Saying goodbye, it's a sad day...

[velobard]

Speaking of Oddysseys, on our last trip to the Greenbrier (I-64 through WVA), a new-looking Oddyssey was keeping up with the S8 quite well. I gotta say that I was impressed, though I suspect its driver was really working at it and I wondered how his passengers felt about the whole thing. I leave pretty large safety margins when I'm driving fast, and he was able to stay right behind me until we got to areas where I suspect he was running out of brakes. We weren't pulling any big numbers, but at no-jail-time speeds that thing was doing really well for a minivan and was passing the other traffic like it was standing still.

I had a situation like that years ago when I used to be a test driver for VW in Arizona. We ran a loop from Phoenix, up through Prescott and Jerome into central AZ, then back down the highway to home, 300 miles. Keep in mind we knew these roads really well since we drove them 6 days per week. We were coming into the curvy mountain section leading into Prescott and one of the guys in front of me in a Golf had a reputation for being one of the more aggressive drivers. He had a Dodge Caravan with CA tags on his tail and for the life of him, he couldn't shake it. He kept radioing back in shock that this guy (with a whole family on board) was sticking with him. We did have to avoid scrubbing the tires off the cars, but the guy in the minivan must have really been working it hard.



I especially loved that mountain stretch between Prescott and Jerome. Several other car manufacturers covered that same piece of road on their route and it showed up occasionally on car ads, such as a Chrysler ad that was out while I had that route. It was nice to leave Phoenix in the summer and top over an 8000' pass just in time to see the sun setting over Sedona.

 

[odonnellb]

my dad got rid of his 02 996 a little over a year ago for a more year round car i guess. 2005 6 series. He has missed the 911 since the day its left, he has a picture on the fridge of him hugging the porsche hahaha. Youl get one back some day haha.

 

[rayporsche]

Sad day amigo, one of those that questions the priorities and so on. I've been driving Porsches for many, many, many, many years and to understand the feeling, well it's like children, you can't understand until you've had one, or two, or three or four. Every difficulty is usually accompanied with an opportunity., In our household to let go of one of our childrens (Porsches), means riot, natural disaster, hunger strike, end of the worldwide fuel supply and so on. Don't you believe it is a good time to get, say, a Cayenne, well maybe not, get whatever else you may need but don't let go man......................is always good to add instead of subtract, more expensive too.........................Good luck...RAY.......................................

 

[Accumulator]

I had a situation like that years ago when I used to be a test driver for VW in Arizona. We ran a loop from Phoenix, up through Prescott and Jerome into central AZ, then back down the highway to home, 300 miles...I especially loved that mountain stretch between Prescott and Jerome.. It was nice to leave Phoenix in the summer and

top over an 8000' pass just in time to see the sun setting over Sedona.

Good story about the Caravan! Your post also struck a cord with me regarding the location, as my wife and I drove that exact stretch of road when we were in AZ sorta-frequently in the mid-90s. Fond memories of giving the (rear wheel drive ) rental cars a bit of exercise, doing the ol' throttle-steer thing on those twisty roads

 

[velobard]

Good story about the Caravan! Your post also struck a cord with me regarding the location, as my wife and I drove that exact stretch of road when we were in AZ sorta-frequently in the mid-90s. Fond memories of giving the (rear wheel drive ) rental cars a bit of exercise, doing the ol' throttle-steer thing on those twisty roads

Yeah, it was pretty nice to carve through those turns every evening driving someone else's car, using up someone else's tires, and generally having a ball. I've never had a job where so many people would come up to me during our breaks and ask where they could find a job like that. My time on that road wasn't too far off of when you used to travel there, I worked with VW back in '92. I know for sure that Volvo, Chrysler, and Rover (even their cars they don't sell in the US), had test routes over that section. I strongly suspect that Toyota and Jaguar were also there.

 

[Accumulator]

Yeah, that area must be popular for testing. We saw all sorts of neat stuff (often full of testing equipment) that didn't get sold in the US.

 

[PakShak]

Aloha...



I would like to share a few pics of my 2005 Sienna LE.



With Aloha,

Ranney

 

[Accumulator]

PakShak- Hi, Ranney! That looks really good in white. Nice to see some minivans are getting well treated.