[UncleJB]

Looks like a nice Sunday to me!

If you have never been, the Putney General Store right in downtown Putney has an AMAZING deli counter with all kinds of good stuff and they make incredible sandwiches. After that if you feel like it you can just get on Route 5 and enjoy some really nice driving and scenery.

 

[LT1M21Stingray]

Along the way back home we stopped to snap this picture of a drowning traffic cone

Or perhaps the cone was commiting suicide.

 

[TheDeckMan]

Looks like a nice Sunday to me!

If you have never been, the Putney General Store right in downtown Putney has an AMAZING deli counter with all kinds of good stuff and they make incredible sandwiches. After that if you feel like it you can just get on Route 5 and enjoy some really nice driving and scenery.

I'll have to check it out, the RT5 drive is so nice and such little traffic in the early or later part of the day.

Or perhaps the cone was committing suicide.

#conelivesdontmatter

 

[Cabin Pics]

Wonderful Sunday indeed, glad you guys had a solid day.

 

[UncleJB]

I'll have to check it out, the RT5 drive is so nice and such little traffic in the early or later part of the day.

Also up Route 5 from Putney is (or was) John's Car Corner in Westminster and he always had a bunch of old VWs out front in various states. I heard John passed away so I don't even know if the shop is still open or what happened to all of his cars and memorabilia.

Allard Bros is a gas station deli between Putney & Westminster on Route 5 and they make a mean cider donut. They also have a nice full service deli for food.

 

[TheDeckMan]

Also up Route 5 from Putney is (or was) John's Car Corner in Westminster and he always had a bunch of old VWs out front in various states. I heard John passed away so I don't even know if the shop is still open or what happened to all of his cars and memorabilia.

Allard Bros is a gas station deli between Putney & Westminster on Route 5 and they make a mean cider donut. They also have a nice full service deli for food.

I passed a place with a bunch of VW's out front, was in process of overtaking a Prius and only noticed the sign that said something like "The Peoples Car..." or something along those lines. Quick google search came up with this

Might be a great spot to stop for pictures with the Corrado

 

[UncleJB]

I passed a place with a bunch of VW's out front, was in process of overtaking a Prius and only noticed the sign that said something like "The Peoples Car..." or something along those lines. Quick google search came up with this

Might be a great spot to stop for pictures with the Corrado

Yep, that is it. John was a great guy and I stopped in to talk to him here and there over the years. Never ended up buying anything from him though.

He had a TON of old memorabilia in the front room and things hanging everywhere around the shop. He was very active on the Samba as a seller as well. I'm going to swing out in the near future on a weekday and see if the doors are still open and what is happening.

 

[TheDeckMan]

Sunday offered perfect weather to get out and meet up with the 997 GT3 owner and zip to CT for a Cars and Coffee event at the Farmington Polo Club.

It was a nice change from the normal local events that are in parking lots under the scorching sun.

Senna

My favorite next to the Gulf Ford GT

We parted ways with the girlfriend and I heading south to Westport, CT for one of her favorite spots at Bartaco, just as we were about to our destination I spotted this running and driving 928! Always nice seeing 928's being driven.

 

[TheDeckMan]

A vacation trip to Nurburgring for VLN 24hr race

A few months ago my friend Markus asked if I would be interested in heading over to Germany for a 24 hour race at the ring. At first I was not sure, but figured with 4 months go get ahead at work that it would be sufficient time to prepare. Being that this would be the first real vacation in 12 years, might as well try to cram as much in as possible. Markus grew up around the Ring so being able to travel with someone who knew the lay of the land seemed like an absolute no-brainer. All I had to do was to get to Dusseldorf on the 18th, seemed easy enough. Alas I did not have room for my SLR so all photos are courtesy of an iPhone.

Part I Getting to the Ring seems easy enough.
Normally I prefer to drive everywhere but that was not an option to get to Germany. After finishing up at work Monday I caught a 6pm flight out of Connecticut’s Bradley Airport on an Aer Lingus route. The flight there and back both had a layover in Dublin, 2 hours on the way to Germany and 5 hour layover on the way back. I figured no problem on the flight over as I would be able to sleep on the flight, this was not going to happen as being between two rows with infant children that cried and screamed the entire way to Dublin.
Beer before flight.

By the time I got to Dusseldorf it had been 28 hours awake and the cell phone international plan I setup with my carrier did not activate, so finding a Starbucks was able to make a wifi call and sort that out. Two hours later Markus’s flight landed and we headed off to spend the afternoon in Duren getting some rest and awaiting our 3rd member Joe to arrive from Frankfurt.
Bitburger for the first beer in Germany

Joe arrived late Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we walked around Duren and got some breakfast drinks. Of course I had to check out this old fort in the center of town.

