Where did the GTS Chronicles Drive?
An Overview of our Route


Some of the more cartographically-oriented readers might want to have an overview of our full European Delivery roadtrip. It was substantial: we covered nearly 6,000 kilometres over the course of twenty days. This part of The GTS Chronicles Euro Delivery trip report outlines only that: a full map (which is shown down at the bottom of this page). For each day, there's a little précis of the day, as it pertains to where we drove: a picture, a short summary, and the distance covered. You'll notice that the majority of the titles for each day have a color: this corresponds to the section of the route for that day on the map.
Day 0 - Delivery in Leipzig
Delivery Day
The start. One 718 Boxster GTS 4.0. One 718 Cayman GTS 4.0. Brand-new, custom-built as fraternal but not siamese twins. Both in Carmine Red, both with 6-speed manual transmissions. Two automotive thoroughbreds ready to start their grand tour of Europe.

Total distance for the day: approximately 20 kilometres.
Day 1 - Leipzig to Nuremburg
Start of Journey
Break-in day. A bit of slow-fast, varying throttle, keeping things gentle. Luke had a misconfiguration light, got it reset at Porsche dealership in Nuremburg. Ended in the little town of Bayreuth not far north of Nuremburg.

Total distance for the day: approximately 360 kilometres.
Day 2 - Nuremburg to Stadl, Austria
Through Pleasant Fields
Break-in day 2. Continued lazy drive through little towns in Southern Germany. Crossed into Austria and took main highway into the mountains. Ended in the little town of Stadl in the Western Austrian Alps. Now positioned for first good twisty road.

Total distance for the day: approximately 460 kilometres.
Day 3 - Stadl, Austria to Passo Razzo, Italy
In the Nock Mountains
Only an hour's or so drive from our hotel to the first great road of our trip: The Nockalmstrasse scenic byway in Western Austria. Then we moved on to the birthplace of Porsche (Gmünd), then from there a quick hop up and over the border into Italy. At this point we were starting to enter the scenic Dolomites. Almost out of gas, but make it up a twisty backway to a mountain rifugio at a pass (Passo Razzo) separating the Pesarina valley and the Cadore Valley.

Total distance for the day: approximately 255 kilometers.
Day 4 - The Dolomites: Passo Razzo to Passo Falzarego
Rainy but excellent
Coasted downhill into the Cadore Valley to fill up for a day of great twisties in the Dolomites. Weather had other ideas, as it started to pour pretty good by the time we got to the good stuff. Continued west over Passo Remauro, Passo Staulanza (both cold and wet), and then finally the excellent (but still cold and wet) Passo Giau. The weather broke just as we arrived at our scenic mountain rifugio for the night - the Rifugio Valparola near Passo Falzarego. Fantastic views from the parking lot of this rifugio.

Total distance for the day: approximately 145 kilometers.
Day 5 - The Dolomites: Passo Valparola to Passo Remauro
Passo Giau Serpentines
Weather cleared up and allowed us a dry day to explore the great roads of the Dolomites. Returned to Passo Giau and spent time having fun on the amazing twisties north of the pass. Descended and crossed through the town of Cortina D'Ampezzo and headed down the Cadore valley, finally ending back at a rifugio at the Passo Remauro, which we had passed by in the rain the day before. In the dry, the twisty road leading west up to the Passo Remauro is excellent - full of interesting grade changes and tight bits.

Total distance for the day: approximately 105 kilometers.
Day 6 - Passo Remauro to Imola
The Plains of the Po
Larger distances today. Descended out of the Dolomites and into the lowlands around Venice. Did a crewmember swapover at the Venice Airport and then continued south across the wide flat plains of the Po Valley to the City of Imola.

Total distance for the day: approximately 380 kilometers.
Day 7 - Imola to Firenzuola
Skirting the Rubicon
Spent the morning paying respect at Ayrton Senna's memorial at the Imola F-1 track. Drove first southeast and up into the Apennines mountains. Randomly visited the hill town of Longiano. Did a symbolic drive across the Rubicon River. Then turned northwest and followed some very pleasant curvy ridgecrest roads. Realized we were not making good enough progress on backroads to reach our intended destination - a campsite near the town of Firenzuola. We then booted it back to the Po Valley and took the high-speed Autostrada back to Imola, then cut back into the mountains, managing to arrive at our campsite near the town of Firenzuola near dusk.

