Running Report 1 - November 2001

In the beginning

I bought the car in late July and I was quite lucky to get it. I wanted to change my 1989 944 Turbo and I spotted the C4 on the Porsche Cars GB website. It was at Lindbrook, near Tonbridge, and was the only 964 for sale throughout the whole dealer network. When I contacted Lindbrook, I was told that the car was sold and simply waiting for the finance to come through….which didn’t happen. They called me back a few days later and on a gloriously hot and sunny morning I went to view the car. It wasn’t love at first sight - I didn’t like the Rubicon Grey interior (and still don’t) and the Viola exterior was not my first choice either. However, the car was in superb condition with a full main dealer history and recent invoices verifying that Lindbrook had spent a lot on preparing the car for sale.

Starting the engine in the showroom clinched the sale. I’ve always loved the flat 6 sound and the older cars sound so much better. A, surprisingly, brief test drive proved that here was a 911 I could live with, unlike my earlier 1985 3.2, (the worst car I have ever owned) and I signed up at a £32000 purchase price. Lindbrook arranged for a Cat 1 alarm/immobiliser to be fitted and I collected the car on the following Saturday afternoon.

First impressions were of a very smooth power curve without the gutless bottom end of my 944T. Even in 5th gear it pulls from 20 mph, which the 944 would not. Noisier (oh dear!) than the 944, much less room and a lot warmer inside, even with the a/c running. The clutch is very light but the brakes feel wooden – they work well enough but without any great subtlety. What I have noticed is how clean the front wheels stay compared with the 944. Different pad materials or different braking setup? I don’t know but certainly a lot less work to clean the wheels.

The honeymoon

I drove the car every day for the first week or so, just to get to know it. Driving in central London is a pain but the car has the flexibility to cope in 2nd/3rd gear once you are moving.

The first panic came during a drive from Wimbledon to Clerkenwell. A very hot afternoon with very slow traffic produced extremely low oil pressure when idling, followed by the oil temperature warning light coming on twice, only to go out again once a bit of airflow started. I was very comfortably ensconced with the a/c on and had no idea how much heat was being generated until I parked. The oil cooler fan (at the rear?) was pumping out vast amounts of very hot air; the rear wings were too hot to touch in places and a fine cloud of smoke was wafting out of the air intake. I was not impressed in the slightest.

The journey home produced a very hot engine again (and a smashed headlight for some reason) and the next day I visited Lindbrook who checked out the cooling systems and said all was in order and perhaps the conditions had been a bit too much. If that was too much, I dread going to the south of France for my holiday next year, or even queuing into the circuit on Saturday morning at Le Mans if it’s hot. I checked out the 964 web sites and posted a query about my experience. Adrian Streather replied and suggested using the heater controls to keep the engine temperature under control. I tried this the next day and it worked, with the oil temperature staying in the mid section of the gauge throughout. Unfortunately, now the interior of the car was too hot and, since then, I have abandoned using the car, unnecessarily, in hot weather. I think that there is a problem somewhere as other respondents to my query all came back and said that they felt the temperatures I was getting were excessive, with no-one else reporting warning lights in very similar traffic and weather conditions.

I do keep a close eye on the oil level, using the gauge and the dipstick and I am using Mobil 1. With the cooler weather around now, I don’t expect to see a repeat of the problem but I am concerned for next summer, and also for any damage that might be done already.

The good part of it was getting a whole new headlamp fitted (why the whole thing?) by Lindbrook. The difference between the two headlamps is quite something, with the new unit being much brighter, and I will now replace the other glass at the next service.

Settling in

Highlights of ownership so far have been a long run up to Berwick on Tweed on August bank holiday Friday. After ten hours (yes ten) in the car, I was still reasonably fresh and didn’t ache anywhere. The car was perfect when we ran into heavy rain around Newcastle, and it felt very well planted on some horribly slippery road surfaces. The Continental tyres, as fitted to my old 944, work well in these conditions, offering very good feel and adhesion such that, when the grip does go, you get plenty of warning. I had tried Bridgestone SO-2s on the 944 but the steering feel went to pieces – I would recommend the Contis to anyone. The journey back was undertaken at considerably higher speed and in a lot less time.

