Author Archives: driveeuropenews

News: speed cameras France; in-car cams offer; ferry offers++

Welcome back! We never went away (aaaah) so here’s a round up of news from the past week.

Weather

It will be coldest in the north east, -12°C in Moscow, but otherwise it’s mild temperatures, overcast skies and rain for most of Europe in the week ahead. Not much fresh snow on the ski slopes but the good skiing season will continue.

Driving

The AA took to the airwaves last week to warn about 400 new speed cameras in France. Police have apparently taken down warning signs as well. This is on top of new rules last year banning speed camera detectors, even as a standard feature on integrated satnav systems.

39212_419596325565_526834_nMcLaren Cars press officer Dave Eden spent the holidays in Catalunya, Spain, travelling by car, naturally. The return journey saw him complete 878 miles in 13h18m at an average speed of 66mph according to this. That’s not bad, comfortably beating our best, 770 miles Biarritz-London in 13h. We’re both left in the shade however by doinitonline’s Marek Nusl. He drove 1,063 miles up the Gulf of Bothnia (above, in Sweden) in 21 hours continuous driving last year… We have to keep reminding ourselves, ‘it’s not a competition’.

Gothenburg’s new congestion zone started on January 1st though it won’t apply to foreign registered vehicles, during the holiday month of July or on evenings and weekends.

Driver trainer Ideas4ADIs has extended its special offer on in-car cameras. Its SmartCam HD2 costs just £95 using the offer code SMART. In-car cameras are a great way to: avoid ‘crash for cash’ incidents (or corrupt foreign coppers) and relive your driving holidays in full high definition (check out the demo video).

Ferries

Brittany Ferries celebrated its 40th anniversary on 2 January. The company was established to bring French farm produce to the UK, soon expanding to passenger services. The first route was Roscoff to Plymouth. Mail on Sunday travel editor Frank Barrett relived his first trip across the Channel, in 1962, to mark the occasion.

dfds vintage

It’s ferry nostalgic all round at the moment. DFDS tweeted this mock up of a classic travel ad ‘just for fun’ over the holidays. It has also extended its short stay from-£19-each-way special offer until 28 March, and released a behind-the-scenes video.

P&O is cutting 20% off fares for customers booking by 14th January while Stena Line will knock £50 off any flexible return fare Harwich-Hook of Holland. It’s a limited offer, available until 31st January.

Destinations

Daily Telegraph architecture critic Ellis Woodman describes the minimalist pavilions at the new Louvre Lens fine art museum in northern France as ‘extraordinary’. An hour from either Calais or Dunkerque (we visited in early December) admission is free.

After reporting that two British holidaymakers in Bruges had both lost their legs after falling victim to a local drink-driver on January 1st, the Independent has since updated its story to say their injuries are not as bad as first thought.

Electric cars will change the way we live

479aWe drove 250 miles the other day to visit a house for sale. Like every other Brit we’re obsessed with houses, specifically about how to make vast amounts of money out of them. Our latest ruse is places blighted by road noise. The expectation is that, sooner or later, silent electric vehicles will make it less of an issue. We’re only half joking.

Having been bombarded with galloping amounts of news and information about electric cars recently, we’re suddenly not so sure it will be decades before they catch on. The industry’s rate of development is quite shockingly fast.

Whiling away the journey on Twitter, the latest gem was transmitted seamlessly into the cabin. IBM has launched new software to support charge roaming – much like mobile phone roaming – across Europe. Part of the EU’s Green eMotion project, the infrastructure is expected to be up and running by 2015. You will be able to charge and pay anywhere in Europe using your UK account.

This year, Tesla’s Model S will go on sale in the UK with its real world range of just under 250 miles, enough for London to Brussels, while BMW will launch its electric ‘i’ sub-brand with the i3 city car and i8 sportscar.

Big money is pouring into electric vehicles and their disadvantages – range, charging points, speed of charging, sales, residuals, and battery life – are having chunks taken out of them all the time.

Now, we’re not advocates for electric cars. Far from it. A life’s ambition is to own a V12-engined Aston Martin. We’re not particularly green either, other than a fastidiousness about recycling, nor are we convinced that electric cars per se are environmentally friendly (if the power is generated by a coal fired power station for instance, not forgetting the horrific chemicals sloshing about in the batteries). But they are happening whether we like it or not, with the clear potential to change the way we live.

