lali
New member
Freshly back from my first real drive of the 993 and I thought I'd put some words down again...
I haven't done a Dawn raid for very long time, not since I first had a Caterham, the little ones arriving meant that early mornings were for nappies and bottles rather than b-roads and greasy spoons!
But ive had no excuses for far too long and since the 993 hasn't been stripped out caged and given some race suspension (yet?) I thought I'd make the most of the good weather while I can.
So at 4am with the sun rise chasing me west like a thief in the night, I headed to the old stomping ground of mid Wales. It wasn't easy getting up that early but the sound of a flat 6 turning over and catching is a bigger wake up hit than any cup of coffee!
A lot has changed in the decade or so since the last Wales run so I hit the web. Some googling the night before picked out a route that seemed to be familiar, the start/end point of the petrol station in Leominster was at least still there! One of the big changes is of course the speed camera, not that I was planning any vmax runs or anything but I didn't want to get caught out by an inappropriate 50mph zone. Thank goodness for sat nav!
So with the course and speed set I did my best Jean-luc Picard and "made it so"
Its a mixed run to Leominster for me, a bit of motorway some dual carriage ways and some open and flowing A roads. There is a odd mix of noise on the motorway portion. A fair amount of tyre noise, lots of wind noise and the aftermarket ( tech art I think? ) exhaust does the car no favours at and around the speed limit. In fact it's quite annoying and I was glad that it's only a short hop on and off. Dual carriageways aren't much different, the car tramlines less on it's 17's than I had expected, and the frequent interlude that the roundabouts brought was more than enough to make me smile as I whipped round them and gunned it on the exits.
A short pitstop in Leominster and I was ready for the off. The plan was to head further west for a bit and then loop back round clockwise back to fill up and then be home in time for late breakfast.
The arrival of open road coincided with the arrival of the biggest grin I've had on my face for a long time... The 'noise' was gone, instead it was replaced by an audio assault that was as addictive as it was relentless, revving is the new drug and I am well and truly hooked!
Like I said I wasn't out to set the roads alight so I set off on a game of "chase the vanishing point"
Oh my god! How could anything be better than this? Everything just falls together perfectly, the weight and feedback of the steering is just right to enable the car to placed perfectly on the road. The brakes scrub huge amounts of speed off with ease again and again. The throttle is fantastically progressive and sound of the engine just makes you want more and more.... I weaved and turned through some stunning scenery. Easing off as the vp got close and chasing it as it started to get away, I was like a kid in a toy shop, and it was my birthday, and I was born on dec 25th.
For the first hour or so the only thing on the road was me and the wildlife, and it was bliss. As the morning and the miles went on, no cars turned into a couple of cars and at the sight of my first caravan I decided that play time was over and I headed home.
With just under 300 miles covered and a smile still on my face its safe to say that I'm still loving the 993. I'm gutted I didn't do it sooner but I'm going to do my best to make up for lost time!
