First impressions of my new turbo
03-26-2007, 02:12 PM
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First impressions of my new turbo
I wanted to give my impressions of my first 100 miles in my Atlas Grey, cocoa 6 speed turbo.
I haven’t owned a turbo before or any comparable supercar, although I did ride a Kawasaki 900 when I was in my early 20’s (I’m in my 40’s now and my wife draws the line on motorcycles).
So I arrive at the dealer in the SF Bay Area last Saturday, and give the car the once over.
First impression: I f’ing love Atlas Grey. It’s really indescribable, and photos can’t do it justice.
The cocoa is also a great interior color (which I chose at the last moment over Stone Grey thanks to Rami’s photos). However, I notice there’s a white spot about the size of a bb on the front passenger seat. On closer inspection I see that the leather, for whatever reason, had not been dyed the cocoa brown. It’s just white. The sales rep says I should just apply some brown shoe polish. Right. I instruct him to repair the defect, and he agrees to order another seat.
Before I go, the sale reps takes me to the back lot and shows me an ’07, cobalt blue turbo that had been rear-ended a couple days before by a woman in a Volvo SUV who was on a cell phone and later said she didn’t see the turbo waiting at the red light. The damage was on the passenger side rear, and next to the car was all the torn off sheet metal and liners and rocker panels and other detritus. The wheel was twisted badly in its well, etc., and it looked awful.
So back to my car. I confirm that I need to keep the rpms below 4200 hundred during the break end period, and then I’m on my way. I’m riding on a surface street, and I notice the clutch is feather light, and once I adjust to it, the car is incredibly well-behaved. I see a Starbucks so I pull to the curb for my own boost.
While I’m in the store, and keeping a close watch on the car, I notice a family of five walking toward the car on the sidewalk. The kids pass by the car without a look, but the man and woman stop for at least 30 seconds to admire the car. The guy sizes up the outside and the woman, not surprisingly, is looking through the window at the interior.
When Porsche announced the turbo, I was a little disappointed by the design, for all the reasons that have been debated on the forum. Moreover, since I’ve read and seen everything about the turbo prior to my own arriving, I guess I became a little de-sensitized to the power of the design. For the civilian seeing it through new eyes, it must truly look super.
So I get to the freeway heading on 17 over the mountain to Santa Cruz, and I’m making tentative strides to explore the car’s performance. First observation: the roads get short real fast and there are too many people on California freeways.
I’m having some trouble going from 4th to 5th; I’m inadvertently dropping back down to 3rd and I’m cursing the mistake. I’m also trying to keep from exceeding 4200 rpm, but on several occasions I see I’m up to 5K. Every corner I turn I expect to see a CHP on a motorcycle.
I definitely notice a little lag, but the car gets up to speed very quickly, and then I’m reining it in to avoid over-revving during break-in.
I finally get to the coast highway 1 and head north. Almost immediately two Japanese bikes pass me and settle in front of the car. Traffic is relatively heavy, so for the next 10 minutes I’m following the bikes and the bikes, the cars. Periodically the highway divides to allow faster traffic to pass.
When the road divides, I punch it and take the right branch since I see that none of the cars ahead have moved out of the left lane. This is where the turbo shines; it absolutely explodes and in a matter of a couple of seconds, I’m past the motorcycles and 7 cars, including an RV. I’ve surprised the bikes and they’re on the chase, but I sail past the RV (safely) just as the road returns to a single lane, and the bikes are stuck behind the RV. I know it sounds a little juvenile, but it was a blast.
I then took Pescadero highway from highway 1 across the mountain back to the valley, and got to do a lot of curves and switchbacks, just delighted by how effortlessly the car absorb these.
So after a hundred miles, I got home and had pretty much exhausted all the pent-up demand that built up since I placed my order last November, and after recounting my exploits to my wife, promised I would behave myself in the future.
(I do have a nagging worry that I had exceeded the break-in rev mark a couple of times, and that I hadn’t let the car idle a couple of minutes before shutting it down when I arrived home. Anybody think there’s reason for concern?)
