A short trip in the CGT
Discussion
From late May into mid June is when I generally look for a five day window of motoring opportunity. This year has been somewhat circumscribed by an early trip to the Vercors and a pending Macan trip at end of June. Avoiding Le Mans traffic is always another consideration. Then when all other issues are settled the final choice depends on the weather. This year the high-pressure system was giving an indifferent forecast for North West Scotland, Summer Isles, Lochinver and Cape Wrath so instead I headed south for the Alps.
Traffic on the M25 was unusually heavy for a Sunday but as they say all things must pass and in due course I joined the fat boys on the Shuttle. Scraping the spoiler at the customs check had not been a great start and gave some concern for the roads ahead. In the event I had no problems until back at Eurotunnel where once again there was a particularly aggressive ramp up to UK customs.
After overnighting in northern France, I made an early start and enjoyed a series of empty D roads toward Reims.
A26 round Reims then more cross county
to Bar-sur Aube where I filled up in anticipation of that lovely sequence of D396, D996, D928 and D959.
Some more cross county driving encountered local hazards.
Taking the Lons road out of Besancon then the D9 towards Vallorbe there to are some wonderful empty roads to enjoy.
Then some Swiss motorway to Bulle where I took the Jaun Pass into Simmental for an overnight.
Next day dawned bright and clear with not a cloud in the sky, just perfect for the Grimsel, Furka, Susten circuit.
It’s slow going round Interlaken but the views are spectacular and I had all day. I had decided on an anticlockwise circuit mainly to avoid an uphill queue into the road works at Andermatt. Those readers familiar with the CGT clutch will take the point; and by the same token note that in most photos the car is pointing downhill on the passes.
Reassuringly there were still a number of mobile speed cameras left in the compound at Meiringen, avoiding a week end is always prudent for these runs over the passes.
The Grimsel was nicely free of traffic and I made good time to the summit. I took it steady on the run down to Gletsch which turned out to have been prescient as the police were out in force at the bridge over the Rhone. I smiled and they smiled back.
It was tempting to let rip over the first two hairpins on the Furkastrasse but there again there is no point antagonising people. However once established on the straightish section I did take the opportunity to overtake a coach at pace on the way to the big bend at Oberalpenstafel. Negotiating the hairpins on the way up to Belvedere I passed a fleet of locals 911’s heading in the opposite direction. Cheery waves exchanged.
The Furka is pretty narrow on the way down to Andermatt and there is little or nothing to stop you going over the edge if you miscalculate. Mindful of the width of the CGT we proceeded with due caution.
There was a mighty traffic jam at the road works after Andermatt and I was deeply grateful for my decision to tackle these heading downhill.
At Wassen I turned off up the Susten pass in company with a couple of local motorcyclists. I let them past and followed for several engaging sections taking advantage of their local knowledge to make good progress.
The snow at the top was only just melting so the timing of the trip had been about right.
On the way down the Susten I met the 911 boys coming up and we indulged in more cheery waving .
After an excellent day’s sport I headed back to base in Simmental.
Switzerland is not generally known for bargain prices but I recommend the car wash at Lenk where for CHF3 you can clear the bugs with hot foam and rinse off with clear mountain water.
Another fill of the 90 litre tank and I was ready for the run the next day back through France.
After another enjoyable crossing of the Jaun pass I left the Alps receding in the mirror
And following the autoroute to Lausanne exited at Cossonay and headed cross country to Mouthe in France. From there some intricate route-finding through the Jura ensued.
This took me to the bottom of the D959 which once again delivered some sublime motoring. An overnight south of Reims meant I could be on the M25 in early afternoon and hopefully avoid the worst of the traffic.
It more or less turned out that way and I was home by 3.00pm.
The tale of the tape, which I don’t think is bad all things considered.
The CGT had proved a surprisingly comfortable and manageable vehicle for such a trip. It is wide for sure, you need to be careful with ground clearance. And at all times be mindful that unlike modern Porsche you’re very much on your own and misjudgements unlikely to be forgiven.
Traffic on the M25 was unusually heavy for a Sunday but as they say all things must pass and in due course I joined the fat boys on the Shuttle. Scraping the spoiler at the customs check had not been a great start and gave some concern for the roads ahead. In the event I had no problems until back at Eurotunnel where once again there was a particularly aggressive ramp up to UK customs.
