Running Report 1 - November 2001

Personal Car History:

I have always been absolutely car crazy and practically since the age of 10 have been wanting a “nice” car. This, of course, implies endless years of research in magazines and hours on end of discussion with similar minded friends on the topic. Throughout my University years I was fortunate enough to be given a Fiat Punto which served its purpose more than satisfactorily. However, after 4 years the car was worth not even half of what it had been bought for. On top of this it needed a whole lot of money spent on it to get it into pristine condition (something to do with living in a dodgy student area and taking the poor thing to Greece one summer). It was roughly at this time that I had started to turn my attention to cars which world depreciate little and look different from most other cars on the road, mainly classic cars. The shortlist included a Jaguar E type (series 1 3.8 FHC), the Alfa Romeo SZ (ES 30) and an early Porsche 911 (2.4 S).

As luck would have it the Punto got stolen in January 2000. Instead of toasting the insurance money on another mundane car I bought a cheap Renault 5 and started saving up. I was now in my first job as a support consultant in the City and, as most of us know, 2000 was a good year. By February 2001 I had almost enough to buy one of the cars in my shortlist. Out of all, it soon emerged that the 911 was the most practical choice (space for 2 and adults and a half, enough luggage space, supposedly reliable). The only problem is that I didn’t have a garage, so rust was a major issue. This meant a newer 911 was perhaps a better solution. After toying with the idea of a 993 C4S (helped by a loan from my parents) I then set my heart on a late 964 (and I could afford it with my own money). So in May 2001 I started the search. I definitely wanted a LHD car for two reasons. First, being 6”5’ I found RHD’s driving position uncomfortable and second I felt that paying an average of £3000 more for RHD cars was ridiculous. Being Italian I searched for cars in Italy as well as Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and of course England. I had almost concluded a deal on a 1991 C4 from an Official Porsche Centre in Milan when I found a 1993 C2 (which is the year and model I really wanted) only 5 minutes from my house. The deal was concluded in three days and I was now finally a Porsche owner!

My Car’s History:

The car has had 3 other owners plus me. It was originally bought by a lady in Germany, but from the records I think she didn’t do that many miles on it. In November 1997 the car was brought into the UK by a dealer (no doubt for a tidy profit) and bought by a gentleman from Richmond. The sales invoice shows it was sold for £27,000. This owner put most of the miles on the car and maintained it well, with all the relevant work carried out at regular intervals. He then sold it to a work colleague / friend living in Parsons Green (Fulham). This owner used the car only sporadically (less than 20k kms for two years he owned it). He spent some money on the car, including a series of new batteries (they kept running down), new front tyres, a new clutch (more on this later), and new rear lights.

I bought the car on August 10th 2001 on a private sale from the previous owner. I didn’t have the car inspected by a mechanic but we agreed on a price which would allow plenty of work / servicing. Apart from a few parking scratches on the bumpers (almost inevitable on a central London car) the car is in very good condition. So far I have done about 2000 kms with it and am rather satisfied with my purchase!

The car is metallic black with black part leather seats. Specifications include: air con, airbags, CD player, sunroof, 17” cup alloys, Cat1 alarm, immobiliser, and rear wash wiper among the things I can remember.
 

Work done on the car so far:

As I mentioned earlier I bought the car on the 10th of August, but seeing as my 25th birthday was on 21st August and the insurance premium was a lot lower at 25, I couldn’t drive it for 11 days. What a long wait that was! The first thing I did when I finally could legally drive it was to take it (the long way) to JZ Machtech and put it in for a full 24k mile service. On top of the standard service items I also requested them to change the brake fluid and gearbox oil. After a brief inspection JZ called me back and said that the front wishbone bushes where cracked (needing to replace the whole wishbone, ouch$$), the rear spoiler wall was broken, new wipers all round, new engine lid struts and new fan belts where needed. I agreed to these jobs and in total the service came to £1350! A lot of money, but I was still within my budget (just) and I now knew the car was in tip top shape.

First impressions:

The service at JZ was finished on the Friday and on Saturday morning my girlfriend and I set off for our first weekend in the new (to us) car. How excited was I? We decided to wake up very early and leave just in time to catch sunrise. What a glorious way to start the day! The early morning summer sun, patches of mist on the road and empty windy B roads all the way to Norfolk, our destination. I definitely think that a long trip is the best way of getting to know your new car, especially if, unlike most modern tin boxes, the car has its own quirks and features.

