Porsche's winter driving school not for the faint-hearted

NOTRE-DAME-DE-LA-MERCI, QUE.—“Beware the snowbanks!”

Armed with that bit of advice, we were handed the keys to a variety of Porsches and sent out onto an icy track to find and exceed the limits of grip.

When you’re piloting someone else’s 400-horsepower, $100,000+ Porsche 911 around a winding, slick trail — and deliberately trying to get the gorgeous machine to go sideways —those snow banks loom like the white cliffs of Dover.

The setting is Camp4, Porsche’s winter driving school in the Laurentian mountains, 90 minutes north of Montreal. The basic course is an intensive two-day event. Master it and two more levels are available, all at the same Mecaglisse facility.

The objective is to replace your common sense with some serious skills — while having some fun — between those high, white mountains.

The school let us loose in three Porsche models, selected to focus on different driving skills.

The 911 Carrera S is a rear-wheel drive coupe, with 350 hp and a zero-to-100 km/h time of 4.9 seconds. The Carrera 4S is the 4-wheel drive variant, with 400 hp and a zero to 100 time of 4.5 seconds. Both cars have the classic Porsche rear-engine configuration.

The Cayman S has 325 hp, rear-wheel drive and a zero-to-100 time of 5 seconds flat.

All the cars are wearing studded tires and come equipped with Porsche’s PDK automatic transmission with paddle shifters and the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) system. The instructors half-jokingly call PSM “Please Save Me” for its ability to correct many common driving errors.

We’re there to learn how to save ourselves, even when the PSM is turned off.

Lesson one? The throttle is not an on-off switch. A 325- or 400-hp Porsche is a formidable car wherever you drive it. On ice, that power can get you into trouble in a wink if it’s applied too aggressively.

We’re frequently reminded how the metres-high snow mounds just look fluffy. Underneath the white stuff lurks a hard heart of ice that will bend, break and mangle fancy German machines foolishly enough to flirt.

Our instructor’s helper carries a wooden spoon in her parka pocket — not to discipline wayward drivers but to dig the powder from grilles and radiators.

A “Cayenne of Shame” (Porsche’s SUV) lurks quietly, ready to extract any errant cars and drivers.

In addition to basics like vision and proper seating position, the course teaches how to deal with understeer — when the car’s wheels are turned but it keeps going straight — and oversteer, when the car turns more than intended, causing the back end to come around (also known as a spin).

Students are paired to play follow-the-leader as instructors demonstrate exercises. Then the instructors and their helpers stand out in the cold and control the action via two-way radio as each pair of students drives the course, trying to perfect the correct techniques to maintain control of the car.

Performed first with PSM on, then with it turned off, the exercises become progressively more challenging as the day progresses. It’s made more interesting as you cycle through the different models to learn how the combinations of engine position and rear- or all-wheel drive change the handling.

It’s intense, requiring a lot of concentration and good co-ordination. Frustration builds when the car just wants to spin, and the rapid-fire instructions barking through the radio do not work for every driver.

But by the end of the day we were driving a long track that combined hairpins, steep hills, off-camber ice-covered corners and drift-inducing chicanes. As we drove each car through the lapping course, the differences between the Cayman and the two 911s were obvious. Making them all slide through the corners was thrilling.

A quick kiss of the snowbank on a corner exit delivered a quick frisson of fear, but the heart- and car-stopping moment of impact with the big bank mercifully never came. Not everyone was so careful.

The very instructor who warned us about the evils lurking beneath the fluffy dusting of fresh powder explosively stuffed his 911 into a bank three times during the ride-along hot laps that ended the day.

Better him than me.