Personal

Winter and Porsches

I finally bought a set of 993 look alike rims with Blizzak LM30 tires (205/50H17 255/40H17). They seem to offer the best winter traction although they are only H rated rather than Z rated, but I figure, I don't do 130+ mph in the winter... I got them from tirerack for 1590 with 2 day shipping. They are the Mille Mignia 1 wheels. I didn't get caps for them because I refuse to pay 150 bucks for 4 discs of plastic. I could move the caps from my 18 turbo wheels but decided not too. They don't look so bad anyway.

They are working very well, there is plenty of grip on dry and they work very well on snow and ice. Some say there is a huge difference between winters and summers in terms of dry grip but because of the insane grip offered by a 911C4, if you're anywhere close to discovering this, you better be on a track because you ARE breaking the law :)

I'll switch them back to my Pirellis on 18s in the summer once the temps get above 40F.

Washing is pretty easy, the 17" rims are better for machine washing than the 18's, a little higher side wall, still dangerously low. But, the blizzaks seem to have a rim saver ridge which helps keep the rims out of trouble. I started washing the car once a week now at my local garage just to keep the muck off it and I'm pretty comfortable doing it. You can't exactly hand wash the car in the drive way when it's -10C outside. If you're driving the car everyday then you gotta use an automatic wash.

Ground clearance is the biggest problem with the 911 in winter, more than 4-5 inches and you could get in to trouble pretty easily.

BRA Arrived

The bra and mirror covers arrived. They are factory parts but man, getting that BRA on isn't easy. You basically have to put a washer on each side of the hood by removing a fender attachment bolt and then reattaching it with the washer/clip in place. A loop on the ends of the bra slides over this clip.

I then put the bra on pushing the number plate through first and then tried to attach the left side of the bra. The C clips on the end of the bra are supposed to go over the edge of the fender in the wheel well. This side went on nice.

The other side was a lot harder. It took a lot of shifting/stretching to get enough fabric to get the right side C clips on a call and I'm not really happy with it but it's on and after two days, it hasn't come off.

Washing the car is now bugging me as I'll need to remove the BRA to do it, and I ain't looking forward to reattaching it but it's gotta get easier with practise.

The black bra looks pretty good on the car, black with maroon seems to work.

It's time for a bra

Getting tired of the road construction in my area. Small stones everywhere. The car is getting chipped away slowly. Figure I'll get a factory bra. Bought the bra with mirror bras and a cover for winter for 350 bucks from www.pelicanparts.com. We'll see how it goes.

The perils of a car wash

I decided to try my local car wash today. A very trumatic experience. The local manager drove the car through. The problem is the wheels. Low profile wheels and car washs don't mix. Most car washes have two sets of rails to guide the wheels. These seem to me to be rim killing instruments.

Luckily, my car wash only has rails on one side but still, it's hard to watch. The trick is to keep the car on the interior rim rail. That keeps the rim away from the scratching the rim.

The car looks great after the wash but I think it's the last time I do it. It's 4300 bucks for a set of rims with tires. I figure it's like gambling, most of the time, it'll be ok but it's going to happen.

Hand washes for me from now on.

Protection for paint work against chips

I've gotten a couple of small chips in my front bumper and fenders. They are annoying. There is a lot of construction around where I live and I don't want this to continue.

I'm debating buying a car bra or using something like 3M clear mask (www.clearmask.com). The bras don't look great but the clear mask is more expensive but basically invisible and apparently can be removed without damaging the paint work. If anyone has any experience here then I'd appreciate a note.