Porsche World Roadshow
For the 2019 Porsche World Roadshow, Porsche invited us to the Buddh International Circuit to drive 13 Porsches
Imagine a day when you are on a race track with a range of sports cars, it’s not that hard to imagine when it’s Porsche World Roadshow, an event specially held for Porsche enthusiasts and owners to witness a range of cars from Stuttgart. Now I have to admit that I had a ball of a time, driving 13 cars but then the time with each was quite limited and thus this article will just give you a glimpse of my experience.
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The trainers and the cars flew to India all the way from Germany!
The day started early, we were at the Buddh International Circuit (India’s only F1 track) at 8:30 AM and post-registration (signing forms which make you the owner of the car in case you turn off traction control, you obviously have to purchase the car, there is no free lunch!) and a quick breakfast, the launch of the new 911 was conducted. We were then briefed about the drive, not only were the instructors flown in for this event, even the cars were, a.k.a. 26 of them and they were left-hand drives.
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Our morning was definitely brightened by looking at all the colourful Porsches at BIC
The Cayenne felt as much at home on the track as it did on the off-road course
Before we started, we were briefed about the dos and don’ts. It was followed by a quick guide on how to correctly adjust the seat for the track. The demonstration on the wrong settings was also given with Indian driving style highlighted for excessive honking! We were divided into four batches with my batch heading first for some off-roading.
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We were surprised at how well the Cayenne took the off-road course
With the Porsche Cayenne, we did a few activities on an off-road section which clearly demonstrated that looks can be deceptive. In spite of the sporty design and low profile 21-inch wheels, the Cayenne glided over the worst that the off-road course had to offer. Right from ascents to descent and sideway obstacles, the Cayenne didn’t battle an eyelid, even when a wheel was in the air, it just went ahead smoothly.
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The wheel articulation test proved that the Cayenne’s exceptional off-road capabilities
While it looked like easy work on the outside, on the inside, it was almost autonomous as the electronics would take care of most of the things, all you needed to do was steer, accelerate occasionally and use the brakes even less frequently. The hill hold function ensured no roll back when we left all the pedals and were facing the sky while even on the least grippy part of the course, the wheels simply refused to spin even with hard throttle as the rock mode in the off-road setting of the drive mode ensured a smooth journey.