A track evening at Brands Hatch proved that my sense of self-preservation far outweighed my car’s performance and I found myself being one of the slower cars on the circuit. A second session with an instructor brought out a lot more speed and a lot more confidence, both in me and in the car. I struggled with braking though, and I put this down to the lack of feel through the pedal. The 944 could be braked very hard but smoothly, with almost inch perfection for stopping distances but, as yet, I cannot repeat this in the C4. Hopefully, it will come with more time.

A favourite journey is down to Wakehurst Place in Sussex, via Westerham and Edenbridge. Mainly on B roads, the C4 is great fun with it’s ability to power out of tight corners in almost any conditions. Being narrower than the 944 helps too, and the lack of tramlining is a very welcome change. I like the predictability of the car, helped by the understeer I guess, and I wouldn’t want to go back to 2WD under any circumstances.

My biggest concern about the car is my inability to get truly comfortable. If my legs are right, I’m too far back to use the wheel correctly. If my arms are right, my legs are too crunched up to operate the clutch smoothly. Really, the seat is too high for me, even following Adrian Streather’s advice (again) on how to get the seat as low as possible. The electric adjustment of the seats is a waste of time and I would rather have a simple wheel for backrest adjustment with none of the up and down nonsense. Funnily enough, my old 3.2 had electric backrest adjustment and that was fine.

I don’t cover a great mileage any more – around 7000 at the most annually. The longest regular journey I do is to Le Mans, with most of my use being trips out to see clients around, but not in, London. The car will be in use throughout the year as it’s my only one, so it will also see trips to the supermarket, to the tip and for that much needed newspaper. Hopefully, I will go to southern France, or maybe Spain, next year but that is very much dependent on my having a little more faith in the car itself.

Future plans

So far, I haven’t changed anything about the car. The spec is wide bodied but without the Turbo brakes or suspension. Wheels are the standard Carrera Cup item and look a bit lost in the arches. I will have the car lowered at some stage, and I will also investigate the possibility of bringing it as close to Turbo spec as possible. I would like to change the seats too, for something a bit lighter and more adjustable.

A Turbo rear wing would be fun but will probably slow the car even more – 250 bhp seems like 100 bhp too little to be honest, as the extra weight of the C4 running gear and the wider arches must push the overall weight right up to the top of the range.

The annual service is due next month. With the mileage at just over 48K this should prove interesting. I doubt that the Porsche warranty will help keep the cost down but I will be aiming to get as much benefit as possible from it when the telephone call with the long list of faults comes. I won’t be going back to Lindbrook as I was not impressed much by them, so I guess it will be AFN in Guildford this time, as they are reputed to understand the “older” cars more. I will be checking the cost with them first and I may well go straight back to Camtune, who looked after my 944 for four years.

The advantage in using the main dealer is the stamp in the book and the opportunity to extend the warranty for another seven years. Whether this would be cost effective, I can only guess, and if the price difference for the service, at the outset, is much more than £250 a throw, I know where I will be going.

Overall, the car has been less trouble free than I had hoped. The “overheating” has dampened my enthusiasm somewhat and it is becoming clear that many of the problems found on early 964s are equally likely to arise on one of the last. Everyday car? – I’m not so sure. I will keep you posted.

Running Report 2 - May 2002

So far so good…..

The car went back to Lindbrook for its annual service in December. I was impressed by the collection and delivery service if not by the actual service itself. There were a few silly things that needed sorting out but nothing serious. I asked them to check the oil cooler fan again and this was pronounced OK. The gear linkage was adjusted, as was the handbrake and the a/c was re-gassed. I asked for the distributor vent kit to be fitted and Lindbrook found that the rear spoiler wall was broken and fitted a new one.

Subsequently, the spoiler became very noisy, as did the heater fan, and the handbrake worked for about a week before I needed to wrench it as hard as I could in order to hold the car on any slope. Another new headlight was fitted to match the new one fitted when the lens was smashed, two new high output Bosch bulbs were fitted and the headlights were adjusted but were now quite hopeless. On dipped beam there were two distinct pools of light about thirty feet in front of the car (but at least they were now bright pools - to anyone with a 964/5 with the original headlights intact, I would recommend replacing them as the difference is chalk and cheese). I would guess that the brighter and clearer quality of the light has simply emphasized how pathetic they really are in comparison to modern lights. I have fiddled with the adjustment and now, on dip, the spread is a bit better but all over the place on main beam.

