It’s not often that any auto enthusiast gets lucky enough to drive the full range of Porsche sports cars, and that too at an exotic location like Amby Valley. Audi, BMW and Mercedes also have some seriously fast sports cars, but they continue to radiate their overall brand image of superlative wealth, comfort and power. The image of Porsche, however, radiates an undiluted persona of sportiness. Heads turn, the eyes of pretty girls widen, and their men-friends turn a faint shade of green from envy whenever a Porsche roars into sight.
We arrived to see over a dozen Porsches waiting for us to burn their rubber. The long tarred strip of the yet to be commissioned airstrip is surrounded by thickly forested volcanic hills of the Deccan Plateau. The 7-day Porsche world roadshow was a rather expensive sales promotion exercise to give their customers and potential customers a motoring experience that they would always boast about. Our group of automotive journalists were their guests on the last day.
Although most of us were experienced drivers, we were all first re-taught some of the basics because it’s well known that the most dangerous part of any car is the nut behind the wheel. So we were reminded of how to sit in a car with the arms slightly bent, and holding the wheel at 9-O’clock and 3-O’Clock positions to provide maximum steering control. The legs slightly bent to provide good down force on the brakes and accelerator, as well as to prevent splintering of the bones in the event of an accident. And there was no clutch – they were all automatics with manual steptronic transmissions.
We first got into a convoy of six Cayenne SUV’s that we drove down the steep khud over rocks, soft mud, and pools of water before turning around for the steep climb back. There was no need to constantly move the right foot from the brake to accelerator and back because of a ‘creeping’ device allowed the vehicle to keep moving forward slowly, so that only the brakes needed to be pressed to control the forward movement. On the uphill sections, this device prevented the vehicle from rolling backwards, so that only the accelerator needed to be jabbed. It felt a bit uncanny on the faster twisty stretches because the electronic sensors on the Cayenne’s wheels kept the vehicles absolutely flat to reduce rolling on turns or diving while braking. The 4,800cc V8 Cayenne Turbo quietly delivered a huge 500bhp, while the 380bhp Cayenne S was no slouch either. Though we enjoyed its great performance, we also admired the beautiful interiors with a sunroof and every luxury imaginable.
Our next challenge was the slalom, where we drove Porsche’s famous little 2-door Boxster with its revolutionary flat (‘horizontally opposed’) engine to lower the centre of gravity for an amazing ability to handle the tightest of corners. Their 245 to 295bhp engines were also ‘mid-mounted’ between the front and rear axles for perfect weight distribution – keeping the open topped car glued to the road. We had to drive as fast as we dared through sets of plastic cones in a twisty circle and halt precisely. It was enough to convince the greatest cynic that the handling of a Porsche is beyond belief.
Our third round was to take the slightly bigger Cayman coupe along with a Cayenne SUV to understand the meaning of handling and the best way of getting traction out of all four wheels with and without the Automatic Stability Control. We were then taught to brake with full downward force on the disc brakes with the anti-locking ABS systems that came on and off at high speed to keep the wheels rolling a little so that fresh rubber was always in contact with the road — in order to keep the vehicle in line even under extreme braking.
There are few things like the thrill of speed to get the adrenalin flowing, but it has to be said that, though the marvels of electronics make fast driving surer and safer, one cannot also forget the thrill of mastering the old mechanical monsters with their wobbly wheels, twitchy steering and balky brakes.
Actually sports cars are wildly impractical with very little ground clearance, too little inner space for the family, minimal baggage room, heavy fuel consumption from their big engines, and the high cost of buying or even repairing the smallest scratch. But those who want to project the image of living in the fast lane don’t care. Their Porsche is purely for fun, and is their uncompromised personal lifestyle statement.
This article was originally published in the October issue of autoXchange (www.autox.in), and the original version can be found at http://www.autox.in/feature-dec08.html
