MaxA's ''Mr White'' long termer

[MaxA]

I found another one from Pärnu - home of the Estonian (Baltic) Porsche Experience.

The 'Porsche Ice Experience' is up near Kittilä in Finnish Lapland. Every time I pass through the airport and see the big ads in the luggage hall, I wonder if I should try and go find it. None of the winter testing facilities are marked on the map, although you can find them on Google Satellite view. I have found a few unmarked but the gates are always very well locked...

 

[MaxA]

some more pretty pictures from Pärnu

 

[MaxA]

It's taken me a while to get around to it, but I have been idly thinking about a fire extinguisher for Mr White - I've always had extinguishers on my cars since my old Dad needed one once - but this one has been slipping through the net for a while now... Anyway, while rooting around on the internet, I found a Fire Safety Stick with a Rennline mount, rather than a full-on fire extinguisher. It's no plumbed in system, but it appeals to me as it doesn't add too much weight.

I'll report back on the installation, but it might have to wait a couple of weekends as I have a couple of boxes of Brembo discs to fit to the fleet.

In the meantime, at least, I've got the winters fitted to the daily driven cars as it's only just above freezing now.

 

[remarklima]

I have a fire safety stick in the glove box, I cut some high density foam so it's fixed in there with a seat belt cutter with window smasher thingy.

They look great, but I'd love to try one in a test... Eg not a car on fire!

 

[MaxA]

^good idea. I usually carry a folding knife in the cabin, just out of habit.

 

[MaxA]

And in case any of you were still wondering if Mr (Very Dirty) White is still driven and not pampered, well, yes, it's still on the road, and rarely washed - it's not so easy to do a hand wash when it's well below zero. Here's a rare daylight shot (for the time of year).

Apologies to anyone who suffers from palpitations, but when it does come to wash time, the ceramic coating helps a lot.

 

[MaxA]

I should add that it's pretty good fun to do an all wheel drive 'burn out' at the lights when they go green - all the studs make a hell of a racket and then you just take off like a stabbed rat ... The first time, it wasn't even deliberate but the road gets very polished at junctions.

Sorry but inside I'm still an eleven year old.

 

[MaxA]

As ever, as the year turns and it’s still awful outside, thoughts turn to ‘the season’. The group has a shared calendar on line and we try to populate it with dates as the various clubs release their information. We then add notations such as ‘nope’, ‘conflicted’, ‘maybe’, ‘deffo’ etc, in an effort to get coordinated – no one wants to be Norman Nomates at the circuit.

Thus far, this season, we’ve settled on what has become a new annual ritual of the trip to Pärnu in Estonia in mid June(we used to go to Sweden for many years but something happened at the club and now they don’t do trackdays anymore becausereasons). We might even add a couple of noobs, which should be fun, as they won’t know the track.

I noted that the season’s events are divided into two parts (1) May and June and (2) August and September. Northern climes and all that, combined with the traditional summer break when nothing happens as we are all on holiday (ie July). This summer we might just be ‘a deux’ as both the children should finally be working summer jobs and not available to be fed and watered by their parents.

I also noted that an old friend of mine has just acquired a 9972 C4 in Aqua Blue. And as it happens, I just happened to swing by for a viewing today. It’s in good nick and so on. More excitingly, Old Friend is keen to test-drive his new rig.

So the old wheels and cogs have started turning. Adding two and two together. It’s obvious, we should go for a road trip in July! Now we need to do some planning…

 

[MaxA]

So it seems that the girls have some compelling reason to go to Oslo, Norway. That means we'll likely head west. It's a nice trip across the Baltic on a Viking Line ferry to Stockholm and roughly 6 hours (525km) to Oslo across Sweden. We'd be in Oslo by late afternoon, even with a long lunch. I'd be tempted to head north to the Trollstigen and the Atlantic Coast Highway, but it seems that there is a beach house on Jutland (in Denmark) to be visited instead. So we might head further west to Bergen and Stavanger to explore some of Norwegian fjord land. Then we could catch a short day time ferry of about 3 hrs from Kristiansand over to Hirtshals in Denmark, whihc is close to the beach house. This suggests that we could then head further south to Hamburg, Nurburg, Stuttgart... who knows. OF suggests that we might drop the girls off at an airport for the second more drivey leg in Germany. Could be a plan.

 

[911UK]

So it seems that the girls have some compelling reason to go to Oslo, Norway. That means we'll likely head west. It's a nice trip across the Baltic on a Viking Line ferry to Stockholm and roughly 6 hours (525km) to Oslo across Sweden. We'd be in Oslo by late afternoon, even with a long lunch. I'd be tempted to head north to the Trollstigen and the Atlantic Coast Highway, but it seems that there is a beach house on Jutland (in Denmark) to be visited instead. So we might head further west to Bergen and Stavanger to explore some of Norwegian fjord land. Then we could catch a short day time ferry of about 3 hrs from Kristiansand over to Hirtshals in Denmark, whihc is close to the beach house. This suggests that we could then head further south to Hamburg, Nurburg, Stuttgart... who knows. OF suggests that we might drop the girls off at an airport for the second more drivey leg in Germany. Could be a plan.

have you done much ice track driving this season ?

 

[MaxA]

There's only one ice track event with the club each winter, and this year it clashes with our winter holiday in Lapland, so I'm not going to make it. In the past, there hasn't always been enough cold weather to create good conditions. We have driven on frozen lakes, or frozen sea, but you need plenty of cold for nice thick ice and not too much snow on top, or a snow plough/tractor to move it - and to pull you out when you spin out, and you also need to be able to simply access the lake or sea (usually via a boat ramp), so ice driving isn't that common funnily enough. But occasionally the stars do align.

There is plenty of ice on the roads though...

 

[Luddite]

Enjoy ice driving...? Perhaps you might like to try this vid...?

 

[911UK]

There's only one ice track event with the club each winter, and this year it clashes with our winter holiday in Lapland, so I'm not going to make it. In the past, there hasn't always been enough cold weather to create good conditions. We have driven on frozen lakes, or frozen sea, but you need plenty of cold for nice thick ice and not too much snow on top, or a snow plough/tractor to move it - and to pull you out when you spin out, and you also need to be able to simply access the lake or sea (usually via a boat ramp), so ice driving isn't that common funnily enough. But occasionally the stars do align.

There is plenty of ice on the roads though...

got some contacts in Norway who do this on a regular basis, it's on my bucket list for sure !

 

[MaxA]

It's definitely worth it!

 

[MaxA]

Reminder to self to change the oil over the weekend, and have a poke around underneath. Something's rattling, and if it's a heat shield, I suspect it'll have to be replaced when I take the car in for the spark plug change. I don't have a lift and I'm now wondering if I shouldn't invest in a scissor lift to get underside without lying on my back which sucks.