Road trip Ireland

No sooner were we back from our 5100 mile Arctic circle adventure, than we were off on the next road trip, this time with the 9Werks crew to Ireland. After such an opus magnum of a trip the reckless optimism of booking back to back road trips so close together became apparent, but tempered by the fact we would be having a mini reunion with some of the crew of last year’s Stuttgart trip.

The first task was to unpack the chattels required for a 14 day trip and condense it all down to fit into the 911 for a five day trip around the Republic. The next task after catching up with domestic duties was to scrub the arctic dirt off the cars and the brake dust from the several hours of high speed runs up the autobahn. The later seemed to have formed mine brake dust dunes which took two people three hours to dislodge before we could move to the rest of the car.

The C4S had had an easy ride as Simon drives with less alacrity than I do while I pounded towards the north pole in the 928. Tyres, oil and coolant checked we were ready for the off and I must say I was quite looking forward to being at the helm of the 911 once again.

Being late booking the ferries, we ended up crossing overnight to Belfast which allowed us to stop by family before heading south towards Dublin. Lunch overran by an hour and an earnest effort had to be put in to arrive at the first meeting point on time. We missed the allotted time and chasing down the pack along the M50 took a bit more effort as by then rush hour was in full swing with the locals having never heard of ‘keep left, pass right’.

The next four days saw us covering the most stunning scenery from Waterford in the south up to Bellinter, staying at three country houses. The Saturday saw us head north from Bellinter to Newcastle in Northern Ireland via the B roads and back down the motorway scything a path through the organic driving of the Irish.

It really was great to be back in the 996 and even more fun chasing down Editor Lee in his 996 40 Jaare on its maiden road trip. The 996 seemed to be the right tool for the job, quick enough to keep up with the latest 911’s and able to whip round mountains with the lighter Boxsters and Caymans, never feeling too large or too slow in the tight and often uneven roads. To this end any thoughts of adding a newer and by all accounts larger 911 to the fleet were paused in contemplation of why my C4S is a forever car. The look, feel, agility and speed on such tight roads means that the driver is still the weakest link in the ability to keep up with faster newer machines. Working in it’s favour will always be the 996 turbo underpinnings, brakes and suspension and the looks of the lower stanced, wide body. My only regret is that the Ohlin suspension upgrades are yet to be fitted as the booking with the specialist was cancelled with insufficient time before we had to leave.

The return journey was uneventful, this time taking the fast ferry to Fishguard from Dublin. On the whole the 996 performed perfectly once again with the only niggles being a slight puff of smoke changing gears at the limit and the lack of lumbar support resulting in back twinges.

It is always great to meet up with the 9Werks crew, catching up and poking around the huge variety of cars that they arrive in. We are looking forward to another reunion of multiple road trips at Porsches by the Lake which is always well attended with a wide variety of old on new cars.