carbon_00

Nice, very nice.

What is the cost to replace/repair those brakes and rotors? Did the salesman tell you?

infestation

OG,

For so many years the Rangers have done good for awhile and then have just seemed to give up at the end. Unfortunately, my excitement has dwindled somewhat over the years, but I did get to see the Rangers beat the Yankees, which was great.

infestation

Carbon_00,

The salesman didn't tell me the cost of replacing the ceramics/rotors, but I'm assuming the GT3/GT2 guys might know? The option though is just over 8K, so do you guys think that the replacement cost will be close to that, assuming you had to replace all of the brakes and rotors at once?

I know with 19" wheels and the tires, tire replacements might be frequent, maybe every 15k-20k miles, maybe less, lol.

jcnesq

Got home after posting last night to find the Nav disks had come FedEx 2-day from Navteq addressed to the dealer at my home address. After screwing around with them for quite a while, I finally figured out (and confirmed this morning) that they sent the wrong disks - CD-based instead of DVD-based - and after some pushing they FedEx'd replacements for Saturday delivery. So hopefully I get to play with them tomorrow.

AndrewB

Beautiful car! Porsche definitely has a winner with this new car. I am also liking the wheels more and more.

SkipSauls

Jim, getting the wrong discs must be a HWFMR thing... My dealer ordered mine for me on the day I got the car and proudly handed them to me a couple of days later. I put it in and the system kept saying that it was "initializing the navigation" or something like that. I called them and I guess they called NavTech, and it was finally apparent that what I had were CDs, not DVDs. Doh! The nav isn't really that important to me as I haven't taken a trip yet, but being a geek I wanted to play with it.

On the brakes, my bet is that like the GT2/GT3 that they'll last for quite a while unless you track the car. The funny thing is that many seem to talk about these as being "racing brakes", and Porsche may be the guilty party for starting this trend. However, in PCA Club Racing, ALMS, Grand Am, an I'd bet most other forms of motorsport that Porsches compete in, no one would use these things. Perhaps Porsche could have done better had they simply claimed to have developed the world's best road car braking system, but that probably wouldn't be as sexy.

997TT

Very nice car! Nice neighborhood too! Congrats!

jcnesq

Skip - can't believe you got CD's too. Same here re Nav - honestly I probably will hardly ever use it, but I am a geek too and want to play with it. My wife told me last night the cool thing about it is she can check to see where I've last been. (not sure whether that is true)

Re the ceramics, I think they have been redesigned - not sure whether that solves all the problems but hoping so. The MY2005 911 sales booklet says "To maximize cooling under extreme or prolonged braking, a new cross-drilled PCCB disc design features a modified system of internal vents. With twice the number of cooling channels, the new drill-hole pattern and vent geometry offer a better flow of air through the disc. The addition of more cooling channels derives a second, equally important benefit: additional internal walls that lead to greater structural rigidity." Hope that all means there has been a big improvement.

infestation

I guess we'll see what happens with the brakes then. I don't imagine that I will track my car, but then again, I guess you never know. Most of my driving is just driving around town or highway driving, and I do like to drive spiritedly but that's mostly when there is hardly any traffic out early in the morning. I just don't trust the people driving around me that much. The more you pay attention, the scarier it gets.

I really like the NAV system but I haven't played with it too much. I just like turning it on while I'm driving so I have a map of where I am, in case I need to take a different route or in case the traffic is really bad. Hopefully, you'll get the right discs soon.

Another note--be careful with the pen holder in your glovebox. I learned this the hard way yesterday. The clamps are plastic, and even though I used a "regulard size" ball point pen (something for just going to the bank etc.), the clip around the pen cap broke, so I will have to get that fixed whenever I'm at the dealer again. I don't plan on going though until I can upgrade to the sports exhaust, which is really the only thing that I want to add. Does anyone know when the cell phone option will be available? I like how it looks in the picture.

One more thing--the 997 has three power outlets, which is nice, especially for me because I'm always plugging my iPod in. At some point, I'd like to get it hard wired but for now it works really great.

porschefied

Austin,

You took great pix -- thanks for posting them! By the way, please give your fellow Texans an A/C report if you get a chance.

-Shelley

infestation

The A/C in this car does work great--It's got an "auto" feature, which I don't remember if the 996 had it or not, but it regulates the temperature in the cabin to whatever temperature you set. Primarily, I've just been using the auto setting and it has been working great so far.

rmani

beautiful car. amazing it looks so much like a 993 in the front. i just wish they had the light bar going all the way across the back like the c4s has. It makes the rear end look a lot wider. congrats on the purchase.

jcnesq

Austin - Got the correct Nav disc this morning and now its working fine, but its probably mad at me because I programmed a route but ignored most of its commands (I know this city a lot better than Navteq).

I ordered clear side markers from Suncoast Porsche early this week, and they told me that they had found the 997 sport exhaust part number and have ordered one for stock. Their prices are pretty good, although Brandywine Porsche is where I bought the PSE for my 996 and they seem to be about the cheapest around for PSE (996 version).

Thanks for the warning on the pen holder.