After overnighting in northern France, I made an early start and enjoyed a series of empty D roads toward Reims.
A26 round Reims then more cross county
to Bar-sur Aube where I filled up in anticipation of that lovely sequence of D396, D996, D928 and D959.
Some more cross county driving encountered local hazards.
Taking the Lons road out of Besancon then the D9 towards Vallorbe there to are some wonderful empty roads to enjoy.
Then some Swiss motorway to Bulle where I took the Jaun Pass into Simmental for an overnight.
Next day dawned bright and clear with not a cloud in the sky, just perfect for the Grimsel, Furka, Susten circuit.
It’s slow going round Interlaken but the views are spectacular and I had all day. I had decided on an anticlockwise circuit mainly to avoid an uphill queue into the road works at Andermatt. Those readers familiar with the CGT clutch will take the point; and by the same token note that in most photos the car is pointing downhill on the passes.
Reassuringly there were still a number of mobile speed cameras left in the compound at Meiringen, avoiding a week end is always prudent for these runs over the passes.
The Grimsel was nicely free of traffic and I made good time to the summit. I took it steady on the run down to Gletsch which turned out to have been prescient as the police were out in force at the bridge over the Rhone. I smiled and they smiled back.
It was tempting to let rip over the first two hairpins on the Furkastrasse but there again there is no point antagonising people. However once established on the straightish section I did take the opportunity to overtake a coach at pace on the way to the big bend at Oberalpenstafel. Negotiating the hairpins on the way up to Belvedere I passed a fleet of locals 911’s heading in the opposite direction. Cheery waves exchanged.
The Furka is pretty narrow on the way down to Andermatt and there is little or nothing to stop you going over the edge if you miscalculate. Mindful of the width of the CGT we proceeded with due caution.
There was a mighty traffic jam at the road works after Andermatt and I was deeply grateful for my decision to tackle these heading downhill.
At Wassen I turned off up the Susten pass in company with a couple of local motorcyclists. I let them past and followed for several engaging sections taking advantage of their local knowledge to make good progress.
The snow at the top was only just melting so the timing of the trip had been about right.
On the way down the Susten I met the 911 boys coming up and we indulged in more cheery waving .
After an excellent day’s sport I headed back to base in Simmental.
Switzerland is not generally known for bargain prices but I recommend the car wash at Lenk where for CHF3 you can clear the bugs with hot foam and rinse off with clear mountain water.
Another fill of the 90 litre tank and I was ready for the run the next day back through France.
After another enjoyable crossing of the Jaun pass I left the Alps receding in the mirror
And following the autoroute to Lausanne exited at Cossonay and headed cross country to Mouthe in France. From there some intricate route-finding through the Jura ensued.
This took me to the bottom of the D959 which once again delivered some sublime motoring. An overnight south of Reims meant I could be on the M25 in early afternoon and hopefully avoid the worst of the traffic.
It more or less turned out that way and I was home by 3.00pm.
The tale of the tape, which I don’t think is bad all things considered.
The CGT had proved a surprisingly comfortable and manageable vehicle for such a trip. It is wide for sure, you need to be careful with ground clearance. And at all times be mindful that unlike modern Porsche you’re very much on your own and misjudgements unlikely to be forgiven.
Edited by lowndes on Friday 7th July 12:04
Edited by lowndes on Thursday 13th July 06:55
SRT Hellcat said:
Truly awesome and nearly 40,000 miles on the clock. Other than the customs area. How do you find the ground clearance on the front. The thought of speed bumps scare me to death. I really need to find a leggy example so not to be precious about using it.
There is no doubt you need to take care over speed bumps, entry’s to petrol stations etc. As you may well know French villages can have serious humps defending 30kph areas. Approaching one at an angle can lessen the risk of grounding though the descent off the hump can be more onerous than the ascent onto it.RUF do a lift kit for €14,000 fitted. Reading said it is the best they have seen but there are others.
