Top Performance take to the tarmac, and off it, to sample Stuttgart’s hottest new toys and win a trophy while at it

Porsche World Roadshow has been a regular feature around the world for some time. Wherever it is held, participants flock to experience the advanced technical features, power and world-class performance of Porsche’s wide range of sports cars and SUVs.

The Porsche World Roadshow was back in Dubai last month with its full line up of 2009 models. Porsche Centre Dubai, Al Naboodah Automobiles LCC, and Porsche Middle East and Africa organized the 10 day roadshow at the Dubai Autodrome between February 4th and 14th, including a day dedicated to the press. The show attracted around 400 customers who got the chance to experience the new Porsche technologies embedded in the 2009 models. With professional instructors from Germany, and local sales representatives on site, Porsche enthusiasts had all their questions answered and enjoyed professional training on mastering the driving techniques of off-roading, braking, handling and slalom.

We motoring hacks were herded off into four groups that allowed us to experience driving a nicely assorted range of high-performance sports cars and SUVs. In addition to giving the drivers a unique experience of what the Porsche brand has to offer, the Porsche World Roadshow is all about safety and fun and is designed to highlight just how enjoyable driving a Porsche can be.

“Every Porsche model offers outstanding performance, so it is important for drivers to learn how to harness such power safely,” said Vijay Rao, General Manager at Porsche Centre Dubai, Al Naboodah Automobiles LLC. “The Porsche World Roadshow aims to do this in a fun environment with world-class instructors. This is the second time we host this important Porsche event in Dubai. The successful results and rising popularity of the event and the brand encourage us to repeat this event to give even more people a unique flavour of what the Porsche brand has to offer.”

After a healthy breakfast and a glass of juice, we head out for the braking session, the first leg of the day’s programme. Championship-winning driver Karim Al-Azhari of Team Al-Nabooda Racing is our instructor for the day – a very friendly chap who has been driving Porsches to victory for quite some time and knows the circuit like the back of his hand. Two cars are at our disposal – a new, facelifted Carrera (fitted with the PDK transmission) and a Tiptronic-equipped 911 Turbo with carbon ceramic brake discs. Karim gives us a briefing and a demo on what we should be doing, following which the group takes turns testing the anchors. We also tried the launch control feature on the Carrera, a neat piece of kit that affords you the perfect full-throttle start without smoking the rear rubber and subsequent time-wasting wheel spin.

A few runs later, and impressed with the deceleration prowess of the cars, we move on to the slalom section, which has been designed to highlight the neutral balance of Porsche’s mid-engine cars, the Boxster and the Cayman. The runs are timed and everyone is eager to make it to the top spot, which sees some over-enthusiastic drivers and quite a few cones being knocked down. Not surprisingly, when the prizes for the best times were announced at the end of the day, Zlatko clinched a well-deserved second place.

Sumptuous lunch followed the slalom runs, and by 1PM we were out on track again, this time driving an assorted range of Porsches across the International Circuit. Manual and PDK-equipped versions of different Carrera and Boxster/Cayman models were complemented by a Cayenne GTS, which proved to be quite a hoot to pilot on the track. After a splendid hour of burning rubber and frying clutches, we are taken to the last item on the drive experience - the off-road section - to discover what magic the Cayenne SUVs can do in the dirty stuff. Although all five variants are present – the Cayenne, Cayenne S, Cayenne GTS, Cayenne Turbo and the mad Cayenne Turbo S – we soon realize that each one of them is equally good off road. The fantastic Hill-Hold and Hill Descent Control features have to be experienced in the real – the former holds you on an uphill incline without you ever having to touch the brakes. Once you go off the throttle while going up, the car stops without rolling back, and moves again when you accelerate. The latter lets you go down steep inclines without touching the brake pedal, the system doing the braking for you.

We head back into the lounge by about 3PM, suitably impressed by how advanced today’s systems are, be it on the road or off it. Cars like the 911 and the Cayenne are so good at what they do, they can make even average drivers look like a driving hero on the tarmac or in the desert. But of course, talent does matter, and to drive home the point, the instructors seize the opportunity to take us for a few blitzing passenger laps around the circuit. At the end of the day, adrenaline rush and award ceremony all over, I walk back to my car, ready to take on Dubai’s crazy traffic. It’s unfortunate that things had to end so soon, but on the flip side, I’m fortunate to be amongst the lucky few who will ever get to drive (a lot of!) Porsches by the scruff of their necks around a race track.


Porsche PDK – What is it really?
Everyone has been raving about the German car maker’s PDK or Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe dual-clutch transmission. Available as an option on the iconic 911 as well as the Cayman/Boxster models, the PDK transmission features both manual gearshifts and an automatic mode, and enables smooth gear changes with no interruption in the flow of power.

In total, PDK has seven gears at its disposal - gears 1 to 6 have a sports ratio and top speed is reached in 6th gear. The 7th gear has a long ratio and reduces fuel consumption even further. PDK is like having two gearboxes in one and thus requires two clutches – designed as a double wet clutch transmission. This double clutch provides an alternating, non-positive connection between the gearbox and the engine by means of two separate input shafts (input shaft 1 is nested inside the hollowed-out input shaft 2). The flow of power from the engine is only ever transmitted through one clutch at a time, while the next gear is preselected by the second clutch. During a gear change, a conventional shift no longer takes place. Instead, one clutch simply opens and the other closes at the same time. Gear changes therefore take place within a few hundredths of a second. Clutch 1 controls the odd gears (1, 3, 5, 7) and reverse. Clutch 2 controls the even gears (2, 4, 6). This results in significantly faster acceleration and lower fuel consumption, without having to sacrifice the ease of an automatic transmission.