40AoY does Mizen to Malin on back roads

Like many 40AoY adventures, this was a bit daft in one sense. I only had the 911 a couple of months, hadn't even had it out of the garage for a month as I was on holidays, and I think it takes a bit of time to understand and have confidence in a cars reliability. 

But long story short, the logistics were organised and so it was I hit for Crookhaven one rather manky Friday evening. The Nein!Elf was polished & waxed to within an inch of its life during the week, so it broke my heart taking it out in biblical rain, but there was a drive to be done. Picked up Sir Clip in Cork City, and away we went. It seems any driving I've done in it has been in heavy rain

First thing of note - you can pack alot of kit in this car. And with the rear seats down loads more. It's great!

We brimmed the tank in Skib, so the baseline was set. After a slight wrong turn by Crookhaven we landed in what we thought was our overnight spot, confirmed by ColmE30s arrival. Savage pad to crash in Colm - thanks again! After quite a bit of navigational kerfaffle the rest of the (sat-nav-wielding!!) 40AoF gang arrived. We had a couple of beers and hit the hay handy-ish(!) - tomorrow was an early start.

The route we had chosen to Malin Head took in alot of our favourite roads - Caha Pass, Molls Gap, Corkscrew Hill, Maam Cross etc etc. But the corollary of that was that time could bleed away on all of these back roads. So a strong start was needed.

We mounted up around 4.55am and drove the 6km to Mizen Head. First light had broken and we had a clear idea of what targets we wanted to keep, so it was a quick turn-around and on the road.

We got in to a lovely flow, Blippy Shifter leading, Scooby behind, and a Spitfire looking suspciously like an MX5 running tail. It's great to get out on empty roads running with people who you have absolute confidence in; you have all driven together for years, you know no one is going to do something stupid, a safe but efficient pace is kept and good road craft maintained. It makes any trip.

It also provides a great benchmark for the 911 as, having owned a Sport 135 for 5 years and ran with this group before, I know the baseline. It's early, the roads are bumpy and unfamiliar on the initial leg until Bantry, but the 911 is a good companion. Elises breathe with the road and can carry their speed through well-sighted bends like little else, seemingly without inertia. They're a tough car to follow as it can be hard to judge exactly what the corner ahead is like. So the Porsche is braking a smidge more than the car ahead, and then squirting a bit harder out of the bend to close the gap. Slow-in fast-out suits them, and it's an excuse for some gratuitous revs and moving up and down the 'box . It makes great progress on the patchily wet roads, feeling secure and within itself (as it should). I could be alot smoother though, and don't feel at ease working the pedal box on down changes. Early days though.

Bantry comes & goes and before long the Bay is passing into the side mirrors. Good progress is marred by a temporary 60kph limit running nearly the whole way to Glengarrif!! Madness!! But I digress... the Caha Pass is soon passing under the wheels. And rain rolling over the wings more insistently. It's a murky climb up, and the poor surface does make the 17" rims feel a little heavy at times. Oh for the mag Cups off a 964 RS . But the engine has guts, and the car plenty of traction. It feels safe on the climb.

Now, when I say safe, it's not like anyone is running like this is a special stage. But.... you know 911s have a reputation. Old ones in particular. So wet, narrow roads, bumps, brisk but legal pace, braking, lifting throttles, turning in.... it does focus the mind of a 911 virgin. You're just more conscious of things you wouldn't bat an eyelid about in a modern car.

The climb levels out into TUNNEL RUN . And they've resurfaced it! So drop to second, window down, set controls for the heart of the sun, and give it the lot! Dansk S/S system above 4,750rpm = Glorious! That Elise doesn't half rasp though. We emerge the other side buzzing, and on to the brisk descent to Kenmare. Wide, flowing, and blessed with wonderful views as we meander down the spine of the hills but, still very aware of the 911 reputation, I let Sir Clip drink in the misty morning mountain vista and concentrate on standing water and such like. There is what can only be described as a fcuker of a bump in the road near the bottom, and I watch the Elise reach for the bumpstops with interest as I ponder how Big Bird will react. I'm sure the nose got some air on one side, and can't recollect the rears response. Still, gathered up and on we went to Kenmare.

