You Know What’s Fun? Porsche’s Camp4 Winter Driving School

By Adam Pockross - February 5, 2016

porsche camp413

How’s this for fun? Gather a bunch of Porsches, head to the hills, build a track, ice it down, and go driving sideways!

Benjamin Hunting of SlashGear recently got a chance to attend one of Porsche’s Camp4 winter driving school sessions. He headed off to the Mecaglisse rally facility in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec, Canada, and it looks like he had a heckuva time.

While there, Hunting was given some helpful snow driving instructions from the Porsche Driving Experience team, and then given the keys to three different Porche coupes, all fitted with studded winter tires from Nokian. He then got a chance to test out the Carrera GTS, the Carrera 4 GTS, and the Cayman GTS on three different freshly-iced tracks.

Hunting found the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive Carrera GTS to be “tail-heavy” and unwieldy in the elements. He felt similarly about the all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 GTS, though he found it a bit more easily controllable. His favorite of the bunch was definitely the mid-engine, rear-wheel drive Cayman:

“I’m in love with the outstanding balance that comes from placing the engine as close to the centerline of the vehicle as possible, a character trait that was on full display at Camp4 as the car obediently opted out of any slides or drifts that I initiated as soon as I removed my throttle or steering wheel inputs.”

All in all, Hunting seems to think the Porsche’s winter driving school is worth the trip, as a lot of the skills learned are transferable to other driving conditions as well. And, the great thing about spinning around at Camp4 is that while you’re pushing the limits of the cars, you’re not exactly pushing the limits of safety.

Hunting also took the trip as an opportunity to test out a GoPro Re-Fuel battery pack from Digipower, so you don’t even have to leave your fireside to get a feel for the Camp4 experience. Just check out the video below, and enjoy the ride! Check out another vid and some more pics, along with Hunting’s SlashGear story, then let us know what you think.