718 Life.

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Pretty amazing day ahead here today - after what feels like a short sleep (because of being super-pooped / jet-lagged) but was actually 7 hours or so. I sleep reasonably well on the firm bed, though apparently I do some snoring, even though I have my 'device' in AND nasal strips! Grrrr. Hope it's not often and too disruptive. I know how miserable it can be when someone is snoring. We get up at 7:00 to pack the rental car so that it will be ready at lunchtime because we will go directly from the special Exclusif Manufactur tour to the train for Leipzig. We head to the Porsche museum where we get free entrance because of our ED. Nice. As we wait for our 'multimedia devices' (more about that later - but very cool), I have a delicious ham and cheese croissant at the café in there with some good coffee. There have been several flavourful food experiences here and I realize just how complacent I am back in Ottawa when it comes to seeking out good-...

Time flies! This summer it will have been two years since that momentous trip to Germany. Two years! About time then that I shared my write-ups from those days of Porsche-driving-delight. Should give you, dear reader, a little insight into that experience from the mind of a mid-fifties car guy on a most epic trip. So without further ado... Porsche Euro Trip Notes For this grand adventure, I intend to keep better notes than the last European Delivery trip. This one has been a much longer time coming, with a lot more of a roller-coaster of emotion leading up to actually winging our way across the Atlantic to pick up our dream cars. So, in order to not miss out on remembering things, I shall try to capture some details about what we are doing and how I'm feeling as we do it! Andrew will have all the minutia about roads, locations, timings and such - he's fantastically detail-oriented like that - so I am free to just take stock of the things that are striking me at any moment. Onwa...

Spring driving is just around the corner! And that means, with 22,947 km on the clock, it's almost time for new boots for the GTS. I'm pretty impressed with the durability and continued grip level that the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S has maintained over the past two years. Not as if they didn't get well-pushed in Europe at the beginning of their short life! From a longevity point of view I do think I won the lottery in getting Michelins on the car from the factory as opposed to the Pirellis that Andrew got. He will be best positioned to compare the two tires from a grip / handling perspective, as he's replacing his worn out Pirellis with the same Michelins this time around. I think he 'only' got about 18,000 km out of the Italian rubber, mind you, he did push a lot harder on the Nordschleife than I did! I figure I will get the new boots installed somewhere around the end of April and before then, fingers-crossed we will have had had enough rain and warm temperatures...

Now we come to the current red machine sitting in my garage. No, wait...a bit of backtracking first... When Andrew proposed the idea of two Porsches via European Delivery, I didn't even pause to ponder the Cayman vs. Boxster decision. I just immediately thought 'Boxster'. The open-top experience is just too deeply entrenched in me it seems (thanks to my two Hondas), despite some of the minor inconveniences (like sunscreen) it entails. The first recce to Mark Motors Porsche on a rainy weekday afternoon had me come across a Guards Red Boxster in the parking lot there. We were test driving a Cayman that day, but just seeing the red convertible glistening there in the damp was enough to give me visions of ownership right there and then. I mean let's face it, my first Porsche experience was in a Boxster, in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, way back in 2000 - it, too, was Guards Red - so it seemed somewhat cosmic that here I was ogling a new version of that car, and ...

A second blizzard. A second post about my convertibles.  After the first blast of 32 cm of the white stuff, we are now into our second day of a second blizzard. As of writing this, there's now another 24 cm on the ground and it's still falling. Still, if you can't (or won't) drive your sports car in this kind of weather, then amusing oneself by writing about your sports car is a second-best activity. Where was I? Oh yes, my second S2000. The lure of the open-top returned, and in 2017 I was lucky enough to be able to buy Andrew's well-cared-for and meticulously upgraded Honda icon. This time an AP2 chassis, complete with Comptech supercharger. I'd helped with the  testing years ago, but now this little screamer was all mine. No one could complain this version was underpowered. And a smooth delivery of those extra horses across the rev range meant more torque down low as well. It was even more of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde car as the revs rose, and that seat-of-the...

It's snowing. A lot. So, I'm spending the day pondering the two (errr three - more on that later)  convertible sports cars I've owned. In case you think I'm slacking, we're in the middle of a rather large (even by our Canadian winter standards) snowstorm, with giant drifts, impassable roads, and even the snowplows holding off their work until things settle down. There's 27 cm on the ground so far, and counting. It's falling right now at a rate of about 3 cm/hour, and the forecast shows a few more hours of it before a brief respite. Total accumulation may be as much as 45 cm, and then we will have a couple of days to shovel out before a second one hits on the weekend with another 25 cm possibly. Just finished the first round of shovelling and clearing off the Blue Rocket in case I need to make an emergency outing, but the plan is to hunker down for the day. Clearly winter is still a thing, so with a mug of coffee in hand, the heat turned up, and a comfy chair...

