Rain rain, GO AWAY (and quit filling up my car!)

Urg... it's been on hell of a wild few weeks up here. Record breaking snow, record breaking rain (month of November), record breaking lows (first week of December) and now record breaking winds, in what amounted to a category 1 hurricane slamming Washington! I still say Al Gore is having cannibus flashbacks.

So.. of course.. this is the BEST time of year for the car to start leaking... A LOT. Drips where exiting the headliner right over my left shoulder, streaming water down the front of my seatback and also into the rear footwell. And it was just getting worse and worse.

I noticed that one of the sunroof seals looked like it was not perfectly matching up... and the more I looked at it the more I wondered how that all worked! Well.. I tried some silicon. Worked for a bout a week, then the leaks were twice as bad!

Finally, I decided to order new sunroof seals (about $80.00 worth of parts) and planned to have the local shop do the install, being as I was in no mood to screw around with them in this weather... fudge something and be right back where I started. Easier to out-source it and if it's fucked up, THEY have to fix it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks (up to thismorning to be exact) and I stumble cross a post to Rennlist when this all started. What did I find? 4 responses that said I needed to check the drain tubes. "Drain tubes?" I asked?

Yes, well it appears that the seals around the sunroof are NOT designed to hold out the water but instead designed to keep out the crud. The way it's supposed to work is the drain tubes at the rear of the roof channel the water down in the C-pillars to a pair of exits right above the engine compartment. And to fix this problem, all you need to do is run some insulated wire up the tubes and.. .well.. if it's not glued shut.. you should be able to clear them!

A spool of speaker wire I had handy did not do the trick. So it was out into the holiday traffic (I'd been at home all weekend building web and other intel gathering servers for an anti-fraud project). FUN! NOT! At least Radio Shack was close by, and distanced from the mall and sure.. you pay 3x what you should but.. it's HANDY.

$15 later and 10 minutes of performing my best imitation of an automotive Protologist.. and I have clear drain tubes. I just hope that was the problem. Being near Seattle I doubt I'll have long to wait before I test it.

I don't have pictures of what I did... really.. nothing to see other than some wire snaking around insite the roof (snooze). Maybe I should dig up those pictures of the snow.. that *might* be interesting.

Fun with the State Patrol (aka how to cook a burrito on your dash)

I was in oddly aggressive mood for Monday, especially in considering I'd just had HDTV cable and a new broadband connection installed (Qwest DSL is SUCKING!!!! put that in you router and smoke it!)

After the cable guy (who looked and spoke nothing like Larry) left I hopped in the '64 and went off to work. It was not more than a few blocks down Burwell (SR-304), where it opens from 1 to 2 lanes that I came across him. Mr. Mountbike State Patrol (hereforto reffered to as 'The Man'.). Stopped in the #1 lane (Naval and Burwell - 25 MPH zone), I reached the intersection just as the light was turning green. Having seen 'The Man' before I knew he was there. This is where the trouble started.

With a nice jack-rabbit start I launched in a spirited fashion, quickly reaching 25 MPH, leaving 'The Man' a good distance behind, off to my left. My radar detector immedialy went solid 'K' band. GAME ON! He must have known I had a detector, it's easy to spot when on, and even easier when signaly a full-on radar attack.

I maintained my 25 MPH pace, with him right on my quarty panel as we turned left towards the shipyard. After passing the last base entrance speed limit jumps from 25 to 30 (first of many speed limit changes on this section of highway.. can it be a highway with a 25 MPH speed limit.. that's a question for another day). Now following right behind me I change from the middle lane to the left and right before crossing the 30 sign, radar lights me up again. Fortuanly I'd already placed the frozen burrito on the dash. Cooking was now underway.

Leaving the shipyard speed increases again to 45 as it heads west towards SR-3 south. Instead of reamining in the #2 lane, which would take him back to the WSP barracks, 'The Man' dropped in on my tail, I'm sure he was hoping to catch me in the 50->40->50->60 zone known at the town of Gorst, WA.

Taking the SR-304 to SR-3 East onramp right at 50, I moved again into the #1 lane as soon as legally possible. He kept behind me but off on my right. Soon the 40 MPH speed and drunk trap (AKA Gorst) would be in sight. With the reliablity of the sun rising, as soon as I was at the 40 sign.. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET, off goes the detector again. You'd think they'd be more creative. Frost is just about gone from the Burrito.

At this point I needed to get into the #2 lane, lest I end up in the wolves den of Police/Court corruption known as Port Orchard. This meant I had to change lanes, placing right in front of 'The Man'. At this point he's all over me, like a hobo on a 50.

I managed to make it through Gorst without busting the 40 limit. Do you know how hard that is in a Porsche.. they don't like going that slow.. but we made it none the less. Down the road the 50 MPH limit sign would be appearing and I could take it up a notch. At this point I moved to the #2 lane (out of #1 which was #2 through gorst.. are you following me here?) as the highway climbs from Gorst, to outskirts of Port Orchard. 50 MPH. He's on my left flank. I could read his badge number of I'd wanted too.

As we crest the hill he begins to pull away. A 60 MPH was coming up soon.. looked like he was getting tired of playing with me. While still barely in sight I thought it unwise to jump to 60 before the sign. It turned out to be a good move.. because right before I crossed into the 60 zone... WEEEEEEEEEEEEET again.. he lights me up, hoping to catch me 'breaking the law'. No such luck Johnny Law. You're not playing with the average driver here.

He remained well ahead of me for several miles.. but still withing sight. There were a few cars between us, but I kept it at the limit. A good song on the radio.. I was in no rush. Another mile or so later I pass a maroon Ford Explorer on the shoulder of the road.... 'The Man'.. sailed right on past.. didn't even see brake lights.. nice.. possible stranded motorist and he whizzes on past.

I guess it was a good call on his part.. as I passed the SUV it had already started to roll and merge back onto the highway.

On last chance remained for him to get me. The infamous 60->50->60 trap before Purdy. It's also just before the Kitsap/Mason county line. He was still in sight.. far ahead of me as we came into the 50 zone. There were a ton of other cars.. no way he could radar me and honestly write me a ticket. Screw it though.. that intersection is the most dangerous in the county, no need to be hero.

As I pass the 60->50 Speed Change Ahead sign I start to slow down.. and I'm doing 50 right as I get to the sigh. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTT WTF?!?! It was full-on signal.. and 'The Man' was way to far ahead of me to be the source. Then I notice that maroon SUV. 1/8 mile back or so.. in my lane... BUGGERS! That's not citizen in distress.. it's one of the WSP's undercover patrol vehicles! No wonder he did not slow down to check on that 'motorist' on the side of the road. He'd called ahead. And then it made sense. As soon as I was next to the SUV, off came the flashers and brakes and he merged onto the highway behind me.

