My husband is currently on an overseas business trip, but before he left, he took a touring trip to Awaji Island in the GT3 and wrote an article about it. Please have a look if you’re interested.

Heading to Naruto in the Porsche 911 GT3

Since he wouldn’t be able to see his beloved cars for a while due to a business trip to the U.S. starting the following week, he decided to go on a short tour.

The destination was Awaji Island. To be honest, there aren’t many fast, enjoyable roads on Awaji Island. The island’s loop roads offer great scenery, but traffic is heavy and average speeds are low. It might be nice for a date drive, but for serious touring enthusiasts, it’s a bit underwhelming.

So this time, he decided to aim for the Uzushio Line and Naruto Skyline.

The Naruto Skyline is featured as an add-on mod in the Windows racing simulator rFactor2 (called Naruto Skyline NSuka), and since he had been driving it at home on the simulator, he really wanted to experience it in real life.

He left home just before noon and crossed the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge. Since there are often unmarked police cars in the tunnel before and on the bridge, he passed through carefully and safely.

Once on Awaji Island, he entered the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, a rare high-speed highway in Kansai. This mostly straight road is well-paved and extremely comfortable. The GT3 cruised along, sticking to the road surface while matching the pace of the passing lane traffic. Its high-speed stability is truly outstanding and very satisfying.

When the road ahead cleared, he occasionally dropped to 3rd or 4th gear to accelerate. The exhaust note has a different charm from the Boxster, with impressive volume and presence as always.

Before he knew it, he arrived at the Nishi-Awaji Mihara Interchange and headed south on Prefectural Route 477. From here starts the Uzushio Line, continuing onto Prefectural Route 25. It used to be a toll road, but now it’s completely free, with no trace left of its toll road past.

Prefectural Route 477 features many straights and gentle curves, allowing for a pleasant drive if there’s no car ahead. At Anaga, he turned left onto Prefectural Route 25, which leads into a compact mountain winding road.

The road isn’t very wide, with tight corners and ups and downs, so it’s a series of low-speed corners. In the GT3, the power is a bit too much here; 2nd gear feels a little overpowering, so he cruised in 3rd gear, savoring the handling.

On sections with rough or uneven pavement, stepping hard on the throttle in 2nd gear can easily cause the rear wheels to spin.

The scenery along Prefectural Route 25 is beautiful, but there aren’t many good spots to stop and take photos. He searched for a photo spot he remembered from shortly after taking delivery of his Boxster, stopped there, and took a short break.

Enjoying the occasional spectacular views of the Naruto Strait, he took Prefectural Route 76 to the east side of the island. The southeastern part of the eastern loop road on Awaji Island has light traffic and is very pleasant to drive. However, heading too far north narrows the road, so he usually turns back before that point.

After casually enjoying some photo stops along the coast, he headed toward the final destination: the Naruto Skyline.

He took the highway to Shikoku, exited at Naruto-kita Interchange, and headed north to drive the Naruto Skyline from the northern side.

Prefectural Route 183 is the Naruto Skyline. Seeing it in person was just like his home simulator. Excited, he thought, “Wow, it’s just like rFactor in real life!” and whipped the GT3 up to the Shikomi Observatory in one go.

He deliberately opened the windows to hear the engine and exhaust notes directly. Lately, when driving the GT3, he tries to keep the windows down as much as possible. It lets him hear the mechanical noises clearly, making him feel like he’s driving a modern-day air-cooled Porsche brought back to life.

It’s a shame there are some speed bump pavements here and there to enforce speed limits. Without those, it would be perfect. It’s quite a famous road with many relatively straight sections, and the scenery changes as you cross bridges connecting islands.

The Naruto Skyline isn’t very long, but it has many spots where you can make U-turns, allowing you to run the same road multiple times, which is a big plus.

After spending some quality time with the GT3, he relaxed a bit while enjoying the breathtaking view of the Naruto Strait.

“Driving alone is definitely the best,” he thought, savoring the blissful moment before heading home.

Kansai Roads and the GT3

Driving Kansai roads again made him realize that many roads are too tame for the GT3. Of course, it’s fun to drive and there’s no real complaint. But to truly unleash the GT3’s capabilities, the roads here are just too small-scale.

This car was designed with the circuit in mind, and it seems to say,

“Born in Flacht, raised at the Nürburgring. Roads like these don’t even scratch my abilities. If you want to enjoy driving here, take the Boxster instead.”

He believes that only by driving the bold mountain winding roads of Hakone, Izu, or the grand passes of Shinshu and Tohoku can you truly glimpse the GT3’s real worth.

That said, once you’re hooked on the GT3’s charm, even the Boxster feels lacking in many situations, making it hard to let go of this allure.

This time, he drove about 300 km with an overall fuel efficiency of 12.5 km/100 km (about 8 km/L). As it’s getting colder and road conditions worsen, this might be the last run for the GT3 this year.