Speed secrets: Porsche Sport Driving School

Speed isn’t inborn. It’s a skill. One racers hone in the gritty world of motorsport.

And there’s a place, half an hour south of Brisbane, where race-hardened drivers will impart you secrets of the craft.

But this tutelage comes at a fee, $1485 in fact, as part of Porsche’s Sport Driving School; a five-stage program designed to boost your skills from rookie to racer.

It begins with the Precision course. The day is designed, at a bush shaded complex known as Mt Cotton, to teach drivers ‘the basics of mastering a vehicle’.

It lays the crucial learning blocks for customers who can end up at Master, which involves a full track day in a 911 GT3 road car and telemetry analysis, before eventually finding GT3 Cup – where you strap into a 911 GT3 Cup racer. If their wallet’s big enough.

So Porsche’s most basic lesson is a serious affair. In fact, even experienced MOTOR readers will learn a lot, and fang many Porsches in the process (everything bar GT cars).

Sure, the day alone won’t make you a racing driver. But it’ll get you started. Here are our top-six speed tips from the day...

REACT WITH SOMETHING REPEATABLE

It’s best to counter-steer with a technique that’s repeatable, says V8 Supercar driver Steve Owen. There’s no use saving a yaw movement if you can’t catch the second.

SPORT ESP MAKES YOU QUICKER IN THE WET

During a wet motorkhana competition Daniel Gaunt, ex-A1 GP driver, said leaving ESP half on will make the car faster. It’s electronic brain able to manage slip much better than you.

ROLL CAGES AREN’T FOR SAFETY….

…well, they are. But according to Tomas Mezera, ex-Bathurst winner and the program’s headmaster, engineers are more focused on stiffening a car’s chassis when they design a roll-cage. Drivers are changeable “light bulbs”, he jokes.

SIT LOW, EYES UP

Sitting low down in a car not only helps you feel what the car is doing, but also forces you to raise your vision and look further down the road.

SLOW AND STEADY

Turn into a corner slow and smoothly. Every input should be considered. Remember, where you look, you steer, and that’s where the car will go.

TAKE A REST

That dead pedal underneath the steering wheel? While a convenient rest during cruise control, it’s also a great way to brace yourself during hard driving – keeping your body firmly in place.