My first impression was that the car is not as easy to drive as other, newer, cars. You need to get used to delivering the power from the engine and about thinking what the road ahead is bringing to you, especially when its raining. The steering feels quite heavy but at the same time it communicates to the driver what is happening in minute detail. You feel every bump and pothole in the road and need to keep both your hands on the wheel in order not to loose control, especially at medium speeds (between 40 and 70 mph). The suspension is definitely rock hard. Like the steering, it transmits all the details of the road surface to you. A friend of mine says the car has got “Braille” suspension, it reads the floor! Of course, come a roundabout, you practically feel no roll, you can cut the apex and its amazing how easy it is to leave other cars behind. The engine is also amazing, even despite it having already 54,000 miles, it feels tight and ready all the time. At lower rpms, up to 3000, it is quite docile, so you can calmly potter around town. However, past the 3000 mark it completely changes mode, becoming louder and much faster, always asking you for more all the way up to the redline. The soundtrack accompanying this progression of speed is also quite something! So finally we have the brakes, one of my favourite aspects. Forget all you have tried on normal road cars, these are serious stuff. Like the rest of the car, they need a good decisive push, but then they feel so solid it really builds up your confidence, you almost find yourself purposely leaving the braking until last minute, just to feel them work their magic.

Plans & work for next 6 months:

Unfortunately as I write this my car is being booked in for a clutch job, which is never good news. It appears that when the previous owner changed the clutch about a year ago the shop didn’t do a great job. The consequence is that, apart from probably not having used a genuine Porsche part, they also didn’t seal / lubricate the relevant parts so the release bearings have seized. In order to replace the bearings they need to remove the transmission, which is not nice. Furthermore, even the actual clutch might need changing if it has worn out too much, so worse case scenario that’s another £910 on the car. The time has also come for the rear tyres to be changed (getting Bridgestone SO2s to match the front) which will be another £300. This has used up the rest of my initial budget and will put back a few of the modifications I was intending doing, like full Rook suspension, more powerful light bulbs and a clear indicator kit.

Hmm, Porsche ownership doesn’t come cheap, but so far its been worth it!

Running Report 2 - May 2002

Clutch

I finished off my last report with the unfortunate possibility of needing a clutch change even though the clutch had been changed by the previous owner just one year ago. As you may imagine I wasn’t most happy at the idea of spending £900 just 3 months into ownership, especially seeing as I’d already spent a bunch in the first service.

The car was taken into JZ Machtech to be inspected and thankfully what followed was relatively good news. The clutch was no near as bad as they had expected from my phone conversation, so they decided to inspect all the clutch components using an endoscope to get to the more remote areas. The verdict was that the clutch slave cylinder ‘could need replacing’. Personally I wasn’t particularly convinced of this solution as it had been already replaced a couple of years before (along with the master cylinder) but I told them to go ahead with the work anyways. The brake fluid was changed as well (a bit annoying seeing it had just been changed 2 months before as part of the service). When I picked up the car the initial feeling was that the pedal felt smoother and more ‘pleasant’ to activate but the pedal kept on hanging that final half inch. I eventually cured the hanging a couple of months later by removing the pedal floorboard and spraying some WD40 over the clutch spring (as documented on Robin’s excellent p-car.com site). However, after about two months the pedal is starting to hang up again, so this is clearly only going to be a temporary fix. I guess for now I’ll have to follow the old maxim ‘if its not broken don’t fix it’.

Battery

In December I went abroad for about a month and, seeing as my car normally lives on the street, I arranged to leave it at a friend’s farm, where it would be kept in a dry and covered barn. Unfortunately I didn’t disconnect the battery and by the time of my return it had gone completely flat. My friend was kind enough to charge it up for me and once we installed it back the car started first time. I was also very pleased that not even a cloud of blueish smoke came from the exhaust, hopefully indicating no cylinder head oil leaks. Needless to say there were also no oil drops on the floor! I drove the car down home and left it there for a couple of weeks. By the next time I went to start it the battery had lost most of its charge and wasn’t able to turn the starter motor, just a painful ‘crunching’ sound could be heard. Once again I charged the battery up and started the car, but the next week (I only drive my car about once a week) it was flat again. I thus decided to take the car into JZs to see if there were any problems with the wiring circuit. They tested the car and battery and all seemed to be OK, so the finger was now being pointed at the battery not being able to maintain its charge. So a new battery was bought from GSF (German Swedish and French car parts) and that seems to have finally solved the problem. Moral of the story is, if you are going to leave your car standing for a long time then make sure you disconnect the battery! If you need to change your battery I highly recommend getting the Bosch Silver with a 72 Amp rating, only £65 from GSF.

