GVA-SFO

Only one thing that I do not "understand" :

The "PDK" **** is still made of "plastic leather" (vegan type) !
Imo, a bit cheapo, ..or, matching the false exhaust pipes.

GVA-SFO

I'm questioning : we can find many (not road legal) kits, that bypass cat converters.
Why there is no kit that would bypass the oil vent, i.e.: going "out", instead of being burned into the engine cycles.
I would be (very) curious to know if a DFI engine that would be equipped with such a "kit", would still show carbon build up on the valves over time ?
Any answer on that one from a car engineer ?

GVA-SFO

Now, over 6'000 miles on my P4S.
Still love it all, ..except PDK. (Still not any single sign of love with this computer driven shifter.)

By the way, went to see an SCCA friend Saturday in Thunderhill, ..and had a very active role in fighting the West Nile Virus (car was clean Friday) :



Funny, I think I never been so good doing that with any of my 911's !! (A little bit of fridge aerodynamic effects down there, or I'm missing something.)

It is little bit off the topic, ..but, here is the car of the person that I went to see in Thunderhill, (I like this photo very much), this is a Reynard, full carbon body, suspension (F&R) inboard, etc.., with an ..Audi 4 in Line (no need to add "T" in the text, ..as you can see it very well, as the pipe was momentary out for a small session of TIG welding !).
Yes, that nice warm gray "color" of the gearbox, is an old and good real Hewland, with the case in magnesium. I can tell you : a real good car.



Note that the Audi engine is one of the very rare and very lucky one, ..that is in the right position on a car !)
A super nice car. Ah, ..I can add, that the owner of this car is the person that agreed to give me the key of the Panamera, ..just before it became mine, at the best factory dealer of the area !

GVA-SFO

It is strange, (or may be I'm not a reader with good attention!) but nobody mention a very good feature of the Panamera : When you open a door up to ANY angle, then the door stays at that position, like "seating there".
A great way to not ding the doors ..of your neighbors in a parking !
Not a "critical option", but for sure a "nice to have" !

..Or : I wish all the cars in the parking lots would be equipped with that. But, I understand that currently, the only (?) other that offers this feature is the new BM series 7 !
(You know, theses cars with a washing machine rotating button in center console !)

If you did not noticed it, ..just try on your car, ..it took me some miles to “find it” on mine !

keithos27

Yup it's brilliant!

MJBird993

The door holder was one of the first things that the salesman demonstrated to me when I was first looking at the car, so I've known about it for a long time. Aston Martins also have this feature.

GVA-SFO

Sorry to have been an ignorant about the door feature.
I could add that I bought a Panamera without any talk with a salesperson.

The person (see the story of the blue Reynard just above here) that gave me the keys to try it (alone), was selling a car to another customer at that time !
When I came back, I returned the key (with the car) and went to the financial guy to talk numbers ($$$).

I should say that the "sale work" was done a bit earlier (I'm a slow guy, ..may be my origins from Bern !) or to be accurate, ..it started in October 2009, ..in the parking lot of Candlestick (South of San Francisco), when I was invited for a "Panamera Driving Experience". At that drive, we were invited to drive 3 cars : the S, the 4S and the Turbo. After few laps with each cars, (with an instructor in the passenger side), I got convinced that I loved the 4S the best.



..The rest is history.

That day, 4 cars were present, three to drive, and one to watch and touch, so the first one I did touch, ..was this one :

yamanote

You can turn it off. Using the steering wheel scrollwheel, select the Vehicle menu, click on the wheel, select Settings>Date/Time then uncheck the Time - Chrono box.

GVA-SFO

Thanks a LOT @Yamanote,
Done.

I was looking to "disable it" in the Sport Chrono menu, ..was not thinking to look at this in the "Vehicle / Settings" !

No more "tic-tac" and no more glare in the center of the windshield during night flights, two birds with one stone.


OK, I suppose that I should RTFM, right ?

yamanote

Reading the manual told me that it was possible to turn the chrono into a clock, I didn't think anyone would want it off!

The light ring does reflect off the windshield though so I can understand why. Glad I was able to help

GVA-SFO

For those who were thinking that when I wrote earlier in this thread : "When you drive a Panamera in Reverse, ..it feels like a 911" ..I was joking, just look at this picture, and you will understand what I meant by that:
(If you have a Turbo S, ..you are may be able to do a "Wheelie" ? I'm talking in reverse, for sure.)
Btw, it is strange, we did not heard yet from the (stupid) guys at Pot Gears, to know if the Launch Control works on Reverse ?



Yes, sometime, it makes me think that with the new S being a V6, it starts to smell Audi to much. Now, with this V6 turbo, we can even have bad dreams, and think that the next generation could even be offered by default with front wheels drive !
In my mother tongue language, I would say : "Beurk".
(This is kind of the first sign, if you eat something that your body do not like, ..before the return of the material.)

Anyway, if a Factory guy read this message, or next time I will meet Dr. Wolfgang, I want to say that for me, the just arrived new S version is simply : NO-NO.

By the way, you can notice on this photo that any previous traces of my last fight against the West Nile virus, are all gone.
(I'm ready for another round.)
I should also note here that I like the RS Spyder wheels ..a little bit less than before, ..this, after cleaning these a few times !

GVA-SFO

Currently 31'270 miles, only added one quart, so: zero oil consumption problem.
Tomorrow, 30k miles service, which is basically an oil change.

I can say: about 8'000 great and peaceful miles of Panamera in 7 months, ..beside the "V water pipes failure", nothing to mention. (Ah, yes, a small one : one of the rear temperature control "lever" is not functioning ?anymore?)

But, frankly, I'm still not (at all) a friend of PDK, and even less than that to the "wheel clickers" that command it. (But, for a car like the new GT3, then, ..I would fully agreed on it, I mean PDK, ..not these stupid clickers !)

GVA-SFO

Now over 33'300, so: 10'000 miles since February.
No doubt, this is a real great car.

Targa Tim

Glad you continue to enjoy your Pan.
But have you bought another manual 911 yet?

GVA-SFO

Will not go for a 911, but for a Boxster S.
With the Pan, the room "problem" is 100% fixed, so, I will go for having the engine at the right place.
Last week, I went up to Sacramento, having a trailer ready in the back of our Cayenne, with $ in the pocket, to buy a Boxster S with a "dead engine" (the plan was ..to swapp a 911 3.6 or 3.8 engine in that tub), ..but the car was a real trash, so, I went back home with an empty trailer.
..But it will happen. Want to have a "track/autocross/fun" car, and I have no hesitation to go Boxster.
I'm convinced that replacing a 911 with a Panamera and a Boxster is the right thing for me.
But, the real dream would still be to have manual Panamera ..and a PDK track car !