News

Driving the scenic Furka Pass in Switzerland in a Porsche 718 Boxter

View Forum Discussion

Though exhilarating, the roads are very narrow in certain sections & without any barricades, so one mistake will careen you down the mountain.

BHPian karan561 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The above video captures the "Feel & Raw Sounds" of driving up the Furka Pass, Switzerland.

The video starts off with a cinematic build-up intro to capture the raw sensations & excitement.

Sport Mode ON

At one of the hairpin turns

Red Line Fury & Manual shifting captured

And some breathtaking visuals

Some Information about Furka Pass, Switzerland

  • Furka Pass is a legendary high-altitude mountain road in the Swiss Alps with an elevation of approx. 8000 ft. above sea level.
  • This mountain pass consists of steep slopes, switchbacks, sharp blind corners & tight hairpin turns.
  • About 3 kms below the ridge of the Pass, you can get a good view of the Rhone glacier.
  • The pass is open about 7 months a year usually from May to mid-November.
  • Was used as a location in the James Bond film, Goldfinger.

My Driving Experience at the Furka Pass

This is the first time I drove the Furka Pass, hence there was a great level of excitement. But once I started my hill climb the excitement was fueled by thrill, danger, adrenaline & passion. The thrill of driving a mid-engined RWD Porsche up such a mountain pass was unparalleled. Though exhilarating this pass is also considered one of the most dangerous in the world as the pass roads are very narrow in certain sections & without any barricades so one mistake will careen you down the mountain without much time to react or correct it.

However, the excitement, thrill & danger combined to give me a serious adrenaline boost as you can see in the video I got to really enjoy the car with enough oversteer action on the turns to keep the traction control light busy in a good way. Finally, the passion took over in the exploration of multiple red line shifting & ignored the fact that the car had a lightning-fast PDK & paddle shifters as I enjoyed shifting via the gear lever to get some old school feels as I was properly in the moment to enjoy the car, road & scenic landscape.

My Stay

I stayed at Andermatt which is a Mountain village in the Canton of Uri. I highly recommend a stay at this location if one is visiting Furka Pass. I drove down from Zurich and stayed at Radisson Blu, Andermatt for the night & the next morning I did my drive of the Furka Pass. The hotel location is ideal to start off the Furka Pass drive from. I timed my stay/visit to get to drive on Monday so I could enjoy the pass to the fullest with the least cars/bikes & I was indeed lucky as I got absolutely zero traffic on the pass which you can witness in the video.

My Car

The car chosen for the Furka Pass drive was a Mid-Engine, RWD sports car. A Porsche. The 2022 Porsche 718 Boxster. With 300 hp & a sub 5 second 0-100 km/h time, it was a great car to have to activate the senses throughout the drive. The car was rented officially through Porsche Drive experience from their Zurich dealership.

This car at the unique location of Furka Pass was indeed a celebratory fusion of nature with engineering, one more special drive added to the memories.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

 
Redlining the Indian Scene