As I mentioned on Tuesday, my husband was kind enough to take a video of the actual unveiling of the 991 911 at the Launch Party.

The 911 in the video is a base model Carrera, while the black 991 in my photos is a Carrera S. (And was in the shop part of the dealership, away from the action.)

So this is another short post…. I apologize. This weekend is Spokane’s Auto Show, so there should be a post or two on that. Winter here is pretty boring!

I’m also debating on the best way to look for a new job. I had an interview yesterday for part time work that would be an okay job, but not my ideal job. (Work all Saturdays, all day…. Meh.) Not sure if I want to take it if it’s offered. The S2000 needs tires and some other things and there’s saving for my own Porsche…. But taking a job for a few months doesn’t seem nice either. Not sure what to do honestly!

Every once in a while I get to feel like I get to go and do cool things…. This is definitely one of those cool things. We found out about it just early enough to RSVP and get to attend! Was a lucky day I suppose.

Meeting the 991

I was pretty excited — Ever since I knew about the new 911 I couldn’t wait to meet her and see her in person. I also managed to latch onto the new reference, the 991, pretty early on…. Thankfully my 911 knowledge came in handy and it was easily remembered.

For one, I was excited to see the line up of 911s that they had — one from 1970 up to a recent 997 model. Pretty nice. I was a little sad that there wasn’t a 3.2 Carrera there like what I’m looking for though.

Instead, just to torture me, there was a 997 GT3 Cup Car! And, funny enough, it was actually a car that had participated in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona! Like wow. I was pretty much in love. (It was funny, since I was more interested in her than the 991 that I was there to see! Ooops.)

As always, the Porsche dealership did not disappoint. I’m glad we were there a bit early, because I got some photos taken before people started to show up and I spent most of the time chatting with people than worrying about photos. Bad of the photographer in me, but good for the budding socialite.

On Thursday I’ll be treating you to a short clip of the actual reveal of the 991 911, so stay tuned for that!

For now, I’ll share some photos.

Photos!

She was kept under cover until the big reveal.

All of the previous 911 generations lined up.

I had to capture the nice reflection of this yellow 993 in the window.

My love....!!!

I was excited to find out that she did, in fact, race at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona this year! Amazing.

The pretty race car from the front.

I'm definitely keeping this bottle.... My husband also got a very nice looking 911 poster, signed by a Le Mans winning driver who was there!, that we now have to get framed.

By the time I got to see the 991 911, I wasn't really in a position to wield my dSLR.... So instead, I got this pretty nice iPhone snaps. Here she is!!

So I think I got it to work from my phone…. If it looks weird or isn’t working, I apologize. I’m certainly not the greatest with video at all.

However, I did want to at least try to share this clip. It’s a whopping ten seconds, but it’s quite heavenly. Of course, she sounded so much better in person still.

And hey, doesn’t the iPhone 4S take great video?? I definitely need to mess with it more… (I just *hate* video editing!!)

Last Saturday I was able to finally venture back out to the Porsche dealership to hang out with the Porsche Club again. It had been way, way, way too long since I saw everybody and I was excited, despite the less than stellar weather.

At least everything was inside, and there was a pretty nice breakfast buffet spread there for everyone. Yum! (What do I love almost as much as cars? Food, of course.)

Other than saying hi to many of my friends, my only goal for my time there was to finally get my D3000 out of hibernation. It’s sat, pretty neglected, for quite some time. It kinda got use at the end of September for the track day visit we did and a little bit in October for our Seattle trip, but otherwise pretty neglected.

So, without rambling on too much, I’ll get to the photos….

Porsches!

This is the second time I've gotten to see this beautiful Carrera GTS.

What's not to love??

Always a head turner, this is my third encounter with this Carrera GT. And she amazes me every time.

With all the carbon fiber on the outside of the Carrera GT, it's no surprise how much carbon fiber is in her engine bay, is it?

Sadly, YouTube doesn't seem to have a way for me to upload video directly from my iPhone, or I have to see about doing that... They were nice enough to start her up for us. Now, I've heard Carrera GT's in videos before, but in person?!? It was amazing. I had goosebumps and felt all weird! Great sound!!

