The Highest Road in Europe; My Porsche Story

My solo French Alps road trip…

[Deep breath]

It has taken months of agonising to produce this video. I’ve tried to balance the importance of normalising mental health, something I’m passionate about and make an effort to do, in every part of my career, with being kind to myself and stopping short of making life harder for me.

The reality is though, there are millions upon millions of people that haven’t the means to own a Porsche. Any Porsche. Nor the ability or means to do a road trip like this.

Because I’ve been there, felt the pain and frustration of wanting more for my life, then somehow achieved it, through grit, determination and hard work, I felt obligated to share. The hope is that it’ll inspire others to do the same.

Have a purpose. Set achievable goals. Have wild aspirations. Be disciplined. Be resilient. Be consistent.

It’ll come.

I also want to recognise the difficult decision to go on a solo road trip. You’ll have to watch until the end to find out what I thought on that.

So, here is My Porsche Story.

For reference, solo, I went to the following locations.
– Charmes
– Monaco
– Grasse (Route Napoleon)
– Cannes
– Lantosque (Col de Turini)
– Faucon-de-Barcelonnette (Col de La Bonette)
– Dijon
– Reims
– Valenciennes

Car used – Porsche Cayman 981
Miles – Unsure. Will check and update
Cost – Unsure. Will check and update

I hope you enjoy the video. Let me know what you thought about the trip, the video, the mental health aspect. I’m all ears.

You can find Renngineering at:
@renngineeringuk on Insta
@renngineering everywhere else

If you want to be on Your Porsche Stories, then DM me or email
info@renningeering.com

The likes, shares, comments and subscribers really do make a difference to me. The quicker the channel gets monetised, the quicker the RENN550 gets built. The what??? You’ll see…

Enjoy!

#porschemoment #restoration #911 #renngineering #porsche #modification #modifiedcars #reengineering #mentalhealth #alps #alpstour #porschecayman #reengineering #coldeturini #coldelabonette #reimsgueux #reims #monaco #monacocars #porthercule #cannes

E [Applause] So um I originally planned to shoot a really edgy cool Magnus Walker style Urban Outlaw video and what it’s tend into is um a mental health video uh I I’ve always had mental health issues I remember being kid and having being really introverted and excessively emotional and sensitive so little things would

Make me upset little things still do make me upset um but where that kind of urban Outlaw stuff sounds great and if you’re cool enough to pull that off good for you uh the reality is this trip was went from being something like that that to

Uh me learning to accept myself for who I am being able to be truthful and honest to people about who I am um still an introvert I have a YouTube channel on a podcast but it doesn’t mean you don’t need don’t you don’t have a YouTube channel and a

Podcast but it doesn’t mean that you have to be an extra BT to do that just means it takes energy from you um this trip originally was eight I think then seven then six then five just me um and as I was growing up I was bullied really

Badly uh and ended up spending a lot of time on my own but not by choice so what that means is uh these things you know throw a stone in a pond and then the ripples take a while to go and unfortunately they have never gone for me so

Um if I end up spending time on my own I find that difficult and it feels like rejection so to start with eight and end up just me going on a road trip felt the same it hit the same notes as it did when I was

A kid don’t want them to it’s not ideal but that’s the reality and um I decided to go on the trip anyway with the hope that I would find a way of being comfortable with that and wanted to come away from the trip feeling like it’s okay to spend time on my own

And I can enjoy it irrespective of how it comes about the reality is Porsche the Brand fancy watches smart clothes a 4k camera you’re you’re watching this through um growing up they were just completely ridiculous that you know and even my life now sometimes it doesn’t always

Feel like I’ve got it particularly good but then when I think about growing up and going to work as a 15-year-old kid or 16-year- old kid the money I earned was paying for food not for kids stuff um I ended up being homeless at 17 notice I didn’t look at the camera

When to said that and all of those things stick with you you know so if you’re lucky to become you know come from a really good background then you know I’m happy for you um lots of us millions of us watching this hopefully um won’t have had that experience

So and then you get into the one upmanship of YouTube and you know the latest thing and it’s unsustainable and it makes me not want to do it anymore which is why when I’ve talked about engineering before it’s always been about the people not the cars necessarily or it’s not being about

