ESTABLISHED 2015 - BAVARIA - GERMANY
Österreich Curves 2016
In 2016 our summer trip went to Austria. After Italy also a great country with lot's of fantastic curves and mountain passes.
We started our journey in the south of Bavaria at Hopfensee. From there we drove across scenic mountain passes like Gaichtpass (1093 meters), Hahntennjoch (1894 meters), via Sankt Anton and Lech am Arlberg towards Flexenpass (1773 meters) and Hochtannbergpass (1676 meters) before we reached Faschina.
The tour continued via Faschina Joch (1496 meters) before reaching on of the hightlights of the day: Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse (2096 meter).
Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse connects the Vorarlberger Montafon and Paznauntal in Tyrol. The street is 22 kilometers long and requires to pay toll. Driving up from the western side, we managed 32 hairpin curves and an incline of 12% at maximum. The road is also very famous and will be used for historic car races once a year, the so called Silvretta Classic (www.silvretta-classic.de).
After Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse we drove up to Kaunertaler Gletscher, which is a dead end road, however due to the fact that we arrived there later afternoon, there was almost no traffic.
The Kauertaler Gletscherstrasse is 26 kilometers long, has 29 hairpin bends, covers an difference in altitude of almost 1500 meters and reaches it highest point with 2.750 meters. The road also requires toll of 25 € for cars, but it is definitely worth it. Over night stop in Sölden.
Early morning start from Sölden and straight up Timmelsjoch (2509 meters) and even that Österreich Curves is the headline, we will have a short journey into Italy.
After arriving in Sankt Leonhard in the Passeiertal, the place where Andreas Hofer an Italian freedom fighter grew up. From there we continued our journey via Passo di Monte Giovo (Jaufenpass) and arrived in Sterzing, heading further south towards Brixen.
From there we kept east and drove via small passes like Passo di Eores (1880 meter), Passo del Erbe (2006 meter) and Furkelpass (1789 meter) and via Staller Sattel (2052 meters) back into Austria.
From there via Sankt Jakob im Defreggental towards Lienz and further east until Spittal an der Drau, where we now stayed for 2 nights.
After a rainey night a beautiful day was ahead, with lot's of signature roads, which also brought us to Slovenia and Italy before arriving back in Spittal an der Drau.
Before heading south, we did a short detour north towards Gmünd and started the day with drive up to Maltatal Stausee. A dead-end toll road, but worth every curve. Back to Gmünd where we visited the PORSCHE museum Helmut Pfeilhofer. This is the place where Porsche manufactured the first cars from 1944 - 1950. For every car enthusiast an absolute must have. (http://www.auto-museum.at)
Our way brought us further up north via Nockalmstrasse. The panoramic road winds up over the distance of 34 kilometre through 52 bends. At it's end further east, we couldn't resist driving up Turracher Höhe. One of the steepest Alpine road in Europe, with a gradient of up to 34% was also sometimes a test stretch of Porsche.
Finally heading south via Wurzenpass to Slovenia and further to Virsic pass, which is a 1611 meter high alpine pass and the highest pass in Slovenia. The road was build for military purposes during the 1st World War. It's 50 hairpin bends on copplestone make it quite a challenge to drive.
Next on the list was another dead-end road, the Mangart Saddle which climbs up to 2.072 meters above sea level. The view is just outstanding. Porsche filmed the image video for the launch of the Carrera T on this road (https://youtu.be/CUAp1UCy-nk).
Final day! The journey brought us north via Sölkpass (1788 meters) to Salzkammergut and all it's beautiful lakes. From there across Rossfeld Panoramastrasse (1.600 meters), a former mountain race track and down to Berchtesgaden. From there straight on the motorway home. Another great tour was coming to it's end.