Finally collecting my 718! #blogpost

It has been a long, long wait since I ordered my 718 shortly after it was released this year. The delivery was delayed by a few weeks, but in the end, it didn’t matter. The moment I saw it for the first time, I realised that it was definitely worth every minute of waiting!

Day 1: Showroom Collection

Does it not look amazing! I’m in love with this colour, wheel design and full leather black interior. Not too flashy and very elegant.

This is also when I was able to hear my car start up for the first time.

Ok, the 2.0 turbo-boxer doesn’t sound as good as the flat-sixes in the 981, but trust me: that twin-pipe exhaust isn’t silent at all and it produces a deep and raspy sound. I’m sure my neighbours will appreciate it in the mornings!

Anyways, enough talking about my car, let’s look around the dealership:

Porsche Centre Guildford

Let me take this opportunity to thank Porsche Centre Guildford for providing outstanding customer service! By the way, here are some of the cars they had:

Spotted: 991 GT3 RS

Spotted: 991 911 R

This beauty is apparently the only black 911 R in the UK!

Quite a lot of other awesome cars there, including GT4s and GT3s. Sadly no 918 at that time.

But anyways, by that point, I couldn’t wait any longer to finally drive my car.

First drive

…Aaand I couldn’t stop.
I kept driving it for quite a few hours before I finally went home.
(Surely I was gentle and keeping in mind that the car is still in its run-in period, but that didn’t stop me enjoying every single moment of driving.)

First impressions:

1. It’s much louder than I expected. Maybe because when I first drove a 718 it didn’t have a sport exhaust on or maybe I just forgot what it was like.
2. It’s an amazing place to be in. The interior is super luxurious, yet focused on driving, it’s well put together and thought through. Every single control switch is exactly where you expect it to be. Seeing the car reflect in windows adds to the feel of driving something truly special, so does the smell of a new car and leather inside!
3. THE CORNERING! Holy crap, this car absolutely loves roundabouts and any sort of cornering, it feels truly amazing whilst turning and the grip is just insane: you can go into a corner at any speed you like and it will handle it fine!

After driving around for a few hours, I finally came home and realised… That’s just not enough.

So I thought: why don’t I do something that I wanted to do for quite a while? In particular: drive it to France. I’ve never used the Eurotunnel before and… well, enough excuses!

Day 2: Driving to Paris for no reason

Ok, ok, this car is not really designed for motorways and it may feel like a complete waste driving it in a straight line, but it would also allow me to do the run-in more or less correctly, trying to be gentle with the throttle, varying the revs, making sure the engine is in its perfect temperatures and so on.

First stop in France

Once I hit French motorways, I had some more time to think about the car. I noticed further things:

1. It’s much faster than I expected. Even without pushing it, it gains speed very, very quickly.
2. The engine is very much a turbocharged engine. Firstly, you can hear the turbo very clearly. (Whoooshhh!). Secondly, there is some turbo lag, but it doesn’t take away from driving experience. Thirdly, there is a lot of torque on offer.
3. It is super stable at any speed and changing lanes is very easy. Yet the car is very comfortable as well, Bose audio system is incredible, suspension is quite soft and given smooth motorway surface there is little road noise too.

Alex, you made me do this.

By the way, French motorways are amazing. Or at least the bits that I used. The road surface is like silk, there is little traffic and the speed limit is a more sensible 130 kmh rather than 112kmh we have in the UK. I still wished it was more…
But to be fair, I haven’t seen any cameras or police, and some people did go above that. Also, some parts of the motorway were toll (had to pay for them), but this just made me think once again: why don’t we have more toll roads in the UK?! You pay a few euros (or pounds) to enjoy a stretch of open motorway with no traffic and great road surface: exactly what we want.

Arriving in Paris

Roads in Paris, however, are the complete opposite.
The stone surface may look good but it’s absolutely horrible to drive on. And traffic in Paris is awful as well. To add to the pain, drivers in Paris seem much less polite and respectful than in London (maybe because I have a UK plate?). I was undercut a number of times, it was hard to pull out of junctions, cars would drive really, really close to each other, sometimes they would ‘push’ me out of my lane (by the way some roads don’t even have lanes) and so on…

Nevertheless, I was able to find a comfortable spot in a secure carpark far away from anyone else and embark for some sightseeing…

Once parked up, I managed to spend an evening and a morning in Paris enjoying the amazing views and food. Some off-topic photos below.

And on that, it was time to get back to reality and drive to the UK. Firstly, some more torture driving through Paris, then some more tranquility driving on the motorway, back in the Eurotunnel, and finally home.

From 13 miles on the clock to almost 600 miles in two days.

Perfect!

Now I need to think back about my random and slightly (slightly?!) pointless trip and think where I can find more appropriate roads for this car in the UK (if you have any suggestions where I should go, ideally not too far away from Surrey, please do let me know!), also make some photos and also add my car to the CT garage!

Thanks for reading :)
-DL