Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I took the family (my wife Kerry and two sons Ben, 11 and James, 8 ) to France a couple of weeks ago for the annual summer holiday. Now, we were supposed to be going in our trusty Subaru Legacy Estate (another flat 6) as we were taking our springer spaniel, Maggie along. Due to booking her jabs a day late, we were unable to secure her passport in time for the holiday. The family were devastated so I suggested we take the 997 to ease the dissappointment.

We went to a lovely area of France called Jura, just on the Swiss border. It is the French lake district if you like and it's more a mountains and country outdoors type holiday than beach which suits us nicely.

As many of you might know, we are veteran Euro tourers having been all over Europe in our 996 and RB5 Impreza on several different trips, touring France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Italy, Spanish Pyrennees, Corsica, Slovenia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark to name but a few. We've done many of the big mountain passes (Stelvio etc), Milau bridge, Route Napolean, Reims circuit, Nurburgring etc etc.

The 996 was a superb touring car and we always used to comment that we couldn't think of a better one to do these trips in, practical (with a bit of care and sense), fast, relatively good fuel economy (good range) and very comfortable. The 997 however takes all of these and improves, it's astonishing. Obviously this is partly down to PASM adjustable suspension for comfort on motorways and sporty in the hills, something I thought I would not like about the car has turned into one of the things I like most! Passengers definately appreciate it. Overall the 1500 miles were carried out at an average of 60mph and 28mpg, not bad! We travelled from the centre of Paris to our house in Buckinghamshire on one tank of fuel!

One morning, I fancied going out for a blast to the Swiss border, so left the family at the swimming pool and took some superb country roads in the foothills, they were very light of traffic and I just had enough to play with and keep it interesting, putting in overtakes every now and then and then on to some bigger mountains. The result of this was as follows:



I travelled over the Col de La Faucille, info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_de_la_Faucille

This is a pretty serious pass (a Tour de France favourite), not as tight as the Stelvio and the like but a challenge as a driver with many hairpins and other bends and for me a better drive for it.

On one of the hairpins, this one greater than 180 degrees!:


View over Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc Alpine range behind.




Thought I’d get the car looked over on the way back:

The car was superb, sports exhaust makes a terrific noise against the rock faces with the window down and it just shifts, so much power! The locals were impressed anyway with waves and cap off salutes as I went, something you don’t see in this country!


We all had a superb holiday, but the idea came up to drive home via Paris as James wanted to see the Eifel Tower.

We drove right in to Paris, toured the city, parked and had lunch on the Champs Elysees (£50 plus £45 for 4 drinks!) whilst watching all the supercars and supermodels trundle by and topped it off for a drive around the Arc De Triomphe. That was the single most difficult driving experience for me to date, got the heart rate right up! Passengers were mostly screaming!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the report and it makes you go and do a tour for yourself, if you are thinking about it, just do it!

Next instalment – January 2012, driving 997 to Les Menuires at the top of the French Alps for a week’s skiing

Looks good Paul, not sure I'd use a garage called "Cretin" though

Good stuff Paul!

How on Earth did you get four people's luggage in your front boot?

He Gaffer tapes a child to the spoiler
I've seen the Mabley clan in the 996 with camping gear a while ago. Personally if I was one of his kids I'd have ChildLine on speed dial!

Harsh Jim but accurate

I'll see if I can find some old pics for everyone's amusement!

We pack all the wings behind the light units, under the seats, in the door pockets, any spare area is used. The front boot is very roomy and a couple of large soft bags can fit in there together with smaller items folded or packed around them. The area behind the rear seats is large also, especially if no bose amp is fitted there.

I always am able to see out of the back window and make sure that although the car is packed, everyone can be comfortable for long journeys.

One of the early trips, this one in a campsite in Italy:



Austria:




Stelvio






Slovenia - you can see the rear packed up in this one if you look carefully!



Running repairs in Spanish Pyrennees when expansion tank cracked (fixed with araldite and steel mesh from a cooking seive) - try asking for needle nose pliers when you don't speak a word of Spanish and they speak no English



Milau viaduct


Corsica - will be returning here, superb with some of the best driving roads I've ever tried


Route Napollean


Reims




The Subaru was a fantastic car but no more practical than the 996 really and a small tank and low fuel economy gave poor range, nearly catching us out a few times, that made it a poor continental touring car. Superb on the Corsican tarmac though, where it belonged on a rally stage.

Sorry, you're probably all bored to death now!

Nope, not bored, stunning pics. Corsica looks fantastic. How long do you go down, for as it is a chuffing long way? Always wanted to tour Europe, may give it a try in the next few years.

We did Eurotunnel and drove to Reims the first night where we stayed for a couple of days - there is the old motor racing circuit, a lovely city with Cathedral and all the champagne caves you can tour.

Then we drove down to Grenoble, a fair drive but pretty easy where we stayed the night. This is the start of Route Napolean, the famous pass the mags all use and incidentally where Napolean marched with his army up from Corsica. This takes you almost to Monaco where we then visited, drove the GP circuit and mooched around before staying the night in Genoa, Northern Italy. Ferry in the morning around 5 hours to Corsica where we spent 10 days.

Corsica is beautiful and the people are very friendly (French). The real bonus is that there are fantastic beaches with golden sand, clear turquoise sea and excellent weather. Within 1/2 hour you are up in proper mountains heading up to passes over 2000m height (as high as the Alps). The photo you see is the small railway which goes through the mountains, spectacular.

If you've ever seen rally corsica on TV you will want to go there, quite amazing and exceptionally challenging driving if you want it. Nobody hangs about over there!

We then caught the ferry back to Genoa and went up to Germany and took in the Nurburgring and met friends there for the weekend before returning home.

That was one of the best that trip, highly recommended!

I totally agree with you, driving around Europe is a great way to enjoy your Porsche.

Great photos

It is, you certainly feel like you can really stretch it's legs properly outside the confines of this country. Caution with speed is required in France on the bigger roads much more now though than when we were first doing it but in the mountains I've never had an issue.

Awesome writeup of what looks like an awesome trip. Well done Paul.

Thankyou!

Just to add, we've never yet seen another Porsche on campsites anywhere and we draw quite a crowd when packing up to leave! There was a Corvette on the last campsite but that had been driven separately, no sense of adventure some people!

15mpg!! well done that man thats the proper way to tour Switzerland

Sadly my touring days in Porsches have come to an end.... the futures bright however

garyw

What have you bought?

I believe Gary picked his new beast up today, Lewis and Jenson would approve