Now that we are back and the car is in the safety of my garage a couple of stats and thoughts to wrap this up for 2013.
Total days on road: 5
Total hours on the road: 48
Total hours in the seat: 40
Total Miles: 1700
Total Gallons: 91
Mileage: 18.6 Average; 17.2 worst tank, 23 best tank
Problems with car: 2 start failures with a clunk. Started the next 4 times.
Problems with DR1SC - my tires are pretty worn out...
Thoughts:
The D1RSC performed flawlessly.
- We brought the liquid gold just in case, and we checked the oil level a couple of times. It was fine.
- We drove through long stretches (over 200 miles) of 100+F temps, and drove hard through canyons - repeated 3 to 2 downshifts with hard acceleration out of the turns. You see just two of hundreds of similar digs in the video above. Engine temp stayed below the 10-o Clock position. When it did climb up I backed off for a few hundred yards and it came down nicely. No overheating at all.
- We did a couple of highway blasts as well with no overheating.
Overall, the unit performed as though it came with the car from day-1. I saw the other post about the Boxster S. I drove the 987 S and thought it had more get up and go than my tired '93 stock 968 cab. I still liked the 968 better for other reasons, but the performance difference was clear. With the SC stage 3 this a 20-year old 4-banger performs better than the Boxter S that I drove. At least as fast and more responsive above 3K. Superb job flash.
On the topic of road trips - this has been the highlight of my year for the past 4. We have no real agenda. I do book hotels so that I can get a decent rate in advance and know where we are going to sleep. From there we just look for squiggly lines on the map and have fun. We always see something that we could have never anticipated. This year it was 3 guys jumping off a cliff. Icarus lives. Oh - and the largest tree on the planet - check that one off the list.
If you can do this gents, and ladies, do it. The car will thank you, your SO will thank you, and your right-seater will thank you. But mostly, you'll give yourself a memory for the day when the feet are too slow and the eyes are no longer clear.
