911 at 211

February 25 2005

How I spent my vacation day in Bavaria...

Task one -- besting my previous Autobahn top speed.  As one might guess, the choice of vehicle had something to do with how easy this was.

Task two -- a fantastic visit to Schloß Linderhof, where we had treats indoors and out -- a visit to a fantastic palace, followed by a half-hour of beautiful alpine sunlight.

Task three -- lunch and a really nice Weißbier Dunkel at Kloster-Andrechs.  (Danke for the correction, vowe)

Extra credit -- having Dad and some great friends along for the journey.  vowe and Ute in one Porsche Boxster; Dad and Wolfgang Meixner from edcom.de in another Porsche Boxster; and Markus and me in the 911 Carrera (automatic, of course).  Thanks again (so far!) to Otto, Wolfgang, Anneliese, and everyone else associated with edcom's Lotusphere Nachlese (link to photo album) for a great event and incredibly wonderful hospitality for me and my father today.

Ed Brill München, Deutschland Category:  Travel  Add/View Comments [29]

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  1. 1  Lau Taarnskov  | 2/25/2005 12:39:23 PM

    Did you only go 211km/h? The 911 S can do almost 300. Why did you get one with automatic transmission? Still a nice car, though.

  1. 2  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 2/25/2005 1:06:40 PM

    Did anyknow notice that Porsche URL has a .NSF in it? :-)

  1. 3  Kevin http://www.DominoPreacher.com | 2/25/2005 1:25:31 PM

    Now how did that CULT shirt go... you know you're a geek if you look for NSF in URLs :D

    Very cool car! Hopefully the road conditions were good for a ride at that speed! Man... one patch of ice and oooppss! The ditch comes up fast!

  1. 4  Ken Lin http://kenlin.com | 2/25/2005 1:40:06 PM

    Can you take it for a spin at { Link }

  1. 5  Bill Geimer  | 2/25/2005 1:41:28 PM

    Way cool car. I am jealous of everything except that Automatic trans in the Carerra. What was Porshe thinking? At least they had enough sense to have that .nsf in the URL.

  1. 6  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/25/2005 2:45:05 PM

    @1 - the speedometer went to 330 :) but yes, 211 was my top speed today, just not enough room (or guts) for more. Automatic because as is typical for a US driver, I am not used to stick shift, and it had tiptronic anyway.

    @3 - Every road was perfectly clean, the only snow was at the Schloss. But the snow can wreak havoc on depth perception, thus, 211.

    @4 - wish I could, not mine to keep :)

    @5 - Porsche was thinking that they could sell automatic cars in markets like the USA. I have a picture of a whole showroom full of Porsches, very nice, I'll post it when I get to an album.

  1. 7  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/25/2005 3:03:54 PM

    @1 one other point - the car had snow tires, so it was max rated at 240 km/h.

  1. 8  tonyo  | 2/25/2005 5:50:52 PM

    and IBM pays you how much for doing this? :)

    looks like major fun.

  1. 9  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 2/25/2005 6:11:38 PM

    Tonyo, you know the meaning of "vacation"?

    Ed, it was not Kloster Ettal (which we passed on the road to Linderhof) but Kloster Andechs. And the beer was "Andechs Dunkles Weißbier". :-)

  1. 10  Sally  | 2/25/2005 6:17:14 PM

    Sally says, "See Ed go. Go Ed. Go!". Sally thinks to herself... 'gosh, what a bratmeister that Ed Brill is!' <jk>

  1. 11  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 2/25/2005 6:19:57 PM

    Hey, your site is eating my sharp s. So make it "Andechs Dunkles Weissbier".

  1. 12  Chris Whisonant  | 2/25/2005 8:33:43 PM

    Well, with the .nsf in the URLs it sounds like Ed was just testing a customer's product. =) What a life! Awesome ride.

    My brother had somebody back into the passenger door and rear 1/4 panel of his Boxster the other week... That was horrible!

  1. 13  Gayle  | 2/25/2005 8:41:32 PM

    LOOKING GOOD! SO WHERE IS THE HOT CHIC(S)?????

  1. 14  tonyo  | 2/26/2005 12:40:03 AM

    @9 volker. I'm just jealous as hell.. I did a few things like that too when I was at IBM.. ahh. those were the days..

  1. 15  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/26/2005 1:41:39 AM

    @9 - you mean all the monestaries around here are into their alcohol?? I'll change it.

    As for the sharp s's, I don't know why that is in comments, since it obviously works in the main entry field.

  1. 16  Wild Bill http://www.billbuchan.com | 2/26/2005 4:14:10 AM

    Deeply jealous...

    ---* Bill

  1. 17  anonymous coward  | 2/26/2005 7:38:11 AM

    Most German cars are "chipped" to max speed 250 - but not the Porsche. I have a BMW 535 (chipped at 250), and frequently drive from Switzerland to Hamburg. Given good road condition on the Autobahn, I will do 240-250. Almost every time, while doing top speed, a Porsche will pull up behind me and start blinking:) You missed a great oppertunity to travel at over 300Km an hour on land.

  1. 18  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 2/26/2005 9:29:24 AM

    And, it was actually this { Link } vehicle. That would be 355 instead of 325 hp. :-)

  1. 19  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/26/2005 4:27:13 PM

    @17 - I couldn't travel over 300 km/h -- the snow tires limited us to 240. Now, I should have found the room and the will to go those extra 29 km/h...

  1. 20  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net/bensblog.nsf | 2/26/2005 5:13:29 PM

    My personal best...

    { Link } and that is MPH!!!

    10 points to anyone who can tell me what car this is from :O)

  1. 21  Chris Whisonant  | 2/26/2005 7:38:26 PM

    @20 - 170, nice... I would guess it's a late model Honda Civic with a huge wing on the back, obnoxious muffler, and lots of stickers...

  1. 22  Eric Parsons startingblockcomputing.com | 2/26/2005 7:44:10 PM

    @20 -- I'll take five points on a guess that it's not an American car.

    I had to be a silly American, and figure the mph. Pretty impressive.

    I agree, you need room to do these things, as one slip, and you won't have any worries.

  1. 23  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 2/27/2005 12:40:30 AM

    Ben, 270 on the dial, that should be around 250 on the road. Yes, that is pretty fast. At least fast enough not to drive with one hand. What I find more impressive is 7500 rpm. the car was max'ed out. With the the chipped SL55 for instance you will find out that they are having lots of head room at this speed. They could add another 20% speed, but that would be very unsafe for the tires.

  1. 24  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/28/2005 4:17:10 AM

    @22 - for the other "silly Americans", 211 km/h converts to 132 mph.

    So Ben, what car was it?

  1. 25  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 2/28/2005 5:03:12 AM

    Photo was taken in a Mazda RX-7 3rd Generation Twin Turbo.

    The most I had out of it, without a camera, was 183mph which felt fairly quick. It was no stranger to doing a 150mile journey in an hour and drank about 60 pounds worth of fuel in that time.

    Needless to say, I was glad I wasn't in it when I had my accident the other week. { Link }

  1. 26  Helmut Weiss www.naturephoto.net | 2/28/2005 11:21:00 AM

    >What I find more impressive is 7500 rpm.

    pah.. this is where the fun starts to become real fun - if you drive a Honda S2000 :-))

  1. 27  vowe http://vowe.net | 6/21/2005 3:34:57 PM

    Photos seem to be broken here!

  1. 28  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 6/21/2005 5:59:30 PM

    So they are. Can't seem to fix the links. Weird.

    The full photo album is still online at

    { Link }