Porsche Track Experience - Leeds, Alabama

M R.

The school of cool. This is by far the most exhilarating driving experience I’ve had. The cars, faculty, and instructors are top notch. A+ best of the best. Each instructor is like a personal coach giving you 1-1 attention and personalized coaching to your driving abilities. Cass, Michael, John, John, Doug, Doug, Andre, Chris, Rich are all A+ just to name a few. If you’re looking for somewhere to hone and improve your driving skills or race craft look no further. I took the precision, masters, and masters RS courses and was blown away.

Matt J.

Awesome experience at the track. Did the intro class that included 4 different sessions on the big track and several other learning exercises in a car. Drove 911 GTS’s, 911 turbos and a 918. Lots of fun! Highly recommend.

Nathaniel R.

This review is probably going to stick out as its not a 5 star like every other review here. I don't genuinely think that this is a 5 star program. Its an average driving program situated on a an absolutely fantastic track and location which does a lot of the heavy lifting. Will you have fun? Most likely. Will you learn something? Probably.

To give some background. Me and my dad previously attended the rival program to this about 3 years ago. The BMW one day m school in Spartanburg. That class absolutely blew us away with how much drive time, fun, and education we were getting. I tend to think that program set the bar way too high for our expectations going into this 2 day experience at Porsche. Our initial impressions were extremely high when we showed up on our first day. The track looked amazing, big, clean, and fast. But after that point. The disappointments just kept stacking up.

Firstly. they paired our 'newbie' 2 day class right alongside to the advanced 2 day class? So, every classroom session was shared between both classes. Meaning the teachings were all over the place. The instructors would say the cooler activities that the advanced class would be partaking in and then the amateur class would have to go do something much less interesting (for obvious reasons).

Secondly, DRIVE TIME. The way this program is laid out. You spend a LOT of time outside of cars. They do a great job (especially on this near 100 degree day) at keeping you semi-cold under a tent near where your class is doing an exercise. But, there is a clear lack of quantity of cars to use. The time it took getting everyone in and out of a car is something we were really disappointed by. You have to watch everyone else's run and then you get your turn. This was extremely inefficient and is not something that BMW does for their programs. So over half of each day was spent sitting in a plastic chair under our tents in 100 degree weather while other people completed their runs.

Thirdly. Where is the fun here? Part of the fun of these programs, while keeping it as safe as possible and learning as much as you can, is getting a little loose with it? I was very excited to try to slide around the Carrera GTS's on the skid pad (safely) as was advertised in the program description. Yet, the instructor for the skid pad was such a drill sergeant that we ended up having to spend over an hour between both days solely driving around in circles maintaining as much grip as possible.. on the SKID pad? Where is any fun in that? We already did the understeer and oversteer exercises to feel out the car. We felt it. Now let us actually have an ounce of fun? This was one of the biggest disappointments of the whole course. We felt like if we tried to have a little bit of fun we would get called out for it in this instance. The complete opposite of BMWs program. Again, we are all for safety and doing it within means, but this restrictions were so tight. And I personally did not enjoy the instructor for that section whatsoever.

Fourth. The 'real' track time was awesome. We had problems in our group where there were members that were simply too slow for the rest of the group. And Porsche, for this program, does the great thing of re assigning groups on the second day and letting you reach your limits (depending solely on instructor, more on that later) on the track. I ended up having an absolute blast by the end of day 2 with my instructor doing a few hot lap lead / follows. But that was unfortunately downplayed overall by the fact that the previous day. We spent almost all of our track time forced to ride behind an instructor who could not have been driving more lazily. There were zero communications about line and technique through the radio and he was slowing the whole group to a crawl. Your on track experience is entirely determined by how experienced your instructor was. And we only really enjoyed 1 on track instructor out of our 3.

This is absolutely a program you can have a great time with, but taper your expectations accordingly.

Sam C.

This is such an amazing experience! So great in fact that I am heading back for their level 2 masters course end of this month. I completed the beginner 2 day course earlier this year.

The cars, track, museum, associated hotel, food, and coordination of everything is top notch and seamless.