Who’s got the most expensive car you know I enjoy talking to people with you know very inexpensive um cars and I enjoy the fancy stuff as well but it’s all about the people for me it’s got nothing to do with the the brand is cool but it’s not

It’s not who’s got the most expensive car I’m not attracted to that at all so the reality is though because of that kind of being on my own a lot and finding it difficult and finding it difficult to keep make friends this trip was really important

Um I’ll do an outro and explain what I got from it but going into it what you’re about to see was was not huge amounts of confidence P you know personal self-confidence practical self-confidence about getting through the trip on my own without something going wrong um was really nervous you

Know people used like every single video that I’ve watched on YouTube of someone driving around the Europe it’s so relaxed it’s so kind of chilled out and yet here was I about to embark on this trip and was freaking out if honest about the fact that I’d mess it all up

So I didn’t spoil a with it um anyway I’m five minutes in nearly six minutes in and it’s probably enough of me talking but I hope you enjoy the episode I’ll catch you back up the end and let you know what I thought of it

All you know I said I was nervous yeah I was nervous I basically didn’t shoot anything until I got across into France um so here’s some static images it’s not going to be a slideshow so don’t worry um but I did end up enjoying one of many

Uh ham and cheese baguettes I would get very used to those things and uh yeah I was still so nervous and in that one day drove 9 hours 51 to Sham which was basically in the middle of nowhere uh my trip back to D and stopping at djon was

Much much more sensible um beautiful little Place middle of nowhere wouldn’t repeat that great little Airbnb though and um it got me refreshed and started off for the next day so here comes the footage of day two Sharm to Monaco so thought i’ give you a little

Tour as to where I’m staying with where I stayed last night so this is obviously mon Har pretty nice and then I show you the boat I was on so this is just an Airbnb this is you can book this anyone can book this um and I just wanted to stay in the harbor cuz it was actually cheaper than most of the hotels it’s cheaper than most of the

Hotels I just stay on that little boat there which is pretty cool waking up just jumping off the boat go St St like Str and now I’m going to walk the F1 circuit CCH Later [Applause] n Yeah A [Applause] So with the sun starting to set I headed back to the boat and chilled out there and had a uh an ice cream for a bit and then went to where the yachties get their food no fancy restaurant for me and had a big fat pizza and uh I don’t

Even know what that was but some alcohol and then chilled out for the rest of the night before Monaco to Grass to actually see some friends so it looks like an amazing trip right and why on Earth would you be unhappy so far well I was actually really stressed about um seeing

My friend I hadn’t seen them in a while um the driving was really intense Monaco was really intense and what I really wanted to do is get out and see this so waking up for this view in the morning was absolutely perfect and set up for this yeah this was worth

It I was hoping that the buildup was going to be is going to pay off I was hoping that the long journey and the sleepless night the stress the kind of anxiety was going to pay off and that actually have some semi-religious experience driving through the Alps and is definitely delivering

That and this the crazy thing is right I think I always naturally think about people from the UK but looking at the statistics from my audience there’s quite a lot of Indian followers hello to my Indian followers hello to my uh North American followers and my Canadian

Followers um so people from all around the world which is in Africa there’s a lot of African followers amazingly I don’t know why I wouldn’t have expected it but I’m grateful for all of you and this journey I’m doing now is probably less easy for you to do or maybe it’s

Something that you’re not going to be able to do for a million different reasons and if I can share some of this and it comes across in a way that you can experience it with me then I feel like my job’s done you know this isn’t

This is as much for it’s not as much for you as it is for me but I definitely want to share as much of this as I can and translate the feelings as much as the you know talking about how great the roads are

Cuz the camera will do some of it but I hoping me talking about it is helping you live the experience as much as you can without actually being here there okay you manage to see the stuff that I’m pointing at from time to time ruins amazing Hill and stuff like that so so

That there was a is that the resort you were saying at the top of the mountain that was kind of like it’s just not used anymore because yeah you could see maybe at some point some trucks yeah it look yeah these are old old trucks like ski

