Living the Legend
Lee Sibley
Poole, UK
@lee_sibs
That Nine Eleven Guy
Road to Redline
Model 996.1 CARRERA
Year 1998
Acquired JAN 2019
We only got the green light to visit the Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, around 24 hours before we’d intended to leave. What followed was one of the most memorable adventures back to Porscheplatz, aspects of which I’m excited to share with you in detail over the coming issues. However, I thought I’d use my column this month to offer a behind-the-scenes account of the trip at large.
As I say, our green light to go only arrived the day before – the reason being we needed permission from the Porsche family to shoot two special cars in their possession. Access duly granted, I booked a return crossing via the channel tunnel and arranged hotels in Germany for the next two nights. Here’s where the fun began, with additional legislation to consider due to complications around coronavirus. Germany was one of the few territories exempt from the UK government’s advice against all but essential travel, so that was good, but Germany’s attitude to the UK was (rightly) different. High-risk regions of the UK were identified on the German government website, so I’d have to prove on arrival to both hotels (via two forms of ID!) that I did not live in a high-risk area. I’d also have to prove I was on business, as pleasure trips required proof of a negative COVID test taken in the last 48 hours. Oh – and there’d be no stopping in France or Belgium en route to Germany and back, as doing so would mean we’d need to enter quarantine on our return to the UK.
Despite the many loopholes, we arrived on Porscheplatz little over 24 hours later. Soon karted off to Porsche’s secret storage facility, so began a day of photographing and filming (keep an eye out on my YouTube channel, ‘That Nine Eleven Guy’ for the videos) three exceedingly special Porsche 911s of huge historical significance. It really was a huge privilege to even be in the same room, let alone sit in, these incredible Neunelfers.
I’d made my way to Germany in a 992 Turbo S press car, and took a break to collect my friend, Paul, from Stuttgart airport. He’d flown in from the UK’s south coast to collect his 959 Komfort, which had had some maintenance work carried out at Porsche Classic.
Filming for the day done, we collected the 959 and, early the next morning, began a rapid repatriation of both the 992 Turbo S and 959 back to the UK. The journey was rapid for two reasons: firstly, Germany had changed its stance on the UK overnight, and so the whole of the UK was now deemed a high-risk coronavirus hotspot, with all UK arrivals required to quarantine (unless a negative test can be proved from the last 48 hours). With no test, we were no longer welcome.
The second reason was simply that we had two sports cars capable of hitting 200mph, and we had hundreds of kilometres of Autobahn ahead of us. What followed was a gripping drive in the impressive Turbo S, and an unforgettable stint at the wheel of the legendary 959. Driving the most iconic and arguably most significant car in Porsche’s history at a fair lick on the Autobahn is without doubt one of the most memorable occurrences of my life. Acutely aware that I was, at that particular time, the luckiest sod on the planet, I don’t mind telling you I felt a little emotional in that 959.
We filled up at Aachen, the last stop in Germany, then blitzed back through the Netherlands, Belgium and France as quickly as we could. Despite all odds, we’d
