BOING - Spring is sprung

 The weather is improving, slowly...

Not done much recently, apart from a couple of runs to Torque Moto Cafe for lunch a couple of times. A great place, where you can spend ages just staring at the posters and bric-a-brac of racing history while having a very good egg and bacon roll and good coffee:

....and they've got a Scalectrix track on the ceiling:

Also, I decided Zedster2 is a rubbish name so....*fanfare*... meet Barry the Boxster. Yeah, I know but I like it...

I've possibly made a decision about the future of Barry - see my old blog for the details.

Assuming that decision doesn't change (no guarantee), I've got a few things planned so far this year:

Wales trip in May
Beaulieu 'Simply Porsche' day in June

....and hopefully some longer day trips with the Porksters...

A Tale of Two Days

 Popped out on Saturday with the wife (to look at a caravan) and it was monsoon time; non-stop, heavy rain, huge puddles everywhere.

Then Sunday, blue skies, bright sun - beautiful. A bit chilly early on as I went on a little run with my son before meeting with the Porksters at Newlands Corner for a very nice bacon and egg butty:

A decent 14 cars turned up and it was a nice run back as well, luckily managing to avoid traffic (the definition of a good run).

My wheels sold for £520, so almost paid for my new ones, which is good. However, the tramlining is really bad, so much so that I may have to buy new 235 tyres for the front, assuming the 245s are the cause and not the change from 19" to 18".

Re-wheeled

 So I went to get the tyres fitted and the guy tells me that the wheel with the bulging tyre is also a little buckled - he struggled to get it balanced. Looks like I hit a pothole, damaged the rim and caused the bulge in the tyre?

Now, I have had a vague plan to change to 18" wheels because most people say they are the sweet spot for the Boxster; look good but also have some more rubber to help with ride comfort. With the news of the wheel damage, I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

A bit of searching and haggling on eBay and I bought a set of 18" wheels for £550 with reasonable condition tyres. The only difference was the fact the fronts were 245 rather than the standard 235 but I hoped that would make minimal difference....hmmmm....

Anyway, wheels bought and swapped over:

I do prefer the design of these and they are in perfect condition, unlike my 19" originals. Out on the road, they are more comfortable but that larger front set do tramline a little more as well. I can live with it for now, until I buy a new set, when I'll revert to 235s.

My 19" set are on eBay and already at £300 with a few days to go, so I might even make a profit on this swap. Unlikely, knowing my luck...

Retyred

Spelling mistake in the title of this post is for comedic affect (I wish I was retired)...Z2 is booked in for 2 new front tyres later this week. The bulge on the tyre is looking worse, so I cannot wait until I decide whether to do the wheel refurb or not.

I'm getting Yokohama tyres fitted as they're £100 less than the Michelins on there at the moment and I am not a great believer in paying for the brand - I wouldn't get cheap chinese re-treads but I'm not going to waste money just to please the purists (and I have had comments about my decision).

As a last hoorah to the old ones, I met up with the Porksters on a short run from Denbies to the Chalet cafe for breakfast:

A good turnout of 11 cars on a dreary but dry and mild day - Z2 is lovely with the roof down, then engine howl just does not fail to make me happy.

A mini club also turned up - look at this cutey:

After breakfast, I headed up to Forest Row for what was supposed to be a Jap and Classics meet. One guy from the Porkster group joined me (Tim) as he lives not far from Forest Row and he knew all the back roads so took me on a fun route through some lanes. He's a biker (with 5 bikes in his garage) so I had a hard time keeping up with him - I've told him to come on the Wales trip in May because he'd be good fun...

The meet was a little disappointing, with no real classics there (unless you count old Jap cars). There were a couple of lovely NSXs, however:

...and I do like these Honda S800s:

Quite a few Scoobys, MX5s, MR2s but nothing too exciting.

The reason I went is because my son has had to sell his C63 AMG (£13k insurance renewal!!!) and bought a Nissan 370Z - he was hoping to meet some other owners at this meet but they're a lazy bunch and none turned up.

Which is lucky, I guess, because 1 week after buying the 370Z, it's sold!!! Yup, that's my son - he doesn't hang about.

He bought the 370Z because he wanted decent power in RWD, like his C63 was. But the 370Z was a disappointment; huge rear tyres meant it had so much grip, it was hard to get any oversteer (which my son likes), even with 320 bhp. It also had very little torque low down and it took until 3k RPM before things started happening.

Worse, the steering was very flighty and it tramlined everywhere making it very nervous and not confidence-inspiring. I had a short drive of it and you just couldn't relax in a straight line - continual steering inputs required to keep out of the ditches. Lovely gearbox, however, and a good looking car but flawed.

So my son took it back to the dealer who bought it back for £1k less. This does sound like he lost a fortune BUT the story gets weird...

At the moment, car insurance is all over the place - my son was getting £4k insurance quotes for a Toyota GT86. This was partly why he chose the 370Z - insurance was £2,500 which he could afford. So when it was gone (and literally on the train back from the dealer) he started looking at a new car and decided to go back to a Golf GTi, a car he had had before. He found a decent one locally and went to do an insurance quote, fearing the worst. He went to cancel the insurance on the 370Z but it asked if he just wanted to change the car details on his policy, so he changed to the Golf. He then gets a message saying they now OWE him £700 !!! Yes, insurance is £1,800 for the Golf GTi !! A steal in the current marketplace...

