[Rap]

Funk eh. I'm driving at lightning this weekend. First two days incredible amounts of rain. Interesting but cancelled after two runs on Friday. Two inches of standing water in paddoc area. I digress. As I drive our beloved car is like a water vacuum. Foot wells have become über soaked. But the real problem was I had this trickle of water going onto my right ankle. At first I thought it was the rain. On Saturday same problem with less rain and now it's lots more water. Rain stops hood goes up and I take a look around. I pull up the rubber, I'll call it cowling towards the front near the windshield and unbelievably enough there's a mouse nest. The hose is partially eaten through. Interestingly enough at 6000 rpm's the water gushes onto my ankle. Do I have mice in my new garage or was this just a little extra that came with the car?

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[craigawoodman]

Rap,



There has to be some photo's of this adventure. I have heard of a mouse in the house, but, a mouse wanting to live the high life in a 968 - well that has to be new and unique. Given you have a coupe - where did this happen?



I have to ask, did it get rid of an annoying squeak in the car?

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[flash]

un - no - about $5700 for parts (not counting tax and shipping)

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[flash]

by the way, that's to go all the way to stage 3. it's only $4900 for stage 1

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[ds968]

[quote name='craigawoodman' timestamp='1370750234' post='143931']Ron, Even naturally aspirated, my 968 could cut lap times equal to an Audi R8 on twisty circuits (actually better than the V8).

The 968 is the performance car bargain of the century.[/quote]



Wow, that I would have never expected. I have a feeling the larger factor might have been the skills of the 968 driver that generated that result vs the R8, not so much the car itself :-).

And a big + 1 on that last statement.

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[Cloud9...68]

[quote name='ds968' timestamp='1370786263' post='143952']

Wow, that I would have never expected. I have a feeling the larger factor might have been the skills of the 968 driver that generated that result vs the R8, not so much the car itself :-).

And a big + 1 on that last statement.

[/quote]

My thoughts exactly. It does appear that in the hands of a capable driver, a 968 can be driven faster than could ever be expected based on things like its weight/power ratio, suspension design, etc. Maybe it for some reason has a wider margin of error at the limit of adhesion than most cars, and is therefore capable of carrying very high speeds through corners consistently, without getting the driver into trouble very often, whereas in other cars, while the limit may be equally high, the variability about that ultimate speed has to be kept a lot more tightly controlled. Although I have to wonder how fast that R8 would be in Craig's hands...

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[ron1688]

decision... decisions...

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[craigawoodman]

I don't consider myself an exceptional driver, the 968, simply is so well balanced that it can carry more corner speed than most cars. MC968 did a 2:40 lap of Bathurst in a naturally aspirated 968 this year. That is quicker than many GT3's, with most of the time differential being made up over the top of the mountain, where he would have to be picking up the 5 seconds or so, that he loses on the straights to the more powerful car, So out of 50 odd cars, a N/A 968 was in the top 15 for lap times, and he won the NSW POrsche Club championship for the second year.



On a dollar for go ratio, it is a huge winner. A 968 will out perform a similar powered Boxster or Cayman every time. My 968 will out perform a Boxster S or Cayman S if running the same tyres, etc. it costs 1/5th if the price.



It would be good to know what the 968 owners group average IQ is, as I believe the 968 to be the "thinking persons Porsche". People don't buy one for image, they have normally researched the car, it's history, etc. I believe that we are a knowledgable bunch and the discussions on the forum show this.



The 968 encourages confidence. It is a great car. Others may look better, sound better, cost more, etc - but on a bang for your buck basis, I still think the 968 wins.



DS968 - the comparative lap times for the R8 were taken from a motoring magazine launch of the V10 R8 at Lakeside and it was driven by one of our V8Supercars (equivalent of NASCAR) drivers. Admittedly on road tyres, etc. So I am assuming that he was not going slow.

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[Rap]

Craig although I was laughing at this it was no fun having an off an on again stream on my ankle. Once with the defrost on it was bubbling up out of the defrost register like a fountain. Today I'm leaving town and stop for a milk shake, as Im waiting for the shake I'm looking at the back of the car and it occurs to me that something doesn't look right. It suddenly dawns on me that the tip of my catback is missing. At some point today I heard a weird noise, I even got flagged and came in but couldn't determine what was wrong. Someone looked at the car and missed it. I should of had the flagger raised on the communications device and asked! Dumb. But the most disconcerting new problem is this new whine coming from what seems like the left front. I drove the car two days with the sound and also home. Tuesday it goes into the shop again to be tech checked and to have these items attended to. Hope to get them done so I can go to Watkins Glen next weekend. Brakes were another issue. Bleed the two fronts and got a couple of air bubbles out. Car had 3/4 pads left but last run both days felt wrong. A tad mushy. So now I'd like to put track/street pads on. Any suggestions? By the way , now I have to check the white car to see if that has a nest. Now the red cars doors and windows are open with a fan blowing air in to dry it out. Last five DE days three rain, one half day rain, one day sunny. Lots of seat time on wet pavement!

