Misc thoughts on my Nardo trip
Over the weekend I was participating on a Nardo trip with Porsche. Starts from flying into Napoli, and being transferred to Positano. Drove by the gigantic Vesuvius, my first time there, it dwarfs everything around it, my god it's big. Pompeii is supposed to be about 25kms away but man from Pompeii, the volcano literally looks like it's right there.
Stayed at Saint Pietro Positano for a couple nights, the day after arrival we spent the whole day driving in the mountains to the East, and then back. in and out of Positano is hell on earth, super narrow roads and loads of traffic, but once out of the peninsula it opens up nicely, and the mountain roads are practically empty. Heaven.
After two nights we head off to the Adriatic coast. heel of Italy. Stooping off at a small town called Castelmezzano for lunch and some photo ops. What a fantastic drive up the mountain to get there! The mayor opened up their central plaza for us to park the whole Porsche convoy.
Our next hotel stay was at the Masseria Torre Maizza in a small town called Savelletri. Another lovely hotel. It was picked because it's the closest 'nice' hotel near Nardo. Close means 85mins drive.
Nardo is one of those bucket list places. We drove both the ring high speed track and also the 6.2km test track. Both in our 911 turbo Ss. Nardo sent over 3 of their test drivers to be our lead drivers as on their ground it's their protocol to be followed. The location is impossibly big. 4km diameter for the test track. 12.6km length. Officially there is a 260km/hr speed limit for the outer most lane and Italian traffic laws are supposed to be observed, but we all drove like Italians on the highway.
Between sessions at the high speed circuit and the handling track, we had to drive through the workshop area, and that's where all the prototypes are located. A few manufacturers have contracts to be around permanently so they branded their own building, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Aston Martin to name a few. Aston Martin even maintain their own fuel supply with pumps right outside their building. Others are more discrete and without branding on the building but their cars are seen parked outside, Ford is one, BMW is another, Ferrari and Audi also. Goodyear and Pirelli also maintain their presence there. Highspeed EV chargers are dotted everywhere. Porsche has installed 4 at the pit area for the handling track so they can keep pounding out laps after laps without the need to head back to the workshop area. On weekends they booked exclusive use of tracks and do 37 hours straight testings, either on the high speed ring or the handling or both. Test drivers are only allowed 1hour of continuous driving per session so many are on hand for the rotation. Weekdays are 'open track days' unless someone booked an exclusive session. So at any given time during open track time one could see all makes mixing it up on the tracks.
Most of the garage doors are closed so can't quite see what's hiding, but some cars are parked outdoor and there was a Urus, some C class, S class, GLC, GLE, Ford Mustangs, couple variants of Aventadors, a DBX, a what seems like a variant of the DB11. The mentioned convertible Roma. some Audi SUVs, one that looks like a RS6, some more SUVs that's too far away for me to make out what they are.
Nardo maintains their own test drivers that does the testings, but manufacturers also do supply their own. One of our Porsche tour guides actually does work at Nardo but this time around he maintained his attachment with the tour and let the Nardo personal takes over.
The handling circuit is a bitch to drive around, it's unforgiving and VERY VERY technical. On/Off camber corners, increasing/degreasing radius, blind 'jumps', you name it it's there. It's tiring for me to even do 30 mins sessions and the test drivers do it in 1 hour sessions for 37 hours.
All Porsche prototypes gets their share of pounding here for months and at Weissach also before they even get to be released into the wild for real roads testing. Mad respect for the quality standard Porsche keep for their cars.
While I was there, 992.2s are getting their testing done, a couple 992.2 GT3 are also on hand, the one and only EV Boxster prototype is there also, EV Macans, a few Taycans and a hot version of a Panamera with full roll cage is getting worked on inside one of the bays. Every car there is a prototype, no production cars around.
992.2 will be electrified, but mild hybrid, not plug-in, possibly not all will get the treatment. For those that already have the 992 GT3, start planning to sell, a better one is coming. That thing looks lightning quick on track!
After we were done at the handling track at 5pm, Porsche booked the rest of the daylight hours for them to do the poundings, so a fleet of prototypes streamed towards it while we took a tour of the old control tower. Even with it so high up, we still can't quite see the whole ring. There is a big 'screen' with a few rings of circular dots for each of the lanes, and when a car passes each section a light would come on for monitoring. Old CRT monitors are also around, it's like a 50s nuclear control centre. But the tower is not in use anymore, modern technology means the tower is outdated now.
What an experience, it ranked right up there with a visit to Weissach. Difference being Nardo isn't exclusively Porsche, other makes are there for us to see, well glimpse.
Man, doesn't matter how one wants to trash a 911 turbo S as 'too heavy' or whatnots, but there is no getting around the fact that it is the greatest all around sports car. It is right at home pounding miles on the highway, and at the hills in the Italian mountains or the Alps, wet or dry, or at circuits, either handling or high speed.
Obvious no pics inside the facility, I will go through some pics to see if they are fit for posting, for privacy purposes faces of others can't be shown and there are lots of pics with faces😂
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A happy product of civilisation.
But point well taken; that ass is..... fat.
