True sports-car lovers drive their machines through all seasons, and Porsche has been touting the year-round abilities of its vehicles at least since it introduced the 964 generation of the 911 with all-wheel drive in 1991. With the right tires, safe winter driving is not dependent on all-wheel drive (one need only count the Miatas in our mid-February parking lot for evidence), but owning a Porsche and knowing how to make the best use of it in the dead of winter are two different things. Which is why Camp4 exists. It’s Porsche’s winter driving school, taught from behind the wheel of the German brand’s sports cars. No, they don’t use Porsche SUVs, capable though they are; this version of the Porsche Driving Experience is for sports-car drivers. Programs are offered in five countries: above the Arctic Circle in Finland and in Switzerland, Italy, China, and Canada, the last of which we attended recently.
Conducted at Quebec’s Mécaglisse motorsport complex, about a 90-minute drive north from Montreal, Camp4 Canada’s 2017 sessions start at a cost of a little more than $4000 U.S. (actual prices are in Canadian currency, so the precise figure depends on exchange rates on the day you pay). That’s for the basic two-day Camp4 program; the top of the range, the three-day Camp 4RS, costs nearly $5700. Bridging the gap is Camp4S, a roughly $5000 three-day program. In order to sign up for Camp4S, customers must have previously completed an entry-level Camp4 class.
While the Porsches used in the Camp4 and Camp4S programs run on tires with 1.5-millimeter studs, the cars in Camp4RS benefit from rubber with 3.0-mm studs. Since our time at Camp4 Canada was spent in an abbreviated one-day version of the foundational course, the Porsches we piloted all wore 1.5-mm studs in their Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 tires. Our day began behind the wheel of a 911 Carrera 4S coupe equipped with Porsche’s PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission, in which we received instruction on how to navigate a small oval course using the Scandinavian Flick to bring the 420-hp all-wheel-drive coupe into a controlled drift through the apex.
After mastering tail-out driving in that car, we were plugged in to the driver’s seat of a PDK-equipped rear-wheel-drive 911 Carrera S and sent out onto a snowy skidpad with one simple order: induce oversteer. While we had no trouble kicking the tail out, we found it a tougher task to maintain a full Ken Block–style drift through the entirety of the skidpad. Alas, time was not on our side, and just as we thought we had figured it out, we were shuffled on to the next phase of Camp4, the slalom. Sitting snugly in the bolstered seats of a PDK-equipped Porsche 718 Cayman S, we were instructed to drift our way through the course’s cones, letting the mid-engined hatchback’s rear end slide from side to side like the tail of an excited puppy as we made each lateral transition.
With the white winter sun tracking closer to the western horizon, we saddled up in another Carrera 4S and piloted the rear-engined 911 to a small section of Mécaglisse’s approximately 1.6-mile-long road course. There, we were to test the skills we had accumulated throughout the day. Having spent the earlier part of the day swapping the stability control between Sport mode and fully off, we now felt bold enough to turn off the system from the get-go. With no nannies to help us toe the racing line, we confidently drifted past the track’s tall snowbanks, the twin-turbocharged flat-six rumbling heartily as the all-wheel-drive system effortlessly shuffled power between the front and rear wheels.
Is Camp4 worth its asking price? That’s a question best left to your accountant, and it depends on the depth of your desire to learn some mad skills for driving on snow and ice. There are a number of winter driving schools, some of which are less expensive, but it’s doubtful that any budget-friendly program includes wheel time in a Porsche or can match the professionalism of the Camp4 instructors and the luxurious accommodations at the Estérel resort. Camp4 Canada 2017 runs through February. More information about Camp4 Canada can be found here.
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