Porsche symmetry: a 911 road trip to the A911

Things get worse as we carry on, traffic building along with the number of potholes. Glenrothes is the only substantial town on the road, and it does a nice line in floral roundabouts and timid Hyundais. But apart from what look to be a couple of concrete hippos, its architectural merits are well hidden.

Fortunately, the 911 has the happy Porsche trait of seeming to enjoy slower progress and lacking the sense of straining at a leash that many performance cars have when trundling. But when the PDK gearbox’s low-speed refinement and the crispness of the non-upgraded audio system become the most notable features, you know you’re not in a driving paradise.

The A911 continues for a few more miles, stopping abruptly at a roundabout in a village called Cameron Bridge. Edleston braves the rain to record the moment for posterity and I circulate steadily in the 911, to the bemusement of other road users. The A911 is a bust. We urgently need a plan B.

A convenient car park next to the roundabout gives us the chance to come up with one, with a quick consultation of the god-sent SABRE website. The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts may not seem like the most glamorous of motoring organisations, but its claim to have a more comprehensive listing of British roads and their history than the Department for Transport is reflected in some spectacular detail. But the bad news is that the former B911 no longer exists.

Lateral thinking and mild desperation broaden the criteria to Porsche model codes. There are plenty of these, including the A991, A993 and A996 – but there isn’t an A992, which is the one we really need in this car. But what about B-roads? More anxious browsing brings the welcome revelation that there is indeed a B992… but it starts 117 miles away in rural Aberdeenshire. In for a penny, in for a pound.

The 911 condenses the journey north impressively well. It doesn’t feel basic, even though it lacks toys compared with its pricier and plusher siblings. There isn’t a rotary driving mode selector on the steering wheel, or power-operated seats. But it has navigation, Apple CarPlay and climate control, even two-stage adaptive shocks and the ability to prompt me to select ‘Wet’ mode when the rain gets heavier.

We pause briefly in Dundee to see what SABRE says is the only remaining part of the one-time B911, now a car park overlooking the mist-covered Firth of Tay. The city’s inner ring road is the A991, if anyone with a slightly earlier 911 wants to visit. But the journey north from there is at a cautious pace under the eyes of endless average speed cameras. The days when the A90 was treated as a race track by cashed-up oil workers are long gone.

Past Aberdeen, we’re into what immediately feels like more natural Porsche country, which is reflected in the road numbers. The A944 carries us west and we pass the junction for the B993 before reaching the equally minor turn for the B992, signed towards the mighty conurbations Keig and Insch. The road looks narrow. Is it going to be another damp squib?

Fortunately, no. Within the first mile, it’s clear that this is not only an extremely fine bit of Tarmac, but also one that suits the Porsche almost perfectly. The initial stretch of the B992 is open, well sighted and empty enough to let the Carrera stretch its legs, even in the sodden conditions.

Even more appropriately, it’s a road that suits the base 911 better than it would one of its faster siblings. The 3.0-litre flat six’s 380bhp can be put to full use and the limitations of rear-wheel drive and a slippery surface become a challenge rather than a limitation. The Porsche feels light and wieldy, its dampers in perfect control of its mass over bumps and crests. It is keen to change direction, and with chatty feedback getting past the light assistance of its power steering, but it never feels wayward. Traction remains good in the rain. Yet it is also throttle steerable in a way that few other cars are, the fineness of the balance between grip levels at each end being adjustable with just small inputs as mass tips forwards and backwards.