Day 0: Preparation
Photography
Still photography will be the focus of this trip – we're bringing both a flying Hasselbald and a 100 megapixel medium format camera to capture our experiences. My co-driver carries a travel friendly 47 megapixel Leica Q2.
Luggage
For sure the 911 Targa does not have as much storage space as our previous Taycan Turbo S. But with the right planning, it is surprising how much you can carry with you, though you have to accept you will be "living" around your luggage.
We carry two white coloured Roadster Hardcase 4W Trollies – closest match to our Crayon exterior Targa – in our frunk and two matching red-interior coloured trollies in our rear seats.
We have an adventure-orientated F-stop TILOPA 50L pack to carry our photography gear on our hikes.
Emissions regulations
We have already enrolled our car and registration plate with the authorities in Germany – so that we can avail of access to low emissions zones in cities.
Yes, even though we're no longer travelling via an electric Taycan, we're still in the same "Green" emissions zone with our 2024 Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS.
Tyres
Our car has the staggered 20/21-inch Porsche Tequipment 911 Turbo S winter wheel-and-tyre set painted in Black (satin-gloss) fitted with Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 NA2 tyres.
Front axel: 245/35 R20
Rear axel: 305/30 R21
With two adults, frunk full of luggage, snow chains and plenty of hiking and photography equipment, we've easily reached the "full load" threshold. Therefore we're running on the officially recommended pressures:
Snow Chains
Additionally we carry the official Porsche snow chains for the 911.
Porsche Tequipment
Note: The shop listing describes the chains as for the 991 models but when you place an order and set your current era 992 car, they'll ship you the correct variant.
Snow chains
We're unlikely to need our chains on this trip but it's always good to be prepared. If we encounter the combination of deep snow and a mandatory snow chains sign ("schneeketten vorgeschrieben") we'll be ready!
Technical Equipment
The regions we're visiting on this trip are not as unforgiving as the arctic region we typically visit in winter. However, it is still imperative to plan for worst case situations and with that in mind we carry the following technical equipment.
In Germany, winter tyres are required by law in this region and in some of the higher altitude roads snow-chains may be mandatory.
- Snow / Ice scrapers
- Porsche 911 snow chains
- 4000 kg tow rope
- Emergency wool blankets (x2) with my co-driver using heres for comfort in the cabin aleady
- Insulated drink mugs (the pink pigs)
- Emergency foil blankets
- Porsche First aid kit
- Porsche branded winter screen was (1:2 mix)
Top-up oil
It's no secret that a healthy 911 flat-six engine consumes oil – around 400 millilitres every three months. To keep it running smoothly, we always carry a litre of the correct-spec top oil in our kit.
We use Mobil 1 ESP X4 0W-40 which meets Porsche C40 specification and is the oil our car came with from the factory.
Adding top-oil in Täsch, Switzerland on a summer trip
We'll likely be fine for this road trip as we leave with a perfect oil level. But in the spirit of "being prepared" we still carry a litre of top-up oil with us.
Pink Pigs
The pink pigs are ready to go!
Car Detailing
Winter is a challenging time of year for both the exterior and interior maintenance of cars. Ours was no exception and was wearing both the usual winter grime and also had never really been cleaned since we've taken ownership.
We were searching for a detailer we could build a rapport with who shared our meticulous attention to detail, much like our blog. It conveniently happened that one nearby also happens to be the Porsche Centre Dublin's preferred installer for their PPF work and they were quick to recommend themselves.
The PPF/detailing industry is relatively new in Ireland and Padraic at Flawless quickly stood out as both well-established and highly respected.
His team's work has been widely reviewed and commented on for years, much of it dating back a decade on boards.ie – a popular Irish forum predating social media – which boasts an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Ireland.
What is great about Flawless is that it's not just a surface clean and spray on some tyre shine. As a premier PPF installation company, they approach "the clean" as a maintenance service for the exterior and interior surfaces of the car, including a regular inspection of how the PPF is performing.
https://flawless.ie/maintenance-services
We look forward to the Flawless team keeping our car in top road trip worthy condition and we'll certainly challenge them with our arctic circle drives in the future.
Apple Music
If you are an Apple Music subscriber you can listen along to some of the music that's accompanying us on our trip via our BOSE audio system and the car's in-built Apple Music player, streamed over the roaming data connection provided by Porsche.