Later cars had the option of a factory fit revised push rod which raised the car 10mm at the front and 9mm at the rear. £4040 at the time of order. The Porsche official literature claims this pushrod does not affect handling. I think this unlikely to be true at the limit on a circuit but for normal road use is probably fair enough. I have done the odd track day in it but mainly use it as a sports tourer.
Mine is a one owner UK June 2006 car and the first owner had the revised pushrods factory fitted option. I did wonder about retrofitting the original push rods plus a RUF kit but the original Porsche pushrod parts plus labour would be around £15k on top of the €14k RUF lift. It seemed cheaper to replace a few front splitters which are only a rubber strip at around £200.
AndrewD said:
Fantastic trip and photographs, thank you for sharing.
I lived in CH for 5 years and your account brought back good memories - I found the Furka bumpy and narrow and not particularly enjoyable, more as a means to get from Grimsel into Andermatt for some fuel and refreshments. But Susten, Grimsel and Nufenen are sublime, they must have been amazing in a CGT.
I keep thinking of taking mine on a road trip - how did you deal with the luggage space if you don't mind me asking? My wife has suggested FedEx!
Agreed on the descent of the Furka into Andermatt but the run up Furkastrasse from Gletsch to Belvedere is pretty good.I lived in CH for 5 years and your account brought back good memories - I found the Furka bumpy and narrow and not particularly enjoyable, more as a means to get from Grimsel into Andermatt for some fuel and refreshments. But Susten, Grimsel and Nufenen are sublime, they must have been amazing in a CGT.
I keep thinking of taking mine on a road trip - how did you deal with the luggage space if you don't mind me asking? My wife has suggested FedEx!
I don’t know if you have the CGT luggage set but it does offer reasonable capacity, as long as one travels light and Mrs Lowndes doesn’t want to take her hat boxes. I did this trip solo so put my holdall on the passenger seat having first protected the seat with a soft towel. Obsessive or what!
What is a compromise is that you can’t take the roof panels off on a tour as they fill the front luggage compartment. So though the weather was fine for the whole trip it was only on the circular tour of the passes that I could have the roof off.
My advice would be just go for it, there are few comparable motoring experiences to the CGT on song on an open country road.
A quick in car shot before things start to get interesting
Edited by lowndes on Friday 7th July 12:05
Glad people enjoyed the report of the trip and nice to hear from other owners.
By way of corollary, and to give credit where it’s due the majority of the mileage was done by the previous owner who had had the car from new. I bought it from him earlier this year and have done 2.5k miles and expect to average around 5k per year while in my ownership.
Muscle memory is a curious thing. Having spent the best part of 5 days in the car some things become second nature. It was interesting then that when I got back in the 997GT3, also LHD and LWB, the gear level seemed in an odd place on the floor. I was also taken by how quiet it was.
By way of corollary, and to give credit where it’s due the majority of the mileage was done by the previous owner who had had the car from new. I bought it from him earlier this year and have done 2.5k miles and expect to average around 5k per year while in my ownership.
Muscle memory is a curious thing. Having spent the best part of 5 days in the car some things become second nature. It was interesting then that when I got back in the 997GT3, also LHD and LWB, the gear level seemed in an odd place on the floor. I was also taken by how quiet it was.
Just by way of a postscript.
I’m heading back down to Switzerland in the car at the beginning of August so just enough time for Reading to fit in a service.
Their transporter arrived this morning to collect. It is a complicated vehicle which when it arrived already housed a rather tasty cup car heading for Silverstone. They manage to fit in two cars by nesting one partially on top of the other.
Anyway, chatting to the driver, he said he had just delivered a GT Silver with Black CGT to its new owner. The car had 900 miles on the clock. Probably not going to be driven he said. We both thought that rather a shame and in an anthropomorphic moment I felt rather sorry for that car.
I’m heading back down to Switzerland in the car at the beginning of August so just enough time for Reading to fit in a service.
Their transporter arrived this morning to collect. It is a complicated vehicle which when it arrived already housed a rather tasty cup car heading for Silverstone. They manage to fit in two cars by nesting one partially on top of the other.
Anyway, chatting to the driver, he said he had just delivered a GT Silver with Black CGT to its new owner. The car had 900 miles on the clock. Probably not going to be driven he said. We both thought that rather a shame and in an anthropomorphic moment I felt rather sorry for that car.
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