A road trip like no other: two Turbos descend on England’s deserted capital as the iconic 930 shows the new 992 around the streets it’s long called home

Written by Lee Sibley Photography by Ali Cusick

 The 930 returns to its old stomping ground, having lit up the capital in the 1980s

 Full Martinicoloured interior also includes rare Fuhrmann orthopaedic seats

London: the capital of England, and a global powerhouse of culture and commerce. Home to around nine million people, you might be surprised to learn that an array of special sports and supercars are hidden all over the conurbation. Various collections are stored discreetly in and around the Greater London area, and all manner of exotics can be spied crawling the city streets on any given day. It’s been like that for years: these days you just need to stand on the old Brompton Road (or watch the thousands of videos on YouTube) for five minutes to witness automotive exhibitionism from the Lamborghini-wielding nouveau riche, but a generation or so ago the venue was the financial district, and the car was the Porsche 911 Turbo.

Yes, during the boom of the 1980s, Britain’s capital became the quintessential home of the 930 (in fact, sales performance of Porsche’s flagship super sports car quite often hinged on the size of City bonuses). The car, and a good pinstripe suit, were seen as the ultimate expression of the venerable ‘Yuppie’.

Today though, London is no place for a sports car. Usually crippled by chronic traffic congestion, the average speed in Central London is just 7.6mph on weekdays. Sometimes it really is easier to attempt inner-city journeys on foot or by bicycle.

Except for tonight, that is. My destination – indeed, playground – is the city of London, but there’ll be no kinetic energy from pushing pedals or pounding pavements. Travel to and around the capital will be powered by a Porsche flat six, my weapon of choice being a C00, German-registered 992 Turbo, on a short-term lease in the UK from Porsche in Stuttgart. It’ll be joined by a 930, the original Turbo primed to show the new arrival around its old stomping ground. Owned by enthusiast Paul Pressland, the 930 is a Martini special-edition no less, the occasion all the more poetic because it was Pressland’s father who once owned the Martini 930 displayed by Porsche AG at the London Motor Show in 1977.