Following the last failed attempt to lock-on with weapons.. 'The Man' turned off on the Purdy exit and headed off to points unknown. The SUV? It pulled onto the shoulder of the highway under the Purdy Cuttoff overpass, at which point I lost sight of him.

My hat is off to the WSP for trolling deep to catch a fish. It was a good trap.. and had I been paying closer attention It would have spotted it before it was sprung. Too bad for them I was not breaking the law.

Sometimes you poke at the bear and you don't get eaten. Plus.. you can have a piping hot breakfast burrito micorwaved on your dash, all at the same time! It sure was yummy.

A Winter Pounding

Wow.. what a nutty week! We had a record breaking month of rain (normally 5 1/2" this time over 15 1/2"). Then we have record breaking low temps (not since the 70's has this area had such low temps).

Driving in the snow and ice in the Porsches was VERY interesting!! On Sunday when storm #1 opened the skies with unusually heavy and very dry snow. The roads were rough but started to clear out by Wendesday.. when storm 2 cam rolling in, leaving a bunch of snow in some areas, and almost no snow in others.

Over the last 6 days I took a number of photos, had a couple of near spins right outside the house and even turned back while trying to get to work on Monday. It was sort of fun.. being snow-bound from the office for 3 days.. also drove me nutz with cabin fever! I was happy to take my chances on the icy roads Thursday morning.

Armed with a blanket, box of snack bars, 1 liter of water and 1/2 liter of engery drink in case the roads went to hell. It was an uneventful and unusally light commute.

When I have time I'll post some pics from the week.

On a more auto-centric note, on Monday the 4th I should have a load of parts and supplied arriving, including a special suspension brace for the 993, required when fitting 18" wheels on a 1995 993 (which is what mine is and has). I did not wait to jack the car up and see if I already have the prace. I might, since they previous owner did some upgrades. If it's an extra.. off to FleaBay for it!

The remainder of the parts inclue a pair of DME relays. These are the common failure point on older Motronic / Bosche engine control systems, and if the relay fails the car will not run at all (no fuel). I spare is cheap insurance so one will go on each car.

Another repair that I'll be making is re-soldering the clock in the 964 to hopefully cure it's loss of time and to fix connections that triggered the SRS failure lamp.

Lots to do in the comming days....

Test Drives - first impressions.

Ride quality is excellent! The car feels a lot more precise in everything it does, but not harsh. With the H&R Red (turbo) springs and Bilstien HD shocks it seems like the perfect combination of control and comfort for street use. Today is the 2nd test run down the normal commuting route and both drives were equally enjoyed.

The suspension does give a jarring ride. Some places where the car was difficult to control (crossing heavily rutted intersections) seemed a lot smoother, which I found odd with the stiffer shocks and springs. The reason for this, I think, is the fresh components stopped the tendancy to pogo, because the shocks could not control spring bound/rebound. Whatever the reason, it's a vast improvement AND it did not ruin the day-to-day ride comfort!

There are some drawbacks. I'm not feeling what I'd call bumpsteer but it is a bit more skittish and tends to wander more on the road. I'm sure this is due to the basic (and I mean very basic) alignment I had done Saturday morning.

The reason for the basic alignment initialy is to test the ride height I selected (Euro RS + 5mm) in a real world environment. City, town and soon (some time this week) the state ferry system. All of these provide interesting ground clearance challenges. The ferry is the one I'm most concerned with. Tides in this area an vary more than 14'. That is a lot of ramp angle when you are talking about approach angles getting onto and off of that auto ferries. I hope I don't high-center the car. Nothing pisses off ferry uses more than a dead car or worse.. one fully blocking the loading ramp!

More thoughts to follow as I spend time driving the 964 on the commute. Now, the 993 is going to go in for some TLC, probably an alternator overhaul and to come up with a cleaver plan to hard-wite in the Escort radar detector power harness. I just completed a basic reverse engineering of the spare I have. Hopefuly my assessment is correct and I can duplicate the scheme, creating a switched 12v output to trigger stereo auto-mute as well as flash dashboard lights instead of a tiny LED. We'll see how it turns out.

DONE! (nearly).

After what was much longer project than it needed to be, the 964 is back together and on the ground!

Last night my neighbor came over and we completed bleeding the brakes. Ah.. rock solid. The only task left now is to set ride height (the above pictures is with the springs set at full extension), set the alignment and finally bed in the new brake pads.

For this photo I rolled the car in and out without the brakes. I just could not wait to get it outside and see how it looked as low as it would go.

Jacking the car to bleed the brakes was interesting. The near rear sway bar is quite stiff. At the current setting, jacking the car from it's rear jack point lifts both tires on that side of the car. In fact it almost put it on one tire (left front, right rear jack point). It will be interesting to try it out once alignment and brake bedding are complete.

Later this week I'll post some more pics of the car just before I finished the button up.

It sure was sweet to fire up that engine again. It sounds soooo good with the recent updates. I 'll try to shoot a video clip of it and post this weekend!

Brake supplies finally here!

Finally, the last of the brake supplies for this project have arrived.

I could have gone with a lesser fluid, or even a better fluid (at $60 per 1/2 liter) but this is regarded as one of the best and when ordered from Amazon.com it's also one of the most economical. With specifications that vastly exceed DOT 4 requirements I should not boil out the fluid unless I really, really screw up by over-braking.

Also in the kit is a bleeing bottle to keep the fluid from making a mess on the floor and facilitate easier bleeding of the brakes.

Starting on 964 Rear

With the front buttoned up and only bleeding of brakes remaining I've began work on the rear of the '64. Looking at the lower mount points this will be a breeze. Nothing need be distrubed in the alignment adjustments. Rear sway bar should be far easier to access than the front.

The big problem will be gaining access to the tops of the rear struts. As you an see, the motor is stuffed into the rears of these cars. Plenty of parts are in the way. Since I replaced the stock airbox with the cone intake I can at least see the tops of the rear shocks. Not so on the driver side. Removal of the blower fan seems to be a requirement and likely the only holdup on completing the rear of the car. Time will tell. More as I start to unbolt parts.

Buttoning up front end

Finally, found some time to get working on this project again. If feels good to have things put back together. It's been far too long that car has been in the shop. With it just a tad more than 1/2 way done I see light at the end of the tunnel.