Total distance for the day: approximately 270 kilometers.
Day 8 - Firenzuola to Ferriere
Ridgetop Cruising on SP58
Another sunny, dry day in the Northern Apennines. Once again traced various twisty backroads through the gentle hills and valleys, and once again, started to fall back against the clock (against our scheduled arrival at this very cool castle in which we had reserved a room). So once again, back to the Po Valley to take advantage of high-speed autobahn, and then, near Modena, we cut back south into the mountains. I managed to get off-track on the back roads near the castle, but we eventually figured it out and we arrived - again - around dusk. Proprietors of the castle (Castello Malaspina da Gambaro) were amazing and even lent us their little Fiat Panda to go to dinner at a nearby Pizzeria.

Total distance for the day: approximately 395 kilometers.
Day 9 - Ferriere to Monte Beigua
Spooky Summit Fog
Another fine day in the Northern Apennines. Hit some excellent twisty backroads on a gradual descent down out of the mountains into the Po Valley town of Tortona, where we did a crewmember swapover. Then it was back into the mountains - this time the Maritime Ligurian Alps near the Italian Riviera, to a mountaintop rifugio. The summit of this peak was solidly in cloud when we arrived, and it seemed like day had turned into night. We slowly inched our way forward and managed to find the rifugio in the murk.

Total distance for the day: approximately 195 kilometers.
Day 10 - Monte Beigua to Caprauna (Rifugio Pian dell'Arma)
Awesome Colle del Quazzo
From the rifugio atop Monte Beigua, we descended down to the Italian Riveria and did a bit of sunny coastal driving. But only a little - soon we were headed back up into the Maritime Alps, hitting one of the "highlight" roads of our trip - the twisties around the summit of Colle del Quazzo. Simply superb bit of road - well-paved, well-manicured, wide, no traffic, 90km/hr speed limit. Sporty-driving heaven.

From the Colle del Quazzo we continued west, down into and back out of a steep valley, and then up to another high-altitude Rifugio. This one had a little bit of unexpected rough terrain in the final few hundred meteres, forcing Luke and I to employ our rock-hopping skills. We made it, though. Who needs a Dakar, eh?

Total distance for the day: approximately 125 kilometers.
Day 11 - Caprauna, Italy to Sospel, France
Passo Teglia
On Day 11 - July the 31st - we explored a different sort of route - a very remote backcountry pass, with a very narrow and overgrown - and sometimes crumbly - to explore - the Passo Teglia. Although remote and exceedingly beautiful, the road up to and over it was narrow and a bit overgrown in places. The solitude, however, was superb. Once over this pass, we made our way west and over the border into France, where we happened upon the quaintest of French bed and breakfasts at the Chapelle Saint Gervais near the town of Sospel. The proprietor, Pascale, welcomed us with open arms, let us park the two GTSes in a very special spot, and even did our laundry. Amazing!

Total distance for the day: approximately 125 kilometers.
Day 12 - Sospel to Vars
Col des Fourches
A beautiful sunny day in the French Alps. We headed north from our Bed and Breakfast farmhouse near Sospel, following quiet and twisty backways through lower mountains. Then we started to hit the big, high - and popular - passes: the Col des Fourches and the Col de la Bonette. Both were amazing roads with excellent high-altitude scenery, but they were also plagued with summer tourist traffic. A final less-twisty but still excellent drive over the Col Vars pass brought us to the sleepy (because it was summer) ski hotel of Le Monte Pente in the mountain town of Vars.

Total distance for the day: approximately 215 kilometers.
Day 13 - Vars to Giaglione, Italy
Tracing Amazing Twisties
Day 13 - August 3: another sunny day in the French Alps. We continued our route north, hitting the Tour-de-France-famous Col D'Izoard (again extremely busy with summer tourist traffic) and the scenic Col du Galibier. We found lodging in a french-sounding apartment in an Italian town just over the border. It would position us well to continue north the following day, back into France and for one last day in the high Alps.

Total distance for the day: approximately 220 kilometers.
Day 14 - Giaglione (first back to Vars) to Zurich, Switzerland
Typical Roadside Picnic Stop
We discovered that a camera bag (with lens and memory cards and one of the key fobs) had been left back in Vars. Therefore, the first part of this day was a backtrack south to Vars (via a shortened route). Then it was back north, retracing some of the passes we had been on the day before (and they were still as congested as the day before, too), and then on further north, out of the high mountains, into the lowlands and onto principal autoroutes / expressways.

