I started with a list of roads I knew I wanted to hit, and then starting looking for cars at the airports all around the area. I checked Munich, Frankfurt, Milan, Nice, etc looking for anything fun. Because of the amount of miles I was going to put on the car, I was going to be stuck with the major rental houses. Exotics or classics have low mileage allowances and are out of my budget.
I saw Sixt had MX-5s out of Munich, which was absolutely perfect. So I booked an MX-5 and now knowing I was starting in Germany, added Nürburgring, “The Autobahn”, Romantic Road, Hockenheimring and Stuttgart to the itinerary. I figured I’d split the reservation into 2 parts, renting something German for Germany and using the MX-5 in the alps. That saved me a little money and granted a bit of extra mileage. I choose an Audi TT coupe for Germany (shoutout
@lion shf )
When I actually got to the rental counter, there was no TT coupe. They offered me an Audi Q7 or BMW 8 series. They couldn’t fathom that I wanted something small lol. They finally confessed they had a TT convertible if I was willing to pay a little more, and I caved. I’m so glad I did for reasons I’ll get to in a moment…
When it came time to swap the TT for the MX-5 I was nervous because I had my doubts they would have any, and the reservation said “or similar” but there isnt much similar to an MX-5. My instinct was right, no more MX-5s in the fleet. The only manual vehicle of any kind was a T-Roc. They tried to give me a Mini Cooper convertible and that was… ok, but not really a sports car and not a manual for a category called “small sports convertible”.
At this point I offered to upgrade to a BMW M3 or M4 competition. They had 5 of them sitting in the lot, but they said they were all booked and the best they could do was a 4 series convertible. I originally took it, but then noticed it was a 420d. Not the sportiest config for mountain roads (and it was HUGE damn the BMWs have grown). Also, despite being a land yacht the convertible top on this one also wouldn’t go down with my one piece of luggage in the trunk. Huh.
At this point, Sixt was pretty sick of me. I had been back to the counter like 4 times. But I made them a final offer: I said you were willing to give me a free upgrade to the 4 series, slide me right back into that same TT convertible I dropped off 3 hours (!) ago which I know works well for me, and I’ll be out of your hair. They agreed.
Still disappointed it wasn’t a manual, but the TT was a pretty great car for this trek. Comfortable, fit a bunch of luggage for a small form factory, small enough for these roads, handled quite well actually. Reasonably economical. I enjoyed my time with it quite a bit. I had never once considered a TT and still likely won’t but I do appreciate them now.
Anyway planning the trip I just dropped pins on the map and strung them together jumping from next closest to next closest. I’d try to find an Airbnb close by, and found some spectacular ones for just $100/night max. Tried not to drive more than 4 hours per day, which was about right.
Didn’t coordinate with any groups or plan any meet-ups but there were plenty of enthusiasts along the way, many eager to chat. The Lotus group at Stelvio, several vintage rolling rallies, a Ferrari group, a Shelby group, and an insane amount of Porsches in general.
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