Porsche Club 997 News | Spring Breakout | 997 News | 2016

TO THE MOTORING ENTHUSIAST THERE IS LITTLE TO STIR THE SENSES and stiffen the sinews more than the sight of a gaggle of 911’s, gathered line astern, raring to go. So the spectacle greeting locals on the morning of Saturday 2^nd April in tiny hamlet of Chittlehamholt, North Devon was probably way beyond belief.

In all, fifteen Porsche 997’s had gathered from all over the UK to take part in the 5^th annual running of the Register’s Spring Tour and the base chosen for this year’s event was the gothic style Highbullen House Hotel, a delightful country establishment set in 125 acres of rural North Devon with its own 18 hole course, spa, swimming pool and conference centre. “We were looking for something a little different this year,” explains co-organiser and 997 Register Secretary, Clive White. “Starting from this location gave us a wonderful base with access to roads we’ve not previously been able to use.”

To say the gathering was high quality would be something of an understatement as there were 4 Turbos (including Clive’s own Turbo ‘S’), 4 GT3’s (with Steve and Viv Burgess’ rare GT3 RS 4.0), a C4 GTS, 2 C4S Cabs and 4 C2S’s all lined up for the start. “We were oversubscribed by quite a margin for this event,” said co-organiser, Alan Stoneham, “but there’s been a relaxation of touring rules, so we decided to extend the entry and take 15 cars this year rather than the usual 12. It’s not really feasible to take more due to the logistics of the event and nature of the roads.” he added.

Dull start, but bright convoy raring to go.

The day dawned in what can best be described as “mizzle” and far damper than had been forecast, but this did not deter the convoy as it set off on the first leg of this 2 day, 250 mile tour. It was estimated that some 2 million pounds worth of machinery was wending its way south along the A377 towards Morchard Road, where it turned back east onto the B3223 for the first look at wide open carriageways.

Notwithstanding having maps, 2 way radios and detailed road books, several crews still managed to wrong slot at an admittedly tricky, left turn past Winkleigh village, but with Alan acting as sweeper, the convoy was soon back on track and heading into the real meat of the tour along narrow, twisting Devon lanes, through Dowland and picking up the A386 towards Hatherleigh and our first stop for coffee at Folly Gate near Okehampton. From here, we lit out, heading back north-west on the A3079 towards Halwill Junction. This is splendid open road combined with some quite tricky high speed bends, but progress was somewhat hampered by slow Saturday morning traffic.

Coffee at Folly Gate – but no time for steak.

No dramas so far as we passed through Holsworthy and out onto the A3072 towards Bude. This is a favoured piece of road for our SW tours, but once again we were hampered by traffic until we reached Red Post, where we turned south for a short distance before heading to our lunch stop at Wainhouse Corner via more unclassified lanes.

The afternoon’s leg became a bit more scenic as we took to the coastal routes through Crackington Haven (rejuvenated following devastation of the 2004 Boscastle floods) and the route took on quite a dramatic quality as it wound its way up and down along the coastline, providing breath-taking vistas across the Atlantic breakers.

It was here the procession came to a halt, when a tourist in a Seat Altera adorned with bicycles strapped on the back, battled against an oncoming BMW, losing traction on the narrowest and steepest of uphill hairpins and nearly collecting the front end of this scribe’s Turbo ‘S’ too, as he slid back down the hill. With 14 cars behind, manoeuvring space was restricted with nowhere to go to take avoiding action! Eventually all was clear and we made our way to the top of the hill for a short break and photographs of the stunning North Cornish coastal scenery.

Photostop at Crackington Haven

It was here it became apparent both Nick with Anne and Andy with Jill (GT3’s) had taken the ploughed field route option somewhere along the way, as both were proudly displaying large dollops of earth on their front ends, collected we know not where. All the roads so far had been fully tarmacadamed, but admittedly were showing signs of weathering and debris due to the region having been ravaged by storms in preceding weeks.

Mud Plugging in Cornwall

Now the roads opened up a little as we progressed through Widemouth Bay and Bude, prior to heading back east through Stratton and returning to our old friend Red Post, where we turned north for a short distance and into Kilkhampton. From here we took the surreal, unclassified road past the CSOS military early warning base with its array of satellite dishes and on through the village with its unusual name of Shop, back out onto the A39 for tea break at the West Country Inn.

There’s no easy way back to the A388 Holsworthy/Torrington road, other than through a labyrinth of narrow, unclassified country roads and some of them 3 ply too (i.e. tarmac/grass/tarmac!). This appeared to be a step too far for one of our more fastidious members and even the lead car wrong-slotted at one point. However, everyone finally made it through unscathed and we regrouped along the main road through Milton Damerel to experience the big dipper at Woodford Bridge. At Stibb Cross, we turned down to Powler’s Piece, a splendid piece of open roadway prior to picking up the awesome Yeo Valley road - one of my favourites - past Melbury Reservoir to join up with the A386 at Landcross. New 997 Register IT man, Clive Wratten remarked this section was one of his most memorable driving experience ever and, by the way he was trembling at the end of it, he was surely not wrong!

