As a Porsche Owner

I don’t consider myself a confident driver, so I usually don’t drive fast. In fact, I tend to drive quite slowly, and my husband often tells me, “You need to drive a bit faster to really appreciate what this car can do….”

That said, whenever I see news reports about accidents involving Porsches on TV, it hits close to home and scares me.

Just recently, I saw a news story about an accident involving an air-cooled Porsche in Kyushu. Since I’ve driven that same fast road in my Panamera, I felt uneasy thinking, “So that’s where the accident happened….”

Actually, not long ago when the autumn leaves were still beautiful, I drove my 911 alone to the Royu Driveway. The road up to the Ashiya tollgate is quite tight with many narrow curves, so I don’t usually drive fast there, and that day was no different.

Then, just after exiting a certain curve, the car suddenly started to skid sideways, and with a rattling sound, the electronic stability control kicked in.

I had only experienced the stability control intervention during Porsche driving school sessions, so it was quite frightening. That day, I drove up to the observation deck and then immediately turned back home.

At the time, I didn’t understand why the car skidded at that speed, so I asked my husband after I got home. He said:

It was probably because you drove over fallen leaves. And since it had rained quite a bit until yesterday, those wet leaves make the road slippery. You have to avoid them because they’re dangerous. If it had been an air-cooled Porsche without safety features, you might have crossed into the oncoming lane, and if it had been a motorcycle, you’d have definitely slipped and fallen. You really need to pay closer attention to road conditions when driving.

I thought, wow… fallen leaves are that dangerous!

That’s when I realized how such factors can cause serious accidents, and I deeply felt the importance of always driving safely and understanding road conditions and the car’s behavior thoroughly before driving.

About Driving a Porsche

So far, I’ve participated twice in the Porsche Driving School (Porsche Track Experience), where I learned the importance of adjusting the seat position properly, and basic techniques like applying full brakes first when something suddenly appears, then steering only after the speed has dropped.

We also practiced steady-state circular driving in heavy rain to experience understeer and oversteer, and repeated full acceleration followed by full braking more than ten times. From this, I felt that “modern Porsches won’t become uncontrollable unless you drive recklessly.”

During the sessions, the instructor, a professional racer, said:

“Always strive to improve your precision so you can deliver stable performance in any situation. If you can do that, you’ll naturally be able to drive faster.“

Those words from a racer who regularly drives on circuits and understands the dangers of cars really stuck with me. Seeking speed is only meaningful when you have a foundation of stable driving.

I think Porsche’s incredible performance can also tempt drivers to get overconfident. The car can accelerate endlessly and handle curves at high speed so smoothly that it feels great, which sometimes leads to driving too fast.

That’s why if you’re driving a high-performance car like a Porsche, you need to be even more conscious of safety than usual.