About 6 years ago, went on a trip to Germany, even drove the Ring in a new 997S. Great trip.
While there, I got this weird idea. How great it would be to drive my RSA in Europe and the autobahn.

Well, it’s taken about a year of research and work, but it’s going to happen this year,

I started receiving all the import/export licenses a couple of weeks ago for the RSA. I got all the forms in this week. Shipping has been arranged to ship my RSA in her own private container to the UK with approximate arrival on May 19th.

Found an insurance company that will insure me in 29 countries for about $165 a month.

Joined the Porsche Club Great Britain, got my membership card on 3/31/10. I’m going to Le Mans with them.
They put together a 5 star camping trip to Le Mans every year, they camp in the Porsche Curves at Le Mans, they even put up your tent for you, It runs about $800 for 5 days at Le Mans, Euro Tunnel Pass, tickets, fully catered camp site, private restrooms and showers. How cool is that. I’ll be traveling with the PCGB from the UK to Le Mans, should help me not get lost. I’ll get to watch testing, practice, qualifying, and the race, wow.

I’ve been a member of a 964 Porsche series group for about 7 years. Since I told the group about my plans, I’ve received invitations to all over Europe, Luxemburg, France, Germany, UK, Portugal, Spain, and the Ring. Planning at least a week at the Ring.

After Le Mans heading south, Normandy, Madrid, Lisbon, Valencia, and maybe Monaco. After that head north to Germany, Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, the Ring. Etc. Want to catch a couple of Formula 1 races, Spa, Ring, etc. At least that’s the tentative schedule so far.

Found this website that lists a lot of the tracks in Europe and if they have open track days, they do. So I might get to drive Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Spa, and a bunch of others. http://www.trackdays.co.uk/tracks/

Just finished a 60k service on the RSA, new rotors, pads, brake fluid, set valves, new tires, new O2 sensor, had a ipod cable put in for tunes, and waxed and detailed her, dyno tested 250hp at rear wheels.

Had a set of PSS10 Coilovers installed, with new alignment and corner balancing last week, sweet.

Oh yeah, since I won’t be in any one country more than 4 months, I get to keep the California plates on her, cool. I wrote a lot of emails to a lot of countries to confirm that, all said fine by email, printed out all those emails, just in case.

The RSA ships in 2 weeks, when I get a confirmed delivery date, I’ll book my plane tickets.

So long story short. I’m going to Le Mans and will be spending over 4 months driving around Europe in my RSA with California plates, a dream is coming true.

Here's a picture of my RS America at the Lake Arrowhead Porsche Timeline last year.

Don

You the MAN..have a safe trip

Great trip!
I attended the classic Le Mans in 2006 for my Honeymoon... We first traveled to the UK and hooked up with some of my clients from PCGB and made the trek via ferry out of Dover.

You'll have a blast! I fully intend to do something similar in a few years.

hey look! Lake Arrowhead still had water in it when that pic was taken.

Hi Don

Sounds like you'll have a great time. Take lots of pictures.

That's quite a vacation you have planned, Don. Enjoy every minute and take lots of pictures.

Wow! Cool!

Bon voyage!

That is seriously cool! Ditto on the pics too. How many countries you hitting. Document everything. Just think of the coffee table book you could make of that. Or better yet one big ass collage in the man cave

Beautiful car ...be safe have fun

I just got a 12mp camera, with a 16gb card it will take 2 hrs of video.
I've got 3 16gb cards, spare battery and car charger. I tested it last week, put it on a tripod and video taped Sebring, worked good. It's made to upload to youtube too. Can anyone say, video of laps at the ring, autobahn, and any other thing I can think of.

I've been thinking, planning, researching this for a long time. I got the most important import licience about 10 days ago, once I had that, all I had to do was start turning everything on, took about 4 days. Since then everythings just falling into place. I don't ever remember being this excited about a trip, all I can say is, Wow it's happening.

Have a great trip Don.

Couldnt have happened to a nicer guy

Make sure you visit Mittelmotor!!!

I hope that you have an awesome trip. It has been many a moon, but Luxemburg was one of the most hospitable places on this planet and you could drive the whole country in less than a day .

I wish I would have known that you were planning, that is what I do for a living and could have knocked a little leg work out for you. When you are re-importing vehicle into USA, let me know if you need any help.

