Andreas Preuninger, Director GT Line, Porsche
Andreas Preuninger is not your stereotypical German board member. The head of Porsche’s GT Line is perpetually smiling, wears sneakers and is a true petrolhead, who has loved road tripping since the day he began driving.
“Driving for the sake of driving always ranked high on my list of favourite things to do.”
“Since I was legally allowed to operate a motor driven vehicle, in my case at the age of 15 when I started on a 50cc motorbike, driving for the sake of driving always ranked high on my list of favourite things to do. This continued with my first car, a ’79 VW Scirocco GTI. The need to go out on road trips looking for the most fun roads got stronger and even became a part of me and maybe even defines me as a person to some extent.
Even after being in the car business for decades I still can’t think of a lot more worthwhile things to do than driving a car. When it comes to pleasure in driving I do not differentiate too much between work and private. Driving is driving and I really enjoy it most of the time, no matter if its on a test track somewhere evaluating the development work of my team or on a private weekend drive just for fun.
I like being involved while driving, concentrating on the car, being connected with the car and establishing a dialogue with the machine. That per se rules out trundling along with a car full of people involved in conversations.
The roads I like most for my ‘soulful driving’ are not too far away from the place I live. These roads are located in the Swabian Alps connecting small towns like Münsingen, Zwiefalten and Hohenstein. The Swabian Alps is an elevated plateau in southern Germany with rolling hills, beautiful green grassland with lots of forest traversed by the best roads. Lots of flowing curves, up- and downhills and perfect tarmac. And almost no traffic at all. Especially on an evening of a hot summer day the peace and quiet and cooler temperatures make welcome change to the more crowded rural areas around Stuttgart.”
Going there as often as I can is part of my personal stress relief program. I mostly take a roadster or convertible, either a Speedster, a Spyder RS or my old 993 Cabriolet. Doing this more scenic, relaxed kind of motoring I love to enrich the experience with good music, mostly classic rock from Status Quo to Greenday.
The place where I really got my most intense driving ‘rushes’ is connected to work and lies in South Italy. It’s located in the mountaineous area not far from Lamezia Therme in Calabria. SO many curves, you never have the steering wheel straight for more than 50 metres the entire day. For miles and miles covering a huge variety of different landscapes and vegetation zones. Nobody would think there are places like that in southern Italy. It feels more like Canada with all those little lakes and pine forests, so beautiful yet so remote at the same time. I end up doing 300 to 400 km a day during our test drives feeling totally exhausted, but elated and satisfied at the same time.
It has to be said, that the driving experience, the ‘I wanna drive’ attitude is highly dependent on the car that you drive. The more feedback the car offers, the more involvement it needs from the driver, the more character it has the more entertaining it is to drive. So far my fave drives have all been in a Porsche GT model, its just that kind of car that gives me the best feedback and precise interaction that I need to be happy at the wheel.”
Charley Boorman has criss-crossed the globe on two wheels with pal Ewan McGregor, but of all the trails he’s travelled it’s the Road of Bones that sticks with him.