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You inspired me to dig through old files. Here is a photo my wife took 20 years ago of me, our two kids (age 7 and 4 at the time), and our 964 C4. We all drove from Anchorage to Skagway via Canada and back, about 1600 miles round trip. Great scenery and history, very open roads, and fun for all (at least as I remember).
That's amazing! Good for you and such a priceless photo to have of the memories with your kids.
Update on my end is both good and bad. While the kids did enjoy the ride from Seattle to Portland (about 4 hours), when we woke up at the hotel this morning and started to get ready they lost it when they realized that there was more driving. So, they fell back to plan B and flew home with my wife. I was a bit disappointed as I was really looking forward to the experience with them but I can understand that being in the back of a 911 for such a long period might not be super fun, certainly less fun than driving. Though my son did say the "Sport Plus" button is his favorite.
Today, I dropped them at the Portland Airport and continued the way solo. I made it to Grants Pass where we had already booked a hotel and will probably try to do the rest of the trip alone tomorrow. I'm thinking of still taking the coastal route though even if only for my own enjoyment. It's almost twice as long (11 hours versus 6 hours) but better roads, more fun, better scenery.
Oh well, I'm definitely enjoying the car!
I also was fortunate enough to meet the owner of the car for breakfast this morning in Portland. Not sure if he's on Rennlist, I assume so as he's a serious car enthusiast. But it was nice to connect with him and get a download on his history with the car. Especially a couple of things that I hadn't noticed such as the rennline grills he'd installed.
Couple of photos from the trip.
PS. I managed to get 28.7 mpg once I got rid of all the extra weight in the car (meaning the 3 other passengers!)
You should be happy and proud that they did the important first leg of bringing the car home. And they will certainly want more rides in future, even if only short runs to get ice cream (to start).
So backing up a little bit, I forgot to post about the trip to Whidbey Island, where we took the Porsche on a ferry (the navigation system knew about the ferry and even said "warning, there is a ferry along the route" but still managed to calculate the arrive time perfectly?! How?!
And a rainbow and epic sunset on the ferry to end the day.
After dropping the family off at the PDX airport at around 1:30pm, I rolled solo down to Grants Pass, OR where I already had a hotel booked for the night. I arrived around 6pm or so and basically got dinner and just had an early night...expecting to get up and hit the road relatively early the next day.
Chilly temperatures, but once I got out of the Portland area traffic was pretty light and the roads were clear.
BTW the Hampton Inn in Grants Pass has only been open 2 weeks and is super nice!
After a 10+ hours of driving through conditions from 29F temperatures to downpouring rain, I felt like I was part of the 911 development engineering team for a day. But of course they do that sort of stuff day in and day out versus my single day. And in the end, I felt so connected to the new-to-me Carrera S, I loved it end more at the end of the drive than the lust I felt picking it up. It’s seriously exceeds my every expectation, doing everything so well and with such german precision. I can see why Porsche sells so many of these and why the 911 has such a cult following.
For the record, it took me awhile to come to the realization that I wanted a 911. Previously I’d dismissed them as too common (in the bay area), and too boring. Boy was I wrong! They’re just simply great cars.
Yesterday was a stint of driving from Grants Pass OR out HWY 199 to the coast, down 101, to hwy 1 and home to the Bay Area. Lots and lots of driving on the twisties and along the coast. The morning started with me seeing how well the car’s cold weather climate features worked -- when I went out to the parking lot there was ice on the headlights and windshield (and hood and roof!). Did I bring an ice scraper? Of course not. Get in fire it up, hit the defrosters and within a minute the ice melted and the wipers took care of the water.
(Ice on the car)
But 29F and Pirelli P Zero tires? I’d heard these things don’t work that well below 40F so figured it’d be smart to take it easy. I’d also aired them up thinking my whole family + luggage would be in the car so they had an extra 3-4 psi already which wasn’t a great idea. But ultimately, proved no problem. Sure the traction control kicked on a few times under medium acceleration or coming out of some corners but it was expected and smooth.
Made a quick stop for gas near the hotel (in OR you aren’t allowed to pump your own gas, which is weird for me) and got on my way. Oh that’s another thing, you have some serious range in a 911, especially at highway speeds. I think the trip computer said about 430 miles after a fill up and it seemed like I was rarely needing to stop for gas, which is a big difference from my Lotus which has such a tiny tank that you’re stopping a lot despite getting good mpg. My last leg, I filled up at the drive-thru redwood tree in Leggett, CA and drove home to Burlingame and still had ½ a tank when I pulled into the garage.
Rain, rain and more rain. Most of the drive that day was in varying forms of rain from total downpour to light sprinkle. There were a couple of sections along the coast when the rain stopped but it was wet for the majority of the drive. The 911 didn’t care though, rain doesn’t melt the car! (Someone should tell the Ferrari owners that.) Roads were in **** condition, wet and full of leaves / pine needles, and in some cases gravel. The 911 went down at least one dirt road when I needed to find a bathroom at a campground in the middle of nowhere.
