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Porsche pleasure

Darius Lamgets to drive a convoy of dream machines at Leipzig in East Germany

GONE IN SECONDS A line-up of beauties

I am in a Porsche 911 looping around Porsche’s Formula One-certified race track at its Leipzig plant in East Germany and ahead of me I can see the ultimate convoy of dream machines that will have any car enthusiast drooling for days – a l ine-up of some amazing Porsche models including the Cayman, Boxster and Carrera 4.

Adrenaline pumps through my veins as the sheer force of acceleration pushes me into the seat. The big red tacho needle on the Porsche 911 winds its way upwards — 5000… 6000… 7000, nearing the redline.

I can feel the hair at the back of my neck raised; an effect caused by the deep bass of the exhaust note and all of a sudden the next corner is on me and I am hard on the brakes downshifting, which brings me back to a sane speed.

And as I take subsequent laps, I get behind the wheel of the other cars as well and each manages to impress me with their fantastic power and superb handling.

So how did I get so lucky? We got to Leipzig owing to an invitation from Porsche’s lubricant partner ExxonMobil; the latter invited us in order to flaunt their association with Porsche and the two have been in partnership for about a decade already.

Mobil 1 has been the recommended engine oil for Porsche road cars since 1996. In addition, the two work on new engine development and the ExxonMobil technical teams and Porsche engineers work closely in order to make sure the engine oil meets the requirements of a particular engine.

The track on which I drove these beauties itself is a collection of the most famous sections of race tracks from the world over like the corkscrew from Laguna Seca, the Loews hairpin at Monaco, S bends at Suzuka, the Mobil 1 S chicane from the Nurburgring, the Bus Stop from Spa-Francorchamps and the Lesmo curves from Monza.

Besides road cars, the association between the German car maker and ExxonMobil also extends in the area of motor sport. Some of the activities in which they are involved together include the SuperCup (which follows the F1 calendar), Carrera Cup and RS Spyder project, which competes in the American Le Mans Series.

When Mobil 1 became the title sponsor of the Porsche SuperCup series recently, this partnership grew stronger than ever.

Frank Steffen Walliser, general manager, motorsport strategy had this to say “We prefer to participate in long-distance races since they translate into direct improvements on our road cars in areas like reliability, driver comfort and durability. SuperCup and Carrera Cup competitors use the same specification of Mobil 1 lubricant added to all our road cars.”

The Porsche mother plant at Stuttgart was running at full capacity manufacturing the 911 and Boxster.

Therefore, to accommodate the making of the Cayenne SUV, the Leipzig plant was opened in 2002 and this plant also made a limited run of the Carrera GT supercar.

Around 200 Cayennes are made here everyday and 20 percent are the high-end Cayenne Turbo. Controlled at present by Porsche, Volkswagen supplies the welded and painted Cayenne bodies directly to the plant where the final assembly and powertrain fitment takes place.

A challenging 6-km off-road circuit at Leipzig that runs through a former East German military training ground with bunkers that form obstacles has also been constructed by Porsche.

Along with CEO of ExxonMobil Lubricants India, Zarko Pavlovic, I was taken for a truly scary ride in a Cayenne – Porsche wanted to demonstrate the Cayenne’s capabilities — climbing 60-degree slopes, negotiating a 35-degree side slope, crossing deep water and driving over those bunkers which once housed Soviet and East German soldiers.

Yes, the off-roading capability of the Cayenne is tremendous, though we doubt many Cayenne owners would want to put their precious Porsche through such an extreme test.

Even if they did, it would pass without any difficulty.

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