New Porsche sales strategy: rent Mosport
Mosport sure beats the DVP as a true test of the capabilities of a Porsche Cayenne. Test-driving car shoppers got to drop off cliffs and claw their way out of rutted pits.
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By pulling out of the Detroit auto show and also giving the Toronto show a miss, Porsche was essentially putting most of its Canadian marketing eggs into the Porsche World Road Show basket.
The show has been running around the world for 11 years, but this month's stop at Mosport was the first ever in Canada.
With the track rented by Porsche Canada and vehicles supplied by Porsche AG in Germany, Canada's Porsche dealers were able to invite selected clients. Dealers paid a participation fee, which was further subsidized by Porsche Canada.
It's no small undertaking flying prospective clients in from across the country, providing high-end amenities and services, and it had dealers carefully combing their lists.
A total of 357 clients participated in the Canadian leg of the show. Global returns have shown that about 8 per cent of those participating purchase a car, but Porsche Canada is aiming for 12 per cent.
"We've already had five or six purchases made the day after the event, and realistically would like to see 50 vehicles sell," said Laurance Yap, manager of public relations for Porsche Cars Canada.
While acknowledging that traditional approaches like auto shows are still part of the game plan (they were back on the show circuit in New York in April), Porsche has found measurable success with its innovative marketing approach.
The show puts prospective buyers in the best seat in the house: the driver's seat. In contingents of 40 invitees per day, groups are put through the same exercises in all the same models that journalists had driven the week before.
Though foul weather threatened on several occasions, clients were still permitted to drive in adverse conditions. As Colin Richardson, general manager of the Canadian division of Porsche Cars North America noted, Canadians drive their Porsches in Canadian weather.
The client day I witnessed consisted mostly of Porsche owners. Neil Bayley-Hay, a real estate rep from Barrie, listed the Porsches he'd owned (a 944, a 944 Turbo, a 928), then he corrected himself afterward – he'd had two 944s. As I bounced around in the back seat of the Cayenne SUV through the outback of Mosport Park, he marvelled at the off-road capabilities of the Cayenne.
"I had no clue this thing could do this," he said. I was simply pleased it had handles in the back. "And the great thing about this road show? You get to test these vehicles in a far, er, different environment than you can at home."
"You mean a legal one?" I asked.
"That'd be it," he smiled.
At one point, I stood listening to an earnest young man, perhaps 25, comparing the features of a Cayman to his Mercedes.
A distinguished gentleman, Lanfranco Gualandi, stood quietly nearby absorbing the patter. I asked his thoughts.
"Oh, I've had my Boxster for three years now. It's my summer car. I have a 20-year-old Jetta as my beater." A Porsche lover lurks beneath many exteriors, I've learned.
Will Brereton, managing director with Newport Partners, simply soaked up the day from beginning to end.
"It's more than just a classy event, it's a seamless one. The international aspects of Porsche are so well represented with the instructors, the food is excellent, the tents – all of it."
Although Brereton has owned three Cayennes, two 911s, and a Carrera GT, he still echoed the sentiment of every participant I spoke to: the biggest draw was the chance to actually drive every model.
The only hesitation I heard of? A couple of participants declined the instructor-driven hot laps at the end of a rainy day.
I've driven with those instructors on a dry day. I don't blame them.
–Lorraine Sommerfeld
What better place to test-drive a Boxster or a Cayenne? The maker's World Road Show took over the track for nearly three weeks to give potential buyers – and hard-working reporters – a chance to put the vehicles through their paces
May 16, 2009
Special to the Star
I like to drive two speeds.
Very, very fast and very, very slow. This is probably not too shocking – my day-to-day routine is very, very average. But I recently experienced a Porsche event, which meant I got to live out fantasies at both ends of the spectrum – in the same day.
Porsche was absent from the recent Detroit and Toronto auto shows. In the midst of turbulent times, many buzzed about how to interpret its decision. It's not just the ailing manufacturers who are tinkering with the formula: everyone is using every creative resource to better make the connection between the consumer and the product.
I would happily have the sports-car maker continue to skip the shows. Think about a typical show: crimson carpets, beautiful cars protected by stanchions and security guards, and the opportunity to read about the machine you're aching to drive. The Porsche World Road Show tears down the barriers and plunks you in the seat.
Porsche rented the Mosport Speedway, near Bowmanville, for nearly three weeks and played host to prospective buyers and the press.