In the immortal words of Mister Mister Kýrie eléison on your travels!

How much is it going to cost to ship your car? That sounds like an incredible trip. Cheers!!

That sounds awesome! I have dreamed about doing a similar trip when I finish school.
Take lots of pics and have a great time!

"Living the Dream!" Have fun... be safe.

Awesome!!

Don,
Wow...what a wonderful opportunity!!

I assume you are a PCA member? Contact Betty Jo Turner with Pano, or Vu at the National office and see about writing a story about trip. This would make one heck of an adventure to be told that all of PCA would love to hear!

Sounds cool. Got any P-cars which need babysitting?

S

I'm keeping notes, records, web addresses, and emails about the complete trip.
Research, prep, names, etc. I haven't decided yet on what to write, article or blog, still putting out some last minute brush fires.

Dave Wilkinson of the PCGB 964 Registry and 964 UK Group let me know this morning about a emission sticker I need to get from Germany to drive into the cities. Don't need the sticker to drive the autobahn. It's called a Umweltplakette, don't ask me to pronouce that, but costs about $54.

I finally figured out how to fill out the form, took a few tries and sent it off. Recieved a comfirmation email for reciept, not approval. Sent them a email about what I was trying to do, even volunteered to get a new smog check if needed to get the Umweltplakette approved. Talked with the smog check station around the corner from me, $50 for a new test, oh well, it's worth it too me.

http://www.umwelt- plakette. de/int_england. php?SID=6n2phd9s 9ndivhe6kq0l198n v0

So now wait and see.

Thanks for the offer to take care of my 914-6, pic attached. But it's been taken care of.

Shipping in its own private container with $50k insurance is about $3500 each way.
But with the RSA in a container, I can pack most of my stuff including my fold up bicycle instead of trying to carry it all on the plane. Years ago while in the Navy shipped a car, its called open shipping or something like that, where they drive the car on and off the ship. The car got vandlized, paint stained by something that leaked on it, personal stuff ripped off. Never ship that way if you value your car. Insurance said tough about claim so did the Navy. Never again.

Thanks for the well wishes.

Later, Don

hi don,if you are still in europe on august 13,there is an oltimer grad prix at the nuerburgring ,i am going

VERY cool I have plans ( hopes ) of touring Europe someday either in my oval or roadster

Don, make sure to have a very detailed list of exactly what you are taking in the container for Customs purposes of where the container will unlade. Are you putting the car and goods on a Carnet so that you can move freely in between the countries without having to "import" it into each place that you visit? Do not put any food or consumables in the container, as it could hold up your entire shipment. If you enjoy the adult beverage or two and find a beer or wine that you enjoy, please check with your local ABC about the individual limits in your State if you want to bring any back home. If you have any questions, PM me, I want you to have the greatest time with the least amount of headache.

The trip of a lifetime for sure!

I'm imagining an entire series of pictures of the car, where you can clearly see the California plate on it, in front of all the European landmarks you can find.

I hope you have a safe and wonderful trip!

Have a good trip, it sounds like a great time.
I also have a white RSA. Mine has white wheels. Its a fun car.

Don,
That sounds like a trip of a lifetime! Wish you all the luck and success in your travels and yea, take lots of pics.
I keep having this desire to see how many 914 ownwers would like to do a trip around the good old USA and stop off for get togethers with other members. Take say, a month or so.
Again, fair winds and following seas.
Tom ICC(SW) ret.

Well, I shipped the RS America today, wow; it’s on its way. Keith showed up around 8am and we were on the road shortly thereafter. Both Keith and I had a gps in the car, just in case we got separated. The drive up was nice, only hit 3 slowdowns on the freeway. When we got there, Branko Stanojevic of Rinkens International shipping had everything ready. We were done in less than 30 minutes. The only thing on the pre-shipping inspection form was a few paint chips on the front end, not bad for a 17 year old car that I’ve driven cross country 3 times. I am worn out; woke up at 2:30am, not excited or anything. I’ll get to rest while she heads to the UK. The amount of work to put this together just blows me away, especially since I pushed the GO button last month.

