Shocked by what I saw in Mayo!

godskitchen

Whilst on my way to the airport (knock) on Thursday last, I saw some exotic looking car heading towards me, at first I thought it was a Ferrari but when it came closer there were no badges on the front and I realised it was heavily disguised, as it drove by, another identically disguised car was close behind.

Both cars were black and on German Number plates, with the usual panels you see in car mags spy shots. As the second one pasted me it hit home what they were............Porsche Panameras! I couldn't believe it! i couldn't turn around to take any photos as I was running late for the flight.

Chances someone else had to see them in the country, they got to mayo by road, i can only assume via Dublin/Belfast.................Question is what the hell were they doing here? It was passing through Newport where I cam upon them, maybe doing some photo shoot in Achill?

godskitchen

Oh I have just found out what was going on............

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motors/2007/1121/1195251583105.html

Why would they test here?

qballirl

Why are they testing in Ireland, does anyone know?

themadchef

If you want to wreck a car .......... and enjoy the view on the way, head West .Sick that i missed them.

In fairness the roads are rough as hell down here.

godskitchen

Just been reading up on it, its because the roads are so bad and the can get a good amount of wet weather testing done in the west.

godskitchen

Have a look at this video, at the 2 minute mark its pretty much what I saw, it was probably these actual cars too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4wiDKb7PoA

qballirl

That'll do me i suppose. Good enough excuse. I bet one of the porshe engineers is irish and just wanted to show his mates lol.

Alun

qballirl wrote: »

Why are they testing in Ireland, does anyone know?

Probably checking the shock absorbers

mike65

Toyota put the Mk 1 Avensis through its paces here - they fined tuned its suspension set up in the wesht.

Mike.

Robbo

Rover used to spend quite a bit of time out in Connemara. God knows how many bits fell off in the process...

peasant

This is not the first time Porsche has come here. I've seen them before with Boxster and the latest 911 pre-production models cruising past me outside Sligo.

Guess they know a bad road when they see one

Hal1

Maybe they where following the route of the WRC stages?

wet-paint

Cool, but it looks like the back end of a GS300.

tossy

Porsche do most of their testing in the west of ireland because the road are so bad!

ArseBurger

In the West of Ireland you get a large variety of road conditions in a relatively small area.

The Japanese car manufacturers started the trend in the early 90's.

qz

Jaguar tested the new XK here before it was released. In one of the southern counties I think.

Hagar

It's a sad indictment of the state of the roads in the West if they are bad enough to be regarded internationally as a good test track for suspension on new cars.

peasant

Not just suspension, Hagar ...also rattles, squeaks, fitting of the interior, stability of the seat, etc, etc ...

On the test track they got a few hundre meters of this, here they get miles and miles

nanook

I remember years ago, in boyle, they were testing porche's, black in colour with the Masking tape all over it with small antenna's all over trasmiting. It was around the time the boyle bypass opened as they were stopped at the horse monument going over data in the back of a massive van.

I dont think its soley the bad roads, maybe a mixture of all kind of roads.

Why dont ferrari test over here

Biro

I've seen the Porsche Cayenne dusguised in Sligo about 2 years before it was released. They were driving it behind a disguised X5, which was already on sale about 3 months to try and throw people! My mate has seen them test a 911 before around Sligo too, a good few years back. Possibly the 996 model. They had that down on a stretch of beach that there's kind of a "road" betwen mainland and an island when the tide is out.
I suppose they're happy to test here cause out of 4 million people only about 30 would recognise what it was and even those couldn't care or less about selling pics to the press! Ireland is a fairly uninterested country when it comes to cars.

gucci

they also tested porshes in the hazelwood area of sligo out near the old saehan media plant, i remember my brother used to work there coming home going on about 3 porsches being taken out of containers and cruised around the lakes!!

kmick

Quick someone tell Bertie. He can use it as a PR tool a la 'well my time in de government has seen such an improvement in de roads even Porsche test here'.

With Porsche previously been criticised for ride and comfort on B roads it is not surprising they would want to see what it feels like to slum it. Its all very well on an autobahn but try the sligo to Donegal rad for a change. My brother has a boxster and it is like a wooden go cart with solid rubber wheels on irish roads. Awful.

lightening

qballirl wrote: »

Why are they testing in Ireland, does anyone know?

Because we are all to begrudging to rubber neck and admire the car in case the driver sees us!

Hotwheels

Plenty of auld circuit of ireland stages up round there for them, excellent for testing cars. And off the beaten track for most folks....:)

Notch000

I spotted these porsches cruising throught Castlebar a few weeks ago, I also remember seeing a couple of blacked out and masked Cayannees in Castlebar a few years ago too

auggie2k

Wow! http://www.cars-pictures-index.com/files/images/68.jpg

MercMad

It was reported in the apper, pictures 'n' all !

I recall seeing the Toyota previa about 2 years before it came to market out in Mayo, also we saw the BMW e36 diguised in Maam in early 1990 !

I presume they ship them in containers otherwise folk would be onto them coming off the ferries !

tossy

Well i know the tested the audi R8 down around killarney last year,2 drove all the way form germany with 2 new TTs in toe and a Q7 or 2 and none were disguised in anyway,apparently it was to do with an issue with the rain sensing wipers

galwaytt

OMFG, that's gorgeous !

LOL, the SO has just told me she saw it too, but couldn't figure out why it had no badges !!

Naturally, she has a camera phone.

Naturally, she didn't use it..........:rolleyes: