Earlier this month Porsche GB held a taster session for prospective driver for the 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship, a total of 26 drivers took part in the day including Clio Cup race winner Max Coates.

Coates competed in the 2018 Renault Clio Cup UK with Team Pyro, claiming third place in the championship and is targeting a full-time drive in the British Touring Car Championship, with that said he is keeping his options open for 2019.

“It was exciting, I’ve not driven anything with that power in race car spec for a little while so it was fun to have some big power behind me.” Coates told The Checkered Flag.

It’s not the first time Coates has driven a Porsche Carrera Cup car, having raced in the Porsche GB VIP car at the 2014 Carrera Cup GB race at Donington Park.

In 2014 it was the first generation of the 911 GT3 Cup car, since then the series has made the switch to the second generation, we asked if he had noticed much of a change.

“In the car it didn’t feel much different apart from the window netting, the sound for the driver is better and a bit more natural.

“The Gen 1 car made a lot of gearbox noise which I didn’t notice as much. From a power and driving sense, it’s quite a long time since I drove the earlier version so the increase in power/torque wasn’t so noticeable.”

Which each driver at the taster day being given a 12 lap run, Coates got down to business pretty much straight away, “Within 3 or 4 laps I felt comfortable in the car and within probably half a second or so of where I got to.” said the Yorkshireman.

“Through the middle of the session I had a bit of a play and experiment to see how it would react to different inputs. The brakes take a bit of getting used to and it’s something you need to do in your own car really over a bit longer time. It was enough to understand the car and get a feel.”

Coates enjoyed his time at the taster day and is keen to stay on the TOCA weekend, be it in the support races or the main show, “I’m keeping my options open for next year, the natural progression is the BTCC and that’s still my aim but Porsche as well as other BTCC supports and one or two other championships are of interest if the BTCC goal doesn’t come to fruition.”