Slopes we don’t get snow anymore crazy a little bit but nothing to go skiing now we have to go a little bit deeper in the mountain I remember when I was a when I was a child we used to to go it was like yeah 40 minutes drive you know firsty

Res so it was pretty good now those times are gone yeah now the future but now you have this yeah mountain biking right here it’s good H it’s incredible I was trying to think of where you would even go from here if this is if you’ve grown up around here and you were

Thinking I want to go and find me better I don’t know where you go California Canyons maybe probably California would be a good uh a good alternative Place yeah for sure for sure but you need to like if you like nature some people they just don’t care you know they live on

The coast they live in can and they never get out of can just go to the shops and because they they don’t know about it and they don’t like wow this is where I spend my life and with Mon and you are lucky for it in the forest in

The nature we have Rivers waterfalls whatever cool roads we enjoy it’s the good life you’ve got you’ve definitely got a good life cool okay next step uh Next Step G thanks man welcome um from there we headed off to Gordon uh chilled out had a cup of coffee and that was pretty much

The end of the day and what a day it was so this is the start uh this is leaving can basically and pulling over to the side of the road before heading off into the mountains again to head to CER torini and the small ski chalet that I

Built there um Can didn’t love it it was more of Monaco and by this point I’d really got to the stage where I didn’t want any more of that and realized that uh My Heart Belongs to the Alps um these guys in front of me there was quite a

Lot of these kind of guys where they were taking their bikes up uh razing round all the passes and then coming back and checking the bikes in the back of the van why I don’t know um but they did that these roads immediately went into fairly fast sloping twisties with

Lots of switchbacks uh as you can see you get straight into it uh loved it absolutely loved it this obviously is a part of the old uh Monte Carlo rally stage uh and you can totally tell because it just goes from switch back to switch back to switch back uh what I

Would say about this is fun as it is you’re only going 20 M hour before you’re breaking again for another switch back um after the route Napoleon trip where I’d been out on these big long fast flowing roads we in second and third G all the time this was fun uh but

It wasn’t I wasn’t really thinking wow this is this is the best driving ever um I was thinking well this uh is pretty slow um and it was until I got to this the cold of serini so we’ve reached the summit of cold of serini now hope

You enjoyed that little trip up there the mountain side there um deeply impressive although uh still people on the wrong side of the road which always stresses me out um there was no way I was going to be going quickly around there no way in a million years but it

Is definitely one of the experiences of my life in terms of driving yeah I think I need a Coke or a chill or something but before I do that let me just show you uh what the summit looks Like [Applause] [Applause] oh n so I absolutely couldn’t carry on and not stop and show everybody this cuz I took the well in classic me the situation uh it said go right I went left uh and I basically went up a single Track Road where there’s just people

Living there they looked at me like I was an absolute psychopath um but you get some pretty amazing views when you go the wrong way so uh let me just show you this cuz it Doesn’t there’s not words my words w’t do it anything like the Justice it

Needs how absolutely amazing is this this car is here in the French Alps with these views it’s just mindblowing then after what seems like a very sply Journey back I managed to get back to uh my next Airbnb and I have to say all the airbnbs I booked uh bar one

With a family which I’ll get to in a little bit um I think I just by this point I’d shaken off the haze of the big drive down to the south of France and I had shaken off Monaco and can and I was really starting to grow into the space

Of being on my own I felt very comfortable um and then you can see the yellow building down there and that yellow building is where I stayed uh and I absolutely loved it this was I think probably one of my favorite places this and the place tomorrow uh I just adored

Them and I go back in heartbeat this is at the point where um the roads were just phenomenal you know you’re climbing higher and higher into the Alps I manag to get a decent nice sleep the night before so I was feeling pretty refreshed that shell like I said I

Stayed in was amazing um it obviously a ski sh Chalet that had been repurposed for the Alps during the summer um but it was absolutely perfect and I really felt relaxed and how could you not enjoy this um I thought the previous stuff had been amazing but when you get this far into

The Alps and you’re really heading deep deep into CER leonet um the highest Loop Road in Europe uh it really just is mind-blowing stuff so uh anyway let’s head to the summit of C Bonet the kind of um the literal and uh fig peak of this

