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Its been a very rough start to the year for myself. My brother lost his battle with substance abuse. I had to spend two weeks in the Atlanta suburbs settling some issues related to his estate. On my last day there before driving home, I decided to treat myself and my lady to a day of fun at PEC Atlanta. She was originally signed up for the manual 992 but realized quickly after a chat with the instructor that it was not a great scenario to try to learn to drive manual. They used to have a learn to drive manual program, but it has not come back since the pandemic. (Porsche NA please bring this back!) Either way she switched into a PDK 992 C2S, and I went with with a Targa 4S (which I got upgraded for free to a Targa 4GTS)
Btw PEC is about to open a second race course complete with its own play ground of new features. https://www.porschedriving.com/atlanta/on-the-track
From what I was told the west track opens April 1st. We opted for the extra insurance because the south course has nearly zero run off and in the rain the risk can be amplified. (on our day it rained) The instructors were both very good and taught us a lot about our respective cars and car control. It was probably the most fun you can have in a Porsche under 60 mph. You rarely hit highway speeds because of the number of turns and the fact that most of car control activities are done at low speeds. The kick plate was a ton of fun, I got it right and controlled the slide about 70% of the time. I am sure with more time I could improve it. Time on the track was 90 minutes which flew by. The low friction handling course was like driving in a cambered parking garage and throwing the tail out was a ton of fun. The wet skid pad was fun, way harder to drift an awd car, I got in a few good rounds. The launches were comically fun as well. Wife left grinning ear to ear which was awesome. I also left not really wanting to upgrade from my 991.2 to a 992. The cars felt similar enough that I couldn't bring myself to justify the cost deltas between the two cars.
Afterwards we went and had lunch at the 356 cafe. They had 911 shaped butter :-) and the food was excellent. If you do the 11am session and arrive a bit early you can tour the facility (need maybe 45 minutes to an hour max) 12:45 lunch and you get to go home before ATL traffic picks up. Its a great way to spend a day. Also if anyone is stuck in ATL airport with a few hours to kill, Porsches property goes right up to ATL airports property so you are super close. The only minor disappointment is the porsche classic restoration shop has moved from the HQ building to just down the road. So you can no longer see the older cars that are getting factory refreshes.
Sorry to hear about your Brother.
Great write up. The off camber track was my favorite....sideways through about a dozen corners in a row is very cool once you get it. Thanks
I felt strongly attached to the yellow GTS in the lobby when I was there last week! Wow that is just a looker. Do you recall the stitching? I think it was just black stitching and not deviated in any color?
When our son and I met in ATL last year to pick up my current car we liked that restaurant so much at lunch we had dinner there rather than going back out. Dinner was excellent as well. Really quite good. Pleasant surprise.
There isn't much runoff area on those road courses - they must have a lot of people putting the cars into the fencing?
The instructors said they were growing fence material there. The extra 50 bucks for the insurance deductible to go from 10k to 2.5k seemed worth it. Since you tend to be booking in advance, you have no idea if your day will be rain or shine and this event goes off rain or shine. In our case it was rain. At no point did either of us feel risk, I would say the most risky part is the outside ring circuit, the rest of it is pretty low speed so the risk isn't really there. Another tidbit, unless you plan to buy a GT3 or Turbo S (and you don't mind spending 1200 vs 600) there is no point paying double the money for those cars because you won't really be able exploit them during your 90 minutes. Maybe the launch mode runs but that's about it. The best value by far is to take the cheapest model of car you want to drive for the period of time you want to drive. Worst case they upgrade you to something nicer if that specific car is not available.
When our son and I met in ATL last year to pick up my current car we liked that restaurant so much at lunch we had dinner there rather than going back out. Dinner was excellent as well. Really quite good. Pleasant surprise.
Totally agree the food is really good at Cafe 356. The view also enhances the experience.
03-07-2023, 12:33 PM
Trip to PEC ATL (pic heavy)
