JDHertz11

A few summers ago a friend of mine shipped his GTR from Miami to Bremerhaven Germany and then drove around Europe for the summer. He had a really good time and is doing it again this summer. I am working on plans to stay in Europe this summer for a month or so and I'm thinking about doing the same with my 997TTS. The only negative that currently comes to my mind is the lack of space for luggage. Has anyone here done this recently?

IXLR8

I can only comment on the math. I shipped motorcycles over in 1995, 2005 and 2010 for tours of 3 to 6 weeks.

Shipping over is worth it if it costs less than renting...how much less and if it is worth is, is up to you.

You have to take into account possible shipping damage and other costs such as insurance (your US insurance is not valid there). I only get liability insurance there because full coverage is next to impossible to get and when available, extremely expensive.

The other side of the coin is you get to enjoy your car over there on some great roads.

IXLR8

Check out 5000 miles through 12 countries in 7 weeks in a Porsche 993.

RL member bart1 posted some nice pics of roads that we've both been on. The really narrow fun ones.

Floodj

I assume you are in Florida. Shipping is much cheaper port to port, so you will have to plan your trip starting and ending someplace like Bremerhaven or Antwerp. I am not sure how something like Registration works for a vacation travel. Here is the one true negative about driving your Porsche on the Autobahn, it will forever SUCK driving it on the Interstate thereafter. Once you have cruised at 120 MPH going back to 70 stinks!

While you have the car there go for a drive on the Nurnberg Ring, and Spa is near Belgium. Check RSR Nurnberg. It is expensive and oh so worth every penny.

bart1

I co drive with a buddy in his 964 over there. I have never seriously checked on shipping mine.

Another option is to rent a Porsche from my friend Lars. He's in Munich and keeps a nice fleet. http://www.passo-tourismo.com/

JDHertz11

My buddy was talking to the shipper earlier and they recommended shipping to Nice. That may be a better idea as I plan on spending the majority of my time in Italy, France, Monaco etc.

I think renting a car would cost a lot of money for the amount of time I'm planning on going for and would make the trips travels kind of boring...

ilko

Totally doable, I'm seriously considering it for 2014 actually. Planning on going to Le Mans in style to see Porsche win again The fact that you're on the East Coast helps a lot! I know a couple of shippers out of Newark who can ship the car both ways for less than what you would pay one way for covered transportation from NY to LA. They use Rotterdam in the Netherlands as their port because taxes are lower and red tape is much easier to deal with than other countries in the EU.

You can also read through thread it answers a lot of questions: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...ga-sicily.html

TRINITONY

awesome thread ilko...

timothymoffat

I soooooooooo want to do this at some point. Le Mans, Nurburgring 24h, Goodwood Festival of Speed, Belgian Grand Prix, Porsche Factory (maybe a service @ Werks 1?), Route Napoleon.........all in MY 993. One day......

Floodj

I think what you will find, if you want to maintain a resonable cost, is that you will be bound by which Ports the liners service in Europe. I also think you will find most are going to northern Europe. Check out some of the companies like ARC (American Roll-on roll-off Carriers), APL or Hapek-Lloyd (sp?).
--Joe

Cactus

Yeah me too but for now I would just be happy to do a couple of dugnutz in Darin and Mark's parking lot.

Luis A.

Shipping is the most straightforward aspect of this awesome plan; it's insurance that's the tough part. I'm interested in seeing how anyone here has resolved that and obtained full insurance (liability and collision/theft). I've heard Hagerty does it for specific driving events in Europe but I've not confirmed it. There are logistics companies such as Cosdel who will do the round trip for you, or you can roll your own port to port. I've done the latter but only one-way trips importing cars from Europe to the US.

On the three occasions I drove the cars I was buying in Europe, insurance was arranged in 3 different ways, none of which I believe would be feasible for what's being discussed here. First, the easiest, was during a European delivery at the BMW Welt. For that you get the export plates "Ausfuhrkennzeichen" which look like this: . BMW, or a dealer arranges the insurance but this only applies to cars being exported. The second was a '66 BMW purchased from a dealer in Berlin (blog at www.1966BMW1800.wordpress.com) and for this one I received the "Kurzzeitkennzeichen", or short term plates. They are only good for 5 days and come with 5 day insurance when you buy them, unlike the red plate where insurance isn't tied to the plate. They look like this: . The last car was a Fiat 500 in Holland where I was able to buy a one day liability insurance. They call it "outside risks verzekeringen".

In the November issue, Automobile published a story where one of the writers did exactly this: http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews...o/viewall.html

So there you have it. That's all I know. I also do know that before I die (hopefully much sooner) I want to what the OP is proposing...

JDHertz11

I think hagerty writes overseas coverage. If they do it would be ideal as the car is insured with them currently. Cactus needs to put on his big boy pants and make a move... car and condo arranged here at any time genius... I'm sure you would always be welcome in Brentwood as well...

timothymoffat

Cactus

I'll be down. Can we go to the Havana Club first?