911SC Peak District Tour by Richard Stephens, 911SC Tech Advisor

I contacted Porsche Club GB to see what tour routes they had around the Peak District. They suggested the Peak district East Midlands region 8 tour which is approximately 80 miles. This looked perfect for a nice spring drive in the 1978 911 SC.
 
Joining me on the trip was my friend Steve. We set off from Wingerworth just south of chesterfield on a cloudy but sunny Saturday morning. The SC started first time with the usual small puff of smoke from the exhaust. It’s enlarged 3.2 SC engine whirring away very nicely. The plan was to do this Peak District tour seeing how well the SC handles the tight roads, steep hills and to stop at places of interest.

Leaving Wingerworth we setoff down some nice back roads to join the A6 to Bakewell.

At Bakewell we stopped for breakfast choosing the hearty full English option to keep us going for the day.


Leaving Bakewell we took the A6 to Buxton. Once we hit the town of Buxton we headed south along some nice open roads towards Leek along the A53. We stopped at the three Horseshoes for a picture and to check the oil as the SC was nicely warmed up. Then we turned right off the A53 plotting our way through the tight roads up to Wincle. We stopped at the Wincle Brewery to pick up some beer supplies for later consumption.



There was a great choice of choice of beers.



North of Wincle there was a few annoying average speed cameras on the road. However there were some nice winding roads near cat and fiddle pub. We continued back up the A54 then A53 back to the picturesque town of Buxton.
 
After touring through Buxton we headed North up the A6 and then turned right into a downhill stretch through Winnat pass. The name is a corruption of 'wind gates' due to the swirling winds through the pass. Some great views from the road.



The SC was handling the hills easily with plenty of torque from the 3.2 engine and the twisty bits with the well setup suspension consisting of the Bilstein sports shocks and Elephant Racing hollow torsion bars. We continued along the A6187 turning right at Hathersage down more winding roads to Grindleford. The roads were proving to be not too busy as we were doing the tour in early April.
 
It’s great seeing the two front wings of the SC pointing the car in the right direction to take the corners of these roads.


We had some warn sunny parts of the tour and the odd shower meaning the electric sunroof was being well used. We drove west on the A623, then south along the back road B6465 towards Wardlow and then Ashford in the Water. After some more great roads we joined the A6 heading back to Bakewell.
 
Overall a great tour with some good places to stop. The SC is a great car to use on these roads with the engine allowing you to cruise along the roads using a higher gear if you want. A great driving day out with a few nice beers being consumed from the Wincle brewery after the driving was over. The star of the show was the SC.