This Is The First Epic Porsche Road Trip Of 2016

Editor’s note: We’ve covered Renn Drive before, but the not-a-club has just completed four days of driving in some stunning places, and we’re excited to share the first part of the journey with you. Parts two, three, and four of the trip can be found at their website.

Story and photography by Renn Drive

To start off 2016, we went for a 1,500 kilometre (932 mile) drive, over four days. The combination of 33 Porsches, two service trucks, and a bunch of crazy Porsche drivers equals an epic driving trip. This is the story of Renn Drive Northern Expedition III.

On Thursday, the first group picked up their cars in Thailand at Udon Thani Town Hall’s parking space while the rest of the Renn Drive crew arrived from Bangkok. After a quick driving brief, putting our luggage in the cars, and paying respect to the town’s shrine, we were off to Talay Bua Dang (Lake of the Red Lotus), our first and only tourist stop of the trip. The road was long and straight, which was just a perfect setup for us to familiarize ourselves with our comrade’s driving styles, test our radios, and to properly put our mind onto the road. After a quick lunch, we were off to Chiang Kan to spend the first night. Having covered roughly 350 km (217 miles) on the first day through Nong Bua Lamphu and into Loei province, we arrived at Chiangkhan River Mountain Resort as the night fell. The road was good and straight—a relatively uninteresting on the Renn Drive scale, but served as a good chance to stretch our legs after months in the office.  

Our first casualty car of the trip was the newly restored but untested 993 that belongs to one of our photographers. Not only did he have a breakdown, but he also managed to get lost during the last leg with the other photographer in a 996 Turbo. The Service Team eventually found them…some 30 km (18 miles) off-course after being notified. A swift change of a faulty relay switch put both cars back on the right track in time to join the rest of us for dinner. Dinner was at the famous Huan Fai Come in Loei walking street.

The 911E ‘horngrill’ parked right in front of the restaurant in the middle of walking street of Nan, fitting the vintage atmosphere like a glove. This beauty must have gotten a few hundred photos taken that night by passersby. Finally, the photographers claimed that they were not lost but intentionally split from the group to practice rallying.

Nobody believed them. The nightly Renn Drive party ended around midnight. All went to bed with their alarm clocks set to 6:00 a.m…

On the RennDrive website, follow along over the rest of the trip: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4