I also took pictures of her before we left for LA this morning, then took more when we got there. Took pictures of everything loaded in her a couple of days ago, boy was that a job, packing everything up, inventorying everything. My bags are also packed for the flight next month; I’m not unpacking them until I get to Felixstowe.

Did a full 60k service, new brake pads, fresh brake fluid flush and filled with Super Gold, new O2 sensor, set valves (2 Day job), Fresh Mobil One 15k oil and filter, New PSS10 coilovers, alignment, corner balanced, scrub the undercarriage and wheel wells for customs, full detail. All since March 22nd, when I got the final approval papers in the mail. Wow, I’m impressed,

Spent the next four days, turning everything on. Confirming and paying for Shipping, auto insurance that’s good in 29 countries, joining the PCGB, and applying for the PCGB 5 star camping trip to Le Mans and getting approved, etc.

How many hours on the computer, researching countries, writing emails about driving my car in their countries. Emails to apply for import licenses for car, medicines, and emission stickers, the PCGB and German emission stickers look nice on her. Down loading a pile of forms, filling them out, sending them out, waiting for approval letters. One government office even required that all forms be converted to PDF, they sent you the form in Word. That alone took the best part of a day figuring out how to do that. The first time I submitted the form, it got rejected, of course.

I am so glad that I didn’t delete all the information that I had collected last year. That saved me from having to reinvent the wheel completely this year. But boy, a lot of things changed from last year. Things got a whole lot more complicated and expensive.

Six years of saving up to pay for this, and saving enough to do it in style. Good hotels, food, taking the time to really see things, no one hour tours, off to the next, rush. I love history, now I’ve got the time and resources to see so much of it, and see it in a Porsche.
Does it get any better?

I love the Autobahn. I’ll also be visiting race tracks all over Europe, and the Ring. I’ll get to drive my RS America on the ring, that’s where the idea for this whole trip happened. My second trip to Germany was with Mark and Tina of Autobahn Adventures. Our first stop was the Dorent Hotel at the Ring. I was driving a new 997S Avis rental and got to take in on the track that evening, they didn’t have spotters at the track yet. While I was driving one of my laps is when I had the idea; I want to drive my RSA on this track, how cool would that be, and it started.

So now, relax take care of the small stuff while I wait for my flights to pick her up in Felixstowe, UK. Then Le Mans.

Later, Don

Good luck witht the trip Don, looking forward to seeing the pictures. Is the volcanic ash going to cause any issues ?

I'm in London playing tourist, pick up the RS America in 2 days. Met up with the organizer of the trip to Le Mans last night, he had my ticket packet, so cool. Going on a tour of London today.

Heads is still spinning a bit that this dream is in progress, who'd have thunk I'd be able to put this together and actually do it.

So far have 2 Porsche Clubs and 1 magazine that want me to write the trip up. from the beginning of the planning to the trip details wow. Someone actually wants to hear something I say, lol.

Later, Don

That one's a Guiness
Have fun and stay on the right side (left side) of the road!
$3500 to ship it....hmmm, with a good EU exchange rate and demand for nice 914s, you could almost re-coup the shipping after a trip drivin around, hmmmmm

Have a fun and safe time....We all are looking forward to your updates.

Awesome, Don. I'm quite envious! Have an great time and keep us posted!

5/21/10

Where to start.

Met up with Stephen Fowel for dinner last night. He also brought my ticket package for Le Mans with him, nice. Stephen came to my hotel, to save me the experience of getting lost in London again, naw, that never happens, I’m just taking the scenic route again. We went looking for a restaurant down on Oxford St. First place we went into was so noisy that we never even sat down, the 2nd place was better, we could talk without shouting. Got back to the hotel around midnight.

Stephen has been a tremendous help putting this trip together. I can’t thank him enough.

Today, did a bit of shopping. Picked up a cell phone Sim card, it worked. So now I’m not out of touch with those back home.

Bought a ticket on the Big Bus tours. It was really nice, because it’s almost like Autobahn Adventures, only on a bus. You could get off at any stop and go explore the area, then catch the next bus that goes by, with Autobahn Adventures, you can pick your own route to the next destination, which made things more fun. It also is a great way to see all the top spots. I got off a couple of times to see some things. Took quite a few pictures, they’re uploading now to a Flikr account I opened. So far it’s taken 2:15 hours and it’s at 82%, 12mp sized pictures.
Here’s the address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20206812@N07/

I don’t know if you have to register to view them or not, seems like every website has started to require you to register before you can explore the site.