Pulled over. I got pulled over north of Leggett by a CHP despite having this fancy built in radar detector in the car. I saw him up ahead, but honestly thought the speed limit was 45. I was doing about 49. When he pulled me over he said that section drops down to 35 mph. Asked for my license and registration / insurance, which I told him I didn’t have yet since I just bought the car. It was a short traffic stop and he let me go on my way. Young CHP officer, probably early 20s, looked like a kid but I was super polite and he told me just to take it easy.
Helping with an accident. In exchange for that good CHP karma, when I came upon an accident on a windy 2 lane road, I stopped immediately to help. (Hell, I would have stopped anyway, but traffic stop slowed my progress so that I encountered that accident rather than was ahead of it.) Car had hit a tree on the side of the road, spun around and down an embankment. I was the second person to stop, but no paramedics or anything yet. Crash probably due to the wet conditions. The woman was trapped in the driver’s seat (door was mangled and we couldn’t get it open), all airbags deployed, front of the car mangled -- for sure the car was totalled. She was conscious and talking but clearly shaken up. We weren’t sure if we should remove her from the car or not since she may have a neck or back injury, but the car was precariously sitting on 3 wheels and we were worried it might slide or roll further down the embankment. No cell phone reception, so as more people coming along the road stopped, we sent folks in each direction and told them to call 911 as soon as they had a signal, that was about 3-4 miles away it turned out. A few others stopped to help and we got her blankets and a tarp to keep the rain from coming in the car through the broken windows. Took about 30-40 minutes for the paramedics to show up, again middle of nowhere. Not sure how close the closest paramedics were stationed. A random guy also jumped in to help, I think he must have been off-duty fireman because the paramedics knew him and he was prepared with latex gloves. He also had superhuman strength, ripping the drivers door open when 3 of us couldn’t do it previously! They set up road flares and got things under control. I left once they had her out of the car as I felt like I was just getting in the way. I also didn’t want to meet my CHP friend again.
After that, I slowed down a bunch just taking a relaxing but fun enough pace through the wet roads. I certainly didn’t want my new 911 ending up in a ditch. I stopped a few times along the coast at good photo spots to capture the moment, but for the most part was trying to make decent time so didn’t stop to do any touristy stuff or check out any of the interesting old buildings along the way. Saw some moose(?) or elk(?) on the side of the road and did snap a picture tough.
The accident delayed my progress a bit, so I knew I was going to be along the coast when it got dark. Great for sunset, bad for driving. No streetlights, very few other cars (especially in the rainy conditions), just blackness. The 911 high beams work great, and the dynamic light system turns the headlights as you go around corners. NEAT! It actually worked really well.
Getting tired of the darkness and slow progress along highway 1, I headed inland to 101 through Petaluma and just did the freeway the rest of the way home. Still rainy, but better visibility and able to easily do the speed limit or just over without worrying about blind, dark corners plummeting into the ocean below. (Keep in mind, southbound hwy 1 you’re on the ocean side of the road, rather than the land side.)
Made it home about 8:30pm in time to tuck the kids in to bed.
Totally in love with the car, as I mentioned I see why they’re so popular. I took it through pretty much all kinds of abuse except snow and it never missed a beat. Even the stretch from Seattle to Portland with 4 people, 2 suitcases, 4 backpacks, snow boots, and heavy jackets stuff in it was no problem. For me, it’s got all the creature comforts for a daily driver (keyless entry, rubber floor mats, clear bra, full leather, heated/ventilated seats, etc) and the performance you’d expect from a 991.1S.
Hopefully I’ll get some drier weather to test the handling a bit more, but the power is surprisingly good. Even into triple digit speeds, the car just keeps pulling like a freight train. I was worried about the low end torque compared to my torquey supercharged Audi S4, but it has plenty down low for normal around town driving.
Didn’t see a single other 911 the whole trip, even in Seattle and Portland or when I got back to the Bay Area.
I’m super happy with the purchase, even if I’m still in the honeymoon phase.
Oh and I forgot to mention, Jason Harris at www.nweuro.com was an absolute pleasure to deal with. The car was exactly as described and the whole transaction was great! Heck, he even stored the car in his shop for me for a month until I came and picked it up. (And met me on New Years Day, giving me a tour of the shop and getting me on my way.) Would highly recommend him for his integrity, honesty, and transparency. Probably one of the best car buying experiences I've had.
Thanks so much for the great updates vincenz0. I appreciate the time you took to write it. I've been following your journey and have lived vicariously through your posts. Glad you made it home safe and sound with some great road trip stories on your last day. This was such a refreshing thread.
I'm down in the South Bay (San Jose) and am scheduled to pick up my first Porsche (.2 C2S) tomorrow from my dealer. I'm completely new to the brand and reading how well the car performed in bad weather and how amazing the driving experience on your trip was increases my confidence I made the right decision.
01-04-2019, 11:29 PM
