john981

Not that I have any plans to track my new Macan S anytime soon but just curious to hear how many people track or have tracked their Macan. I think if there is any SUV/CUV out there which is track worthy than it is the Macan (Any trim of the Macan: Base/T/S/GTS/Turbo). Would love to hear your track stories.

john981

Wow, I expected not many trackers here but that there are zero, that is a big surprise!

Basics

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chuckbdc

I didn't track or really flog my '15 S or my'18 Turbo. I have a 911 for that. But I bought the S after a track event. The situation was as follows.

I was getting ready to replace a daily driver sedan. At a dealership I teat drove an S and was impressed about its performance. I was leery about SUV handling and I guess that got me invited to the event at Summit Point Raceway. The format was test runs in everything Porsche sells, in leader-follow sessions. Having spent lots of time over about 25 years at the in 911s (74 S an 78 SC) and Boxster S as student and instructor and with an SCCA license, I thought I knew the course better than the Porsche World instructor, so I figured I'd stay close and just do whatever he did.

At a point where I had many times, in my cars been through a high speed sweeper at about 90 mph the Porsche World driver went through at over 85. I realized he didn't run off course so I just followed. I had no idea about the tires or pressure settings and would not have tried that had I not had him in front of me. But there was just a mild transient drift and negligible lean.

When i got to the pits, I told the salesman to prep the car I test drove earlier in the week. So i imagine if you were flush with $$ to replace rubber and brake pads, you could have a lot of fun tracking one.

Nickshu

I have not taken mine to the track but I have taken my Panamera once. I'm a PCA instructor and club racer, I do see a Macan or two at most of our local region's DE weekends but I have never instructed in one. I have heard they hide their weight pretty well. Driven at the limit I'm sure they would eat tires.

Fred R. C4S

I haven’t tracked my Macan, and have absolutely no interest in doing so. Some will point out that an SUV isn’t suitable to be pushed on a racetrack. However, back in 2006, I attended the 2 day Porsche driving school at Barber Motorsport Park. In addition to the track driving we did in 911s, we were exposed the the Cayenne. Three of us rode off road with an instructor demonstrating the off road prowess of the Cayenne Turbo S. Then he turned and entered the racetrack. As we went thru the turns that fat girl would really lean but we were never in danger of rolling on the side. That Turbo S really HAULED THE MAIL! Would I want to track one? No. But it was reasonably competent on the track. Did I mention that it was SCARY FAST?

mrclam

I imagine that while the Macan can hold its own on the track, it would chew through tires/brakes and prematurely wear suspension components.

#1SomeGuy

I mean, that's true of any car on track and also depends on how hard you push it. You could have a lovely day on track in a Macan and do very little wear (relatively speaking) if you don't scrub your tires understeering into every corner.

mrclam

From an engineering perspective though, you expect that someone who buys a 911/718 is going to push the car a bit hard and your components are designed around that type of use for the car. The expected use of the Macan is not that, so it would be wasteful of Porsche to design the Macan to be used under those circumstances with any frequency. This is complete conjecture on my part and not based in any evidence, but at least for myself taking a Macan to the track/autox seems like something you do once or twice for some laughs but not something I'd do regularly.

ram_g

So this reminds me…

Many years ago I had a Jeep SRT8. Part of buying an SRT product was that you were signed up for a 1 day track experience with a variety of Chrysler vehicles (not your own) - I did mine at MSR Houston.

At the start of the day, 3 instructors took the entire group around the track in 3 Mercedes Sprinter vans - the sort of ride that airport shuttles use, except these had seatbelts. (BTW this was during the DaimlerChrysler days, so the Sprinter was a company product.)

Anyway, I remember being (a) scared sh!tless, and (b) incredibly impressed with the dynamics of the freaking Sprinter vans…

The stated aim of the instructors that day was to demonstrate that driver skill/control was way more important than the mechanical competence of most vehicles, and in that they amply succeeded.

Fred R. C4S

In the Cayenne I felt we were trying to refilm this famous scene from Fantasis…

ram_g