Tiny electric motors means no large, heavy internal combustion engine to lump around, or find a place for inside the car. Simpler mechanicals mean electric cars can be serviced at your home. Since they can, in principle, be charged from any socket the energy needed to get them moving will be cheap – there’s no way to distinguish between the stuff that goes into your car and the stuff headed for your fridge freezer.

Well publicised already are the dangers to pedestrians from silent electric vehicles prowling the streets. In houses without driveways, will there be wires trailing all over the pavements, or will parking spaces outside houses be reserved for owners to charge their cars at night? If cars are powered from the national grid how many more power stations will we need, and where will we build them?

An important part of the European Commission’s road charging proposal is the ‘polluter pays’ principle, both noise and CO2. But there isn’t any pollution from electric vehicles (at the point of use anyway).

This is plenty to be going on with but even so we feel we’re scratching the surface. Our new house buying strategy is a long shot for sure, but not because it won’t happen, but because of the (vanishing) amount of time it will take to realise.

It’s time to get excited about Sochi!

The Black Sea resort, on the edge of Europe, is host not just to the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Russian Grand Prix but also the 2018 World Cup. Organising a roadtrip to this part of the world is not the work of a moment so we’re starting now.

imeretinskaya_maket2One trip couldn’t take in both 2014 events. The Winter Olympics starts on 7 February 2014 while the F1 calendar isn’t announced until December 2013. The track, which winds in and around the Olympics facilities, won‘t be ready until June at the earliest because the surface cannot be laid until the Olympics is finished.

The event will almost certainly miss the exact 100 year anniversary of the previous Russian Grand Prix, held on 31 May 1914 in St Petersburg.

At 3.9 miles, half on public roads, it will be the third longest F1 circuit but one of the fastest, with a Monza-style 200mph (320kph) top speed along the start finish straight. Immediately after is a 270° constant curve taken at over 185mph (300kph).

sochi 22The race could be delayed for a year if the International Olympics Committee thinks preparations are interfering in Winter Games plans. If it goes ahead – likely late summer/ early autumn – the lack of an established Formula One culture in Russia means attendance is likely to be low, and ticket and accommodation prices (relatively) cheap. For more on Sochi read this.

sochi-olympic-parkThe shortest road route is 2500 miles from London via Poland and the Ukraine. Only 900 miles is on motorway. We’d be tempted to drive through Austria, Hungary and Romania then via Odessa. It’s an extra 180 miles, but 1150 is on motorway. For more on driving in Russia see this.

The way back, circumnavigating the Black Sea, looks like an ideal opportunity to check out the futuristic architecture and roads of Georgia, and maybe even the cheap five star hotels of Baku, Azerbaijan (on the Caspian Sea), all with Istanbul and Athens – and the Adriatic Coast – to look forward to on the way home. Wanna come?!

Fast facts Sochi: at 90 miles long, greater Sochi claims to be Europe’s longest city. It is also the birthplace of Nobel prize winning physicist Sir Andre Geim, inventor of Graphene, the hi-tech ‘miracle material’ one atom thick into which the British government has just announced a big investment.

A great year for British cars

The new Range Rover spearheads what should be a classic year for smart British cars

Range Rover 4Any day now you should get first sight of the all-new Range Rover. Launched in September, cars have already arrived in dealerships with deliveries due to start imminently. This fourth generation car is up to 40% lighter than its predecessor while a longer wheelbase – and full length panoramic sunroof – address the other major issue, rear seat accommodation. People are very cynical about SUVs these days. We say, the extraordinary breadth of the new Range Rover’s abilities may well tempt you to push that little bit further. From £71,295.

8Jaguar’s F-TYPE hits the roads for the first time in the spring. Sales of McLaren’s P1 £800,000 megacar start at the end of the year, but its 12C Spider – the hardtop convertible – is available now. Don’t overlook the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster. Smaller than a 911, 510bhp, £199,750, manual only, it’s surely the ultimate expression of a very English icon.

bentley 2aNot to be outdone, Bentley has just announced ‘the World’s Fastest Four Seat Convertible’. Its Continental GT Speed convertible will debut at this month’s Detroit Motor show. Priced north of £160,00 it develops an hilarious 616bhp from its twin turbo W12 engine, hits 202mph and 0-60 in 4.1secs. At just 9cm wider then a Ford Focus, with four wheel drive, the Continental is a highly useable car. The quick can get their hands on one for the summer. Deliveries start in late June/ early July Bentley tells us today.

Trend setting 2013: Supermodels drive Europe’s roads

One supermodel driving in Europe is glamorous and exciting. Four of the world’s biggest models driving in Europe is a trend.

