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Except for the "unlimited" part of it you've got the right idea. Nothing makes the Porsche feel more special than driving the anti-Porsche, and vice-versa. What's great about having a built Wrangler as your alternative to the Porsche is that in its own way it's every bit as fun; on any given day I literally sometimes stand staring at my key sets for 30 seconds trying to decide whether I'm in a Wrangler or Porsche mood. As opposed to the second car being either boring (530i) or a beater, in which case the decision to take the second car is more of a decision NOT to take the Porsche rather than a preference for the alternative.
Using as DD no doubt numbs some of the special factor. Agree with what others are saying, need a beater for the daily grind.
Y'know, I just can't agree with that. Beaters make no sense to me. I figure if you have a great car, it only makes sense to get every minute out of it you can.
It's been a while since I had a daily commute, but from '98-2014 I daily-drove a 6MT Toyota Supra Turbo. Which was, oh, somewhere around what a base 996 was like (same era). 320 HP / 3400 lbs / about 0.95g on the skidpad. I never got bored with that car.
When I first got it in '98, I was living in California, and my daily commute was horrendously long. Redondo Beach to Agoura Hills, about an hour each way, mostly on the expressway. The Supra was really a bit more car than I could comfortably afford at the time, and my justification was that I was spending so much time in the car, it made sense to have something I actually enjoyed driving.
Back of the envelope calculation, I put about 1200 hours into that commute in that car, and I never got tired of it. Sure, the traffic sometimes sucked, but driving the car that often didn't make the car any less special.
I will say one thing. When I first got the car, the acceleration really scared me a bit. Sure, it was nothing like 911 Turbo S levels, but it sure was a lot faster than anything I had driven before. Eventually, though, I got used to it, and it became the "new normal" for me. Not boring, but not unusual anymore either.
^^ Good thing you had an automatic, what with the stop and go traffic and all, right?
Ye gods. Why do people do this? Make a snarky remark that isn't remotely logical, since it completely misrepresents with what was originally said? Because they want to "win" an internet argument instead of being reasonable, and acknowledging that not everything about their favorite thing is positive?
Let's try that again, shall we? Maybe without the intellectual dishonesty this time?
That commute wasn't stop-and-go. It was an expressway commute, like a lot of LA area commutes, since in earthquake country, build-up tends to be out rather than up. Which I mentioned.
Even if it were a surface-street commute, the clutch wouldn't have been terrible. Because, as I said, and for some reason you refuse to acknowledge,
Originally Posted by Gus_Smedstad
Ordinary traffic is no problem.
Unless things went bad, of course. Then the clutch was no fun. Not actually painful, usually, but no fun. When traffic was inching forward, repeatedly engaging / disengaging the clutch wasn't "more interesting." It was, in fact, damned boring. There's no gear-selection when it gets like that, it's just a matter of trying to coax the car to move along at a speed that's on the verge of stalling it even in first gear.
If the delay was very long - and I recall that once, it did indeed add an extra hour to the trip - this got painful. It's an extraordinary circumstance, but it does happen, and it does cause pain. Though mostly the examples I was talking about earlier happened during interstate trips, not the commute.
My point earlier was that real stop-and-go, when you have to deal with it, is pretty nasty with a clutch. Which is why the cliche of "traffic and clutches don't mix" is sometimes true, albeit only in extreme cases.
Now, about regular commutes... not really a drawback, but whether it's an advantage depends on the commute. For an expressway commute? Sure. While there's a lot of cruising, there are times when you can use an abrupt surge of power, and manual was great for that. Particularly when the alternative was a torque-converter slushbox, rather than a PDK.
If it's surface streets, lots of traffic, maybe even only 2 lane roads, not so much. Because you're mostly just following traffic, no real opportunity to do anything but sedate gear changes. It's not awful, but it honestly adds nothing to the experience.
Interestingly an i3 came out and autocrossed at the last meet and outran a number of sportier-named cars even in raw times including a Lexus RC350, several Mustangs, a few of the BRZs, and a couple of Camaros and non-prepped Miata's, Of course it also helped prove how important the driver is, but the car really was surprisingly capable. It was uncanny to listen to it whirring through the course though, a lot of the visceral fun of it was clearly missing to me (a sign of times to come soon). It really might be a good Seattle car.
