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Intro

Memorable events

The session followed the standard pattern of getting to know the track section by section, alternately following an instructor, sitting in the passenger seat next to the instructor, and finally driving with live comments from the instructor sitting next to you. Instructors were Gijs van Lennep again and Hans Deen. All this was finished off with free driving. Highlights from this evening: having the back step out big time with van Lennep in the passenger seat (because I still couldn't operate brake and accelerator at the same time), van Lennep showing me that thanks to his shorter legs he had no problem double clutching, and managing to keep up with van Lennep while he was driving the 996 C2. Admittedly he was taking it easy, but still interesting to check the rearview mirror when entering the final straight and not seeing the rest of the group there.

In June I went to the Nürburgring. Highly recommended if you want to drive your car in the way Dr. Porsche intended. A thorough preparation before driving on the track is a very good idea though. The Ring is long. It's very long. Your average Formula One track is about 4.5km long. The Nordschleife of the Nürburgring is more than 20km long and contains lots of corners (73 is the official number). Then there's an altitude difference between highest and lowest point of the track of 300m. Add lots of blind crests, lots of blind corners, and a chronic lack of run-off space, and you get the idea.

However, all these ingredients combined give the most challenging, most impressive and most beautiful track in the world. There are very few things that compare to driving the Ring fast. The G-forces are impressive, and so are the speeds. In a 964 you'll be able to hit 220km/h in three places. All the info you might need about the Ring is at the site of Ben Lovejoy.

Another word of warning: once you've driven the Ring, you'll want to come back. Which I did in July, August and September. The trips in July and September were particularly impressive: lots of good weather and lots of good company. Unfortunately, the fantastic time on and off the track in July was overshadowed by the death of Jørund Seim who crashed on the Ring on an oil spill Sunday afternoon, shortly after I left. He will be missed sorely by many people.

The September weekend was a memorable one. I drove lots of laps, managed to meet up with Rennlister John and Paula Boggiano on Sunday and followed them for two laps to make a video of their car in action.

The entertainment after the track closed was first-class too, and to top it off there were lots of very fast Swedish Porsches (a group of 19 had made its annual trek). As a thank you for taking some pictures, I secured two passenger laps in well-driven GT3's (from Ulf and Anders). Awesome! Much as I like my 964, those rides confirmed one of my deeper fears: I want a GT3 some day...

Fortunately, driving a 964 is very entertaining too. A bit too entertaining sometimes, resulting in a high speed spin without hitting anything (small miracle, that).

Detailed reports of all my trips to the Ring can be found on my Nürburgring pages.

One last memorable detail: before the September weekend I had my front brake pads replaced. The yearly service was scheduled just after that Ring weekend. Within hours of dropping the car off, the mechanic calls me to ask if I'd realised that half the pads they'd put on just a few days earlier were gone again...

Work done

My experiences at Zandvoort strengthened my resolve to create a decent steering position. A bit of research and asking around yielded a number of different solutions, all described on this page of my website. In the end I went with an original three-spoke 993RS steering wheel on a custom-made extension of the steering column. It looks good and works perfectly. The difference in drivability is huge: at last I have room under the steering wheel to operate the brake properly. Matching revs during downshifts under braking is no longer a problem either. Definitely the best money I ever spent on a car.

Driving quite a few kilometers on a racetrack isn't the most economical way of covering distances: you just go round in circles and consume lots of brake pads, brake discs and tyres in the process. Well worth it though, in my opinion. As a result the running costs have been quite high, but that's mostly thanks to 4 new tyres, new rear discs and new pads all around. The front discs are marginal, but they'll be replaced together with the front pads after the first Ring weekend next year.

The yearly service didn't turn up any out-of-the-ordinary items. The alarm had stopped beeping when arming/disarming (fixed under warranty), the front wishbones need to replaced next year, and the heatshields near the cat were loose and have been welded. Other than that the parking damages have been repaired.

The stiff shifting when the gearbox is hot seems normal: Gijs van Lennep didn't notice a difference between my car and the other 964 at Zandvoort. At the Ring it's not much of a problem, particularly when you get to know the track. Most of the time it's 3rd or 4th gear, with a handful excursions into 2nd.

The niggling problem with the fuel gauge still hasn't been solved: by now everything except the wiring has been replaced, and still the needle sticks to full after filling the tank. Switch the ignition off and on, and it points to the correct position. Weird. They've now replaced the gauge with one from a 993 that is known to work. I've no idea if that's cured the problem yet. I'll have to fill up the tank and do a nice long drive immediately afterwards. Those are the hardships of 964 ownership ;-))

To be done sometime in the future

• The shocks are getting a little tired after almost 180.000km. Add replacement of the front wishbones, and I think I have a good excuse to do some serious work on the suspension. New springs with matching shocks sounds attractive...
• The air conditioner still uses R12 coolant, and it leaks. I might have it converted to R134a and have the leaks fixed after the winter.

• Check if the fuel gauge is behaving properly.
• I've borrowed an enormous stack of old car magazines from a friend. I'll spend the dark winter months sorting through them to filter out any 964-related material, which will then make its way onto my site.
• Replacement of the frequency crossovers and tweeters has has dropped even further down the list of priorities. Ring driving is much more fun than listening to music :)
• Likewise the replacement of the 'flag' mirrors with aero mirrors. Not only because of the cost, but also because the angle of view of the aeros might be less than the good old rectangular mirrors. With the current mirrors there's no need to look over my left shoulder, and I'd like to keep it that way.
• The holiday to Switzerland is taking definite shape with some help of a local Elise-driving expert. It's scheduled for June 2003.