Goal Fulfilled!

The Journey to the 'Ring is over.
All is achieved!
I can't quite describe what I'm feeling right now but humbleness springs to mind more than anything else.

I'll take some time to put it all to paper when we get back home.
For now let me just thank all the WONDERFUL people we've met during our trip, and the those of you who emailed and checked out the website.

Thanks!

M.

First thing's first!

So let's start from the beginning:


Check it here: departure video!

Hope you like it!

Le Mans!

I’m beated and broken!
It’s been a long long day, and I just want a shower and get some sleep, but some words in advance to you all: WOW!
If you’re a petrol head you MUST, absolutely MUST come to Le Mans!
This is the Meca of autosport!

More tomorrow and some videos as soon as I get some rest :)

And... we're off!

5:22 in the morning.
A few drops of rain fell just moments ago, so the road is wet....
Extra careful then!

Let's go!

The Porsche backs down

So now for the next cataclysm:

1st of May, 2009, 20 days before the estimated date of departure.
My cell phone rings.
On the screen flashing is the name of the other rider, the Cayman S owner who, for a year now has been my mate and right arm in the battle of tarmac.
What did he want?
Well, for “undisclosed reasons” he couldn’t make the trip.
WHAT???
NOT MAKE THE TRIP?
His this guy kidding me?
And what the hell does he mean with undisclosed reasons?
Here’s a guy that told me all about his personal life, his fears, his achievements, his failures, and now all of a sudden he gives me this crap about not being able to tell me about why he's not going to the trip he had envisioned?
I was exhausted have pulled an all-nighter so I just told him that I wasn’t counting on him bailing out, especially when we were a mere 20 days from going.
I hung up the phone and it all came racing back in my head:
- He was the one who suggested we should take our motoring endeavors a step further and do a trip to the NurburgRing.
- He was the one that got all excited about doing a 5000+ km journey with his precious Porsche
- He is still the one that collects all the magazines and DVDs talking about great driving roads and the like
- And he was the one that draw the map with the itinerary

How sick is that??
20 days from leaving??
And what reasons did he present?
None!
None what so ever!
He told me that he hadn’t figured in the physical exhaustion and strain that such a long journey would pose on him.
What?
He was the guy that decided where we should go, where we should sleep and rest in the first place!
And we’re not talking about any 60 year old gentleman driver here, but of a (at least visually) fit 38 year old man!

So the trip is off then?
Well…. Not quite!
Next day I was in my car, waiting my turn in the gas station, insulting him with every slang word known to men, and then some, when I remembered a friend of mine, car crazy such as me, who might be interested.
Simple phone call:
“Are you up for a car ride to the NurburgRing as my co-pilot?”
“Hell yeah! When do we leave?”
Now that’s my kind of guy!

With one phone call, he who had been dreaming and making plans for a year about this trip lets me down and draws back, and with another phone call, a true motoring aficionado jumps at the chance of joining me on this most epic of journeys.
Now, I am not going to jump into conclusions about you Porsche owners not having what it takes to risk travelling a few thousand miles to experience the most serious racetrack in the world, or buying a Porsche precisely because you fear failure and risk above all else (heck, that’s why most 911s are sold anyway, right?), but it’s funny that me, and others like me, are willing to take the chance of such a strenuous trip with so much more prone-to-failure machines, and you guys aren’t….

Come on, prove me wrong and be there Tuesday, the 26st of May at the Green Hell!

Monaco G.P.

So where were we?
Ah yes, Monaco.
On one of my trips to London I met this really nice gentleman, who told me he worked for Ferrari F1 somewhere on the outskirts of London.
He showed me his credentials and everything and was a lot of laughs telling stories and jokes of stuff that happened within the F1 team.
He then told me and my colleagues if there was anything he could do for us to which I immediately answered: Can you get me tickets to Monaco? :)
He laughed and said that yes he could, he could get 4 tickets.
Now that’s manna from heaven!
A few weeks later I was in London and he stopped by my hotel with a bag filled with Ferrari merchandise such as T-shirts, Polos, flags and the like.
Amazing stuff for a tiffosi like me and the tickets were taken care of, he assured.
We kept talking occasionally and one day he tells me that instead of 4 he could only get me two tickets.
Ok….
Two is exactly the number of people who are taking cars, the other two are colleagues of mine who were flying over to Nice to see the GP with us.
Ok, get me those two tickets and I’ll still be a happy man.
"No problem. I'll send them over to you next week."
Next week came and went and no tickets arrived.
I call him, and he politely apologizes for not having sent them yet but he’ll do it this very day.
No tickets arrived.
Then, a month from the 23rd of May (around 20th of April) I start calling him and he never answers.
I send a few texts and he doesn’t reply.
I call again and again to no extent.
I talk to my friend and we decide it’s best to forget about Monaco since there’s no certainty about the tickets.
Reluctantly and sadly we admit it’s the right thing to do.
The Monaco G.P. has been the culprit of Formula 1 racing for me since I was a little boy, and it would be a dream come true to watch live, and (as I was promised) visit the Ferrari Paddock on Saturday.
It’s still not going to be this year though.
I haven’t heard from the Ferrari gentleman since….

first post

So that’s it then!
It’s settled.
After almost a year of planning, dreaming, studying and thinking about every little detail and whatnot I’ve finally made it to the week before the journey.
It’s not been a pleasant few months mind.
For starters, the original trip was going past Monaco where we were supposed to attend the Monaco Grand Prix of Formula 1.
But then, when everything was set and assured, and the tickets had been promised a full two months in advance, the person responsible for them suddenly disappears of the face of the Earth.
No phone calls, no emails, no texts.
Nothing.
We (I) couldn’t get a hold of him.

This is just one of the things that started going wrong but the worst was still to come.

Check in later to read more on the Monaco GP and the rest of the preparations for the journey.

Cheers, M.

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