I picked up a new to me 2003 986S (65k miles) from a Porsche dealership in Austin TX.
The adventure starts on a perfect sunny Friday afternoon as I point the car west on I-10 and set the GPS for home (north of Vegas). Very impressive hiway tracking/handling- almost seemed to steer itself. Even in some very high wind areas- very stable.
Before long traffic started to thin out and the road was almost empty- except for--- DEER! At least Texas uses high fences and most of the deer were on the other side, but not all. The worst - I came around a bend and was looking at the radio- and drifted into the left lane. As I corrected- there was a deer in the right lane that I surely would have tagged – it came out of nowhere. The guardian angel of the highway was watching out for me.
I ran out of steam in Van Horn and found a great little motel for $30. The Porsche was a little out of place among the station wagons and old trucks.
Saturday was fine day to continue west- towards El Paso and Tucson and then north.
Lots of road construction thru the El Paso area, no worries – until within sight of the I-10/I-25 split. The car started pulling slightly left. Tire low? Hiway ruts? Just as I was making plans to pull over and check- thump/thump/thump. Those Germans do put together a good tire kit. Had the tire off in just a minute and the spare was full! (Whew)
5 miles up the road was Big O tire- they were super busy but after telling them I would remount the tire myself- he slipped me in. But no Michelin’s in stock until Monday- so I went with the no name Sailun tire for $150 all in. The Michelin had picked up a small nail, and the hole was typically one I would plug myself, but (lucky for me) no kit or compressor. Good thing, after looking at the inside of the tire- it was damaged and would have held air but would not be safe at all. Now I’m rethinking my tire plug program.
Heading into the Tucson the dark clouds were building and the radio had reports of a serious storm moving thru the area. So even though the temps had risen to the point of putting the top down- I left it up. It was a soaker of a storm, and didn’t really let up until I was almost out of AZ.
My biggest worry was that I would ingest water or have a short out in the middle of nowhere in the dark. But the car was amazing and never a hiccup. The windows were fully Rain-x’d and the proved to be most helpful as the wipers had quite a squeal. I never really needed to use them- even in the hardest downpour- unless I was in traffic.