Wandering

I had been noticing that, at highish speeds my car wasn’t feeling very ‘solid’, forcing me to straddle two lanes to feel safe. Looking back on the car’s history (its always great to have virtually all the receipts describing what work was done when) I couldn’t find anything which proved the alignment had been done, so when it was at JZs for the battery issue I asked them if they could check it. They went ahead and did the full alignment. I wasn’t too happy because my intention had been to get the rear tyres changed before realigning it, and they apologised, mentioned it had been a very busy day and had forgotten to phone me, so we agreed that, once I’d get the new rear tyres I could take the car in for a free recheck. Couldn’t say fairer than that!

As you may guess my next episode was to purchase new rear tyres. I wanted to get Bridgestones SO2s, as that’s what currently is at the front to replace the worn out P7000s. A word of warning to those with SO2s, they are getting a bit thin on the ground, although it seems to be cyclical. One week I phoned two tyre suppliers and both said they no longer had any SO2s, but when I phoned a couple of weeks later they had plenty in stock. In the end I bought them from ‘Wembley Tyres’ in North London (also know as Marcus’ Tyres). Cost was £294 as I have the 17” Cup wheels on my car. After about 150 miles of ‘scrubbing’ them, they finally have settled in nicely and I can say they are a decent improvement over the P7000s, probably mainly because they have more than 3mm thread on them!

So, this takes me on to my last episode which happed just at the start of June. As I am going to Le Mans this year I thought of having a 6k service done on the car, just for good measure. However, on discussing this a bit with the Titanic guys (o knowledgeable bunch) it seemed that taking it for a service having only done about 3k miles would a bit of a waste of money. Instead, I decided to have the dual distributor belt changed (what is it that makes us feel like we need to constantly spend money on these cars?) as Porsche recommends to replace it every 50k miles. This idea was further reinforced by seeing a fellow 964 owner’s belt with 65k miles on it. It was truly worn and dried out, looked to me like it could have snapped any time. So, back at JZs once more. I booked the car in to have the belt replaced and also to have that alignment checked as we had agreed. I asked them to keep the belt so I could compare it with the other one I had seen. Well, obviously my car had the vent kit installed very early in its life as the belt was virtually like new. I couldn’t help feeling it was a bit of a waste of money to have it replaced, but still, at least I now know it should last me another 70k miles.

Well, I conclude this report with a couple of points for the future. As I mentioned above, on June the 13th my friend and I are setting off for Le Mans. We are both quite excited at this prospect because we have never been to this race, and also because it will be the first proper trip with the 964. I hope all will be well! Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago (on a rare hot spell in this country) I discovered that the a/c was no longer working, despite me having used it regularly for 10 minutes most weeks in winter to keep everything lubed up. There is no way of getting this done in time for Le Mans, so I am hoping it won’t be too warm, we’ll just have to settle for an open sunroof I guess.
 

Running Report 3 - December 2002

Highlights

First big news (at least for me) is that I have finally got a garage! After 6 months of looking, in March I finally found a ‘lock up’. Its brand new, which is good because its nice and dry. It also means my car doesn’t get as dirty sitting outside and there is no more risk of receiving parking scratches, etc.

Le Mans

June saw my first long trip with the 964 as my friend Dan and I set off for Le Mans. The trip in itself was a car enthusiast’s dream, it started with us boarding the Chunnel behind a Lamborghini Diablo, Ferrari 456 and TVR Chimaera. Also on the Chunnel, one of the most embarrassing things ever happened. Thing is, my car has a little numeric keypad on which you need to type a code before starting the engine. Now, this keypad is old, so often it doesn’t ‘feel’ the numbers and, if you get it wrong three times in a row, it freezes for 5 minutes. Ok, so 5 minutes isn’t that much when you’re sitting in the garage, but it’s a lot longer when you are in the 2nd carriage of the Chunnel, with another 100 or so cars stuck behind you dying to get out… In the end, we got towed away… how embarrassing! Of course, as soon as we were out it started working again!

On the trip down the weather was initially poor, but it soon stopped raining, meaning that I felt more confident with driving at ‘good’ pace and explore the car’s behaviour nearer the limit. I was impressed. However, I was less impressed as, by the time we got to Le Mans the weather had turned to full heat, which is not nice in a black car with black leather seats and non working aircon! Still, the car performed flawlessly, even when queuing up in traffic under the very hot sun for ages. On the Friday and Saturday we went round the circuit (on the bits open to the public) about 20 times which was probably one of the main highlights of the trip. The race itself was fine, although I feel I didn’t see that much of it. Note to self for next year, book an hotel and give the camping a miss!
 

