Porsche will make investments greater than $50 million to construct a second driving observe at its Atlanta Expertise Middle — considered one of two U.S. efficiency observe facilities that retailers say are serving to join customers with the Porsche model.
The brand new 1.3-mile circuit, which is able to open within the first quarter of 2023, shall be linked to the present 1.6-mile driver improvement observe.
Sellers say the expertise facilities are serving to them construct buyer loyalty and promote automobiles.
The deliberate growth is the cornerstone of a 33-acre multimillion-dollar improvement on the Porsche Vehicles North America headquarters campus subsequent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport that features a 20,815-square-foot service heart and a basic manufacturing unit restoration heart.
“The bodily connection a driver enjoys with our sports activities automobiles is core to the Porsche model, which is why we’re increasing this feature whilst we and our sellers spend money on new digital contact factors for purchasers,” Porsche Vehicles North America CEO Kjell Gruner famous. “The 2 worlds — digital and actual — complement one another.”
For Porsche lovers, the model’s 9 international expertise facilities are like Disneyland. Porsche’s different U.S. expertise heart is in Los Angeles. The websites supply a cultural immersion into the model and provides guests a uncommon likelihood to push Porsche fashions to their limits.
The facilities are anchored by a driver improvement observe the place guests drive their favourite Porsche mannequin coached by knowledgeable driver. The facilities additionally supply different options, resembling a basic sports activities automobile show, a racing simulator lab, a customization studio and a restaurant.
Ryan Kirchner, new-car supervisor at Porsche of The Essential Line in Newtown Sq., Pa., calls the facilities an “pleasure builder.”
“Nothing just like the observe will get the guts pumping and the adrenaline flowing,” Kirchner stated.
“Porsches are designed for racetracks, however not everyone has a racetrack of their yard. So having a spot that any person can go to get that have and the instruction to go along with it, opens up an entire new view of the model and the capabilities of the automobile.”
Earlier than the pandemic started, the Atlanta facility hosted on common greater than 6,400 guests a month.
“We do a number of charity occasion sponsorships and when there are raffles or silent auctions for these we’ll typically embrace reward certificates to the Expertise Facilities,” Kirchner stated. “It is an effective way to get folks from these occasions to expertise the Porsche model.”
Vehicles aren’t bought straight from the U.S. facilities, however each U.S. areas play host to the automaker’s New Car Supply program, the place house owners are handled to a white-glove reveal, connoisseur lunch and a observe expertise.
Porsche is “reserving a lot enterprise out of these locations,” stated a Porsche retailer who requested that he not be recognized.
“As a vendor, I can not e book something however a GT automobile to take supply at a PEC proper now.”
The brand new observe will characteristic components impressed by iconic driving environments, such because the plunging Corkscrew flip at California’s Raceway Laguna Seca, the steeply banked Karussell (Carousel) nook at Germany’s Nürburgring-Nordschleife and the curves of the Nice Smoky Mountains’ Tail of the Dragon.
The addition will characteristic three new driving circumstances: a low-friction, wetted 60-meter asphalt circle; an ice hill with a moist and slick floor together with a hill to exhibit traction management; and a protracted stretch of asphalt to exhibit dealing with capabilities.
“The completely different driver-development modules on the observe are the place the joys of a Porsche involves life bodily,” stated Porsche’s North American advertising and marketing chief Pedro Mota. “The place you possibly can contact and really feel the dynamics and engineering that make each Porsche a sports activities automobile.”