To start off 2016, We went for a 1,500 Kilometre drive, over four days, The combination of Thirty three Porsche, Two service trucks and a bunch of crazy Porsche driver equals and epic driving trip. This is RENNDRIVE Northern Expedition III . |
Thursday, the first group picked up their cars at Udon Thani Town Hall's parking space while the rest of the Renndrive crew arrived from Bangkok. After a quick driving brief, putting our luggage in the cars, and paying respect to the town's shrine, we were off to Talay Bua Dang (Lake of the Red Lotus) our first and only tourist stop of the trip. The road was long and straight, which was just a perfect setup for us to familiarize ourselves with our comrades' driving styles, test our radios and to properly put our mind onto the road. After a quick lunch, we were off to Chiang Kan to spend the first night. Having covered roughly 350 km on the first day through Nong Bua Lamphu and into Loei province, we arrived at Chiang Kan River Mountain Resort as the night fell. The road was good and straight – a relatively uninteresting on the RENNDRIVE scale, but served as a good chance to stretch our legs after months in the office. |
Our first casualty car of the trip is the newly restored but untested 993 that belongs to one of our resident photographers. (more interesting story on this yellow 993 in a later installment. Stay tuned!) Not only he had a breakdown, but also managed to get lost during the last leg with the other photographer’s 996 Turbo. The Service Team eventually found them some thirty kilometers off-course after being notified. A swift change of a faulty relay switch put both cars back on track in time to join the rest of us for dinner. Dinner was at the famous Huan Fai Come in Loei walking street. |
The 911E Horngrill fittingly parked right in front of the restaurant in the middle of walking street of Nan fits the vintage atmosphere like a glove. This beauty must have gotten a few hundreds photos shot from passersby. |
The photographers (993 C2 and 996 Turbo) claimed that they were not lost but intentionally split from the group to practise rallying. Nobody believed them. The nightly Renndrive party ended around midnight. All went to bed with their alarm clocks set to 6:00AM. |