Journey U and this trip and you can take in the scenery with me at this point pretty amazing Stuff 1 n [Applause] man Hello how are you are you okay good good to meet you first time no no I’m from the UK ah okay yeah first time up here yeah wow amazing wow I was a bit surprised because I thought um c c was the highest with

2770 yeah and now and and it’s if if you look look it up in in in in Google so it always says it’s call is the highest in Europe and now I saw it call laet with 28 huh yeah I don’t know I’m I’m going

To call it though are you going to call it you’ve been to the highest Road in Europe course of course unbelievable I’m so happy to have made it yeah it’s fantastic it’s so cool are you with these guys as well yeah is a group of three two we’re six actually

Or two are missing because one had a a little I don’t know what is it the the what is it the gas gas pump something with he’s got an old one he’s got a n right yeah 964 and so we we see now to

To to get that from from bsh of pump so lower down and waiting at the garage so Friday afternoon so they have to do it their themselves now yeah wow I have a podcast and a YouTube channel yeah ah okay uh for Porsche so uh yeah

It’s good to when I got up here and I saw you guys I was like come on yeah great very very rare actually I expected that there would be more yeah same more we’ve been to G and and in and actually not many not many so driving site

Obviously I came across from the Euro tunnel yeah uh djon and then um Monaco yeah and in Monaco of course in can loads but um outside of that not many I I I was last year they’ve been to they were Tim and and all that and it it was

The pictures it was packed with Maseratis and Lamborghinis and all ason Martins but here I didn’t see one I I was wondering why perhaps after tour to France perhap they think too much cyclists here but it’s not been that bad at all it’s been and it’s been

Nice seeing some cyclists yeah been good I’m always really impressed when I see them cycling up here I can do it I I I was deeply impressed now you you if you you drive up and it’s 20 kilm 24 and and then you then you imagine and and you

Think okay that’s only one of these they do three a day yeah I just can’t how how their lungs are able to cope with that I don’t know so yeah so cool I’m G to get some I’ve got a drone I’m going to fly my drone

And get some drone photos and things as well so I’ve GoPro everything all the way up so okay I want you to take a do do you want to take a picture with your car before that that I will yeah yeah yeah and afterwards I do one yeah of course of Course And after a good 30 or 40 minutes stood at the top of mountain uh taking in the views and chatting to people and just yeah big deep breaths of very thin but clear rare um I began the trip back down the mountain again to uh head to Falcon

De linet which was the next stop um and it marked the end of the hardcore firing across the mountain ranges in the Alps um still in the Alps but starting to slow the pace down a little bit and starting to think about heading back across France um but I started a couple

Of little tricks up my Sleeve so after that time at the top of the mountain this was intended on being a stopping point to recharge before heading back across France um and it absolutely nailed that brief uh this yeah Peak it was run as a nonprofit Yoga Retreat uh and very obviously so when you pull up

Uh the hosts were amazing the breakfast was incredible and the best bit it was about 45 a night so um yeah unreal and it really set me up for that next big trip back across France uh where the next stop would be Dijon and it’s time to start crunching some miles and head back across France um still with some beautiful scenery and as you head towards the center of France and kind of um northern France it just yeah it’s there’s less and less of this and more of the you

Know bog Standard Auto routes motorways not much to see and do um or at least that was my experience so but essential I had to Crunch the mil again and uh then I got to Deon and spent that night with the family it was the first time

I’d um had a an Airbnb that I was sharing in someone’s home and I just found it uncomfortable I didn’t feel like I had the freedom of the place not that they had said that but just didn’t feel like I had it so um so there isn’t

Much to share about this but this is it was a mile cruncher it was me getting there it took eight hours or so to drive back across France um yeah so by the time I got there it wasn’t really interested in going into the town and

Seeing it I just wanted to grab some food and get to sleep so I could get on with the following day which was um Reams or rants as I got corrected two or three times in France um but that was the big uh last massive stop from me

Before the whole trip TOS to a Close arriving at rant circuit having wanted to come here for so long and being pretty confident in the road trip now totally settled into the driving and excited you know relaxed this was there’s other places that I’ve been cini Bonet but this was one of

