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Skid pan adrenalin rush


So hot right now, sideways in a Porsche Cayman. The backside kicks out on the diesel-sluiced corner, I hit the throttle, the Cayman twitches ... and a curt "pfft" implies that I did the right thing.

Getting the nod to go faster, the right foot sinks to the floor — just as a black 911 spins a complete 360 right in front of the Cayman's sleek nose. We're all crossed up the wrong way, but a heart-in-mouth dodge spares me from shame and expensive dent work.

Meanwhile, my passenger doesn't skip a beat; former pro V8 Supercar and Porsche racer Tomas Mezera, who famously walked away from a multiple barrel roll at Bathurst, has seen far worse. He calmly talks me through another lap, then encourages a long, controlled slide.

It's not every day that everyman or everygal can commandeer a Porsche, let alone a 911 Turbo on a closed track with instruction from V8 Supercar and Carrera Cup hotties.

Several marques offer driver days for preferred customers, but the Porsche Drivers Experience at Mt Cotton in Queensland is a chance for outsiders to get a glimpse of what they're missing.

Even at $1265 for the day, the experience turns out to be good value and a super-effective PR exercise.

The day begins with hot laps with said hot drivers; road laps with constant instruction and using markers and gates to get that apex just right; lots of sliding skidpan action; and culminates in timed speed trials around a gymkhana course with chicane, slalom and a gnarly corner or two.

My first lap begins in the passenger seat with V8 Supercar driver Warren Luff, who does a few laps of the road track pointing out where to brake, where to glide and where to fang it.

I jump into a new $335,000 997 Turbo and dutifully fang, so focused on the rushing surge of power that I miss the brake gate and — according to a screaming, spiky-haired Luff — hit the corner way too fast.

Luff tells me to brake hard, way harder than I would have thought, and we proceed to float around the bend then floor it out of the corner.

Must remember not to try this at home in the family wagon ...

Then it's out of the Turbo and into the 911 Carrera S with ace driver Alex Davison, Lord of the Carrera Cup and V8 Supercar Dance.

Davison urges me faster into the corners and way faster out. We fly through the gates and thunder past the waiting punters.

By afternoon, the stopwatches have come out. I realise that I've come to the day completely unprepared mentally and physically for the speed (and the corresponding performance anxiety, which manifests as sweat).

The time trials take place on the wet skid pan in a 911 and a Boxster. Points are lost for knocking hats over or not stopping within the garage, but the Boxster's brakes and cling-on dynamics are my friend.

Waiting for the flag to fall, my heart hammers. The track is wet, the sun is hot, the top is down.

We stick like glue to the first apex, and cane it through the chicane. Although the slalom slows my momentum, a final surge along straight tarmac brings the Boxster slam dunk in the middle of the four hats marking out the garage.

No points lost, and a time that betters the good ol' boys and several others.

The following flurry of trophies and backslapping means we all bond over best moments, then the fabulous day is officially over.

Can someone please tell me why it has taken half my life to discover the joys of a skid pan?

www.adrenalin.com.au/

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