As to those that don't get what OP is saying, ummm.... yeah I get that . I've noticed that not everyone, maybe even most, seems to be cursed with the desire to drive something new fairly often and it is hard for those people to understand those of us that seem compelled to keep flipping cars. My wife certainly doesn't get it which helps dampen my flipping a bit... which is good for the finances. Different strokes for different folks I guess. There's a lot of things other people seem compelled to do that I don't begin to understand either.
It rains too much here for a convertible and only like NA motors. There are a bunch of .1 GT3 floating around but I want the back seat for the kiddo. If they had the backseat still in a GT3, I would be game
pretty sure the back seat area is convertible. I'd trade even-Steven my Black Leather back seats with 6500 miles and never sat on for the flatter GT3 seats area carpet any time. Maybe somebody who knows for sure can weigh in on this...
To want to flip is a certain kind of affliction. To want to keep and add units is another type of affliction - that with which I am cursed. I don't lust so much for a Ferrari or McLaren. I'd rather have a 981 Spyder, a wrangler, a 4 seat vert for the family, a luxocruiser for long commutes, a high hp muscle car, and, and, and, and.......one thing that actually makes sense about this philosophy is the decreased risk of diminished value with an accident. When my custom ordered 997 GTS can was hit by a woman in a Subie, it was a big deal and I was very upset and I worked a diminished value claim yada yada yada. If my Wrangler gets hit, or my already greatly depreciated 7 gets hit, or my wife's 335i vert gets hit, well, doesn't have the same implications. Might still have big dollars invested in autos, but risk is diversified with numbers......
You are going to be needing a second car if you don't want to get bored of the one you drive everyday.
I keep a Ford Raptor in the stable to mix things up while still enjoying the ride...lots of fun bouncing off curbs, not having to avoid potholes, etc...
so a 911 and a F-150 is the cure.
100%, except I prefer a dd SUV over a truck.
i got bored of cars all the time until I went with a two car setup. It's the way to go to me.
i would grow tired of my 911 too if it was my dd or only car.
Familiarity breeds contempt. You use a special car for mundane and repetitive activities and the car cannot make those daily duties special so the car becomes just like what you do with it. Dull and monotonous,
Familiarity breeds contempt. You use a special car for mundane and repetitive activities and the car cannot make those daily duties special so the car becomes just like what you do with it. Dull and monotonous,
Or you just find fun ways to accomplish the dull and monotonous. My commute is about 3 miles on surface streets and I DD my Targa. That said, about 99% of the time, I take the long way, which includes a highway on ramp with a 45 degree tight turn leading to it...fun to get on it in the turn (breaking the backend lose on occasion for a little fun) and hammering down the onramp....and I can chose 2 offramps...one a very tight 360 where I always go for a personal best g-force meter read, or alternatively, the other option leaves for a great 0-60 acceleration on a nice little straight. So, yes, I could take the boring 3 miles to and fro and get bored....but why???
Funny to see this conversation. I daily drive a 17 BMW 540i and weekend (if that) the 911. Live in Florida full time and NC many weekends (if that) and was going to leave the 911 in NC for a while. Ended up driving it up last weekend and due to flight delay circumstances back to FL. Upon my return decided to sell it. "Probably" an impulse decision as I really want a targa at some point and justified it by not wanting to pour useless highway miles on the P. Within 24 hours ended up with a new Jeep Wrangler that I never knew I wanted as a weekend toy/leave in NC. In the past 5 days I've driven the Jeep about 2 miles. P dealer gave me 3 months.
07-30-2017, 11:18 PM
. I've noticed that not everyone, maybe even most, seems to be cursed with the desire to drive something new fairly often and it is hard for those people to understand those of us that seem compelled to keep flipping cars. My wife certainly doesn't get it which helps dampen my flipping a bit... which is good for the finances. Different strokes for different folks I guess. There's a lot of things other people seem compelled to do that I don't begin to understand either.