Ah Canadian winter. A time for reflection and hibernation as the temperature dips below -20° Celsius. This kind of cold penetrates to the bone and makes you shiver for many minutes when you come inside from it. Not exactly conducive to automobile-related fun unless you have a set of Hakkapeliittas and don't care about getting road salt in every nook and cranny. That's not me. As you know, I'm a tad fastidious about my cars, and I cringe at the thought of what a session of Ontario road salt combined with the freeze / thaw temperatures we get here would do to my gorgeous Boxster. Not only the Carmine Red paintwork, but also all the underpinnings, wheel arches, frame, etc. No thanks! So, instead of driving, thoughts turn to other things I can do during the winter months, and here's one. Andrew worked his magic with his sticker-skills (you may remember all his work to create the GTS Chronicles logo way back) and created unique celebratory stickers for each of us commemorat...

Winter is here and I've noticed something. I put the car away late this year, close to the end of November, which is a record. Perhaps global warming...? But since that time, my viewing of Porsche-related videos, and musings in the online forum have increased inversely proportionally to the amount of driving I've gotten to do in November / December. Coincidence? I think not. Obviously there's no substitute for getting in the cockpit and seeking out some pristine blacktop, so the Internet makes for a (very) second-best alternative during the cold months. If there was a counter on some of the videos I've rewatched from back in those early days of aspiring to Porsche-ownership, it would be easily in the double digits now. With the 718 getting rather long in the tooth for the YouTubers, who crave the newest, the latest, the updated more than anything, there's little in the way of new content online about this platform. Occasionally I find a little something - perhaps a ...

November 6, 2023. That's when I put 'Red' away for the winter last year. Reading back over that post I see there was snow on the ground and that sounded the death knell for sporty driving for another season. This year, we've extended a little longer (a week so far) and it looks like this weekend is shaping up to offer 10 degrees, no precipitation, and sunshine! So with a bit of luck from the weather gods, I'll get a short final drive out before the long sleep. I've already done the proper deep clean needed for storage (doesn't she look good?), but with no bugs and clean roads, I think its worth warming up the cold tires for one last romp. I've discovered that with the seat heater and steering wheel heat on, and the fan blowing hot into the lower half of the cabin, the Boxster's cockpit is quite delightful to be in on a cool day, even with the top down. It's warm enough on Friday to take her to work one last time this year, and after a day in cubi...

Anticipation. 2023 really was all about anticipation. The order for our cars being confirmed. Then the process of watching each of them pass each manufacturing milestone. The lead up to European Delivery. The morning of the big day. Delicious anticipation. Then returning to Canada and waiting once more. The anticipation rising again as we tracked their progress across the Atlantic. Sitting in the Halifax port for weeks. Then rail-bound for Toronto and another wait at the Autoport. Finally making the trip down to London to get our hands on them once again. Lots and lots of anticipation leading up to the reward of ownership.  And now, those anticipations have morphed - evolved into something new. Now, instead of anticipating just  getting  the car, I anticipate the next drive. The next turn of the key. The next trip downstairs to the garage (ok maybe that one's a bit much). Take this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend for example. It's a little over a week away, and I've decided...

I remember someone (my grandfather, was it?) saying if you walk away from your car and then turn to look back at it, that tells you something. I've had the Boxster for just over a year now, and I think I have developed a crick in my neck from all the gazing back as I leave it in a parking spot. A year is as good a point in time as any to reflect and take stock of what was a pretty momentous car purchase for me. If you've read my posts right from the start here, you'll know what a long and sometimes tortuous journey it was to get to the point where I picked it up from the factory in Germany as the full-fledged owner. Throughout the whole process, I didn't have much in the way of doubts as to what I was trying to do - not a lot of second-guessing the decision to go ahead and buy a very expensive sports car. Now, a year later, I'm happy to say I don't have any doubts that it was a great idea. I've not regretted it for a second. Not the decision to buy, not the ...

Family fun? This weekend is an opportunity to stretch the legs of the Boxster a little, this time with a few 'brothers'. I manage to corral three other GTS owners, including my GTS Chronicles compatriot, into a Friday afternoon fun run. The weather is perfect, and we meet up late afternoon, in the local grocery store parking lot for a quick pre-drive chat, photos-taking, and radio setting-upping. Leaving the route guidance in the Carmine Red Cayman's hands, I bring up the rear in the tail-end Charlie position, bracketing a nice Guards Red Cayman and a brand-spanking new GT Silver Boxster. All GTSs. All manuals. All silver wheels. Kind of an anomalous group in this day and age, and we like it that way. It's less than an hour south to the border with New York State, straight down highway 416. A brief stop at border entry, where our quartet raises a few eyebrows, and we are ready to do some exploring in the region around Ogdensburg. We are lucky enough to have our group le...