OK, the Golf is only a 2L engine but it's got 4 seats, which normally is bad for young people (we thought) because they can carry friends who egg them on to do stupid things etc.

Anyway, bottom line, he's got a great car which will do 30+ mpg even on his commute, £200 road tax, 'cheap' insurance and will still do 0-60 in 6 secs. He is desperately unhappy about losing the C63 (easily his favourite car ever) but this has at least cheered him up a lot and he is saving a fortune.

Best of all, with the C63, whenever anyone started comparing it to a Ferrari/Porsche/Lambo, his stock answer was, "yeah but they've got small engines". Now, I can laugh at him for having a small-engined car :-) 

Straight as a dye

 Time to get the wheel alignment done. I had it done once years ago on a car and it made absolutely no difference (dealer just trying it on and I fell for it, I think), so I've been reluctant but there's some very obvious tramlining going on and after my rear coffin arms were done, it's strongly advised.

I didn't want to pay Porsche prices (£300+) so I found a local company who had the Hunter system I was advised to use.

Friendly guys and they let me look under my car, which was interesting- in better condition than I expected considering the age.

The guy did the rear and all was going well - and then, it wasn't. He couldn't get the front tie rod lock nut loosened and, in his efforts, there was a gush of liquid as he pulled one of the coolant pipes free! Wonderful...

He was very apologetic but he had to go buy a new pipe (at his cost) and I needed new tie rods because the only way to remove them was to use some heat, which compromises them (aluminium). So I had to leave Z2 there over the weekend...

It took a few days to get the parts but eventually done for a very reasonable £180, including the tie rods.

I went out today for a test drive and the sun came out to play:

Most impressively,  the alignment has done wonders; the tramlining is mostly gone (still a tiny hint of it but hardly noticeable), the steering is lighter and, best of all, the ride quality has somehow improved. I'm not sure if this is expected or if I'm imagining it but much less bashing on rough surfaces (which is most of them in this country).

The garage also pointed out my front tyre has an ominous bulge in it, which is annoying as its expensive and has lots of tread on it still. I may use this opportunity to get my wheels refurbished and maybe change the colour? Bronze perhaps?

End of the Ice Age

 Just in time for a weekend run out, the temperatures 'soared' to 10 degC (been down around zero all week) and so a nice run to the Chalet cafe for breakfast.

The route there was pretty good but only 15 miles or so - I would have preferred something longer but I did go for an extra blast after breakfast on my own.

The Chalet is always good for food and is much quieter at this time of year, so we actually got a seat inside. Only a few other cars and bikes here - we pretty much filled the car park:

On the return trip, I turned off traction control and...nothing...felt no different, which just goes to show how damn good the chassis and handling is on this car. Cold, wet roads and I could still 'press on' with no drama - darn impressive. Obviously, I am not some amazing driver pushing the envelope but within my personal limits (rather than the cars), this thing is awesome.

Which brings me to my continual conundrum; Zedster or Zedster2? I STILL can't decide. The fact that I really look forward to my drives in Z2 (sorry, can't be bothered to type 'Zedster2' all the time) suggests it should be a no-brainer BUT at every meet, someone has a story of how they just had to spend £xxxx on their car. Realistically, Z2 could do with the following:

Wheel refurb - £300
Re-spray - £3k (or £800 for just the rear wings, I guess)
New brake lines and fittings - £600
Possibly other suspension bits? Who knows...

Zedster needs nothing (assuming my current non-starting is just the starter motor wiring needing a clean-up). Even if he did, the cost is rarely into 3 figures.

But Z2 is so much nicer to drive (sorry Z); faster, warmer, more comfortable. 

Urgh - wish I could afford to keep them both.

Yup, still here...

 Nothing exciting to post - been making sure I go out at least once a week to prevent any battery death.

Between xmas and NY, went to a meet at a Sevens car dealership near Brands Hatch - surprisingly good, with loads of different cars and this amazing Bentley in their workshop:

I don't think it was a real model of Bentley, more like a restomod as it had all new mechanics (disc brakes etc) and a huge, stupid wing on the rear. But funky...

Last weekend was a meet with the Porksters at the Devil's Punchbowl again. Utterly freezing (around 1 degC) but a decent turnout of around 14 cars:

Very glad of my heated seats and proper car heating compared to Zedster. I did put the roof down on the way home for the last few miles when the sun came out and it was bearable, although not for a longer drive. I also found quite a good route using the TomTom Go app - took me down some very dubious almost-cart tracks but also found some very nice B-roads which allowed some fun.

I got a new camera for xmas (surprise! No...) and bought a semi-decent suction mount and it holds on to the wind deflector between the seats pretty well. The new external mic definitely is a huge improvement over my old camera and the new one also has a front screen which I can see in the mirror, so I can easily tell if it is recording (the main problem with my old one). Just need to go on a decent trip to record something...