PORSCHE 911 CARRERA ROAD TRIP
A911 BY A 911
Tak ing nominative determinism to its illogical conclusion, MikeDuff drives a 911, numberplate A 911, along the A911, before a flight of fancy diverts the basic-spec Carrera model 120 miles north to Aberdeenshire for reasons that will soon become apparent
PHOTOGR APHY MAX EDLESTON
❝ The 911 feels light and wieldy, its dampers in perfect control of its mass over crests ❞
A utocar has form with the idea that underpins this trip. Back in the 1990s, Colin Goodwin wrote a memorable story about driving across France using minor roads that shared their numbers with Porsche models, an approach that led him to several exceptional bits of Tarmac.
The idea lodged in my head and I often thought of it when passing British roads that shared their numbers with famous models. Never more so than on my semi-frequent journeys along the A90 in Scotland and passing the turn-off for the A911. Could this be the start for a similarly numerically appropriate road trip?
The other impetus for this story came when Porsche put one of the ageless numberplates it rotates around its press f leet onto a nearly optionfree Carrera 2 that it built to prove how good the basic, unadorned 992-generation 911 is. That created the opportunity to drive a 911 wearing the registration A 911 on the A911. You’d need a stouter heart than mine to resist that one.
The logic may be skewed and the rationale silly, but I’m a great believer in random road trips. Many of my more memorable journeys have come from going to out-of-the-way places by unorthodox routes. Or even just by getting hopelessly lost, something that’s increasingly hard to do in the always-connected world.