BergMeister Tour 2012; Another Magical Road Trip

Last Sunday we returned from what will be lodged in my memory as the best road trip ever. 8 early 911s joined on a trip that started from The Netherlands and ripped through Germany on Saturday, with the finish in sweltering, but gorgeous Schwangau in Bavaria. In the shadow of the Cinderella castle.

The European R Gruppe, complemented by overseas invitees, fielded S/T, RS and RSR replicas…. And a stand in Kremer Turbo. Not your usual guest in our midst, but mechanical problems forced Gerd Rijper to bring this monster along.

The route covered a total of 4.300 km in 8 days. About half of those through mountainous terrain in the Alps and Dolomites. The objective of this Tour is to enjoy our early 911s to the full on the roads the first Porsches were taken to to test their character and reliability. And to be with dear friends who are as passionate about these cars as the next participant. It’s a dense program, crammed with endless hairpins and drives of about 350 km a day excluding the trip to the start and back home from the finish.

Two of the participating cars are also raced in the Dutch Historic Racing series and were equipped with a second seat and road tires for the occasion: Ronald Aardse’s 2.8 RS and our Woodstock, the yellow RSR. The cars were leaned out slightly for road use and tomorrow the same Woodstock is racing at Assen’s TT track. If these early Porsches are put together they can handle any kind of use.

The first full day of mountain driving took us over the Fernpass and through Obergurgl into Italy’s Süd Tyrol, direction Val Gardena. On the way we crossed over the Seiseralm, through lovely Kastelruth and down the hill direction Selva. The weather was spectacular and the marvel of the Dolomites was captivating under a deep blue sky. In the evening we mourned with the Italians over their loss to Spain in the soceer World Cup, but nothing could wipe the smile of our faces from our blast earlier in the day.

More in a few days… Need to catch some sleep ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying and first race. It’ll be wet!

Photo’s by Nick Taylor and yours truly.

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