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For those of you that are not familiar with or have never had the chance to experience firsthand the possibility of driving at unlimited speeds on public roads without fear of a lengthy sojourn in a county jail, I would like to relate - from a personal point of view - what this is like [Thilo and his '87 928 S4 auto live in Baden-Baden, Germany - Ed.].
It will be readily appreciated that in order to avoid mayhem when having trucks and cars (and, horrors, tourists towing campers) on the same road driving at vastly different speeds a certain amount of driver discipline is called for. Rule Number One of the Autobahn therefore is: slower traffic keep right! Sounds simple enough, but of course there will always be a number of participants who will disregard this simple rule or decide that they would like to pass that truck Right Now, without giving consideration to that land-bound missile approaching rapidly in the fast lane.
Now you know why Porsches have good brakes. When there is someone in your lane (i.e. the fast lane) that you would like to pass, there are two generally accepted options: Either flash your headlights or use your left turn signal (or, of course, do both if you are really in a hurry). If you do this too aggressively, though, you can get in trouble with the law. Too much aggression will often also have an effect contrary to what you intended; some people will refuse to move right just to piss you off. I usually try to be smooth and signal drivers in front of me before I'm three feet from their rear bumper, just a little flash from a couple of hundred meters back to catch their attention and give them a second to realize that I'm approaching fast, and they usually clear the left lane ASAP.
Of course, driving at high speeds for any extended amount of time is feasible only when the traffic situation permits this, which is frustratingly more and more seldom these days (ahhh, for the days before the fall of the Berlin Wall…). But by planning trips accordingly, one can still make good progress.
For instance, last weekend a friend and I decided to visit some clubs up in Mannheim, about 100 km north of here (Baden-Baden). He offered to drive since he doesn't drink (at all! Amazing!), but since it was unseasonably warm and dry, I thought it would be a good idea to let the 928 stretch its legs again after hibernating in my garage for the past weeks. The deal was that I'd drive there and he'd drive home (normally I don't let anyone (Continued on page 20)
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