Yellow

It's not cheap. For that kind of money, I could do up to 10+ track days and retain the satisfaction of using my own setup.

There's been positive experiences all around, but let's hear it from the 993 owners who've either contemplated on doing it, or been there on the track with the in-house 996's.

Mike in Chi

You're right it isn't cheap.

But a few things to consider:

Instruction- If you're on your own, (no DE instructors) it can take you a long time to figure out what you're doing wrong, if you figure it out at all.

Instructors- My experience has been that most DE instructors are good, but with PDE you're getting some of the best race drivers in the country riding with you. (at a track day you may not even get an instructor) Besides, think of all the questions you'd like to ask Hurley Haywood or Bill Adam.

Someone else's car- if you break it, it's their problem, not yours. As I understand it, there is a deductible at PDE, but it's a lot cheaper than if you miss a shift in your car.
Plus you get a chance to drive the latest from Porsche for two days.

Road Atlanta or Sebring - two very cool tracks
Sebrings full of history, and Road Atlanta is supposed to be a ball to drive.

I have a fair amount of race experience in formula cars, but i signed up for the Atlanta two-day in November. A friend who has no performance driving experience thought it would be fun and wanted me to go along. I figured for the above reasons, it was worth it, even though it's about what a race weekend costs. I love the 993, but I wanted to see what the 996 is like at speed. And my race series doesn't go to Road Atlanta.

Check out these sites for others' experience -
thedoughouse.com/pde.htm

and
gawfin.mit.edu/pde (sorry haven't figured out how to do links yet)

Whether you choose 2 days of PDE or 10 days of track time, how can you loose? You're driving a Porsche the way it was meant to be driving.

Let us know what you choose.

Robert Henriksen

I did the PDE at Road Atlanta, and had a blast. I wasn't footing the substantial registration though, which is the only reason I turned up! :-)

To weight MHO, you need my perspective:

two year owner of a 96 993 coupe
6 track weekends under my belt at the time, in Texas

Pros:

Get to experience the 996 w/o fears of police or the dealership salesman staining the passenger seat ;-)

Get to experience Road Atlanta - it ROCKS!!!

PDE has wired radios into the stereo speakers of all the students' cars. One instructor per five students. Even when you don't have an instructor in the car with you, you hear everything they say to any of the five students in your group. This was extremely beneficial

Some very experienced instructors

Low deductible compared to trashing your own car - Road Atlanta has VERY little runoff before you hit concrete!

Cons:

It's geared towards people w. no track experience, so you may get bored after a while lapping at ~8.5/10. This varies w. who's leading you during the laps; I hear Hurley doesn't baby you as much as my Panoz instructor.

It's not ALL 'name' instructors; we had two, and then the rest were Panoz instructors - up & coming young racers.

One of the Panoz instructors was too studly/attitudinal to interact much w. the students, and didn't avail himself of the radio system to do any teaching/feedback

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That's it off the top of my head.