1987 Carrera Joins the Stable

I seem to be drawn to the older Porsches lately. Several of the main Porsche magazines seem to have at least on 70's RS or RSR clone story in every issue. This got me thinking about and looking for an RS clone. But I soon concluded that I would rather have a nice unmodified 911 from the late 80's. Mainly because they were the last of the original 911's and they are galvanized so they are not potential rust buckets like the 70's 911's can be.

So, I set out to find a pristine 86-89 Carrera... And on Sunday I found it!

1987 Diamond Blue Carrera with 26,000 miles and in like new condition.

Nirwana gets some track time...

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take NIRWANA out for a bit of fun at the local track, Pacific Raceways. This was an Alfa Club event so it was possible to give rides; something that is getting harder to do, especially in the Northwest. So, I was able to invite one of my co-workers, Russ, who is a bit of car guy himself, and was interested in a ride.

NIRWANA, a 1997 Porsche Turbo, continues to be my all time favorite car for both daily driving and track time! It is the most responsive car that I have driven; it feels so amazingly alive! And, with over 470HP, that liveliness is very enjoyable :)



Below is an in-car movie of Russ's ride; notice how we just keep on passing and passing all the other cars during the session; except of the seriously turbo-charged white Miata at the end :)

Enjoy the MOVIE! (20+ minutes and 75MB)

Since I discussed the Cobra's brakes recently, I should mention that the rotors were on the Turbo were finished by the end of this track day. The cracks didn't quite connect the drilled holes in the rotors, the normal indicator that the rotors need to be replaced, the cracks were still pretty long.

Now the Turbo has some nice new rotors, which I'll be "seasoning" for the next couple of months until the next track day with one of my favorite groups; Chris' German Auto.

Cobra's new brakes

The new brakes performed very nicely last Wed (June 6) at Pacific raceways. They felt better than the stock calipers which gave me enough confidence in the brakes to increase the speeds, especially on the front straight. However, I am going to try the Hawk DTC 70 pads because with the HT10's, I still could not get into ABS coming into T2, which tells me the tires can handle more braking force.

Here is a in-car movie of two of my faster laps:



Unfortunately, but somewhat expectedly, the Cobra still ran quite hot on the track, reaching 238 degrees after about 15 minutes of hard driving. So, we're going to install an oil cooler shortly.