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But surely not an Icelandic car scene? You’re likely to get quizzical looks even from worldly-wise petrolheads at the mere mention of such a thing. Perhaps you mean US off-road SUVs fitted with searchlights, plus Viking stickers on the bumpers and monster tyres straight out of Mad Max? Or Japanese campers from the eighties, slowly but surely acquiring a coating of moss from driving endlessly around the island? The truth of the matter is that this island located on the edge of the Arctic Circle does in fact have a small, but quite unique scene made up of passionate Porsche drivers, who even got together and formed a club – and who recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of their favourite marque with a club outing.

  • And what else could you expect – against the phenomenal backdrop of unrivalled Icelandic beauty, a Sunday excursion into the countryside immediately became a “road movie“ – and even the Porsches that were taken out of the respective garages for the occasion were not always what they appeared to be at first sight. The white Porsche 944 Turbo with the enormous whale tail spoiler, for example, billowing smoke as it drifts across the asphalt, which the owner reluctantly admits puts out no less than 900 bhp and has a Corvette engine under the bonnet. Over here, some 2,500 kilometres from Zuffenhausen as the crow flies, they tend to see things a little differently. And Pétur Lentz, President of Porsche Club Iceland, which has roughly 80 members – as befitting an adventure film – is not only an avid Porsche driver, but also an airline pilot. During the week, you’ll find him sitting at the controls of a Boeing 757.

  • And in fact, on the journey that takes the club‘s members along a coastal road draped in clouds and over scree still wet from the rain, there are surprisingly few SUVs, but all the more sports cars better suited to the racetrack. Excessive pragmatism is pretty depressing in this part of the world, where the sun doesn‘t shine for half of the year. But with a 911 G model from the 1980s, a highly tuned 964, a 997 Turbo or a GT3 RS from the current 991 series, you can produce enough endorphins during the short summer weeks, when the weather on the island is at its best, to keep you in good spirits throughout the long Arctic winters.