tbrom

This is a great bit of notes - something anyone contemplating a long road trip could use as a checklist! Thanks a bunch for this one. I'll surely refer to this before I take off whenever that will be - hopefully not too long.

The tire repair kit is great idea - I have one - from Griots - don't even have to take the tire off the car. Jack it up, rotate it to find the screw or nail, extract mark it, pull it with the pliers provided, use the goo and tire threadd punch, plug it, re-inflate with the compressor that plugs into the lighter and your back on the road! Have used it many times and despite what some would say I have had great experience with the plug instead of the other repairs like taking the wheel off and patching from the inside as they grind the rubber down around the puncture and weaken the tire - not as good as the plug IMHO. To each his own.

Thanks guys so far this is pretty successful - but I hope you that more of you will submit fun trips and scenic roads that you traveled and pics those are always nice. It's the back roads and twisties and canyon carving episodes I hope to hear about as well as how the car performed.

tbrom

Guys,

There are so many great entries it's hard to answer them all and thank everyone individually. I'm reading all the posts and am glad to get the one about the long trip coast to coast with the link. That's great.

Now someone wrote leave the clubs at home - no way folks. we are serious golfers and have light stand bags - I can put both our sets down on the dropped back seats and cover with luggage and still see out - one of the beauties of the Targa - the hatchback! The front trunk will be a little squeezed but as another mentioned lots of small bags. There is the floor behind the seats too. I'm sure we can pull this off. If any you read the cool article either in Panorama about the couple that used their Boxster to travel all over and had a tent and luggage and camped out all over - if you can do that in a Boxster - a Targa should be "child's play".

Another thought passed on was about if the wife gets tired of the trip - air mail her home and keep on trucking! I like that - hope it doesn't come to that though. I'd miss her as she's my best friend!

Keep em coming all you travelers - more detail about special roads as in number of Hwy and the good twisties. Oh, not to get off on tangents but several of you mention "radar detectors" - simple this is the one I have will suffice for advice - I've never had one - and don't have lots of tickets but I've never been on a long trip like the one I'm planning in a "fast" car either!

Thanks all.....:-)

rdstemler

Cape Cod to Tampa, twice. No problems either way, either trip. Comfortable during the summer.

Peter_S03

Cross country in 07 in my old now sold 84 Carrera, Fl- SD then -north , Hollywood, via Hwy 1, Sta Cruz, N, then E to the S Nevadas, , to Nevada, (Lake ) very tweety roads !! (: , down to Bishop Ca. via Yesumite , L Vegas , the Big Dich , , Durango , up to Hwy 50 then E back to Fl. about 7k in 19 days actual driving , and camping between hotels 1/2 and 1/2.
In 2012 Fl- SD, Cal, in a 03 Boxster S, then Zion N P , Utha , to St. Charles Il. and back to Fl, in 14 days actual driving 7 days.
Just returned from a Boxster Summit in Little Switzerland NC , completing 1500 k round trip, in my new to me , 01 C 4. (If you go with a Boxster once, you can take anything the next.)
which I bought in Va, and drove it home last july via the B Ridge Pkwy, super car super trip.
Now we are planning a drive to NC, do the Cabot trail, then Quebec( via Gaspe ? ), Montreal , and back.
On the way up stopping on Hwy 1 in Me, Camden etc. that should about 5k . With camping in between.

Peter_S03

By the way , had some issues with the starter in my 84 , had to have it taken out cleaned , in S L Obispo , and it started fine. I had about 200k plus on the odometer. !!