Lindbrook almost gave my car away when they returned it. My elderly neighbour, fortunately, owned up to not being the owner of the shiny car in his drive and didn’t accept the proffered keys - a lot of people might not have been quite so honest.

The CD player packed up about a week later. Lindbrook had swapped it with an identical unit to check it out as it was already playing up and they did say that it was not long for this world. Does anyone have a Sony CDX 51 for sale? If so, please let me know.

The most annoying thing following the service was a constant burning smell in the car. I couldn’t decide whether it was oil, exhaust or clutch. It occurred mostly with full throttle acceleration, in any gear and at all speeds, suggesting clutch problems to me. Matters came to a head one evening when I went to the Kent region PCGB meeting at The Bull in Wrotham. I went in company with a fellow 964 owner who reckoned that the smell was definitely oil and, to a certain extent, this was confirmed when we discovered that I had left the filler cap off (but only since checking the oil the previous day).

This did not explain the smell over the previous weeks and the assembled membership all said take the car back to Lindbrook. I did, and they diagnosed corroded oil pipes in the rear wheel arch giving rise to oil leaks onto the tinware above the engine. They also suggested around £750 to replace the offending parts which were not, of course, covered by the warranty. I believe Register Secretary Ken Chambers had exactly the same problem.

So…I rang Camtune in Godalming and spoke to their service manager, Tim. We agreed on a (lower) price for them to do the work and I took the car down the following morning. You can probably imagine my surprise on being phoned the next day and told that the pipes and unions were fine and, although showing some signs of corrosion, they were certainly not leaking. I was told that they should be checked at every service (six monthly in my case) for further signs of deterioration but there was no need at all to change anything now. The most likely cause of the oil smell had been the oil all over the tinware and this was probably caused by careless filling during the service. Of course, it could have been done by me but I do use a funnel and I am very careful and I had noticed the smell before I had put any more oil in the tank.

I haven’t used the car a great deal in the last few months. A trip to Yorkshire in the freezing cold before the new year proved the effectiveness of the heating system and my mother was as happy in the Porsche as in my wife’s C-class Mercedes. Coming home in the fresh snow and, later on, slush confirmed my original idea that a C4 was a better proposition than a C2 as an only car. Reversing out of my mother’s drive down a snow covered slope, stopping, changing into first, climbing the snow covered hill to the T-junction at the top, stopping again and finally pulling out onto the snow covered main road was absolutely effortless. I had locked the diffs for the slow speed manoeuvres but whether I really needed to was open to question.

On the A1, with a little care, it was possible to maintain a very reasonable speed and I completed my return journey in the shortest time since I don’t know when. Very little traffic and the security and traction of the four wheel drive made for a pleasant run in unpleasant conditions. Only on one occasion did I feel that I overstepped the mark and even then just lifting off a little brought the car’s nose back into line and stopped the slow drift to the outside of a long (and fastish) bend. Once again, the Continental tyres provided a good level of grip and feel in very cold and wet weather. I know that a lot of people are raving about Bridgestones but, in my experience, they do need heat in them to work well. In December in northern England heat in tyres doesn’t exist and this is where the Conti’s score. OK, they might not offer the ultimate for track days or serious balls out driving but, as an all weather, everyday tyre, they are brilliant.

Washing the salt and muck off the car in the cold was a lot less fun but had to be done ASAP. Of course, it then rained and snowed the next time I went out and the car got covered again. This time, I left it for a week as I was going to Whitstable the following weekend. Again, fog, sleet and road salt plastered the car but as it had been polished with Zymol, I was philosophical about it. The strangest thing is how far into the door openings the muck gets. In this case, it had got around the entire frame at a level further in than the inside of the catch mechanism, which was surprising. However, it all washed off easily and looked freshly polished again.

Since then, I have been out in the snow again and the car really impresses me with its ability in adverse conditions. I doubt that a C2 would be as versatile or so user friendly.