To be clear on this. The project is NOT difficult nor is it that time consuming. I've simply had some problems setting side the time to do it, with family, work, board meetings, club meetings, needing to eat and do laundry (house cleaning etc.). It's just been a time conflict issue. If you plan to do this sort of work. Fear not, it's EASY! A little time consuming but a long single day set aside to just knock it out and you are done. Only people with weird work hours other self-imposed restructions will find it and extended project.

Onto the pics and a little bit about what all those new shiney parts are:

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All the parts back together
New Bilstein struts, H&R 965 Turbo springs, Axxis Ultima brake pads and new Zimmerman rotors. At the suggestion of others I painted the new rotor hats in high-temp (1200F) silver paint. They look fine now but will soon begin to show rust. The rotors on my old race Miata did the same thing. Nature of the beast when the ocean water is 1/2 a block from your house. It should keep it looking clean and sharp!



Assembled with my fabricated droplink.
Here is the driver's side of the car, viewing assembly from the front. You can see the sweet new pads, big vented rotors, new stainless front brake lines. What is sort of unusual and I'm not even sure I'll keep them in service for long, are heim joints and grade-7 thread-all that are serving as the sway bar droplinks. You can see it crossing just in front of the strut from the steering knuckle to the bar. It's an interesting method of doing this, dropping the link off of the steering knucle instead of the lower control arm. The way the front suspension the car is engineered is like nothing I've seen before. I've worked on number of cars with strut front-ends but the way the assembly works (camber and caster changes) through it's travel is facinating. This is the last time those parts will look that pretty.



Buttoned up and on the ground.
And finally, wheels re-installed and placed on the ground. I think you can see why I painted the rotor hats. They are quite promenent with the factory wheels (due to the great degree of front-end offset compared to most wheels - meaning they are further outboard than most). Again.. soon they will never look this pretty again.

I've got big balls..

.. monoballs that is. The MODE monoballs for the 993 arrived last night. These things are really trick. Adjustable camber plates with monoball tops for maximum camber adjustability and precise steering. I can see why these cost more than 1/2 a Porsche Unit!


In other news.. feck.. it'd getting cold. If you are reading this from the midwest or upper Eastern seaboard you're likely just laughing at me. But hey.. for us.. this is getting a little chilly! Brrrrrrr. I don't eveny those of you that live in the snowbelt... (why anyone built anothing more than an ice fishing hut up there is beyond me).

Things starting to go back together again.

I've made little progress this week because of numberous distractions. Primary of which has been work.
Secondary was selling a motorcycle Monday night which took several hours to complete. Geez that kid was peristant.. in the end he wore this old man down and I folded. Not completely but I did take less than I wanted for the bike. There is a point where it's just not worth battling over any longer. Besides.. it's not like I sold it to buy groceries or make my rent or something like that. It was more about not having to insure it any longer!


Back to cars... this is what it currently looks like up front. I'd have it back on the ground by the stock drop links are more than 2" too long. Crap.. I need to order more parts. Havn't had time to get them aquired. I was trying to find a better price than $110 each but now it looks like I'll not only have to pay that but I spent 3 days trying to save money that I ended up never saving. Arg. I hate when I do that. It's parallels the bike. Didn't feel like fighting for a couple of hundred dollars that I'll soon forget about. Just wanted the deal done. Hasta la vista Honda!

I honestly want to get the rear started... I doubt I'm racing this weekend.. just too much to do and no time to do it in. It's nearly winter anway, which was the reason I started this project.. I'd have all the time in the world to finish it. I think I need to take my time... enjoy the work on the car and not rush it due to self-imposed deadlines. Live is too short to stress yourself out!

The name's Bond. James Bond.

Like a scene out of a 007 movie, the 993 laid down a could of smoke this morning that any spy would be proud of.

What it all amounted too was me being a dumbass. I overfilled that oil tank. 911's are dry sump engines, so all the oil is stored in a tank, typically about 13 quarts of the life preserving fluid.

My dash oiltank gauge has a bad sensor and it's always reading low. Not wanting to blow up a $15,000 engine in a new-to-me car, I try to keep on top of it. Yesterday I was over the top on it, literally.

Upon startup this morning, for the first time, I was greeted with a big cloud of smoke. YIKES! CRAP! I link I screwed up my oil level check proceedure and overfilled the tank! Thankfuly tt quit smoking almost as quickly as it had started.

Warmed up, off to work I go. Needing to accelerate into traffic, I put my foot in the go-button. WHOOSH! "HOLY MOTHER OF *****!!!" A blue-white cloud so thick *all* traffic behind me dissapeared. And since it was not steam I really hung around, covering the roadway. Dang it!

I'm really, REALLY glad nobody had a crash. That scared the heck out of me, and I'm sure was an attention getter to those behind me.

I drove a short distance, got off the highway to a deserted road, and tried it again. This time no smoke. Tried many times, doing a couple of WOT launches from a dead stop. No smoke. Hopefuly it blew out what I'd overfilled.

I'll see when I leave the office today, if they wish a farewell to 007.

964 suspension work continues and broken tools.

It's Wednesday and things are going along much more quickly than I had expected, considering the quantity of write-ups regarding the suspension work. So far the front has rivaled my old Miata for easy of work. It's been a breeze. The ONLY challenge I've had so far was getting the nuts removed from the tops of the front struts.

No size of vice grip was able to hold the shaft with enough grip to get the nuts off. I ended up taking them to the local Porsche dude across town at MaxRPM (Alex THANKS for taking time out of your busy day to use the super impact gun to remove those things!). It took him some time to get them loose but now they are off and progress can continue.

I did run into an issue with the 10mm Allen head bolts. In fact it was the tools that had a problem. 3 tools died while attempting to loosen the lower bolts on both sides. Oddly enough a Tiawanese tool from Schucks Auto Supply was the only survivor (two of the dead tools were American made life-time tools.. which will be returned for replacement some time this week). I'll post some aftermath photos as well as some other interesting shots once I download them from my camera.

See ya next time.

964 work starts, 993 parts arrive and 8-stars of Thai

964 work starts
More mod madness is underway. Last night I put the 964 up on jacks and started the suspension overhaul. Where I live, there is a pretty strict time frame within which it's sort of OK to make noise. That ends at 10:00pm. That left me less than 2 hours of work but I think I did pretty good for my first time in there really tearing stuff apart (pics will follow later this week).


First off, the car is much easier to work on (so far) than I had feared. Why did I put this off so long? Stupid fear. So within those 105 minutes I had to work on the car I accomplished the following:

• Up on jacks. It took a while to decised where to jack and place the stands.
  
• Remove front lower aero-pan, to expose suspension
  
• Removed front flex (brake) lines.
  
• Removed front calipers (those bolts are TORQUED).
  
• Boot liner removed to access to shock towers.
  
