< Previous Page
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Next Page >
Friday, July 21, 2023 - Break-in
Our first day with the beauties ... and wandering southward


Friday. The day after delivery. A bit of an unwind day, after the high-paced excitement of yesterday's delivery. Some relaxed road-trippin' in our brand new ... PORSCHEs!

The general objectives for today were, from most important to least:

  1. Start the break-in process on the cars
  2. Make some distance towards the "good roads", with the general idea of stopping for the night in the Nuremburg area.
  3. Make sure we capture our journey, refining our filming techniques in the process
  4. Meet up with 718 forum friend @PeC, with whom we had been chatting online
Nice Sofas, Nice Cars
First, though, it was time for a goodbye. A temporary goodbye, mind you, but a goodbye nevertheless. Crewmember Brian had finished his first stint with us, and was leaving to pursue a bit of solo vacationing. He'd be returning for a future leg of our trip, in about nine days' time.

Before we were fully packed up to depart, Luke drove Brian to the nearby Linden train station (part of the reason we chose our hotel was its proximity to this train station, to make things convenient for Brian). Luke then returned and the remaining three of us (crewmember Jenn was staying on for the first leg of our road trip) packed up the cars. With only three people and their luggage, packing was a relaxed and un-tricky affair.

So, objective number one: get some distance under our belts. And we were heading southward because, well, the most amazing roads in Europe are in or near the mountainous areas, like the Alps. And where were the alps? South of us. So south we were going.

Objective two was break-in. Now if you peruse automotive forums you'll find no end of debate and arguing and fighting about break-in. It varies from an extremely-baby-it kind of approach to treat-it-like-you-stole-it right from the start. Luke and I had done a ton of reading during those many long nights of no-allocation news, and we'd long ago arrived at a decision. We would follow the advice of Porsche's Andy Preuninger - head of the GT cars division. His advice was:

I can only tell you how I personally do it, or how we do it at Weissach - for the first 500 kilometres or 300 miles, we don't drive that car ever over 5000 rpm, never. From then on, every 200 kilometres, we up the rpms by 500, so we end up at 1300, 1400 kilometres at the threshold before we can really go full throttle, at 800 or 900 miles. He then went on that this procedure was really important for the GT3 RS engines given their more 'delicate' rings - and how important this break in really is for any of their engines.

Coming from someone who knew high performance Porsche engines, this was for us as authoritative as it was going to get, and also it generally made sense to us. Now, whether or cars had "GT" engines in them or not, that's debatable: our GTSes' engines were identical to the 718 GT4 and Spyder engines, which technically were considered GT cars. But then some nitpickers might argue that the 4.0 litre in the GT4 and Spyder is not really a GT engine, even though it is installed in GT cars. You could go 'round and 'round with this kind of hair-splitting forever. Bottom line: we were going to follow the Andy Preuninger method.

So. For the first 500 kilometres, no revving above 5000 rpm. That still gave us plenty to play with.

As we were setting up to leave, I realized something about my Cayman (and presumably Luke's). It was that the in-car navigation system was not loaded with maps of Europe - which meant it was entirely non-functional for us during our time over here. That was rather disappointing - especially since I knew it was possible. In 2018 in my M2, BMW had loaded Euro Maps into the nav system for my time during Euro Delivery, and then loaded North American maps into the system upon delivery in Canada. It felt a bit cheap for Porsche not to do the same. Instead, I was going to have to use my phone, which fortunately happened to fit fairly well (although it looked awkward and ugly) into one of the open swing-out cupholders.

We pulled out of the parking lot at the Hotel at around 11 a.m. The day was starting to move on, and we needed to as well. Earlier in the morning, we had spent some setup time with our HAM radio gear, clipping and taping the antennae and power cables, and mounting the units in convenient, semi-permanent locations. "VA3LVG, this is VA3LSW". "VA3LSW, VA3VLG". Comms established. Let The GTS Chronicles delivery road-trip begin!

