The German Visit


		Porsche Club

		Singapore

Events
Black Forest & Autobahns, Jun 2004 ..a personal account
Driving a Mustang in California, a Ferrari in Italy, a Mini in England or a Porsche in Germany could well be the dream of many an enthusiast. A country and its people shape the character of evocative cars. Mustangs are brutish but would not cruise at autobahn pace. Waft them gently along at 80mph with the V8 rumbling with an uneven beat they are great fun and perfect for the Interstate highways. Ferraris are passionate, stylish, and emotive like the Italians; a stylish, noisy and warm people. Minis are quirky, adequate for short distances, a bomb on narrow lanes and clever. Clever in making more out of less but with uneven results like the British; a self confident people with clever ideas, habiting a small country with never quite enough resources for the big league. Germany is a big country with big resources populated with high achievers. Porsche is the perfectionist’s performance car engineered to the n^th degree. The unrestricted German autobahns have bred in Porsches an ability to sustain high speeds. They are

also agile at corners and thus well equipped to tackle serpentine Black Forest roads at the backdoor of Zuffenhausen. Motoring journalists write lyrics about storming passages through German autobahns and fast drives on Black Forest roads. I half suspect that the driving experience in Malaysia or Southern Thailand is no less demanding and challenging. PCS convoys and others have since the motorway came to Malaysia wandered north to Thailand and south again with relative ease. They also frequently motor through meandering country roads serving oil palm plantations. Is Germany a better motoring country? The grand tour of Germany began with visits to the Porsche facilities at Leipzig, Zuffenhausen and Weissach and track time on their test tracks. This was followed by a drive to the Black Forest and Lake Konstanz. Porsche Travel Club provided 3 guides, Liz, Stefan and Christian and 14 Porsches for the 28 strong PCS contingent. We know Christian when he was working at Porsche Asia Pacific; the Porsche fraternity seems to be working. We picked up the cars at the Porsche AG Ludwigsburg facility. A bunch of Porsches never fails to impress and they were waiting in line

For the drive we had decided to use PCS SOP and comms system. This was the club’s first venture to Germany and we wanted to avoid the uncertainty of adopting an unknown drive system. As it turned out we should have greater faith in the Porsche Travel Club but using one’s own tried and tested procedure does not hurt anyone. The 17 car group were split into 3 teams. Team A comprise of 5 Porsches including Liz. I was to lead Team A from car no.2 with the Liz as car no. 1. As it turned out Liz did all the work and I had very little to do. Eddie was the sweeper. All were 911s save for Jes and I who opted for a Boxster S with a 6 speed manual transmission.
The weather had been dodgy when we were at Leipzig but at Ludwigsburg the sun was shining. The breeze was cool and the sky was clear blue. Ambient temperature was around 18 °C. The weather was perfect for top down driving and Jes my co-driver would not have it any other way. I am an “air-conditioning” person who has never owned an open seater but was prepared to give fresh air motoring a try. At 10:27a.m. Team A rolled out of the facility. Jes took the first stint. The convoy wound its way through suburbia Ludwigsburg and at the very first round-a-bout promptly lost car no. 4. So much for slick PCS convoys! Liz had given instructions for “Straight ahead” as we approached. Perhaps Johnny was more use to ‘12 o’clock’ in Singaporean parlance but inexplicably he made a 3 o’clock turn which is not quite straight ahead. Neither did he follow car no. 3. Eddie went after him when Liz taught us a new trick. Instead of finding a place to stop she continued to the next round-a-bout and proceeded to circle it. Johnny and Eddie took a good 5 minutes to rejoin the convoy. During that time one could imagine what other road users thought of the 3 Porsches following each other round and round the small round-a-bout. 5 minutes equals about 3 dozen rounds. Just thinking about it makes you giddy. Crazy Porsche round-a-bout training
for driver may be one thought that crossed their mind. Porsche drivers hopelessly lost could be another. Ludwigsburg is at the edge of greater Stuttgart and soon we were in the countryside on the road to Weissach. We drove through fields and villages, country homes and village shops.
Weissach is the Porsche R&D facility, the holy grail of Porschephiles. It is 28km away. From Weissach we continued through more country roads. The fields were in full bloom and presented themselves in different swathes of colour. There were fields of wheat, rye and other grains, intersperse with neat and tidy villages. In as much as Germany is different from Singapore they have one thing in common, even the hidden corners are neat and clean. 2 hours from Ludwigsburg and 60 km later we arrived at Wildbad, the point of entry to the Black Forest.
From Wildbad the road climbs into the mountains. It is narrow with hairpin bends follow by hairpin bends. It is comparable to the Tapah / Tanah Rata road. Indeed the hairpins may be even tighter. The name of the forest is derived from the thickness of its foliage which blocks out the sun. We stopped at Hotel Schwanen at Kalberbronn at 12:45 having travelled 111 leisurely kilometres. Lunch was served at the veranda overlooking the Black Forest.

