First Road Trip
11-12-2012, 10:43 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
First Road Trip
I've always felt like a good road trip teaches you more about your car than anything else can, as you get to see how it performs in a variety of situations. This weekend, I took my month old 991 Carrera with 1200 miles on it for a roundtrip to Tyler, TX for a mountainbike race. Came home with just over 1600 miles.
Two bikes on the roof, wheelbags with front wheels inside in the back with the seats folded down, gear in the frunk. Texas now has 75 mile speed limits on most interstates once they get out of the city, and on some secondary roads as well. In most cases I could get by with 80-85 cruising when conditions allowed. It was sunny, 70 degrees, and beautiful on the way up, about 60% of the trip is interstate, the rest state highways that are both divided fourlanes in some areas, with maybe 20 miles of 2 lane mixed in. The state highways are mildly curvy with rolling hills, not too crowded. At one point on the twolane, I was behind a minivan and a late model Corvette. I didn't want to "challenge" the Vette but he had had several opportunities to pass the van and didn't so when there was the next hole in approaching traffic I pulled out to pass. He didn't like it and whipped (kind of dangerously) in front of me. I've been pretty much following the break in procedures with short bursts mixed in, this time I downshifted all the way from 7th to 3rd at around 60 and gunned it through the gears. We got up to over 100 making the pass before slowing again, and any reservations I had about buying the base car are over. The 3.4 is plenty fast, you just have to rev it higher to get the maximum performance.
Later, in the State Park the race was held in, the park road was awesome. Several miles of extreme elevation changes, constant switchbacks, etc, kind of a mini Tail of the Dragon. It's the kind of road where 30 mph is hauling *** and the 911 went down it with aplomb. When I left for the evening to go to hotel in town, I got to see how good the PDLS really is. You don't notice in much in the bright lights of a city, but here in dark woods you can see them turning then snapping back to straight on. On the way home, it was intermittent rains from light sprinkles to short periods of downpour. The car continued to hold the road with a palpable safety net.
Overall impressions are what a supurb all arounder the 911 is. Luxurious high speed tourer, bike carrier, sports car on the twisties. Amazingly I averaged 22.8mpg with the two bikes on the roof, even with the high speed cruising mixed in most of the time. I'm very happy with my purchase.
Two bikes on the roof, wheelbags with front wheels inside in the back with the seats folded down, gear in the frunk. Texas now has 75 mile speed limits on most interstates once they get out of the city, and on some secondary roads as well. In most cases I could get by with 80-85 cruising when conditions allowed. It was sunny, 70 degrees, and beautiful on the way up, about 60% of the trip is interstate, the rest state highways that are both divided fourlanes in some areas, with maybe 20 miles of 2 lane mixed in. The state highways are mildly curvy with rolling hills, not too crowded. At one point on the twolane, I was behind a minivan and a late model Corvette. I didn't want to "challenge" the Vette but he had had several opportunities to pass the van and didn't so when there was the next hole in approaching traffic I pulled out to pass. He didn't like it and whipped (kind of dangerously) in front of me. I've been pretty much following the break in procedures with short bursts mixed in, this time I downshifted all the way from 7th to 3rd at around 60 and gunned it through the gears. We got up to over 100 making the pass before slowing again, and any reservations I had about buying the base car are over. The 3.4 is plenty fast, you just have to rev it higher to get the maximum performance.
Later, in the State Park the race was held in, the park road was awesome. Several miles of extreme elevation changes, constant switchbacks, etc, kind of a mini Tail of the Dragon. It's the kind of road where 30 mph is hauling *** and the 911 went down it with aplomb. When I left for the evening to go to hotel in town, I got to see how good the PDLS really is. You don't notice in much in the bright lights of a city, but here in dark woods you can see them turning then snapping back to straight on. On the way home, it was intermittent rains from light sprinkles to short periods of downpour. The car continued to hold the road with a palpable safety net.
Overall impressions are what a supurb all arounder the 911 is. Luxurious high speed tourer, bike carrier, sports car on the twisties. Amazingly I averaged 22.8mpg with the two bikes on the roof, even with the high speed cruising mixed in most of the time. I'm very happy with my purchase.
11-12-2012, 08:07 PM
#3
100+ mph with a roof rack and two bikes on it? You're a brave man!
Yes, the 3.4 does feel much stronger after break in, but in my case this plus the cooler weather may be compounding the effect. Regardless, I have no regrets either with the 3.4 now.
Yes, the 3.4 does feel much stronger after break in, but in my case this plus the cooler weather may be compounding the effect. Regardless, I have no regrets either with the 3.4 now.
11-13-2012, 04:16 AM
#6
Rennlist Member
Nice way to break in! The bike rack looks cool. Thanks for sharing..it's indulging!
11-13-2012, 12:01 PM
#7
Nice write up. One question about the bike rack if you have the inclination to answer: Is the base porsche cross-rack installable and removable easily? If for instance one needed to use it once every other year, would it be easy enough to spend the time to install and remove it?
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11-13-2012, 12:36 PM
#8
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Nice write up. One question about the bike rack if you have the inclination to answer: Is the base porsche cross-rack installable and removable easily? If for instance one needed to use it once every other year, would it be easy enough to spend the time to install and remove it?
In a nutshell, the rack is a tight fit and required a bit of adjustment the first time. Once that is done, removal should take about 5 minutes, reinstallation 10 minutes or so.
11-18-2012, 02:56 PM
#12
4th Gear
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Great write up! It is great to know how secure the car drives in rain - I don't plan on going out in it, but weather forecasts aren't always accurate. I am assuming you have Xpel or some type of protection for your paint - how is it holding up?
11-19-2012, 12:17 AM
#14
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
I've had clearbras on a couple of past cars but don't do it anymore, just don't like how it looks. Front of car is holding up fine with paint and a good coat of wax.
11-19-2012, 06:44 AM
#15
keep a good distance away from the car in front to reduce likelihood of paint damage