SYLVANUS URBAN Sylvanus Urban - "The Energy Issue " | Page 25

S y l v a n u s - Ur b a n . c o m
new and old. This is nirvana for drivers (and for passengers not prone
to motion sickness). Something we don’t see here, however, and that
we haven’t seen since we left Vancouver, the kick-off point of this four-
day, high-speed luxury adventure, is an electrically powered vehicle.
Now, this isn’t an argument against the electric vehicle—that
would be like an argument against the future, against progress, against
the inevitable—but merely an observation: that out here in B.C.’s
mountainous highway playground in this the summer of 2018, there’s
nary a Tesla in sight.
Next year, Porsche will release their first ever all-electric vehicle,
the Porsche Taycan. If it will have a place in the Porsche Travel
Experience itinerary in years to come remains to be seen. In theory, it
could work: according to stats released with the Mission E (the concept
that led to the Taycan), the battery pack would be able to charge up
to 80 percent in just 15 minutes…that is, of course, if you have the yet
to be released Porsche approved 800-volt charging system, or, in our
case, ten of them. Something tells me that the town of Lillooet, one of
the stops on our day-two B.C. interior journey, will not be setting up a
stable of super-watt charging ports anytime soon.
Back in the present, just gassing up our line of 911’s takes nearly
a half hour. We do it once or twice a day over the duration of the trip.
One of the instructors opens a tab and mans the pump as we form a
queue that winds around the corner. I never saw the total amount of
the tab but imagine it was some sort of record for the gas station.
The other vehicle Porsche has us piloting on this $5,000 per-
person trip is the Cayenne, the German automaker’s shockingly off-
"
The electric car may be
prevalent on your morning
commute, but out on the
winding mountain highways of
British Columbia, the internal
combustion engine continues
its reign. Journalist Coleman
Molnar joins a convoy of good
‘ol petroleum powered Porsche
911’s on the B.C. Porsche Travel
Experience.
There’s a road in British
Columbia, Highway 99, which
runs Northeast out of Whistler
up into the interior. As it
cuts a winding route up and
down through the glacier-
topped
mountains,
skirting
great coniferous forests and
lakes as blue as those in beer
commercials, Duffy Lake Road
as
it’s
colloquially
called,
provides one of the best driving
experiences in all of North
America. With faded lines,
rough shoulders and dizzying
switchbacks, your cruise control
is no good here, no matter how
adaptive.
There are twenty of us on
this Porsche Travel Experience,
two per car, in a caravan of twelve
2018 Porsche 911s, led by two
instructors (both former race car
drivers) in white cars. Our dotted,
silver, white and red line of mid-
engined sports cars lengthens
and retracts like an elastic band
as we drive one after another
in and out of the corners. The
911 Carrera 4S that my driving
partner and I are piloting turns
this rugged mountain highway
into its plaything. I laugh in a
high-pitched, incredulous way
as we enter a corner at a speed
that the deepest part of my
being assures me will have us
flying like a $100,000, silver
Frisbee into the precipitous and
utterly gorgeous canyon below
us. Instead, like all the corners
before it, this one is gobbled
up by the 911’s greedy tires,
the twin-turbo engine chiming
happily. As we exit out the other
side, the RPM and my heart rate
are climbing.
There are plenty of other
automotive thrill seekers out
here in the B.C. boonies; we pass
and wave at a convoy of BMWs
and again at a procession of
vintage British convertibles, and
spot dozens of other sports cars,
" With faded lines, rough shoulders and dizzying
switchbacks, your cruise control is no good here,
no matter how adaptive."
road capable SUV. We learn this over an afternoon in the mountains
near Whistler on day one, driving them up and down sheer dirt and
rock faces, testing the balance on side slopes and taking them through
pools of water that lap at the door jambs.
The rest of the trip is spent driving the 911’s and dining, with periods
of spare time here and there to enjoy the various luxe accommodations
we spent our nights at; The Four Seasons Whistler, Sparkling Hill Resort
in Vernon and Osoyoos’ NK’MIP Resort. When we travel through the
Okanagan on our way to the Area 27 Motorsports Park on the third
day, the future of the electric car once again becomes apparent — the
young professionals of Kelowna’s burgeoning tech industry seem to
have a thing for Tesla; I note several at one stoplight.
On the track at Area 27 Motorsports Park, we again experience
the otherworldliness of Porsche’s petroleum-powered engineering.
The cars feel like they’re adhered to the road, defying those on the
trip with no previous track experience to brake harder, corner faster
and jump on the accelerator like they’ve never done before. A certain
amount of overriding of basic human survival instincts is required. But
when the hot laps are completed and the helmets come off, the smiles
are wide and last us until we get back to the hotel.
The track experience increases our collective appreciation for the
cars at the most basic level; the connection between road and tire
and wheel and human seems closer than ever before. The gadgets, the
tech, all the buttons and screens and lights that decorate the cockpit
are left largely unexplored. Cruise control can wait for another day.
This is about the drive, and for now, that’s more than enough.
The Energy Issue
25