Dennis C

I'm posting this from a small hotel in Austria from my iPhone. My car for the next 4 days is a 2010 Carrera S cabriolet with a 6-speed manual. Photos to come when I get back to the US next week. The weather was a little sketchy today, so we topped out around 230 kilometers per hour on the autobahn.

I'm liking the 997!

ivangene

have fun, be safe - enjoy

Sneaky Pete

Wow you lucky devil......143 MPH!!!! Smokers!

Barn996

Good for you Dennis, I know I'm jealous of your trip.Are you anywhere near Lech, Austria? Have fun driving the '10 911S.

function12

Sweet. Have fun, take lots of pics, and be SAFE!!

Dennis C

I just got back over the weekend. I haven't had a chance to get the photos from my good camera yet, but I have included a few camera phone pics. We started out in Stuttgart and drove down into Austria, took a mountain pass in Italy and then went into Switzerland. We drove through Switzerland for a few days and then back up to Stuttgart. It was absolutely awesome. We spent some time at 220+ kilometers per hour, as well as lots of time on mountain roads and switchbacks. In the 5th photo, you can see the switchbacks down in the valley in Italy in Parco Nazionale dello Stelvio as we approached Stilfser Joch. This particular road allowed us to slide around the curves, then hit redline in 1st and 2nd gear before braking for the next curve. It was unbelievable. One driver who was not experienced with Porsches turned off PSM in order to slide a little more in the corners - and he did. He did a 270-degree spin on a mountain road with no guardrail. Needless to say, PSM was switched on and we slowed down a little at that point.

The car I drove all week was a pleasure to drive. It was noticably more powerful than my car, and overall much tighter. The engine in the 997 was much more free-revving than my 996, making for really easy and fun rev matching. I really liked the 997.

We stayed at great hotels in Grindelwald and St. Moritz, as well as the V8 hotel in Stuttgart. The last 2 car photos are from the collection at the V8.

roadsession

Amazing! thanks for sharing
This is incredible.
Can you tell me a little bit more about this tour? Costs, etc?

Dennis C

Sure. Our tour included 5 2010 Carreras, and 2 2010 Cayennes as luggage vehicles. The cars were arranged through Avis in Stuttgart - apparently they have an exclusive arrangement with Porsche for tours like this. The cars were about 170 Euro per day, which includes 200 kilometers per day and a 1,500 Euro insurance deductible. Excessive mileage was billed at 1 Euro per kilometer. There was a 6,000 Euro charge if you take the car onto the Nürburgring - and that's if you don't crash it! They monitor the feeds from the cameras all day looking for rental cars.

Our trip was arranged by a private company - it was not an official Porsche tour like the ones on the Porsche website. Our hosts arranged the route, hotels, restaurants, etc. For this part of the trip it's pretty much up to you - you can spend 5,000 Euros per person to well over 15,000 Euros per person. We stayed at some pretty high-end hotels in Switzerland and in Germany, and we did it right as far as food and wine go. I can post the specific route and hotels tonight if you would like - I don't have all the information with me at my office.

roadsession

Dennis that sounds awesome.
I didn't realize it was a private tour company. The accompanying Cayennes as luggage mules makes it very convenient.

In the fall of 2000 we did a tour of Bavaria and Tirol mountains and Lago di Garda in an Aston Martin DB7 rented from Sixt with NO luggage mule - and we had to pack VEEERY light

Dennis C

I'll bet that was tight! One of our instructor cars was a privately owned vehicle - it's the white Aston Martin Vantage that you see on the far right in the group car photo. I thought the Porsches sounded good until I heard the Vantage engine. That thing was sex on wheels.

Hardback

great report! thanks for taking us along Dennis...

Barn996

What a trip, and those 997s sound like my next Porsche. Thanks for the pics and route through parts of Europe Dennis.

Dennis C

I'll let you know where we stopped in Austria - I'm not actually sure of the town name. It was right on a lake, which I believe was named Haldensee. I'm not sure where that is in relation to Lech.

Dennis C

I had these two photos on the iPhone also... I probably should have included them as well. It wasn't all driving...

CT944

great pictures.