In no particular order…

1

Toni Garrn, Vogue’s third most popular model in 2012 (worldwide), is the proud owner of a Land Rover Freelander. She tweeted in July, ‘First time ever driving myself to work! Love my new car… wanna drive to every job in Europe now.’

2

Problem is, the Hamburg native is not in Europe that often. She did stop in Stockholm ‘for a couple of hours’ though before Christmas (above).

kendra gt3 rs big+

Kendra Spears, currently starring in the Armani Code perfume commercials, is another top model who likes driving. Here she is in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS somewhere in France. She says she’s looking forward to taking it on the autobahn. The GT3 RS can reach 193mph. We think she can handle it:

2a

Her last birthday celebrations included a track day at Goodwood in this 911. Supermodel or not, we like people that like 911s. Did you know US Vogue editor Anna Wintour drives a 911, manual?

2b

Kendra heads back to Paris in the GT3 RS after a weekend’s surfing in Biarritz.

kendra-spears-escada-spring-summer-2013

Kendra Spears and Knoepfel & Indlekofer do a great job for Escada.

38394-800w

Anja Rubik, long time international Vogue fixture, and husband – basketball player and model Saša (Sasha) Knežević – ponder the view in a shoot for Alexi Lubomirski and Vogue Russia.

3

Anja launched her own magazine – 25 – with a big party in Cannes last summer. But the couple did manage a real-life road trip in his native Serbia, between Belgrade and Šabac, tweeting this pic of a typical Serb roadscape.

5574a

This is our version, also near Šabac, in the spring.

4

We’re stretching it to include Victoria’s Secret and American Vogue favourite Candice Swanepoel. She’s driving the Mercedes SLS Roadster but it’s for a shoot in Miami. She does however often spend her holidays on the road, keeping a Jeep down in Brazil for that reason. She told an interviewer recently, ‘I love exploring new places and feeling that freedom.’ We couldn’t put it any better ourselves.

jensonbutton_hugoboss_hunterandgatti_04

Finally, F1 driver Jenson Button puts us all in the shade with this campaign for Hugo Boss’ spring 2013 McLaren collection. Shot by Barcelona duo Hunter & Gatti, expect to see it all over lifestyle magazines very soon. Not sure about the outfit but the fingers are très élégantes, no?

Our year in pictures: 3 trips, 14 countries, 4,331 miles

We cannot complain about our driving adventures in 2012, even if they didn’t always go to plan…

1‘Balkan Holiday’, Ardennes, Belgium
After a baking hot couple of days in Maastricht by the time we head south, north west Europe is wreathed in thickest fog. Nutty locals rush headlong while we hang on to tail lights, hoping for some warning if there’s a smash. Daredevil driving is second nature round here, just a few miles from Spa Francorchamps, the Belgian Grand Prix road race track. By Luxembourg it’s cleared up nicely: diesel costs 98p per litre.

4Lucerne
Basel on a bad day. Late afternoon, oppressive, muggy heat and a pre-season building programme sees us press on to Lucerne. Not a good idea on day three of the World Rowing Championships. The only room in town is a €560 junior suite at the Schweizerhof. So a night in the car, our first ever, albeit a few feet from the edge of the lake. Our Audi A4 Avant, on its maiden voyage, is proving itself already. You can’t sleep in a 911.

6East Switzerland
Which pic to chose after an amazing day spent mainly around 7,000 ft? From Andermatt in south central Switzerland we could take the Furka or Gotthardpass but opt for the Oberalppass (6,706ft) east. The rain, fog, ice and snow at the summit, with barriers down for mending, is terrifying. It leads to the Julier Pass (7,493ft) after which we first hit bucolic pastures then St Moritz, dropping down into Italy by Bernina (7,638ft, above).

7aItaly
Trieste has a firm grip on our imaginations. Once at one end of the Iron Curtain, still a bridge between east and west Europe, it hasn’t lost its mysterious frontier glamour. Is it Italian or Austrian? Or Slovenian? Emboldened by an idyllic, relaxing drive past Venice, along the top of the Adriatic in late Spring sun, we rock up at the grand Savoia Excelsior Palace and attempt a sauntering, James Bond-style check-in. They make us pay in advance.

8Croatia
Despite some of the best mountain roads and motorways in Europe, we never get to grips with Croatia. The men are aggressive and rude. The (minimum) three night stay at the Le Meridien Lav hotel costs £768. There are stunning sunsets over Split, the German-built resort is futuristic film-set perfect but the food was naff and the place overrun with child-of-oligarch boisterous Russian youths. The porter asked for a bigger tip.

