So, an interesting day last week and worth the trek. Driving a new Cayenne and 718 Boxster. As others have said, all mobile phone cameras taped up by security on arrival, but oddly, not checked on departure. Various cars to see including something very weird that could have been anything sporty with a bizarre fin running lengthways down the top.
Anyway, the day was very well organised. I met up at Flitwick manor with my guest and there were some sandwiches and drinks. Then we went out on time at 1.15 to be allocated to a car and PEC instructor. I was in the Cayenne first and we drove to Millbrook - about 10 minutes. We then drove round various bits of the site and met up with a Boxster at half time to swap over. Then back to Flitwick manor for tea and cake.
The things we drove round were the alpine route (like an alpine road with hills and quite twisty), the mile straight, the circular banked track and I also had time to go round the city route (very twisty) in the Boxster.
The Cayenne is a very nice car. It is very comfortable and handles well. It did have air suspension and something else to improve the handling. If I wanted a bigger car, this would be a possibility. It has the tiptronic box, apparently because the clutch plates are larger so that increases the maximum towing capacity. It felt a bit underpowered which I think is because it is quite a high revving engine so had to be revved to get the performance. It is slightly slower than my Macan SD (I think) but had to be revved had to get this level of performance. I think the Cayenne S would be better prospect. But a nice car that drove well.
The Boxster was (obviously) a completely different kettle of fish! Much firmer and noisier. When I read about the noise it makes I did wonder what people were on about. Now I know - and I don't think I would really want one. Certainly not as my main car, but maybe for weekend use. It was quite quick and agile and drove well. The bumps in the road were very obvious. Still good though, but probably not quite what I would buy.
The alpine track was good fun to drive round and showed up how well the cars handled. The mile straight highlighted the performance differences - the Boxster was a lot quicker. The Cayenne also tailed off its power curve somewhere around 90-100 - not a problem of course for UK roads. And the banked circle - well I have never driven on anything like this before. 5 lanes, each one out being faster. The fifth lane was only for speeds >100mph. And we were limited to 130 as we weren't wearing crash helmets - like that would make all the difference if it all went wrong! It was quite disconcerting driving round it, close to the barrier at 130. I was told to relax, slow down to 100 and take my hands off the wheel... are you sure? Remarkably the car just followed the circle round. Both cars felt stable at 130 but I felt more comfortable in the Boxster - perhaps because it was the second car I drove and so had done it before (my friend felt the other way round and drove the Boxster firsts).
So a good day. I was impressed with both cars and the test facility. And very well run by Porsche.