Looks like an old WW2 AA gun

Drinks!

Wednesday afternoon we departed for the Ring with one of Marcus’s friends that was able to drive up with a van and pick us up. The weather could not have been better, along the way we stopped for some bratwurst…yum!!!

After checking in at our B&B we got a wonderful dinner and some beers.

The B&B has had many a famous driver stay for a time here.

Part II Pre-Race and pre-game!
Thursday and Friday were spent a good bit of time exploring as they were doing practice sessions for both the vintage and the VLN24 series. Friday we headed over to the motorsport park for a private tour of Manthey Racing courtesy of Markus’s friend Stephan who was a fantastic guide with extensive experience and history of Porsche. Sorry no pictures of behind the closed doors. Being an follower of Manthey’s 996 Turbo and 997 Turbo programs, this was a real treat!
The showing of the race cars in Adenau

Manthey Racing

The New 718 GT4 Clubsport MR

The Nurburgring Mall

View of the pits

Friday night was dinner at the base of Nurburg Castle, the schnitzel was out of this world! Due to it taking forever for us to get our food because of being absolutely slammed, the owner offered to give us a ride over to Cockpit at the Ring for the Friday Night Party. The evening was spent meeting various racers and teams along with Olaf Manthey himself! The rest of the evening went something like this in a German accent
Dinner

Beer! Beer! Beer! Shots! Shots! Shots! Schnapps! Schnapps! Schnapps! Stahp! Stahp! Stahp! Alas a wonderful morning hangover ensued.

Part III The Racing
Starting with the beginning of the race from the grand stands, we moved around all day and into the evening from one spot to another late into the night. In the morning we continued to follow the racing from many different corners with extensive hiking of over 30 miles in two days. Manthey was served their penalty for speeding/passing under a yellow of 5minutes and 32 secs, which was their exact lead on the Audi R8 team. By the time they completed their pit stop they were down roughly 1 min 45 sec with the last 30 minutes of racing to go. Alas a tire puncture ended it for them as they took 2nd place behind Audi with the Mercedes GTR in 3rd.

Lots of hiking through the forests to get to see different corners.

 

[TheDeckMan]

Monday afternoon we explored the Nurburg Castle. The castle was mostly destroyed by the French in 1674.

Motorsport Park

Part IV Bucket list experience.
Monday morning we headed out to do a tour of Rinaldi Racing again arranged by Stephan to see their 488 racing program, no pictures here folks.
With needing to catch our ride back to Duren Monday night, I really wanted to experience the Ring at speed. Cleanup was going on all day with it opening up for the public at 5:30, so a quick arrangement was made to get to do the Ring Taxi in a 991 GT3RS was arranged for 6:00.
The GT3 came in and then left down the street, the customer service person came out and told me that there was an issue with the GT3 and they took it back to the shop as the check engine light was on….they offered to refund me the fee and I can come back again, alas my heart sunk. I said I would wait the 15 minutes for the driver to come back hoping it was just something silly triggering the light.

And so the driver did come back, but not with the GT3RS, but rather a McLaren 600LT! I guess that will do! The driver was one of the weekends Cayman GT4 winning drivers, how awesome is that! And off we went! The power and grip reminds me of my hot-rodded 997tt but vastly more nimble, the brakes were incredible with nearly pulling the eyeballs out of their sockets.

Part V The return home trip should be easy right?
Returning to Duren with a couple hours sleep for the early flight out to Dublin seemed like I was on cruise control. Everything just settled in and breezed through customs. About an hour prior to our scheduled take off, a delay! No big deal I thought as having 5 hour layover in Dublin would not be an issue. The delay continued, but the staff assured us that we would make our connecting flight. Slightly anxious I didn’t worry until they continued waiting above Dublin, I had 45 minutes to make it to the connecting flight. As we landed I noticed another Aer Lingus flight flying off and thought that looked like my tail number….So I ran to the gate only to find out they left ahead of time!!!!
The next 4 hours were spent attempting to get to Boston or close to home where I could arrange to get picked up due to a tight work schedule. It was all for naught, stuck in Dublin until the following day with 26 other people who were supposed to be on that flight. At least they put us up in a hotel free of charge. Sitting waiting for my new ticket and scrolling through the bookface, low and behold an old VW friend from on here was checking into Dublin as well. Well I’ll be damned, it turned out they spent 26 hours traveling from Boston to Dublin with their two little girls and had none of their bags. Since we were in Dublin it was a great time to meet up and share our flight woes and catch up from many years over a pint of Guinness!

After some drinks they needed to get the girls some place to sleep other than an airport or a bar, so we parted ways. For the next couple hours I wandered Temple Bar, stopped had some beer, some whiskey and listened to some music as I was stuck until the following afternoon.
After that it just went smoothly! Was a whirlwind trip, glad to be home.

