Back to school with Porsche
Motoring enthusiasts often approach car reviews with a pinch of salt. There is the issue of subjectivity. But some serious drivers are known to cast doubt on a writer’s ability to gauge the responsiveness of a 500bhp sports car or determine if it is prone to understeer or not. There are only so many Chris Harrises in the world after all.
The truth is, carmakers rarely give the keys to drivers they can’t trust to operate their cars responsibly. This is especially true for cars with enough power to fly to the moon and the stratospheric price tag to match, which is why Porsche has something called the Media Driving Academy (MDA).
First introduced in 2016, the Porsche MDA is a driver training program tailored to motoring journalists to imbue them with the skills and knowledge that will help them experience a Porsche, or any high-performance car for that matter, in a safer yet more rewarding way. The programme is divided to three levels, namely Individual, Professional and Elite. And yours truly recently made it past level three.
So what does the Elite MDA course consist of?
1. REVISION, REVISION, REVISION
The first lesson is a classroom session where participants are required to recall the techniques and physics they learned from previous courses such as the traction circle, understeer and oversteer, as well as track etiquette.
2. THE WARMUP (LITERALLY)
Among Porsche’s group of experienced driving instructors is a man named Roman Engel, who doesn’t actually teach you how to drive. Instead, he makes you sweat by putting you through a workout routine, making sure you’re in the right physical and mental state to cope with the G forces involved in driving on a track.
3. DON'T KILL THE MOOSE
Interestingly, it is the first driving exercise that subjects the driver to the most G forces, or so Engel claims. Moose tests are pretty straightforward: you speed up in a straight line and perform and abrupt lane change to avoid a virtual obstacle. But things can get lairy when you’re doing it in a 540hp 911 Turbo with its PSM (Porsche Stability Management) switched off. That’s the kind of control expected of Elite-level participants which we didn’t exactly deliver on every run. It’s really not that easy!
4. THROTTLE STEERING
Next up is a better taste of an on-track situation at Turns 5 and 6 of the Sepang International Circuit. This is a fast-flowing section where getting your lines and apexes correct is crucial for a good lap time. And integral in getting it right is knowing how to modulate the throttle to tighten and widen the turning radius as needed, without breaking traction. We did this in the recently-launched third-generation Cayenne, which was surprisingly up to the task despite its tall centre of gravity.
5. TRAIL BRAKING
The most technical exercise of all takes place in one of Sepang’s trickiest corners. Turn 14 is one of the tightest sections of the track entered at high speed, making the entrance technique and racing line feel unnatural to most amateurs. Trail braking – modulated braking while steering – is the key to a smooth entry and swift exit but mastering the right brake pressure at the right time will take more than a 30-minute training session. Sure, you can just dial it down and make the turn without a hitch. But since this is MDA at its highest level, the professional instructors won’t be happy if you’re taking it too lightly.
6. DRIVE LIKE A PRO
All of the lessons are put to the test in a lengthy guided driving session around the full length of the track, making use of the full range of cars on hand at the MDA. Remember how you’d race with your own ‘ghost’ on the Playstation to improve your laptime? It’s like that, with the ghost being a race-certified driver in the lead car and you trailing in either a 718 Cayman GTS, Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, 911 GT3… the list is endless! It may not sound like much, but it’s amazing how much faster you can go confidently when you’re shadowing a seasoned professional on the track. We certainly felt like more accomplished drivers ourselves many laps later.
The Porsche Media Driving Academy, then, isn’t merely a PR exercise with car sales in mind. We benefited greatly from it, as did many journalists who flew in from all over Southeast Asia to drive on our national circuit. Local distributor Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) sometimes conducts similar programmes for its customers as well, so do keep your eyes peeled if you own a Porsche.
In the meantime, who’s up for a race?
