FTS

LOL, yes I forgot them at home and we drove all other cars without helmets or gloves, so I did not even think of them getting into the Cup. From a safety point I should have had them, but from a driving point, the steering was very comfortable, its feel was the same as the regular GT3, alcantera, only smaller in diameter

Yes, going into T1 on the second lap, i did not push the lever hard enough forward, and the instructor took care of it

964C4

Simply amazing !

Thanks for sharing !

deputydog95

While the cost of buying, running, and maintaining a cup car is pretty significant, I have to believe it's a whole lot less for Porsche themselves

I'm with the other poster. $5k for 3 days and then $10k for 2 days? It's overpriced. Its my understand Porsche gets the tires for free at the school. Obviously the cars belong to them so that's cost. Parts are cost. Labor is cost... You get coaching in the 3 day school as well. Maybe if it was 3 days for $10k with cup seat time every day. I predict they don't sell a lot of seats to these classes. They struggled to fill the 2 day class I went to last year and actually post poned it at one point due to lack of attendance.

C.J. Ichiban

come on man we all know the adage

"what part of porsche racing did you think was cheap? the porsche part or the racing part?"

Carrera GT

An amateur shouldn't need $10K for a weekend. Club racing or pro racing at a competitive level, sure, but there's no equivalence in the comparison to two hours of seat time where there's "orientation" and few if any laps where the vehicle is at risk of anything except overheating for lack of airflow ... : ) These are cars being driven at a fraction of their potential and pulling back the rev-limiter alone is a recognized way to extend the life of the engine. Also, there's the economy of scale, the capital is already in place, the operating costs are already shared across existing lines of business, etc.

Carrera GT

There's many ways to rationalize the expense and enjoy the event -- I can't imagine there's anything comparable on the planet and PSDS does a very good job. I'm only talking about the price point they've plucked out of thin air and said "let's see if people will pay $10K?" I think they need to ask "let's see if more people will pay $6K" or make it a three day event (since a big part of the whole event is logistics to get to Birmingham, so three days helps justify the time and helps to really get into the event.)

If there's anything I can see to justify the asking price, it's the lack of more Cup cars at the facility to handle more attendees. Instead of two classes of 10 or so drivers in 10 or so Carreras in the usual format (one group on track, the other group off track, involved in things like skid-pad, cone courses and braking drills, etc.) with the event cost therefore spread across twenty customers, they might be occupying the whole venue at Barber with just six or so people and not mixing in a second group of ten people doing a 2-day in Carreras. In this way, the fixed costs would be the burden and the $10K becomes the symptom of poor logistics.

Anyway, I know this is not the business school of Rennlist forum.

mooty

can't comment on the cost of psds. but 10k to run a cup car at SCCA or pirelli cup is about right.

on avg, it's $1000/day for transport and track support = 2000 for weekend, usually inc fuel for the race car.
mich blue are about 2500/set and for pirelli cup, you would need 2 sets for weekend or else you might as well just stay home b/c you will not be fast. that's $5000 more or less.

amortize the cost of pads/rotors = 1000/ weekeknd

that's 8000 right there. and misc will easily get u out another 2000.

chopperzz

10K is a fair price, but I can't help but think that the track time is low.
As for the spin out, pre apex throttle is an indication of over braking and/or low entry speed. That's free.

Carrera GT

Suggesting anyone should compare a race weekend with qualifying and race rubber to a luxury dude ranch race car "experience" is just irrelevant.

If someone wants to blow $10K out of their hookers and cocaine budget on weekend racing, that's fine (even so, nobody should have a budget where 20% is "misc" to blow $2K on sundries?)

But if the rationalization is $10K for two days to get a taste of the forbidden fruit is "cheap" then compare it to a Cup car amateur driver trying to do things cheaply, not trying to get a front of pack grid position. Again, just unrelated activities.

Anyway, it's $10K and it's an arbitrary number -- it's not geared to the costs of operating the business, it's not relative to any scenario where someone buys or rents a car, it's not positioned against a competitive event price, it's just a round number.

chopperzz

What I'd like to know is if the instruction is any better in the cup car course versus the regular PSDS courses.
This is not to say that the instruction was bad, but it definitely is corporate instruction tailored to the Porsche customer. Is the cup instruction that last 2/10ths that the Masters course left out?

supercup

Not to mention that those of us lucky enough to have Cups had to drop $200k or more (less if you bought one used) or so, before we get to the first day on the track. $5,000 per weekend is normal cost. So $10k is not cheap, but it is also the Worlds finest test drive bargain! Problem is after that no other track car will suffice!

JCM

aussie jimmy

the price should be $5990. not a dollar more, and not a dollar less.
still turn a profit and more punters will turn up.

Laguna_Dude

It's free because it's not necessarily true. haha. Clearly this guy was not at full speed for the car. But even at speed, if you're not on the throttle before apex...you're not doing something right and are losing time... don't have to be floored, but once turned in, you need that throttle to plant the rear and in some cases, you can get on it full just before apex... just need to know how to properly track out and be prepared to counter on the gentle (sometimes not so gentle) power slide out of the turn.

It looks like he wasn't expecting it (didn't know to i guess), kinda froze vs. track out/counter at the first sense of rear starting to lose grip. Also, looks like he lifted off once it started sliding vs. staying on power and using counter inputs to control the slide. All in all, good save though considering.... just missed the wall.... which could have really made his $10k look like a bargain.

And to OPs credit, he was jamming in that thing... getting braver with each turn. Keep it up!

deputydog95

While those numbers are correct for the avg privateer, it doesn't cost Porsche anywhere near that. As I said above, they get the tires for free, car is cost, no trans because the cars live there, all the parts and labor are cost, which is wayyyy less than dealer cost.

If they had trouble filling my 2 day course last year at like $4k or whatever it was and had to postpone, I predict this flops.

They would be better served making this an option in the 3 day course and paying for it a la carte if someone wants to try it. It's all the same instructors and program anyway.

FTS

I do not really know the facts; however, I think part of the assumption behind this statement is there is only one Porsche company. However, PCNA, PMNA, PAG (and even PSDS maybe) are all different companies with different accounting. I suspect they have agreements between all of these entities about knowledge, asset and technical information transfer, but I doubt highly that PCNA is getting anything for free, in fact I am pretty sure, they are paying for the cars, just not MSRP