On Saturday, I got up early to drive from Seattle to Carnation and join some some fellow PCA/PNWR members for an all day drive. We explored some beautiful roads and I had the chance to see how the car did on the highway, beautiful curvy mountain roads, crappy rutted out backroads, dry roads, unexpected wet leaf covered roads in tight corners and everything in between. I’m in love with this car and it is the most fun car I’ve ever driven. Here are some initial impressions:

What I love

• This is the prettiest car that I’ve ever owned and one of the nicest looking cars on the road today. There isn’t a bad angle to be found on this car. It was the design of the Spyder that first caught my eye and while it is just a fancy Boxster, it sure sets itself apart visually. This is the only convertible that looks as good with the top up as with the top down. Okay…nearly as good.
• This car is the most fun car to drive that I’ve owned. This car handles like no car I’ve owned before. All of the clichés are true. Go-Kart…on rails…etc. The car feels like it is pivoting around me. I knew it would feel different from a 911 but I underestimated just how different. The way the Spyder grips the road, and tucks into a corner is more confidence inspiring than any previous sports car that I’ve owned. This is also my first GT Porsche so I’m comparing it to bigger heavier AWD modern 911s and older cars.
• Best manual I’ve ever owned/driven. I wanted a manual for the touring style driving I do where enjoyment/engagement is a higher priority than speed. I’m a huge fan of auto-blip and this transmission is a blast to use.
• I expected this car to feel slow given I’m coming from a tuned 600hp Turbo. Sure, the Turbo is faster, but the 4.0 engine in the Spyder feels anything but slow. Keep it in the right gear and you have all the power you will ever need and then some.
• I love the purpose built interior. I opted for black/silver stitch with some extra leather and I have the 2-way seats. I find the interior to be classy, understated, uncluttered and a great place to spend some time. It feels bigger than I expected. I didn’t need to read the owners manual to know how to work anything because there are so few gizmos and things work as expected. Nothing gets in the way of the driving experience but it also doesn’t feel stripped down.
• Ride comfort is better than expected. I was expecting a brutal/harsh ride and it is anything but. The stock Spyder is far more comfortable and compliant than my 2011 Turbo S was even after the DSC Controller was added in.
• Exhaust note at higher RPM seems good…I’m waiting for a few thousand miles before considering any exhaust changes.
• Porsche brakes are always amazing and PCCBs do not disappoint. Incredible stopping power, lightweight and lifetime brakes off the track. I had them on my Turbo and I’m glad I checked that box for this car.
• Putting the top up and down is easier than I expected it to be. Takes 30 to 45 seconds and my top closes without much effort.

What I don’t love

• The cold start on this engine sounds like a diesel truck. It is loud but not in a pleasing way or even in a “I’m a fire breathing sports car so get out of my way” way. That settles down pretty quickly and perhaps it will get better with time but I wish it sounded better from first crank.
• Why doesn’t the USB port in the glovebox connect to CarPlay…that is such an easy thing to get right.
• Silver wheel color. I didn’t love any of the standard wheel colors but I picked silver. It is a boring silver paint in my opinion and I plan to change it up at some point. I do love the wheel design…looks like spider legs to me which is perfect for the car.

Photos from the drive:

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I wish I was the type of person that could just take delivery of a Porsche and drive the hell out of it from the start, rock chips be dammed. I love the way waxed paint looks without any protection on it and would shun paint protection film (ppf) and run “naked” if the sound of rocks pinging off the car didn’t make me cringe. Embrace patina…yes, I wish I was that person.

Since I’m not that person, I put myself in the capable hands of Cesar, the owner of Pista Film Solutions in Burien. They have one of the best reputations in town, do incredible work with XPEL film and he could squeeze me into his schedule the day I took delivery. His team works hard to make sure every seam is hidden so unless you are looking for it, and within a few inches of the car, you can’t even tell the car has any film on it at all. I opted for the track package but I added full door protection and they did more of the rear wheel arch/bumper as well to hide the seams:

The team did an incredible job and managed to get it all done by mid-day Friday so I could have it for the weekend. Shep came with me to pick it up and we managed to enjoy a top-down drive on the way home…I think he loves it as much as I do!

Some additional glamour shots with the car all protected, shined up and sporting the custom Porsche crest that I had Cesar install which is a perfect match for my white/black/silver theme (click a photo to see the gallery):

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After a 6 month delay, after sitting at port in Houston for 6 months and after getting a new factory fresh engine, I got the word that my Spyder had been released from recall jail and arrived at the dealership in Oklahoma City. The dealer, Porsche Oklahoma City, even sent me proof of life:

We finalized the paperwork, completed the trade-in of my beautiful black 911 Turbo S and the dealership got busy preparing the car for delivery. Wrapping was removed, the whole car was, accessories were installed (yes, I’m modifying the car already), and transportation to Seattle was arranged. I appreciated Ryan, the GM of the dealership, doing everything he could to move it along fast. Papers were signed and the car was on the way to Seattle a few days later.