9Bosnia and Herzegovina
Crossing the Bosnian border was the moment DriveEurope earned its travel spurs proper. We talked our way across, it’s the only way, tackling Europe’s saddest country with third party only insurance and a massive excess. Thank God the Hotel Bosnia in Sarajevo has secure parking. Bosnia is a lush, beautiful country, Switzerland and the Highlands combined. Having finally cottoned on to the horrific details of its recent history, our drive through the grim eastern part of the country is unforgettable in every sense.

11Serbia
We’re in the centre of Belgrade, a maze of one way streets and heavy traffic. Even holding the map next to the street signs is no use. We absolutely cannot make head or tail of the Cyrillic alphabet. Google Maps saves the day. After an illegal u-turn in front of gun toting police, eventually we make it to the genteel Hotel Moskva, overlooking the main drag. Breakfast is hundreds of tiny, ornate cream cakes. The only English we see the entire time is a hand-scripted ‘A Momento’ written inside the hotel brochure left in our room.

12Slovakia
Why didn’t we know about Bratislava? We had a much better time in the Slovakian capital than we ever have in nearby, boring old Vienna (no offence). We‘re so glad we didn‘t stop in Budapest. Overlooked by the beautifully restored castle and a Jetsons-style restaurant on top of a bridge, the crumbling Commie and Austro-Hungarian grandeur and cobbled back streets with cosy subterranean bars – not to mention the immense ice hockey stadium where it costs €7 to watch a world class match – goes on and on and on.

13Germany
599 miles of cross continental motoring, via (not quite) the centre of Prague, saw us unctuously grateful for a room at the Best Western in Siegen, 60 miles east of Cologne. The latter half of the trip, from Dresden, was edge-of-the-seat in ceaseless rain, ‘bahnstormers pounding past clearly oblivious to the often extreme conditions. It put us 450 miles from home after nearly 3,000 miles and 14 countries in 12 days, a respectable average of 284 miles per day.

15September: Amsterdam
Expectations were huge for our two week September trip, tentatively titled Atlantic Coast (Spain & Portugal). We start in Amsterdam because, well, we can but are struck down by illness on the way. We pass a day in the fine Hotel de Doelen but it’s clear this trip is terminal (even if the patient goes on to make a full recovery). With the dregs of holiday goodwill we conclude that – at least – it’s quick and easy to get home. The voyage from Den Haag is comfortable, sprawled on a black leather divan in the quite salubrious, Stena Britannica.

4December: Brussels
DriveEurope’s first solo driving trip to the Continent, to get the inside line on road tolls at a conference in Brussels. But we also take in the Christmas market in Bruges (and Ghent) on the way, and the brand new Louvre Museum out-post in Lens, northern France, on the way back. We haven’t decided where we’re going in 2013. We probably won’t know until we roll off the boat. But next year we are definitely taking the dog.

Mega news roundup: Weather, Driving, Cars, Travel Advice & Ferries

Driving

It’s been a week of extreme weather across Europe – temperatures reached -60° C in Siberia – but is set to get much milder. Not much new snow. It will be dry and sunny in Italy, particularly in Rome, and also Athens. Watch the BBC European forecast here.

Sixt car rental has launched a handy tool for finding the driving regulations around Europe.

Thanks to @sfichele for bringing this to our attention: a how-to article about paying road tolls in the Algarve. The Portuguese system uses in-car transponders rather than toll booths and barriers. You can rent transponders from garages and service stations.

4519Travel advice

The Foreign Office travel advice tweeted regular warnings over the holidays – about frequent police checks on drivers in Romania – a blocked road up to the Riviera ski resorts in France (see @UKinFrance) – following continued arrests that chewing drug Khat, legal in the UK, is illegal in many European countries – protests in Greece neighbour Macedonia over 31% unemployment and the state budget. The opposition called for civil unrest (for latest see @UKinMacedonia) – and the need to register with Croatian police or local tourist centre when visiting. We didn’t in May 2012 (see picture above, near Fužine, approaching the Bjelolasica National Park in northern Croatia) unless the hotel did it automatically…

Cars

BMW is about to launch a mobile 4G in-car router for use by up to eight devices at a time, in Europe and America. It can also be taken out of the car, uses Near Field Communication for instant connection and is likely faster than the one in your home. Compatible with any existing BMW telephone docking station. UK prices and launch TBA. Meanwhile Volvo and Ericsson have announced a new partnership, to provide tailored travel info, navigation and entertainment direct to in-car screens.

