Damn I wish I could stumble on some cheap e88s and a free console delete. Love the gt3 seats. Beautiful car.

 

Thanks. Here are some pictures from this weekend at Lime Rock for the Trans Am Memorial Day Classic with TheDeckMan's new 2004 GT3. The car the center delete came out of. A very cool car.







I also sourced some new BBS stickers since mine were faded and falling apart.

 

New H&R RSS coilovers and updated coil packs installed.

 

Coils set that up perfectly with the E88's!

 

Finally was able to get a proper alignment to fix camber after the wheel/tire/suspension change. I ended up going with RSS rear dog bones for the rear camber. John at the alignment shop did a great job. Spent a long time getting it correct.
307 Rear Adjustable Upper Link Kit "Dog Bones" (996-997 all) - RSS / Road Sport Supply


The car drives great. I'm very happy with the results. A dramatic difference going from 19 inch OEM 997 wheels with H&R/B6s to 18 inch E88s and coilovers.

 

Road Trip Spring 2024

With very little planning, we decided to head to Maine again. This decision was made maybe a week ago. As the car had been gone through fairly recently, including an oil change, I kept things basic before this trip. My buddy did a good overall check on things and added Skip's UAOS new harness/sensor on Friday the 12th. He was the one that installed the coilovers, so it was good to check on things. We also raised the front end a tad to account for the added weight of our bags in the front. She got some last-minute time off and we departed on Monday, April 15, after I got home from work. Although we would have preferred to hit back roads the entire time, as usual, due to the late departure, around 6 pm, we decided to cover as much ground as possible. Initially, she had to work Thursday, the 18th, so we didn't have much exploring time. So, we packed the car and took off. During the drive, I think on Tuesday, she was able to take Thursday off, so we were able to extend a day.

The first stop was in Concord NH. We stopped at a place called The Common Man. A great find. Good food and was in a very cool old building. But it was already approximately 8:30 pm, so we ate fast and kept moving north.




While having dinner, we decided between Portland and Kennebunkport. As either was about 2 hours from Concord NH, and I was tired from working all day, we headed straight to Kennebunkport via the highway, which was slightly closer. We grabbed a room at the Kennebunkport Inn and checked in around 10:30 pm.



The next day, Tuesday, we hit Freeport briefly and then went to a new place we had never been, Bailey Island. An amazing place. I believe we were three islands off the coast just to get there. Even the bridge to get onto the Island was cool, as it was constructed in 1928. The bridge was built on granite slabs.


Bailey Island Bridge - Wikipedia

Bailey Island was very cool. The views were pretty incredible.




After Bailey's island, we went to Bath. Bath Iron Works constructs destroyers. There are six destroyers currently there. The coast of Maine was recently hit with some bad weather, which became more and more apparent as we drove. There were trees down everywhere. It looked like trees were simply cut right at the street edge and left in place, as people worked to hastily reopen the road. This was evident where we had lunch, which was right on the edge of the water. I noticed that the floors were all particle board and there was driftwood all around the building. Apparently, the restaurant had been flooded very recently and had only just reopened. A great place and they made an excellent Manhattan.

 

From Bath, we hit Five Islands. A very nice drive down some great curvy roads. Once there, it made for some great pictures. Unfortunately, it was also hit pretty badly by weather. In this picture, over my wing, you can see that one house was nearly completely destroyed by the water. Most of it was washed away.


Some more:





From there, we hit Reid State Park. This really highlighted why its nice to go to Maine in the off season. The parking lot could fit probably a few hundred cars. I think there were five cars in the parking lot. Its a massive beach.







While there, we decided to try and find a place to stay. Now this is the drawback to the off season. Nothing was open within about a one-hour drive, with the exception of the little sketchy motels. One place appeared to be open, and it was right near Five Islands, where we had just been. Coveside Bed and Breakfast. We drove directly there, and the owner just happened to be in the driveway. He had a room available, and it turned out to be one of the nicest places we've ever stayed at in Maine.





That night we met up with my buddy that built my CJ7. It was great to catch up. He mentioned that in the time he's been in Maine, the past storm was the worst. The coast was pretty destroyed by high winds and the "king tide" washed away multiple houses.

 

The next day, we met up with some friends in Ellsworth before spending the night at The Homeport Inn in Searsport. It was nice to meet up with Arnaud and show him the wheels I had purchased from him that had been stored in the basement of the Inn.

We also checked out the Frenchman Bay Conservancy, which made for some nice pictures.
Frenchman Bay Conservancy: Protecting the land you love in Downeast Maine, Hancock County

 

Thursday Morning, we woke up and started motoring south, as we both had to work Friday. On the way, we hit York, ME. Now, since we had the entire day to make it back, we hit all the scenic back roads. York was very cool as a great curvy road follows the coast. It makes for some great views. It took approximately 4.5 hours to get to York from Searsport, and we found a very nice place to eat right on the water, called the Stage Neck Inn.





