Vroom-Vroom-Zoom-Zoom, Off We Go!

Wicked (epic) Weekend Fun!  It was a dream come true, a ride in a Porsche 911 Carrera (with a former race car driver)!  Early Sunday morning, I went for a ride on the back-roads ofNorthernCalwith Jerry Gladstone (check my post “A Racer’s Life”).  About twenty minutes into the ride, we encountered some curves that challenged the car.  From then on, you can guess what fun I had!  When it got a bit chilly out, Jerry turned on the “Grand Old Porsche Heater smell”.  The heater coolant smell comes in to the cabin and makes it smell! PU!

After a while, we started to share some funny stories.  His first car was given to him by his dad.  Something broke in the transmission and he couldn’t afford to fix it, so he sold it and bought an MG TC!  He has had an: MG TC, Mazda Miata, Porsche 912, and three other Porsches.  The Porsche that I rode in with him is his fifth! It is a 1997 993 Series 911 Carrera.  It is the quietest 911 that he has owned! The Flat-Six makes about 300 horsepower and makes a great howl/scream!  Jerry says that the six-speed manual is precise and easy to shift.  He can’t use 6^th gear, as the car will pick up speed until it reaches its 171 mph top speed! VROOM! The 993 was the last air-cooled 911 generation to be produced.  The Recaro sport seats grab you like crab’s pinchers and hold you firmly.  There is a small switch that may look like nothing, but it controls how much down force is going to the rear wing, which pops out.  At one point, there was a small dip in the road that we simply flew over.  It was just like in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when the parking attendants drove the Ferrari.

Zooming through country roads at high speeds, we quite often got the thumbs up from bicyclists going very slowly.  When we were at a stoplight because of road construction, Jerry put the Porsche in neutral and revved the engine to 7000 RPM! Somebody in a BMW Z4 held his hands over his ears!  That got Jerry and I laughing like maniacs!

The hand-brake, he calls “the stick”!  It looks like a small black stick with grooves in it!  When we got out and went into the garage, he told me “inhale the grand old Porsche smell!” The smell can only be related to leaked oil and radiator fluid!  It smells almost as good as food to me!

Thanks for the fun ride Jerry! I talked about it so much that my mom and dad finally told me “We’ve already heard about it ten times!”  Maybe Jerry will let me drive his Porsche when I am old enough…