• Disconnect battery (I plan some airbag work in parallel)
  
• Removed front rotors. They would make decent boat anchors.
  

At that point, I was out of time.

First thing in the morning I got up, made coffee and started to work on it again. After re-reading the online articles on the project, went after the 4 big bolts that hold on the front struts.

This requires a 10mm allen (post) head socket. After a lot of creaking the first bolt budged on the driver side. Next I went to the lower. Creaked then made a weird sound and got very VERY easy to turn. The allen head spin in the tool! The cheap Chinese toolset (that had worked find on my bikes) lost the battle, reduced to junk. Next I used a 6-point 10mm socket on the post. That socket quickly exploded into multiple pieces (I'm not using an impact hammer here.. just a breaker bar.. well.. it broke alright).

Needing to get to work, and with most of these required tools in pieces, I packed up, cleaned up and hit the road, stopping at the tool shop for some replacements. I'll have at it again tonight.

993 parts arrive
Awaiting me at the office this mornign was a FedEx box containing the H&R springs, destined to ride in the 993. Woo Hoo. More suspension work. I still need to source the Bilstien shocks for this update... and waiting on the new rotors too. Oh, also over the weekend I added some Big Oval tips to the 993. Need to get those pics posted too.

8-stars of Thai
I think I've lost my voice (or at least my ability to see, eye are filled with tears). Much to my delight (dismay) there is a good Thai restaurant right scross the street from the office, so I got there often. Over the last few weeks I've been ratcheting up the heat on my meals. When I found out they go beyond 5 starts (1-5 is typical, as far as I know), the escalation began.

Head waiter let me in on the 'extra' star secret and said he's tried 7 stars once.. could not finish it. So I tried out 6. Whew.. heat but.. I felt I needed more. Went to 6 1/2 stars but still wanted to kick it up.

Last week I ordered 7 stars. My coworkers came in complaining of watering eyes in thier offices.... AH! I was just about there.. .but.. I was still able to eat the food with impunity... but how much further can I push it before they say 'Enough! Cook his food in machine shop solvent!'.

Today, I pushed to 8 (on a scale of 1 to 5). The heat is starting to come on. Everyone got a good laugh when I grabbed a soda from the break room. I guess I'm beat read, sweating and eyes filled with tears. Ah.. this is what I'm talking about... at little heat in the ol Thai food.. :) Tomorrow.. it will be 8 again.. and if that does not put me in the hospital.. I might go to 9!

993 Bonding is complete

I hesitated to say much but I was having a little trouble with the 993 as a daily driver. Compared to the 964 it felt 'loose' on the highway.. not really connected to the driver. I'd been looking over parts and could not find anything *wrong* with the car.. it just felt funny.

Until this weekend.

Following a weekend of driving the kids around I noticed some rattles around the rear and Saturday night got in the back seat area with a philips screwdriver and went to work. About 20 and several trim screws later.. it was all battoned down. Then I went about checking tire pressures. Something I should have done earlier.

While working at the track on the 964 I noticed that my rear tires needed a lot more pressure than I thought they would to keep from rolling over on the sidewalls. Hm.. could that be the cause of the loose feeling? The tires are a 35 aspect ratio.. hardly and sidewall at all. But why not run them up to 42psi and see what it gets me.

What did it get me? A brand new feeling car. Crap... that vauge feeling was all due to the tire pressure in the rears being far too low.. that.. and the fact that Toyo also makes TOTAL PIECE OF SH*T TIRE in the form of the Proxes T1R. (that R must mean something other than race.. you fill in the blank). Geez. Sidewall flex is king at Toyo from what I can tell. The tire the T1R replaced (T1S) was notorious sidewall flex and making even the sportiest of cars feel vauge. Everyone raved about how much better the T1R was. Well.. I can only image how big of a TURD the T1S must have been! Geez.. how do I make these sorts of mistakes.

Well.. put in more air pressure and wow.. tightened up the feel. Now it was as fun and tighter if not more so, than the 964!!

All is well with my insane little Porsche world. Note to self.. what might *seem* like a good tire pressure on the rear of a normal car is utter foolishness on the rear of a 911/964/993/996/997 (and I'm thinking the same is true for Boxters and Caymans).

Now that I'm totally comfortable with the 993.. the 964 will be going under the knife for a full suspension tune-up (shocks, springs, sways, you name it!).

More to follow........ including my writeup on the new 993 performance 'Big Oval' tips fetched off of eBay this past week!

993 Big Oval Tips (another fleaBay score)

I didn't find them, nor was I the first to try them out. Instead of reaping the benefits of those that bravely went before me. In the world of Porsche parts, quality is king and some manufactures take that to mean, they can charge 3x the normal price for a basic part under the banner of a certain level of 'quality'. What I've found is that it's not often the case.

In this case, a factory big-oval tip is several hundred dollars. A similar artermarket part from a renown PCar parts manufacture is around $500. These little babies... Fifty-bucks! Of course I was concerned about fit and finish but others had raved about the deal so I toss my 1/2 C-note to the wind.

I was not dissapointed. Here are some pics of the parts as I unpacked, compared and installed them.

New parts unpacked.
The polished finish, quality flare on the flange and black painted interior were more than I had anticipated. They feel like quality parts.


Big megaphone construction.
Here my little helper shows the interior of the product. What surprised me most is how much better this part was than the factory Porsche part in both constrution and finish. Inexpensive does not neccessarily mean cheap!


Comparing the parts
Factory part on the left, new part on the right. The difference in size and finish is obvious. Interior of the stock part acctually looked like would induce some turbulance and back pressure. The aftermarket part is smooth on it's interior. So far, so good.


Part installed.
It did not take much effort to get the new part installed, aligned and tightened up. Looks like a quality factory part to me. Except.. in the next picture you can see there is quite a difference.


Comparing stock (left) for new (right).
It's quite easy to spot the new part on the right. I think it looks a lot better, fills up the valace opening, and.. it's so shiny!


Done
Final results. Looks good. Inexpensive. Easy to install. My gear-head neighbor Bill, said it even sounded different when I headed off to work on Monday. If you are interested in this part I can get you in touch with the FleaBay seller that sold them to us on Rennlist. Fast delivery and big bang for the buck!!

TGI Freaking F!!!

Finaly Friday. What a loooooooong week. Very little done with the cars, besides drive them (took the 993 into work today.. ah.. such a sweet car but sill needs some tuning). It also stopped raining today. This picture was taken last weekend, when it was raining, sue me. One of these days I'll shoot some decent pics of it. For now.. this will have to do.


