With all the mountains in Austria and Germany, we drove through plenty of tunnels.
After enjoying the view of the nearby glacier, snapping some pictures of our sure-footed press cars overlooking the mountain peaks and scarfing down some street meat, we made the far more enjoyable drive down Stelvio's north face. With the steep downhill entry into the switchback turns, it was now quite easy to see if there was any oncoming traffic, which meant we could chase a group of nutters on motorcycles and really put the brakes and handling of the 370Z and EVO X to the test. Both machines performed admirably, the EVO's turning radius presenting some challenges in the tightest turns but its all-wheel drive providing tremendous grip out of the corners. The 4B11T engine under the EVO's hood was no slouch, either, launching us forward violently as the MR dual-clutch transmission made razor-sharp and lightning-quick shifts in Super Sport mode. With its lower seating position and long nose, the 370Z felt like a bigger and less agile machine on these very tight roads, but its rear-wheel-drive configuration allowed it to rotate and accelerate out of the switchbacks with surprising composure and precision. But watching the EVO rocket out of another hairpin and blast down toward the next one, one thing was clear: the Z may dominate on the autobahn, but the EVO and its rally heritage reigns supreme on these winding alpine roads.
Part 2: Porsche Museum
On the return trip from Stelvio, we knew we'd be passing through Stuttgart, home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Both of these German automakers have state-of-the-art museums open to the public, but for us it was the unique history of Porsche and its rich racing heritage that claimed our €10 entry fee. Having just opened in January 2009, the architecture of the Porsche museum itself is almost as impressive as the machines it houses, but once inside you'll no doubt be just as impressed as we were by all the race cars and street cars. One of our favorite displays was the Paris-Dakar 959 race cars, which took the top two spots on the podium in 1986.
Hockenheimring Fast Facts
• Built near the town of Hockenheim, Germany, in 1932, it curr
Part 3: Hockenheimring
As our host, Jon Herman, brought to our attention, the world-famous Hockenheimring, a regular stop on the Formula 1 circuit, is frequently open to the public on Thursday evenings. And we don't mean open for a tour of the facilities, we mean lapping around the 4.5km, 13-turn German Grand Prix circuit at full steam. Of course, the official policy is that there's no racing during these "tourist driving" sessions, but as we experienced first-hand there are some very quick race-prepared machines out there hammering around at full tilt and there are also some senior citizens tootling around like it's a Sunday afternoon pleasure cruise.
We thought it was a good idea to go to the back of the massive line of cars waiting to hit
When we arrived at the Hockenheimring at about 6:30 pm, a car session was out on the track and the motorcyclists were lining up along pit lane waiting for their 20-minute session (cars and motorbikes drive separately in alternating groups). We were shocked to see close to 200 bikes lined up and even more shocked to see the MotoGP pace the frontrunners were setting on the very first lap. Our collective reaction was somewhere between horror and bewilderment, since there was such an obvious skill level and machinery gap between the Valentino Rossi wannabes and the average tourist out there. It felt like a recipe for disaster, and as if on cue one overly adrenalized rider pegged the throttle too hard coming out on the front straight, popped an out-of-control wheelie and was launched over the handle bars at 80 mph when he put the front end down too hard. Fortunately, the rider walked away unharmed, but we were starting to have second thoughts about putting our Evolution X press car out there in such a wild environment.