It is late but I wanted to contribute my own autobahn story, simply because I enjoy telling it and because I think PH is the place to share it.

Myself and some close friends (who also read PH, so will be interesting to see if they see this post) used to go to Le Mans every year before marriage, kids etc. For the last few years we made more of a eurotrip out of it, doing a session at the ring and staying over in pistenklause etc, amsterdam etc. Too many stories to tell and some amazing times... We would drive whatever we had, from a rental some years, to convoys or rather more interesting metal. We stretched it out for a whole week at one point about 4yrs ago: Le Mans, Nurburgring, Porsche factory and museum, BMW factory and museum and also Alpina before back home. One of my close mates had a prev shape (supercharged) B7 at the time, and had been in regular contact with Alpina. They are very close to their customers at Alpina. At the time they were about to release the new twin turbo B7.

This was a car that hadn't been released yet, not driven by journo's or even seen by anyone in the UK. We turned up at the factory in our rental Fiat Ducato based campervan (whom we had nicknamed Marv and for which we had to pay damages to the tune of £1250 following our trip.....). Our B7 man had been enquiring about the new B7, and had managed to get an invite to drive it whilst we were over there.

We didn't dare park at the factory in our rotten and embarrassing camper, so snook round the corner and walked to Alpina in the least smelly and creased clothes we had left, only to be handed the keys to a late prototype B7, brimmed with fuel, with guidance of a good country road route out and a derestricted autobahn section back. We all piled in (5 up), somewhat taken aback by the surreal nature of what reality was being served up. We set off, country roads were amazing in themselves and my mate was pushing fairly hard, the Alpina being able to generate immense stability and grip without seemingly much roll at all, despite the forces and weight in play. We went into a farm track to do some photos, got chased out by the largest St Bernard type dog you can ever imagine (seriously - we wanted 1500bhp with that beast hunting us down) before getting back onto the autobahn section that was in the satnav.

My mate does not hang about when there is a clear road, but he is well judged. The B7 was awesome and quickly reached and surpassed what you would consider silly speeds. We went over 150 several times, eventually hitting a max of 173mph; 5 up, in a god knows how valuable prototype. Alpina are famed for accuracy of speedometer, which even at 173 was precisely the same as the GPS verified speed we were clocking too. I was sat in the middle (on the dreaded lump) of the back seat, video camera in hand capturing it all. At 173 we were all calm, serene and comfortable. We were still chatting (albeit probably a bit of nervous chat) but it wasn't stretching the car at all. All in all a once in a lifetime chance event. Amazing and unforgettable, and part of what these road trip adventures are all about.

A couple of weeks later was the car's official UK first outing and unveiling at Goodwood. We were there for the last day of my stag weekend and there it was. They had brought over the exact car that we had borrowed smile