In two short days, thanks to the great team at NW Elite Transport LLC, it arrived. I was as interested in their beast of a transport truck as I was my car. Okay, almost as interested! In typical Seattle fashion, a heavy rain greeted the arrival of my new convertible 😂

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I enjoyed a very excited but nervous drive home. It takes a while to bond with a car, to learn the ins and outs of how it, but this car was easy to fall in love with immediately. Even in the rain with the top up, this car handles like a go-kart while still being a welcoming place to spend some time. No punishing ride here even on the rutted, railroad crossing filled roads where I took delivery. I took it home to show Meg and to get back to work with my new office mate (my home office is in my garage). Sorry for the blurry photo but I was in a daze 🙂

Like any good persnickety porsche owner, I couldn’t just drive my car and enjoy it…I had to immediately take it to a shop to have clear paint protection film (PPF) installed. Our roads, especially in the winter, are terrible and we have a ton of rocks. PPF is nearly invisible and does a great job of protecting the paint from rock chips. So on the day of delivery, I drove it to Pista Film Solutions and went home carless again 🙂 I’ll pick it up on Friday and then I’m never getting out of it!

Most people would say that getting up at 3am to drive 3 hours up a mountain so you can take photos of your car at sunrise is crazy. Almost everyone would agree that doing it twice in a year is just plain stupid… but that’s exactly what I did 🙂 When a friend said he wanted to take an early morning drive, I was in. I left Seattle around 4am to meet a few guys in Puyallup by 5 so we could be at the top of Mount Rainier (Tahoma) by 6:45 to catch the sunrise. It was a great early morning drive and once again I was doing my best to keep up with Porsches in my Jeep. The Spyder needs to get here asap!!

Here we are in the wee hours of the morning, heading up a mountain road, trying not to run into any deer and dodging fallen rocks in the road. Okay, they were dodging them and I was having some Jeep fun running over them!

It was more than worth it to be able to capture these two beautiful Porsches as the sun started to come up with Rainier (Tacoma) in the background.

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After our morning on the mountain, we drove back down, grabbed some Starbucks and then stopped by the Thunderdome Car Museum in Enumclaw so I could drool over these beautiful Ford GTs. I would totally cheat on Porsche with any one of these!

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I had so much fun at my first PCA PNWR Concours event that when the biggest local concours event of the year came up, I had to be there. Rain or shine. And rain it did…a lot! That didn’t stop over 120 beautiful cars and hundreds of great folks from showing up for the event, even more than originally expected.

Just like Billy and Julie’s sign says…”it’s not just the cars, it’s the people” (they run membership for the club) so here are some people shots from the event:

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Okay, before I get to the cars…there were some really cute dogs at the show as well so I need to give them some love. Some of these pups must be professional models…they would sit and smile when they saw my camera. Others wanted to lick the camera…all were adorable!

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Okay, there were cars at the event as well. Incredible cars from every age range including an incredibly rare 1973 Carrera RS that still gets driven regularly!

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Back in 2016, I had the opportunity to bring Gabe with me on what I thought was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, a PCA tour to Maryhill Loops Road. The club decided to run the tour again and when I signed up for it, I expected to have my new Spyder here for the trip. Shep was so excited to go on this trip that we decided to join 60 other Porsches and try to keep up with them in our Jeep! It turned out to be an amazing trip and Shep only got motion sickness once as we were driving through the twisties chasing a bunch of sports cars. The cinnamon roll as big as his head more than made up for it 🙂

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After an amazing drive from Seattle to the Dalles, Shep and I had a great dinner, slept well and he spend the morning in the pool. After lunch, we went over to Maryhill Loops Road to volunteer, get some photos and have a little fun running up and down the hill. Slow in the Jeep but still fun. We even had a camera crew there to capture the action.

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It was fast runs up one by one and then slower runs down in a group. Over and over until everyone had their fill.

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So many beautiful cars doing what they do best! Oh…and one Jeep trying to keep up 😂

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Stopping by Exotics at Redmond Town Center never disappoints. I was very happy to see this beautiful white Spyder which is almost an identical spec to the one that I have on order. On any given Saturday in the summer this place is packed with stunning cars from old to new and everything in between. I had to sport my new Magnus Walker Nikes

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The Shop is like a second home for me and there were some beautiful Japanese cars on display for this Cars & Coffee event. That being said, I had to head inside to find some beautiful Porsches…it is a sickness 🙂

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I lived in Seattle for over 20 years as a car fanatic without knowing that the Avants car club existed and I joined the day I found out that it did. Avants embraces a drive everything philosophy and welcomes anyone interested in cars, trucks, SUVs and even has an Avants Offroad branch. It is a great community, publishes a first-class magazine and organizes fun events.

