Happenings

Porsche World Roadshow (PWRS)

BY Joel Tam

There is no better way to experience the excitement of a Porsche than to drive one. For the Porsche World Roadshow, one gets the chance to drive, not one, but a wide range of Porsches for a day.

Photos: Joel Tam & Keegan Gan

Last held at the Changi Exhibition Centre in February 2009, the PWRS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Porsche and motoring enthusiasts to experience the famed driving performance of the Porsche range of cars in a safe and controlled environment.

The participants in this year’s PWRS were among the first in Asia to drive the all-new Cayenne and Panamera which joins the PWRS fleet for the first time in the tour’s history. A selection of 911s, Caymans and Boxsters were among the usual suspects specially flown in from Germany by Porsche Centre Singapore in the line-up of Porsche vehicles at our disposal. A team of Porsche factory instructors from Germany were also flown in to coach us participants in the finer points of car handling through four group exercises.

Hosted in over 25 countries worldwide with more than 12,000 enthusiasts having experienced the prowess of Porsche cars for themselves, this event was truly an enriching one as we experienced the thrills of car handling in these amazing German machines.

After breakfast and the introduction, we head outside in the unforgiving sun for a driver briefing on driving position dos and don'ts.

Our group started with the roadtour which took our convoy brand new Cayennes out to public roads. Being left-hand-drive cars with German registration plates, we attracted more attention than we hoped for when we were pulled over by the authorities along the TPE.

Next was the slalom course in the mid-engined Boxster S. Each driver was timed and the winner walked away with a prize at the end of the day.

The handling circuit gave drivers an opportunity to floor a Cayman S (my personal favourite), a 911 Targa and a Panamera S - whose 400bhp V8 sounded absolutely orgasmic.

Our last stop was the moose test, where we were taught to execute evasive manoeuvres in a Panamera Turbo, with and without PSM (Porsche Stability Management, aka Please Save Me).

We closed the day as passengers, taxi-riding in either a 911 GT3, a Carrera C2 or a Cayenne Turbo. The open 'track' really allowed the instructors to drift the car from corner to corner. Very good fun.