718 Life.

Thursday, August 10, 2023 It's travel day, and final pack up in the morning which goes OK. We have to shuffle things around between bags to make sure that the checked bags will come in underweight. Worst case scenario we will obviously have to deal with it at the airport but for now we feel reasonably confident. We grabbed the shuttle to the airport, with a very nice and chatty driver who is interested in our trip in our observations. Very pleasant. Then it's lineups and waiting to get the big bags checked, which we have a little bit of difficulty with as the Air France lady says the weight is fine but the length is too long. We point out to her that in over 20 years of travelling with these exact type of duffle bags, we have always been fine. And besides, we flew to Europe on Air France no less, without any problems whatsoever! Anyway, after some re-jigging of the duffle and some tightening of straps we get them accepted without the €250 per bag overcharge for oversize!!!! Now...

Wednesday, August 9, 2023 It's a super early start at 3:30 AM to drive to drop the cars off, as we have a ways to go and we have to get there by a specific time. The first part of the drive in the dark is misty and rainy, tricky, but the  headlights are really impressive. Definitely the best of any car I've ever had. We breakfast en route, as we are keen to make good time, though  construction on the Autobahn makes the lanes narrow and dicey at times. I see a large truck come awfully close to Andrew ahead of me at one point, and he backs off rapidly stay clear. Yikes.  We reach Sindelfingen in time to be able to give the cars a proper wash, before the shipping broker. Important to do, I think, as they are grubby and particularly coated in brake dust. We definitely want to get that off before the cars sit in transit for several weeks. Who knows whether they wash them before shipping or not. We highly doubt it, and we don't want to take that risk. With the cars reasonably c...

Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Today is our last day at the Nordschleife but we will make the most of it! First things first in the morning, it's time to check out the Nurburgring museum. It's in the main complex right next to the Formula One GP track and it is very good - lots to take in. I'd venture to say it is better than the Porsche museum; not as big for sure, but the stories in it speak to me a little more. And maybe because it's not only about cars but also about people.  There is an extremely moving video tribute and installation for Sabine Schmitz, "The Queen of the 'Ring". Once again, I find myself getting choked up. Lots of emotions near to the surface on this trip! The whole complex is a huge facility geared around the Grand Prix, complete with car dealerships even - makes Montreal look decidedly second rate (tho to be fair, the Montreal racetrack is way better!). Ironic, as this massive facility is currently not used for Formula One. The last F1 rac...

Monday, August 7, 2023 I wake up and immediately make a conscious effort to push the rather downer track experience of yesterday out of my mind. Here we are at the Nordschleife at last and I am bound and determined to enjoy it. Helping with that is the fact that it's looking like a nice day for the later part of the afternoon when we are scheduled to go on track. Yesterday was just a little too nervy in the rain for me with those grip levels, and I'm glad we only did a feeler lap. It's an easy morning, and I rise late while Andrew works on his laptop creating more awesome GTS Chronicles Instagram content. He's really gotten into it in a big way, and it's a great way for us to share a little bit of what we have been experiencing. We visit the grocery store to get supplies for the day and the price relief is palpable as things are WAY more 'normally' priced here than in Switzerland jeez. Breakfast buns, yogurt, fruit and milk for coffee. Perfect. There's a...

Sunday, August 6, 2023 All right! Today is a big day! I've been awake for about an hour already. I'm lying in bed in anticipation of going back to that incredible racetrack and revisiting it this time behind the wheel of my own brand-new car. I have to say I'm super glad that we planned it this way, to get to 'The Green Hell' after putting many, many twisty-road kilometres on the cars. The butterflies are back in my stomach a little bit, at the thought of hitting that track at speed in my shiny new car, but having done the distances we have, the way we have, I'm feeling reasonably comfortable at being able to push a little bit when we hit the track.  After lying here just thinking about it for a while, I finally rouse myself at our normal time, and we are on the road by 8:45 and heading to Nürburg. We pass Lake Constance on the way out of town, it's massive and makes me wistful for some sailing, but in all reality that's going to have to wait until next ...

Porsche spring has sprung at last. Checking back in my records, I see that the first day out of the cave last spring was March 28, 2024. Three weeks late this year thanks to that snowfall a couple of weeks back! The last few days have had the street sweepers out in force, and with an Easter weekend of rain in the forecast, the roads will be nice and clean for some driving days next week. Might have to take a day off work! After work today, the sun was shining brightly on a cool afternoon, and I decided it was time to fire up the Boxster and break cover for the first time this year. Just a quick warm up run to check all systems, blow the cobwebs off, and put a grin on my face heading into the 4-day break from the grind. 'Red' went away super clean in November, so there was barely a mark on her when I opened the garage door - just a very fine, light coat of dust from the long sleep. I shall invest in a cover for next year for sure. I disconnected the battery tender (reading full ...

Saturday, August 5, 2023 I'm up early today because we are about to get on the road for the Malojapass on the way to the Nurburgring, only 4 days left with the cars and we intend to make the most of them. It's Mum's birthday so I must remember to text her - she should be out here on these roads having a blast with us! Interesting note, the Beyond the Grid podcasts episodes I downloaded in France have French ads in them while the ones I downloaded in Italy have Italian ads in them, inserted in the ad spaces. Interesting. As we get underway, I'm listening to a Charles Leclerc podcast with him playing the piano - he's a beginner - and it's very funny. Chris is trying the Cayman first thing, so it's nice and calm to start, and I find myself easing into it just the way I like. I think it's why I wasn't usually very good qualifier in karting, especially compared to Andrew. It just takes me a while to get confident. But hey, with such an expensive sports ca...