MODS:
On second though, that is not totally true. I did fix the rear seat belts this morning so the kids can safely ride in the back of the 993. There were some factory latch 'stop's in the belts that prevented them from getting tight enough on my little people. A small application of a hot iron to the offending buttons took care of that in short order!

PARTS!
Some new parts arrived yesterday. Cosmetic stuff primarily. Ho.. so what arrived.. righto.

A pair of 'Big Oval' exhaust tips. They will do a better job of filling the rear valance where the stock tips live now. Cosmetic, maybe a tiny sound alteration. The best part is the COST. So, you can order these an option from Porsche for around $700 or if you are a bargain shopper $500 from a couple of the aftermarket manufactures.

Well.. Rennlist pays for itself over and over and over again. This time.. a group buy was arranged form an eBayer that had a very nice set of these tips for sale.. for.. well.. around $55.00 SHIPPED!

Mine just came in the mail, but are still in the box in the back seat of my car, parked in the parking garage a couple blocks away. What mental defect makes me want to drop EVERYTHING and run out there, get the box, bring it back and open it? LOL. It's OCD I suppose (or just OD).

CATCHING UP? - NOT YET.
And I still have some posts to finish, but I did post pics from my exhaust mods on Sunday. Getting behind already.

As always, more to come!

Living With a Porsche - Redux (1)

Well, it's been over a month of ownership for the 964 and a couple of weeks for the 993. I' working to sort some things on the 993, so I've been commuting (about 100 miles a day) in the older 964. Rain, sun, dark, light, you name it.

How do I feel about the car? Do I still like it? Do I still enjoy it? Am I going to keep it? How does it drive in real-world traffic? Well.. read on!

How do I feel about the car?
Still enjoy it as much as the day I test drove it. FUN. The novelty is wearing off (but by the looks of other drivers on the road.. for them it's still interesting to see one on the road in daily use). Despite the novelty issue, I still in love with the car!!

Do I still like it?
See above. It's a real treat!!!

Do I still enjoy it?
Hm.. I guess I'm really hammering on this point. YES. I ENJOY THE CAR. OK.. I think that is covered. It's a sweet driver! In fact my newer Mercedes is *still* parked, un-driven in the back of my driveway. Not only do the kids NOT like that car any more.. I'm sort of done with it too. Nothing wrong with the car, I just find that I like manual transmissions instead of autos. Always have, always will.

Am I going to keep it?
How long do I keep anything? Those who know me, know I'm not attached to things mechanical. At least, not in an emotional way. They stir emotions, sure. But even those vehicles I've owned that are often seen as vehicles that one should *never* part with (such as my Ducati Superbike I sold this year), are not immune to my chopping block. It's all for sale, at any time, for any resonable price. That said.. I plan to keep this baby for a long time (a long time for me at least). Very happy with my purchase VERY VERY HAPPY!!!

How does it drive in real-world traffic?
I'd think this is what anyone would really like to know about. So here is the scoop.

In stop and go traffic, the transmission gear ratio is such that putting along in 2nd gear is the norm. Only when the traffic is at a complete stand still, do I drop into first gear. Even then the smoothness of the engine and the gearing make it very VERY livable.

Unlike other cars I've had, it's not jerky or abrupt at the gear change. It's easier for me to drive in heavy traffic than the auto in my Benz. Really. Honestly. No joke. The 964 shows NO sign of running hot. The 993 on the other hand does in traffic. This is one of the things I'm sorting out on it. I think the oil cooler fan is shot or otherwise disabled. Not a biggie in our climate here but I like having my cars in PERFECT running order so I'm slowly working though this to see what the deal is.

At speed on the highway. It's ON RAILS! Germans know how to build cars. Period.

Well, not all German cars are built well (we had VW Jetta for a while that was a big stinky pile of crap.. thank goodness that went with the ex-wife!!). Digressing. Most of the German autos I've owned have been close too or north of the 100,000 mile mark. WELL USED. Yet these cars drove better than *any* other brands I've driven when new!

German cars are amazing. Solid is the word I used for these cars. Very VERY solid. The fact I'm commuting in a sports car is totally lost on me. It does not feel like I have made any compromise beyond loss of cargo space. It's easy to drive, in every situation. And fun to drive fast.. very fast... but that happens on the track and other closed courses, right?!?!

Yes, it's been a VERY short period of time but Porsche ownership is treating me very well. Now, if only I could get the passenger seat heater in the 964 to quit buring my friend's butts when the ride with me, all would be right!

First upgrade parts for the 993 ordered today.

H&R Springs

I've been thinking about lowering the car and tightening up the ride a little bit. Today I stumbled across a listing for H&R lowering springs for the 993 at a very good price. So I bought them. Used but really.. as soon as you install new ones, they are used too. Worth the gamble IMHO.


Also added to the queue...


Zimmerman rotors

These parts are new. I recently paid $300 + shipping for the same types of rotors on the 964. The 993 has larger rotors so when I spotted a set online for $200 + shipping it was a no braininer (I still need to order some rears).


The march into oblivion, continues.

Fuel problem Part... ??? fixed?

Another fun weekend of wrenching and general mayhem. The kids continue to love the cars and simply refuse to ride in the Benz any more. Who am I to force them to do that? :) Torture of ones kids is seldom a good course of action.

A couple of projects were completed in the 964 this weekend. The 993 did duty as a funmobile for a couple of drives but stayed put most of the weekend as I'm still deciding it's future as a street car (so sweet to drive) or a track pig (so much more powerful than the 964... ). Onto the projects.

PROJECT 1 - Euro Pre-Muffler:
I'd wanted to make this mod ever since I installed the home-fabbed Cup primary muffler bypass. The primary muffler bypass really added some rumble to the car and also stripped 15 lb. off the rear of the car. But.. with 2 mufflers and a catalytic converter there was a lot of room to play with the exhaust.

Sunday morning I put the rear of the car on jacks and started the install. I'd figured this would require the replacement of serveral bolts that would certainly break on a 16 year old exhaust.

Happily the broking of bolts never happened. Instead within less than 1 hour I had the cat out, heat sheilds removed and the new pre-muffler installed!! This time the Fabspeed part fit correctly (the part was used.. probably made back when they had better quality control). It was very simple to install. I did not even have to lossen the rest of the exhaust.

How did it sound afterwards. Well... it's louder! :) But in an obnoxious Ricer way. It has a great burble/rumble at idle and a wicked groan as it accelerates. All of it easily mitigated by rolling up the windows and turning up the stereo a tiny bit. Hard to say if the butt-dyno is measuing more or less power but it sure does sound great! And it took another 13 lbs. off that ass-end of the car. A Win-Win for sure!