You can tell it’s the beginning of the tourist season. The Q’s at a few of the sights was quite long. Westminster Abby’s line had to be at least a 2 hour wait. It was 4 deep and over 100 yards long. I didn’t go, got back on the bus.

The weather was in the 80’s today and clear, perfect. The UK Customs Bureau asked me to bring some sunshine in one of their emails answering my questions about bringing the RSA over.

The area the hotel is in is surrounded by pubs and restaurants. At about 4 each afternoon, they really start to fill up, overflowing outside. If you like people watching, this is a great area. One thing that I’ve noticed and been pleasantly surprised seeing is the mini skirt is alive and well in London. I always like them, but then I think most guys do.

When I got the cell phone sim card at the T Mobile place, they’d told me about this thing called a T Mobil Broadband USB thingy. You can connect to the web anywhere with it, and there was a special on it, buy 2 days, get 30 days free, all for 35 pounds. On the way back to the hotel, I stopped to look at it again and bought it. I’m using it to upload the pictures now. It’s a pay as you go deal.

It was easy to install with one exception. When I tried to go to Flickr to upload the pictures, Flickr was blocked until I could prove I was over 18, to prove you’re over 18, it wants you to enter a credit card number, charge you 2 pounds and then gives the 2 pounds back. Sounds easy enough, right.

It only accepts credit cards issued in the UK. The broadband was working so I went to the T Mobile website, found a phone number and called them. It only took about 2 minutes before I was talking to a human, very pleasant surprise. Long story short, I had to go back to the T Mobile store to get the thing unlocked, now it’s working after I proved I was over 18, lol.

So if anyone visits here and gets one, remember to get it unlocked before you leave the store. Biggest reason for getting one, the hotel charges 15 pounds a day for internet access. That’s about what I pay for a month of service at home. Or think of it this way, that’s about 3 gallons of gas a day or a new rear tire every 11 days.

I’d rather have the gas and tires.

Here’s the latest schedule:

London 6 days Trafalgar Square
Felixstowe 3 days
Stonehenge 2 days
Canterbury 6 days
Morton on Marsh 3 days
Folkestone 3 days
Le Mans 5 days Porsche Curves
Caudan, France 4-5 days
Normandy 3-4 days
Luxemburg 7 days
Nurburgring 7 Days May need tires before I leave.

Still need to schedule:
Nehms, Northern Germany
Copenhagen
Berlin
Leipzig
Stuttgart
Lucerne
San Bernardino Pass
Stelvio Pass
Rome
Monaco
Granada
Seville
Madrid
Calais

Just entered the above in Autoroute 2010, about 7000 miles, not bad. I’m sure I can add to that.

Pretty good list and I’ve still got September in the UK and Scotland to fill. Don’t know if I can fit them all in, but I’m sure trying too.

Good news on the return shipping. Branko at Rinkens in LA sent me a email saying that he could accept my credit card and then pay the shippers here in the UK for me. How cool is that. Thank you Branko.

That’s about all for now, Don

Does that come with unlimited bandwidth? If not, you are going to have one heck of a bill uploading all those 12mp pictures

I paid 35 pounds cash, no credit card. They had a big sign that said< "Pay for 2 days, get 30 days free. I leave the UK for Le Mans June 9th, that's less than 30 days.

when I called the help line, I asked again, they said youre good to go, just get the shop to unlock it. Time will tell.

Man, this is the beginning of a great adventure. Awe-inspiring. Thanks for taking us along Don!

your going to LOVE the Stelvio, except for the huge tour buses coming around a hairpin at you. At first you cannot believe they are actually attempting to do the pass.

Drove it two summers ago in a rented Audi A3 that scooted pretty well. Was glad i did not cheap out for the VW Lupo, I can only imagine how fun this will be in a 914.

Make sure you stop, get an espresso and savor the epic view.

Click to view attachment

And while taking a break at the top, I ran into these guys.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Oh, and either before or after the Stelvio, I highly suggest a night in Bormio. Beautiful mountain town, and is refreshingly cool compared to lower elevations once in Northern Italy. And the lakes further south are also mind-numbingly gorgeous.

