A friend recently took delivery of a 2016 Porsche GT4 (non-car nerds: it’s a rare model, there’s like, 4 in Canada.)
He messaged me, “want to come help break it in?”
YES I DO.
This is only my 2nd time around the big track at Mosport.
I am loving this.
Then I see the odometer.
Me: there’s only 390 km on this thing?! It’s too soon to be doing this!
Him: [smirks] you sure?
Me: Very! I wrote a column about it – 1,000 km minimum before you go nuts
Him: it’s okay Keri, we’ll get there, we just have to keep going around
So we did.
He had to be interviewed before Porsche would even sell him the car, isn’t that crazy? Now there’s a column topic.
3.8 Litre engine
385 horsepower
309 lb.-ft. of torque
Rear-wheel drive
6-speed manual transmission only
0-100 km/h in 4.4 seconds
Top speed of 295 km/h
Starting at $96,500
This one $117,500
There’s even a G-Force monitor.
Look what he did to the tires HAHA.
Then the best thing happened.
“You want to drive it Keri? You can’t on the track, but here.” He tosses me the keys and walks away.
I’m standing there open mouthed, he’s not even coming to supervise?
No way would I be this cool with my new car.
So I sound good, I turn on the SPORT button – automatically blips the throttle on downshifts – and the sport exhaust too.
First things first – let’s do a photoshoot.
Come ON this back end.
Driver-oriented interior indeed.
And I’m off.
First Porsche I’ve driven, and is it always this easy? There’s zero learning curve, it’s just … intuitive is the word?
Loved the gearbox and engine note, inside is ergonomically beautiful, and how refreshing is the lack of steering wheel controls.
I hang a right out of the track and it’s around the block, again, again, again until okay go back in and stop pushing your luck.
But not before I stop inside the tunnel, put the windows down and rev it for quite a while.
Blog tag = 2016 Porsche GT4
(Photo by Angelo Parisi)
