Coming to California: The Porsche Experience Center

Having recently broken ground, Porsche Motorsport North America and Porsche Historic Motorsport will soon have a new home when the Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles opens some time in the second half of 2015. The 53-acre site in Carson, Calif., will include various test and handling tracks, race simulators, a human performance center, a restaurant and events center, a theater and a conference center. Situated near the junction of Interstates 405 and 110, the Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles is destined to be a "Porsche World" in the heart of Southern California.

P.E.C. will be open to any devotee of the Porsche brand to enjoy the restaurant and to view the cars gathered in a museum setting within the main atrium. That atrium will essentially divide the facility between Porsche Motorsport North America's current racing activity and the new Historic Motorsport division on the other side. Glass walls on both sides will allow visitors a chance to peer in on the inner workings of both sides of the operation.

The owners of historic racing Porsches will have a limited opportunity to lease museum display space at the venue, which is also exciting news for Porsche fans who will now have a chance to get up close with machinery normally tucked away in a private garage.

"Many of our clients here in the U.S. love to share and display their cars, and not keep them hidden away," says Jens Walther, president and CEO of Porsche Motorsport North America. "The Porsche Experience Center offers the chance to create a 'living museum' environment, where a car can be on display today and on the track tomorrow. The owners of historic Porsches, as well as anyone who appreciates the brand, can now enjoy these cars like never before."

Moreover, clients can host private events at the Porsche Experience Center, with their car as the showpiece.

As a benefit, the Historic Motorsport division will make sure each car is kept ready to drive on the Experience Center test track.

"Normally, when a customer wants to take a car to the track, it can be a big production," explains Walther. "The car, parts and tools have to be loaded on a truck and driven to the nearest track just to get some laps in. When the Experience Center opens, our team can perform all of that. The adjacent track can also be used for rollouts and tests during preservation and service projects."

Porsches have long enjoyed the reputation of being the ultimate everyday-usable sports car, performing in both rush-hour traffic as easily as in an early morning back-road escape. The Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles serves as an extension of that ethos. In every way, from contemporary to historic motorsport, from customer delivery to driver training, the Porsche Experience Center perpetuates the idea that every Porsche was built to be driven. And luckily for us, many are built to be raced.

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