Yet another road trip

[jeremyg]

If you’re of a nervous disposition you’d better scroll on past because this one’s done in my 996 gen 1 GT3.



We feel young but sadly we’re not exactly spring chickens, so as we’re free to roam this year we’ve set off for the Alps. Via Cornwall.

As an old friend was having a very significant milestone party we accepted the invitation despite being due in Stuttgart two days later. We managed to get a room in the trendy sixties’ style Meudon Hotel set in a fabulous Cornish valley garden stretching down to the sea.






What’s going on there is pretty astounding and has certainly had the locals up in arms.



Basically it was family owned, but the new owners applied to build 20 new luxury homes beside the valley. That’s been blocked, but on appeal they’ve been allowed 10 - ranging from roughly 1.5 to 3.5 million a pop. And an infinity pool to go with the ‘boutique’ hotel we stayed in.



They’ve also (understandably) exercised their right to have exclusive weddings on the beach (very unusually they own the foreshore to the sea). Cue locals outrage - they use to/still do swim there and the Southwest public footpath passes through. If I was still a filmaker I’d be nosing around this contentious scenario.




The next morning we stepped out down the path to the sea but gave up when we realised we didn’t have enough time to make the beach. Beautiful place though - which may well be an exclusive playground soon. Or battleground by the look of a ship out in the bay




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[jeremyg]

We were at the front of the main tall/low car deck on the Poole - Cherbourg ferry, but were still dreading being delayed by the new EU border checks as we came off at 2.30pm , but mercifully they waved us through - it really is randomly applied it seems.

Expecting the worst we’d pre-booked a hotel not many hours away in Louviers - Le Pré Saint-Germain. Great parking and food.



Sorry if this is all a bit tame for DDK but I tried to interest Trish in putting her middle finger up to the camera for our ‘group’ shot but some reason she didn’t play ball. I’m working on her.

The weather meanwhile was hotting up, as indeed it still is, as Europe sinks into the heat dome extreme (now commonplace) temps. Each day we thank god for the aircon in the GT3.. Actually, each day we thank the GT3 full stop. It has little sound insulation inside, and you feel directly connected to engine and road, but on the continent that’s fine. It’s our second long distance trip in it, and so far (we’ve not finished yet!) it’s delivered.




Next up as we neared striking distance of Stuttgart was the Villa Hugel in the old Roman town of Trier, an old family hotel with a fabulous modern extension.






As you can see, we’ve not been stinting ourselves, but we’ve not been abroad for sometime so we’re making the most of it. Rather like an Ibiza experience, the evening sundown from the terrace was memorable, so still no middle finger from Trish. Just a warm glow.






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[misteralz]

Glorious. Looking forward to hearing more.

[anglophone1]

Looks fab Jeremy- enjoy!!
I'll be posting my own trip from next Tuesday- heading for Southern France via Le Mans , in Flachbau [ no aircon- I asked Angus if he could fit a Classic retrofit kit before leaving but GWC workshop fully booked]]
C

[jeremyg]

Yes you guessed it - we’re on the PCGB Factory Tour - mainly as it also strings together Grossglockner and Gmund with good driving roads in between, and it’s at a particularly good time of year for the Alpine flowers so the gardening section is particularly taken with the lush floral pastures we’ve been passing through.



A visit to the Museum was of course obligatory as well and some of their finest had been placed outside parading the country’s colours as it was near their World Cup debut. Our cars joined in as we were parked up along beside them on the busy piazza line we were sizing up for a battle on the pitch.







The Factory Tour I have no pictures of as cameras are verboten. Our guide rings through to each department as we get nearby - they say it is to check that no prototypes are on show. Some of it is of course fascinating, mostly the robot machines delivering ‘just on time’ parts for each particular car as it reaches the relevant work station.



Lunch is in the Christophorous restaurant, sadly the 917 metal ornaments are not freebies, but the steak was every bit as good as they said it would be.


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[jeremyg]

It’s some time since I last visited the museum, but despite the enthusiasm of our guide, I’ve never managed to find again the wonder and awe that I felt on our first ever trip there,




We had parked our little 356 in the car park below, on its way to its first 356 International meeting in Merano, still ticking from just having made our longest journey ever across Europe, and the delight as we ascended the escalator in seeing the blood line history unfold at each step we took along the stunning line of exhibits. Happy days.




It’s not the fault of the museum, but our own over familiarity with the details now. There’s nothing much new to be learnt, (although of course a number of our fellow travellers on this trip may have been unfamiliar with Porsche history) but there’s plenty of new experiences still to be had with our wonderful motors, and a sense of history that you carry with you informs the wonder of each and every drive. And we were about to do that once again.


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[jeremyg]

Looks fab Jeremy- enjoy!!
I'll be posting my own trip from next Tuesday- heading for Southern France via Le Mans , in Flachbau [ no aircon- I asked Angus if he could fit a Classic retrofit kit before leaving but GWC workshop fully booked]]
C

That’s a bugger. I had it in my last 911t, and it made a big difference to usability. Looks like the temperature will be more normal in France next week though


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[jeremyg]

So, not having refound our mojos at the Porsche Museum - what did we do? We went to the BMW Museum in Munich. Regular readers will maybe know that I have a hole in the ground that I am currently sinking money into called a 1936 Frazer Nash/BMW 319. This is the state I left it in back home, sporting a new look with spinners and not spats (they were deeply impractical).



