This last Saturday, I drove the M3W to a "Drivers Skills" event hosted by the area Porsche club. Located on a large race track, it involves 6 training sessions that include accident avoidance, limit of adhesion handling on a skid pad, maximum braking (straight line and while turning), etc. So, these are more street-survival tactics rather than traditional race track training. Every time I get a different car, I take it out to one of these sessions to get a feel of how it handles at extremes that you'd rarely encounter on the street--but you might live longer if you knew how your car handles in a similar emergency situation.
I (and the long line of instructors who made sure they got rides in the M3W) was astounded at how neutral and effective the handling of the M3W is.
For whatever reason, I expected the M3W to have noticeable oversteer on the skid pad (maybe thinking about one particular 5th Gear episode). Not so. It has surprisingly neutral handling. With a plastic traffic cone set in the middle of the skid pad, I could turn the steering to full lock, then easily vary the size of the circle I made around the cone with the accelerator. When I transitioned form regular pavement to a portion that was particularly slippery, a slight flick of the steering wheel or adjustment to the throttle brought the car back under control. No surprises. No drama.
With the modest front tires, the car rewards smooth transitions. On extended serpentines (long lines of traffic cones that you weave through), a sudden movement of the steering wheel creates understeer (plowing; tending to go straight rather than turn). With smooth transitions, there were few cars faster through the cones (ok -- partly due to new drivers who'd never done this kind of thing before -- but a win is a win
). It does have noticeable body roll, but overall, the car felt flat and controllable. I'll take some controlled body roll over a harsh ride any day for a street car.
In high speed turns, the car drifted nicely with easy control. Several senior instructors remarked that they expected the car to be an ill-handling style exercise and were struck by how competent it is.
Overall, what a joy to drive out at the edges of adhesion -- quite far from my normal driving, but good to understand in a traffic emergency.
The car had so many people taking pictures and lined up to go for rides on the course....I spent extra time complimenting the other drivers on their cars.
On a couple of the stages, after a few runs, I had learned what I wanted about the car, so drove it off to the side and let the engine cool while the other drivers continued. Managing the heat of the engine on a series of short, full throttle runs was the only consideration for the day.
A great day!