Have a number of Limoncello shots for me!

Good for you...
But seriously, that'd be a dream come true.

Amazing story so far and your adventures have barely begun!

Keep us updated and post plenty of photos, and don't forget to take a spin through Switzerland if you have time. I highly recommend Interlaken to Stechelberg!

Well, I left London and headed for Felixstowe. It took me only 3 hours, I was expecting all day. I caught the trains perfectly. When I got to Felixstowe, I went to the cab stand to get one to the Hotel Elizabeth Orwell. The cab driver chuckled and said, “Why don’t you walk, you can see it from here, it’s on the other side of the Co-op.

So I walked. Nice place. Has a very large picture of the Queen in the reception area, impressive. The hotel staff has already been very helpful.
I received both good news and bad news today. Here’s the bad news, let’s get it out of the way. I’ve been checking the ships website every other day or so, and it’s been saying arrival in Felixstowe on May 25th. I sent them an email the other day detailing my arrival date, hotel, and other contact information. I received a reply today, the earliest I can pick up the RSA might be the 27th, maybe. Worst case, I’ll be here in Felixstowe until June 1st or 2nd. That’s the end of the bad news.

Good news is I was able to extend my stay at the hotel until June 2nd. They also realize I might and to be gone before then, so they said they wouldn’t hold me to the late cancellation fee if I do get to pick her up and leave earlier. They’ve also been great about receiving and faxing custom forms to the shippers for me.

So I might be here in Felixstowe for a week or so. I had originally planned on a week here and even had reservations for that, then canceled them for 6 days in London first. I might have to cancel my reservations at Stonehenge and Canterbury, oh well, so it goes. I should know something in the next day or two. So I’ll just wait and see.

After I checked in, cleaned up and went for a walk to beach. It was pretty nice, also picked up a couple more things for the trip, including a book store, bought a few books, might have time to read them.

So what’s on the schedule tomorrow, laundry, found a Laundromat while walking around, so exciting, and wait for word on the RSA. It’s gonna happen, I just don’t know when.

That’s all for now.

Take care,, Don

5/28/10

I've Got Her

Made it back to the hotel after filling the tank. They did a great job, everythings there. Now to check tire pressures and get her ready for the road.

Need to call hotels for reservations too.

Later, Don

5/28/10 addendum

Well, she’s all checked out and cleaned up, ready to go tomorrow morning to Stonehenge. I won’t be staying overnight there. I was able to get my reservations back in Canterbury. Set up the GPS, Stonehenge is about 170 miles from here. So I might be checking in late in Canterbury.

After I got her ready, went and did laundry again. When I drove over and parked her, she was across the street from an Auto repair shop. I went and put the laundry in the machine, came back and she’d drawn the attention of the guys in the shop, 5-6 guys standing around her, gotta love that, right Keith. While we were talking, another guy drove up in a 997 Turbo, beautiful car. It made waiting for the laundry go by much faster.

I’m sitting in the parking lot on my little camp chair right now, putting this email together and uploading the pictures from the Imorex Bonded Warehouse where I took delivery. They waited until I showed up to open the container, then let me drive her out of the container down the ramp. I was concerned that the battery might be low or dead, she’s been sitting for almost 6 weeks now. She fired right up, no hesitation at all. The only thing she needed was some air in the tires and the Porsche Air Compressor worked great, they were all down about 3-4 psi.

For you guys back in the states, when I filled her up, it came to 66.90 pounds, that’s about $100 US or more. I did budget for that.

Just finished uploaded the Felixstowe delivery pictures, enjoy.

Take Care, Don

For the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20206812@N07/

Gotta love it when a plan comes together!

Love this thread already, and you are just truly getting started! Looking forward to more...

OMG

Gotta love the UK!

So tell us, what Porsche paint color was the 997 Turbo? Did it complement the RS America?

OMG, this weekend is the 70th aniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation in WWII, they're having a Black Tie Ball here tonight. So who goes walking through the crowd wearing a 914 T-shirt, shorts and flip flops, yep you guessed it. The looks.

Sometimes I just have a knack for stepping in it.

Don,

You are living my dream.

Keep up the good work (play).

Cheers,

Eddie