One of these events was a very special tour of The Brothers Collection down in Salem Oregon. If you have never heard of the Brothers Collection, you are not alone. Nobody has. It is a very low key private collection and the owners work hard to maintain their privacy so I won’t be doing anything to change that. I didn’t link to anything because there is nothing to link to. When you search The Brothers Collection, you will find links with titles like “the greatest car collection you’ve never heard of” and “the biggest muscle car collection in the world”.

On Sunday, June 27th, I had the good fortune to spend three hours walking around the collection, jaw open and completely overwhelmed by the cars…it lives up to the hype and so much more. One of the brothers was there to host us and was so gracious. They are not open to the public but they do offer limited private tours for charity. Private collectors can get a lot of grief, mostly due to jealousy inspired by the kind of wealth it takes to build a collection, but these brothers are doing so much to preserve automotive history and I’m so grateful for it. It seems like they are gearing up to open more frequently so hopefully more folks have a chance to experience this history for themselves.

Clearly I’m a huge Porsche fan…and I will get there eventually, but I need to start with Ford. The Brothers Collection is heavily weighted with America muscle cars and what better place to start than the Ford GT. Next to a 911, the Ford GT is my favorite car of all time…it might be tied with first. Not only does the collection have an actual 1966 Ford GT40 MK I (go watch Ford vs. Ferrari if you haven’t already) but they have four early 2000 Ford GTs and two of the latest generation Ford GT supercars.

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Okay, with that out of the way, I can spend some time on the Porsches they had on display. When you can walk by a 911 GT3 RS without even glancing at it…you know something very special is in front of you. There it was, the first Porsche 959 that I have ever seen in person. This car was truly revolutionary as a sports car with the most cutting edge perfomance tech for its time, all crammed into a stunningly beautiful but purpose built design. Bill Gates bought one and petitioned hard to have the Show or Display laws passed so he could own it in the US. Now it was right in front of me so close I could smell the leather and imagine myself breaking all kinds of traffic laws in it…again…just like Bill 🙂

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There were plenty of other stunning Porsches there as well, like a 918 Spyder and Carrera GT sitting together and row after row of rare aircooled models.

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Let’s get the other exotics out of the way and head on over to Ferrari land…not a place I spend much time but they did have some drop dead gorgeous cars! Throw in some sexy Lamborghinis and a Bizzarrini GT 3500 Strada as well!

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Let’s hop back to American Muscle with a stop by Shelby but we need to walk by a 2006 Saleen S7 Competition on the way (1 of 13 in the world).

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You want row after row of Corvettes…they have it. You need a 63 or 64 or 65…I could keep going…they are all in a row by year and all perfectly preserved.

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Okay, I’m going to shut up and just give you the orgy of American metal that awaits you when you have a chance to visit this collection. I did a few laps with my camera, a few laps with my phone and then I just had to put it all away and slowly walk the floor trying to absorb it all. I want to go back!

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You can tell from looking at the building that something fun lives inside…and occasionally comes out to play outside. In fear of being chased off, I didn’t try to add any character lines in my Jeep. Instead I drove home in 111 degree weather without my hard top because I thought that would be a good idea 🙂

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Here is a direct link to higher resolution images if you want to view them without all of my blabbering or to download higher resolution versions. If you use or share them, please credit me Jeff Jones @911Maniac on Instagram.

Adobe Link for full-size images – https://adobe.ly/3dqxVi1

On one of my many laps, I pulled out my iPhone to capture some video. Sorry it is vertical but it was originally done for Instagram. Not a great video but you get a sense of the scale of this collection. For a much more in-depth video, check out what this guy has on YouTube.

Here is just a small list of cars that I captured, there are about 400 in the collection:

• 2020 Ford GT Factory Lightweight
• 2005 Ford GT
• 2006 Ford GT
• 1966 Ford GT40 MK I
• 1987 Porsche 959
• 1990 Lamborghini LM002 SUV
• 1967 VW Type II 21 window samba bus
• 1982 Lamborghini Countach 5000S
• Lamborghini Diablo
• 1962 Jeep DJ-3A Surrey Gala
• 1969 Ford Torino Bobby Unser Pikes Peak Racer
• 1965 Shelby GT350R
• 1966 Ford F100 Police Interceptor
• 1970 Plymouth Duster 340 Rapid Transit Show Car
• Spyker C8 Spyder
• 2005 Porsche Carrera GT
• Porsche 918
• 1949 Ferrari 166 Inter Berlinetta 
• 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C Long Nose Alloy
• 2003 Ferrari Enzo
• 2006 Saleen S7 Competition 
• Bizzarrini GT 5300
• 2007 Porsche GT3 RS
• 1988 Porsche 911 Turbo Targa
• 1989 Porsche 930 Turbo
• 1989 Porsche Speedster
• Two Porsche 911 Slantnose Turbos
• Porsche 356 in all forms
• American Motors Javelin 
• 1933 Packard Twelve 1005 Coupe Roadster