I charted a course that included various town and country roads, rather than only using the more efficient and much higher speed autobahn. I wasn't doing this just for sight-seeing (although it was that, as well): the other thing about break-in, as far as we were concerned, was to not keep the engine running at a constant rpm for extended periods of time. These country road routes were perfect for that, as well as being pleasant - toodling along in our shiny new sportscars, observing the little towns and the fields between them, speeding up, slowing down, shifting gears. Tidy roads, signages, quaint buildings, neatly-trimmed verges, all were in evidence, as expected. I really love randomly driving around the German countryside. The Cayman felt great: taut, responsive, and remarkably supple over the bumps. Not in any way soft, but definitely not harsh. Already I could tell that its ride quality was better than that of my old M2. This was no doubt at least partially due to the PASM suspension system having a 'comfort' and a 'sport' mode. My M2 had had a non-adjustable suspension.
Quaint town square
We came upon a particularly quaint town center early in the afternoon. The place, called Bad Klosterlausnitz, was about 50 kilometres southwest of Leipzig. We noticed a tempting-looking bakery and cafe just off the central town square, and stopped for a late lunch break. The Boxster and the Cayman were left in an attractive little central parking spot, visible through the window as we sipped our coffees and at munched on our sweets.
Luke's Thoughts
[on the first few hours in the Boxster...]
I must say, the lane change warning system in this car is very impressive, as it recognizes not only the existence of, but also the speed and distance of cars coming up behind you, warning you a long way in advance if it sees something moving fast in the distance - very clever.

At the 150 km mark of mileage on my new car, crack! Something hits the windshield and I think "Oh nooooooo!" I think I've got a stone chip in my windshield on the passenger side, kicked up from Andrew's car in front. Are you kidding me??? Checking it out when we stop, I confirm it. Yep. Stone chip. Passenger side. A 'bruise' as they say. Frig. No longer unblemished. Glad it's not on the driver's side.


We continued our journey south. As we were driving along a stretch of forested road (pristinely-paved, of course), Luke's voice crackled over the radio: "I've got an error message".

Hmmm.. concerning. We pulled over at the entrance to a gravel side road to consult. The message was "Inspection now". Luke explained that it had been doing this right from the start, but that he thought it was going to go away. But it hadn't. In his brand-new Boxster, this was concerning to Luke. And I of course could understand that.

I guess it was time to leverage some of the information we had gathered at yesterday's delivery ceremony. Namely, the roadside-assistance part. We got out our trip papers and located the sheet with the phone numbers for roadside assistance. Having both obtained european-wide sim cards, we were able to make calls. Luke called the number for roadside assistance and was soon talking to an agent. The agent suggested that we bring the car to the nearest Porsche dealer, where they would have a look at it.
Unexpected Message
Roadside Assistance
So. A little bump in our journey, but one that we could manage in stride. But we did need to now find a Porsche dealership. We figured we might as well keep making distance to the south, and we picked one of the dealerships in the Nuremburg area, which was now about 200 kilometres or so away.

We weren't making good enough distance southward, so we elected to relax our no-autobahn rule and we got on the A-4. I immediately made a mistake by missing the exit to the southbound A-9 to Nuremburg, so we wasted a bit of time going west before backtracking. Once properly on-track, we made sure to vary our speed, even though we were on high-speed autobahn, mostly sticking to speeds in the 100 to 130 km/hr range (where the manual 718 transmission has the engine roughly in the 2500 to 3500 rpm range in 6th gear), and occasionally switching to 5th and 4th to spend a bit of time in the 4000-5000 rpm range.

While driving south, Jenn took on the task for looking for accommodations for the night. She managed to find something reasonable, in a tiny little community near Erlangen, a city near Nuremburg and also the home of Peter (@Pec) - the 718 forum member we were hoping to meet in the evening.

We pulled into the parking lot of of Porsche Zentrum Nuremburg-Erlangen shortly before 5pm. Being generally wary of Porsche dealerships now, Luke and I did not have high expectations. Surprisingly, we were seen quickly and after we explained our situation, the sales floor employee quickly went away and investigated for us, soon returning and telling us to make ourselves comfortable, and that a technician would be with us shortly. I don't recall that we even gave them our names. I messaged with @PeC from the forums, with whom I'd been in contact with, and explained our situation. He said he would come down and join us at the dealership - it was a logical place to meet up.
Porsche Zentrum Nuremberg-Erlangen
Again we wondered if this was going to be a long, boring wait. And again, no. A technician appeared in the showroom area within a few minutes, and asked us to show him to Luke's car. Soon he was under the dashboard, plugging a device (presumably a PIWIS diagnostic device) into the Boxster's OBD-II port.
Luke's Thoughts
[on the gremlin fix...]
A super-nice mechanic named Tobias checks it out and confirms it was, as I had hoped, just a maintenance indicator. Phew. Phew, phew, phew. I was so nauseous leading up to it. Took a while to recover. Like seriously. All this did take away from my enjoyment of the drive up to that point - amazing how unsettled one can become. It is quite something really, the power of the mind to physiologically affect you - both positively and negatively. I must try to remember that.

