socalbusdev

+1 for Cars and Coffee every Saturday early AM. GREAT showcase.

mooty

cool, i see you finally drove my car back!

gota911

Hell Mooty, anyone who has driven a GT3 has probably driven one of your cars!

lopro

i'm surprised that truck has so much overhang over the rear wheels, it kind of looks odd where the wheels are. Very nice delivery setup, really is cool they drop off cars over 300miles away

sharkster

Haha that's true!
Yes where would you like it parked?
Roger that I'll try!
Hehe glad you liked it!
Thank you and I'm looking forward to meeting them.. They were so good about this whole thing
We will try and thank you!
AW thanks for the support on the exhaust! We are having them install ours on the car before we leave too:P
Haha... we'll see what the weather is going to do. Hopefully not too gnarly!
Thanks man!
I'm thinking Sunday AM? It'd be great to check that out...
Thank you and we try!

Da Hapa

Just FYI, Cars and Coffee in Irvine is held on Saturday mornings. Hope you can make it. Safe trip.

sharkster

Captain's Log: Star Date 1/11/11
We are packing our gear for the trip out to Springfield to pick the car up and the good folks at Isringhausen (thanks to Geoff & crew) were kind enough to send me a few updates.

Now what is this, our no-named girl is up on a lift already?


What's going on. I see a bumper coming off? Maybe the guys at Isringhausen are just checking for rattles in the heat shields. That must be it...


Nope. The rattle seems to be deeper and coming from one of the side mufflers:


Aha... busted! That out to fix that "rattle"...


Although she does have a fancy ipod connection (hey Porsche did finally discover the ipod in 2009!) the only tunes we'll be playing are from this Sharkwerks exhaust thingemejig:


And don't worry the factory Titanium tips work just fine with our exhaust too. Although no titanium was harmed in the process our part is still about 8 pounds lighter than what came off anyways:


There she is waiting to be gulped up by a pair of West Coast Sharks first thing in the morning. That red GTS doesn't look half-bad either!? Gary you take the RS and Wyatt you take GTS (sort of Weird Science reference in Kelly LeBrock's accent):

dwost

Congrats Alex! That is such a sick rig. Enjoy the trip and be safe

sharkster

Update from the end of day 1 and 400 miles later...
First of all I can really confirm that the way the suspension has been re-done clearly it's a more compliant road car. Less movement, nervousness and feedback. A 400 mile drive in this car is certainly "easier" and more comfortable than in our Mk1. You can see why not only with better aero but revised suspension Porsche was able to get a few more seconds at the ring. Less fighting with the wheel I guess. We hit some heavy rain coming into Joplin and the reduction in nervousness certainly made it "easier" to deal with the rain too.

The 3.8 has a bit more tq than the 3.6 indeed but it doesn't rev quite as snappily as the Mk1. Our RS is heavily optioned so it's actually a very comfy, easy to use road car with all the mod cons. We all know the rear visibility is useless with that wing but hey mine is big and has orange bits on it so who cares

Overall I'm stoked thus far. The car feels very familiar and I'm at home.....

Got to Isringhausen's dealership at 9:30 and took a tour. Really nice dealership with much more of a focus on 911s than what I'm used to in California.


Sorry for the iphone (in some case) pix but someday we'll capture what the color really looks like. In the mean-time I'm super-happy with Geoff Sr. & Jr, owners of the dealership:


Dan made some name tags:


Taking a peak at their 06 Cayman race car:


And their newer 09 DFI one also running in the Cayman series:


Walking around I saw this 4.0 was sold as well:


And so was this nifty red 997 GTS with the aerokit:


Despite being a super-quick Turbo S I still am having trouble loving that rear end:


Our first stop was at a certain store you'll find in any state Some racer's tape:


This seemed like a good place to stop and stretch our legs before officially heading out west:



And here's that wicked structure sans the car:


Not only did we pass through Cuba...