Referring back to my first report, I still cannot get comfortable and I am still fiddling about with the backrest angle, the front and rear height and the distance from the steering wheel. I do feel that I need to be relatively close to the wheel in order not to lift my shoulders when cornering but this compromises my left leg by putting too much of an angle on it and this, of course, makes smooth operation of the clutch difficult. Why I have this continuing problem I don’t know but it is getting very frustrating. I have asked the Titanic group about steering wheel spacers but we didn’t really get anywhere. Funnily enough, only last week a new thread on this very topic started so at least I can feel it’s not just me suffering.

The car is booked in with Camtune at the end of May for a few little jobs. An oil change (after only around 3000 miles – is it worth it?); adjusting the headlights and fitting new PIAA bulbs; investigating the increasingly wooden brakes (am I driving too slowly?) and, most importantly, checking the suspension geometry. I have noticed that the front tyre wear is quite different from side to side, with the nearside outer shoulder showing far more wear than the offside. This might be a result of road camber or it may not, but I have noticed some changes in the feel of the steering and the car does want to pull left on fairly flat roads. Also, I intend having the car lowered and this raises a couple of serious questions. I live in outer London and have to use many roads with either speed humps or platforms, and even my drive is a bit of a challenge to a very low car. So, do I go for 18mm or 30mm? Do I fit new shock absorbers? If so, which ones? I would be very happy to stick with the original shocks which, at their present mileage, should be OK for a while longer, but the feeling on Titanic is that this is not the best route. Any views on this will be very much appreciated. I want to get it right as…..

 Le Mans looms and I’m very pleased to report that the ACO contacted me in good time with my standing order for tickets and car parking. In fact, they were so early I was able to change my seats (back) to the ACO stand. This is a big plus as it has a bar, snacks and, best of all, toilets, or it used to anyway. I’m really looking forward to this trip as it will be my first break this year and the week off is always very welcome if not exactly relaxing. It will also be my first proper holiday in this 911 so it is quite a big deal. My wife and I travel down on the Tuesday before and come back on the following Monday. This allows us to be reasonably lively for practice on Wednesday (always starting at Arnage at 7.00pm) having had a good night’s sleep on Tuesday. We stay at a small hotel about thirty minutes from the circuit having given up camping during the Jaguar years. The drive to and from the hotel is one of the best – straight down the N138 towards Tours – and trying to keep up with the locals is always a challenge, especially in the dark. Check out the photos from the last trip too.

I expect to do about 1500 miles on this trip, hence getting the car checked before I go. I know that there’s little chance of anything going wrong but getting a 911 sorted out in rural France can be tricky, even under the Porsche warranty, and the memory of the overheating episode is still quite fresh. There is a very helpful Porsche agent in Arnage who fixed the broken rear window catch on the 944 a couple of years ago at very short notice and, on an earlier trip, a local VW dealer sorted out a serious brake problem on my Corrado and didn’t charge me a single franc.

We always try and fit in a little sightseeing and have found some fabulous places and drives. The roads along and around the Loire and the Loire are superb and I always enjoy driving on them. If anyone wants a few ideas for a day out, email me on richard@rlingw.demon.co.uk for some thoughts.

To summarise, the car has been boringly reliable and totally trustworthy throughout, even factoring in my local OPC, and I just wish that I got to drive it more. However, I will report again towards the end of the year with, hopefully, more driving experiences, another couple of track days, and more positive comments on the car.

Running Report 3 - November 2002

Lowered

Camtune made a lovely job of lowering the car and resetting the suspension. As a tryout, I opted just for lowering springs and retaining the original shocks and, I reckon, this works quite well. The car is 30mm lower, looks much better and feels much nicer (literally) on the road. Any roll is all but gone, and the nose doesn’t dip so much under braking. On a smooth road, or racetrack, its brilliant. Not so good is the ride on poor surfaces, or the constant corrections needed on heavily cambered roads but, overall, I think it’s a big improvement.

I also had new front discs fitted and new front pads all round. The difference that this made was quite marked with a very high, very firm pedal and instant, powerful retardation. Camtune also arranged for my Cup 1 wheels to be refurbished and very nice they look too.


A few weeks after the work, it was Le Mans time again. I proved to myself that the 911 is almost as practical as a 944 by squeezing in everything required for the week – clothes for two for hot/cold/wet (as appropriate) weather, something a little more formal for non racing days, work stuff, maps and mobiles. The car was actually loaded to the gunwhales and looked very mean indeed as the additional weight lowered it even further. Getting off the front drive was a test of the practicality of lowering the car; it got out OK but must always be driven out forwards and reversed into the garage or the front lip suffers.

