While car social events are low on the priority list given the difficulties the world has faced from the Covid pandemic, I missed them so much during lockdown last summer. It’s awesome to see the progress we’ve made with vaccines and organized car events are starting to return to normal. Folks are still staying more distanced, many are still in masks, but at least we are able to get together and embrace the coolest part of cars…car culture.

Here are some photos taken at recent Cars and Coffee get together at The Shop.

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I’m of the belief that cars should be fun…all cars. Life is too short to drive a boring car and you can make any car special, it doesn’t have to be expensive. Now sports cars really need to be fun, they have no other purpose than to bring joy. As stunning as the design of the Spyder is, I’m considering having a little bit of extra fun with it once it arrives and adding a race livery.

A livery is the specific paint scheme or sticker designs used on race cars in order to advertise sponsors or uniquely identify a car or racing team. There are thousands of different designs but here are a few of my all time favorites:

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As common as it may be, Martini is my favorite and I think it accentuates the curves of the car perfectly. Personally, unless it is going on an actual race car, I think the race numbers and Martini racing team logo are a bit too much. Here are some mockups of what a Martini inspired design could look like on the 718 Spyder.

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Like every tattoo I’ve considered but never put on my body, this might never make it past the design phase. Unlike a tattoo, these are just vinyl stickers that can easily be removed from the car down the road so it’s an easier risk to take and doesn’t hurt nearly as much 😁

I’ve owned old and new Porsches and there are many things to love about them. One of the biggest advantages is you get super car like performance, street livability, a fun track car and a level of quality that no other performance car company can come close to. You can take a 600 horsepower Turbo on a cross country trip and feel confident that you won’t break down along the way…not something most people would try in a Ferrari or Lamborghini.

Sometimes even the best screw up and this time I hit the unlucky lottery. Up until recently, everything about my order has been trending early. On or around March 17th, we started to hear rumors of a stop-sale order issued by Porsche. These aren’t common but there have been a few recently. One recent one was due to possible emissions and extra steps the US was taking on import…most people felt about a one to two week delay. There is another stop-sale impacted cars where a suspension bolt needs to be replaced which is also being handled quickly and isn’t an invasive fix. The rumors we were hearing for this recent one were different…possible issue with the 4.0 engine used in the Cayman/Boxster GTS, the GT4 and the Spyder. Uh-oh. Rumors spread like wildfire and you can see from this growing thread on Rennlist that without clear communication from Porsche, many of us filled the void with anxiety and angst (this thread is up to 1200 posts and 90K views as of 4/11)

On March 29th, an official recall notice came out by Porsche through the NHTSA:

• High level notice
• Letter
• Specific details and the VIN range impacted

It was confirmed and my car is impacted. Porsche had discovered an issue with the connecting rods used in a specific range of cars that can result in catastrophic engine failure and fire. This is very similar to an issue that happened to 991.1 GT3 engines that also resulted in a massive recall. In this case it is 190 cars in the US and ~800 worldwide.

On April 3rd, while my car sat at the Port of Houston, I received an email from Porsche confirming that my car was impacted and that it would take 3 to 6 months for me to receive my car. More information to come.

Simon Kuhnimhof was nice enough to take a video call with me the following Monday and I was able to express my frustration and concerns with the lack of transparency in how they were handling this. Simon was as helpful as he could be and I really appreciated his willingness to at least meet and listen. He committed to additional details in the next few weeks so I’m hoping to know more by the end of this coming week.

What I know so far. Out of the 190 US cars impacted, 19 had been delivered to customers already. These cars clearly represent the biggest risk to Porsche since the issue may result in engine self-destruction and fire…not a good look. As expected, Porsche communicated faster and with more clarity to this group offering a loaner car, $2K/month for lost time and depreciation, a trip to one of the Porsche Experience Centers and they will be swapping the engines for new factory built engines within 1 to 2 months. There was 1 additional person that had already fully paid for their car and they eventually included this person in the delivered group with this same offer. This is a crappy experience for this group but Porsche is ensuring they get made close to whole.