One of our wider lanes

Now was time for a slightly less fraught drive, as we wound our way past road-subsidence works and on into Weare Giffard – a picturesque, but very long village, set alongside the river Torridge. Nearing the outskirts of Torrington, we headed past Darracott Reservoir and onto the B3232 via another short piece of 3 ply and, once down to the B3237 at High Bullen, we picked up yet another piece of road favoured on previous tours through Atherington, High Bickington to include the double switchback at Langridge Ford.

On the homeward stretch of the first leg now, with a river bridge crossing at Umberleigh and a gentle run alongside the River Taw through Warkleigh – the only drama remaining being a partially flooded road – a left-over from the recent storms, which everyone managed to negotiate unscathed. So 170 miles completed today and a return to the hotel at around 17.30, slightly later than anticipated, but still leaving plenty of time to pretty ourselves before the evening’s festivities.

A fine cocktail reception in the hotel lounge preceded a delightful 3 course meal, concluded with one of Alan’s famous quizzes that managed to flummox most of us, but not Peter Finch or Clive Wratten who jointly walked away with the glittering first prize, nor indeed runners up Steve and Viv Burgess, who had missed out by just one point.

Quiz winners Clive and Peter in the foreground

Sunday's weather proved even duller than the previous day, if that were possible, but this time the forecast became slightly more accurate as it quickly brightened up after breakfast. We would not be returning to our hotel so everyone checked out and we were once again on our way with 80 miles more to go before luncheon at Taunton. The dramas of the tour were not yet over, however!

Taking the B3226 due north, we headed out onto Exmoor National Park, through South Molton and down to Challacombe. Nick and Anne West (GT3) damaged their splitter over a cattle grid on the open moorland road, but quickly discarded the damaged unit and carried on unabated.

Your scribe with Nick’s discarded splitter

The road through the Oare Valley must be one of the most picturesque in the country, but it’s also very narrow – and none more constricted than the river bridges at Malsmead and Robbers. Previously recced it in a Macan, we were pretty sure everyone could get through OK, but great care was needed. There was added incentive too since each bridge is an ancient monument and deportation is the penalty for inflicting structural damage!

Tight fit at Robbers Bridge

From here, a real treat for members as we were now to drive the famous Porlock Toll Road. This private road was used for many years as a special stage on the WRC RAC rally. It was always tackled uphill since it was considered far too dangerous with its steep drops, in a downwardly direction. 997 Register are nothing if not adventurous and down the hill we went, stopping only momentarily for Alan to stuff the toll money he’d collected into the slot at the toll gate halfway down.

Alan finds it quite a task stuffing £30 of loose change into the tiny slot

Last year, we became stuck in Porlock when a telegraph pole blew down, blocking the road and requiring a hasty reroute. This year was clear and we stopped there only for short comfort break before heading out again, past Dunkery Beacon, which at 1705 feet is the highest point on Exmoor, over the tricky Wheddon Cross junction and down to A396 for another piece of classic SW tour road through the Exe Valley.

The tight hairpin onto the B3227 at Black Cat was negotiated without problem (the convoy was now adept at tight hairpins) but the tour came to sudden halt just before Wiveliscombe, where there was a rather nasty head-on collision between 2 non-tour vehicles with the air ambulance having already lifted the injured to hospital. So the road was blocked and police were on hand to close off the road. Alan was leading the convoy at this point and his Guards Red Turbo had been mistaken for a Ferrari (?) by the policeman on point duty. Clearly not a car enthusiast, he assumed our cars would be unable to negotiate a difficult detour around the country lanes and we were allowed exclusive passage through the accident debris. Both vehicles involved were extensively damaged and we can only hope their occupants have now recovered satisfactorily.

Anyway, not far to go now and we counted ourselves lucky not to have lost too much time with an unscheduled detour. It was now a fairly straight run through Preston Bowyer and Norton Fitzwarren into Taunton for a somewhat belated lunch at the Hankridge Arms Pub in Toneway.

Radios returned and goodbyes said, we all headed home to all four corners of the country. A 250 mile tour completed and probably, one of our most demanding yet. It was good to see the number of new members trying their hand at touring for the first time and we do hope everyone enjoyed it and thanks to all for the support. We had a good hotel base, some interesting and challenging roads, great camaraderie and everyone came home safely – so this is what 997 Register touring is all about.