Dark Helmet

I'm (PPI-pending) picking up my first p-car Friday around noon... that's where the adventure starts:

June 6 - 414mi
June 7 - 607mi
June 14 - 607mi
June 19 - 615mi
June 21 - 615mi

16 days, 3247 miles.

kcheves

Picked up my car last month in Greenville SC, and drove it to Blue Ridge Georgia and back. 3+ hours each way on some excellent roads.. It was a wonderful way to get introduced to the car.

user 72902

In April I went to Lakeview, AR for some trout fishing on the White River with some college friends and have been doing this for several years. It was a little over 1000 miles each way from DC and I drove straight through going and split the drive coming home. My car was a smooth beast cruising at comfortable speeds. Very enjoyable and trouble free.

tomc_mets

Wife & I just back from our first road trip in our '11 911S, Dallas to Vegas and back. Car was a dream. Great cruising, spirited passing, uphill/downhill, dry/wet, whatever and surprisingly comfortable even after 10+ hour day in the car. It even looked good at the gas pump - averaged mid-20's MPG and had several enjoyable chats with fellow P-car enthusiasts we met during our travels. Can't wait for next road trip.

mdrums

Tampa to Birmingham...2 day DE...back to Tampa....10 hours up...2 long track days....10 hours back. Also trips to Miami 4.5hr drive for track days and back 4.5hrs....driving this car on the highway and other streets is utterly boring...at the track it's fun.

STAR57

I got myself a 2011 C4S CAB, Macadam Brown, first big trip from Riverside to Phoenix, next trip Phoenix to St. George Utah, the next morning got myself some dry snacks and water a drove to Great Falls MT, about 820 miles in 11 hours, stopped for fuel twice and bathroom , it was awesome, from there I drove to the Canadian border and on to Calgary, Canada.
I sold my 993 to Denver and picked this one at the Mannheim Riverside Auction, it was rated at 4.8 out of 5, had 20K miles.
I'm really enjoying the car, this is my first 997 and my fourth Porsche.

Para82

Just did a 3,000 mile roadtrip up to Colorado Springs and back. Car performed flawlessly, great roadtrip experience.

The best part for me was driving in the beautiful New Mexico desert around sunset with a Santa Fe train chugging along right next to us. Awesome.

You'll need a radar detector if you want to have fun. I have a Passport 9500 that detected every speedtrap. This allowed me to quickly drop down to 70 every time while I passed the thief.

wc11

This spring a bunch of us made the trip from Toronto to Hershey Park, PA. for the annual swap meet. Almost 700 km and about 8 hours each way. It was my 1st long trip with the car.
Super smooth and flawless is all I can say. Even the more "spirited" portions were awesome.
And upon arrival, none of the OMG big stretch stuff. Amazing.

z3mcoupe

Had my Targa 4 for 3 months now, and have done a complete round trip to Portland (via Crater Lake) from the Bay Area in CA and also a trip to Truckee from the Bay Area the following weekend!

Needless to say I love driving this thing. I pilot a 2012 Volvo S60 for work and I cannot wait to get into the Targa after driving it for a few days. On the trip to OR, the roads were terrible and I got a lot of resonance and road noise from the beat up surface. Once I was back in CA, the roads were nice and smooth (ish) cabin noise was less.

This car eats the miles up, and is a very comfortable long distance cruiser. I did purchase the 996 spare wheel + jack etc in case of a puncture and thankfully didn't need it. The rear opening hatch in the Targa was useful too in loading up the car for the trip.

When on the way to Truckee, up in the mountains, the SUV's and trucks were really crawling by comparison and the Targa made short work of dispatching slow, lumbering cars and trucks. Some pics for your enjoyment!


[IMG]DSC02831 by R0NAN, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]DSC02835 by R0NAN, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]DSC02837 by R0NAN, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]DSC02842 by R0NAN, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]DSC02848 by R0NAN, on Flickr[/IMG]

AWay

No special long distance trips in mine but I will say, the headlights at night are seriously amazing. Probably the best of any xenon car I've ever owned. With the high beams on it's like daylight! Longest trip though has sadly only been ~ 2 hours but like others have said, the car seems all day comfortable. And that's with sport seats and Eibach springs. It never ceases to impress me this car.

Drove a newly acquired F430 home from Vermont to PA a few years ago. Something like an 8 hour trip and it was entirely miserable. Horrid seats for comfort (Daytonas), poor ergonomics/driving position, weak headlights, the list goes on. Great car in so many ways but none of them practicality wise like the 911.