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Special medicine from Porsche

  • By Paul Gover
  • Herald Sun
  • image

    Paul Gover got to spend time with two special guests on the first leg of Porsche's Panamera Right Round Down Under drive. Photo Gallery

Tuesday was a gem. You might expect that, when most of the day was spent driving the first Porsche Panamera to hit Australia...

... and to do that driving along the Great Ocean Road on a two-day touring trip from Melbourne to Adelaide. But what really made Tuesday, September 1 so special for me is a couple of youngsters, Blake and Ben.

They were the invited guests on the very first leg of Porsche's Panamera Right Round Down Under drive, which took us from company headquarters in Collingwood out through the city and over the bridge to Williamstown.

Sadly, Ben and Blake qualify for the passenger seat in my Panamera because they were chosen through the Make A Wish foundation. Ben is also looking forward to a theme park trip to Queensland soon, when I hope to catch up with him for a second time.

We talked a lot in our short time together and I learned how Blake, a bouncy six-year-old from Hurstbridge, is a Carlton supporter, how he was once a Holden fan, but is now in the Ford camp - with a giant blue-oval badge stamped onto one hand - and a giant fan of Craig Lowndes.

Ben is older, 13 from Essendon, and he and his dad talk cars and footy and other fun stuff. He has come straight from hospital and looks a bit pale, but there is no talk about illness or worries, just the absolute excitement we all share in the impressive new Porsches.

My time with the boys comes as a surprise but it's one of the nicest surprises I've had in a very long time. They are polite and sparky and smart, and they make my day.

"This is better than medicine," says Porsche's big-hearted PR honcho, Paul Ellis, after we drop them in Williamstown and get down to the business of driving. Ellis is right. But it's Ben and Blake who serve up their special medicine today, making me feel better about everything and leaving a glow that last for horurs.

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