PROJECT 2 - Fuel cut-off valve replacement:
The parts arrived last week and I got around to installing it Sunday. I was not planning on tearing into the fuel tank under the bonnet yesterday, but the pre-muffler install went so well I have lots of allocated time left over. So.. back into the opposite end of the car to install a repair part (instead of a performance upgrade).

That repair went very quickly as well. As much as I tried to drag it out.. it took less than 15 min to swap the parts. These cars are pretty fun to work on! I'm sure I'll sing a different tune when I get around to the suspension, but for now, it's all fun and games.

So, did it fix the problem? Maybe. This morning I was queired at the petrol pump by an older gent about the car (I often get queried at the petrol station about the PCar.. almost every time). He'd had a 911 several years ago. It was a nice conversation. Except I'd lost track of how much fuel I'd put in the car. OH OH! I was over the 3/4 mark (the magic point where it pukes fuel and runs like a turd). Oh well!! Much to my surprise the car fired right up, idled normally and drove like a dream despite having nearly a full tank. The drive into work (40 miles) was also smooth! Hm.. could it have been that simple to fix!?!? Time will tell. In fact I'm going outside right now to see if she's leaking gas in the parking garage. I hope all is well.

In Conclusion;
Another week starts. Today I drove the 964. Traffic was horrid. With the IPod cranking out Delerium I putted along, amazed at how low my stress level was and how incredibly streetable such a sportscar is. Owning PCars has been a REAL eye opener!

Euro Pre-Muffler

Installing a Euro Pre-Muffler

Weight is the inverse of horsepower. The less you have the better. So when the used Fabspeed Euro-pre muffler arrived I was anxious to get it installed! How much weight does it save you ask.. well.. keep reading you lazy bum!

Fabspeed Euro Pre-Muffler
I bought his part used for a pretty good deal ($250+shipping) from a fellow Rennlister. Every once in a while I score a deal and this was one of them. You can see the honey color from previous heat cycling. It's a nice looking part. It's also quite a bit lighter than the pile of stock equipment that it replaces. I'm not sure what the send port in the top of it is for but the fist port is the O2 sensor bung. Now.. on to the install!

Factory part with shields
This is what is being replaced. Look at all that crap! The used to have a nasty rattle off idle and also when I shut the driver door. I hated that.. made the car sound cheap. My hope was that this modification would address that as well, along with weight savings and of course.. a nice increase in exhaust note.

Old parts removed
This is the pile of stuff replaced. No small stack of steel. Removal of the parts was a breeze! Modification was completed in very short order! None of the bolts required any sort of lubricants to remove them. Once broken free, the nuts were easily removed by fingers. I love quality construction! These cars have it in spades. Even removing the O2 sensor was a sinch. Other non-german cars I've had were a real effort. Mereceds and Porsche use quality exhaust pipes which make work a lot easier. You get what you pay for, IMHO. Onto the final results!!

New part installed
So here it is. Looks a lot smaller in there. Really cleaned up that area behind the rear wheel. And the the big bonus. This dropped another 13 lbs. off the very end of the car. Just a fraction of the 3000 overall weight but it's weight lost in best place to lose it. Plus that is just like adding 2 HP in weight savings. This is not to mention the fact this part should net another 10 HP by freeing up some stuffy exhaust parts (this being the 2nd most restrictive part after the primary muffler which was removed previously - I'll get around to that writeup at some point..).

Conclusion:
Excellent modification. Not sure if it's worth the $450 price of the new part... but for $250 used it was worth it. Lost weight (13 lbs.) gained some power (people estimate as much as 10 HP but who knows.. I didn't dyno test it and I really don't care *that* much) and fixed that nasty rattle all at the same time! And the sound! Well, I can hear it just a tad more when deep in the throttle. Outside the car tone is wonderful. Nice low grumble. My neighbor gearheads say it sounds great! Win-win-win!

Parts, tires, oil.. OH MY!

PARTS:
The 964's Euro pre-cat arrived yesterday. Ah... can't wait to get that installed and see how much weight it saves (that and.. well.. you know why they are *good* upgrades). Right now the Mercedes is in the dry dock so it's going to be some time this weekend before I get around to attempting the install. At least this FabSpeed piece looks like it's manufactured the right way. That's a bonus.

TIRES:
I do believe I coverd this before, but with the Toyo Proxes installed on the front of the 993 it fixed most of the weird little wandering and vibration the car had at highway speed. It still night need a front steering overhaul (rebuilt rack, new tierod ends, etc.) but for now it's quite pleasant to drive! Althought I'm not sure how good these tires are supposed to be. With a 280AA treadwear... how good *can* they be? I'm suspecting they will be no better than the ES-100's on the other car, and Toyo Proxes (S and R) are notrious for having very soft sidewalls. Maybe the soft sidewall makes the car seem just a tad more loose than the 964 with it's ES-100's. What might be an interesting experiment would be to swap the tires on the cars..... ah.. like I havn't already made more work for myself.

OIL:
Yikes. Well.. not really too bad to be 1/2 quart low in a system with 13 quarts of oil. I found out last night that I'd not checked the oil level properly on the 993 and it was actually low! I had a quart of 15-50 Mobil 1 handy in the boot, tossed that in and good to go. Oil tank gauge showing midline to high when warm. Good! What is really not full is the PS fluid! Ya know.. when a dealer does a PPI one would ASSUME they would check this sort of stuff! Makes me wonder if they did much of anything at all for $250.

So, the 993 is parked today until I make time to go to the parts store and get some more PS fluid. Thought I had some at home but could not find it this morning. Better to be on-time to work in the other car than futz around with trying to find a $2.00 bottle of hydro. Plus the rear tires are at 30PSI. Much lower than I want to run them. More stuff for me to do tonight..... plus the car needs a bath something fierce. Yellow really REALLY shows the dirt (maybe more than black). Plus I want to toss on a coat of Aeroshell polish. It sure did make the 964 look even better!

A better photo of the hot sisters.

After completing some work in the 90 (964) I pulled it out next to the 95 (993) that was going in the shop next to get a pair of new front tires. Snapped a quick photo of the two for now. Can't wait to get the competition suspension on the 964 and the 19" wheels I'm considering for the 993. The 18's on the 993 will become competition rims since they have quite a few blemishes on them at the moment. Power-coated black or.... red... might look good.. or might look so garish as to invoke gastrointestinal evacuations... for now though... this is enough fun-with-bank-accounts to keep me busy every night.

Sometimes insanity reigns

Sometimes insanity reigns.

It has been just a little over a month since I bought my first Porsche. The 1990 964 Carrera 2. What a great running car! A pure joy to drive, and despite some oil leaks, a real joy to own! But now I've been bitten by the bug!

