Whether it’s runners chasing marginal gains through carbon-plated shoes, cyclists obsessing over power output or gym-goers tracking every rep and extra minute of sleep on a smartwatch, we’re constantly searching for ways to perform better. We buy lighter trainers, smarter watches and more advanced technology, convinced the next piece of kit might be the thing that unlocks a breakthrough.

Porsche, unsurprisingly, knows a thing or two about performance. For more than 75 years, its engineers have spent thousands of hours shaving fractions of seconds, refining aerodynamics and squeezing every ounce of capability from its cars.

But when I paid a visit to the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone, it wasn’t the engineering that surprised me the most: it was seeing how they apply exactly the same philosophy to the people behind the wheel. What began as a way of supporting racing drivers has evolved into a sports science-led approach that is now available to everyone from elite motorsport competitors to endurance athletes, as well as regular runners like me who are still trying to see if they can still squeeze seconds off of a PB.

This is a sports science facility where racing drivers, endurance athletes and enthusiastic amateurs can undergo the same physiological testing you’d expect to find at an elite training centre. It’s an unusual pairing at first glance, but after spending a day moving between the driving circuits and the laboratory, the connection starts to feel obvious. Because whether you’re trying to build a faster sports car or a fitter human, the process does have similarities.

Performance Isn’t About Driving Faster

The day began with a safety briefing and a conversation with my instructor, Anton, about what we’d actually be trying to achieve. Rather than a conventional racetrack, the Porsche Experience Centre is made up of almost five kilometres of purpose-built driving environments. Two handling circuits mimic the rhythm and flow of challenging British country roads, while dedicated acceleration and braking straights, low-friction surfaces, a kick plate, an ice hill and an off-road circuit allow every element of the car’s performance to be explored in isolation before being brought together.

Within minutes of climbing into the 911, it became obvious that speed wasn’t really the objective. Anton was far more interested in where I was looking than how quickly I was accelerating. We talked about braking points, weight transfer and steering inputs, but always in the context of driving smoother rather than faster.

Similarly to running, the biggest improvements rarely come from simply trying harder: they come from moving more efficiently. And the more relaxed I became behind the wheel, the quicker everything seemed to happen naturally. Corners flowed together, braking became more instinctive and the car rewarded precision rather than aggression. It felt remarkably similar to finding your rhythm during a marathon, where forcing the pace almost always backfires, while patience usually pays off.

The Best Lessons Happen When Things Go Wrong

Porsche has built the Experience Centre to safely explore what happens when grip disappears too. The kick plate is perhaps the best example of that philosophy. Hidden beneath the road surface is a hydraulic plate that unexpectedly pushes the rear wheels sideways as you drive over it, instantly creating the sensation of losing control on ice or standing water.

Your instinct is to panic and the first time it happened, I reacted exactly as most people probably would by oversteering with too much correction and not nearly enough composure. By the third attempt, however, Anton’s coaching began to click. Instead of reacting to the slide, I started anticipating it, looking where I wanted the car to go rather than where it already was.

This lesson wasn’t really about driving; it was more about staying calm under pressure. The same principle carried over onto the low-friction circuit, where computer-controlled water jets create permanently slippery conditions that exaggerate every mistake. Small corrections outperform dramatic reactions and in some ways endurance sport isn’t so different. Whether you’re pacing the final miles of a marathon or correcting a spin-out behind the wheel, panic almost always makes the situation worse and you need a strategy for every scenario.

The Most Sophisticated Piece of Engineering Wasn’t in the Car

Professional racing drivers have understood for decades that winning isn’t simply about building faster cars. It depends on reaction time, concentration, aerobic fitness, neck strength, heat tolerance and the ability to make accurate decisions while physically exhausted. In other words, the limiting factor is often the driver.

The Porsche Human Performance Centre exists to improve that variable. Originally developed to support drivers competing at the highest levels of motorsport, the facility, which sits within the Porsche Experience Centre, now works with athletes, drivers and anyone interested in understanding how their body performs. Inside are exercise physiology laboratories, performance diagnostics, nutrition support and environmental testing, including a heat chamber used to prepare drivers and endurance athletes for competing in extreme conditions. As someone preparing to begin an 8-week marathon training block for Berlin, I was fascinated to discover what the same approach might reveal about my own fitness.

Data Only Matters if You Know What to Do with It

Sports scientist Jack led me through a series of physiological assessments beginning with lactate threshold testing, before progressing to a VO₂ max assessment, the gold standard for measuring aerobic capacity.

I’ve done fitness testing before, but what impressed me wasn’t the equipment but how all the data was translated to help me with a very specific goal. Rather than chasing impressive statistics for their own sake, the testing focused on understanding where my current strengths lay, where my training could become more effective and which systems deserved the most attention over the coming months.

It felt remarkably similar to the morning’s driving session in the way that neither experience was about showing off performance but were about better understanding it. As runners, it’s easy to become obsessed with collecting data. Heart rate, pace, sleep scores, training load and recovery metrics now arrive on our wrists every morning before we’ve even got out of bed.

But this approach actually made it feel much more simple: collect the data, interpret it properly and then use it to improve.

What Cars Can Teach Us About Getting Fitter

Leaving the Porsche Experience Centre, I realised I’d spent the day learning the same lesson twice. Whether you’re chasing faster lap times or a marathon PB, the goal isn’t just to push harder, it’s to understand where your biggest opportunities to improve lie. On one side of the building, engineers had created a car capable of extraordinary things. On the other side, the sports science teams were helping people become more capable themselves. The philosophy underpinning both was identical, as neither relied on shortcuts or promised overnight transformation.

I had arrived at Silverstone expecting to tick a Porsche 911 driving experience off my bucket list. I left thinking much more about the relationship between engineering and human potential, and how often we invest in upgrading our gear before considering our own physical potential. A pair of super shoes will most likely carry me around the streets of Berlin in September, but I’m hoping the insights from Porsche’s Human Performance team will be what gets me over the finish line faster.

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

Emily Emmins is the Social Media Manager for Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Runner’s World UK, where she leads social strategy and content across the brand’s short-form platforms. With more than 10 years’ experience in digital media and publishing, she oversees everything from cover launches and original video series to podcasts, fitness franchises and live event coverage, helping bring the brand’s expert health, fitness and performance advice to audiences across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Away from her desk, Emily has spent more than a decade immersed in the world of CrossFit. Also taking on marathons, Hyrox events and fitness challenges. She’s passionate about making health and fitness content informative, entertaining and engaging, and believes the best stories come from people willing to test themselves in pursuit of something bigger.