PORSCHE ICE EXPERIENCE

Porscher Editor, Steve Fairbrother

Now is the time to book for Porsche Canada’ s Ice Experience courses that run in early 2022. Below is a previous article from 2016, when it was called Camp4. Link is at end of article.

Porsche Camp4 is a multi-day event run by Porsche Canada, where you experience (maybe for the first time) driving on snow and ice and learn how to control a Porsche provided car, instructed by professional drivers on a closed track solely used by Porsche for the duration of the Camp4 events. Once you have been on a course, there are subsequent courses to go on if you wish to obtain further skills.

Location Estèrel is about an hour’s highway drive north from Montreal. Transportation to and from the event is at your expense, so you can spend a day before or after enjoying the sights and sounds of Montreal. The highway drive north was not that interesting and because of the snow/slush on the road, you had to wash the windscreen about every 10 seconds, it was not enough to leave it to an intermittent wipe as that left a dangerous, impenetrable haze. I was

Left—Nokian studded tires used in snow

Above—Part of the Circuit Mecagliisse

Below– All food and wine is included

hoping that I had enough wash liquid in the tank to reach the hotel! When I finally turned off the highway, the roads were covered in packed snow and ice and I was glad of the mandatory winter tires fitted on the rental car by the time I reached my destination.

Hotel Arriving at Estérel Resort, a 4-star hotel, take advantage of the parking valet as the car would sit in the open air car park for 3 days and nights when it’s time to leave and the valets are skillful in removing snow quickly! The hotel is located at the edge of the frozen Lake Dupuis and there were great views of it from the restaurant, bar and bedrooms which were double the size of typical hotel rooms. For partners, not on the course, there were activities to choose such as snow-shoeing, snowmobiling, hiking and of course, the spa!

Weather According to the hotel and event staff, it was unusually not cold for the location, but this time last year, temperatures were about -30c! However, this year, it was sunny and 5c for the first day driving, the remainder was snowy and colder, maybe -5c but certainly not uncomfortable.

Clothing For most of the course, we were in cars, a coach, the hotel or the track restaurant, so apart from transferring between those, we did not need to wear really warm clothing. Most people wore jeans, a warm jacket and sometimes a hat. Good shoes were obviously required to walk and drive safely.

Event Registration started from 4pm on the day of arrival. We signed a waiver ($5,000 per incident), but as far as I know no one incurred that penalty! We received further information and a nice Porsche Driving Experience bag complete with Mobil1 stainless steel flask. If you felt the need to splurge during the course there was a Porsche Selection area complete with a variety of goodies such as hats, jackets, tees, model cars etc. Some attendees were Porsche owners, some were not and some were corporate attendees (from Porsche or other companies). According to the event organizer Jennifer Cooper, the drivers

came from UK, Argentina, US, Mexico, New Zealand and of course Canada.

Our first meal as a group was at 7pm in the hotel restaurant and participants chatted to each other during the multiple course dinner. It was good to talk to fellow enthusiasts about their cars, experiences and stories while enjoying very good food and wine (all included). After the meal, some went off to the bar, others retired to their rooms because of an early start the next morning with a 7am breakfast.

TIP if you and your co-driver are different heights – use the Comfort Seat settings to store the positions. So when you change over, you can just hold the button on the door to get your seat just right. As there are many change overs, you'll appreciate how much easier that is!

Thanks to a good buffet breakfast, everyone was ready to get on with the day, after a driver briefing by the Porsche lead instructor Jonathan Urlin. Here the theory of braking and the “friction circle” was explained which helped in the understanding of the practical events later on. After the briefing we were taken by coach to the track, about 25 minutes from the hotel.

Track Circuit Mecaglisse was closed to the public while we were there, it is a race track which can be used all year round. Although I had never been to a winter track before (so I didn't have anything to compare it too), the track and everything in it appeared to be maintained very well and of course there were lots of trackside Porsche banners. The track has many interconnected parts and so can be reconfigured with the use of cones to create multiple separate courses for different levels of difficulty or specific driving skills.

