Gearheads troop to Clark for a feast of horsepower

Five certified Porsche driving instructors from Porsche Germany planed in for the exercises.

Happy Chinese New Year!

We will be spending the start of the Year of the Sheep in a rather exciting and noise-filled way. The dragons that we will be riding though are from Stuttgart. For the fourth time, the Porsche World Roadshow will be held in the Philippines. Almost two dozen cars just arrived for this always-awaited opportunity.

I attended the first Porsche World Roadshow in the late ’90s before we even dreamed of what would eventually become C! Magazine. I was a car enthusiast, and jumped at the chance offered by a friend to join him (he was a Porsche owner), as long as I paid my way.

I gladly did, and even when this opportunity comes up today, I urge anyone with fuel in their hearts and minds to take advantage if they can. It is easier now: just call Porsche and PGA Cars and see if they have the space. It was an opportunity I never regret taking, and one I will take every chance I get.

The offroad capabilities of the new Porsche Cayenne will be at the Porsche World Roadshow.

Now, as someone who does this for a living, I have access I couldn’t possibly have imagined. Still, I honestly learn something  or I am reminded of something crucial that I wasn’t paying enough attention to every single time I go. Always worth it, not just for the fun but for the skills you pick up that can keep you and your loved ones alive.

What will be particularly interesting this year is all the technology that has come to the fore in the automotive world. In some ways, all Porsches are Porsches; you may think you can paint them all with one wide brush.

In other ways though, the range of the brand is as diverse as it has ever been. You have engines placed in the front, in the middle and in the back. You have power to either the rear wheels or all of them, and they work for safety but also to give you the ability to keep traction where historically that would have been impossible.

Yet as different as these vehicles all are, they are becoming surprisingly similar underneath their sleek metal skins.

The renowned Porsche World Roadshow returns to Clark International Speedway.

Porsches before needed strong arms to steer them, strong legs to shift them, and strong stomachs to keep the gas pedal down when you needed to. They were almost the epitome of hands-on, all-attention-needed driving, communicating very nearly directly from the road, and the mechanicals and the tires through to your hands, your feet, your stomach and your soul.

Nowadays, however, many enthusiasts worry about—if not decry the fact that—connections are electronic and not manual. Shifting is done for the most part by electronics, and Porsche’s amazing dual-clutch PDK  (Porsche Doppelkupplung) system will do better and shift quicker than any human consistently could.

I was, and  still am, a fan of manual shifters, and Porsche’s are among the slickest, but I do see that a better job is done by the computer than by myself.

Additionally, the fact that the transmission is now more connected to all the safety systems of the car make it much safer.

Porsche is bringing in 22 of its latest sports cars from Germany.

Engineers have said that it is in many ways the increased safety that demands the electronics take charge.

The only manuals I tested recently on a rainy German test track were the mid-engined Cayman and Boxster. And I have to say that they were truly wonderful, slick and smooth, and communicative.

The just-announced Cayman GT4 will also be a manual. Everything else seems to be going the way of the PDK.

The other area that electronics is looked at as less than purist is that of steering. Where before you had metal and rubber links transmitting road feel, and the reactions of the wheels on the ground to the one in your hands, you now have your commands sent by sensors to an electronic system that puts the wheels in the right positions and sends a determined feel back to you the driver.

The positives here are similar to those of the intelligent PDK and other automatic transmissions. The electronics can maximize efficiency, increase safety, and enhance comfort if needed.

The steering can be more assisted when you make a tight slow turn and less when you are hurtling through the countryside.

Also similar to the transmissions, the use of these electromechanical systems allows a wider use of primary components across the model ranges. This means that costs for production can go down, weight can also be potentially  lowered, and space can be saved and designs maximized accordingly.

There is no real doubt that the feel is different from sports cars of  bygone days, but that is not necessarily as bad a thing as purist fans say for most people or even most enthusiasts.

In some of the best handling cars and race cars of today and yesterday, there was so much movement and communication coming through the wheel that most modern drivers could easily be overwhelmed and exhausted.

In consistent track-time terms, the new systems do so much of the thinking in support of you that you may be able to concentrate on what really matters. Yet these systems can be so fine-tuned that what you feel in a Cayenne is appropriately different from what you feel in a Macan; the ones tuned for the Cayman let you experience the car’s amazing balance while the one in the 911 GT3 reminds you how raw the car is while still keeping you alive if you mess up.

Over the years with the influences of technology in areas of design, aerodynamics and production, many enthusiasts bemoan the loss of individuality in modern cars. They often look and feel more similar than distinct.

What we see now though is that these same advances are also allowing us to benefit from the increased safety and efficiency while still having drives that can be as breathtakingly exceptional as we could ever want.

(Carl Cunanan is the editor-in-chief of C! Magazine, one of the country’s leading motoring magazines. He will start his regular contributions with this issue.)