LAVA ORANGE

Lava Orange

Touring Transylvania with a part time rally instructor and the top coffee guru in Romania.

Cars and coffee are a classic pairing, both appealing to those that enjoy a sense of process and ritual. Of course variants of both cars and coffee are available in everyday, consumer-grade formats now, but that’s not what true devotees of a more experiential side of life look for.

Dorin Costea knows this as well as anybody. He founded Hot Pipes Roastery in 2017, became a national coffee roasting champion, ranked ninth worldwide, and somehow still finds time to be a rally pilot and track instructor.

The story begins in Cluj-Napoca, a historic city deep in Romania’s Transylvanian region. Beyond its cobbled streets, Cluj has a thriving culture of specialty coffee, with cafés and roasteries scattered across the city. Dorin’s choice of transport for its narrow pathways is a Lava Orange 718 Cayman, on which he’s amassed 34,000 kms in just five months of ownership.

Obviously those weren’t all driven in town, when we spoke to him he had just returned from Greece for a coffee competition and was preparing to drive on to Warsaw for another one. Before that, we enjoyed a few hours with him at Hotpipes, his base of operations. Part café, part roastery, here Dorin produces beans to both sell in-store and distribute nationally. He’s curated coffee for Porsche Romania events and maintains relationships with specialty coffee lovers all over Romania.

Outside, the Lava Orange Cayman waits patiently, poised to carve the legendary mountain roads of Transylvania the moment the café hits closing time, something we were equally impatient to get to after a thorough sampling of Dorin’s best espresso.

Leaving Cluj-Napoca, we slipped out of the city and onto the open Transylvanian roads. Stolna appeared first, reached by a gentle climb lined with autumnal orange leaves. A few cows watched from the roadside as if we’d interrupted their afternoon routine. The Cayman carved through the bends as Dorin slipped effortlessly into instinct.

These aren’t just scenic roads; they are part of the Raliul Clujului ecosystem, old hillclimb routes and training grounds where drivers have been sharpening their craft for decades. For Dorin, this is home turf, the very places where he fine-tunes ahead of rally weekends.

These aren’t just scenic roads; they are part of the Raliul Clujului ecosystem, old hillclimb routes and training grounds where drivers have been sharpening their craft for decades.

Dorin pointed out corners where to lift off, and sections where he’d gone off into fields or rolled rally cars — lessons learned from racing and experience.

Past Tărnița, the lake stretched out like a silver mirror in the late-autumn light. Then came Mărișel, with its wooden homes scattered across the slopes. Dorin pointed out corners where to lift off, and sections where he’d gone off into fields or rolled rally cars — lessons learned from racing and experience. Driving with him, it became clear just how capable he is as an instructor as well.

By the time we reached Beliș, the sky had softened. Dorin pulled over for a familiar ritual. He took out the Delter coffee press, ground some Ethiopian beans he had roasted the day before, and brewed a cup by the lakeshore. It was the perfect pause between curves and climbs, a moment to warm up, breathe, and appreciate the surroundings.

Higher up, a light dusting of snow made everything that little bit more cinematic, suspending the forest between autumn and winter in this quietly beautiful corner of Transylvania. These valleys and ridges are more than just routes for Dorin. They’re the backbone of how he learned to drive, disconnect, and prepare. Places he returns to whenever he needs to reset before pointing the 718 toward the next coffee competition. And this time, Warsaw is calling.