The photos I took of this Turbo are easily my favorite from the day. The one I snapped on my phone is actually my new screen saver/background. I just LOVE 911 Turbos.

While there were two 911's driven to the dealership that day, this was not one of them. She's actually for sale. (Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to take her home with me?!?!)

These are the parts from a partially broken down Porsche flat 6.

The rest of the broken down engine -- This one suffered from IMS failure..... Toast. Sad.

This 997 Carrera 4S was one of two cars on the lifts during the tech session. The other was a Boxster.

Are you ready to hear about the second day of the CanAm drive? I hope so, because it’s pretty cool.

Day two was entirely spent driving around British Columbia and mostly sightseeing. But for me, it was all about one thing…

My ride in a 996 Turbo.

Yup…

A 996 Turbo. A real 911 Turbo. One of the cars I would name as in my top five dream cars. I have loved them for longer than I’ve owned my own turbo car.

I’ve heard a lot about them and the way they drive. I know how it should have been. But it was completely different actually being in the passenger seat of that car.

This is the amazing 996 911 Turbo that I got to ride in. ^_^

She belonged to an awesome guy who lives up in Nelson and recently retired after 29 years in the police force there. He led the group on an awesome little road to New Denver, and I got to be the passenger in the Turbo leading the way. (Huge thanks to his wife who graciously gave up her seat for me! It was a life-changing ride!)

And really, it was life-changing. I had my desire to own a 911 Turbo before. Afterwards, I knew I had to make sure that at some point in my life I own one of these beautiful and amazing cars.

I don’t care if I could get better performance with a GTR or something. I want a 911 Turbo. I want to know what it’s like to drive that much power — and not useless power, completely controlled power. It was an amazing ride and I will find a way to have one. Mark my words: Some day, I will own a 911 Turbo.

Of course, the ride came with some warning, which was mostly to not get one for my first 911. Get a regular 911, learn how to drive the car properly, and when I’m ready for the toy that is the 911 Turbo then get one. But not before — I must learn to drive a 911 properly first.

Which is okay with me, honestly. I’m looking forward to getting that first 911 and learning how to drive one fast and smooth. And then that wonderful day where I can call a 911 Turbo “mine.”

The Rest of the Day…

To be honest, the rest of the day just couldn’t compare to that ride. It was fun, relaxing and dinner was great. But I kept remembering that ride in the Turbo.

It’s not really describable with words. It’s a feeling you get. The way that car hits boost is similar to other boosted cars but at the same time it’s not. It’s more. It’s wicked, wicked fast.

I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten to ride in the car, let alone on a beautifully twisty road by a driver who knows the road like the back of his hand.

You couldn’t wipe the grin off my face, that’s for sure. And no photo could capture that feeling it gave me. (Thankfully, it’s a feeling that was so strong that I kept it with me. There’s now a fire inside me — it reminds me to work hard and I will have my Turbo too.)

Oh, there were a few photos though too.

This is one of the Canadian Porsches that joined us; leaving Ainsworth on the second day.

Another photo of the same 911 -- I really liked the paint scheme. I also laughed when he told me he had an S2000 before and called it his "gateway drug" to sports cars. Too perfect, because they are!!

I have this weird thing for foreign signs, but I don't indulge nearly as often as I should with photographs. This sign I couldn't resist snapping a photo of.

Another somewhat successful driving snap. I like how I managed to catch the sign in it -- km/h instead of the miles/hour I'm used to.

Needless to say, the entire trip was well worth it for those 30 minutes of pure bliss. If I didn’t think I wanted one before, I now know I need to have my own 911 Turbo. That’s the only way I can put the experience into words.

That and, well, I think I need to find a way to pay for one of those super car experiences. Long before I can have one, I want to try driving one… Just to have that feeling again. To remind me what I’m working towards.

Yeah, I feel like my (working) life finally has a purpose, and that is a 911 Turbo.

