The last two pandemic years have shown us that many of us may have traveled the whole world, but they don't know Slovakia. Maybe you too have been enchanted by what is located just a few kilometers from your home. And maybe you have discovered that the journey is also the destination. This summer, we decided to find good "riding" roads in Slovakia. The company will make us a small, stylish red car.
However, discovering beautiful roads is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Even a short two-day ride is often preceded by weeks of preparation spent on online maps. Is the road interesting, but also passable, wide enough? Does it lead past a remarkable place, and most importantly, is it going in the right direction? Even with the best preparation, something always surprises and catches you by surprise.
This time, however, for the first time in our lives, we don't have to worry about the route. To discover new roads in Slovakia, we used the fantastic
Okresky project, which has been known in the Slovak car enthusiast community for several years. A few years ago, photographer and car enthusiast Miloš Fusek published a great book full of beautiful shots of our best Slovak roads, along with detailed instructions on how to cross the country from west to east and back in five days, and not be bored for a second.
We get into a beautiful Porsche 911SC "born" in 1983 in perfect original condition, which turns heads without moving a bit. Thanks to it, we will go back in time for the next few days, not only to discover forgotten Slovak corners, but especially to find out why more and more car enthusiasts are starting to look for cars from the past.
Armed with instructions from the book Okresky, we begin our journey on the road from Bratislava towards the old, well-known Pezinská Baba. The little Porsche growls at the start, the vibrations of the flat-six engine pass through the cabin to your backside, and you immediately understand that this is going to be very interesting. First impressions of the old "Poršák" attack a person who has never sat in one before from all directions. The car, which looks like a toy from the outside, is suddenly spacious and airy after getting in. The huge front window set in thin pillars gives you a better view than in a van, while you look straight ahead at the bulging silhouettes of the iconic headlights.
Well, let's get to it, we adjust the seat, we try to find a position behind the wheel that is, diplomatically speaking, interesting... The pedals in the old 911 are anchored to the floor, instead of "hanging" from the dashboard. One of the many quirks of the 911, but one that seems so strange that even the most experienced drivers will feel like they're in driving school for a while.
After a while of struggle, one would like to set the right temperature in the cabin before a long journey. Here comes the second act of Porsche's whims from the 1980s. The cooling is adjusted partly on the dashboard, partly between the seats with levers by the handbrake. The sunroof is opened with a button under the steering wheel. If you don't know where it is, you have no chance of finding it, you will have to be warm.
The moment you move from the spot, however, all these ailments remain in the parking lot. After the first few meters, you can already feel the ease of the steering, which can be controlled with just two fingers even without the power steering. The car quietly speeds towards Pezinská Baba, while the oil temperature slowly reaches its ideal level. Below Baba, we downshift by two gears and finally, for the first time, the legendary sound of the air-cooled, flat-six reaches our ears. The beautiful "rumble" continues up to almost seven thousand revolutions, gradually turning into the high-frequency whine of a racing engine. In an instant, however, the first "reverse" comes, and before we know it, we have our hands full. Brakes, disengage, intermediate throttle, downshift.
Baba is not exactly a hill that would like to forgive a person a lot. Despite the good surface, there are many blind turns with barriers that do not give a person room to maneuver for mistakes. Therefore, we take it quite lightly at the beginning and cross the Pezinok Pass towards Pernek at a less abrupt pace.
One must not forget that in this Porsche there is no invisible helper in the form of stability control or ABS sitting in the background. It is there for that alone. A little longer on the brakes, and the car rolls forward uncontrollably with the wheels locked, a poorly hit throttle and suddenly you are flying towards a bend without gear engaged. Already in the first more dynamic meters it is clear that this will not be a walk in the park.
During a short drive along the road to the Mound of Milan Rastislav Štefánik, we turn onto the road leading through the village of Buková. The inconspicuous forest path hides a few great curves where you won't meet a single living soul. Here, for the first time, we get the courage to push the Porsche as it deserves.
When driving dynamically, the most striking feature of the 911 is immediately felt, its engine hanging behind the rear axle. When taking corners, you have to be absolutely precise, you don't have a moment to hesitate. You have to constantly think about the weight of the car, and plan the corners so that you achieve the perfect balance of speed and grip. Enter a corner a little faster than you should, the back of the car immediately dances when you let off the gas and the engine tries to overtake you. You have to be precise, flawless and, above all, constantly on the alert.
After a quick stop at the mound and lunch at
Holotéch Víška, however, there is no time to spare and we head at a brisk pace through Trenčín to Bohemia, where Okresky advises us to turn off for a moment. After a few dozen kilometers, however, we are back in Slovakia to head towards Čičmany. Behind Ilava, we pass the small village of Horná Poruba, cross the Homôlka ski resort and stop only in the aforementioned Čičmany. The great road offering smooth and quite fast curves gives the Porsche engine a breather, while the new asphalt gives a rest to the superbly sprung chassis.
At the obligatory photo stop with traditional wooden houses, we play car mechanics as we quickly change the fuse on the windows. However, that doesn't stop us from continuing our sharp progress to our evening destination - Banská Bystrica.
The next day, after a great morning coffee at
the Mlsnacava café, we deviate from the Okresiek itinerary and head along the main road towards Brezno. The boring kilometers in the convoy stop only at Tisovec, where we disconnect to the Vernár mountain pass. Here we come across another great series of roads, consisting of the famous Vernár and Dobšinský hill. The “rubberized” curves near Dobšiná refer to the motoring tradition, not only of the hill itself, but of the entire region. However, we find the real treasure only after we leave Dobšinský hill towards the east. Just a few kilometers further on, road 533 winds through the countryside. It starts a short distance from Spišská Nová Ves and ends down near Gemerská Polom.
It's spaghetti asphalt, alternating with "spin-offs" with fast passages, where you will hardly meet any cars all day. The sound of the Porsche echoes off the trees, the fresh summer air flows through the window into the cabin and we get lost in the pure joy of driving. What more could one want? On this road we again find the limits of the two-hundred-horsepower coupe, which shows no signs of fatigue even after two days of hard driving. On the contrary, even if a few horses have certainly escaped from the engine over the years, the Porsche accelerates quickly and convincingly thanks to its low weight. Enough to make you sweat while driving.
If you would like to cool off for a while, you can try the nearby Dobšinská Ice Cave.
We drive here until early evening, when the sun slowly begins to set behind the horizon.
This shows us that it is time to slowly turn around and head back home. We set the direction for Hriňová and over slightly broken, but still nice roads we return to Zvolen.
We arrive in Bratislava late at night and reluctantly remove the key from the ignition. We sit quietly in the cabin and think about the question we wanted to solve before setting off on this short road trip. Why do people, instead of going into a showroom and buying a new Porsche, spend their money on one that is almost forty years old? It has less power, is not full of the latest technology, has almost no safety features, and not even air conditioning. The answer is very simple.
That's why. Driving it is a constant balancing act of all your movements, it's like dancing on a tightrope, where every little mistake ends in a fall. Mastering it, however, means a driving nirvana that one would be hard-pressed to find in the modern world. It's not for everyone, but once you find yourself in it, you won't want anything else.
And what about our Slovak roads? Although we, unfortunately, did not have enough time to complete the entire route that the book Okresky outlined, even a small part of it showed us that Slovakia also has something to offer drivers. Therefore, if you have not tried the roads in our country yet and have been looking at them with a sneer, run and buy Okresky and set off on an adventure. You will definitely not regret it. We will definitely be back soon to complete our road trip.