Otherwise, so far, so good.
Sammy
I haven’t owned a turbo before or any comparable supercar, although I did ride a Kawasaki 900 when I was in my early 20’s (I’m in my 40’s now and my wife draws the line on motorcycles).
So I arrive at the dealer in the SF Bay Area last Saturday, and give the car the once over.
First impression: I f’ing love Atlas Grey. It’s really indescribable, and photos can’t do it justice.
The cocoa is also a great interior color (which I chose at the last moment over Stone Grey thanks to Rami’s photos). However, I notice there’s a white spot about the size of a bb on the front passenger seat. On closer inspection I see that the leather, for whatever reason, had not been dyed the cocoa brown. It’s just white. The sales rep says I should just apply some brown shoe polish. Right. I instruct him to repair the defect, and he agrees to order another seat.
Before I go, the sale reps takes me to the back lot and shows me an ’07, cobalt blue turbo that had been rear-ended a couple days before by a woman in a Volvo SUV who was on a cell phone and later said she didn’t see the turbo waiting at the red light. The damage was on the passenger side rear, and next to the car was all the torn off sheet metal and liners and rocker panels and other detritus. The wheel was twisted badly in its well, etc., and it looked awful.
So back to my car. I confirm that I need to keep the rpms below 4200 hundred during the break end period, and then I’m on my way. I’m riding on a surface street, and I notice the clutch is feather light, and once I adjust to it, the car is incredibly well-behaved. I see a Starbucks so I pull to the curb for my own boost.
While I’m in the store, and keeping a close watch on the car, I notice a family of five walking toward the car on the sidewalk. The kids pass by the car without a look, but the man and woman stop for at least 30 seconds to admire the car. The guy sizes up the outside and the woman, not surprisingly, is looking through the window at the interior.
When Porsche announced the turbo, I was a little disappointed by the design, for all the reasons that have been debated on the forum. Moreover, since I’ve read and seen everything about the turbo prior to my own arriving, I guess I became a little de-sensitized to the power of the design. For the civilian seeing it through new eyes, it must truly look super.
So I get to the freeway heading on 17 over the mountain to Santa Cruz, and I’m making tentative strides to explore the car’s performance. First observation: the roads get short real fast and there are too many people on California freeways.
I’m having some trouble going from 4th to 5th; I’m inadvertently dropping back down to 3rd and I’m cursing the mistake. I’m also trying to keep from exceeding 4200 rpm, but on several occasions I see I’m up to 5K. Every corner I turn I expect to see a CHP on a motorcycle.
I definitely notice a little lag, but the car gets up to speed very quickly, and then I’m reining it in to avoid over-revving during break-in.
I finally get to the coast highway 1 and head north. Almost immediately two Japanese bikes pass me and settle in front of the car. Traffic is relatively heavy, so for the next 10 minutes I’m following the bikes and the bikes, the cars. Periodically the highway divides to allow faster traffic to pass.
When the road divides, I punch it and take the right branch since I see that none of the cars ahead have moved out of the left lane. This is where the turbo shines; it absolutely explodes and in a matter of a couple of seconds, I’m past the motorcycles and 7 cars, including an RV. I’ve surprised the bikes and they’re on the chase, but I sail past the RV (safely) just as the road returns to a single lane, and the bikes are stuck behind the RV. I know it sounds a little juvenile, but it was a blast.
I then took Pescadero highway from highway 1 across the mountain back to the valley, and got to do a lot of curves and switchbacks, just delighted by how effortlessly the car absorb these.
So after a hundred miles, I got home and had pretty much exhausted all the pent-up demand that built up since I placed my order last November, and after recounting my exploits to my wife, promised I would behave myself in the future.
(I do have a nagging worry that I had exceeded the break-in rev mark a couple of times, and that I hadn’t let the car idle a couple of minutes before shutting it down when I arrived home. Anybody think there’s reason for concern?)
Otherwise, so far, so good.
Sammy
03-26-2007, 03:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Sammyh
I wanted to give my impressions of my first 100 miles in my Atlas Grey, cocoa 6 speed turbo.