Tesla has announced European prices for its upcoming Model S, see our previous report. It will retail from €72,600 when it goes on sale in early 2013. UK prices still to be announced. Interesting research via Fleetnews.co.uk about living with an electric vehicle. Still errs on the side of conventional fuels but increasingly finely balanced. US research says electric car residuals are better than feared while another project says the typical three year buying cycle means drivers will not keep electric vehicles long enough to realise the full savings.

326aSpotted: an original Range Rover Vogue, tragically rotting in a farmyard near Northchurch, Herts. Contact us if you’re interested and we’ll tell you where to find it.

Ferries

Despite adding new ferry travel rights on 18 December 2012, the European Commission is yet to update its Smartphone Passenger Rights App, a quick (and free) way to check what you are entitled to if things go wrong. Will crack onto this in the New Year.

The ferry companies have seen off attempts to privatise Dover port after fears over future price hikes. The news was welcomed by the People’s Port Community Trust who are attempting to buy the port. Plans for redevelopment should still go ahead.

DFDS has announced it will no longer charge admin. fees for debit card and Pay Pal transactions.

Welcome to a new video site on the shipping industry http://www.shippingtv.co.uk (also see @ShippingTV on Twitter). We look forward to having a trawl. Finally, spare a thought for the people working over Christmas on the ferries and trains – Eurotunnel is 24/7 365 days a year for instance. The ferrymen in Malta only got three hours off for lunch. There were few problems over the holidays.

7018a

What is McLaren playing at? Tooned DVD review

DSC_0218Those hoping Ron Dennis makes a swift ‘white knight’ return to the F1 team will be disappointed. The McLaren visionary shows absolutely no sign of narrowing his range.

DSC_0253You might have seen the F1 team’s new cartoons at the end of the grand prix on Sky Sports F1 last season. A series of witty, three minute action packed adventures all involving advanced technology – or not – featuring the (self-voiced) team drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, among others.

All twelve episodes were released on DVD in December, a copy of which DriveEuropeNews was delighted to find in its Christmas stocking this year.

McLaren can look a bit contrived – Dennis descries himself as an ‘old woman’ when it comes to presentation – but there’s no evidence of over-egging here. Tooned absolutely nails it. The jokes are funny, with some subtle layers, appealing to both adults and children, and made with the highest production values. As you would expect, money-no-object McLaren commissioned the best, Framestore, winners of four Oscars in the past six years, for Harry Potter, Dark Knight and Superman.

DSC_0265If you did catch them on TV then there is nothing new to see here bar some ‘making of’ style extras and an interview with McLaren Group boss Ron Dennis.

In it he acknowledges many people looked askance when they heard the company was entering the animation business. McLaren has started a few tangential businesses over the years – from catering to ultra high end hi-fi speakers, not least the road car company – but this is the zaniest departure yet.

Dennis is brilliantly unselfconscious about his motives. It’s a new platform for sponsors, and adds colour to McLaren’s dour image, but above all he aims to attract young viewers to Formula One. Some say F1 generally should be doing this, interesting as we move closer to the time when Bernie Ecclestone steps aside.

DSC_0266Whether it’s a message you want your kids exposed to depends on you – risk taking, anti-authority street smarts, even some creative cheating(!) – but it’s a refreshing change from our safety first culture, certainly.

Quite how Tooned could evolve is fascinating. It certainly isn’t a one-off. We don’t want to ruin the plot, but the final episode clearly had a very short turnaround time, giving Ron Dennis a platform to say all sorts of things. It could get very interesting indeed.

How regularly DriveEuropeNews reaches for its copy remains to be seen. Tooned certainly bears repeat viewing. We suspect these early episodes, at least, will come to be seen as minor classics.

Availabe from Amazon and McLaren Store from around £10.

Public response to new road tolls plan: muted?

5884aConsidering 1.8 million people signed the Downing Street petition against road charging in 2007, the immediate response to today’s similar proposal must be described as muted.

One thousand comments on the BBC news website by lunchtime is not chicken feed, but neither does it signify there’s a revolution brewing below stairs. It wasn’t even the most commented story that week.

Despite plenty of traffic the subject never made it onto the Twitter trending list, the anti road toll petitions on the Downing Street website were very quiet and the story was soon downgraded on the major news websites (for precisely how it played out see below). By 15:00 it was all over.

You could read too much into this. Today is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. There haven’t been any new revelations to keep the controversy going and the story wasn’t the result of an official announcement, just briefings to the newspapers (not that there have been any denials).