What is still uncertain, is how Porsche will handle the undelivered cars. In the similar situation with the GT3 fiasco, Porsche replaced all engines with factory built engines. My spidey sense is telling me that Porsche is considering a repair instead of replace strategy for the undelivered cars. Check my last post for a video of Porsche manufacturing an engine and it starts with connecting rods going in. For this 4.0 engine, any repair will require removal of the engine and a complete tear down of it, splitting it open to replace the rods before it all gets put back together. While I mostly trust Porsche to do this to the highest levels of quality possible, doing it outside of the factory, either at Port facilities or at the dealership, is less than ideal. I’m waiting to hear official word from Porsche before making any decisions but I am highly unlikely to pay for a new car that has a day-0 engine rebuild without substantial compensation to account for the time and “story” these cars will carry with them. I’m still counting on Porsche doing the right thing and replacing these engines.

Photo from the Porsche factory:

My worst nightmare (not that I expect this but still…)

My attempt at a Porsche engine rebuild with my first 911 and a patient father:

Now that I settled on and submitted my final build to my Sales Associate, Porsche needs to do their thing to build the car and ship it to me! I enjoyed watching this process unfold when I ordered my 2016 Targa and now I get to do it again with the Spyder.

The schedule:

• Jan 31st, 2021 – Build finalized with my Sales Associate
• February 26th, 2021 – Planned build start
• Late April – Estimated delivery to Porsche Oklahoma City, my dealership for this car

After Porsche finishes building a car headed to the United States, it gets moved to a port at Emden, Germany. Cars are loaded onto specialized vehicle carriers where they are shipped around the world.

In my case, Porsche beat all of their estimates. The car was built early and was ready to ship out from Emden, Germany on March 5th on the Goodwood vehicle carrier with a updated arrival estimate at the dealership for April 16th but trending early. Thanks to the internet and sites like MarineTraffic.com, obsessed buyers like myself are able to track the progress along the way.

Getting ready to leave Emden, Germany on March 5th, 2021:

Arriving at the Port of Houston, USA on March 29th (multiple stops along the way):

Here is a video of Porsche building an engine along the assembly line as an example of what happens behind the scenes. Pay special attention to how involved this process is…it will come back in my next post 🙂

I already talked about my decision to sell the Turbo and buy a 718 Spyder and provided some background on the heritage behind the Spyder, so in this post I’m going to go into more detail about the actual car that I ordered and the reasons I configured it the way I did. The Porsche online configurator is so much fun, and you can daydream about the perfect stripped down GT3 or the most decked out new Turbo. They keep improving it…my dream would be if they would add historic models with the options back in the day to play with.

The fun and games stops when you move from daydreaming to actually having to lock down the spec you want to order. Almost all Porsche’s are custom configured. Even cars that are for sale on dealer lots have been customized by the dealer. The only real exceptions are cars that are pre-configured special editions, customized by the Porsche Exclusive group. When a customer is ordering a car, they take on the fun and the stress of deciding what the perfect car is for them. It’s a long process of research, watching videos, making decisions, second guessing and then you repeat this until the day your Sales Associate tells you it must be locked so the car can be built 🙂

Some decisions were pretty easy:

• Manual Transmission – One of the main reasons I wanted to make this move was for a more engaging driving experience so the manual transmission was an easy one. Free choice…winning.
• Color – Never black, ever again. I was tempted by a bright skittles color and would have loved to do a paint-to-sample but that is complicated and expensive. None of the blues did it for me and python green or speed yellow screamed mid-life crisis more than I was willing to own. I have always loved white cars and I think the white and black two-tone look matches the Spyder beautifully. I went basic white over metallic white because to me it looks more sporty and the metallic white is too cool, I like the warmer tone of the basic white. Also free…win.
• Porsche Carbon Ceramic Brakes – An expensive option but I have them and love them on my Turbo. These are basically lifetime brakes for a non-tracked car, are much lighter for less unsparing weight and have zero brake dust. I debated painting them black but really like the PCCBs in yellow as they are intended to be so that will be the one splash of color in the build. This was not a free option…
• 2-way Sport Plus seats – Again, have them in my Turbo and love them. Easy, simple and very comfortable. I don’t see the value in paying thousands for heavier 18 way seats and I’m too big to live with the bucket seats on a daily basis. Free…so much winning.
• Satin black Porsche logo for the white/back theme and rebadged otherwise.
• ”Downgrade” from track oriented Cup2 tires to high performance summer times to get my favorite tire, the Michelin PS4S, perfect for Seattle and the type of driving I do.
• 2-Zone climate – I love the set it and forget it feature.
• Heated seats – Yes please in the Northwest.
• Carbon Fiber interior trim and lighted carbon fiber door sills. I love the look and it holds up better than the aluminum finishes.
• Light design package – Here Porsche, take an extra $350 so I don’t have to explain why this car doesn’t have light up visor mirrors like every other car in the world 
• Bose and Apple Car Play