The last weekend in June promised to be an exciting one the moment I decided to join the Porsche Club on a drive up to Canada. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how exciting it could be…

I’ll have two posts for this drive — This one covering the first day and the third day, and the second one covering the really fun second day.

Day One

Day one wasn’t all that exciting, but it wasn’t bad either. There was a nice winding drive north, picking up some Porsches in Idaho, crossing the border (Yay for a break from the US!) and stopping in Ainsworth, BC for the night.

I got to alternate rides between my friends’ Boxster and 996 Carrera 4S. I had already ridden in a Boxster from the weekend at SOVREN, but I was excited to finally ride in a 911.

Was it everything I hoped for? Maybe, I’m not sure what I was expecting. The C4S is sporty but not super firm, it reminded me a lot of our STi. The sport seats in this particular one were very nice — I would love to have them in my own 911 some day.

Of course, one of these days I’ll get around to driving one… That will be my telltale sign. But I can assure you that I will be buying a 911 someday!

I took it upon myself to play photographer the whole weekend — that was the other nice part about just riding along. (The other part was planning on what I want my own Porsche to feel like!)

And while it’s difficult to take photos while the cars are all moving, I did manage a few shots I was happy with.

Some of the Porsches on the trip. Took this photo at one of the quick stops we had.

I snapped this one at a fuel stop. I liked the juxtaposition of the 356 in the background with the 997 911 in the foreground.

This is one of the photos I took that turned out nicely while we were driving. This was in British Columbia on our way to the ferry that we took across a lake.

Nature isn't my thing, but the mountains were pretty cool... Good photo background.

Day Two

Gotta wait for this one!

Day Three

On day three, it was time to pack it up and head home. I don’t have any photos from this day, but it was still pretty interesting.

I got to spend some time riding in a brand new Panamera 4S. I have to say, I was quite impressed with the car too! I didn’t like them when they first came out but I’ve come to appreciate what they are. It was a silky smooth ride and she definitely had the power when she needed it! The handling was great too from what I could tell, which wasn’t much from the lack of feel.

It was a lot of fun riding in the Panamera though, definitely a treat!

After a few quick stops and lunch, everyone parted ways. It was pretty sad — While we didn’t all know each other at the beginning of the trip, it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone and sad it was all over! I’m looking forward to seeing as many of the people again as I can.

And, of course, I can’t wait to be a real member of the Porsche Club!

My second autocross wasn’t exactly the best day out for me, I had a hard time trying to be fast and just didn’t make it happen.

June, however, was great to me! I somehow became competitive and was running times up there with people, not at the back of the pack the entire time… I was even excited to be beating people. (I was faster than a stock Mini Cooper! Don’t judge, those things can be wicked autocrossing…)

My Results

Once again, going without my support system (the husband) isn’t fun, but it’s also extra motivation to do really well and make him proud of me.

At the end of the day, I even made myself proud — I came home with a 3rd Place trophy!!

My awesome little 3rd Place Trophy!

And I wasn’t 3/3 either, I was 3/4! That means there was actually somebody who was slower than me. Really, that hardly ever happens…

Definitely a proud and surreal day for me. July’s autocross is coming up quick, and I’m wondering if I can’t pull it off again.

The Videos

Once again, I’m either waiting in line for my turn at the course or chasing cones, so I don’t really have time to play photographer if I want to play racer too.

It’s quite alright with my GoPro, though! I might put it on photo mode one of these days and see how that goes, but for now I’m enjoying the video I end up with.

I had nine runs on this particular day, and managed to only screw up the recording of one… So there are eight videos to share.

If you want to see my fastest run of the day, that’s the fourth video down. (My fifth run, I botched the video on the third run.)

As luck would have it, I ended up with the weekend right after my birthday off. I knew on Sunday I would be autocrossing and Saturday morning would be spent in the company of Porsches, but what would I do the rest of the day Saturday?

Turns out that it was the Car d’Lane pre-1972 car show in Coeur d’Alene, and I figured it’d be perfect to add some more old American steel to the blog. (After all, I do love my old cars!!)