I haven’t owned a turbo before or any comparable supercar, although I did ride a Kawasaki 900 when I was in my early 20’s (I’m in my 40’s now and my wife draws the line on motorcycles).
So I arrive at the dealer in the SF Bay Area last Saturday, and give the car the once over.
First impression: I f’ing love Atlas Grey. It’s really indescribable, and photos can’t do it justice.
The cocoa is also a great interior color (which I chose at the last moment over Stone Grey thanks to Rami’s photos). However, I notice there’s a white spot about the size of a bb on the front passenger seat. On closer inspection I see that the leather, for whatever reason, had not been dyed the cocoa brown. It’s just white. The sales rep says I should just apply some brown shoe polish. Right. I instruct him to repair the defect, and he agrees to order another seat.
Before I go, the sale reps takes me to the back lot and shows me an ’07, cobalt blue turbo that had been rear-ended a couple days before by a woman in a Volvo SUV who was on a cell phone and later said she didn’t see the turbo waiting at the red light. The damage was on the passenger side rear, and next to the car was all the torn off sheet metal and liners and rocker panels and other detritus. The wheel was twisted badly in its well, etc., and it looked awful.
So back to my car. I confirm that I need to keep the rpms below 4200 hundred during the break end period, and then I’m on my way. I’m riding on a surface street, and I notice the clutch is feather light, and once I adjust to it, the car is incredibly well-behaved. I see a Starbucks so I pull to the curb for my own boost.
While I’m in the store, and keeping a close watch on the car, I notice a family of five walking toward the car on the sidewalk. The kids pass by the car without a look, but the man and woman stop for at least 30 seconds to admire the car. The guy sizes up the outside and the woman, not surprisingly, is looking through the window at the interior.
When Porsche announced the turbo, I was a little disappointed by the design, for all the reasons that have been debated on the forum. Moreover, since I’ve read and seen everything about the turbo prior to my own arriving, I guess I became a little de-sensitized to the power of the design. For the civilian seeing it through new eyes, it must truly look super.
So I get to the freeway heading on 17 over the mountain to Santa Cruz, and I’m making tentative strides to explore the car’s performance. First observation: the roads get short real fast and there are too many people on California freeways.
I’m having some trouble going from 4th to 5th; I’m inadvertently dropping back down to 3rd and I’m cursing the mistake. I’m also trying to keep from exceeding 4200 rpm, but on several occasions I see I’m up to 5K. Every corner I turn I expect to see a CHP on a motorcycle.
I definitely notice a little lag, but the car gets up to speed very quickly, and then I’m reining it in to avoid over-revving during break-in.
I finally get to the coast highway 1 and head north. Almost immediately two Japanese bikes pass me and settle in front of the car. Traffic is relatively heavy, so for the next 10 minutes I’m following the bikes and the bikes, the cars. Periodically the highway divides to allow faster traffic to pass.
When the road divides, I punch it and take the right branch since I see that none of the cars ahead have moved out of the left lane. This is where the turbo shines; it absolutely explodes and in a matter of a couple of seconds, I’m past the motorcycles and 7 cars, including an RV. I’ve surprised the bikes and they’re on the chase, but I sail past the RV (safely) just as the road returns to a single lane, and the bikes are stuck behind the RV. I know it sounds a little juvenile, but it was a blast.
I then took Pescadero highway from highway 1 across the mountain back to the valley, and got to do a lot of curves and switchbacks, just delighted by how effortlessly the car absorb these.
So after a hundred miles, I got home and had pretty much exhausted all the pent-up demand that built up since I placed my order last November, and after recounting my exploits to my wife, promised I would behave myself in the future.
(I do have a nagging worry that I had exceeded the break-in rev mark a couple of times, and that I hadn’t let the car idle a couple of minutes before shutting it down when I arrived home. Anybody think there’s reason for concern?)
Otherwise, so far, so good.
Sammy
I haven’t owned a turbo before or any comparable supercar, although I did ride a Kawasaki 900 when I was in my early 20’s (I’m in my 40’s now and my wife draws the line on motorcycles).
