to be turned off, but Porsche does. For Porsche, “off” is always off. After several laps of following a pace car, trying to keep up with the phenomenal speed of a Porsche GT3 at the hands of a seasoned instructor, I took a “hot taxi lap” in the passenger seat of the GT3 RS with professional racer Jorg Bergmeister at the wheel. He shaved considerable time off every corner, going in faster than I’d dared, sticking to the ground right to the point of tire slippage, and then pulling away even quicker than I’d imagined. In my defence, he’s lapped Silverstone thousands of times and is well aware of the limits of every section of the circuit, and he set up the car with those simple dials for optimal suspension along the track’s short straights and flat curves. Oh, and he’s a much better driver. This was where the violence showed itself as the car hurled its king’s ransom of lightweight steel and carbon fibre around the smooth asphalt. At one point, another car had kicked a marker cone into the track and Bergmeister swerved at the last
you won’t fit in the sport seats, anyway. Good luck with that. You need to be fit to make the most of the Porsche. It’s all about keeping a faster speed at any given moment than the competition, and that means constant pummeling: a kick in the pants on full throttle, bracing hard on full braking, and violent shoving from side to side around corners, over and over and over again. At the same time, the steer- ing wheel needs a light and exact touch to hold to exactly the line you’ve chosen, and your brain is overloaded with decisions coming at you faster than for anyone else. One mistake and it’s over. So the car will make some of the decisions for you, if you want. The DRS activates automatically when the speed is above 100 km/h and the throttle is pressed at least 95 per cent down and you’re cornering at less than 0.9 g. Traction control adjusts the differential, while stability control adjusts the sideways slip, but a true racer on a track prefers to make these decisions manually. Few auto makers will allow all the safety systems
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