Driving Season Coming to a Close Here

[dr bob]

I took an opportunity for a last tour along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway today. This road parallels the main north-south route of state highway 97 on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. The north end is in Bend, Oregon, while the south end is at the Willamette Highway 58, a bit north of Crater Lake National Park. Our overnight temps at the house dipped to 20ºF overnight, so we are nipping at the heels of winter at this point. The highway is closed from our Mt. Bachelor ski area south after the first good snow, and typically stays closed until April or May. There was a little snow overnight, so I figured I'd be low on chances to drive that route pretty soon.

The 928 is certainly adept in snow, at least when fitted with winter tires. Mine has led a charmed life, and while it has seen snow on the sides of the roads during its life, it's never actually been driven in snow. Today, there were some wet and icy patches, about the most I'm willing to risk in cold temps with extreme-performance summer tires. Everything about driving the car is amazingly effortless, even cruising at super-legal speeds through the mountains today, slowing only for those icy patches. No other traffic to speak of, not even a tiny chirp from the radar detector along the way down. It's grand touring in the truest sense of the words.

Now it's set to get cleaned, and get a bit of more major service over the winter. The timing belt is a bit overdue based on age, way less than half-life based on miles. The front-of-engine wiring harness is showing some telltale signs of age, so it will likely get removed and rebuilt with new conductors and sleeves while it's out for the belt. There are a few more age-related service and replacement tasks due at the same time, and they will all be done while the roads are less than 928-friendly.

Interior is due for full re-moisturizing of all the leather, and that might turn into the biggest project for the winter. There are a lot of pieces to take care of!

The car celebrates 24 years in my stewardship in a few days. It's a December 1988 build, only sold 8 months later at a time when gas shortages and related US 'gas guzzler' taxes were in full force. The original owner piled a whopping 18k miles on it in about 9 years. I've enjoyed it a lot more, about doubling his miles-per-year average for my years when it was my SoCal daily driver from the OC beach to Pasadena, my second/weekend-duty car, and lately the occasional tourer. Today's drive started into its third tankful of fuel for the year, if that helps the perspective. Like many older cars, it makes absolutely no economic sense to keep it. But... It's an absolutely fabulous example of automotive engineering as a period art form, a style statement that was decades ahead of its time, and it regularly generates attention and positive comments from strangers and friends alike. I guess that makes up for the aging supermodel cokehead habit it would otherwise demand.

There will be a few more weeks of local driving time this year. As soon as the county decides to start applying deicer slurry to the roads, this one will get tucked in for the upkeep stuff, then go up on tall stands in its heated garage bay for some hibernation time. Until spring and some spring rain flushes the pavement and the mountains call us out for another tour.

[Pefa]

Nice post!

A few years back my late father and I owned a 89 GT together.
We used it in the winter aswell and it was remarkably capable as a winter car with wintertires and the LSD manual transaxle!
And here in Sweden we get true winters!

We also had a factory hitch on it hauling my 964 RS to an from trackdays. When at the track and if the weather was too bad I unhitched the 928 and used that instead

[dr bob]

Pefa, thanks for sharing!

This one has LSD but lacks the manual gearbox from the GT. It's also a few horsepower shy of GT levels. Performance is still certainly sufficient for US driving. There's a sweet spot around 120MPH when all the performance stars seem to align, and the car hunkers down a little and goes to work moving a lot of asphalt under the wheels in a hurry, without any strain at all. There have been a few times I would have liked to have a manual, but since the vast majority of its life was spent in southern California traffic, the automatic box has worked out better at least for me. The '89 US S4 was the first year for 2.54:1 final drive, after slogging with 'gas saving' 2.20:1 in earlier versions. I nabbed a 2.20:1 auto box, and have it spare with the idea that the longer legs would be better for extended touring. But with the altitude here (~~4000ft above sea level) and the great mountain touring available, it's still sitting on a cradle on a shelf in the work bay.

I lived in the Los Angeles area when I bought the car, an area where "winter" is the week between Christmas and New Years when I didn't need to use the AC. I also owned a home in Mammoth Lakes, home of a nice mountain ski area and of course some great summer recreation opportunities. By early June, the roads were usually reliably dry enough to make the 350 or so mile run up to that home in the 928. I'd try and leave well pre-dawn to get major miles done before the roads were patrolled. I'd roll at 4AM, and be in line with skis on when the lifts opened at 8. There were a few times when the snow wasn't that great, and I'd get off the mountain around 3PM and drive back the same day. The miles are pretty effortless.

The factory trailer hitch option is a prized accessory in the US these days. The car has a pretty surprising tow rating, plenty of brakes, etc. A few folks have worked on retrofit hitches for the cars but none seem quite as elegant as the factory piece.