Porsche has opened a new track specially built for would-be buyers who want to experience what it is like to be behind the wheel of one of the company's renowned car models. The aptly named "Porsche Experience Center" cost $60 million to put up and the company hopes that the whole experience will turn skeptics into possible buyers.
The Porsche Experience Center, which is based in Los Angeles, opened its doors last week. It has a track that is 4.1 miles long wherein prospective buyers and Porsche owners can experience the freedom of driving the luxury car without much constraints imposed by public roads.
According to Automobile Mag, the whole facility sits on a triangle-shaped 53-acre center. Its core aim is to deliver an experience that no advertising campaign can achieve which is the pure and sheer pleasure of actually driving a Porsche-branded sports car or SUV.
Porsche is making a huge gamble in creating this new experience, especially in the age when car companies are starting to adopt virtual test drive circuits as opposed to the more expensive and daring strategy of actually building one.
Porsche Cars North America chief executive officer Klaus Zellmer sums up the whole intention of the new experience in a statement, "In a digital world, we need to offer opportunities to try the real thing."
Porsche is opening its new experience circuit at a rather difficult time. The brand's parent company, Volkswagen, is still cleaning up the fallout left behind by the diesel emission scandal which the company was at the center of. In fact, Volkswagen announced that it would lay off at least 30,000 employees as part of expenses cutback to cover the cost of court settlements, penalties, and buybacks brought upon by the dieselgate scandal.
According to USA Today, the Porsche Experience Center was not built to entice potential customers to buy new cars. Rather, the complex was built to entice would-be customer by providing them with the actual feel of what it is like to be behind the wheel of a Porsche.