From there, it was pretty much Route 202 south back to Massachusetts. We stopped again at Flag Hill and I picked up a few more bottles for some friends.





It was nice to see that the trees were starting to bloom in Massachusetts. We left on Monday and returned Thursday night. We covered 867 miles. The car was great. The suspension/wheels/alignment/rear dog bones/tires were far better this time around. It has made for a great road trip car.

 

Wonderful write up and photos! The 996 is such a complete car - with the proper prep it will do well on the track, a road trip and take you to dinner after. I'll be road tripping from Oklahoma once my engine rebuild is done and look forward to documenting it as well. How do you plan your routes? More in advance or as you go? With places to stay, how has your experience been with not having something booked in advance? I've been to Maine and it's beautiful and I'm sure season has a lot to do with availability.

 

We typically don't plan much of anything. I generally didn't know where we were going at 5:30 pm on Monday, only that she wanted to go to Maine. We also don't plan food or lodging at all. For example, the Coveside room was booked at 4 pm the night we stayed there. This tactic probably wouldn't work during the busy season, but it seems to be fine in April. The drawback is that a lot of things still aren't open. April is when things start to open back up. If we went in June, we would definitely need to book rooms in advance, but I don't think it would be as fun for us based on what we like to do. The roads would be jammed with people. The roads in Maine are why we keep going back. So many amazing roads. Everything from tight roller coaster drives along the water to state roads that slice through the mountains and hills. And all of them typically have plenty of views. But that is the coast of Maine. We don't go inland much because of that. It's also why I want to share pictures here. There is plenty to do and see in Maine. And the roads are perfect for the small 996.

 

A few weeks ago, I had it re-aligned back to GT3 specs after doing: UAOS track drain, oil change, service, and new heim joints/boots for the rear adjustable upper arms and adjustable toe links. After about 15-20k miles, the inner heim joints on the toe links were shot. My buddy replaced the worn joints with new heim joints and repacked the joints on the rest of the adjustable arms. We also added new dust boots to all of them. The RSS arms don't come with boots, and for a road car, they are a good idea.
30178 Dust Boot for Rod End Bearings - RSS / Road Sport Supply


And took a picture of the interior. I don't think I had decent one after adding all the black contrast bits. It used to be all gray.

The car drives great. I will probably be taking it to the Saratoga Auto Museum this weekend.
Saratoga Automobile MuseumSaratoga Automobile Museum (saratogaautomuseum.org)

 

Picture from today. Pretty happy with how the stance/wheels/suspension turned out.

 

Another road trip in the books. Last weekend we drove out to Minerva OH to see my friend and all the Cannonball guys/cars. Approximately 1300 miles and averaged just over 23 mpg. First time on a long drive with the UOAS with the track drain. I think I am around 11 quarts now. It didn't burn a drop. Although the drive was mostly highway, it was nice to have the cruise control. Here are some pictures. We stayed at a hotel with all the cannonball guys and then drove to the show together in the morning. It was cool to follow the current record holding car (S6) to the event with the prior record holder directly behind me (E63).


Current record holder:


Some crazy 996.1 wide body. It was very well done actually.







NY-LA-NY record holder:

















Prior record holding E63


Ed Bolian in his prior record holding MB

 

A couple of other non-cannonball cars but still were really cool. I loved the blue on the targa. Called Gemini Blue Metallic







After the show, we all went to my bud's place for an auction. All cannonball stuff and everything was super cool. I ended up winning the original Cannonball Run Movie poster sent to Brock Yates by the film director/20th century Fox, which was still in the box. It had been signed by all the Cannonball record holders. I also won a porcelain sign that used to hang in the Cannonball Pub, which Brock Yates owned. It was a great time. A lot of great people.










For anyone interested in the history of the Cannonball, listen to Switch Cast. Doug is great. It's always entertaining. He did a three-part series documenting the history. It is definitely worth a listen.
SwitchCast | Car Podcast with Doug Tabbutt

The Complete History of the Ca - SwitchCast - Apple Podcasts
The Complete History of the Ca - SwitchCast - Apple Podcasts
The Complete History of the Ca - SwitchCast - Apple Podcasts

On the way home, we stopped by Watkins Glen. I had never been before. It just happened to be Nascar. Some of the loudest racing I have ever been too. Cool track.

Bad it back with no issues. Some of the highways were a little rough, but no real complaints. I just set the cruise control and stretched out.