Targa to the Arctic Circle
It’s our craziest mission ever: can a Porsche Targa 4 GTS power us from London to the Arctic Circle – and back – in a fortnight?
5,000 miles from the United Kingdom to Norway and back… it’s part one of Total 911’s most epic road trip adventure yet
part one: reaching the arctic
It was always going to be our biggest road trip challenge yet. 5,000 miles to cover in just 14 days, and the roads aren’t exactly fast, flat and direct. There will be little help readily available if our vehicle so much as picks up a puncture, let alone requires repatriation to a Porsche Centre, and the hazards present from challenging terrain and rogue wildlife will be heightened.
Our road trip ideas at Total 911 are becoming more outlandish, I admit, but persuading the magazine’s management to let us embark on this adventure took some doing. Looking at the facts, it’d just be easier not to go, but then there’s no fun in ducking a challenge – especially one as mad as this.
Why the Arctic Circle, I hear you ask? There may be seven billion people currently inhabiting our planet, but only four million live within the Arctic Circle. This is because it’s a challenging region in which to live: defined as an area above an invisible line of latitude around the Earth at approximately 66°30’ N, for at least one day a year there is 24 consecutive hours of sunshine in the summer and 24 hours of darkness in the winter at its base, rising to six months per year by the time you reach the