|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Activities
Nor'easter News
Car Care
Membership
Other Cool Stuff
Sponsors & Advertisers
|
Porsche
Club of America
Around
The Cones
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The incredibly weird weather for 2003 continues with over 3 weeks of humid, showery unpredictable days where washing one's Porsche is a fruitless exercise that will invariably result in a wet car within days if not hours of the job completion. Our intrepid track folks have persevered thru wet days at the track but no complete rainouts, attendance, in spite of these obstacles, has been relatively good given the current political and economic time; the Canada events thus far have been the strongest contributors. With only 3 more events left at press time (late August) a relatively good turnout at NHIS in September plus near breakeven crowds at the new Beaverun and Mosport venues will wrap up the most ambitious track year in the history of NER. Due to weather again the autocross program has got off to a slow start but attendance and especially interest by new competitors has made the 2 events held thus far a strong harbinger of the remaining 3 events culminating in the mid October finale where class champions will be crowned. Check out the autocross web site for results and current standings, better yet come out and participate. Our new course master, Mark Schnoer has magically designed courses where a stock 914, a Twin Turbo 911 and a Boxster are within fractions of a second of each other. Look for some close competition in upcoming events. After a long hiatus, Rallys made a comeback with NER, Drew and Carol Ley hosting a technically tricky event where 11 cars started and after 2 plus hours of clue gathering, poker hands and course following ended at their house with a welcome pool to cool off the hot competitors. All finishers had a great time and look forward to our next rally in November hosted by long time tour master Vic Zeller in the wilds of Southeast Mass. and Rhode Island. Also coming up on Columbus Day weekend (check the calendar in this issue) is our annual fall tour, this year planned by the Dows and hosted by Kim Saal in Westport Mass. (Not to be confused with a similar town in Ct.-hopefully no one ends up there) Our most prominent event of the year is the second annual Porschefest again to be held at the Museum of Transportation on September 13th, a Saturday, just a few days from the receipt of this publication. As in past years you can pick your class; Full, Top only or Park and Wipe. In addition we are resurrecting our photo contest and have note photographer Tom Burnside as both a judge of the pictures and hosting a presentation of his long career in automotive photography. Don't miss this event there is something for everyone including kids. Now to the monthly tech information; Should you have a Porsche from 96 and newer and somehow forgot your antitheft radio code, can not find that card you were given when you purchased the car or never got one listen up. Your radio will display a "Code" message on the face if you lose battery power, two methods to obtain that missing code. One contact your dealer and have them remove the radio then communicate with Porsche to obtain the code or if your lucky push the TP button on the faceplate, an indication of Becker radio will show after holding button for 10-15 seconds then move the station dial a notch and the radio serial number will appear, that is your key to obtaining the code from your dealer. Note: they may require proof of ownership via a registration and this method does not always work. Now if you have randomly guessed at the code and the "c" on the faceplate blinks when you enter the code you need to clear the bad codes by leaving the radio on for an hour or so, then try the correct code once, if it fails you may again have the wrong code. Next up do you know the proper way to have your Porsche towed? Well there is a tow hook supplied to you when the car was new, location is supposed to be in the tool kit but many have been lost. Remember the tool kit on 996 and Boxsters is on the back of the spare tire. Now where are the receivers? They vary by year and model, best bet is to consult your owner's manual, by the way these hooks can hold a tremendous amount of weight as they are threaded with very large sized threads into a reinforced section of the bumpers. Most late model 911s and Boxster have the front one behind a small plastic cover to the side of the plate, while the rear one many times is behind the rear plate. 944, 968 series usually are behind the front plate. Do not allow a tow truck to use the suspension arms or steering components to hook up with they will bend. Similarly be careful of them dragging the front end at too steep an angle onto the flatbed or your spoiler will get damaged. PCNA now requires all dealers to sign for every Porsche towed with a statement of damage noted to protect everyone. Porsche has also instructed all their dealers to not fix any flats but to recommend tire replacement, so be aware of this procedure. A reminder now that the warm season is upon us on two areas of possibly concern; one is coolant problems the other AC systems. First off those with water cooling, now the norm in Porsches note that all 996 and Boxsters require a special antifreeze only available from Porsche, do not use the Prestone type antifreeze found in most other cars. Earlier model front engined Porsches can use that type but make very sure they are compatible with aluminum alloy as all Porsche 4 and eight cylinder water cooled engines use aluminum extensively, good news is that most antifreezes are compatible but don't take a chance. Also remember to flush completely your cooling system every 3 years or erosion of the mating surfaces for the head could cause serious overheating. Finally 968 owners should regularly change their hot water valves (every couple of years) or carry a spare, as they are a weak point in this line. Most Porsches since the early 90s have the new type R134a refrigerant that is kind to the ozone layer, but earlier model unless converted do not use this gas using the now obsolete R12 which is almost impossible to find anymore, it has been banned in the USA for years now. Porsche does offer an update kit for most models, it is not cheap but does allow you to convert to the new Freon. Generally most people do this when an air conditioner component fails, as you need to recharge the system anyway. Beware of shady establishments pedaling R12 especially if it is from non-automotive sources such as buildings' AC systems, this can play havoc with your AC. More tech tips next month. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright
1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 PCA/NER
Year 2000 Web Site Design by www.sitesofboston.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
