At its Atlanta Experience Center, Porsche has built a new track that will be open to the public on April 1. The track has turns that look like the famous Corkscrew at Laguna Sea, the Bus Stop at Daytona, and the Russell at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. At a recent event for the media, people got to try out the track and other features like an autocross course and a wet skid pad. The trip will take 7,500 miles. You used to have to travel that far to drive the Corkscrew at Laguna Esca, the Bus Stop chicane at Daytona, and the Ka Russell at the Nürburgring-Northschleife.As part of a multimillion-dollar expansion at Porsche’s North American headquarters, a new track with recreations of all three famous corners will open to the public on April 1 at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta. Porsche says that nearly 400,000 people have visited the Porsche Experience Center since it opened in 2015. The building previously housed a handling circuit, restaurant, gift shop, and small Porsche museum. Hermann Tile, who designed the Bahrain International Circuit and other Formula One track, has now added a new one. Private 90-minute Porsche sports car lessons will use the 1.3-mile West Track. It can be added to the original circuit or used independently, which we did at a media event before the grand opening. Last year, the 1073-hp 718 Cayman GT4 reperformance prototype, which we first rode in at Porsche’s Experience Center in Franciacorta, Italy, was one of the Porsches we drove on the course. The other Porsches were a 911 GT3 and a Tayca. Even though it doesn’t have a straightaway as long as the one in Italy, where the performance reached a top speed of about 150 mph, the hilly terrain of the new Atlanta circuit makes it feel more exciting. Having a Good Time at the Race After leaving the pits, you go up a series of short eases and down to a sharp 90-degree turn to the right. Then you go up 30 feet to a Corkscrew that looks like Laguna Seka and has a 25-foot drop through a chicane that will make your heart race. The track’s twisty back half resembles the Great Smoky Mountains’ Tail of the Dragon road. This is right before the bumpy, banked Carousel, which tries hard to shake the chassis. Inside the West Track’s boundaries are three more setups that can be used to teach more driving skills. On a 196-foot-diameter skid pad, which Porsche calls a “low-friction circle” with wet, polished concrete, drivers can learn how to control understeer and oversteer and find out where their grip limits are. In a 718 Cayman GT4, we kept a drift on the skid pad while grinning like fools. Ice Hill ascent The Ice Hill is another one. It looks like a hill you might climb on ice in the winter in the northern United States. Driving on its 8% slope and smooth, wet surface, drivers learn how to use the gas, brakes, and steering smoothly when bumpy. We went in different kinds of cars. An all-wheel-drive Macon let us drift without losing control, but a rear-wheel-drive Cayman needed a light right foot to get up the hill. Lastly, a comprehensive, paved autocross course with cones makes it possible to learn many different skills, from how to get off the line and stop hard to steer precisely around tight corners. The quiet but heart-stopping Tayca Turbo S and the loud 911 GT3 were used to test the launch control. The new handling course is part of a 2.9-mile road that includes all track surfaces, including the original circuit. The Porsche Experience Center is close to Atlanta International Airport, and both Porsche owners and people who don’t own Porsches will be able to use the track.