(to read more of Luke's thoughts from this day, check out his blog post)


The technician soon unfolded himself from the Boxster. All good now, he reported. Apparently some sort of initial post-factory configuration or inspection had not been done on Luke's Boxster, and it was only a matter of clearing that indication. It was now gone and Luke would be message-free going forward. We thanked the technician profusely and asked where we could go pay the service bill. He said it was no problem, there was no charge, and we were free to go.

Now ... that. That was a great dealership experience. Bravo.

An Evening with Peter

A few minutes later, Peter (@Pec) roared up in his Python Green Boxster. He had exactly the same model as Luke - a manual Boxster GTS 4.0. After exchanging some pleasantries, we decided to go out for dinner. Peter recommended a pub that served a specialty of the area. We followed him to the downtown quarter of Erlangen where we parked the GTSes in an underground parking garage. He led us up and out and down walking promenades to a large stone-sided pub: the Kitzmann Bräuschänke (https://braeuschaenke.de).
Heading for Schaufele
We were sat in a large table in the corner of the noisy pub. The local specialty he recommended is called schäufele. Schäufele is pork shoulder, prepared complete with bone and rind. It is roasted in such a way that when finished, it is crispy and golden brown. It is served with various side dishes, including dumplings and sauerkraut. It is a specialty of the region of Franconia and yes, we needed to try it out. Along with some proper beer.

Over a dinner of Schäufele and beer, we chatted with Peter. It was neat to meet a fellow forum member that we had conversed with online for these last few years. We had hoped that perhaps he could travel with us into the good roads of the mountains for a few days, but unfortunately it turned out that he was unable to get away. But even this meeting was great. And thank you, Peter, for the wonderful meal!
Schaufele with PeC
After dinner, as a final friendly gesture, Peter accompanied us to the small apartment in the guesthouse (the Gasthaus Langhammer) with which we had booked. It was located in the little hamlet of Bubenreuth, a short way north of Erlangen, and Peter knew exactly how to get there. We followed his bright green Boxster, and soon we arrived at the sleepy little town center where the guesthouse was located. It was a modest multi-unit building that happened to have a perfect little isolated mini-courtyard, where we were told we could park our cars without any others around us. Perfecto.

Across the street, there was a larger parking lot, and we placed our three Porsches side-by-side-by-side for a little Carmine-Python-Carmine picture taking, and for a final bit of car-guy chatting. We then waved goodbye, and Peter was off. Thank you so much for spending the evening with us, @PeC!
Mini meetup
The Christmas lineup
Primo parking
And that was it for Friday, July 22. We were pretty bushed, and as dusk fell, we backed our cars into our private little parking nook and headed upstairs to bed. Tomorrow we would continue our journey south to the mountains.
Interactive trackmap with photo points - July 21 - click map to view
Interactive trackmap with photo points - July 21 - click to view
July 21 - Drive Data
Start Time: 11:09a.m.
End Time: 9:39p.m.
Duration: 10h29m
Distance: 360.42 km (223.95 mi)
Average Speed: 34.4 km/hr (21.4 mph)
Start Elevation: 485ft (148m) *
Max Elevation: 2127ft (648m) *
Min Elevation: 299ft (91m) *
End Elevation: 808ft (246m) *
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain: 5116ft (1559m) *
Total Elevation Loss: 4693ft (1430m) *
 
 
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
< Previous Page
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Next Page >
Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board)
send feedback | homemade custom message board
(Message Board failed to initialize. )
Web Page & Design Copyright 2001- 2025 by Andrew Lavigne. (Privacy Policy)