From Kalberbronn we took the B28 for Freudenstadt before making a turn for Baden-Baden, a town popular for its thermal spa. We continued pass Baden-Baden on the B28 and then joined the autobahn A5 for a distance of 60km. At the autobahn traffic was heavy and lane discipline was little better than the Malaysian lebuhraya. The trucks and buses were better behaved but the cars were not. The fast lane traffic flowed at 150-160km/h. The convoy despite some attempts at high speed was baulked badly. All I could do was redline in 5^th or about 245km/h before a French registered Espace got in the way. Overtaking on the inside was not an option on the autobahn or anywhere else. Being in the middle of Europe, Germany’s autobahns bear the brunt of trans-European vehicular traffic. The worse offenders were French registered Renaults loitering at 160km/h on the fast lane. Drivers of Socialist Renaults have, perhaps, serious intent of insisting on equal right of way, other superior machinery and unrestricted autobahns notwithstanding. A fast drive on the unrestricted autobahn is an exercise of acceleration and braking. The Boxster has exemplary stability at high speed. More importantly it has excellent brakes.>
We exited the autobahn for B294. Where it begins the road is narrow as it is winding. It was a Saturday and the road was crowded with recreational in-line roller bladders, cyclists and superbikes. As the convoy picked its way pass cyclists and roller bladders; leather clad bikers on superbikes were roaring pass the Porsches. At one point the Team A Porsches were warily making their way up an incline leading to a blind left hand corner when three cyclists swung round the bend pedalling furiously downhill at twice the speed of the Porsches. The convoy was forced onto the grass verge. In this land the smaller has the right of way and that is not a bad practice at all. Germany also has one of the lowest road accident rates in the world. Perhaps the point is proven. We stopped at Standort near Bergwacht. From the lookout
point the countryside unfolded before our eyes. We had climbed quite high in the course of the day.
From the lookout point we headed for Hinterzarten. Then for a moment the car in front gave way, the road cleared and the convoy was alone. I stuck close to Liz. We went faster and faster. We were then going downhill. Soon the bark of Porsche flat sixes were reverberating around this verdant road. The Boxster’s gearshift was sliding smoothly and precisely from gear to gear beautifully matched to a responsive throttle as I went up and down the gearbox, heel and toeing on the downshift. The transmission train is very taut so taut that once on the throttle, power is fed instantly to the drive wheels. There is no slack, no cushion from soft couplings. It rewards precision. Power delivery is linear and torquey and allows minute adjustments. I was trail braking into the apexes. The Boxster’s tail was dancing and gently pushing the nose round the bends. It also brims with useable torque, pulling the car strongly from the apexes. Bend after bend the car was confident, ever obedient and never recalcitrant. There is also plenty of weight on the tail, like a 911, one can get back hard on power early after the apex. It was absolutely brilliant. I had last driven a Boxster S four years ago at Mount Cotton. Now it has again proven that one does not need a lot of power to have fun and make good progress. All it has was 260bhp and every one of those horses is useable. We had well and truly left car no. 3 behind. Liz and I slowed and waited for the rest of the team to catch up. Shortly after that we emerged from the forest into the sunshine, farmland and villages. With the top down the Boxster is remarkably draught free, though not dust free, and we motored with the sun and the clear blue Bavarian sky above us and the cool country air wafting into the cockpit for another 60km to the ski resort of Hinterzarten and the 6 star 600 year old Adler Park Hotel.

