BERNINA GRAN TURISMO
Porsches galore and a whole lot more at this amazing hillclimb meeting
For anyone fortunate enough to own a classic Porsche, sooner or later there comes the desire to use it together with others…
Most of us chose rallyes and short or longdistance touring, but quite a number of 356 and 911 owners are seeking the thrill of competition. While there is surely no shortage of great events here in the UK, over the last years races on the continent have gained more and more traction for British Porsche drivers. Your first thoughts might be with track racing, but this time we chose to visit one of Europe’s foremost hillclimbs to see what Porsche owners are up to over there.
The Bernina Gran Turismo – as the name would suggest – runs along a portion of road at the Bernina Pass in the Swiss Engadin. This year, it celebrated a unique anniversary as it was 90 years ago that the ‘Internationale St. Moritzer Automobilwoche’ allowed motorised vehicles to compete between Poschiavo and the Bernina Ospizio at the top of the pass. Up to 1925, the use of automobiles had been banned in the canton of Graubünden, the last Swiss canton to do so. So, in 1929 the ‘First Swiss Automobile Week’ was created with the intent to attract drivers from around the world. That very first race was won by Hans Stuck, father of legendary
Porsche race driver Hans-joachim Stuck, and we will return to that fact a little later. After only two years, the event was cancelled due to the deteriorating condition of the gravel road leading up to the pass.
Fast forward 86 years, and in 2015 Germans Claus Müller and Florian Seidl together with the event’s patron Kurt A Engelhorn went about reviving the event. The Bernina pass is nestled between St Moritz to the North and Italy to the South. The road is now in perfect condition but not surprisingly suffers from a lot of tourist traffic.
Says Claus Müller, organiser of the Bernina Gran
Turismo: ‘In the late 1920s, the St Moritz Automobil Week was held here with the Bernina hillclimb being the highlight of the event. A number of us wanted to bring that spirit back to racing in Switzerland’. That being said, the country that gave us Toblerone is not exactly one you’d associate with one of the most memorable race events in the classic car calendar.
The Bernina Gran Turismo is a full 3.5-mile run from La Rösa at 6168ft at the bottom of the pass up a windy mountain road to the finish at 7333ft. It is open to 80 cars and bikes – not more – each of which get four chances to
race up the hill. Founder Kurt Engelhorn is adamant he won’t allow more participants as it would give the event an entirely different feel. It is thanks to Engelhorn, who owns the La Rösa restaurant and is heavily involved in the region, that locals welcome the event and cooperate to an extent we are not normally used to.
Twice a day, the road – which is a major artery connecting St Moritz with the Poschiavo valley – gets closed off for several hours. Drivers gather at the foot of the pass and one by one race up the hill against the clock. The gorgeous scenery and the sense of camaraderie have attracted a large international gathering. People come from as far as the US, so we caught up with Carl Gustav Magnusson from New York who was at the start piloting his 1968 Porsche 912. ‘I’ve come here every year since the reintroduction”, says Carl with a beaming smile.
‘What I love about the Bernina is that there is no corporate involvement, no hospitality, no nothing. It’s just a bunch of like-minded racers and their cars.’ Carl quickly points out that his 912 is perhaps the ideal car for him: ‘It’s a short wheelbase long hood 912, so it handles great, is lightweight and super reliable.’ As the day went on, Carl’s grin got ever wider as his times tumbled. But it’s more than just the racing, Carl admits. ‘There is such a diverse crowd at the start, anything from an Austin A30 to a massive Ford Fairlane or the Ferrari Breadvan, and this year we even had a Formula 1 car. And everyone talks to everyone.’
Which is something easily evidenced on the first get together up at the Ospizio where we run into Michelle Hambly-grobler. The affable South African Porsche collector is here without one of her beloved Stuttgart cars but vows to bring one next year. As it happens, there are already lots of Porsches for the crowds to watch. At the 2019 running there was everything from early 356s to late 911s, and while the promised 959 didn’t appear for this year, the organisers are hopeful that the American owner will come through in 2020.
Star of the 2019 event undoubtedly was the 1929 Austro Daimler with ex-porsche works driver and Le Mans winner Hans-joachim Stuck behind the wheel. The Austrian racecar has a 3.0-litre, in-line six-cylinder producing 120bhp and is the very car with which Hans-joachim’s father Hans ‘The Mountain King’ Stuck won the inaugural race here in 1929.