Once back in the UK, one of the first things I took care of was fixing the aircon. I had Mark Raphael (a PCGB member) have a look to see whether it just needed recharging, or if there was more to it than that. His conclusion was the condenser needed replacing. Apparently it wasn’t too complicated a job, so I decided to have a go myself. At about the same time, some of the guys on Rennlist were organising a ‘Zymol day out’, meaning they were going to show us Zymol sceptics that it really is worth £90. It just happened that Gary, one of the organisers, had recently replaced the condenser on his car, so he volunteered to help me on the day.

I bought the condenser from Cambridge Cooling for £190 and off we went to fit the thing. It was quite a fiddly job to do, but it only took about a couple of easygoing hours. I now need to get the whole system, but life has got in the way. I’m hoping to get this task done by early 2003. A quick note about the Zymol day, it was a great day out and we enjoyed brilliant weather. A special thanks to Richard, his family, and Gary for the brilliant organisation and amazing hospitality including a superb barbecue. We got to wax most cars and see the difference, which was most marked on Kevin’s Guards Red car. I was particularly impressed with the ‘clay’, which removed all the dead bugs I hadn’t been able to shift since Le Mans (some of which had survived 4 washes, 1 waxing and 1 special debugging session).

I’ll wrap up this report by mentioning in August I took the car for a 12k mile service at JZ Machtech. I had only covered about 7k miles since the service in August 2001, but thought it would be better to have everything (filters etc) changed anyways. The only additional work was a front brake overhaul, which included redoing the brake callipers, new pads and discs. I knew this needed doing anyways, so no surprises there and I was pleased there wasn’t anything else wrong with the car.

Finally, I haven’t used the car much in November and December, as I was too busy pursuing other projects, so there aren’t any other news. I did use it once though, for a trip to a friend’s wedding in Sheffield and, on the way back, I crossed the 100,000 kilometre (not mile!) mark. Learning from last year’s lesson, I disconnected the battery this time, so lets hope it doesn’t pack up on me again.
 

Running Report 4 - May 2003

Highlights

About a month ago, when I received an email from John reminding me that my running report would be soon due, I thought I’d not have much to say. In fact, since my last report I have only covered about 3600 kilometers, so you can see I have not been doing enough driving in the 964! In part this is because I have been trying to avoid driving on salty roads, in part because up till mid January I was very busy with work related projects and in part because I have another 3 cars to run as well!

So, over the winter months the 964 was kept mainly in the garage out of the elements and with the battery disconnected. I still drove it about once every other week, just to keep everything going, but by and large it was a quiet period. Then, towards the end of March the weather quickly improved and all of a sudden it was 964 season again! The car obviously decided I hadn’t paid it enough attention and responded by randomly switching its wipers on at regular intervals, but more on this later.

First job of the year was to MOT it, but alas it failed. Thankfully there weren’t any surprises and the failure was due to a crack in the windshield, which I had expected. My insurers were really good about it and let me choose a preferred repairer, subject to them accepting the quote. I choose JZ Machtech, which they accepted and by the end of the week had a new windscreen and MOT certificate.

As I live in London I drive a scooter to work. Unfortunately I was involved in a minor accident (quite scary at the time) with a lady in a silver Audi S3. To cut a long story short, turns out her husband is a major Porsche enthusiast and owns a 993 GT2 (very nice…!). As a goodwill gesture and to make up for the scare from the accident he invited me to attend a private track day at Goodwood in early April, which I obviously accepted. It was a great day, I managed to take a few laps in some very interesting cars and I also realized what great road holding our 911s have! At the end of that day I was lucky enough to get one session in, my first time ever on the track. Logically I was nervous, but my passenger was a very experienced driver and he coached me superbly through the circuit. I absolutely loved it, especially because I got to realize what high limits and tolerance to hard driving these cars have. I am now hoping to get at least one full day on track before the end of the year. Obviously the track bug bit me and less than a week after I attended (as passenger) another track day at Castle Combe, this time I was invited by John. Again, a great day and it only helped me realize I really must do a few track days to fully enjoy my car.

Not even a month after Goodwood I was taking part in a driver training course. This is organized by the 1st Lotus driving school and is great value at £120 each with a maximum of 4 people on the day. I won’t go into too much detail here, as I could drag on for ages, but I can say it was money well spent. I ‘lost’ the car a few times and then learnt how to gently counteract when the back end goes. I also learnt throttle steer, how to gradually apply power through a corner exit and how to brake mid corner in a controlled manner. As soon as I can I would like to do the day again, hopefully in the rain next time! If anyone wants more details about this course please send me an email.