Those I have to go here places and I have to spend more time than probably other people would if I’d been on a road trip with friends they would have wanted to stay for 10 minutes and leave I spent a whole afternoon here one day and came

Back the following morning to do more to have a look at more and to try and find old pieces of um you know decayed signage from 70 80 years ago it just is is phenomenal and I hope this gives you some indication as to how epic the place

Is if you’re going through France it’s an essential and I give it more than just a few minutes stop past as well um the Drone footage you’re seeing now is as much as I can find of the old circuit I actually drove the as much as I could

And then got to what you can see here which is the farmer Fields uh and flew the Drone around trying to find any evidence of the circuit which there’s none where the car’s parked you can just about see now um that’s pretty much where it stops uh anyway I’ll shut up

Let you enjoy a little bit more of it um needless to say though it was that mean there’s been a few highlights but this is definitely right at there for me with one of the things I’ll always remember And that brings us to the end of this pretty epic road trip it’s been uh eight nine days on the road um and as I said right at the start this this trip is has been done on relative budget it might not seem like it from this room because

This is a particularly nice hotel that I’ve finished it on um but the rest of the trip was very much 5060 the most each night uh the big costs would have been petrol I won’t yet exactly what this cost me but I was filling up fairly regularly uh Toll Tag

I’ve been through loads of tolls and I have absolutely no idea what that’s going to cost yet again I’ll probably update a dayat to date with all of these facts some figures same with uh kilometers or miles covered don’t know yet um what I will say is the nerves and and if you’ve

Listened to this in one whole batch the nerves that I had when I first started the journey have completely gone um I jumped in the car this morning and and it was as if I was in the UK and I was doing for a short drive then so um my

Feedback if you are considering doing a road trip like this and a bit nervous about ding the drive yeah there’s a bit of trepidation and feel the fear and do it anyway but feel the fear and do it anyway because once you get into it it’s really not that

Bad I don’t I think genuinely hand on heart I made two or three mistakes where it’s the science durable but drove out and brain automatically went into autopilot and I turned left rather than across the road and then and then then turned left but you know it was never an

Issue um had a couple embarrassing moments the one that jumps out is turning is arriving in can uh where I kind of pulled in someone’s Private Drive the gate closed behind me and then I got stuck in there don’t speak the language obviously and then tried to get myself out can of

Monaco I mean I get it you want the pcture in Monaco I wanted the picture in Monaco um I would never want to go a drive back there it was a complete disaster it’s so tight it’s so cramped there’s so much traffic um it’s just a

Waste of time uh that I’m pretty sure there’s decent public transport links in use those stay stay in the staying on te um stay in Grass stay in Grass it it’s a bit further away and it’s a 45 minute journey in um but you’re on rout Napoleon in terms of the driving the

Cross country right when I started is miserable um that two days again where I ballsed up and I didn’t put the toll tag I didn’t choose tolls uh toll routes on my saav so it was a voiding all the tolls and that took me an extra I don’t

Know how many hours um they would and it’s it was been much quicker getting back across the country I feel much less weary and tired some of that will be the anxiety of doing that drive in the first place but I also know that it was a huge

Mistake root Napoleon cini C leonet or C lini cini I don’t know but those three days um I mean that’s what I went for the mono thing was like a bit of a wrer passage and I want to stay on a boat tick tick

Um but the I don’t want to I don’t want to be too wistful about how good the driving is there and I’m sure there’s the Swiss Alps and Italian Alps and people will be telling me um you know go and drive this road we go and drive that

Road Vera pass I want to do there are I will make another trip much much more confident about that now um root Napoleon especially going with the local I think they were the the fastest most fun most most relatable kind of similar to the UK kind of driving if you get

Into South Wale into Wales mid Wales uh loved it really good lots of open sweepers lots of undulation you still climb and you still get an incredible set of views CER serini it’s lots of tight hair pins lots of um it’s I guess stelvio has been talked about in the same way you’re

Doing so many switchbacks you’re only already in first and second gear and you kind of just Accel ating breaking turning in I don’t think it’s that great I it was a great experience and the views are incredible and I’m glad I went but in terms of a Driving

