champignon

Thanks very much for your response; I do appreciate it.

I have 5 other cars and not a single one of them came with a spare tire, although I did a retrofit on my Golf R so that it now has one (common mod on the VW R forums). I am now used to the idea that cars no longer are assumed to have spare tires, and the majority of time I do drive without benefit of a spare on board. Like you, I have a premium auto club membership, which gives 100 mile tows for free, additional mileage is nominally charged. I do occasionally go hiking in remote areas where a spare would be essential, and in those cases I would either take my Golf R, or a BMW for which I have snow tires and could take one of them with me in the trunk for emergency use. I would never take the 996 Turbo on a trip like that, for a multitude of reasons including ground clearance.

What do you think of the idea of just ditching the spare and using the added Frunk space for cargo?

Thanks in advance!

ken

autobonrun

There are differing opinions on this. The discussion has gone on for years. Some say the spare is an integral part of the front end crash design. Some say it is not. I'll stay out of that discussion. You'll have to do what you're comfortable with. I chose to leave mine in.

I test my spares every 5 or so years; inspect and pressurize. The original in my 96 993 still holds air. The spare in my 38 year old 911 SC still holds air.

As a minimum carry an air pump. I've found that the two times I've had tires go down, it wasn't a complete failure and all I had to do was inflate to the maximum allowable pressure and stop every 10 or so miles to recheck. This allowed me to get where I needed to go.

It's better than my M5 options; they gave me a 800 number and bottle of goop.

autobonrun

There are differing opinions on this. The discussion has gone on for years. Some say the spare is an integral part of the front end crash design. Some say it is not. I'll stay out of that discussion. You'll have to do what you're comfortable with. I chose to leave mine in.

I test my spares every 5 or so years; inspect and pressurize. The original in my 96 993 still holds air. The spare in my 38 year old 911 SC still holds air.

As a minimum carry an air pump. I've found that the two times I've had tires go down, it wasn't a complete failure and all I had to do was inflate to the maximum allowable pressure and stop every 10 or so miles to recheck. I never used the spare. This allowed me to get where I needed to go.

It's better than my M5 options; they gave me a 800 number and bottle of goop.

FRUNKenstein

Oh, no, no, no, no, NO! I wanna hear more from Orphan. Dude lays down pics of him with the royals, plus alludes to his driving experiences in Monte Carlo and you want to shut him down? Do you return your Christmas presents also?

Reader's Digest Condensed version answer to your original question - "Don't worry about it - the spare will last longer than the rest of the car. The rest of the car will devolve into dust around a still-perfectly-functioning mini-spare."

Now, back to Orphan . . . as you were saying, you were driving around Monte Carlo with Prince Rainier riding shotgun when you suddenly noticed an imbalance in the front to rear weight distribution, and then . . .

(And please supplement with additional pics )

mffarrell

Now, back to Orphan . . . as you were saying, you were driving around Monte Carlo with Prince Rainier riding shotgun when you suddenly noticed an imbalance in the front to rear weight distribution, and then . . .

+1

champignon

Don't leave out Roger Moore

Carlo_Carrera

At some point you should realize that some folks here have owned several Porsche 911s and driven them tens of thousands of miles and know what they are taking about. Google, not so much.

Cuda911

I stop at convenience stores every few miles and purchase a jug of water to put in the trunk, to compensate for the weight change as fuel is used. If I don't, the front end gets all bouncy.

champignon

Do Larry Page and Sergey Brin drive 911's?

Carlo_Carrera

Do not know, and do not care.

Nzo

Always funny when people insert the unnecessary forced brag...on the internet...

Cuda911

I forgot to mention, I took first in my car class at the track last week.

Berra

Spare tire with tools is about 39 lbs. Taking that out won't make a difference, unless you're chasing weight for track. Come on people...

You can barely feel any difference when the car is empty on fuel and that alone will make a far greater difference than the 39 lbs of spare tire and tools.

manimal

Meh, there are plenty of drivers who can feel a 40 lb. difference, especially hanging off one end of the car.

champignon

Thank you.

Stuff really should have to pass the "sniff test," before it gets repeated ad infinitum on these forum threads, as if it were fact.