The trip to Le Mans showed up the heightened understeer of the C4, exaggerated by lowering I guess, to great effect. With a full tank and a full car it was an effort to drive and took me by surprise. The car really did just want to go straight all the time and any kind of bend taken at speed needed some effort to keep on the chosen line. I soon got used to however and found it quite easy to anticipate and work with. On the straights on the French autoroute, the stability was such that hands off at 120 mph was OK but 145 mph (admittedly in the wet) needed a little more care. With two up and and no luggage, the fabulous roads in that part of France were an absolute joy to be on and the car felt fantastic.

A problem did arise in the shape of a peculiar bobbing sensation under light and slow braking. It felt like the offside front wheel had gone oval, but it only materialised at low speed. Adrian Streather suggested that the front shocks were bottoming out under braking, as a result of lowering the car. I discussed this with Camtune who said bring it in and we’ll have a look and do whatever needs to be done. I had planned to do this ASAP but then fate took a hand in matters.
 

Brake Failure

Somehow, and I really don’t know how, I got a deep scratch in the offside section of the rear PU. Maybe I parked too far into the hedge at the hotel; maybe it was someone else’s bad driving; who knows? Chandler Stewart in Croydon took a look at the car. Fortunately, they had a spare PU section in stock which they agreed to let me have for half price but, even then the estimate was over £800.00, although this also included touching up one door mirror too.
I arranged a courtesy car and insurance with them and waited for the day to arrive. It was while waiting that the high pressure hydraulics that supply the brakes failed.
This happened at the end of my road. The warning lights came on, and stayed on when cancelled, but everything seemed Ok so I drive round the block and went home. It was very clear that something was wrong as the brakes did lose their efficiency pretty quickly. I sort of knew what to expect from reading all the stuff on John’s site and on Titanic, so I wasn’t surprised to see a pool of fluid in the front of the car as well as under it. My warranty had four days left to run so I rang Porsche Assistance and they arranged for the car to be trailered down to Lindbrook Porsche that afternoon. This caused much amusement to the neighbours and a lot of trouble for the chap loading the car onto his flatbed. Of course, the lowered car, the camber and slope of my road, and no brakes made it a very long winded affair with the traffic held up for around thirty minutes.

Lindbrook were, it must be said, crap. I had to chase them to see if they had the car and what was wrong with it. It took them three or four days to get back to me and tell me the problem. Then, they had to wait for the part to come form Germany. Eventually, after my having a bit of a moan, they said that I would qualify for a courtesy car through Porsche Assistance, but this was some days after I had already hired a car. Anyway, a brand new (25 miles) VW Passat turbo diesel was delivered the same day and this was great fun, if very different. My car was away for about two weeks.

When my car was returned, two things stuck out – the softer brake pedal with a loss of braking efficiency, and the new dent and scratch on the front PU. Lindbrook offered to deal with both items immediately. They decided that the brakes were OK but suffering from some slight judder and offered to repaint the front PU. Fate stepped in again in the shape of Chandler Stewart in Tonbridge, Lindbrook’s body shop. The two offices liaised and my original job was transferred to Tonbridge, along with the rear PU section. Chandler Stewart did the whole front and rear PUs and the driver’s door mirror; I paid for the back, Lindbrook paid for the front and the whole saga ended happily, albeit a month later.

Brands Hatch Track Day

So, there I am with a lovely shiny freshly painted car and what do I do? Go to the Brands Hatch track evening of course. This was a complete revelation. The last track day I had done was at Brands a year earlier, before I knew the car well and before it was lowered and its front discs changed. That had been an introduction, this was a proper lesson in what it could do. I had a fantastic evening, with a brave passenger on board (thanks Andy) who did a lot for my confidence with his calm commentary and helpful advice. My slight brake judder became very noticeable under heavy braking at first, but seemed to go away after a while. Whatever, it was this that I had first experienced at Le Mans in June and not the shocks bottoming out, which encouraged me a great deal.
 

