Porsche drivers with a need for speed get new playground in L.A.
An old South Bay golf course has been converted into a playground for adrenaline junkies and gearheads.
Porsche Motorsports North America has opened a $60-million facility in Carson where car lovers can hone their driving skills on a 4.1-mile track featuring a 3/4-mile straightaway, banked curves, water hazards and a slalom driving area.
The 53-acre facility — called the Porsche Experience Center — was designed to entice car fans to invest in the pricey German-made sports cars or simply hone their driving skills with one of 77 high-performance Porsches stored at the track.
The automotive fun zone, unveiled as the Los Angeles Auto Show gets underway, represents an unusual investment for Porsche as competition increases from the likes of Tesla Motors and others to sell their luxury machines.
“It’s all about the brand,” said Detlev von Platen, a member of Porsche’s executive board. “We want to create an environment where you can feel, touch and value our brand.”
The price is steep: A 90-minute session on the track in a 718 Boxster, with a driving coach in the passenger’s seat, costs a minimum of $384. The price can go as high as $950 for a 90-minute session to drive and compare two cars, such as a Porsche 911 turbo and a 911 GT3.
Because some of the cars are valued at more than $100,000 apiece, all drivers must sign liability waivers.
A 50,000-square-foot building at the facility includes a restaurant, a car museum, conference center and a “laboratory” with Porsche driving simulators, where drivers are charged $35 for a 30-minute session.
Porsche also envisions the center as a place where car aficionados can hold bachelor parties, corporate meetings or even weddings. A viewing area has been added where average Joes can watch the cars race around the track free of charge.
Auto industry analysts say the driving course should help turn Southern California car buffs into Porsche devotees and give Porsche dealers a hand in persuading reluctant buyers to make an investment in a Porsche.
“Porsche has a very distinct feel and it’s hard to experience it on a public road or on a test drive,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book, the automotive research company.
Drivers aren’t allowed to bring their own cars on the driving course. But local car dealerships can direct would-be buyers to the facility for a high-speed test drive. The fleet of cars at the facility includes the 911, Panamera, 718 Boxster, 718 Cayman, Macan and Cayenne.
“You can bring your customer to this playground to show them what their car can do,” said Klaus Zellmer, president and chief executive of Porsche Cars North America.
The Los Angeles-area facility also includes a room where Porsche buyers can check out leather swatches and paint colors to design their own cars from the manufacturer.
Porsche chose Los Angeles for its motorcar theme park because California is the largest car market in the world and a quarter of all Porsche sales come out of Southern California.
The facility was built adjacent to the intersection of the San Diego Freeway and the Harbor Freeway, about 13 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, for ease of access to Porsche fans wanting to fly into town for a drive, company executives said. It is the second such Porsche track in the U.S.
Among the track’s features is a slick downward slope that is continuously sprayed with water. As drivers roll down the wet pavement, a hidden hydraulic plate randomly kicks the back tires to the right or the left. Drivers are forced to react quickly to straighten their cars on the slippery surface.
The track also includes a curving, low-friction handling course of polished concrete where drivers can practice keeping a speeding car under control even when the wheels have lost their grip.
To ensure safety, parts of the course are bordered by concrete barriers and a crew member stands at the entrance of the course to limit the number of cars on the blacktop at one time.
Last year, a crash at Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida killed an instructor, working for Petty Holdings, who was a passenger in a Lamborghini that hit a guardrail after the tourist driving the car lost control.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration fined Petty Holdings nearly $7,000 for the incident. Disney has since demolished the track as part of previously announced transportation upgrades for the Walt Disney World resort.
The Los Angeles Porsche center opens only a year after Porsche rolled out a $100-million facility in Atlanta with a shorter track, at 1.6 miles, but a larger 220,000-square building that can accommodate up to 1,000 people. The Atlanta site is the North American headquarters for Porsche with 450 employees.
The Atlanta operation drew 36,000 visitors in its first year, and Porsche executives predict the Los Angeles center will bring in at least 50,000 road warriors.
Driving tracks are gaining traction around the country, although many are open primarily to members with deep pockets, such as New York’s Monticello Motor Club.
In the desert south of Coachella, a gas-station magnate built a 344-acre theme park for car collectors and speedsters. Known as the Thermal Club, the facility includes a five-mile track, surrounded by land where car collectors can build villas to house their most cherished vehicles.
Most of the facility is set aside for members only but BMW has carved out a 32-acre portion where drivers can rent and race a BMW.
About a dozen villas have been built, with a dozen more under construction, said David Jenkins, a sales representative at the Thermal Club.
“So many people have expensive, high-end performance cars but nowhere to drive them,” he said.
The Porsche Experience Center was built on the site of the old Dominguez Hills Golf Course, which opened in 1950 and was closed in 2012.
The course’s landmark giant golfer statue has been preserved, but he’s gotten a makeover. Now he wears racing gear and his golf club has been replaced with a checkered flag.
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UPDATES:
4:40 p.m.: This article has been updated with analysis from Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book and with history of the site.
1:45 p.m.: This article has been updated to pinpoint Carson as the location of the facility and to explain why Porsche chose that spot.
This article was originally published at 11:30 a.m.