But we took a few hits by the looks of our "home-made" racer's tape wrap job through Lebanon:


Interesting factoid we noticed when going from Illinois to Missouri. The penalty "hitting" a road safety worker in a construction zone is $14000 and a possible 15 year sentence. Do the same thing in Missouri and it's only a ten year stretch! Road safety signs in Missouri:


Got to love the 93 octane vs the crap-tastic 91 we get in California:


Back on the road and on the way to Joplin. Our stop for the night. Pretty sad to see the state of the city. Some areas just have "holes" where structures stood before the Tornados hit earlier in the year:

dwost

Nice update! Kinda funny but the "tape" matches the car. Maybe Porsche should consider changing the name to "painters blue"

sharkster

Thanks mate it's a lot of fun.. I mean who needs a Euro delivery when you have Route 66 hah:P
Yes we were thinking that Although it looks like a race car with battle scars at the moment!

ecostellodo

Wave at me as you drive through OKC. :-)

Have a safe trip and watch out for the 18 wheelers in NM as they pull into the fast lane going up a hill.

sharkster

Thank you sir and we did. Wow you sure are right about those 18 wheelers. We had a couple of them do some wacky stuff!

sharkster

Day Two: 800 miles & four states later…
If there are two things that stand out for me today:
1) Who needs European Delivery when you have Route 66?
2) Covering some 800+ miles, four states, many different quality of roads this MK2 RS is one helluva road car. There can’t be many cars capable of so much yet are able to do so with such ease and comfort. It’s no caddy but she glides along…

The heavy rain shower from the night before took its toll on our stunning SharkWerks Satin Blue Paint Protection Film Wrap Technology TM. Here’s Sharky making a few take-two style adjustments and corrections.


No words necessary.


Off we go and in the middle of an Oklahoman Porsche meet!


Oklahoma this time of year had trees galore of all different colors. The North American Amazon! We stopped at a Cherokee Trading post. It had Indians. Real ones!


There was a big sign warning us that this was the last Mickey D’s in the entire State!


There are a few issues with this type of paint protection. The marquee is no longer visible. Another wardrobe malfunction. No Porsche dealership for miles so we did what we could:


There’s no way 5’9-Dan is this tall in real life. The car isn’t this short either.


You don’t see these factory-blue seat pass throughs every day. Neither do we sitting and facing forwards. They kind of sort of work. They just do.


Another rest stop and another old school Le Mans-style driver change:


Next up was Texas.


We wouldn’t have it any other way:


We decided to pull over and get ourselves kitted out properly with a hood ornament to help make some friends. It was getting dark so we tested the day-time running lights.


Just one of many rest stops in Texas:


She’s a looker:


We also hit 1000 miles on the Odometer and hence began to give her some real welly (see video). As fun as this was, I know we have some work ahead of us with the throttle settings. There’s room on the table. It was neat to hear our exhaust again on the 3.8 engine with a LWF. You also really notice the intake howl more than on cars with the 996GT3 style intake (997.1GT3, RS and 997.2GT3). The 4.0 and the conical intakes likely make even more.

All those high revs meant we needed gas. We thought we’d go off the reservation a bit and find something better than 91 octane but clearly we came by a few years too late. Skynet and the Terminators had already taken over the world and “Judgement Day” had come and gone. At least someone left a couch for us to rest on.


Finally we did find a station with premium fuel. I have no comment on the 86 octane. That’s not even fit for adding to a protein shake. Great timing also as we had a driver change and Dan was lucky enough to drive the properly broken-in RS with said 90-octane. He was forced to baby it on his stint and will complain about it for many years to come. This is the first and I guarantee will be the last time that Pische-for-gas sees the inside of this car.


Texas lasts forever and being a navigator you get to play with the Sporty Chrono and XM radio:


At least he was treated tot a Texas-style sunset.


In a desert devoid of civilization there was a sign and Texas decided to help cheer up Dan once again. This seems like a good place to visit from dusk till dawn.


Near the Texas and New Mexico border we had to stop for bathroom break. Good thing we did too. Take your boots off before entering:


Don’t forget to wash your hands either. Our thicker optioned alcantara wheel appreciates it:


New Mexico was next. We wanted to try and blend in here as well:


Not that New Mexico is boring but if we could teleport ourselves and this car anywhere it would be here:


Still on Route 66 we couldn’t find a place to settle down for the night. This one seemed ok but the parking was sketchy.


Tomorrow we’re hoping to continue through New Mexico and Arizona and catch the odd UFO or two.

sharkster