The Le Mans Classic

About a month later, we were off to Le Mans again for the Le Mans Classic. The car behaved perfectly in both directions and ran like a train. We were parked with all the other Porsches, of course, in the display area and were joined by two other Celebrations; one French and one British. We all had a good chat and swapped stories and I was very envious of the proper sports seats in one of them. These are what I need to give me proper support and to stop me sliding out of the seat while cornering. We also met some other great people and had a brilliant time generally. Thanks too, to Richard Long and Eoin Sloane for chatting away for some time to total strangers.

The historic racing actually left a little to be desired, except for Bobby Rahal in the 917 on Saturday night. His driving through Arnage really was a sight to behold. The best part of the weekend was, without a doubt, our two and a bit laps of the full circuit without the benefit of a pace car. The transition from being in the queue to being on the circuit was very swift and my wife, Vicky, was completely taken aback by the drive off the Bugatti circuit and onto the main pits straight. I exercised a great deal of self control and tried to drive smoothly and sensibly while, at the same time, making the most of what will probably be a once in a lifetime experience. Needless to say, driving through the Dunlop chicane and under the Dunlop bridge felt fantastic, as did driving through the Esses and into Tertre Rouge. The car really looks after you a lot and you can make the most appalling errors of judgement and, on the whole, it will sort them out for you. Having spun (720 degrees) my old 3.2 at Indianopolis, I was very pleased at the way the C4 handled it without any drama, and the traction out of Arnage saw us sail past a 964RS and a real Cobra while on the outside in the dirt and dust. Only afterwards did I give that any further thought……
 

Bits and Pieces

I have changed the wiper blades for Halfords own brand. They have three ranges and the cheapest, in the blue boxes, are quite lightweight and flexible. This means that they curve around the edges of the screen much better than the Bosch item and give a much closer wipe.

The next service is due at the beginning of December and I will definitely go to Camtune for this. They will also look at my discs and see if they can change them under warranty as, apparently, a number of discs have been faulty. Other problems? I still don’t like the brakes and I will see if they can be restored to their former glory. Also, the clutch pedal is misbehaving and this is probably down to the master cylinder failing. The free play at the top is very soft, where it was firm, and the pedal sometimes stays depressed, returning with a bang. The clutch works OK though so I will try to leave it until the service. The tyres are all still good; the aircon still works; the heater works; overall, I’m looking forward to a cheaper service than last year.

The car is also supposed to be appearing in Used Car Buyer at some point as they seem to have discovered what a bargain the 964 is. I guess that there will be several cars featured so I am looking forward to meeting some other owners.

After almost eighteen months I can say that I am still very happy with the car and that, apart from the bodywork repair, which was probably my fault, there has been no unexpected expense at all. The hydraulic pump failure could have been expensive but was paid for under the warranty. Even my insurance went down this year. I renewed the warranty until next July but I think that is the last chance. Hopefully, if anything is going to happen, it will be before then. And that’s it – no disasters, no engine rebuild, not even an oil leak; can it go on like this?

Running Report 4 - May 2003

Following straight on from the last report, I actually had the car serviced by Lindbrook, despite saying that I would go back to Camtune. Two reasons; to maintain the full OPC service history and to ensure that the warranty could be renewed again. At a cost of about £150.00, renewing the warranty is a no brainer and I will continue for as long as I can.

The service went well enough and cost a “reasonable” £501.00 plus parts and VAT. Among the items dealt was the clutch pedal, which had started to stay down and had developed some very odd free play at the top of its travel. The helper spring was adjusted (the invoice says) and that solved the problem. Well, for a few weeks anyway. The pedal started staying down again and off to Linbrook it went. This time, the slave cylinder was replaced. This worked for a couple of days and then it started again. Back to Lindbrook who carried out some more adjustments and this time it seemed to be OK.

Although I was annoyed that the problem wasn’t diagnosed correctly and cured in the first place, for the two occasions that the car went back to Lindbrook, they did give me a courtesy car which eased my grief somewhat. Also, referring to an earlier report, they liaised with Camtune very efficiently and my front discs were replaced under warranty curing, at a stroke, the poor braking and the odd bobbing sensation that went with it. Apparently, the discs were warped and were part of a batch supplied to Camtune who had experienced the same problem with several other customer’s cars.

The MOT test went without a hitch. I was surprised that the brakes could be tested on a two wheel rolling road but there you go. No other excitement at all.