I must have MORE!

The first time this happened to me, it was with motorcycles. I still have a couple of them but now.. it's cars.. specific cars... air-cooled boxer powered Porsches. I really have had quite a few cars and driven a quite a few more (from older Targas to newer Corvettes) and there is some thing about these cars that I simply cannot put to words, but it's there and it's driving me to learn more and more about them.

On Friday, October 6th I went overboard (well.. I think not, others will disagree) and picked up a very well priced (way below market asking) 1995 993 Carrera 2. This one.. is just a beauty. The 964 is very elegant in it's champagne metallic clothes. This one is a more like a hooker. She's flashy, fast and dangerous.

It has only been a couple of days since she came home, and it spent all weekend in the shop while I drove the older sibling to and beyond it's limits at a driver school that past weekend. Today it's in the office parking garage, at the very end, in a brightly lit but lonely corner, glaring. A color so loud you can hear the car from across the street while it's parked. I love it! I do not have many pictures of it yet but I do have this one taken just before my track class. Once I get a chance I'll do a proper shoot. For now, I present... “Trouble”.

Yokohama ES-100 - el JUNKO!!!

I just completed the second event on the Yokohama AVS ES-100 tires. Without qualification I can honestly say with clarity of soul and purpose. THEY SUCK! Termine la materia fecal. Nicht gut!

For a street tire that seems low to perhaps moderate use. They are probably fine. But when used in a sprited fashion they show serious limitations. When used competitivly.. they are completely inadeqate and bordering on dangerous.

Following 2 70 second runs on the course, the rear tire sidewalls were rolling over. My instructor had me increase tire pressure twice, finally ending at 47 PSI, to keep the shoulders of the tires from chunking. The rear tires were getting incredibly hot. Trying to power out of a turn became impossible due to constant wheel spin. It was not really enjoyable.

In conclusion: I'll have some used ES-100's for sale to anyone with a Porsche garage queen. Any other purpose would not be suitable for these tires.

TWO THUMBS DOWN!

CarFAX - useful tool or urban hype?

I've bought quite a few cars, all but one of them used (some very VERY used). In some cases a CarFAX report was in the glovebox, or in the dealership file. During my last round of insantity (ie buying cars) I decided it would be good to pay the $25.00 and get a CarFAX account. The cost was basically non-existant compared to the prices of the sports cars I was shopping for.

After selling our ML320 some years ago, following a parking lot incident where it was nearly totaled (hit by an old lady while parked) my faith in CarFAX was not high. The damage was more than 3/4 of the vehicles value and we barely avoided it being considered a total. When I checked the CarFAX report on it later, the accident never appeared! That did not make me feel so good. So when I bought the subscription this time around I kept this in mind, knowing that if something DID show up.. well.. it must mean something.

Fast forward a week and I'm running my first report on prospective 1995 993 Carrera. Hm.. odometer questions... and WHOA!! I wiring harness recall! YIKES! Thanked the seller and went on my way.

Another week down the road I find a gorgeous 1997 993, all black. Went to drive it an check it out. Spectacular car, low mileage, nice upgrades. Drove just a little 'funny'. Thanked the seller, asked to jot down the VIN. Came back to the office and ran it through CF. WHOA!!! Not only had it been totaled once (Salvage title issued) but again a few years late (when a JUNK/DISMANTLED title was issued). Oh... wow! Sure.. something during the test drive did tell me the car had a problem but.. I never would have guessed it's sorted history. Thank goodness too since my desire to own that black beast was pretty strong. I never went back.

Another week had gone by and oddly enough that first 993 was still on the lot. Which was very surprising consider it's bargain basement price (the lowest price 993 in the country according to Autotrader.com at the time). Went back again, this would the 4th time I'd driven the car.

With CarFAX report in hand.. and knowlege that I'd have to get at least some work done.. I went back, found that it was actually a pretty solid car and made the deal. Two days later I was at the Porsche dealer having the recall taken care off with no out of pocket expense to myself. Water under the bridge.

You never know with a used car. The engine could explode tomorrow and I'd be back at square one. But I feel that the small cost of the CarFAX subscription is worth the price. Next round of auto-purchasing will include a renewal of my CarFAX account.

CONCLUSION: Not perfect, but worth the price.

Car running normally again + a cool little mod

Yippee!! Drove the car almost 200 miles yesterday without a single issue. It even started up and idled smooth from a cold start. Back to normal it seems. I do need to get out and order those parts (which is a reminder that I can do that over my lunch break right now ..).

In addition to the good news about the car working again, I orded up some Germain license plates from Europe for both the 964 and the 500E. I think it's a nice little update. So far the State Patrol has not cared to hassle me about it but you know I'll post if/when they do!

Fuel problem, fixed or just drivable?

After removing the expansion tank and draining, then removing the charcole canister and checking for fuel (it did not express anything when checked out), the car seems to be running OK, except when it's cold.. it still misses a bit.

Today will be the first long drive with it since I 'overfilled'. It seems there is a problem with a check valve on the expansion tank that allowed fuel to be pulled diretly into the engine. This makes me wonder if I fouled one of the 12 plugs, and a long drive might clear it up or at least illustrate which is having the problem.

Hopefully the car starts smoothly this morning, all this is quite saddening, as it's such a fun car to drive, and before this it was very, very nice even around town and in traffic due to it's excellent low-rpm torque curve.

Fuel Frustration - what in the world is wrong here?

This problem first occured on 8/28/06. At the time I described it as such:

SCENARIO: Fill up fuel tank, then drive.

PROBLEM: Fuel beings to drop quite heavily from the left rear area in front of drive tire, where the charcole / evap canister is located. It will do this until I can put about 50 miles on the car (I think that's about 2 gallons of gas). Then it stops.

I first noticed this last week when I parked the car nose-down in a parking spot (the city is on a pretty steep hill). I ran down the rail and dripped off at the driver front tire. Thought it was the filler neck on the tank.. reparked the car on level ground and after 30 min the drips stopped, until the next tank full.

Since that time I'd driven the car through Oregon, most of CA nad into Nevado (Reno to be exact) without at single issue, just being mindful not to put in more than 12 gallons at a time.

Last night, I got a little lazy. Washing off the windows I lost track of how much fuel I'd added and to my shock, it was at 15.5 gallons by the time I'd come to my senses. Nothing was dripping on the ground at that point. Figured I was OK.

Within a few blocks.. the stumbling started, but was not too bad.

Tonight... it's so bad it's dangerous to attempt to drive the car, but that seems to be the only way to clear out that problem! Instead pulled out some tools and took a look around the front part of the fuel system. This is what I posted to Rennlist, looking for help.

