RShepHorse

I'm juggling the relative merits of storing my '84 Targa away for the winter versus keeping it relatively operational for those rare but beautiful salt-free dry road days [in northern New England]. ...and there's a sick side of me that would love to see how all that horsepower, weight over those rear tires and the LSD would do in a few inches of snow...

For Storage - it seems like there's a handful of thing most folks recommend:

• overinflate tires
• oil change
• fill the gas tank

anything else you'd suggest [for storing in an unheated space]? Would you seal up the exhaust? Battery out? Spray rotors? Start it up occasionally - or not? if so for how long?

Also, for driving it intermittently through the winter - how much cold weather experience do folks have out there? What about the 'thermal stress' of starting and running the car at cold or r e a l l y cold temps? any one run their car at sub-zero [F] temps or would that be madness?




...and where do you add the antifreeze?

old man neri

I've run mine in about -25C. It's the salt that scares me. It's fun as hell in the snow though. I guess it's really up to you. Mine was stored outside so it was a no brainer to take out on nice days. I now have to take it to a much colder place. I am thinking of getting an oil heater to two.

Also consider what kind of tires you have.

onlycafe

i ran my '79 targa all through last winter. now i have a mini cooper s and the targa is going to hibernate 'til spring.
if you are interested, i would part with my blizzaks on nice 6" and 7" x16 fuchs.
david

flatsixnut

Whats this winter thing people talk about? What a beautiful day for a drive.

911Dave

Put a good set of snow tires on it and it will go like a tractor in the snow. On really slick roads, I've passed SUVs that were stuck and spinning their tires.

It's also REALLY fun on snow. Every bit as much fun as on a dry road, IMO. Remember, Germany gets tons of snow and these cars are even raced in snow rallies.

Concerning salt or mag chloride (whatever you got in your area), just wash the wheels and undercarriage every couple of weeks at a self-service car wash.

For 2 years my 86 911 was the only car I had in Colorado. I drove it year round and had a blast in all 4 seasons.

justinsrx7

Did I mention I hate you and I don't even know you...lol

My beef with winter driving my P-car is the salt and only the salt. I love the way you can throw cars around in the snow. If you have the right tires, a 911 would be perfect with all that weight over the driving wheels. With our older cars though, the metal work is not as well portected as today's cars so that concerns me. Also, I hate salt stains on my carpets.

Ed Hughes

I'm planning on running mine all winter, if that is any help in your decision making. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist!)

rgrimm

Only you know if it's worth it for those "rare days" and how many of those you might get. But if you do store it, Stabil in the gas, put a wad of steel wool in the exhaust to keep the rodents out, and you can get by with disconnecting the battery and leaving it in the car (battery tender would be better if you have a storage situation where leaving a tender plugged in isn't a problem. But don't start it if you not going to take it out and run it for a while...the cars never really warm up at idle.

And if you do decide to take it out, hook up the battery, take the steel wool out, "deinflate" the tires and you're good to go. Reverse when you put it back.

84_Carrera

I un mine through the winter, the "rare" days, '84 Cab. I change out to lighter oil (was 10-40 last year), I just keep mothballs around my car, and a couple of traps (keeps the meeces at bay). Overinflating is fine, if you have cradles, those are better. I keep mine on a Schumacher trickle charger.

Coming up on the oil change for me now (end of Nov).

I'm a firm believer in, the more you drive her, the fewer the problems you'll have. The PO of mine only drove her occasionally - I do more like daily (3-5x / week, depending on weather). He had issues with sensors not working regularly, etc. - after driving all the time, the issues mostly went away on mine.

arbeitm

There's a good article here that discusses the options:

http://www.porschenet.com/winter.html

I kind of do the "store it alive" method.

RShepHorse

Thanks All! I guess it's time to hunt down some snow tires!