A surprise came with the snow in January. Heading home in very fresh and very cold snow, no more than an inch deep, under light braking the wheels seemed to lock up and the car did not slow down at all. The ABS was working a treat but having no effect. As the speed involved was not great, I released the brakes and tried again with less pressure, which seemed to work better. I remember reading that in fresh snow, and maybe on gravel, ABS could cause problems of this type but I’m not sure why. The whole thing was over in seconds but was a little disconcerting.

To be fair to the car (and to me), the tread on the tyres was a little worn. The fronts had 4/5mm but the rears had around 3/4mm and the tread design of the Continentals is not going to do you any favours in the snow. Later on, further evidence that the tyres were well worn became available in the form of loss of traction pulling out at junctions and gentle aquaplaning at motorway speeds. While the tyres were undoubtedly legal, the performance loss was substantial and not particularly hidden by the four wheel drive. The car also felt different in that it was less stable in the wet and much more “floaty”.

As I didn’t really use the car a lot, I didn’t bother doing anything about the tyres until it became absolutely necessary, helped by the very dry weather in the south east over the past few months. Plus, I was determined to get the last few miles out of them and, by avoiding driving in the rain, this was quite easy. An Easter trip to Yorkshire was worth about 750 miles and proved to be great fun. Good Friday was spent in the Dales where the roads were empty. Getting through Otley and Ilkley was a slow process and, once again, the clutch pedal started sticking. Once beyond Skipton, though, and heading north, traffic was so light that it was possible to enjoy the car in a way that I had never done before. Afternoon tea in Leyburn, with superb views of the national park was followed by a swift trip back to Leeds the long way, via Hawes and Ingleton. The warm weather, and roads covered in rubber from the previous weeks, meant that the worn tyres were a positive asset and the car was perfect.

Not wanting to push my luck the following weekend, when Vicky and I were going on the Titanic Cornish Weekend, I replaced all four tyres, again with Continental SportContacts which seem to suit the car very well. In the heavy rain experienced throughout the weekend, all the old grip and traction was back and I was able to maintain very adequate speeds in most conditions. The weekend was good fun and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the other 964 owners. Thanks to John Coventry for organising it.

Significantly, the car is an awful lot quieter on it’s new tyres. As far as I can see, the tread pattern is the same so perhaps the rubber compound has been changed, which is more than likely I guess. But what I do know is that the tyres were filled with nitrogen (not my choice by the way) and I think this is what has had the most effect. On some sections of the M25 where tyre noise was such that conversation could only be carried on by shouting, it is now possible to converse with raised voices only. A huge improvement and I will monitor events carefully to see what happens as the gas is gradually replaced by ordinary air.


Apart from the clutch pedal, there have been no significant problems - a very slight oil leak has disappeared now that the car is getting a bit more use. Oil consumption remains normal, with about a litre being used in around 3500 miles. The headlights remain absolutely useless on dip beam and I may investigate the Xenon kits that are appearing. The headlining on the sunroof seems a bit saggy but this is not a big deal.

Most annoying has been the demise of the “911” on the engine cover. The “11” numbers were moving around a bit and they came off with very little effort. The remaining “9” was then a bit of a liability so, after a lot of effort, that came off too. I was surprised that the numbers are stuck on and this is going to be a problem. The actual adhesive is set into the back of the numbers, rather than across the whole of the rear face, and is like a very thin number plate pad, and almost impossible to replicate. A fellow Titanic member has kindly sent me some double sided tape which might be suitable but, at this point, I don’t know if it will be able to accommodate the curve in the engine cover.

Le Mans is now a month away and I’m looking forward to another trouble free run through France. Given the very negative press lately concerning 964s I am beginning to feel that a major disaster is lurking just around the corner.

Running Report 5 - May 2004

I just read the last report, dated May 2003. A lot has happened since then but, fortunately, none of it involved the car. Quite frankly, my running report should say “nothing to report”.

So…the usual stuff. The clutch pedal continues to stick and I continue to pull it back up with my foot. It only occurs when the car is used in heavy traffic and goes away soon after, and I have just learned to live with it.

Following the annual service, I had an oil leak which has now disappeared. The car uses very little oil from month to month and I am trying to run it with a lower level anyway, rather than topped up to the brim all the time.

I have a tiny (10mm) chip in the windscreen which has not got any bigger for months so I will ignore it until the screen becomes so opaque that I cannot see out and I will have it replaced.