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[craigawoodman]

Rap,



I had the same thing happen at Barbagello racetrack in Perth. I saw an exhaust tip on the ground and thought, wow, wonder who lost that. Got back to the pits and found out. The heat from the exhaust cracked the paint. Went back out to find it and it was a little flatter than usual from being run over. It prompted me to get the new rear resonator.



I was just down at Racer Industries at the Gold Coast (picking up a HANS device, they did a bulk order special for clubs following a fatality here on the track). They sell Project (mew), it should be the Greek symbol. They have a Street/Track Pad that works up to 800C that I will probably go for next.



The pads, Peter sold from RS Barn are good as well. Pagid also do a good street/track pad, but cannot remember which colour they are.



Whine from front sounds like a wheel bearing, should be easy and cheap to fix.



Also, if brakes are mushy, change the brake fluid for new race spec fluid. It could have got moisture in there. Cheaper than new pads.

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[tamathumper]

Rap, welcome to the slippery slope, I estimate you are about 25% of the way down so far. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wink.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Cloud9...68]

Craig,



I think you are being modest about your driving ability, but I think you hit it on the head - there are plenty of fast cars available, but the 968 is an easy car to drive fast, giving the driver an extra margin of error. At least that's my theory.



As far as the IQ of the average 968 driver, you may be onto something there, as there seem to be an abnormal number (present writer excluded!) of exceptionally bright folks among the 968 ownership ranks.

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[ds968]

the jury is still out on whether or not we're abnormally bright, or brightly abnormal <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/tongue.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[hot968]

In a Bad Funk I feel your dispare with 968 I am spending a fortune for repairs and parts and things just seem to break contantly. I had the new clutch and flywheel, all kinds of things at a cost of 2600.00 and now some thing sounds like it is spinning when I go from 1st to 2nd.It is also slipping like before the clutch job. When I ask my mechanic if he used the right clutch -with green or blue line he said he didn't know what I was talking about???? I knwo I read some thing about different clutches for our 968;s. I won't give up just a little down today.

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[Lear35A]

This green stripe on the pressure plate is what you're talking about.

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[tamathumper]

hot, what do you mean "spinning"?

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[968Syncro]

[quote name='hot968' timestamp='1370909379' post='144061']

things just seem to break contantly.

[/quote]

Yes, no doubt. But on the other hand, there can be good news, albeit potentially transient. The gear, cable, motor, and electron gremlins took heed ---- as I reprimanded this poor, helpless, and shameful, bucket of steel, aluminum, plastic, fiber, rubber, copper, silicon, hydrocarbon eating, polluting beauty. She was hurt -- she lowered her poor little bumper cover, folded the mirrors, sagged the springs, no strength to light the instrument panel, gave a whine from the trans bearing....



Suddenly the sunroof started working again without repair! Very nice, we can now leave it open when we park at work in the sun ("we" being me and the 968, a questionable matched pair, I always felt she deserved better). As a sign of love I gave her a windshield sun shade, and the combination works really well to prevent and vent the heat. Hey ... "prevent and vent", wasn't there a movie by that name? If not, then it could make a great band -- I'm talkin' Ice cube, Jayz, Mr. T, 5-cent -- my new band will be "prevent and vent" or maybe "p-vent" (just need some gold chains and we're a hit). No! Not doo-wap, no rappin', "don't give a damn about any trumpet playin' band. It ain't what they call rock and roll." We'll probably play "hot rod Lincoln" and "lil' GTO", "she's real fine my 409". Just me and my sweetheart 968....

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[Rap]

Tama thank you so much for your kind words! Since your car has to be tech checked for each event it sure is seeing a lot of shop time. Plus it probably needs to go back to Max for a check after all of these events so far. Liz suggested we drop it off on the way down to the shore. Man that chick is smart. She always thinks of things I can't! That's why I keep her around. Lol. The guy at the shop said he would cut me a break because of all the times I'm in so far. I don't know whether to be happy or think I'm actually hearing code for bend over mutha!

Does anyone know anything about the trailer that carrys 4 tires. You hook them on to the back of the car. Now no smart comments about buying a truck and a trailer instead!

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[Cloud9...68]

Syncro,



Not to rain on your parade (sorry about the rain reference when we're talking about sunroofs <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/tongue.png" class="smilie" alt="" /> ), but the same thing happened to me once. After hours of troubleshooting with no smoking gun found, the sunroof, for what turned out to be a fleeting moment, started working correctly again. Sadly, the mysterious "fix" was only temporary. After many more hours of troubleshooting - trying to set those wretched microswitches just so, checking the function of every stinkin' relay, checking every switch, etc., I never could get it to work. In fact, it usually worked backwards, even after confirming multiple times that the switch was wired correctly.



My ultimate solution? I yanked every trace of electric componentry (lest I leave something behind, allowing it to grow back) related to the sunroof operation out of the car, bought a pair of old-style 944 latches from Oklahoma Foreign, and converted it to manual operation, as God intended. Ah, what a relief! Yes, this causes you to lose the (utterly useless) partial-tilt feature, a very small price to pay for staving off for some period of time the impending total loss of sanity that 20-year-old German GT ownership can cause. Cut a few pounds out of the car, too.

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[bombfactory]

I may do this too. I'm terrified of even going anywhere near my sunroof switch!

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