The Most Fun You’ll Have Driving in Japan

The Porsche Experience Center Tokyo Circuit offers sports car enthusiasts high-energy training as you race around their spectacular 43-hectare obstacle course in rural Chiba. 

On a recent visit, I was given the keys to Porsche’s first ever all-electric sports car, the four-door, four-seat Taycan Turbo that retails for about ¥30 million depending on specs. 

In slight drizzle, we took on the 2.1km Handling Track, which is unique for its extremely challenging design that incorporates the natural geographic elements of the area. Famous corners such as the Carousel and the Corkscrew are also key features that scared the life and sweat out of me, as is an undulating surface sprayed with slippery water, and other obstacles such as a treacherous hydraulic kick plate that randomly shifts the car into a violent spin or skid. 

At each stage, you swap seats with a professional coach who first shows you how to enjoy safe driving along with exhilarating acceleration and cornering that left my stomach on the back seat; slamming the brakes down hard on sprinkler-soaked tarmac at very high speed; drifting aimlessly on wet polished concrete until you spin dizzyingly out of control, and driving arrow-straight lines at breathtaking kmph.

I missed the throaty roar of traditional internal combustion while almost silently gliding along, so I simply flicked on the Electric Sport Sound for a comforting F1-style growl from the 616hp motors front and rear; and for the pedantics out there, yes, it’s not really a Turbo, due to being all-electric, but it boasts solid turbo performance. 

I can’t argue with their slogan: “The most fun you’ll have driving in Japan.”