The Porsche 911 Turbo turned 50, named the best road in the world by Jeremy Clarkson. Only one jubilee can live up to the high expectations that come with fame.
Half a century ago, in 1974, the nationally important mountain road DN7C, better known as Transfăgărășan, was completed in Romania under the leadership of communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. The construction of the 90-kilometer road carved through the Făgărăși mountains, which separate the northwestern and southern parts of the country, required tremendous effort and cost. The nearly 6,000 tons of dynamite used for road construction was one thing, the human lives lost – mostly unprepared young soldiers who were made to build – another. The repressive authorities allowed to admit 40 dead, the real number is considered to be many times higher.
Ceaușescu was afraid. Six years earlier, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia with the forces of socialist Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and East Germany. In case something like this happened again, Romania had to secure itself – among other things, by creating opportunities to move the army quickly from one place to another.
The country already had several strategic mountain roads across the Transylvanian Alps, but they ran along easily blockable river valleys. Transfăgărășan, which was built in 1970, was opened on September 20, 1974, but the work, led by asphalting, lasted until the beginning of the 1980s.
In the free world, after Economic miracleIn the early 1970s, in West Germany, which enjoyed the great prosperity of the ‘it’ or the German economic miracle, completely more flashy topics were dealt with. For example, by making the soft sports car Porsche 911 drive even faster than Ferraris-Lamborghini. Porsche’s way of doing it: using turbocharging familiar from motorsport.
Unveiled at the Paris Motor Show on October 3, 1974, less than two weeks after the opening of the Transfăgărășan, the 911 Turbo was by no means the first passenger car to use a turbocharger. However, Porsche was the first to stick with street cars with a turbo engine. Getting the technical solution found in today’s three-cylinder economy cars to work well enough was quite a headache all those decades ago, but the Stuttgart sports car factory managed it. The Turbo became the top version and permanent member of the 911 model family.
Time has also been kind to Transfăgărășan. 15 years ago, the serpentine country of the country, which is now part of the European Union, was meandered by the Golden Three of the “Top Gear” show, and Jeremy Clarkson personally baptized it as the best road in the world. Since then, Transfăgărășan is ten times more famous.
Dear, dearer, dearest
More specifically, an example of the long-lived 930 Turbo from the end of production in 1988, as well as the 964 Turbo and 993 Turbo S with a 3.6-liter engine, are waiting to be driven.
Back to the front page of Äripäiv
Source: www.aripaev.ee