A nice NEIPA was refreshing taste of home!

 

[dubdaze68]

Your experiences sound awesome.

 

[LT1M21Stingray]

A vacation trip to Nurburgring for VLN 24hr race

Cool! I was at the Nurburgring/Adenau the week before. They were setting up the place for the race. :thumbup:

 

[TheDeckMan]

Your experiences sound awesome.

:beer:

Cool! I was at the Nurburgring/Adenau the week before. They were setting up the place for the race. :thumbup:

Loved following your trip! You really got me thinking of shipping the 996 over there for a couple weeks of fun.




Now back to garage fun, the long weekend gave me a chance to catch up on a little work here and there on some of the cars. The 9-3 Aero save got some attention with putting on some correct color matching doors to replace the ones that were side swiped and replacing the bondo filled hood.

Went to pull the Corrado out of the garage to get the 996 up for some service and it would not start....so ended up having to replace the starter on that which sorts that out. Replaced the ebrake cables. Clutch is still a little funky, going to have to bleed it again as I think some air is trapped in it. Lastly just have to figure out why the horns turn on with the lights, then the car can be inspected.

With the Corrado sorted it was time to start to pull the 996 apart for some service prior to getting around to focusing on renovation fun for the rest of the summer. On the list is the following:

-New Plugs
-Oil Change
-Replace rear O2 sensors
-Install new front Monoballs
-Install new DV & DV hose
-Clean Intercoolers
-Lighten up some things, perhaps get the new body parts painted and installed

Ah yes service mode

 

[n0rdicalex.]

awesome!

we are tentatively planning between the N24 and Le Mans for 2020. looked like an amazing experience.

 

[TheDeckMan]

awesome!

we are tentatively planning between the N24 and Le Mans for 2020. looked like an amazing experience.

You will have a blast with either, these events are a rite of passage for us car geeks. Le Mans and Isle of Man TT are two that seem on my list of go to events, next year will most likely be Rennsport Reunion with a cross country drive.

 

[TheDeckMan]

With the super hot weather it left only mornings to work on the house gutting, with retiring to the cool garage by lunch time. Attacking the plugs first as they were due for changing after 12k miles, I also decided to tackle the one broken coil plug from the prior shop that worked on it. Originally when I did the plugs I used the same zip tie trick to hold in place, but with having so much experience and all the spares from the 997tt that had 4 broken plugs it made sense to tackle it.

New Connector for 996/997 Turbos

Fixed coil plug, this requires some extreme contorting of the hands to de-pin the connector, patience is key. Removing the exhaust also helps gain access as it is tight.

After that was done and the new rear O2 Sensors were in, the IC's went back on and pressure testing was in order. I always pressure test at least every other oil change and to my surprise I found a leak from the right 997.2 IC, this was a bit of a kick in the nutz as these are only 6k miles old and purchased through Sonnen. Could be just a single bad one or that the manufacturer has issues with them sealing correctly at the crimp place. It appears that many have had similar issues with theirs.

To be continued.

 

[dubdaze68]

Sorry about your leak. I do have to say though, If a NEIPA is a "refreshing taste of home" over an Irish Guinness, you need professional help. Freebasing Pine-Sol is not OK. Lol.

 

[TheDeckMan]

Sorry about your leak. I do have to say though, If a NEIPA is a "refreshing taste of home" over an Irish Guinness, you need professional help. Freebasing Pine-Sol is not OK. Lol.

 

[TheDeckMan]

The local PCA chapter was doing a drive on my local roads so decided to join up with a few friends for a cruise through western mass and southern VT. With the 996tt down till the intercoolers show up some time next month, it was a perfect opportunity to stretch the legs on the 997 Turbo. Being that the suspension and power upgrades make it spot on for lots of back road driving with still maintaining ground clearance, she proved to be up to the challenge with plenty of passing power and grip.

Meeting at the old defunct Friendlys in Ludlow nice and early.

Another stock sounding 997 Turbo joined the fun!

As well as a pair of GT4's

Marks GT3 and Patricks 996 Aero

Flying Taco's

We headed out wandering through several of the larger population centers of W.Mass, then we were able to hit some twisties up but were hung up with several Sunday drivers.

Then we got to our first stop in Charlemont, MA on RT2. The Cold River Cafe is a nice spot for breakfast or lunch right in the shadow of the Berkshire East Ski Mtn.

From there we blasted up crossing back and forth over the mountains into VT and off to our final destination of Kringle Candle for lunch.

 

[Death-Incarnate]

I hope a spirited ride was taken on Rt 8 between Searburg and Readsboro. It may be short, but it is a fun little road