Devils Punchbowl

Last weekend, went on an enjoyable short run from Dunsfold to the Devils Punchbowl with the Porksters:

Fun run, great little caff I'd not been to before - good day. This group are fairly new (been going a year or 2, I believe) but they're pretty active, although only for short runs (this one was 25 miles or so).

I've started a thread to try persuade a few of them to do a road trip like I've done several times with my kit car group. I don't have enough holiday next year to do the week-long trip my kit car people are going on, so will try arrange a 4 day trip to Wales. See how it goes...

This weekend, we met up on Saturday in a pub in Guildford for Xmas meal and beers, which was enjoyable. Today, I did a little run to a new cafe I've been trying to get too; Torque Motors Cafe near Rusper. I had a good run there and it was a great place; lots of car-related stuff all over the walls, F1 on a big screen, driving sim to hire, great food and coffee - perfect. Must take others here...

I've also paid for TomTom Go on my phone. Never been a fan of TT (my kit car people had so many problems with it) but it works with Android Auto and allows proper routes which can be shared with others (unlike Google Maps, for example). It's only £20 per year, which isn't too bad and it worked OK on this test drive today

Money, money, money

...it's not funny...

Before I depress myself, some pics of the Blackbushe meet last weekend - I thought it was a general meet for lots of cars but no, just Porsches:

The eagle-eyed will notice my son's car at the end - as I said, I thought it was a general car meet, so invited him along - whoops. Another 10 or so cars did turn up after this pic, so it was not as empty as it looks. The weather was average (spitting rain, so roofs up) and not the most exciting drive but I'm still in the honeymoon period, so any trip out is awesome!

My son's car impressed/annoyed (I can't be sure which) other members as he started up and then smoked tyres out of the car park - I still love it but I'm guessing not everyone in the group agrees...

Sadly for him, he had a minor disaster down the road - he lost his brakes completely. Luckily, he noticed they were going (pedal went very soft) and he slowed down and just managed to get into a petrol station. After filling up, the car wouldn't let him drive off because it detected the complete absence of brake fluid - clever. I used my breakdown service to get him recovered home. It looks to be the link pipe on one of the calipers that has split. We tried to unscrew it ourselves but in too tight - booked in for a fix next week.

So I took my car to Paul Lewis (Torque Boxsters, link on the right) for the new/2nd-hand driveshaft to be fitted. I'd also bought gear mounts for him to fit because Parrs Porsche told me mine were 'split' - however, Paul couldn't see that being the case, so he didn't change them in the end. However, he had a nightmare with corroded bits to get the driveshaft in - he had to cut one of the control arms out completely and so I had to get both replaced - total bill of £925 !!!! Ouch...

Embarrassingly, he also told me my tyre pressures were very low (22 psi, should be 32) - man, how did I not check simple stuff like that? In my meagre defence, 19" wheels have so little rubber, it's difficult to tell just by looking at them...but, still, pathetic.

So now, the car feels VERY different and I'm not sure it's a 'good' different...before, the car was lovely and smooth over most road surfaces but floaty round corners and at speed, with a lot of tramlining. Now, on normal roads, it is hard - very hard, almost uncomfortably so. I haven't driven too much so I'm assuming it will also be better at speed and in the twisties - I'll have to see how it goes. I know this is what it should feel like and it is better/safer etc....but 50% of my driving is going to be in 'chill' mode - it's difficult to 'chill' if your teeth are being rattled.

I've created a 'Costs' page (link up at the top) to keep track of how much money I'm spending - definitely not for the wife to see and I may give up on it as well if it becomes too painful.

Return of the Roof

 Picked up the new roof switch and fitted it today - a bit fiddly but pretty simple and the roof seems to now be working fine.

I drove to Guildford Porsche to get the part and I was hoping to look round a lovely showroom - sadly, they are in the middle of a complete rebuild and so are working out of some fancy prefabs - bummer. I did get a mahoosif calendar for free but it's so big, it's probably going in the bin:

However, what was good was a sort of coin/medal that came with it - quite nice:

I have ordered gearbox mounts which I will take to Paul (Torque Boxster) next week and he will replace them at the same time as the 2nd hand driveshaft to fix the leaking one. My first big bill....yay!

Another meet planned for the weekend at Blackbushe airport - should be interesting...

Roofless

 I went out for a short drive in a break in the rain,  roof down, all lovely....get back and the roof refused to go back up - bugger. Worse, it started clouding over - the rain was on the way back. Luckily, there is a manual process to get the hood up, which requires popping off the 4 rods holding the roof and cover down.

Assuming the switch is the problem (a common issue), I've ordered a new one and will get it midweek. Installing it looks pretty simple and hopefully that will fix it.

This weekend, met up with a FB group...we met 10 minutes down the road from me:

It looked like rain when I left home, so I left the roof up. The sun came out but I was too embarrassed to manually put the roof down, so I left it up for the short hop down to a local pub where I was told another club was also turning up. I expected another 5 or 6 cars - oh no....

The Stuttgart Group, Porsche GB, maybe others - the place was rammed. I'd never seen so many Porsches...some oldies:

Lots of nice stuff:

...with this stunning blue 911 example my favourite:

Obviously, Zedster2 was the best, even with the roof up:

(Actually, probably the cheapest car there).

The ongoing 'keep it or sell it' decision is being made more difficult because my wife likes Zedster2 - I came back from this meet and we went off to a local beauty spot to walk the dog, with her even asking me to put the roof down. She's been out in Zedster2 more times in a month than Zedster in 6 years. 

Another possible issue has raised its head; the car feels a bit floaty. I wasn't sure if that was just normal but on a forum, someone else has mentioned it and a suggested cause from someone else is engine/gearbox mounts, which is what the Porsche specialist told me were knackered on Zedster2. Do I try get them done at the same time as the driveshaft? Seems sensible...