---

ARG! Put in 15 gallons last night and was treated to a shop full of fuel when I parked it at home. Let it drip out, wiped it up and called it a night (dripped quite a bit).

Took the other car to work today. When I got home, hopped in the P-car, lit off and idled normally. About 1 block up the street it was starting to stumble, like it does when it' 'overfilled'. By the time I got to the parent teacher conference it was running like a pissy little *****. Parked and within minuted.. fuel at the dirver rear wheel. It pissed for an hour, left a huge puddle and then I drove it home. Was OK for a very short while then stumbling, moaning all the way home, nearly stalling several times, and with a ver erratic idle.

Got home and... like a bad case of, something, it was dripping again... before the rear wheel. I'm baffled.

Pulled the little tank on top of the main tank and it had fuel in it. Drained that, wiped up the mess and re-installed. Still have lots of drips from the rear.

I'm perplexed. This is the ONLY thing that's wrong with this car. When I don't overfill it (I just completed a 4000 mile trip in the last 2 weeks) it's a dream. When I forget to stop it soon enough I get this problem, consistantly.

Aside from the poor drivability, it's turning my garage/house into a gas-bomb!

I need to get this sorted out but, I'm at a loss.

Checked for the valve but I don't see anything in the inlet with wiring and opened the filler and I don't see any valve or such in there. I guess I could take some pictures to show what it is I'm looking at here, and hopefully someone will have some helpful hints.

UPDATE:



As you can see in the first picture.. this is no small leak.. it's huge.



In the next picture, the tank I removed is the small flat one on top (entering image from left) on top of main tank. There was a some fuel in it that I drained out.



Last picture is what the tank inlet looks like. This is as much as I can see of it. If I have this valve.. can someone point to where I should be looking for it?

What ws interesting is that the main tank looks like it has a slight collapse.. like there was too much vaccum on it? The top tank looked slighly concave as well. When I removed the gas cap the vaccum did not seem excessive at all, but is that any sort of reliable indicator?


The valve on top of the expansion tank did not have any wires to it (the one near the top middle of 2nd picture).

Living with a Porsche

Well, sometimes it takes a little getting used too. The oil incontenance and of course, the ridiculous desire to drive the car all the time. Having picked up the car last month, almost on a lark... it's been a love affair that I hope does not end.

In general, I'm a pretty tough sell, unless it's something I want, and even then I'm more than willing to fold up the wallet and walk. The Porsche was an incredible test of my resolve. Saldy, I caved before the salesman could even say boo. After the first two gears I was HOOKED. The car totally sold itself. The salesman just had to fill out the official documents.

Since that day it's been a blaze of tire smoking glory. Well, more fun that glory since I placed LAST in Sports-A at my first event in the car. I beat A LOT of other cars overall but I still came in last by over 1 second in my division. I'd like to blame it on equipment (and to a large degree it is due to some things I want to update) but for the most part.. I just need to learn to drive *this* car!

In the next couple of days I'll have back-posted the race results and thoughts on the experience.

Also in the works is a post on the first update to the car (a new iPod enabled radio) , second update to the car (some new tires since snow-tires are NOT what I had in mind for performance rubber), and subsequent mods made and plan to make (there is a pile of parts on the floor right now and more on the way... here is a just a peak at what's next for the car:



So.. sit back.. relax and I hope you find this new blog of interest. Also, check back in a couple of days to see my re-dated (aka time-maching) posts of those first days of ownership, modifications and first race.

Cheers, and happy motoring!!

- David

Time for the snow tires to go!

The car handled just fine but the tires are Bridgestone Blizzak studless snow tires. Not exactly the most performance oriented tire for a performance oriented car. It needed to be changed.

After spending a fair portiong of the week specing out 205/60R16 and 225/55R16 tires from a variety of sources I decided to get the same tire I used on my Miata. The Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212. Armed with checkbook and ready to spend it was off to price out the local tire shop.

Upon arriving I made a rather grim discovery. My car did NOT have the stock wheels for a 1990 C2 instaleld but instead.. 17" turbo twist wheels off what I think was the '91 C4 AWD version. Regardless.. all my research became moot since this also meant I had much larger tires than I have originally thought.

After a couple of hours at the shop.. thinking about the upcoming winter driving season and how few auto-x events remained.. my focus shifted to more rain oriented tire, and they just happenedt to have a full set of one option in stock. Not wanting to deal with this any further I ordered them installed and went and grabbed some lunch.

A couple of hours later I was rolling out of America's Tire with a set of Yokohama ES-100 tires in 225/45R17 front and 255/40R17 rears.

Handling did not seem to change adversly despite the harder compound of these tires compared to the Blizzaks previously installed. Ride is quiet. There may have been a slight decrease in understeer from the car but most of that problem, I believe, is due to imporper right height and old shocks. Both of which to be addressed soon enough. Next weekend, is that autocross so it's hoped these tires hold up to the punishment!

First mod - Alpine CDA-9856

First mod to the car, add a CD in-dash player with real-time iPod control. For this I chose the Alpine CDA-9856.

Just a few days prior I had placed an order for the CDA-9857 to be installed in the Cruise Missle with an install date of 9/9/06. This unit is the little brother to the more fully features 9857. The nice part will be the ability to swap the head units between the cars if I find I'm driving one more than the other during summer/winter.

More about this mod to come!

A New Begining...

A new begining. After many years watching these enigmatic cars on the highway and the race track, I finally found my way into a possition where I could find out for myself.

That day came on Saturday, August 19th, 2006. The day this little gold beauty appeared on my weekly auto sales watcher. The price was right, the year was right and the type was acceptable (a Targa would have been preffered by even more difficult to find). Later I would discover that the Couple, althought less expensive by far, was the superior car for my needs which included weekend racing events.

I think it's obvious that I'm quite pleased with the purchase, and it's a great addition to the stable populated with a European motorcycle and one of the fastest Cars Mercedes shipped to the United States... The 500E supercar.

What is an interesting fact about these two cars is they were both cars spent time at Porsche's Stuttgart plant (the Mercedes is a rare hand-built model made in collaboration with Porsche). So.. althought of vastly different Marques, they share history. Plus.. both are incredibly fun to drive in thier own rights.

Stablemates:


The purpose of this blog will be to document the experiences (good and bad) with the Porsche Carrera 2 (aka 964). A 250 HP dual-spark 3.6L air-cooled opposing 6 engine, fully independant suspension and an very nicely appointed interior including A/C, leather heated seats and a dashboard to die for!

I hope you find this blog interesting as well as informative, and above that, thanks for taking the time to drop on by!

- David