The Festive Porsche Experience

[travisfickle]

Has anyone else received an invitation to the Festive Porsche Experience in November?

Has this been run before? If so, has anyone been? If so, was it enjoyable?

My experience with the Porsche Driving Experience at Silverstone was impressive, so my expectations are high.

The shopping/wonderland element does not interest me so much. Driving down quiet country lanes in what I assume will be a properly specced Turbo/S followed by a hearty lunch in a fine manor does!

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[KenR]

I received an invitation today. Not sure if I’ll go though. I did the Porsche track experience a while ago and it was great. I am so glad I had a light lunch prior to going out onto the track in a Taycan Turbo S.

 

[WuffvonTrips]

I'd guess that all customers who agreed to comms from their Porsche Centre, and expressed an interest in such activities e.g. food, culture, when completing their comms preferences form (or whatever it's called), are getting an invite to a (regional?) venue for this event.(mine was to Bolesworth Castle, presumably for NW customers).
In the 5 years I've had new Porsches, I've had occasional invites for various events but the frequency seems to have increased this year. I've not accepted any yet, but it is nice to get invites.

 

[Valerian]

Has anyone else received an invitation to the Festive Porsche Experience in November?

Has this been run before? If so, has anyone been? If so, was it enjoyable?

My experience with the Porsche Driving Experience at Silverstone was impressive, so my expectations are high.

The shopping/wonderland element does not interest me so much. Driving down quiet country lanes in what I assume will be a properly specced Turbo/S followed by a hearty lunch in a fine manor does!

Yes I've had an invitation and will go as my wife fancies the Christmas shopping and I might upgrade my Taycan without her noticing....

 

[travisfickle]

So it looks like a new experience for this year. I have not previously had any invitations. I have had my Taycan since mid-2021.

Hopefully it is enjoyable. I will feed back afterwards, in case this is helpful to anyone else.

 

[jagldn]

Received the invite, and will be going for sure!

 

[Nipri]

Has anyone else received an invitation to the Festive Porsche Experience in November?

Has this been run before? If so, has anyone been? If so, was it enjoyable?

My experience with the Porsche Driving Experience at Silverstone was impressive, so my expectations are high.

The shopping/wonderland element does not interest me so much. Driving down quiet country lanes in what I assume will be a properly specced Turbo/S followed by a hearty lunch in a fine manor does!

Booked mine for 25/11/23 for 12.30pm-15.30pm.
Looking forward to it.

 

[darth_maul_80]

For anyone who went, how was it?

Got my experience tomorrow

 

[travisfickle]

I am also going tomorrow. I am looking forward to it

 

[travisfickle]

I went to Waddesdon today. It was a great day and fortunately the rain stayed away.

The below contains spoilers, so only read this if you are happy to know what the day was about from my perspective.

Waddesdon Manor is a Grade II country house set in more than 100 acres of grounds. The event is actually at the Dairy, which is away from the main house and has a separate entrance and exit. There is gated entry and a good-sized car park outside. A lot of visitors were going to the Manor, where there are Christmas events.

We had what is now a customary warm welcome - just like at Silverstone for the Driving Experiences a few years back - and were quickly registered. We were then offered welcome mocktails and a three-course lunch (set menu) which was tasty and well presented. This all lasted about an hour.

There was then a short briefing session, followed by an hour on the road in a MY23 CT Turbo (luck of the draw). The route that was pre-programmed into the Sat Nav was fairly straightforward and innocuous. There were some nice twisty roads (national speed limit) but also a few villages where one had to take care. Since it was the early afternoon, the roads were not too busy (but also not exactly deserted). It helped that I have driven a Taycan for more than a couple of years since there was no real learning curve, and the 1 hour (shared between drivers by swapping at a pre-programmed stopover) was sufficient. The CT Turbo was as expected - powerful, quick, grippy, but nonetheless smooth.

The final hour or so (more like 45 minutes) was a diffuser-making workshop run by Marsden & Whittle. We got to concoct our own festive scent (with all materials and guidance provided). There was no hard sell, or in fact anything physically being sold by that company, so far as I could see. We were given a discount code for the online shop. The workshop was a nice touch. I had not anticipated it. We were given the diffuser we had made, and a couple of complimentary car diffusers, to take away.

We did not go along to the Christmas events at Waddesdon Manor (for which we were handed complimentary tickets). We did not have time. It is not really my thing. I am sure that there were good things to see(and things to buy) there.

I was impressed by the day. It was very relaxed. It was different to the Driving Experience (where I think I learned a lot more). We were basically given the keys to a Taycan and asked to follow the Sat Nav with some limited guidance, which allowed us to explore at our own pace. I do not think we needed longer than 30 minutes each. This was not like Silverstone, where far more time in the car is required and afforded, along with careful instruction.

I think it is important to note that Porsche set high expectations. I have been following this forum for three years or so. I have read lots of feedback - much of it positive and some of it negative. I have also had a handful of issues with my Taycan. These were sorted out by Porsche going above and beyond (with refunds and freebies in the case of the unavailable automatic steering column adjustment and missing remote access, and when my heater went, full and immediate compensation). I would like to acknowledge the great service.

I was not thinking of replacing my MY21 4S before today. I still am not considering changing it. It is the best car I have owned. The OTA updates together with the lack of any significant advances in hardware (or changes in design) so far as I am aware mean I have no reason to change things up. However, positive experiences like this do encourage me to come back to Porsche when I do want to replace my Taycan, perhaps in the next couple of years.

I hope this post is helpful for those who are interested or have not yet been to the event. If you have been, it would be good to know how your experience compared.

 

[darth_maul_80]

We were there at the same time as @travisfickle (don’t know if we met or not) but very similar experience. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon albeit didn’t push the car (carmine red CT Turbo S) we had to its limit apart from one or too big accelerations. Did much more at the Porsche experience centre.
Food was very good and the surprise event was really good fun. We did go over to Manor but only had time for the Christmas fair

 

[Deleted member 7514]

We went on Saturday was really nice day.. weather was great on sat but got cold quickly so we had only a quick shoot over to the stately grounds. All in all was a good day and my wife who had never driven our car finally did it without being nervous to crash our car !!

 

[WuffvonTrips]

The final hour or so (more like 45 minutes) was a diffuser-making workshop run by Marsden & Whittle.

Thanks for your detailed writeup. I spat my drink out at this point, as I excitedly imagined learning to make aerodynamic enhancements for my own car.

 

[darth_maul_80]

Thanks for your detailed writeup. I spat my drink out at this point, as I excitedly imagined learning to make aerodynamic enhancements for my own car.

on the way home my car had a double diffuser

 

[travisfickle]

Ha! Those are both good ones. I can see how the initial reference to "diffuser" could be misinterpreted.

Who knows, maybe Elon "Musk" is actually developing a scented double diffuser for the new Model Z/π/whatever?

(Sorry to the Tesla fans.)

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