tigerbalm
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Damien
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
- Threads
- 94
- Messages
- 3,514
- Reaction score
- 7,912
- Location
- Dublin, Ireland
- Website
- www.targatrips.com
- Vehicles
- 911 Targa 4 GTS, Fiat 500 EV. Sold: Taycan Turbo S, Taycan 4S; Panamera Turbo S
- Thread starter
- #1
Yes, I know I still owe a long awaited summary to our last winter road trip to Norway. Its coming, I promise!
Each of the three times I went up to Porsche Centre Dublin – the only Porsche dealer in the Republic of Ireland – I had a 911 in my mind. I mean, that is what a "real" Porsche is, right? Certainly it is what I had in mind from when I dreamed of owning such a car as a child.
But each time, I was in a position to buy a Porsche, I ordered a four-door version. The 911 just seemed too specific, too hard to have as a main vehicle for all our use cases. And in Ireland – too expensive for the ones I wanted.
Firstly a Panamera Turbo S Hybrid – in volcano grey – because I was worried about being flashy. A few weeks later the pandemic hit and the car hardly moved. However, I got a taste for the electric drivetrain and my interest was peaked as the Taycan started to hit the dealership.
I ordered an over specced Taycan 4S in the more adventurous colours of Neptune Blue and Blackberry interior. And from there was born the idea of touring Europe in long, fast-paced electric road trips. As Taycan's proved very popular – and held their value – I swapped it out for a near identical looking Taycan Turbo S and the road trips continued.
Like anyone buying an EV – I worried about the realities of charging while out on the road. But with a little bit (read: a heck of a lot) of planning – which I enjoyed doing – it never really held us back. Maybe a little bit north of Inverness, in Scotland – but it was still manageable.
By the time we were finishing our latest road trip to Norway – I was left with the feeling that charging had become so plentiful that my planning regime was becoming overkill and unnecessary.
And it gave us many a smile – with its explosive and near silent acceleration – or walking out of a hotel in the morning to a fully charged car.
But the lure of the 911 never went away for me. And it is an itch that I've finally decided to scratch. With the insane tax on these cars – it is 68% here in Ireland – they are very expensive to purchase new and second hand variants never have the options that I've decided I "need".
No amount of talk of it being a "drivers car" would convince me that I didn't want adaptive cruise control on a 1000 km of motorway driving in a day.
But last week a 12 month old 911 Targa 4 GTS turned up in the dealership. And when I saw it was optioned with Night Vision Assist (something that has genuinely saved us twice driving at night in Scandinavia in the Taycan) I knew this car was worth checking out. Nobody options Night Vision Assist until they have ticked almost all the other boxes. And indeed on this car, the original owner had.
My co-driver was a little suspicious of the potential luggage space – but all of that melted away when she sat in the car. We could make this work.
We've always been attracted to quirky and compromised cars – and I think the Targa fits that bill perfectly. So with some careful study of the Porsche loading options (PDF) document, we grew in confidence that this would be our next road trip car.
We pick it up this Friday – but we're not leaving electric mobility behind – in fact, I predict our brilliant Fiat 500 EV – will get even more daily use.
We look forward to the new road trip challenges this car will throw up – and learn about what we prefer and what we miss about our Taycan. Not looking forward to driving a car without any regenerative braking. Or what it will do to brake pads!
Whoever the new owner of our Turbo S is will be getting a brilliant car that has settled down into a very reliable machine.
I'll keep active on these forums – and I'm sure I'll be back to an electric Porsche some time in the future.
But thank you to everyone on this forum for all the enjoyable conversations, new friendships and encouragement we've experienced here as we toured beautiful Northern and Western Europe together.
https://finder.porsche.com/ie/en-IE/details/porsche-911-targa-4-gts-preowned-KKMZVD?model=911
I guess time to get this midlife crisis started!
To the next adventure ....
Each of the three times I went up to Porsche Centre Dublin – the only Porsche dealer in the Republic of Ireland – I had a 911 in my mind. I mean, that is what a "real" Porsche is, right? Certainly it is what I had in mind from when I dreamed of owning such a car as a child.
But each time, I was in a position to buy a Porsche, I ordered a four-door version. The 911 just seemed too specific, too hard to have as a main vehicle for all our use cases. And in Ireland – too expensive for the ones I wanted.
Firstly a Panamera Turbo S Hybrid – in volcano grey – because I was worried about being flashy. A few weeks later the pandemic hit and the car hardly moved. However, I got a taste for the electric drivetrain and my interest was peaked as the Taycan started to hit the dealership.
I ordered an over specced Taycan 4S in the more adventurous colours of Neptune Blue and Blackberry interior. And from there was born the idea of touring Europe in long, fast-paced electric road trips. As Taycan's proved very popular – and held their value – I swapped it out for a near identical looking Taycan Turbo S and the road trips continued.
Like anyone buying an EV – I worried about the realities of charging while out on the road. But with a little bit (read: a heck of a lot) of planning – which I enjoyed doing – it never really held us back. Maybe a little bit north of Inverness, in Scotland – but it was still manageable.
By the time we were finishing our latest road trip to Norway – I was left with the feeling that charging had become so plentiful that my planning regime was becoming overkill and unnecessary.
And it gave us many a smile – with its explosive and near silent acceleration – or walking out of a hotel in the morning to a fully charged car.
But the lure of the 911 never went away for me. And it is an itch that I've finally decided to scratch. With the insane tax on these cars – it is 68% here in Ireland – they are very expensive to purchase new and second hand variants never have the options that I've decided I "need".
No amount of talk of it being a "drivers car" would convince me that I didn't want adaptive cruise control on a 1000 km of motorway driving in a day.
But last week a 12 month old 911 Targa 4 GTS turned up in the dealership. And when I saw it was optioned with Night Vision Assist (something that has genuinely saved us twice driving at night in Scandinavia in the Taycan) I knew this car was worth checking out. Nobody options Night Vision Assist until they have ticked almost all the other boxes. And indeed on this car, the original owner had.
My co-driver was a little suspicious of the potential luggage space – but all of that melted away when she sat in the car. We could make this work.
We've always been attracted to quirky and compromised cars – and I think the Targa fits that bill perfectly. So with some careful study of the Porsche loading options (PDF) document, we grew in confidence that this would be our next road trip car.
We pick it up this Friday – but we're not leaving electric mobility behind – in fact, I predict our brilliant Fiat 500 EV – will get even more daily use.
We look forward to the new road trip challenges this car will throw up – and learn about what we prefer and what we miss about our Taycan. Not looking forward to driving a car without any regenerative braking. Or what it will do to brake pads!
Whoever the new owner of our Turbo S is will be getting a brilliant car that has settled down into a very reliable machine.
I'll keep active on these forums – and I'm sure I'll be back to an electric Porsche some time in the future.
But thank you to everyone on this forum for all the enjoyable conversations, new friendships and encouragement we've experienced here as we toured beautiful Northern and Western Europe together.
https://finder.porsche.com/ie/en-IE/details/porsche-911-targa-4-gts-preowned-KKMZVD?model=911
I guess time to get this midlife crisis started!
To the next adventure ....
Sponsored
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