With 20 Boxsters, Caymans and Cayennes lined up and glistening like rows of candy, the race track beckoned on a cool, sunny morning. It was easy to see where the very, very fast part of the day would be taking place. But I paused by the Cayenne SUVs, wondering where we might be putting them to any real test. These looked too pretty to scratch, and I doubted I was going to get to dirty one up.
I was wrong. After being divided into driving groups, we headed out to various testing areas. You team up with a driving partner, which can be a little sketchy with people you've never met. While stupidly believing everyone would be delighted to drive with me, I did a once-over of my fellow journalists. There are no stereotypes. After a brief chat revealed a young man who had a 10-month-old daughter, I cut him from the pack, assuming he'd like to live forever.
After a safety briefing and explanation of the Cayenne's capabilities, we headed out to the rolling treed backdrop of the famed racetrack. In no time, we had suspension raised, wheels hanging in the air and tires clawing their way out of deeply pitted sandy ruts.
The first real test of the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC), however, was a really steep drop. Take it too fast, and you rip out your rear. But following your instincts and standing on the brakes means everyone goes on without you. I was shocked to feel our Cayenne walk itself down with calm precision, requiring only some minimal steering. Not just a pretty face, after all.
As the first group out, we got to take a nasty cliff drop that mushed out later in the thawing temperatures. Featuring one – and sometimes two – wheels off the ground through the stage, the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) automatically delivered full torque to the required axle. Slight but consistent pressure on the accelerator to head up, minimal steering as the truck again eased itself down. At speeds under 19 km/h, the High Level II setting takes the clearance from 215 mm to 271 mm; as you speed up, it settles itself back down.
Back at pit row, a colourful string of Porsches sat waiting. At the head, the instructor's car, a Boxster, sat ready to lead us around the track. First lap? A sizzling red 911 Targa 4S. While most of the day's rides featured advanced transmission magic that basically turns them into point-and-shoot speed beasts, I'm an old-fashioned girl at heart and I like my stick. While my instructor said I got the white Carrera S to 225 km/h, I never, ever looked down.
Successive laps in a Cayman S and another Cayenne GTS rounded out the track experience. Just when I'd decided the Cayenne could convincingly join the ranks of impressive off-roaders, it decided to forget it was a rock-climber and handled amazingly, with a nod to the sporty gene pool from which it was sprung.
The blue Cayman S had a seven-speed shift box that literally threw you back into the sport-bucket seats. Though you had the option of shifting with your thumbs, I pretty much just held on and floored it.
The entire day was an adrenaline junkie's dream. While Porsche had made luxurious buffets part of the World Road Show, most were eating lightly lest they see it again.
Proceeding to the next stage, a Boxster S sat poised at the start of a slalom course, its dropped top promising fun. Within minutes, we were careening around the coned course in timed laps. With my instructor, Stef Vancampenhoudt, yelling "faster, faster!" as he pushed my right knee, I reminded him over the scream of the squealing tires that he is a professional driver, and I a rapidly aging mother of two just trying to stay alive.
After two laps, I was deceiving myself that I was the racing star – in no small part due to the Porsche PDK double clutch, which removes most of the work from the performance and keeps this agile little car bolted to the pavement no matter what you do to it.
The penultimate driving test was a stop/start, which is pretty much what it sounds like. You jump out of a coned gate from a dead stop, travel a few hundred metres, then jam on the brakes and swerve in the direction a flagman indicates at the last second. They expect you to get up to 85-90 km/h before you begin your stop. This is what all that 0-to-100 km/h in 3.5 seconds stuff is about. It took longer to write that than do it.
Our vehicle for the phase? A chocolate brown 911 Turbo Cabriolet. While the exercise was an impressive test of the new Porsche carbon ceramic brakes, my final Do Not Try This At Home moment was a display of barrelling off a start with no lag. Called various things (boost, launch), you fully engage the brake. You then fully engage the accelerator, hold as the engine revs to the right moment (eight bars on our dash), then release the brake.
Chocolate in a slingshot. The 911 went off like a rocket.
To end the day, we did a couple of hot laps with the instructors driving. Again, it was the Cayenne, with our 26-year-old "I'm gonna live forever" driver who blew the doors off my view of this SUV.
It's hard to leave the Porsche level of handling and speed behind at the end of the day. I sat at a stop sign in beautiful rural Bowmanville, wondering if my minivan would do that slingshot thing.
Freelance writer Lorraine Sommerfeld can be reached at lorraineonline.caToronto Star
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