We set off to find the Museum in Munich and were eventually successful. If you’ve ever tried you may know that their signage is cobblers. It didn’t augur well. You enter into a section you think is the early history, but it isn’t. It has the Dixi - a rebadged Austin 7 sold under licence.



But it doesn’t have their first true car - the 315 and later 319 coupe and sports versions. These we found after considerable time spent looking, several floors down.








They big up its write up, so why not be prouder of it and have it by the Dixi at the entrance? Rant over. Next one incoming.

We had a brief look at the rest of the cars (sorry don’t know much about Neue Klasse BMW’s onwards) but it’s not a very inspiring museum. And then we went home via the Munich ring road on an early Friday afternoon. It was clogged completely with traffic trying to leave the city, not as a result of a broken down vehicle, but by roadworks, which plague traffic in Germany as much as potholes wreak havoc in the UK.


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[911hillclimber]

Great trip write up!
Keep the details coming please.

[jeremyg]

After Stuttgart we transferred to Anif in Austria, gateway to the Alps, and the driving got more serious.



Since the early days of learning about and then owning the 356 the Grossglockner and its significance to Porsche’s development and testing
has intrigued me and I’ve always wanted to drive it. And like the DDK’ers who went recently, Gmund was on the list too. I was waiting for some sort of epiphany I suppose..



Sadly we were too indulgent the previous night to rise early for the high alpine road but we personally weren’t too hampered by traffic as we could get by fairly easily. The same can’t be said for the early 911t that was on the trip. He was very frustrated in not being able to build and carry revs to make efficient progress because of being baulked by the frequent slower drivers, cyclists and bikers, and off course the dog leg box!



We did the usual park ups for coffee and what have you, and the botanist got into the flora and fauna.











I have to say though, the Grossglockner drive was not memorable in the gen 1 GT3 - I don’t think the road is very engaging, but the scenery is fabulous.

The drive on the long sweeping valley roads immediately after the pass was far more satisfying. Despite the scenery, I don’t need to drive the pass again.

And actually I don’t need to go to Gmund again either. It’s not the original location, it’s really not revealing anything I haven’t seen or taken in before, and for some reason I found it rather depressing.



It has little atmosphere with its cars in serried ranks and doesn’t move me, even after sitting through Ferry Porsche talking to me on film with English dubbed commentary.




Again, that may say more about me than actual place. Going there killed it for me. I’ll remember the spirit of our 356 in other ways - DDk and International drives especially.




There were far better drives to come though.


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[hot66]

Love road trip s … grossglockner is interesting for its history and elevation, great if you get there as the gates open and then attack it like a hill climb, I prefer the climb from the north … but in the scheme of alpine passes it’s no way near as much fun as others . My preference has always been narrow tight and twisty with rough tarmac

[jeremyg]

Ha! While I love the drama of them all, I’m thinking mine is the direct opposite now - fast, flowing, good sighting, great tarmac and dramatic scenery. I drove only one like that!


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[jeremyg]

Ha! While I love the drama of them all, I’m thinking mine is the direct opposite now - fast, flowing, good sighting, great tarmac and dramatic scenery. I drove only one like that!


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Well at least that’s in the 996 gen 1 GT3. I’ve not actually driven my 911t over the alps, but over the Mendips it’s a lot of fun.

We did find something rather special around Anif. It’s a section of alpine roads used as a hillclimb, and it has a permanent coffee and cake shack at the top . Several old bikes and classic cars were up there.






The Rosselfeldrennen Historic Hillclimb is a big
Local draw



We returned a few days later, paid the toll when it was really empty and just went for it. I don’t think Trish had been up a hill at that speed before but the car’s steadiness on the road gives a lot of confidence and following satnav for me she called each bend and hairpin in sequence. Good fun.


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[jeremyg]

We left the group yesterday and headed for the return journey via Andermatt and the route into the passes.

Just a word about the whole organised trip thing - it was very informal and we met a whole different range of Porsche lovers - everyone there had a passion for their cars and wanted to drive them properly. We didn’t aim to travel in convoy, but sometimes by chance we met up and drove together. We ate together in the evening, in good hotels, and the organisers knew the areas well to give useful
advice. You could go with the flow or do your own thing. We’d do it again..

I’d always wanted to drive the Furka pass, and unlike the one we were to end with, (the Grimsel) it has so many challenging dimensions - the road width is constantly changing, the surface is changing, the sights are to die for(literally sometimes no doubt) and the standards of driving ability changed constantly. I loved it as an experience - and some great cars were going up and down.







A group of Bentley’s we met earlier this morning fuelling up before tacking the Grimsel and Furka passes (and having a good lunch one of the navigators added)



After the Furka experience we needed lunch ( the Belvedere Hotel cafe was rammed so we came on down before starting the Grimsel). In a wooded riverside glade right at the base of the Furka there’s a cafe on wheels playing chilled music and they do a great Frankfurter and Raclette Hot Dog with gerkins and fried bacon bits - perfect after a morning driving.



It was heaven








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[anglophone1]

Fab- keep it coming Jeremy!!