There is an old saying that even a bad day at the track is better than a good day in the office. If that statement rings true, then a great day the track is even better, and thanks to great weather and an invite from Porsche, I’ll agree. Yesterday we left Orlando bright and early for a 10:00AM tee time at Sebring International Raceway for an invite only Porsche event, The Porsche World Roadshow.

The day started with a meet and great followed by a tech session on the basics of performance driving from Porsche Sport Driving School’s Chief instructor Cass Whitehead. After the quick classroom session was over we paired up and headed to a large autocross course where we got to put the newly released Boxster through its paces. I typically prefer more pure driving sports cars, however I was quite impressed with the technology in the Boxster after playing with it’s Sport settings and electronic suspension dampening. The performance of the car could be greatly changed for the conditions simply by pressing a few buttons located next to the shifter.

A second autocross course was setup for the Technology drive featuring the Panamera and Cayenne Hybrids and V8 Counterparts. On the short course we were encouraged to go full throttle on multiple occasions and test the throttle response to compare the differences between the 2. When you think Hybrid you typically think of slow Toyota Priuses clogging the left lane, the Porsche version couldn’t be further than the opposite. The Porsche Hybrid delivers amazing throttle response and low end torque thanks to it’s electric motors assisting a powerful NA engine, which delivers a driving experience that sticks to Porsches pursuit of ultimate performance, all while improving fuel efficiency.

With the performance drive completed it was off to the big track for what most participants traveled long and far to experience, driving the latest Porsches on the famed Sebring International Raceway. The format was a lead follow session on the Sebring modified course in the Panamera GTS, Porsche 991, and the 991S. While the driving was done in a somewhat controlled environment, it still allowed us to push the cars through their paces for a few laps each. I left quite impressed with the new 991, which makes the most of recent technology to deliver a great drive, adding new creature comforts not found in the previous model. All of the models we drove were equipped with Porsches new PDK transmission, something as a purist I should hate, however its a phenomenal piece of equipment and for 99% of the drivers out there exactly what they need. A big thanks to Porsche North America for putting on this event and our good friend Andreas at Porsche Orlando for the invite (If you’re in the market give him a ring). This was the ultimate way to test the newest models and draw our own opinions on them, most of which were positive!

Here in the sunshine state we’re blessed to have a great weather year round that results in many professional race teams calling Florida home. One such team that’s local to us is Alex Job Racing, who fields top cars in both the Grand Am and the ALMS series. AJR needed to do some baseline tuning on their cars and brought both their 997 Porsche Cup Car and Lotus Evora race cars by to strap them on our Dynojet 424 LC2. The cars were in the middle of being serviced between rounds and were naked of their body panels allowing us to see the great engineering that goes into the purpose built road racing cars. As with all professional race teams the final numbers will be kept a secret, but it was great to have the team at our facilities and the beautiful soundtrack these cars provided to start our day.

The latest project car in our stable, my Porsche 996 GT3 just received a fresh set of gloss black 18″ HRE R40 Monoblock wheels.

The R40 was designed for motorsports and is used by countless teams in both drifting and Grand Am. The HRE R40 starts with super lightweight 6061 castings and are engineered to be as light as possible without sacrificing strength, all while offering maximum brake clearance. This particular set weighs in at just over 18lbs front and 20lbs rear, saving over 30lbs of rotational weight from the vehicle.

Titan Motorsports carries the complete line of HRE custom forged wheels for all applications, let one of our sales staff help the right wheel and finish for you.