First Day of Spring, 2013

In much of the northern hemisphere the first day of spring, March 20, implies that warm weather has arrived or, at least, is a short way off. People are shining their Porsches in anticipation of driving once again after a long winter - that is if they are not driving already.

Here I went snowshoeing three times yesterday and today, and driving required four-wheel-drive and a lot of ground clearance.

By the way, if you are not familiar, four wheel drive looks like this:

This is the type of vehicle we use on a regular basis to get around when the snow is deep, or later, when the mud is deeper. Mud is stickier stuff and I've seen cars stuck in it in this area while square in the middle of the road - going down a steep hill. Other people may be driving all over the place in their Porsches already, somewhere, and even here there are lucky souls who get to drive earlier than I do.

Since I live on a dirt road, about one mile from pavement, I have to wait until mud season is over entirely before venturing out, lest I thoroughly coat the bottom of the car, including inside of the fenders, with still-salty mud. This is not good for a nearly 40-year-old car that has no galvanization on any of its bodywork. Plus, why would I want to  mess up all the shining I worked so hard at?

And, just to prove the reality of the situation in these parts, here is the snow that was piled up from yesterday's storm (this is from clearing the driveway). There are several piles and some are bigger than this, but this one is next to the garage, so I used it for scale to show that it goes up above my head.  This is springtime?

March 20, 2013

Anyway, I have been miserably slow this time around in getting anything done on my Porsche; I guess I should be grateful for the extra time this snow gives me to do a few more tasks. I did learn, though, that some things I intended to do are beyond me. I don't understand enough to properly accomplish everything, never mind all my books and the Pelican Parts technical forums, plus friends I can call, I simply don't have the specialized tools, or specialized knowledge, either.

I fiddled a little today with my 911 in anticipation of some replacement parts that have not yet arrived, but then I have not really gotten to the repairs/modifications that I had in mind in the first place for this winter season. I decided to add a small detail to my list of 'to do' jobs on the car, well, one thing led to another, then another, and it now looks as if the important stuff will have to wait again. I have once more wasted too much time on superfluous incidentals. At least I recently learned about the existence of a really good technician in these parts ($$ probably) who can help sort out a few issues that I can't solve.

I'll add some more to this post after I finish shovelling the walkway and the deck.

OK, I finished shoveling. So, here is PART TWO of this post:

Newport Center, Vermont

This is what I imagined I'd be doing in early spring, running around on a country road, but with all the pollution Porsches spew out, you get Global Warming. This screws up the climate and you wind up with goofy weather that is all out of proportion, more furious hurricanes, deep snow on Easter, that kind of thing. Anyway, in my dreams, I'm here.

I take that back. Cars like this do not run as cleanly as new cars; that's a given. Do they pollute more? Actually, not. Because they are driven so little, and only on sunny summer days. And they are driven carefully, lest you mess them up. So, the net addition to junk in the air is much smaller than what a new car that is driven all the time, no matter how cleanly it runs, pumps into the air. So there.

If you want to go seriously fast in one of these cars, and ignore the resulting pollution momentarily, take it onto a proper race track.

Non-ethanol gasoline is important to cars of this vintage. Ethanol eats various components of the fuel system in most any car that's older than the year 2000, so when this gas is found on offer, I buy it.  Naturally, because they left the ethanol out they charge an awful price premium. Of course, ethanol in general is a disaster, but I won't get into that just now.

Instead, I'm going out to try an idea to reduce the noise level inside this car. It's a small idea, but every little bit helps.