On the other hand, will policy makers be trembling in their boots this weekend? It doesn’t look like a terminal blow to plans which, despite denials about final decisions, develop along consistent lines: no tolls on existing roads, only on those upgraded ‘beyond recognition’, with an industry structure similar to water or energy.

Perhaps the electorate has been persuaded by George Osborne’s apparent desire that tolls will not add to motoring taxes overall. Or that, like the fuel blockades in 2002, the fight has gone out of the argument. Despite some bluster, perhaps the people have accepted the inevitability of road charging.

Or maybe it’s because the spy-in-the-cab fears keenly felt in the original Downing Street petition have been negated by plans to police the new system with number plate recognition cameras.

The Coalition is reportedly split over the options on future road financing thrown up by a joint DfT/ Treasury report. This leak is no doubt a handy way to tip the balance. Final plans are set to be announced in a mid-term coalition review in January.

Public opposition to road tolls is still there, clearly. But a lot has happened since 2007, not least two stellar Olympic performances by the UK cycling team and a population steadily weaned off travel by the recession, record fuel prices and even social media. Is opposition still so overwhelming that it will stop any proposal in its tracks? On current indications, we wouldn’t say so.

UPDATE 23:48 There was a flurry of Twitter messages, mainly against, after the story featured quite high up on the 10 o’clock BBC TV news tonight. But the readers’ comments on the BBC news website are unchanged at 1,464, the same they have been since at least 20:00, and neither the Daily Telegraph or Daily Mail saw significant increases.

READERS’ COMMENTS: The number of reader comments on the news stories about possible road tolls in the Daily Telegraph (DT), Daily Mail (DM) and BBC were noted each hour as the story broke. After an initial flurry, the amount of comments – not by all means all against anyway – quickly fell away:

11:00 DT 634; DM 423; BBC 781

12:00 DT 707; DM 722; BBC 995

13:00 DT 758; DM 798; BBC 1122

14:00 DT 791; DM 859; BBC 1225

15:00 DT 829; DM 900; BBC 1295

16:00 DT 843; DM 940; BBC 1355

20:00 DT 930; DM 1050; BBC 1464

22:25 DT 988; DM 1112; BBC 1464

22:54 DT 988; DM 1112; BBC 1464

Photoblog: 7,000 holiday miles by Porsche 911

1bForget all the rubbish you hear about rear-engined cars. The truly iconic Porsche 911 – due to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2013 – is de facto proof that the layout works.

2aThe 911 has succeeded because of its rear engine, not in spite of it. Locating all the mechanicals at the back means it’s easy to manufacture, efficient and compact. There’s room for four seats and a big boot, all wrapped up in a sexy, form-follows-function shape. These are not just weekend toys (for two years a base Carrera was our only car). Ultimately, that’s why Porsche has prospered while most other sports car manufacturers flounder.

3aBy useable we don’t just mean practical. Instantly recognisable to enthusiasts maybe, but otherwise the 911 is actually quite discreet, especially in its purest form. Ours lived on the street and we never thought twice about leaving it anywhere – Rome, Paris, Gothenburg, Budapest, Ljubljana and lots of places in between. They don’t attract much attention, until you let rip with the savage exhaust note.

4aPeople moan about the price of Porsche options but there’s a valuable bit of kit supplied as standard on the 911: a built in excuse if it all goes wrong. Crash one and it’s never, ever, the driver’s fault. But the reasonable insurance – we paid £1,195/ year fully comp – belies the 911’s image as a death trap. In 30,000 miles the most damage ours sustained was a scrape from a low wall in the Dolomites.

5aFearsome traction and acceleration is the 911’s party trick. The upright seating position, great visibility and – above all – decent fuel economy (we regularly achieved 30mpg) – mean the 911 is also a brilliant long distance cruiser. Our two longest drives – 612 miles from Sweden to Holland, and 628 miles from Holland to Austria – were both by 911. A constant 90mph ish is so far within the car’s capabilities it’s actually quite relaxing, while its ability to almost instantly regain terminal velocity means that, whatever the speed, you are always going faster than everybody else.

6Blame it on the dog. An otherwise happy addition to the family finally breeched the 911’s practical limits. He fitted quite nicely in the back but couldn’t lie down so the 911 had to go. We paid £42k from a franchised dealer in September 2009 and sold it back two years later for £21k. Ouch. It did have 55,000 miles on the clock though. Worth it? Yes. After all, some of the best times in our lives have been spent in a Porsche 911.