Back to the issue of the ghost in the wiper system, I spoke to Adrian Streather who reckoned it could only be the wiper/indicator stalk assembly. Trusting his experience I booked myself in at GT One (they offered a much better price than JZ Machtech, £120 vs nearly £240) to get a new stalk installed. So, I got it installed, paid my £120 and, as soon as I arrived at the first roundabout off the wipers went again! You can imagine how ‘happy’ I was at having just thrown away £120 for nothing… I instantly turned back (just as well I was on a roundabout) and Craig (at GT One) tried changing the relay instead. Bingo! A £30 part was all I needed. Lesson learnt, always check with your local specialist for their opinion before ordering parts and, when in doubt, start with the cheaper items first. As a side note, I really enjoyed going to GT One, there is a very friendly atmosphere and the guys genuinely love Porsches, maybe I’ll take my car there for the next yearly service, due in August.

That’s about it for now, though I will end up on a not so good note. Yesterday I met up with a fellow 964 owner and friend in order to check out the latest mods he’s done to his car. Later on, when we had already gone our own ways, I noticed a big half inch indentation on the sunroof panel of my car. Not happy about that! I wonder how it got there and, more importantly, I wonder how I’ll get it out and how much it will cost… Hopefully we’ll know in 6 months time, when it will be time for the next report.

Running Report 5 - May 2004

Highlights

Well, a lot has happened since my last report in May 2003, obviously the 'biggest' thing being that I am now no longer a 964 owner! However, let me start from the beginning.

Summer 2003 was a relatively uneventful month as far as the 964's maintenance was concerned, thankfully. I mainly drove the car at weekends just to keep it running and, increasingly, in the evening going into London to meet friends or go out for meals. Being single again means that I've been spending more time and money on socialising, sports and travel and thus there was less time for Porschey. For the first time I realised that, in order to keep the car in the condition it needs one needs a lot of effort. Also for the first time, I found myself longing for something a bit more practical, possibly with lower maintenance costs and something which I would not worry that much about driving and parking in London (with the 964 I constantly worry) and which could be used to carry mountain bikes, golf clubs etc around.

I decided to test what kind of interest my car could generate by placing a free advert on the German website www.mobile.de. Within 7 days I had received 7 emails, I was impressed, but decided to leave it for now and think things over to make sure I really wanted to sell, after all this was not an easy decision.

Then, on one balmy August Sunday afternoon I went to play golf and, on my return, the car did not start! There was no sign of life, even though the battery was ok. I called my insurance company (who also provides my breakdown cover) and the car was taken to JZ Machtech. Monday morning they analysed the fault: new starter motor, £500. Ouch. I obviously went ahead with the work, but this provided a catalyst in my decision making, I decided to sell.

Another advert on mobile.de proved less successful, but then again it was the height of summer and most people were probably away on holidays instead of at work searching for their next car ;-). I decided to sit tight an wait till September. To make time pass more quickly I went (as guest) on a PCGB track day at Bedford Autodrome. Luckily (well not for him) my friend had to 'retire' from the day early as his gearbox failed, so I took his place for a few laps. Wow! I had forgotten how sweet this car can be on track! I had great fun and would highly recommend Bedford as a track for beginners; there are loads of run off areas, a good variety of quick and slow corners and its generally a nice place.

So was I still going to sell? Yes... In the first week of September I had a flood of queries, mainly from Germany, France, the Uk and even Sweden and Iceland! Just goes to prove that LHD 911s have a very international market and people are willing to travel for the right car. To cut a long story short it was the query from Sweden which materialised into a sale eventually. The best part is that Pontus (the new owner of my car) needed help to take the car back due to insurance reasons (he couldn't find a competitive quote for those few days of transit) so I ended up driving my car one last time and in the best way possible, a long trip. Thankfully the car behaved perfectly in the two day journey (no immobiliser jamming when coming off ferries!) and I have great memories of the trip. We drove through Germany, Denmark and into Sweden. Once in Sweden we did the final hand over, and K964SLX was no longer mine. As I sat in the passenger seat (for the first time I think) I was a bit sad but at the same time glad it had all gone well, plus Pontus seemed a very good prospective owner. In fact we are still keeping in touch and he has been looking after Porschey just as I would, hopefully he will also start writing his running reports for this page. so I can follow how my ex car is doing.

It has now been nearly 6 months since I've sold my 964. The whole Porsche 'thing' and especially the people have made it one of my best decisions yet and I a definitely a Porsche convert. I am hoping to own another 911 soon as my heart is set with the brand and the great people which follow it. All the best, enjoy your cars!

Riccardo's 964 is now reported on my Pontus Sköld, the new owner.