Despite it being 6.15am, Molls Gap is a slow-moving sea of Neon and 6061 aluminium. We slowly thread our way up and down the other side to Killarney. Not early enough. But it is a lovely descent and gives myself & Sir Clip time to reflect on early impressions of the car as detailed in the earlier paragraphs. My unhappiness with how I am heeling & toeing dominates for me. It's an old school pedal box with floor-hinged pedals. 'Heel & toe' is literally that, not 'toe & toe' like modern cars encourage. So I've identified what I need to do, but how I place my toe on the brake, and how to move across the heel to accelerator is very unnatural to me after years of 'the other way'. There is little flywheel in them either, so as soon as you dip the clutch the revs are gone. So when I am concentrating on braking points and all that, my involuntary reaction is to default to type. Result? Poor gear changes, braking pressure inconsistent, distraction, confidence dented. I decide I really need to work on this during the day.

It's a steady run to Tarbert, and we arrive 30mins early for the first ferry across the Shannon. Target #1 hit. It's a welcome chance to stretch the legs after the first 3hr stint, and chat about the roads, the cars, how everyone is doing etc.. The answer is we're all having alot of fun . No problems for the cars, everyone is feeling, if not fresh from the early start, then at least optimistic about the miles ahead. The ferry docks and we start the second leg to Galway via Miltown Malbay and the Corkscrew Hill.

 

The roads are still pretty empty, happily. So we settle into an easy cruise, miles flowing under the wheels, a bit drier but rain never far away. It is scorchio in Cork at this point of course . The roads in Clare are really nice. Lovely views of craggy coastline, but plenty of straights for the occasional overtake, and just a nice flow on pretty good surfaces. As we hit further north, they went from really nice to superb. The rain had closed in a bit more now, but the surfaces were good, the road wound amongst forestry with lovely elevation changes, and the 911 lapped it up. Fourth was hooked and kept; it has great torque & pull at low revs, and was a joy to work along behind the Scooby. Body control was solid, brakes consistent, and it started to give an impression of being quite 'GT' in how it was approaching the trip.

Corkscrew Hill is a blast. I hadn't been there in well over a decade, and it was my first time driving it. Not a 'serious' road, just a blast . A short wheelbase and great lock means we'd no problem with the hairpins. Sat behind some tourists on a TransAlp sort of bike, we mooched along for a while taking in the karstified scenery and looking at the fuel gauge - plenty there, happily. 80 litres, don't you know - very GT.

Target #2 was a fill up in Galway around 11am and having Hitlersaurus Rext & his brother join us in WAR HORSE for the remainder of the run to Malin Head. Target #2 was met with time to spare, and brimming the tank after the 373km from Skib it took exactly 54L; 19.46mpg. Horrifying in a general sense, but actually a bit better than I expected based on the previous 2 tanks I had since I owned it! Pitstop over, Target #3 commenced - Leenane for lunch. The road to Oughterard was slow & extremely uneventful. I felt a wave of tiredness and worried about the miles ahead. Maam Cross fixed that.

The road from Maam Cross to Leenane is ... just wonderful. I met 4-5 cars the whole way.... ish. Lets call it 4-5 overtaking events instead. What a road - so well sighted in the early stages, fast, flowing, subtle cambers, elevation changes, dramatic scenery... it has it all. And then the second section mixes in poorer surface, less visibility in parts, but technically more challenging as it progresses along the valley. The section just has it all. No wonder Porsche test here. We didn't see any . We did meet a Ssangyong Rexton that was making very good progress though - local knowledge and a high seating position put to good use; watching the sidewalls flex became almost mesmerising .

The duality of the 911 was sinking in with us both. The seats contibute a big part to the touring role of the car, really comfy & remarkably supportive. Mix that with a compliant ride, plenty of room, acceptable noise levels, and a torquey engine that was quite happy to lug 5th from any revs and we were firing in the miles feeling no worse than Tarbert. But get it on the right road, drop a few gears, dust off 4,000rpm+ and it became a petrol gargling, screaming and more than adequtely swift car than engaged on every single level. Still not making much progress on the pedalwork front was begining to pi$$ me off though.

