A thrash through the mountains just last month takes its toll on the Turbo’s front suspension. And it costs how much for a new front lip?!
| Driver's Log | |
|---|---|
| Date acquired: | October 2012 |
| Total kilometres: | 99,099 |
| Kilometres this month: | 4000 |
| Costs this month: | $1000 |
| L/100km this month: | 16.5 |
It’s back to normality this month for the Porsche 911 Turbo, and that involves a visit to the garage. After my last encounter about our travels up through the mountains, two months without a visit to the workshop was unlikely. Not for any reason caused as a direct result of the mountain run thankfully, but just the usual ongoing maintenance of what is hardly the cheapest car on the market.
After the run, the Porsche had a couple of weeks of docile toddling around Dubai; daughter to nursery, then the office, and finally a pickup of the weekly shopping on the way home. We recently moved to a new house and the community has cobbled streets (with cobbled speed bumps). The car is not the most comfortable when riding cobbled streets but it isn’t the end of the world.
However, a rattle began to emanate from the front passenger side whilst running over the cobbles, which had my curiosity perked. This then developed into more of a knock when on full lock. No problem when heading in a straight line or even cornering, but nonetheless, being a bit OCD, I needed to get it checked. A visit to see the guys at Alex Renner Motors in Dubai confirmed I needed new front suspension bushes. Thankfully it was an easy enough fix and the car was back on the road a couple of days later.
Simultaneously I got a quote for replacing the car’s front lip. Our car park at work has some particularly steep ramps that cause the front end of the car to scrape every time I come down them. Thankfully there are no problems with the bumper itself, but with the small black rubber lip running round the bottom of the car. A quote of more than $200 had me gasping for breath, so I asked them just to hold on as I already had the suspension work to cover. The front lip will be replaced in due course. Thankfully a space in the basement at work has now minimised the damage.
I’ve seen a few of the new Turbo S models around Dubai recently. There is always the risk when a car company releases a new model that it will instantly make the previous model look very outdated. However, Porsche has never been one for radical re-styling and thankfully their ethos of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ with the 911 means that although there is a brand new model, I don’t think that it has made the 997 look too outdated. This is probably more of a relief for my wife than anyone else. Although that’s not to say that if the guys at the Porsche showroom fancy handing me the keys for a new Turbo S for the weekend, I wouldn’t be too distraught about leaving my Turbo tucked up in the garage for a few days.
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