Porscheshop Manx Tour 2007 Review & Information

The 2007 Porscheshop Manx tour was really a great event that was exceptionally well attended. Despite the less than convenient ferry sailing times, Porsche Club Ireland was represented by 3 cars.

Alan Weadick in a Boxster S, Ross Shanley in a 993 and David Gorman in a 944 flew the Irish flag and made sure to represent PCI on this exciting event.

The only downside was that the Irish sailing from Belfast arrived a day ahead of the UK sailing from Liverpool and the rest of the cars. On the plus side, that gave the whole of the first day to explore the Island. Some of use were lucky to have natives in the passenger seat (and sometimes in the driving seat) to show us around, but one member even managed to get 3 laps of the TT course under his belt when he was supposed to be out shopping for all the clothes he forgot to bring!

The island itself is a truly amazing place with scenery that defies description. You have to give credit to Porscheshop and to Geoff Ives from PCGB for picking such a wonderful location for a tour. After wandering around for the first day, we returned with empty stomachs to the hotel to meet with the 40 or so cars that travelled from the UK. The hotel had laid on a massive buffet and there was plenty of time to mingle and listen to old war stories (and blatant lies) about previous trips to the island.

The fun really started at the silly hour of 6.30am on the Saturday morning when every car headed from the hotel car park to assemble at the grandstand where the TT races start from. At 7am, the sound of Porsche engines could be heard firing up as the cars exited the grandstand in small groups to head out on to the famous TT course. Needless to say the much more experienced and adventurous drivers headed out first! Traffic at that hour of the morning was light to say the least.

A number of people had the misfortune to be caught behind two tractors for about 10 miles - but thankfully that was in a large built area with a 30mph speed limit! Once clear of the traffic, and exit-ing Ramsey, the mountain road beckoned and little encouragement was required to open up the throttle and experience some of the most stunning scenery at speeds that would make a member of an Garda Siochanna cringe!

After completing the ‘dawn raid’ along the TT course, we had the day to ourselves again after breakfast and this gave time to visit the attractions that have made the island famous. Plus of course, there were a few more mountain roads to experience - plus the 3 mile long Ballamoda straight.

That night, there was a gala dinner and PCI secretary, Alan Weadick, presented some Manx crystal to Geoff Ives of PCGB and Ian of Porscheshop. David Gorman donated an artists sketch of Slane Castle and we were proud to present it to a senior member of the Manx government on behalf of PCI. Unfortunately, our native Irish tendency to stay in the bar until the dying hours of the night had to be tempered with the fact that we had a sailing back to Belfast at 7am the following morning.

Despite the changeable weather (and cancelled ferries the previous day) we managed to depart Douglas on time and arrive in Belfast about 3 hours later. Many thanks to Geoff Ives from PCGB, Ian from Porscheshop and the Manx government for making us feel so welcome.

Following another successful event we received a thank you letter from House of Keys representative for tourism & leisure Quintin Gill.