There are currently nine Porsche Experience Centres in the world, with only two on the North American continent. These centres allow those fortunate enough to attend the ability to enjoy the prowess of the Porsche model line-up in a first-hand manner, under the guidance of expert instructors, all under the umbrella of a luxury experience associated with the brand.

For those that are not able to attend Porsche’s slice of automotive heaven, then there is the Porsche World Road Show (PWRS). On June 22, the PWRS made a stop in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

“The event has gone great. It’s nice to get press from other countries, especially the Caribbean to come over to the Dominican Republic and have the opportunity to drive cars that maybe aren’t readily available in their particular market,” Angel Colon, regional sales manager Latin America — Porsche Latin America, told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

The 12-day event opens with a day of full media access to a large fleet consisting of Porsche’s wide range of high-performance sports cars and SUVs, and then transitions into 11 days of customer experience.

“We have had at least eight events here in the Dominican Republic. We try to do them every three to four years. We just did one here in 2018, right before the pandemic hit,” he said.

For the media in attendance, an early morning start from Porsche Centre Santo Domingo had them assigned to groups that would then share driving duties as they rotated between the driver’s seats and the collection of vehicles available. The collection on hand featured everything from the Macan S to the record-breaking 911 GT3 and Cayenne Turbo GT, to the future of the brand, the all-electric Taycan.

“We have some pretty cool cars out here today. We have every model available, so from your entry level Macan to the top dog 911 Turbo S, and GT3. In the SUVs we have the Cayenne Coupé GT. Again, the Porsche World Road Show is a really nice way to get people to kind of see all the cars and drive the cars,” said Colon.

With the green light given, the less-than-inconspicuous convoys of Porsches made their way under police escort through the urban streets of Santo Domingo. Mirroring that of most Caribbean capital cities, the heavy morning traffic only enhanced the luxury associated of driving a Porsche, while demonstrating the many driver assist and safety technologies packed into each vehicle. Road signs were recognised indicating local speed limits, while blind spot monitoring ensured no contact with errant traffic.

Once past the tolls on the outer edge of the city, the two-hour trek to Casa de Campo on the lower eastern end of the island began. The Porsches faced over 130km of highway to the destination driving just as epically as the scenery and the contours of the route around them. After a lunch stop to relax and refresh the whole journey restarted with a return to Santo Domingo.

At the end of this stage of the PWRS 2022, the cars will be packed up and shipped to their next destination in South America for the next leg. Colon stated that the PWRS format changes based on local regulations as some are pure road trips, while other may feature a race track element. He also does see a point where a PWRS event would happen on Jamaican shores as the response to the Porsche brand under the ATL Automotive Group banner has impressed him.

“When Porsche first arrived in Jamaica a lot of people thought that a Porsche was unattainable, or it was very expensive, or it was too much sports car, and now that we have people actually driving the vehicles around the country that perception has changed. Our Jamaican clientèle, their passion for Porsche is very strong.”