Welcome the Red Knight

[FZP]

It's been a hectic 12 months in car changes at Club P. The stalwart was the family car, s 2010 A6 Estate Le Mans. It has been a trooper. 190k miles and almost faultless during our time. Many a road trip was done to the continent and never missed a beat.
But the time had come to replace the family car. This search was long and drawn out. You name the SUV, it was on the cards. Only request from Mrs P was that it had a Pana roof.
Then it was A6/5series/E class Estates. Nothing was inspiring.
Back to SUV's and we'd settled on a Maserati Levante. Lovely looking thing, something different and nice place to sit.
Then Mrs P made the comment last week that she missed a good day of roof down driving from work. This got me thinking as to how many days we're the back seats used last year. 2 was the count.
This changed the parameters of our search. Viewed and picked up a nice little 981 Boxster manual, in guards red on Friday from Jasmine Porsche-link. Not heavy on options but some key ones like PASM, sports and red seat belts.
It's already had its first road trip to London. Roof down for 3hrs and it's significantly less blustery than the 986 Boxster we had.
It's almost as fuel efficient as the diesel it replaces, and equally as comfortable on a long drive.
First mod is to add cruise control 2nd is to source a PSE rear silencer that has the faulty valve stuck open. Just the way I like it.
So far, highly impressed.

 

[T8]

Isn't that George Eaton's old car? I hope they gave him a fair price for it.

 

[jonttt]

Welcome to the x3 porsche garage club

 

[FZP]

You mean, Welcome back.
You need to leave. You have 2 Porsches and washing machine

 

[911UK]

that's a lot of red

 

[Slayer]

Nice one!

 

[FZP]

I realised that I've not updated this thread much. Shame on me.
Well, Mrs P loves it, first and foremost, as this is her daily drive. The cold weather had me searching how to defrost the side mirrors as it wasn't immediately obvious. A quick Google suggested it's linked to the rear demister. As they haven't frozen as yet, I'm still not sure what is correct. Perhaps any 9x1 owners can confirm.
One thing I wasn't fond of, was the fact that the car is LED everything, yet thr headlights are old school halogen. Really let the look of the car down. Today in a return journey, I noted the drivers headlight was out, so gave me the perfect excuse to order some LED H7 bulbs. They arrive tomorrow. As 981s have projector lenses, I'm not expecting any issues with glare. They arrive tomorrow, so I'll post up pics when they're installed.
The other thing I'm not fond of is Alcantara on non Carbon buckets. On the buckets it makes sense as you fall into them and don't move. My GTS has full leather, and so I slide across the seat. The seats in the Red Knight are alcantara centres. They are effective at gripping your shorts or jeans as you get in. When you have the door flung wide open, it's not a big deal. When you are in an undersized British car parking spot, the foul language it causes me to release is akin to talking to a sheep shearer in an aussie country pub.
What I do like about the car is the way it drives. It's only a base 2.7, but such a well-balanced car. The manual box is nice and easy to use. The sport button .makes it sound tasty on over run. It's sounds far meatier than what it actually has. I'm on the hunt for a PSE that has failed actuators that are sitting around, as I have no interest in quiet mode. Cold starts might razz up the neighbours, though. ZFG
The other thing I'll say about it is that for a sports car, it's super comfortable. I could happily do an 8 hour stint in it. It's just about as fuel efficient as the diesel A6 it replaced.
All in all, happy days

 

[Harryblue]

Welcome to the x3 porsche garage club

Is there a funny handshake or a badge or something?
Or do we just look for someone with an empty wallet and stress lines

Fair play though, went looking for an SUV and came home with a Boxster...

 

[FZP]

1st rule of 3x Porsche Club
Don't talk about 3x Porsche Club..
I put in the LED bulbs the other day, and something wasn't quite right. I took out the GTS, which has PDLS bi-xenon, nd the brightness was the same, but the pattern was off. I had a look and see that I must not have put the spring clip back on correctly, and the bulb was half secured on one side. It was done in the dark, so mistakes happen. This would explain the way the beam spread looked, sort of cross eyed towards the gutter, slightly.
Putting it right in the daylight today, it was still hard to see, but I got it sorted. Did a quick beam check on the garage door, and looks like it's spot on now. When the darkness arrives, I'll go for spin tonight to confirm all is well.

 

[jonttt]

You mean, Welcome back.
You need to leave. You have 2 Porsches and washing machine

I done a you, 2 porsches and an Audi

 

[FZP]

What an Audi, though.

 

[jonttt]

What an Audi, though.

 

[FZP]

Test drive complete. LED perfection. Gave it a wash this arvo, came up a treat, as always.

 

[tom_nieto]

Can you not just disconnect the vacuum hose for the PSE actuator to make it sporty the whole time? Is there a fuse that can be taken out?

Love these, what a great machine for going about your daily business!

 

[FZP]

Yes, but the car doesn't have the PSE from factory. So sourcing PSE BB would give me always on PSE, that is the plan anyway.