There were around 40 drivers, organized into 4 driving groups, which enabled the track to be utilized effectively as we were not waiting for other drivers to finish before doing our own session. We were paired up and remained in those pairs for the whole course switching over after trying a lap or a few circles etc. Each group had an instructor and a hostess assigned to them (see picture). The hostess, instructor and all the cars had a 2-way radio on a channel unique to that group. Sometimes a driver had a spin in which case the co-driver should call “spin, spin, spin, everybody stop” over the radio, which worked very well. If somebody had a more spirited attempt and was embedded in a snow bank then the call for a Cayenne ‘tow truck’ was needed. I had a couple of spins and lightly prodded

The Porsche instructors

Jonathan Urlin Kees Nierop Pierre Des Marais Keith McIntosh Travis Hill

a snow bank but my group only needed one Cayenne call, other groups had a few more apparently! The always smiling hostesses assisted the instructor getting everyone ready, sending us onto the course on time and keeping things running smoothly.

Cars As I attended the first course this year, the cars were brand new. There were 4 sets, one set per group and each set had an instructor car resplendent in the Porsche racing colours/stripe. The cars were all GTS models, with PDK and a good selection of options installed (e.g. Premium Package, GTS Communication Package, Adaptive Sports Seats Plus, Bose audio, leather). The models we used were: -

Editor -Note 2016 figures….

Cayman GTS

$106,000, 3.4l, 4 cylinder, 340hp 911 Carrera GTS $157,000, 3.8l, 6 cylinder, 430hp 911 Carrera 4 GTS (2 sets) $168,000, 3.8l, 6 cylinder, 430hp

The Porsche 'pit crew' used Cayennes and Macans.

Photographer Of course, everyone was using their cell phones to take pictures and videos of the cars, people, track etc. while both in and out of the cars. However, there was an official photographer present and his photos were made available after the course on the Porsche Canada Camp4 photo website. (Editor-wow, our course photos are still there, take a look)

Driving The idea of the course is to learn to drive safely in winter conditions and the instructors do this in gradual steps, their analogy is learning to crawl, walk, jog and then run. My group was led by instructor Keith and hostess Alyssa, we started with 2 cars at a time driving in circles, progressing on to short and long slaloms getting the rear out and recovering, then a combination of circles and slaloms. There was plenty of driving time to practice these techniques and there was a good run-off area on most of the tracks so that there was no worry of hitting anything expensive! After a good lunch at the track, we headed out again, switching cars and on to a different part of the course to experience something new.

On day 2, we learned the “Scandinavian Rally Flick” and drifting the 911 Carrera 4 GTS in circles (with the front wheels straight!), put all we had learned so far into driving on some joined courses on the track. It was good to have a longer course to try and we took a number of the cars around the track with multiple corners, gradients and driving conditions as some parts were soft snow and others parts were very icy where we were glad of the studded Nokian tires that had been fitted to the GTS cars.

Hot Lap At the end of the course, everyone was driven around the track with an instructor at the wheel. My driver for the hot lap was Kees Nierop who is a multiple champion and I suspect he is the most experienced driver in the instructor group (LeMans, Sebring, Daytona), Kees narrated his actions all the time and was probably driving at least double the speed we had been doing in our training! He drove sideways, past the snow banks at

high speed aiming for a small gap in the bank ahead! That hot lap was certainly an unforgettable experience. Looking back, the thing I remember the most is that everyone always had a smile on their face, it was so much fun and I am sure that we all learned something that was practical and could be put to use in our own cars if the need arose. The whole course was well organised and ran smoothly thanks to all the Porsche staff involved. I thoroughly recommend going on such an event, arrange it via your Porsche dealer or through the website at Porsche Web (porscheexperience.ca).

UPDATES for 2022

Since 2016, the courses have all been renamed and are under the general heading of Ice Experience. The website with details and registration is at Porsche Web (porscheexperience.ca).

The levels of the courses are now called:-

Ice Intro (4 days)

Ice Experience (5 days)

Ice Force (5 days)

Ice Force+ (6 days)

Give yourself an early present and book one now!!

Steve

Photos courtesy Porsche Canada