dr bob

Appreciate that this is from a guy who, with his son-in-law, regularly drives the brown-very-brown car to the high desert of California to Willow Springs Raceway a couple hours away, manages to embarass the air-cooled crowd often enough to have a wall full of "best in class" plaques and trophies over his desk, and they drive home from the events in the same car he races.



Borys--

Take some time and go over the basic maintenance items on your car, so you have a reasonable chance of making it without stooopid stuff stranding you. You'll want to have belts and hoses that will last the trip. Make sure the CV joint boots aren't torn. Tires in reasobale shape? Got coolant and oil in the engine? Where they are supposed to be? After that, the freeway cruising miles are the easiest miles your car will ever see. Carry a few tools for any simple things you might want to do on the road. The factory toolkit is more than enough for most folks anyway.

After that, find folks who are driving the same route you are, and caravan with them if you can. If nothing else, get ther cell numbers so you can get some support on the way if something does happen. Join the roadhelp list so you can get support from other folks who live along the way if necessary.

And here's the summary of my opinions on these cars as drivers: If you can't jump in your car and go burn a few tanks of gas because you are worried about your XXXX breaking, you should not own the car. If you do own the car anyway, fix the XXXX so it won't bother you, and get on with it.

As others point out, you are travelling with some of the best owners in the world, in a car that was made to travel for days on end at max speed. You'll cruise at 70-75, average 60ish with P and McD stops, and you'll have a great time. Once you get there, you'll be nestled in the collective arms of 928 lovers who can't bear to see something wrong or a fellow owner in any distress at all. You'll have a fairly well stocked parts room at your disposal once you get there, and more than a few willing hands to help out. For instance, at last fall's Sharktoberfest, I spent part of the day fixing a cooling fan problem for an owner, while other cars were on the lift, others in the parking lot were getting small treatments, etc. You couldn't pick a better place to discuss and/or repair some of the things that annoy you.

Glad you are going!

BeerFish

Dr Bob,

Thanks for your post. I was hoping someone would mention some things to check. I will be cruising down with some very capable mechanics (sorry, shark engineers) that hopefully will be able to help me if something occurs. While I have a couple weeks to prepare, I am very nervous because my shark is running very good, makes me worry about the calm before the storm. But I am going to verify at least aal the things you mentioned and Ill see ya there!!

dr bob

Hey John--

This is the short list of things to look at, of course. But it's a starter list that really includes all the things on the car that need periodic attention. I happen to live in a place where we enjoy year-round driving, with no snow and few rain days. The car is maintained year-round here, rather than in bursts as some colder-climate owners might. My feeling is that any car in the garage better be ready to take a coast-to-coast dash on any moment's notice, so that's the way they are maintained. Enough preaching...

This year, I may in fact be in the neighborhood during SITM. My travel schedule shows me in Rowan County NC right about the time of the event. I guess I need to spend a little more time on the rental car options page, and forego the Caddy in favor of maybe a Mustang convertible or something similar. We'll see how he travel schedule pans out. If the lights are out in central NC about that time, I may be a little busy.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Dr Bob makes some excellent points and I know for a fact that he keeps his cars in flight ready mode. As far as the old very brown 1980 Yes we have used it as it was meant to be driven however I am close to home have a AAA long distance tow card ,another car or two that I can drive, access to a truck and trailer and a whole warehouse full of spare parts. And there have been a couple times where we had to make a quick run to Anaheim in a second car to get a clutch hose, axle and make the early morning repair to run on Sunday I seem to recall that Borys bought this car as a not running project 2-3 years ago and has done a lot of work on it but has driven it very little. In some ways the cost inconvenience of break downs car repair increases by the square of the distance from home. A mile from home you just walk, ten miles local tow ,100 miles it starts to get expensive but a friend might come get you , 500 miles things get real interesting. So I go back to my original comment that if it is a struggle to get together $400 to cover normal expected expenses then the potential unexpected costs might be a real big problem. I know I am no fun at all I doubt anyone here would play Russian Roulette with one round in the revolver even though the odds are 5 to 1 in your favor because of the consequence of being unlucky. Now make it a revolver that can hold 100 rounds but chamber only one and 99 times out of 100 everything will be fine. If past experience holds true anytime you get 50-100 928s together , one or two are going to have problems.

Scott M.

And that would be Falkenberg.

Airflite40

I have put a lot of work into my shark to get it ready for regular use. Completely rebuilt the engine including all new gaskets, rod bearings, new belts/pump, new wiring, new rotors, tires, rebuilt calipers, new master/replaced booster, trans is strong, The only thing I worry about is a blown pump and tbelt disaster, but that is what we all worry about. I hope I can put as many miles on it as possible before leaving. Yeah, it was not running when I bought it, and that was only due to a bad fuel pump. The PO wanted to rip the engine out and put in a chebby. He knew it was imported from Germany, but had no idea of the significance of the Euro S.

John Krawczyk

The i guess it would be ok if i drove my 50mpg TDI Jetta.