Alps, Dusk, a Porsche GT1 And a Mercedes AMG CLK GTR
Some say that Heaven does not exist. Of course, I was thinking the same before last September. Think about 60 of the most exclusive cars of the last decades. And think about them all together for a weekend in a Swiss mountain village. Done? Ok, this was the Supercar Owners Circle Weekend in Andermatt, and I had the privilege of experiencing and photographing it.
Already I was given a taste of what they were able to do before the proper event with a small “prologue” in Milan and its surroundings, but this time it was quite another thing.
I had never been to Andermatt, a Swiss village at the foot of the Gotthard Pass, and I was greeted in the best way possible: snow, a grey sky and temperatures close to zero.
I had no trouble finding cars; hundreds of photographers, spotters and youtubers on the street outside a chalet of unrealistic size, the “Chedi”, one of the most luxurious structure in Europe.
The parking was surreal. Think of a car, it was there. Pagani Zonda, Koenigsegg, Ferrari 250 SWB, Enzo, LaFerrari, Speciale, Dino, TRS, Maserati MC12, Porsche from GT1 to GT3 RS through Carrera GT and 993 GT2. And finally a Mercedes CLK GTR with Italian license plate and driven by one of the friendliest and most kind (and crazy) owners I know, Eugenio owner of Automobili Amos.
Not even remotely I could ever imagined what would happen from that moment.
A voice turns in the garage: “It’s snowing on the top of the mountain pass, the road is covered with snow”. Eugenio does not think twice. And so, within ten minutes I find myself sitting in a car with strangers, next to worldwide famous car spotters, chasing a CLK GTR and a Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell in search of some snow on the Gotthard Pass. The search didn’t go as planned, there was no trace of snow – too bad. We stop anyway for a couple of shots under a weak snowfall.
The cold, however, is too much, so as to get to leave almost dry the E-Cell. (OMG, electric cars!). Time for two more photos and we are already downhill towards the meeting point.
The rest of the afternoon proceeds quietly between beautiful cars, chats and good food. Quiet at least until just before sunset, when I find myself by chance in the garage, I hear rumors that someone wants to go out to photograph the CLK GTR along with a Porsche GT1, something only seen in some magazine of the previous decade. I can’t miss an opportunity like this, I prepare all the equipment and I start looking for a car to reach the Gotthard Pass. But just as I’m leaving the parking lot, without hope, I hear “Hey Pietro, if you fit in the car you can take a ride with me.” Yes, Eugenio just offered me a ride on board his CLK GTR. From that moment everything turned crazy anything – “Of course I’m here, I’d cut a leg but I’ll surely fit in it!” I was aware of the difficulty in getting into the CLK cockpit, but I totally underestimated it, especially for someone six feet tall.
I get rid of all the equipment and try to get into the cockpit. That’s not easy at all. So I ask for help, and I start the complicated procedure to enter. After a couple of minutes of stretching, I do not know which way, I’m finally on board. I do not literally have a centimeter to move, my legs are stuck in a thin Formula 1 style hole and I do not have the slightest possibility of movement with shoulders and back, and to make matters worse, the seat is fixed (or rather non-existent). I forget even the belts that are so tight in there. Drawing conclusions: the CLK GTR cannot be used by people more than one meter and ninety tall and who like to eat more than one biscuit for breakfast. In summary: I am in a CLK GTR, blocked but ready to photograph two incredible cars, without a tripod or other equipment. Fortunately, at least I get the camera, but since there’s no trunk, I can’t bring anything else with me.
Finally we leave. Words end. We are practically sitting on the ground in a car that looks more like a spaceship. The noise is quite loud, not deafening, but heavy. In front of us there is a blue Porsche GT1, but the noise of the gearbox is so intense that any other sound is erased. You almost do not hear the sound of the V12!
We start climbing, the gearbox, a sequential mechanic, is dry and noisy. The engine pushes, almost too much, the car is direct and transmits any vibration and pebbles of the road, forget comfort mode. Not to mention the brakes that press you even more into the cockpit at each pressure. Do not think of it as an actual supercar coming out of a video game, with every shifting it seems to kick your back with extreme strenght. Grip is incredible, it seems to be glued to the asphalt, perhaps because it is very large, or maybe because it gives the feeling of being on a racing car, a real one, without electronics, useless driving modes and soundproofing.
We continue and we stop on the porphyry of the old Gotthard pass that continues for kilometers in the mountains.
I do not want to go down. I would like to sit (or rather, be stuck) here forever.
What a show. Alps, dusk, a Porsche GT1 and a Mercedes AMG CLK GTR.
Ten minutes, then the cold out here wins again. For coming back to the HQ I decide to leave the place in the car to another photographer allowing him to realize the same daydream.
But it is while we come back that the impossible happens. On the opposite lane, we see a dozen of very fast cars approaching. Maserati MC12, Ferrari Enzo, Koenigsegg and an AMG SLS GT3 racing car (yes, for the track but on the road). We do not think twice, we turn around and try chasing them: useless to specify that our pursuit lasted less than ten seconds. Once we get to the top we find them all stucked ready to go back. But it is precisely here that the unexpected happens: “if you want you can come back with the CLK GTR”.
Well, you can imagine how it ended. INCREDIBLE. It’s fast. So fast that I could not even take a picture, and that should say everything.
Sunday was a success too, seventy cars at full speed on the Gotthard pass closed for the occasion, a photo in front of the spectacular military barracks Bedrina of Airolo and drag races on the Airolo landing strip, entirely reserved for the event between cars that were never compared before.
If all of this is not Heaven, well, I do not know what it can be!
Words and photos by Pietro Martelletti.