By Gabriel Gelinas
Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, Que. • The pre-driving briefing begins with some choice words attributed to legendary race car driver Walter Röhrl, a two-time World Rally Champion: “The true art of car control is felt in an unstable way of driving.”
This short sentence sets the tone for the rest of the day at Porsche’s Camp 4 Canada, a driver training program conducted exclusively on snow and ice surfaces at the Mecaglisse Complex located in the northern Laurentians — where participants get to drive a series of Porsche models specially fitted with studded tires for the program.
With a total of more than 5,000 horsepower delivered by the Porsches on hand for the occasion, more ice and snow will be shredded in one day at Mecaglisse than by local snowboarders on the mountains close by.
Mastering car control requires professional training, a safe course with plenty of run-off room and cars in which the electronic driving aids can be switched off. Porsche’s Camp 4 Canada provides all of that, and students will find their driving skills and their confidence levels reaching new heights after the two-day driver training program.
This year marks the second year Porsche Canada is offering the Camp 4 driving program to its customers. Last year, 90 of them paid the $5,000 tuition fee for the two-day, three-night package. All the basics are covered, starting with finding the correct driving position behind the wheel, enabling the driver to always be in control of the car, even with full opposite lock.
The four driving forces — braking, acceleration, turning and wheel loadings — are explained by the instructors. Students get to first “feel” the cars out with the electronic stability control system on before switching it off in various driving exercises, such as slalom courses and traction circles before navigating the full 2.5-kilometre snow-and-ice-covered track.
Camp 4 students first learn to adequately judge the available grip level, to always look where they want to go (and not where the car is going), to steer smoothly and to “balance” the car by using both the brakes and the throttle to transfer its weight. After the basics, they then learn to drift the car into the corners as well as the specific handling characteristics of rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles.
Driving dynamics, handling and car control is what it’s all about as students find out the difference between understeer (where the car’s front end does not want to turn into the corner) and oversteer (where the car’s rear end is sliding toward the outside of the corner).
On that particular subject, here’s more wisdom from Röhrl: “If you have seen the tree you just hit, you were understeering. If you have only heard it, you were oversteering …”
No trees were hit during our one-day abbreviated program as the course is very safe, but a few drivers managed to wedge 911 Carreras and Caymans into some thick snowbanks bordering the track, calling the “search and rescue” team with its Cayenne fitted with tow ropes into action. Only egos were bruised.
The fun factor is soon at full throttle and the apprehension felt at the beginning of the day is replaced by kilometres-wide smiles as the participants gain in confidence as the day progresses.
At $5,000 for the experience, Camp 4 is not cheap. But the skill sets acquired are sure to make a better driver out of anyone. And, be warned, the fun you’ll have shredding ice at full throttle can become addictive.