The steering is really communicative. Carrying in a bit of brake to get the front committed has the wheel telling you exactly how much more grip you have added. Turn-in, and you feel the front wave with the roads undulations in a general sense, and the wheel tug in a specific sense across the axle indicating what grip/camber/crown each wheel has or is responding to. It is incredibly communicative - my brother exclaimed the first time he drove it that he hadn't felt a car do that since the 80s. So once you have the front dialled in and you have the bend opening, you can focus on the rear. As mentioned, there is little flywheel. Throttle response is immediate, and as the car isn't rock solid you can get a good weight transfer to the back axle. Down it squats, the nose goes light - almost feeling like it cocks an inside front through the wheel - and the car fires out. It's a very interactive experience, and rewards good deliberate handling.

We all sat down in the hotel, and exchanged wide grins. The onset of weariness staved off, the road had reinvigorated us. The MX5 danced across the terrain, carrying its hard won momentum with ease. The Scoobys DNA strands look remarkably similar to a google maps sat-shot of the road so it lapped it up, the Elise does what the Elise does, and WAR HORSE brought up the rear carrying a large BBQ . Target #3 met, on time and within budget. Game on.

After a great lunch and a 10min wander/nap for folk as required, we said we'd knuckle down and make a run for Sligo to break the back in the afternoon, but decided a quick pitstop at Ashleigh Falls would be nice. It was, but then the group split by accident with some going Louisburgh and others (me incl) going straight for Westport. Then on the way to Sligo Blippy Shifter & myself miss the Ballina turn so end up doing a slight extension which brought us on a great bit of tarmac. Bottom line was, we all landed in Sligo services around the same time. Nice! It was around 4pm at this stage - Target #4 met and celebrated by me with a 99 - nom nom. The cars were faultless - besides a slightly noisy polybush on the back of the Scooby which a spray of WD40 quietened, no one had any issue which was great. It was a stern reliabilty test for them and they were rising to the challenge.

Target #5 was Donegal. We had an option of a route extension at that point taking in Gweedore and Glenveagh National Park. I'd driven it in 2000 and was keen to do it again, but general enthusiasm was waning and it seemed pragmatic at this point in the day to keep it simple. So we schmoozed up to Donegal, bought a load of food and goons of cider for the BBQ, and then kinda all left the car park with an aura of 'that was the last stop - it's last one misses the parking spot now'. So we all left, no convoy as such, and made our way somewhat creatively in parts to Letterkenny, Muff (chortle guffaw), and on to Malin Head! We followed Blippy Shifter who had a Sat Nav - probably not the smartest considering he couldn't find the gaff the previous night and had missed the Ballina turn-off, but he looked confident. And we prevailed, landing up on a clearing and windy Malin Head some time around 7pm.

FINAL TARGET ACHIEVED: Mizen to Malin - no motorways, taking in some of the greatest driving routes the country has to offer, in one day. Colm E30 landed in swiftly behind us, WAR HORSE wasn't too far behind, with vDubbin landing the Spitfire shortly after. What an epic run.

 

 

The 911 was a revelation. Wet or dry, N road or backroad, at the start of the trip or at the end.... it just lapped it up. It is undoubtably the consummate GT car - loads of room, loads of cubbies for the phones, snacks, tunes etc., brilliant seats, good visibility, fine ride, great touring range from the tank - and we arrived feeling we could jump back in and hit for Dublin. But then on the more entertaining roads it got stuck in and gave the driver a brilliantly entertaining, challenging and rewarding platform to make the road his own. Negatives? Ventilation in wet weather is poor with no fan to speak of and windscreen misting quickly when you don't have a ram-air effect on slowing down. That is about it! I was, and still am, blown away by it over what was a 1,000mile weekend. Smitten is a suitable word.

The only mechanical issue was that the idle dropped over the weekend to 500rpm so it had a propensity to stall from Sunday afternoon onward - fixed today with a turn of a screw driver. There was some oil build up in the airbox that we mopped out at the Galway stop. It seemed to be overfill as a negligible amount has built up since then. The following fill-ups on Sunday & Monday gave 21.2 & 21.7mpg respectively too - not far off the 23mpg touring range quoted in the magazines back in the day so I'm happy.