And Howard had arranged everything down to the last detail. The champagne was waiting. We had driven 300km the first day. We had flown from Singapore to Germany to experience the ultimate Porsche driving environment. What did we learn? Developed independently thousand of kilometres away from each other, the convoy procedure use by Porsche Travel Club is similar to PCS. The only fundamental difference is that PCS use sweepers, which the Porsche guides appreciated. It was something new to them. They also like our comms system which they thought was superior to their own comms system. Here only the last car in the convoy switches on the dip beams in daylight running when in the PCS convoys all cars switch on their spot lights. The guides give less commentary on road condition than PCS leaders and use the same procedure for overtaking. The guides were pleasantly surprised by the discipline and co-ordination of the PCS members in convoy. What we have learned from them is a higher level of courtesy to other road users. Driving speed in Germany whether on the autobahn or along B roads was not a problem with the PCS members in general. In Germany the general speed limit of 100km/h on country roads
was not religiously adhered to, where conditions permit, but not by very much. The natural cruising speed at the autobahn was 160-180km/h which was what conditions mostly permitted. The next morning we left Hinterzarten for Rheinfall, Switzerland. We
drove through hills, forest, farmland and villages. In Germany a 50km/h limit applies in all towns and villages. The speed limit is strictly enforced. It is not uncommon to see two or three or even more speed cameras at every village.
The Swiss border was only 65km away. Once across the border into Switzerland, the immediate difference was not the topography but the architecture of the buildings. Swiss houses are as distinctive as they are different from Bavarian homes. We stopped for lunch at Rheinfell Schlossli Worth. This old castle stands at the confluence of the Rhine. On one side is Germany and the other Switzerland.
Following lunch we drove to Stein am Rhein and crossed the bridge over the Rhine. The Swiss authorities impose exceptionally low speed limits which are obeyed by everyone
including superbike riders. The drive in Switzerland was a 70-80kmph ramble through country roads serving pretty farms Following lunch we drove to Stein am Rhein and crossed the bridge over the Rhine. The Swiss authorities impose exceptionally low speed limits which are obeyed by everyone including superbike riders. The drive in Switzerland was a 70-80kmph ramble through country roads serving pretty farms, picturesque towns and villages. We continued to Radolfzell and crossed back into Germany. We continued using the B roads in the direction of Stockach and then Mainau, skirted Lake Konstanz and to Fahre Meersburg where we took a roll on roll off ferry to cross to the other side of Lake Konstanz. Across the lake we drove along vineyards towards Lindau. It was a Sunday and as we drove towards Lindau, the classic car crowd was out in force giving the enthusiast in us the excitement of seeing these beautiful cars being driven on the road. A German couple with their two daughters we met at the ferry point was on a Sunday drive in a pair of 300SLs

We also saw an Austin Healey Le Mans Replica, an Alfa 2300C, TRs, classic Mercedes, a Jensen and many other classics. Strangely though there were no Porsches. Perhaps it was a meeting of the wrong car club!
Germany is a country of closet car enthusiasts. Whenever the convoy stop someone will come along and examine the Porsches; neither in envy nor with the excitement Italian bystanders relishes on the other horse but in quiet admiration.. Most of all they love their Kombis.

The Hotel Bayerischer Hof is a 6 star historical hotel on the shores of Lake Konstanz sitting at the edge of the promenade. It was built in 1854. We had driven 129km from Rheinfell. It was to be our hotel for the night. The town of Lindau dates back to medieval period and is an interesting place to explore on foot with its cobble streets, medieval fortification and wall, historical buildings and fountains. The oldest building was a 1,000 year old church. A more pleasant way of working up an appetite for dinner is difficult to come by.
Champagne was served before dinner at an open veranda overlooking the 600 year old lighthouse and Bavarian Lion that guard the harbour. The dinner that followed in the adjoining dinning room was as grand a dinner as any befitting the last evening of this care-free drive and the service was excellent. On the last day we drove 250km. We drove through Oberreitnau, Tettnang, and to Gasthaus Lamm where we stop for lunch. After lunch we continued along country roads in the direction of Stadtmitte, Gaammertingen, Tubingen and Rottenburg heading north towards Stuttgart. At Rottenburg we joined the autobahn A81 and gave one last blast towards Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg, arriving there at 16:00hrs. Having driven a classic Mini in England, a Mustang in California and the other horse in Italy, driving a Porsche in Germany was the missing jigsaw to my driving experience. The Porsche is the right car to tour Germany with. Throughout the drive the Boxster S never put its foot wrong; its engine never missed a beat. It is a comfortable, faithful and friendly companion maintained to a high standard by the factory. It is a great driver’s car every bit as satisfying as a 911 for less money. One also reflects on the importance of similar minded friends to travel and drive with. But for them such a trip it would not be quite the same. May the Porsche Club always strive to remain a fraternity of well informed enthusiasts who enjoy their cars not in vanity or in pride but with thankfulness for the skill and care with which knowledgeable and skill engineers who, enthusiasts like themselves, have designed, developed and built these fine cars for the enjoyment of all who strive to drive well. Thankfully at Porsche AG, as this trip has confirmed, they are still true to their craft as carmakers as indeed their latest 911, the 997 has shown by being remarkably shorn of gimmickry.


Last modified on 26/06/2005