It was a tiny show, either, it was huge! Despite the clouds and the rain and the chilly wind, there was a ton to see and do and I didn’t manage to get to it all. (I skipped the swap meet, sadly.)

I knew right away that I couldn’t get photos of everything, and decided to just take pictures of the cars I was really attracted to. Which was enough of a challenge in itself — my 50mm prime lens, close quarters and a ton of people everywhere.

So I apologize in advance for some of these shots, they aren’t the best but I wanted to share some of my favorite cars!

Photos

First to get my attention was this beautiful Boss 302 Mustang. Born and bred race car, and race she did in just about everything! From drag racing to SCCA racing, she did it all.

Almost ironically, this tiny little Civic was parked next to the Boss 302 Mustang. What a little cutie! And look at those itty bitty wheels and tires!! I believe she was the only Japanese car in the entire show, not surprising though really.

Next up was this beautiful 1968 Shelby GT500 KR Mustang.

Then there was this gorgeous E-Type Jaguar, hiding this engine under her bonnet.

I loved the old school driving gloves on the center console in the E-Type Jaguar. It was the perfect touch with the gorgeous wood steering wheel. (I actually have a similar pair of driving gloves myself!)

I'm not a huge fan of Rat Rods normally, but I totally loved this one!

Everything about this car just worked, and I loved the pin-striping on the flat black paint.

A red Mustang Mach 1 with an interesting choice of license plate.

This beautiful 1969 Camaro SS was bought and is still owned by the same guy. I can't imagine keeping a car for that long, but I bet he's glad he did!

Another Camaro SS, though from a different set of years and in a nice creme color.

A Factory Five built Shelby Cobra. What got my attention was the shade of blue used -- Very different from most Cobras I've seen!

Another Mustang Mach 1. With all the special edition Mustangs there, the regular ones didn't stand a chance of appealing to me that day.

I really liked the dark teal color on this Challenger.

Last, but not least, there was this nice V8 that was stuffed into one of the auction cars...

The V8 belonged to this Factory Five built Shelby Daytona Coupe! Definitely a beautiful car in person, and one of my all-time favorites. I really want my own someday... (Yeah, that was the husband's idea, but he's got me on board completely now!!)

Yup, time for more Porsche photos!

It ended up being a cloudy, rainy and somewhat cold day, so there weren’t that many of the driven Porsches out.

Doesn’t mean I found nobody to take pictures of, though. It’s just that this time I only have two Porsches to share!

Photos

First to be noticed by me was this GT3, sitting outside the dealership.

The piece of paper on her window states that she's sold without warranty. I'd still take her!

But hiding inside the showroom was this pretty girl...

A RUF Turbo R! What are the chances that I see her almost exactly two weeks after a RUF R Turbo??

Curse black cars for being so shiny, the lights really messed with me... The pictures don't do her justice, she was amazing in person!

Yup, only five photos to share this time! Hopefully the quality makes up for the lack of quantity, or at the very least they’re interesting to see. Maybe next month will be better! (Though the RUF was a highlight, that’s for sure!)

The second day of the weekend I didn’t focus on taking as many photos. Instead I decided to spend some time sitting and actually watching the racing. I can’t always live through my camera’s lens!

Besides, I didn’t feel like trying to find a vantage point where my 200mm lens would have been of any use. Some days I really want a huge lens… Ha.

I did manage another ride along, though, this time in a 356! Now that was different!

Favorite Photos

I love, love, love classic Carreras.... ^_^

Was pleasantly surprised to see this 1974 Ferrari Dino out.

Such a beautiful, beautiful car.

Definitely not something I was expecting to see -- A 1966 Fiat 500. Looks like a toy-sized car these days!

Loved this Datsun 510 that was there in attendance.

This was my first in-person Lola, which was cool to me since I watch them on tv quite often... (Yes, I know Lola just makes the chassis lol.)

And then there was this girl....

This RUF R Turbo was simply stunning to see in person.

One word: Yum!!!

Definitely an absolutely gorgeous car and a dream for me to see! Though it was sad hearing someone call her an "R-U-F," heh. She's a RUF...