So I arrive at the dealer in the SF Bay Area last Saturday, and give the car the once over.
First impression: I f’ing love Atlas Grey. It’s really indescribable, and photos can’t do it justice.
The cocoa is also a great interior color (which I chose at the last moment over Stone Grey thanks to Rami’s photos). However, I notice there’s a white spot about the size of a bb on the front passenger seat. On closer inspection I see that the leather, for whatever reason, had not been dyed the cocoa brown. It’s just white. The sales rep says I should just apply some brown shoe polish. Right. I instruct him to repair the defect, and he agrees to order another seat.
Before I go, the sale reps takes me to the back lot and shows me an ’07, cobalt blue turbo that had been rear-ended a couple days before by a woman in a Volvo SUV who was on a cell phone and later said she didn’t see the turbo waiting at the red light. The damage was on the passenger side rear, and next to the car was all the torn off sheet metal and liners and rocker panels and other detritus. The wheel was twisted badly in its well, etc., and it looked awful.
So back to my car. I confirm that I need to keep the rpms below 4200 hundred during the break end period, and then I’m on my way. I’m riding on a surface street, and I notice the clutch is feather light, and once I adjust to it, the car is incredibly well-behaved. I see a Starbucks so I pull to the curb for my own boost.
While I’m in the store, and keeping a close watch on the car, I notice a family of five walking toward the car on the sidewalk. The kids pass by the car without a look, but the man and woman stop for at least 30 seconds to admire the car. The guy sizes up the outside and the woman, not surprisingly, is looking through the window at the interior.
When Porsche announced the turbo, I was a little disappointed by the design, for all the reasons that have been debated on the forum. Moreover, since I’ve read and seen everything about the turbo prior to my own arriving, I guess I became a little de-sensitized to the power of the design. For the civilian seeing it through new eyes, it must truly look super.
So I get to the freeway heading on 17 over the mountain to Santa Cruz, and I’m making tentative strides to explore the car’s performance. First observation: the roads get short real fast and there are too many people on California freeways.
I’m having some trouble going from 4th to 5th; I’m inadvertently dropping back down to 3rd and I’m cursing the mistake. I’m also trying to keep from exceeding 4200 rpm, but on several occasions I see I’m up to 5K. Every corner I turn I expect to see a CHP on a motorcycle.
I definitely notice a little lag, but the car gets up to speed very quickly, and then I’m reining it in to avoid over-revving during break-in.
I finally get to the coast highway 1 and head north. Almost immediately two Japanese bikes pass me and settle in front of the car. Traffic is relatively heavy, so for the next 10 minutes I’m following the bikes and the bikes, the cars. Periodically the highway divides to allow faster traffic to pass.
When the road divides, I punch it and take the right branch since I see that none of the cars ahead have moved out of the left lane. This is where the turbo shines; it absolutely explodes and in a matter of a couple of seconds, I’m past the motorcycles and 7 cars, including an RV. I’ve surprised the bikes and they’re on the chase, but I sail past the RV (safely) just as the road returns to a single lane, and the bikes are stuck behind the RV. I know it sounds a little juvenile, but it was a blast.
I then took Pescadero highway from highway 1 across the mountain back to the valley, and got to do a lot of curves and switchbacks, just delighted by how effortlessly the car absorb these.
So after a hundred miles, I got home and had pretty much exhausted all the pent-up demand that built up since I placed my order last November, and after recounting my exploits to my wife, promised I would behave myself in the future.
(I do have a nagging worry that I had exceeded the break-in rev mark a couple of times, and that I hadn’t let the car idle a couple of minutes before shutting it down when I arrived home. Anybody think there’s reason for concern?)
Otherwise, so far, so good.
Sammy
03-26-2007, 03:30 PM
#5
Nordschleife Master
Sammy,
Highway 17 to SC...ah what a road. But I've been on it twice and it has been bumper to bumper at 70 and no where to go. I'll bet if you can catch it open it would be a blast.