Friday, August 4, 2023 We rise, shower up, and Andrew describes what we will get up to today. First off though is grabbing some snacks for the road and perhaps a spray wash. It rained in the night so the cars are looking grimy big time.  #detailluke is anxious! Andrew and Chris are buzzing around engaged with each other talking discussing etc., and as predicted his presence has totally lightened the mood after the grim earlier disaster day. Now we can get on with enjoying the last few days as we head towards the Nordschleife.  We hit a car wash and it turns out to be very humorous. We should be filming it with the Benny Hill theme song playing as we race around the cars trying to get them cleaned up on minimal Swiss francs. The wash cycle is 45 seconds for one franc. We have four francs. But you have to put them all in at once, no breaks! So you do the math! We park one car in the wash bay, one car directly behind. One person sprays, one wipes. Rinse. Jump in both cars. Drive ...

Thursday, August 3, 2023 It's a quiet and very uneasy start to the morning. I eat some breakfast, but nobody else does. We discuss, and decide to go back fast to our hotel from the night before where I have a photo of us actually having the camera bag in hand - it shows Andrew putting it into his car. Handy because now we know we don't need to go back any further. Andrew finds the shortest, straightest route so we can make good time. We aren't optimistic, as we feel it must be on the side of the road somewhere where we stopped. But there's enough of a tiny spark of hope that maybe it's still there, or maybe someone picked it up and turned it in. There are still nice people in the world. Interestingly, Brian thinks he would leave it in place, whereas I would take it to the nearest manned sign of civilization. A rest stop, inn, gas station, whatever. Two different approaches, neither wrong.  Our moods are glum and tense - Andrew keeps reiterating his incomprehension a...

Wednesday, August 2, 2023 Another simple breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit, home-made crusty bread and good coffee. The manager asks for a photo with his young son and the cars - people definitely notice - and several have wondered if we are with Porsche, testing prototypes or something. It's the fact that there are two almost identical cars ... By 9:00 we are on the road, heading further up the mountain roads that run kind of parallel to the French / Italian border. I'm content that we are leaving the hot, dry, dusty roads / environment behind us. Clean surfaces without grit, more fuel availability, and cooler ambient temperatures all help make things nicer.  Over the course of the next few hours we see what must be a group of over 100 old Renault 4s (my Dad's all-time favourite car), all decked out in rally gear … part of a huge car trip by the look of it; lots of honking and flashing of lights and waving hi, by them and me! Clearly a group like that appreciates fine au...

Tuesday, August 1 , 2023 It's another beautiful day we wake up to, not hot (yet). In this idyllic setting we take our breakfast outside; croissants, homemade yoghurt and jams, fruit and of course, coffee.  Andrew takes Pascale for a quick drive, so while they are gone, I settled down to perform a little surgery. Unfortunately, one of my forefingers is infected. It was bothering me yesterday and this morning it is super tender and sore to the touch. I keep bumping it, and it freaking hurts! I borrow a needle and some rubbing alcohol and lance it. Hopefully releasing the pressure and applying some ointment will do the trick as it's interfering with comfortably holding the steering wheel - can't have that! Pascale has done our laundry for us, amazingly, and I sit outside in the sunshine gathering mine together and folding it all up to repack. It has that crunchy, dried-in-the-natural-air feel to it that I love. I shall have to thank her profusely. After a short while, the Caym...

Monday, July 31, 2023 I clearly slept soundly, as the room was nice and cool and it was dead silent and I don't remember a single thing.  Grabbing a simple breakfast, it's time for some route-planning and car-packing reorganization. As it happens, Andrew has the bulk of equipment that needs charging, etc., so I'm quite happy that my setup is rather simple. Once again, a little bit spoiled. Next up it's time to navigate down this uneven piece of road very carefully again. No scraping please! It's a touch easier because we have gravity on our side this time, less tricky work with clutch slip! Andrew leads the way while I wait for radio guidance. We take it in stages, Andrew going down to the first challenge and getting through it, then getting to a point where he can pull over in case anyone comes the other way, which would be tricky! He then comes up and guides me down through the challenge. Then I park and wait while he negotiate the next one, rinse, and repeat. It...

Sunday, July 30, 2023  Hard to believe it, but it's been 10 days since we got the cars and we've already had lots of adventures and still another 10 days to go!  We grab early breakfast at seven, and then have a little downtime waiting for Andrew as he works on his Instagram post. He knows he needs to slim down his work for that, but he feels the pressure of creating content up to the level that he has been. It's tough, balancing capturing the experience, reporting on it, etc. I remember when we first talked about posting to Instagram during the trip we thought maybe two or three posts would be it, but Andrew has really gotten into it. Although he enjoys it, I think he also feels a duty to it, and his quest for quality certainly has him working hard! I'm not stressed though, as he is doing great service to the trip, to me, and to people following along.  Once the work is done, we head down the mountain towards the coast in search of fuel. Arriving along the coastal road...