Get to know your Porsche better with Porsche Track Experience

Become a better driver with Porsche Track Experience Master Training

How one married couple get to know their cars better with the help of Porsche experts

December 18, 2025 | 6 min read

Couple stand in front of red Porsche 911 GT3 at the Porsche Track Experience at the Nürburgring [credits Photo: Porsche]

As multiple Porsche owners, the Bügelmayers wanted to find out how they can push the limits of their driving capabilities. Luckily, regular visits to the Nürburgring provide the answers

Many couples share a passion for Porsche, the enjoyment of driving together and sense of community this brings – but for Elisabeth and Bernhard Bügelmayer this passion goes a decisive step further. Several times a year they seek to push their respective limits further on the racetrack with the Porsche Track Experience, each in their own car. Two enthusiasts, who just happen to be married to each other, discovering a love of speed together.

The pull of Porsche Track Experience Master Training

It’s lunch break at the Porsche Track Experience Master Training at the Nürburgring. One after the other, the participants’ cars come in from their final fast lap of the morning session and park up on the Nordschleife, by the entrance to Döttinger Höhe.

Woman with racing helmet in yellow Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet — Driving together – and mostly in separate Porsche sportscars – has become a huge passion for married Austrian couple Elisabeth (pictured here in their 911 Turbo S Cabriolet) and Richard Bügelmayer Photo: Porsche

Among the 911 coupés taking a well-earned rest from a morning’s hard driving, a yellow 911 Turbo S Cabriolet stands out. Elisabeth Bügelmayer takes off her helmet and seems satisfied with her lap. A red 911 GT3 lines up directly behind her – like her Porsche, it bears an Austrian number plate, but this is no coincidence. It’s her husband Bernhard at the wheel. For several years, the two have become well-known to everyone here at the Nürburgring for their participation in Porsche Track Experience training sessions. Both of them entered the Porsche world somewhat late into their lives, but they’ve since fervently embraced it.

“I’m an architect,” Bernhard tells us. “My first partner in the architecture firm I worked at had a Porsche. And I’ll be honest, a good portion of the money we earned as young architects back then went to his Porsche. Porsche was an absolute buzzword for me for a long time.”

Back then, Bernhard thought he was more of a saloon car – he spent years travelling long distances to construction sites around Europe – rather than a sportscar type.

Man with racing helmet next to red Porsche 911 GT3 at Nürburgring — Between them, Elisabeth and Richard own six Porsche cars Photo: Porsche

As a consequence, his first contact with Porsche came with owning a Panamera, which immediately won him over. “I was totally surprised that a sportscar manufacturer would build a saloon that was better than anything I had ever owned before,” he says. His wife Elisabeth, on the other hand, had more difficulties with it. She felt it was simply too big for her, especially since the two often drove together along tight Alpine roads.

Buying a first Porsche… and then another one

“A few years ago, our Panamera was due for a service,” remembers Bernhard. “Since the car had to stay in the workshop over the long Whitsun weekend, the salesman at the Porsche Centre offered us a 911 Cabriolet as a replacement car.

“A 911 wasn’t really our thing, but because the weather was lovely and we thought we should at least drive it for a few kilometres out of politeness, so I drove around the block for 45 minutes. When I came back, Elisabeth wanted to try it out too.”

“At the end of the weekend, we had 800 kilometres on the clock and signed a purchase contract,” adds Elisabeth with a laugh.

Man with racing helmet sat in red Porsche 911 GT3 at the Porsche Track Experience Master Training at the Nürburgring — For Elisabeth and Richard, regular participation on the Porsche Track Experience is a journey of discovery – to find out what they and their cars can really do Photo: Porsche

A few months after the delivery of their first 911, both found themselves in Boxberg at their first Porsche Track Experience training session. “I thought that it might be a good idea to know what the car could really do,” says Elisabeth. “When Bernhard was on the track with the 911 Cabriolet, there was also a 911 Turbo S there. I had no idea what it was. The instructor told me to just try it out. What can I say? The training wasn’t even over when we’d already signed a contract (for it).”

As decisive as the two seem to be, they approach the topic of driving on a racetrack with great care. The mighty Nordschleife, in particular, inspires respect in them. “If we look around here, we are old school types,” Bernhard says, explaining their approach. “We don’t learn routes on the simulator, but on the track.”

The challenge of the Nordschleife on the Porsche Track Experience

Of the two, he is the one who really wants to push the limits, he admits. Elisabeth, on the other hand, has a better sense of rhythm. This is ideal for driving on the Nordschleife which, with its sequence of more than 70 corners, has something of a melody to it. For Bernhard, the first time driving it was hell (a green one, of course). “You have no chance of even remotely memorising the corners and combinations,” he declares.

After they had completed four training sessions, the Bügelmayers finally felt more confident. Today is their seventh training session together at the Nordschleife. At home in their garage in the western Austrian town of Dornbirn, just a short drive from the Swiss border, there are six Porsche cars. In addition to classic 911 models (a type 964 and a G-model), both of which they love, there are also two 911 GT3 sportscars, which they usually drive in pairs on the racetrack.

Man and woman in conversation at the Porsche Track Experience Master Training at the Nürburgring — Elisabeth and Bernhard say that the idea for buying their first GT3 came about in the winter: “There is no better car for drifting on ice,” explains Richard Photo: Porsche

This time, Elisabeth wanted to try out her 911 Turbo S Cabriolet here. She almost regretted it. “The Turbo S is a great car, but you can clearly see that it is a bit heavier than my GT3. But that’s also why we come here – to really get to know each of our cars,” she says.

The joy of driving a 911 GT3 on an empty mountain pass

“Of course, we attract attention when we come here with our two cars – mostly the GT3,” says Elisabeth, who is also President of the Porsche Club Vorarlberg. “There are hardly any women who get behind the wheel here. And we don’t know any other couple that races like us.”

Both feel very lucky to be able to pursue their hobby together. While they sometimes travel in the same car – on holiday, for example – to drive in a pair of their beloved Porsche cars is their preferred approach. “The ultimate feeling is to (both) be driving a 911 GT3 on empty French mountain passes in the autumn,” they tell us.

On these occasions, the two are connected by radio, sharing their enthusiasm from one bend to the next. Wouldn’t it be better to sit together in a car so you could communicate more directly, they’re asked?

“A little bit,” admits Bernhard, “but only until the next bend. By that point, at least, both of us would want to enjoy the bend alone behind the wheel and put what we’ve learned here to good use.”

As we all know, shared joy is double joy. But joy squared only comes for Elisabeth and Bernhard Bügelmayer when they’re each driving together in their own Porsche and exploring their own personal limits.

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