At Last, the Long-Awaited Porsche Experience Center LA

The day before yesterday, we safely arrived back at Kansai International Airport from San Francisco. I’m so glad the whole family returned home healthy. Traveling overseas with two young kids, aged 4 and 1, was quite the challenge. Or rather, our free-spirited 1-year-old daughter was quite a handful (laughs). I learned that if you’re traveling to long-haul destinations like the US or Europe with small children, it’s probably easier either when they’re newborns who don’t understand anything yet, or when they’re around 3 years old and a bit more independent.

So, we stayed three nights in San Francisco, then flew to Los Angeles. The place we were most excited to visit in LA was none other than the Porsche Experience Center (hereafter: PECLA). The Porsche Experience Center is a facility where you can directly experience the Porsche brand, test the car’s power, sportiness, and safety firsthand.

Worldwide, there are only six Porsche Experience Centers: Atlanta, Los Angeles, Le Mans, Leipzig, Silverstone, and Shanghai. Incidentally, Mr. Shichigosanagi, President of Porsche Japan, has previously announced at a press conference his desire to open a Porsche Experience Center in Japan as well. We hope so! Within the PECLA grounds, there are

two circuits, an off-road course, a dynamics area, a start control, an acceleration straight, a low-friction circuit, and a skid driving practice area—eight training modules in total—plus rotating exhibits of rare racing cars, a gourmet restaurant, and a 6.5 km test and development circuit.

*Source: Porsche Opens New Experience Center in Los Angeles

Finally, Heading to the Site

From our hotel in Long Beach, LA, it took about 20 minutes by car to reach PECLA. It’s conveniently located with good access from the airport. While driving on the highway, you can see the PECLA course and buildings adorned with the Porsche crest right beside you, so you won’t get lost. Upon arrival, many Porsches were parked in the lot, and the entrance proudly displayed a large “PORSCHE” sign.

Amazing! So big! Inside the entrance, reception staff wearing Porsche polo shirts warmly welcomed us. The staff spoke to the kids in English at a normal pace, with an attitude like “Of course you guys speak English, right?” (I could barely keep up listening, haha) I guess most visitors here are Americans. Maybe tourists from Japan are quite rare.

At the reception, I looked for any mention of an “Admission fee” but found none. When I asked, they said it’s completely free to tour the facility! (Driving experiences on the Porsche test course are paid.) How generous! After filling in our names, email addresses, and phone numbers, we received visitor cards.

Looking around the display area, there was a lineup of legendary cars that you rarely get to see… or rather, only at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. I’ll introduce each of those cars with photos in a separate article.

The Well-Stocked Merchandise Corner

After checking out the exhibits, we headed to the merchandise shop in the back. They sold various Porsche goods, including many PORSCHE DESIGN items not available at Japanese Porsche dealers. I felt it was even better stocked than the Porsche Museum shop in Stuttgart.

There were plenty of women’s clothes and bags, and one bag really caught my eye…! It was a stylish, roomy bag from “PORSCHE DESIGN” that you could use for outings. Normally, I’m the type who thinks “One bag for work, one for everyday, and a Porsche backpack for travel” is enough, so it’s rare for me to want another bag. When I picked it up, a staff member immediately came over to explain it to me (I’m not great with salespeople approaching me so quickly…).

But when I saw the price, I was shocked… it was several times more expensive than I expected. I said “Just looking” and quickly put it back, but my husband said, “It’s great! If you like it, buy it. You can’t get it in Japan.” “Really? Are you sure? But it’s expensive…”

After about a minute of back-and-forth, my husband said, “I’ll buy it for you.” So I told the staff, “I’ll take it!” and they were surprised, like “Really!? (You said you were just looking a minute ago!)” Thank you so much, dear husband!