Choices that took a bit longer:

• Leather or alcantara wheel and shifter. I have always had leather but given the other alcantara in the interior, I went that direction this time.
• Contrast stitching color. Yellow, red or silver (white really)…I was on the fence about this the longest. Yellow to match my brake calipers or silver for a better two tone look. In the end I went with silver because I found the yellow to be a bit busy and thought silver reinforced the two-tone look I wanted. A bit boring perhaps.
• Headlights. I upgraded to the Porsche Dynamic Light System (PDLS) but didn’t go all the way to full LED. I like the look of the blacked out Bi-Xenon headlights over the full LEDs and they work great. A little form over function here but it also saved money on the build.
• Color – Okay, I know I said this was easy, but every time I see a Miami Blue, a Python Green or a Yellow Porsche, I can’t help feeling like I should have gone more bold with my build.

Way more detail that anyone likely cares to know, but that’s true for this whole blog 🙂 Here’s my official Porsche build code where they maintain all of the options I picked although I don’t know how long until they recycle these numbers – Final build.

Here are some configurator photos…a far cry from the real thing but they give you an idea of how things will look when it all comes together.

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Note – If you want to download any of these photos, you can find the full resolution files here (the ones on my blog are reduced to shorten page load times) – https://adobe.ly/3r6B76f. Feel free to repost these photos to social media but please include the following credit or just tag and credit me directly if posting on Instagram – ”Jeff Jones @911maniac on Instagram“

For those that don’t already know, Drivers Skills is an all day hands on car control clinic sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Region Porsche Club. You don’t need to be a member and you don’t need to bring a Porsche. This is a great way for any driver, even the younger ones, to learn more about safely handing a car, van, truck, suv, etc. Working with experienced instructors and volunteers, participants work in small groups to learn more about their cars and themselves over the following sections:

• Slalom 
• Skidpad
• Accident avoidance (my personal favorite)
• Figure 8
• Mini-autocross

No racing and no timed competition. Just fun practice in a low risk high reward setting. By far the best $140 you can spend and that includes a hot lunch. Don’t hold me to that price…prices change but my old blog posts don’t 🙂 You can learn more at www.pnwr.org and you can register for upcoming events online at the PNWR section of the MotorsportReg site – PNWR on MSR.

My first experience with Drivers Skills was as a student in my 2016 911 GTS Targa. This time, I was there as a volunteer (cone shagger was my official title) but mostly I was there to try my hand at motion car photography. Karl Noakes I am not, but considering this was my first time trying and considering it was raining most of the day, I’m very happy with the results. I’m even happier that I got the chance to get out and meet new people, see such an eclectic mix of cars at the clinic and laugh with other volunteers as we did the old man run/jog/walk to shag cones at the slalom course. In terms of metrics, I ended the day with 2736 photos to process, 82 keepers (maybe a dozen that I really love), 15,000 steps, 1 bbq sandwich and 4 Advil, 6 if you count the two this morning. A great day by all measures.

We started the day in the dark, chatting and taking some photos as folks arrived:

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Group photo once everyone arrived (I used my Jeep as a makeshift ladder):

Volunteers make this event possible and the instruction participants get comes from years of experience. Lunch was really good as well considering we are operating under COVID safety measures and can’t do the normal lunch options. Everyone seemed happy with their BBQ sandwiches all ready to go.

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In no particular order, here are my favorite motion photos from the day (looks best on a larger display):

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Here are my second favorite motion photos and it shows the wide variety of vehicles that attend Drivers Skills…bring anything and learn more about how it performs at the limits:

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I wasn’t sure if any of these panning photos were going to come out, so I made sure to take a few standard photos throughout the day and here were my favorites:

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My favorite of the day. I just low how the motion turned out in this photo, I love the reflection of the car and the pop of color from the helmet and brake lights. More luck than skill but I’ll keep practicing!