Experience root Napoleon knocks it into the next into next week cold de leonet is an ex an exception here so there are again you’re climbing to 286 87 I can’t even remember the actual height now but it’s very high um there’s lots of switchbacks there but there’s

Also lots of open and flowing roads and you know that you’re going you you’re kind of getting to achieve something by when you get to the top so I though root Napoleon and C de la Bonet and I think C de la Bonet by the simple fact that I stayed in the

Most amazing Airbnb if I was grading the airbnbs uh barcelon net and and staying in Falcon to barcelon net unbelievable absolutely unbelievable I paid 47 I think it was I mean it’s pennies and I had a beautiful room with an incredible view lovely hosts a great breakfast I just couldn’t believe that

It was as cheap as it was that is unbeliev unequivocally the best Airbnb I’ve stayed in the worst Airbnb I’ve stayed in was probably last night in uh Rance pretty rubbish more money I think it was about 65 5 and it was pretty rundown the local area unfortunately was quite rundown as

Well didn’t feel particularly safe I couldn’t find any anywhere to eat on a Sunday French France in Sun on Sundays is a non-starter for fuel for food for shops it just everything shuts um again I will happily be quizzed but these are my experiences um yeah so

Barcelon best root C de Bonet C La Bonet amazing root Napoleon amazing uh the journeys across the country they are what they are you’ve got to get there somehow um don’t relish doing those again but I hope you’ve really enjoyed it I hope I’ve got enough content rant

Itself actually that was a highlight I’ve spent I went back this morning so yesterday I was in uh rant streams um and just taking in the SES there and I’ve really tried to get as much footage as I can including figuring out exactly what the last because so I I shot this

Twice right I shot what I thought was the circuit no and I shot it in the wrong direction and then I kind of spent some time researching last night and figured out that actually this is what the route for the final circuit before they abandoned it what it looked like

And I’ve driven that and I’ve collected all the um footage for that and I got loads of uh Drone footage so I’m going to work on that as a project to come up with something really nice about rants um and went back there this morning cuz

I really really loved it so what I think for me even you know most people park on the left hand side if you’re going in the orientation of the circuit or the orientation of the circuit um I didn’t I I did that and and I wentross the other side of the road

Walked all the way along you can see that there’s stuff they haven’t even started streamming back yet um I’m excited to see what they do with that place I really am I really also really worried that it will go from preservation to Perfection and it’ll

Kind of it’ll be I use the word pasti with a friend last night and I think that’s probably what I’m worried about is if you go to Goodwood goodwood’s incredible it’s it’s my I’m lucky it’s 25 minutes from me in the UK um it’s an amazing place and you definitely feel a

Sense of history there but it’s also very polished it it’s had a lot of investment it’s had a lot of it’s used for the Festival of speed U um it’s used for members meetings you know Revival it’s it’s it has to be in good order for

That this isn’t this is rant is is what Goodwood would have been if it had been abandoned and for me I want to see them retain that and do the bare minimum they need to do to keep it safe for people to go and visit but and kind of inhibit

Delay Decay even inhibit Decay but not not kind of reverse it and turn it into like a Hollywood version of a race race circuit from the 50s um or the 1920s to the 1960s um but anyway it’s been an incredible journey I’m going to take some time off

Now this is the last night my Euro tunnel is until midday after midday tomorrow I’m an hour and a half in Cal here um but there’s a lovely spot I have literally I’ve just got told it’s €70 to park my car and the car park at this hotel no that’s not happening um

So I’m going to have to go and move the car in a sec but after that when I get back I’m just going to um yeah throw my Rob on go and sit in the bar and relax and kind of give some more thought of this journey because it’s been um yeah

It’s been an incredible one and I really do encourage anybody that’s considering this to go out and just do it um because it’s been a wonderful experience and and again what I’ll sign off with is it doesn’t matter what car you have it doesn’t matter whether you got friends

With you or you’ve got nobody with you it doesn’t matter if your journey is going to take 3 days or six or 10 um just do it just just go and do it you know um you’ll have the time of your life I definitely Have And Nothing nothing nothing nothing Nothing Nothing