Hendrik Moulds wrote:Nobody's forcing you to attend Neil.
Indeed and that's why I don't go.
The Flat Four drive is my attempt to do something better at a better price. Given enough support I'm convinced it could be developed into a larger event of better quality.
“A REMINDER. I would be grateful if those members who have borrowed bits from me in emergencies (e.g starter motor, oil cooler, etc) would return them and/or contact me”. – Chris Turner RIP
Hendrik Moulds wrote:Nobody's forcing you to attend Neil.
Indeed and that's why I don't go.
The Flat Four drive is my attempt to do something better at a better price.
But, if you've never been what's your basis for comparison .
But I have been on trips/drives eaten/stayed/been entertained in some very nice places so I'm pretty sure I think I have a pretty good idea. Horses for courses. I'm voting with my feet and putting on an event that costs nothing but is a very good day out. Most on here have rated traveling with mates, seeing interesting cars and driving out there as the most enjoyable bits.
“A REMINDER. I would be grateful if those members who have borrowed bits from me in emergencies (e.g starter motor, oil cooler, etc) would return them and/or contact me”. – Chris Turner RIP
The Internationals are expensive high-end euro jamborees. You pays your money, and get stuck in to get as much out of the experience as you can. The long journey, the travel, (through the Alps and Dolomites to Italy, overland Spain to Portugal), the drive-outs, the destinations, the fellow owners, the friendships that develop, and local sights and surprises - it’s all a huge privilege, and of course an expensive one. The initial sight and experience of hundreds of 356’s is initially intoxicating and exciting, absorbing, you’d be mad as a 356 owner if you didn’t get a lot out of it all.
Having said that, personally we found the experience of the two big dinner functions that are the centrepiece of each weekend rather resistible affairs - mass sit down stuff-ins, where you very often can’t hear your neighbour talk, even if you can understand each other’s language. (Porsche as an international language only goes so far). After a couple of these affairs, we decided to play hooky and go to a local restaurant instead -wasteful perhaps, but much more enjoyable and relaxing.
After a few Internationals, (like Hendrik, you perhaps need to ration carefully those that you choose to go to) they do begin not to feel so special. We’d have gone to Switzerland as we love the country, and the driving, but we’ve got a busy year - we hope you all have a fabulous time and safe journey.
The flat 4 drives are something else. We’ve had great fun on all of them, and even had the best run ever chasing another 356 following one of the drives - special. There’s a homeliness about them, and perhaps a deeper sense of developing friendships - obviously DDK focussed (as opposed to PCGB) and so you feel you know those around you strangely well, perhaps without having met up a great deal. They are indeed good value, but as I said, we’re hardly comparing like with like.
The ideal, and a dream I have, is for a multi car flat 4 tour of say The Scottish 500, or a 10day trip through the Alps. In the meantime, in an addition to the DDK calendar, I’m looking forward to the mini Jurassic Coast Tour in July. Still time to join in if you can - especially if you have a speedster! ( we have lots of other cars but no speedster yet - trying to keep it DDK)
I’m always late to decide and then book these things and this was the case in November when I did six nights in Northern Spanish Mountains with a Spanish company called Classics on Tour. They do tours for R-R & B, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Porsche owners and I picked R-Rs because I’m widowed and it’s easier if I know others in the group.
The Hotels were five star and excellent and the trips out well worth it although there was too much food for this old fart. The guides did a superb job, even to the extent of finding replacement essential heart pills on a Sunday for one old codger and reuniting a credit card found on the floor of a petrol station. More important for the rest of us were the remote and beautiful locations we visited, the fabulous traffic free roads and the excellent atmosphere.
Obviously not the International Porsche gathering but something similar and open to anyone who’s interested with or without a particular make of car. I’d highly recommend trying one of these and not one in the UK where traffic and weather can be an issue.
I paid about £3000, which is typical and means most fellow travellers are old or wealthy. Just as Neil baulks at the price so would I have done at his age and with kids.
In my experience some participants are hugely wealthy others are not, some are old money and others various forms of new, but it has no effect on friendship and fun whatsoever.
If you’re willing to spend the money, go for it, you’ll have a lovely time, just as you will with Neil.
I even did a Louis Vuitton Concours in Paris a few years ago. I had a fabulous time and even met the US ambassador to Brussels and his wife.
I haven’t done an International yet and it doesn’t sound like I will at the speed I operate, but I’ll have a go next time.
.