It is a special, almost festive feeling to travel with CURVES through Southern Germany. And there’s a good reason: The CURVES crew comes from here. Southern Germany is our home turf. We grew up with the tang of the forests and meadows, with the feeling of sweet lake water in our hair, with slightly uneven legs due to the undulating mountainscape – and our way of thinking, which has its roots in the many generations before us: We are Bavarians, we are Swabians, we are people of the Black Forest. And we have been looking forward to this CURVES edition for a very long time. There was just no way around it. Perhaps we should have brought our readers on this trip much earlier – it’s beautiful here. But it’s just not done. It would have been impolite, pushy and, we first had to get to know each other, anyway. Hence, it took long detours around half the world until we finally arrived in the Black Forest, in Swabia and Bavaria. Of course, that’s only half the story.
For a while, we may have doubted that anyone would be interested in this part of Germany; an area that is so familiar and often-seen for us. Why would anyone get excited about the Black Forest when they can have the Rocky Mountains or the Pyrenees? Who would want to visit Lake Constance when there is the Mediterranean or even beaches in Thailand? Why Bavaria when there is Switzerland, South Tyrol or Scotland? But then that quiet voice inside whispers: “Hey, everyone thinks like this about their own country. You’re so used to it that it seems ordinary and insignificant. In reality, though, it’s incredibly beautiful and enthralling, just open your eyes...” So we did just that: Opened our eyes. And suddenly we saw how deep and magical and wonderfully weighty the Black Forest can be. How rich and charming, how lively and diverse the Allgäu and Swabia are. How majestic and wild, authentic, earthy and exciting Bavaria is. We could hardly wait to finally start our trip. One yearns to show guests around, inspire and thrill them, give them a local’s perspective – because you’re proud of your home. So, if this CURVES issue is overflowing with deep insights, we ask for your understanding. We are not impartial when it comes to this corner of the world, we are deeply biased. Perhaps we manage to tell even the readers from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria the story of their home in a different way. Perhaps we can also tell the CURVES readers who set off from a distant starting line and now look around feeling a little intimidated: Welcome to our garden, our living room, our nursery. Welcome to our home. We think the time for this almost private tour with friends is overdue. We’ve been almost everywhere together, from the far north to the tropical south, so it is high time to take our CURVES readers home with us. After all, this is an essential part of the CURVES concept: being on the road with friends in regions that open the heart. And there is nowhere that makes the heart grow fonder than home. We’ve called this chapter “Backstage”, and it’s where we get to chat heart-to-heart: At CURVES, we have a well-known weak spot for snaky roads, for terrain and topography. It still gives us goosebumps to fly in a helicopter or plane and see everything from above. To admire the inexplicable aesthetics of roads carved into the land, which we will later discover emotionally by car. But when we see the photos of the Black Forest mountains bathed in the cloudy haze before us, and the images of the almost Asian-looking Kesselberg route at Lake Walchensee or the endless, rugged, fearsome mountain panoramas around the Eng – we have to swallow a big lump of emotion.
“Mia San Mia” (we are who we are), say the Bavarians. “Dahoam is’s am scheenstn“ (east or west, home is best), say the Swabians. The people of the Black Forest say nothing. This is by no means as possessive, closed and dismissive as it may sound: We love the idea of taking all CURVES readers with us; we don’t want to keep this to ourselves. After all, we too have often been taken by the hand – and especially in the production of this CURVES issue. Some of the routes were totally foreign to us, and it is thanks to the determined pace of Porsche’s chief designer Michael Mauer that we now have a couple of new tips. Porsche man Bastian Schramm also immortalized himself in this CURVES issue with a passionate throttle foot and unconventional car repair methods – if you read carefully, you will be able to identify the exact location of the “Bastian Schramm Monument Corner”. Well, anyway, we at CURVES are slowly becoming tremendously taken with the devotion of the Porsche people, and soon we’ll have forgotten whether they are CURVES fans or we are Porsche fans. It’s always wonderful to be out there with you, and Regine: your dessert was love in a glass. Dankeschön. We also enjoyed our visit to Dornier in Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance, which revived our passion for aviation: Thank you so much. And thanks from above the clouds to our dear ones at home: We’ve taken off again and you were only able to wave goodbye. Our hearts fly to you. Family, friends, you are our favorite Bavarians and Schwarzwälder. Pfiat Di (may god lead you) forever, and sauwer bleiwe (stay out of trouble). Being on the road through such a familiar world reminded us anew of how important it is to appreciate every single kilometer. The fact that we carry a feeling of home in us can only mean that another person somewhere else feels exactly the same. Let’s take care of each other. And our home. Wherever that may be. Everywhere.
And then there was this one day: ten magical Porsches between madness and glory materialize on the roads between the Black Forest and the Karwendel Mountains. We were allowed to be there, weak-kneed – for these epic moments we say thank you: Thomas in the merciless, unique 918. Christophe, who not only pushed a Carrera GT, but also the 550 Spyder into the sunlight. To the great Malte in the equally great 906. To Porsche Zentrum Munich, who could actually make a 914/6 run again - and not too bad, either. Tommy, who let a thundering 962 out into the open, right before our eyes and ears. Then came Daniel in the ex-Stirling Moss 904 – we stand still and salute across the worlds. A heartfelt thank-you also goes out to the Deutsch family: to get the famous 908/48 out into the open "just like that", the original Steve McQueen/H. Linge camera car from "Le Mans", that’s quite something. And last but not least: thanks to the Porsche Museum for the radical Bergspyder study and to Porsche Deutschland for the GT4, which was going like a dervish between all the legends – and will become one itself.