Don't worry about exceeding 4200, it is not a problem as any hard-core Porsche junkie will tell you. That motor is bulletproof.
Enjoy it!!!
Highway 17 to SC...ah what a road. But I've been on it twice and it has been bumper to bumper at 70 and no where to go. I'll bet if you can catch it open it would be a blast.
Don't worry about exceeding 4200, it is not a problem as any hard-core Porsche junkie will tell you. That motor is bulletproof.
Enjoy it!!!
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03-27-2007, 01:14 AM
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Originally Posted by C4S Surgeon
Should let it idle a minute or so before putting it up for the night.
03-27-2007, 01:35 AM
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03-27-2007, 01:39 AM
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IIRC, the Porsche 944 Turbo (951) was the last to come equipped with a factory/OEM turbo timer....of course it was a secondary water cooled circuit.
FWIW, the topic of cool down time has been discussed, to the point of being beaten to death, in the 996TT forum numerous times.
FWIW, the topic of cool down time has been discussed, to the point of being beaten to death, in the 996TT forum numerous times.
03-27-2007, 04:34 AM
#11
Congrats Sammy, enjoy your car and forget about passing 4200 RPM. I commend anyone that can reach the 500 mile mark without passing that magical number (let alone 2000)! Vary the rpm's, make sure your engine oil is warmed up and just have a blast! Next time if you can remember try and get into the habit of letting the car idle for a minute or so before shutting her down. Cheers!
03-27-2007, 01:17 PM
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eclou,
I searched the forums and read the other comments on the cooling off period, but yours was the only description of why it's a bad thing to shutdown immediately following a spirited drive (i.e., coking the surface of the oil passages of the turbos themselves).
I'm assuming that this coking process is progressive; i.e., it doesn't result in a catastrophic congestion. I say this since I failed to maintain a standing idle before shutdown for the first two spirited runs of the car (the vehicle now has 150 miles on it).
Since I've never owned a turbo vehicle before, I specifically asked the sales rep what I should and shouldn't do during the break-in, and he never said anything about the shutdown protocols. Thus I took it off the lot and drove it relatively hard, and then shut it down. I then read the manual and discovered the
shutdown process, and was pissed first at my dealer and then at myself.
Obviously, I'm going to idle the car before shutdown henceforth, but what kind of damage might I have caused to the turbos, if any, in this early stage of operation?
Sammy
I searched the forums and read the other comments on the cooling off period, but yours was the only description of why it's a bad thing to shutdown immediately following a spirited drive (i.e., coking the surface of the oil passages of the turbos themselves).
I'm assuming that this coking process is progressive; i.e., it doesn't result in a catastrophic congestion. I say this since I failed to maintain a standing idle before shutdown for the first two spirited runs of the car (the vehicle now has 150 miles on it).
Since I've never owned a turbo vehicle before, I specifically asked the sales rep what I should and shouldn't do during the break-in, and he never said anything about the shutdown protocols. Thus I took it off the lot and drove it relatively hard, and then shut it down. I then read the manual and discovered the
shutdown process, and was pissed first at my dealer and then at myself.
Obviously, I'm going to idle the car before shutdown henceforth, but what kind of damage might I have caused to the turbos, if any, in this early stage of operation?
Sammy
03-27-2007, 04:32 PM
#15
Three Wheelin'
Originally Posted by Sammyh
Obviously, I'm going to idle the car before shutdown henceforth, but what kind of damage might I have caused to the turbos, if any, in this early stage of operation?
Sammy
Sammy
How fast where you driving for the last mile or so before shutting the engine down?
The reason why one needs to let the car idle for a minute or so after high speed driving is because the turbo reach very high rpm (more than 100.000)
and if you shut down abrupt coming from high rpm's the turbo's will be turning some time without fresh oil being fed to them. This will kill them eventually.
But if you have driven very fast but in the last mile or so you have been in the low rpm range the turbo's have had the time to turn a lot slower , so no danger at all.
Last edited by TT-911; 03-28-2007 at 04:19 AM.