[Houston C4S]

Thanks, Randall, for handling the pictures for me. I am such an
igmo about that. (But I promise to learn!)

For the other commentors,

The exhaust tips are the "sport tips" available at your friendly,
but profit concious, Porsche dealer. They should fit any 987.
It's just a quick bolt on thing. I do like the way it looks better
than the trumpet style ones that came on it.

They didn't "throw in" the clear markers, but the parts guy did
pop them in on the spot.

And, yes, they did toss in the hat. (Big of them, eh?)

Okay. Now onto the subject you all have been waiting for...


PSE


With Sport Chrono, the way it gets turned on is only by selecting
the SC mode. And that's not too bad. The throttle is a bit touchier,
but no big deal. What I had to fix was that the gnomes over there
in the black forest of Europe have decided that the DME will be in
charge of its operation and that as a result of Euro noise regulations,
they will turn off (ie. make it quiet) the PSE over about 10 mph and
back on about 45-50.

And that deprives one of some really great engine noises in that
speed window. Which is one of my favorites because you haven't
gotten to a speed where the wind noise begins to cover up the
song of the exhaust.

The quick fix takes 5 minutes and consists of pulling off the vacuum
lines to the actuating valves and plugging them and securing them
out of the way. The downside is that you cannot get back to quiet
mode without getting back under there to plug them back in.

And that's not much of a downside to me.

Now, what does it sound like?

In a word -- awesome. Not as loud as the 996 I used to have and
its tone is quite a bit higher. In fact, it gets pretty shrieky at the
higher rpms. I haven't taken it much past 5,000 yet (well, maybe
6,000 that one time), so I can't tell you what it's like around redline --
yet.

Heavy throttle yields lots of intake suction noise -- I was afraid it
might suck in a small child or a deer if the throttle is really open!

Light throttle and higher rpm, though, it sounds really sweet.

I don't know about getting one through Tequipment yet, although
I would expect that you would be able to at some point. I will
comment here that there are no annoying resonance points that
seem so common in aftermarket systems.

Randall will soon lend his impressions.

I don't want to spend much freeway time, if any, until I get the
clear bra on the front -- no rock chips so far and I would like to
keep it that way.

Oh -- let me confirm one more rumor. The PCCB's do not leave
brake dust on the wheels. YIPPEE!!! And they do feel as good as
"they" say. The dealer's service manager did say, however, be
really, really careful if you change a tire/wheel as they are very
easily cracked and really really expen$ive to replace one if you
break it. (You don't want to know)

Other notes:

The standard suspension seems fine to me.

I like the colors. I had not seen Meteor Gray when I ordered
it last October and had not ever seen it paired with Cocoa
leather. But I think it works well.

There are not too many other options -- it is configured as close
to a performance spec as I could get (not that they aren't pretty
darn good as they are stock) with sport seats, sport steering
wheel and just a couple of other things.

So there you go.

Thanks for the comments and again to Randall for posting
the pictures for me.

All the best...

- Mark