The DareDevil

I was wondering if you store any cars during the winter months and if you do, when do you store them? Do you wait for the first hint of snowfall or do you follow a strict schedule (ie. nov 30 every year).

I am storing my 944 for the winter months. If it wasn’t for the insane amount of salt that they spread on Quebec roads I might have considered driving it during dry periods over the winter months.

Marc Shaw

I drove mine all last year despite the salt in NB but plan to store it in my back garage to do some work on it - first sign of snow, I guess.

Marc

DANdeMAN

I will store mine on the 2nd or 3rd weekend of october as I have some cleaning and dismantling in the engine bay and prep it for sping's repair and tune up. I would have gone to the first snow scare... J'AÏE L'HIVER & LA MARDE BLANCHE!

theiceman

Typically on my 944 Haloween is allways the dreaded date for me . I put the car away for devils night and it never comes back out. I typically find my tires just get too hard and I can't get any heat in them to make them stick, I ran re 71s and then s02s so they really don't like cold, plus cold tires ride kind of hard so then it is time. By then it is getting dark early anyway and I am " ready" to put her to bed .

thedyingiraffe

Once, I ran it until the first week of december and the first snow fall came a week later. This year, I'll probably do my oil change in the first week of november and say goodbye until the 17th of march 2006.

DANdeMAN: Moi aussi je hais cette merde blanche... faudrait bien aller se promener un jour. Je veux voir ta petite 928! Envoie moi un courriel.

oups59

Well, the season is over for me. Put the car in the garage yesterday after a ride to Eastern Township. What a beautiful weekend.

All clean up, oil changed, oil in the cylinder.

Ready for spring 2006

spar10

i'll preface this message by saying i'm in chicago and planning to "store" my car when the roads start to get ugly. last year i took it out and ran it when the roads were dry. this year i will take it out and run it every time there's an opportunity to get out and drive safely without snow tires.

i just got back from the porsche driving school and had a good discussion with the folks there (a critical mass of porsche experts) and they all had the same thought. these cars are built to be driven and that doesn't just mean in the summer. they are built to be driven in snow and the salt won't hurt them. the consensus is to get a set of snow tires and enjoy the car all year round.

i don't think it makes sense to say on a given day the car goes into storage and doesn't come out until the thaw breaks. drive it when it seems right and enjoy the heck out of it.

951North

Yes I know these cars can be driven in the winter, Porsche (the Company) tests their cars in my backyard during the winter. But the question is why would you want to? For me it's just cruel to drive the car in -30° or wosre, not to mention the comming off turbo lag to kick you in the a$$. Also all the other idiots out there without snow/ice tires that will rear end you at stoplights... It's not worth it!

$0.02

Jason

randyrap

I agree with spar10. I run my 83 911 during the winter months when the streets are clear and dry. This past January in Southern Ontario the weather has been great and I went cruising quite often. Even if the weather is not good, I fire up the engine and let it warm up and drive the car in and out of the garage a few times.

In my opinion, Porsches are meant to be driven whenever possible. Okay ... okay .... I do draw the line at minus 10 and snow covered roads. LOL.

Imo000

When I bought my ’85 928 5-speed it cam with a set of Blizzaks and I know the PO drove the car all year around. The engine had a broken timing belt and several bent valves so it took me a couple of months to get her running again. By the time the car was road worthy again it was January. I drove her in snow a coupe of times and with the winter tires the car handled great. It’s all in the tires. The proper winter tires make all the difference. My daily driver at the time was a ’93 Trans Am 6-speed and it also had winter tires on it (Good Year Eagle Ultra Grip). I had absolutely no problem with it at all during the winter months. Those tires had more traction in rain that most tires do on dry pavement. I had occasions when the snow was deeper that the rocker panel and even starting from a stop on an uphill grade wasn’t much of an issue.

However since I do most the upgrading and maintenance on the 928 in the winter I haven’t drove her during the winter months in a few years. Usually park her in the first couple weeks of November and only take her out if the weather is good and the roads are clear. This year I haven’t taken her out yet, the intercooler build took up most of the nice January weather.

951North

Our winter has been quite nice too many days in the +5 to -5 range (i've been sooo tempted to go out) sadly there is so much $hit on the roads I'd get more rock chips and possibly worse (broken windshield) than I want to repair.... The new porsches with all the technology would be great/fine to drive in the winter even on snow/ice but then you run into the problems associated with other drivers as I mentioned previous.

Jason

951North

bingo!

From my ice racing experience I can definately tell you it's 90% about the tires.

Good year ultra grips were okay for non studded variety but I prefer the Nokian Hakka 1's myself! Though I do think the Michelin (spit) Alpins would be good too just look at all those sipes!

Jason

Imo000

I agree! I have a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta 1s on my whife's car. They are great! A lot of people say the Nokians are the best show/ice tire on the market.