We curved northeast into Switzerland, still staying on the major autobahns, crossing near Geneva and then stopping in Bern where we dropped off crewmember Brian. We then continued on more boring autobahn to Zurich, where we picked up crewmember Hatko. In all, this was mostly a chore and shuttling day, with only a few good bits of road. The rest was highway cruising.

Total distance for the day: approximately 660 kilometers.
Day 15 - Zurich, Switzerland to Campodolcino, Italy
The Snaking Splugenpass
On Day 15, we decided to head south for one last sampling of high mountains. Now with our new crewmember Chris Hatko in tow, we headed south, choosing to ramble through the hilly Toggenburg region before hopping on a bit of autobahn to bring us to the main high Swiss Alps. We chose to ascend the narrow snaking switchbacks of the Splugenpass up and into Italy, and then descended via some more incredibly tight twisties down to the Mountain valley town of Campodolcino. In addition to the great roads necessary to get here, we chose this spot because it positioned us well for an early-morning start to visit one of our favorites roads the following morning: the Malojapass.

Total distance for the day: approximately 285 kilometers.
Day 16 - Campodolcino, Italy to Dornbirn, Austria
The Amazing Malojapass
We left Campodolcino very early, hoping to beat the traffic on the Malojapss. Unfortunately there was congestion anyway, and on top of that it started to rain.

We slowly made our way up the congested wet pass and had breakfast at a hotel at the pass to kill some time. Fortunately, the weather did clear off and the road did dry. The road congestion did not, however, but still we managed to have a bit of fun in the small breaks between clumps of traffic.

After the Malojapass, we turned back north, crossing over the high - but not that twisty - Julierpass. From there we continued on a shortest-path route to the lowlands near the eastern end of Lake Constance, where Switzerland, Germany and Austria all meet. We stopped at the small local town of Dornbirn for the night.

Total distance for the day: approximately 235 kilometers.
Day 17 - Dornbirn, Austria to the Nürburgring
Arriving Nürburgring
Day 17 was another big "commute" day - a long drive from the eastern Lake Constance area all the way up to the Eifel region of northwestern Germany, where the famous Nürburgring race complex is located. Given that this was a commute day, we stayed on autobahn pretty much the entire way (with a short stop in Zuffenhausen for some "birthday" photos of our two 718s next to the factory). Although I've written "Nürburgring" as the destination, we actually went specifically to the town of Adenau, which is one of several communities in the general area. We had booked a motorsport-themed apartment suite right next to the Breidsheid track exit.

Total distance for the day: approximately 575 kilometers.
Day 18 - No Travel (Nordschleife activities)
Together on the Karusell
Day 18 was technically a "no travel" day. We didn't go from a "here" to a "there". Instead, we spent the day in and around the Nordschleife circuit, first doing some mountain biking, and then doing some fun laps of the 'ring during the evening Touristenfahrten session.

Total distance for the day: N/A.
Day 19 - No Travel (Nordschleife activities)
Together at Pflanzgarten
Anorther "no travel" day spent doing motorsport-ish things in and around the Nordschleife. No driving other than getting fuel, visiting the museum / gift shop complex, and going to the Touristenfahrten entrance for the evening lapping session.

Total distance for the day: N/A.
Day 20 - Nürburgring to Stuttgart (Sindelfingen)
Dropoff at Sindelfingen
Day 20 - the final day of The GTS Chronicles Euro Delivery roadtrip. Today we were obliged to pack up our things and head south out of the Nurburg area, back to Stuttgart, where we had an appointment at the BLG Logistics company in the suburb of Sindelfingen. After a thorough inspection, we left - without our two beauties. We would next see them again in roughly two months' time, back in Ontario, Canada.

Total distance for the day: approximately 340 kilometers.

Total distance for entire trip: approximately 5,950 kilometers
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Where we drove - click map to view
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Where we drove - click to view
If by chance you've come to this page from elsewhere and you are unaware of the full trip report, let me enlighten you: associated with this page is an extremely detailed full writeup of the full arc of conception, planning, execution, trip, and aftertrip, spanning over three years, of the purchase of these two cars.

The full report is divided into an Introduction, followed by Lead-up, Delivery Adventure, and Post-trip parts, each of which are quite long. If you are just interested in the delivery and associated road-trip, then just proceed directly to the Delivery Adventure.

Alternatively, there's a much-abridged short version of all of the above, which you can read here.
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