Hibernating for the winter and
enjoying the 911 fun on forums
I'm singing in the rain! Throughout the
whole of December and in the early part of January, my Carrera 4S might well
have been humming along to the delightful Gene Kelly tune in this rather
undelightful wet weather. Mind you, I only took the car out twice during the
months of November and December.
2006
997 Carrera 4S
Both times the car performed impeccably,
but I am always weary about driving on surfaces with standing water. On a
straight piece of dual carriageway in Oxfordshire, the amount of water kicked up
by those huge 305 section rear Bridgestones was considerable. I switched on the
rear fogs to add some extra illumination, but you always get some morons who
believe rear fog lights are for foggy conditions only, so some promptly flashed
me. Probably a good job they couldn't see how many fingers I flashed back at
them! Having said that, the grip afforded by those tires was immense, but I
knew that any sudden turns of the steering wheel and I'd probably be facing the
way I had just come, as wide summer tyres and slippery wintery conditions do
not mix.
After the rain went away in early January,
temperatures plummeted here in Hertfordshire and we have been blessed with a
blanket of snow! However, with the car tucked away in the garage, I have a few
plans for cleaning out the insides, notably the carpets, dashboard, center
console, steering wheel and binnacle. Replenishing the leather seats with
Gliptone's excellent leather feeder/polisher will also be done.
Meanwhile, things have been more
interesting on the 911uk forum - I have recently been promoted to moderator
status! Currently, we seem to be inundated with would-be salespeople who join
the forum and on their first (and only ever) posting, advertise their wares and
disappear. What's wrong with that, you may be saying?
If something went wrong between a forum
member and the seller, then the proprietors of 911uk could get in trouble.
There are plenty of official sellers on the website, though, who manage to
cover the vast majority of the forum's needs.
Aside from that, 911uk remains a great
place to learn from. Some interesting threads (at the time of writing) include:
‘993 Turbo vs 997 Turbo - which shall I buy?' ‘OPCs vs Indy?' ‘993 with over
200k miles... to buy or not to buy!?' and ‘Is your wife/GF allowed to drive
your 911?'
Perhaps the area where most banter is
generated is for private registration plate sellers. Quite a few of them are
ridiculed simply because a new member has just joined the site for the mere
purpose of selling their plate (which used to be on their Peugeot 205 and had
the numbers 911, 997 or 993 etc on it). Because it is a Porsche website, their
plates are therefore being advertised at appropriate Porsche prices; you can
imagine what kind of responses those have yielded!
2006
997 Carrera 4S’s interior
However, what does add value to members is
when they post cars they have seen and are interested in buying. Usually, the
replies are pretty healthy and result in the originator of the thread being
satisfied.
The next major outing the forum is
currently organizing is a gathering for 100+ 911s to be photographed at Gaydon.
Our trip abroad is a drive to the Porsche museum, with the Nurburgring soon
after that. Get in touch if you'd like to be involved. Hopefully, I will have
something more to report on the 997 in my next submission to Total 911!
