A Really Special Gathering

It was a day on which Porsche Cars AustraIia pressed all the right buttons, organising logistics and providing accommodation and lavish hospitality at the Rydges Pit Lane Hotel. There was also generous track time with world-class instructors on hand and even detailing services to ensure the cars looked their best. On the night before the track day, a grand feast was prepared by Porsche ambassador Jock Zonfrillo founder of the restaurant of the moment, Orana in Adelaide. The array of exotic dishes made ample use of Zonfrillo’s trademark native ingredients—including an extraordinary combination of Adelaide Hills marron and green ants.

Mark Webber made an appearance via video from Europe, welcoming the throng to a circuit which was designed with his input. Just weeks earlier, he had set some spectacular lap times there at the Australian press launch of the eighth generation Porsche 911. With a total length of 7.77 kilometres, when the East and West circuits are combined to create the full GT Circuit, The Bend is the second longest permanent racetrack in the world, behind only Germany’s legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. The GT2 RS has now set production car records on both. After a driver briefing from Tomas Mezera, Chief Instructor of the Porsche Track Experience, the owners followed instructors at gradually increasing speeds, learning the two shorter circuits in the process. Then it was time to tackle the GT Circuit. “To see a grid full of them together in one spot is pretty overwhelming,” said owner Cindy Gilbert from Sydney. It was her first track experience in her GT2 RS, which she describes as “a very raw machine” and as a result, “a really fun car.”

“It’s incredible,” she said. “You don’t have to be a professional to handle it, as long as you don’t drive over your limits. Even so, I hit one corner way too fast and I was really glad I had left all the driver assistance systems turned on!”

After a perfect morning, the rain came down at lunchtime, but Mezera kept things upbeat. “What an opportunity,” he announced. “You learn so much in the wet!” For those not taking to the track in the afternoon, there was a Moet & Chandon Master Class, highlighting the joys of different types of Champagne. The Bend was chosen because it is new and so versatile, but it didn’t hurt that circuit owner Dr. Sam Shahin is a big fan of the brand, a GT2 RS owner and a Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia race-car driver. Born in a Palestinian refugee camp, Dr. Shahin is an inspirational character who, together with his family, built up the Peregrine Corporation, now the largest private employer in South Australia, with a staff of 4,500.

Creation of The Bend involved his whole family, brought to Australia by his father in 1984. “We wanted to give something back to this wonderful country that has given us so much.” Dr. Shahin (who practiced as a medical doctor for 12 years) says his GT2 RS is a piece of art to be admired whether stationary or moving. “My office is located right next to my garage with a glass window in the middle. When I get bored and need a break I turn it around and enjoy a different angle!”

So what did he learn from ‘tracking’ his GT2 RS? “It is a car that commands respect; it has incredible horsepower mixed with amazing technology that you feel almost reaches out from the centre of the car and grabs you if you’re about to make a mistake. It makes the driver look much better, with just the right amount of driver aids to make even a novice driver feel very comfortable.”

The event’s special guest of honour, Lars Kern, had flown in from Germany to try out the GT2 RS on the new circuit, meet Australian owners and visit his uncle, who moved to Adelaide 40 years ago. Kern is the chief test driver for Porsche passenger cars and set the record for a road-legal car at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in a GT2 RS in 2018. His time was just 6 minutes and 40.33 seconds. Kern was closely involved in the GT2 RS’s development from the very first prototype. “We really designed a car which is suitable for autobahns, mountain roads and for racetracks, but if you want to just go on track, you can make further adjustments. But at the start point it is quite good at everything.”

Kern said that first prototype was “wild and rude” and that’s exactly what they were trying to achieve. “It is brutal, it is two-wheel drive, and you really have to be awake driving the car, because the balance between power and grip is very different to, say, a GT3 RS.” Kern took GT2 RS owners—and Porsche Cars Australia managing director Sam Curtis—for some hot laps and showed even the best drivers among them that, however fast they thought a GT2 RS was, a man like Kern could make it go faster still.

Richard and Kylee Bennett, who shipped their car from Perth, completed a number of laps together. Bennett’s Porsche Track Precision App told him he hit 268 kmh at the end of the main straight. It was, he said dryly, “fast enough.” On a day on which so many cars are driven so hard, a slip-up or two is always possible, but not a single panel was dented, nor a wheel broken. Technical problems? Paul Watson, the head of Porsche Cars Australia’s backup crew, drew a blank: “That would be, let’s see: none.” Even wear and tear was low. “This track requires some major braking efforts, but the GT2 RS has carbon-composite rotors on all four wheels, so no one ran out of brakes. It’s low abrasion too, so there’s not much tyre wear. We expect our cars can be brought here, driven hard all day and driven home.”

“We really designed a car which is suitable for autobahns, mountain roads and for racetracks.” Lars Kern

CEO and Managing Director Sam Curtis declared the day a resounding success. “It was a loyalty reward programme for our owners to acknowledge their trust and support for the Porsche brand. “To take a car like the GT2 RS to a track like this, it doesn’t get much better.”