The instructors are all top notch and have backgrounds that are pretty impressive - e.g. pretty rare air to have raced against the likes of Michael Schumacher and Aryton Senna. Everyone is really personable and help to keep your nerves down while also pushing you to improve your skills - e.g. after missing one apex repeatedly I was informed jokingly through the radio - "I'm going to wring your neck if you miss that cone again, Sam!", :).

The cars are obviously all nice specs - GTS and Turbo S - and I really enjoyed getting to drive the different models - Carrera, Cayman, Turbo, Taycan, and Boxster (latter for autocross). The timed team autocross is a great way to develop comradery with your fellow participants and who doesn't love a little competition. I actually wish there was a bit more of this to gauge how you are doing. I also wish we had a bit more even track time with each model - as the majority is spent with the Carrera GTS on track and Boxster GTS for autocross. I have a 987.1 Cayman S and I definitely wanted more time with the Cayman GTS 4.0 and the AWD Turbo S as well. Other small areas for improvement I think would be better audio in the cars as I sometimes had trouble following recommendations with all the engine noise and speakers they use (audio in the helmets would be nice) and you do get recorded video and data on many of your track laps, but only in the Carrera GTS and Turbo S - none for the Cayman, Taycan, or the Boxster on autocross.

I can't wait for round 2 and hoping a Scopolamine patch helps with some of the motion sickness I experienced. I typically am not susceptible to this, but did find myself getting nauseous the first day. The elevation changes, twists and turns, and G forces are no joke. They do have Meclizine available though (in addition to Advil, etc) and this was definitely a life saver.

In summary, I definitely recommend the Porsche Track Experience!

Mike M.

The program, facility and cars are excellent! We drove 911 Carrera's, Turbo's and 718's. The museum was awesome too. But most important was the level of enthusiasm and expertise of the instructors. Great program! Highly recommend!

Curtis T.

I attended the Porsche Track Experience #PTXBHAM in mid-July 2022. The instructors are absolutely amazing. Everything from the accomodations, catered meals, classroom instructions, cone drills (slalom, trailbraking, autocross, and skidpad), and individual coaching on the track is absolutely top notch. You will be in these amazing vehicles within an hour of showing up on your first day. By the end of the class you will be extremely comfortable with the basics of how to push these cars to 80%+ of their limit. After the first track session they slotted me in a group that better matched my ability and this really helped me gain confidence, especially after I participated in a ride along with Teresa (Theresa). I honestly didn't know that these street legal tires could hold up to that amount of speed in the corners until after said ride along. The Pirelli P Zero tires gave me extreme confidence while aggressively cornering. To sum things up, if you are looking for a driving school that truly let's you spend most of your time behind the wheel, this is it. On a side note, this track at Barber Motor Sports Park is amazing and the grounds surrounding the entire park looks like a top-tier golf course.

Chadd G.

Wold class instruction at a world class facility. Cass Whitehead and the other instructors really want you to have fun but push you to improve from whatever starting point you bring to the class. To be able to drive Porsche's latest cars at a place like Barber Motorsports Park is something you must do if you love high performance cars.

My driving skills improved significantly during the Performance 2 - Day Course. There is a great mix of track laps and skills development on the skid-pad and autocross course. I enjoyed it so much I went back a year later for the Masters 2 - Day Course. Everything from the first course came back to me quickly and after the open lapping sessions on day one I was feeling confident but had a lot of places to improve. Open lapping on Day 2 things really started to come together. I enjoy watching the HD Video of my laps from each session and comparing them to see how much faster and smoother I became throughout the course. The open lapping sessions during the Masters Class are really something special. Driving highly spec'd Porsche's with feedback on every lap you drive really is a great recipe for quick driver development. And it is a ton of fun!

I would highly recommend this school for any level of driver. They have something for everyone and their instructors can make anyone a better driver. I also really enjoyed the accommodations at the Grand Bohemian Hotel. Very nice atmosphere and they really take care of the Porsche Sport Driving School attendees.

J H.

Had a great time learning how to drive some amazing cars. Great staff, highly recommend the 1 and 2 day classes.