Porsche Zen: Driving a 964 Turbo Along the Gotthard Pass in Switzerland

Take a deep breath and relax as you watch and listen to a Porsche 964 Turbo snake its way along the Gotthard Pass.

Daily life is stressful. Work, kids, bills, fear of alien invasions. It all takes a toll. We all need some down time, and help relaxing so we can temporarily forget about these pressures. A lot of folks will do this by listening to calming white noise such as falling rain or ocean waves crashing. However, Porsche enthusiasts are a bit different. Our idea of white noise goes beyond falling water. We like the sound of a flat six engine. Especially if that sound is accompanied by beautiful scenery like what you see through your windshield as you drive along the Gotthard Pass in Switzerland.

That is exactly what we have here in a video recently posted on the Cars with Luke YouTube channel. In the beginning of the video the driver uses the Roads app to find a great local road trip to take. He settles on the Gotthard Pass. This incredible mountain pass in the Swiss Alps is a glorious ribbon of tarmac that is 6,909 feet above sea level. The entire route is filled with stunning scenery. A road like this deserves an equally incredible car, and we have that as well. A lovely 964 Turbo is used for this breathtaking trip. It is your Porsche moment of Zen.

Not a Race

This is not a racing video. This is not a Porsche racing up Pikes Peak as fast as possible. Those videos are incredible as well. But this video is designed to lower your heart rate, not quicken it. You are treated to a POV video that allows you to take in the mountain range as the driver puts the car through its paces. You can imagine this is you in the car going along for a drive. It is not about getting to the other side of the pass as quickly as you can. It is about enjoying the journey.

964 Turbo

The 964 was powered by a 3.3L flat six turbocharged engine that made 330 horsepower. In 1993 the car got a larger 3.6L flat six and horsepower increased to 360 horsepower. That is a power figure that is slightly more than half of what a modern day 911 Turbo S can produce. But that doesn’t matter. It is about the drive. The 964 has a simplicity to it that the modern Turbo cars can’t match. The 964 looks perfectly at home on the Gotthard Pass. Like the mountains the car is cutting through, the 964 has a timeless beauty.

Time to Relax

The video is only a few minutes long. Which is just long enough for those of us who have precious free time on any given day. It is the perfect morsel to digest after a tough day at the office. Or perhaps as the final images before heading off to bed. A Porsche 911 Turbo can be a hell of an exciting car. But it can also relax you in ways that non-Porsche enthusiasts can never understand.

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Joe Kucinski

Joe has been obsessed with cars since he got his very first Matchbox toy in the ‘70s. In 2003, he found a new obsession in track days that led to obtaining his SCCA competition license in 2015. In 2019, he became a certified driving instructor for the National Auto Sport Association. His love for all things four wheels has never wavered, whether it's driving some of the best cars in the world on the racetrack, tackling 2,000-mile road trips in 2-seat sports cars or being winched off the side of a mountaintop in a Jeep. Writing for the suite of Internet Brands Auto Communities sites, including Rennlist.com, Ford Truck Enthusiasts, 6 Speed and more allows him to share that knowledge and passion with others.