The number 11 came unstuck so I drive around in a 9 only for a few weeks. Cleaning up the 11 and repainting the black bits was a nuisance, and finding the right adhesive medium was a trial, but still a lot cheaper than the £80.00 required for new numbers

I had fun and games with suspension settings following Camtune trying to adjust the car more to my liking and dialing out some of the understeer. This worked, but left me with a scary car which just turned in far more quickly than I felt happy with, and the back felt a bit light at the same time – familiar stuff for C2 and RS owners but a bit unwelcome on a dark wet night on an unknown road. Camtune reset the suspension to more a compromise setting and I have lived with this for quite a while. And, to plug them, they didn’t charge me in full for redoing the job.

What that episode highlighted to me was the skill that some drivers have in relating what they feel the car is doing to tangible things like camber and castor. Clearly, I cannot do that and I feel that this was the main reason for the very uncomfortable, for me, suspension settings.
 

Following the reset, I did a trackday at Brands Hatch – the third best circuit in the world (after Le Mans and Spa) and the best in Britain. I like to think that I learned a bit that day – to start with, don’t go with a full tank of fuel. The difference between full and empty was 10mph down the pits straight, with my top speed being 120mph at the end of the day. The car felt so much better with no fuel (literally – the fuel light came on as I pulled off the track for the last time) and I gained in confidence with every lap.

I got 150 miles on track which is about 150 laps I think. I was followed by a well driven 928S4 at one point and the driver admitted to disbelief at the speed of my car through the corners, given that his was as quick, or quicker, on the straight bits. When I pointed out that I had 4wd, it seemed to make more sense. I took his passenger out for a few laps and he was bemused at the skill of the car in containing the driver through the bends.

I also had a few laps with an instructor who felt that I probably couldn’t go a lot faster without shedding a few kilos, the car being markedly slower in picking up speed than the C2s on the track. Again, very nicely, he didn’t say that the biggest problem was the driver….

The car has not had a lot of TLC over the past few months as other domestic and work issues have taken priority. I managed to scrape some underseal from the front when I left a client’s house with a particularly steep and short drive and this will have to be sorted out at some point this year. Again, Camtune pointed this out at the service and suggested that, with their temporary fix, it could be left for a few months.

I have given up all hope with the windscreen wipers and headlights. Both are rubbish and are not suited to the car. As someone on the Titanic board pointed out, between ages 20 and 40, you need a doubling of light output for the same degree of vision – when you get past 50, this becomes noticeable and, in my view, the lights are not a lot of use. A serious upgrade is planned here and I will report back as and when. The wiper blades could be replaced on a weekly basis and I don’t think that it would make a lot of difference as the curvature of the screen means that they only wipe where they touch.

There is a problem beginning to show however. Sometimes the engine will fire and then die straight after. This happens on very cold mornings and, sometimes, after a short run. I can start the engine ten times and the same thing will happen and the only solution seems to be to hold the revs to about 1200/1300 for a few seconds and then gradually ease of the throttle until the idle settles down. Also, on a couple of occasions, the revs have dropped so low that it seems like the engine will shake itself to bits but it has always picked up again. Once its running and hot, the problem doesn’t arise. I suspect that this is going to be an ECU problem so I will try the battery disconnection followed by a brisk run route before I book into Camtune for further investigation.

In the last year, the car has been to Cornwall twice (thanks for the great lunch Bluebottle), to Le Mans and, recently, to the Isle of Wight. Every journey has been completed without drama and the 4wd really does take the drama out of even the worst conditions. Trips to Eynsham with PCGB and White Waltham with the 964 register proved good fun and putting faces to names really makes a difference when you read your emails.

Obviously the Titanic Xmas Curry Bash was the highlight of the year but public transport was the order of the day for this event.

The next twelve months will see the headlights upgraded and, possibly, new suspension as the original shocks are getting a bit soggy. I will also deal with the underseal issue. Trips planned are the Titanic Cornish weekend in May, Le Mans and then Scotland in the autumn. Once again, the car will find itself in the most unlikely places like the top of dirt tracks or half way up a mountain – not the usual Porsche places.

I have taken very few photos lately so the above Isle of Wight pictures will have to suffice for the time being