport and got to drive only the Audi R8 V10 version at BIC. Also, I see the trainers had more engagement and time spent with you guys compared to what I received. Porsche as a brand focuses more on increasing the mechanical grip then the engine output year on year on their NA engine cars and that is what I really appreciate about the brand. Eagerly waiting for the day when I can experience/own a 911 GT3 with a manual transmission  |
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29th December 2022, 12:26
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29th December 2022, 13:17
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31st December 2022, 19:26
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1st January 2023, 14:17
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