Article for Porsche Post March 2004

Duxford Delights/Water cooled comments.
Sadly I feel that I must apologise to the 968 register members for the comments regarding watercooled Porsches and their owners in the January issue of Porsche Post.
The comments are very unwelcome and in my opinion should never have been printed. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but the Porsche Post, which is the official club magazine, should never be used to try to humiliate or denigrate any part of the club membership. I have no wish to repeat the comment here, and I am personally incensed that the magazine has been used in this way. Many of us have persevered to prove that all members are treated with the same respect and sadly one persons opinion can be taken as the norm which I assure you it is not.

A Quick Blast? A Very Quick Blast.
Took the car out for it's first real blast since before Christmas last night, (26th January), it was nice to give it a bit of a decent run in reasonably good conditions. One thing that struck me was the engine note above 4000 rpm. That throaty roar sounded great. Unfortunately at a certain speed (which cannot be mentioned here) the wind noise takes over.
I had the car serviced at Hartech in Bolton before Christmas having won a service discount in 2002 at a concours event, yes even after more that a year they honoured the discount.
It turned out that the car was in need of a bit more than a service resulting in a camshaft replacement as well as the belts, Variocam chain and slides, belt tension rollers etc. etc. They called me to explain what needed doing before they went ahead and also kept the bits for me to examine. They even went to the trouble of explaining the reasons that things needed changing even though to the untrained eye it might appear that things seem fine.
They use complex but common sense calculations from wear that is present on the components to make a judgement on how much longer it would last before catastrophic failure. They have built part of the business on a reputation for knowing the front engined cars literally inside out. Previously I have had the car serviced at an OPC as it was still in its 10 year bodywork guarantee period and needed the stamp in the book. The problem is that the OPC will only do what is asked for in the schedule and Porsche don't recognise that the Variocam parts may wear (go figure).
I have to say that having had the work completed it gives you a great sense of reliability, possibly too much. Hence the trip out last night.
I will be doing a full write up with images on the service and the components replaced but work committments haven't allowed me to complete it so far.

Porsche 996 GT3 RS
I had a drive in one of these awesome machines just before Christmas and it was in the truest sense of the word a race car designed to beat anything that it may come across. When I positioned myself in the excellent seat and with my wife beside me looking apprehensive, the owner said, "warm it up, then use eight two".
"Eight two", I thought, I wonder what he means, then I looked at the rev counter, redline, 8200 rpm.
I followed this chap through the Northamptonshire countryside and I have to say that I never got anywhere near the 8200 redline but with this car you wouldn't really want to unless you where on a track.

My thoughts obviously turn to the 968 Turbo RS, I have always gone on about 968s being great cars on short tracks and that it would be a special 911 that could follow one through a series of corners.
The GT3 RS without a doubt is a fantastic competition car and out of the league of the standard 968. However if the 968 Turbo RS is built to the same competition standards as I am sure it was, it too would be a formidable track machine to get hold of.
But then it may be unfair to compare a modern race machine to a 10 year old design, so it would be the 964 RS that would have to hold the rear engined end up. That one was covered in November 2002 issue of GT Purely Porsche and it was compared against a 968 Club Sport not the RS. The 968 came out as the author's choice for being a more complete and fun car. (Yet again)

Front Engined Day
A front engined day is being organised for 4th April 2004 at Porsche Club house so we should see lots of 924s, 944s, 928s and of course the star of the show the 968s. We have a time of 10:30 to be there. There will also be a 17 mile run through the countryside starting at 1pm.
I have put a page up on my website with the details and fellow 968 owners are arranging to meet each other "en route" on the forum at 968uk.com.

968 Register Window Stickers.
I have approached the club for 968 register window stickers as the image above and hopefully we should have them before the front engined day.