Stelvio Pass, Hockenheim, Nürburgring Road Trip

If you're a serious go-fast geek and car buff, chances are you've enjoyed the recent jousting between Nissan and Porsche regarding the claimed Nürburgring lap times for the R35 GT-R and are well aware of the important role this legendary circuit plays in the world of OEM vehicle testing. As a result, the Nürburgring Nordschleife-an absolutely epic piece of twisty tarmac that covers 14 miles and 73 turns through the Eifel mountain region of Germany-has become a central part of global car culture and a list-topper on just about every driving enthusiast's Bucket List. The fact that a trip to Germany also means spending some time tickling the speed limiter on the autobahn highway system and visiting some of the shrine-like car museums that can be found in almost every major city just makes the trip all the more enticing. Throw in a visit to a Formula 1racing circuit and a blast down a world-famous alpine road like the Stelvio Pass (pictured, left) and you've got a European vacation that'd make Chevy Chase green with envy.

Part 1: JDM Invades Germany
For us, the Ultimate Road Trip started more than a year ago while emailing with Stephen Clark from iA Performance. We were featuring Stephen's WRX wagon (July '08 issue) and in the process learned of a customer car he was building in Germany. Stephen suggested a trip to visit this customer, an American soldier stationed in Germany, and take his U.S.-spec '04 Subaru Impreza STI for a rip around the Nürburgring. Umm . . . yes, please.

As the trip approached, a flurry of emails were exchanged between the three-man crew from Modified, Stephen at iAP and our man with the plan in Germany, STI owner and U.S. Air Force grunt Jon Herman. Jon suggested we check out Stelvio Pass during the first few days of our European power tour, a road we were familiar with from a memorable episode of "Top Gear" where hosts Clarkson, Hammond and May set out to find the greatest driving road in the world. But what would we drive to Stelvio in and what would we tour Germany in? There was no way we'd all fit into Jon's STI with all our camera gear and luggage, so with some help from Maurice Durand at Mitsubishi and John Shilling from Nissan, we found ourselves in possession of two rather tasty press vehicles to flog for the week: a Nissan 370Z and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR.

What we didn't realize before landing in Frankfurt and taking delivery of our press cars was just how rare these Japanese beasts would be on the autobahn. As we soon learned, the German government is rather protective of its auto industry, meaning the importation tax on Japanese vehicles is so high that only the most die-hard fan would consider buying one. This must make it a particularly tough market for carmakers like Nissan and Mitsubishi, but it put an unexpectedly cool spin on the trip for us because we found ourselves piloting machines with a higher rarity factor than a Ferrari or Lamborghini. As a result, we were viewed by the locals, or so it seemed to us, as wealthy foreigners driving wildly exotic cars they could only dream of owning. This meant that we were hotter than David Hasselhoff.