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HighGearVolume 53 ● Edition 3 ● March 2011

Edge of HeavenJohn Guthrie’s otherwordly experience

with a 2010 911 Turbo S • see page 14

Tech Inspectors Needed! Get Trained!Sat, March 5

March 2011HighGear

AAt a unique driving festival in Indi-ana in 2008, I first sampled the911 Joy of Driving. For $2700, I

drove 16 of the hottest cars on theplanet for 20-30 minutes each, overthree days. The cars included multipleFerraris, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, aMaserati, a Callaway C17, a Spyker, anAston Martin DB9, an SLR and two911’s: a GT3 and a GT2. The GT3 was adream. When I deftly missed a smallturtle crossing the road, the GT3 sus-pension instantly rebounded to steadystate. The GT2 wasjust too

nervous for me. I ended up driving itlike an idiot—one hand on the wheel,the other on the shifter, trying to keepthe gearing low so the turbos wouldn’tkick us into the weeds. The GT2 wasraw, compared to the F430 Scuderiaand GT-R. I liked the Spyker, butthought the GT3 was the best “sportscar” (although for a “grand touring,” I’dtake the Maserati, at half the price of aBentley flying carpet).

Months later—February, 2009—I wasin Scottsdale AZ, getting screwed onsome business. To make up for the

story and photos John Guthrie14

RMR’s JohnGuthrie enjoys the

world’s greatestroad car across

three time zones,two race tracks

and thousands ofmiles of open road

HighGearMarch 2011

15

lemons I was dealingwith, I decided tomake lemonade andpurchased a used 997Turbo with 20,000miles... on the shortestmonth of the year, in arecession. I got a greatdeal—$3,000 belowPenske Porsche’s doc-umented cost.

By the end of Sep-tember, that 997 hadanother 8,500 miles onit, much of that froman August trip to Peb-ble Beach and theHistorics at LagunaSeca. (On YouTube,search “Wyo550” andyou’ll see, turn-by-turn, the Historics,where Porsche was thefeatured marque.) Ialso did a DE eventwhile at Laguna Seca. Iwas hooked on the911 Turbo. At FallonNaval Air Station on US 50, a couple ofF-18’s came down “on the deck” andscreamed over me as I took the car tothree times the speed limit on the com-pletely empty, perfect highway. The997 was as stable as my Ferrari 550 attop speeds—without the 400-pound V-12 holding the front down. NewBridgestone Pilot Sport 2 tires acted likeglue sticks at the track. The buzzaround Monterey was the 911 Turboupgrade coming in 2010. Now hooked, Iwent straight back to a ColoradoPorsche dealer and traded in the 997,becoming first in line for a 2010 Turbo.

In January, 2010, Scottsdale Porschecalled to ask if I wanted a Turbo S. I hadnever heard of the “S” from theColorado dealer. By February, the Col-orado dealer (sort of) had the 2011Turbo S option data, and it was time tospec out a car. Even though my novel,Edge of Heaven, had just launched andno books had yet sold, I decided to pre-tend I could afford a $165,000 sportscar when it was delivered in the sum-mer of 2010. I was annoyed that the IceBlue Metallic exterior color wasn’t avail-able until a September build (same forthe RS wheel option). Later, an oil exec-utive based in Paris told me thatPorsche was offering these features toRussians and Europeans as “somethingyou can’t get in America.”

My Arctic Silver 911 Turbo S was builtin late May, 2010. It traveled fromEmden, Germany to Wharf 9T in thePort of Houston aboard the Panamanianautomobile transport ship, Marina Ace.On June 21, the car was at the Coloradodealership, and I took delivery July 1 toavoid losing a single day of Wyomingannual registration costs. The dealertold me that PCNA wanted to count thesale as a “June book.” I was offeredsome kind of one-year maintenance forfree if I’d agree (PCNA sent me avoucher for that service, good at anyPorsche dealer). So far, so good.

I put 2,000 miles on the new car intwo weeks—tough duty, on wide-openWyoming roads. I hit the rev-limiter (up)once, learning the hard way that the“Sport Plus” engine map is only fortrack use. The Sport setting is perfectfor noodling around state highways. OnJuly 6, my onboard video caught a litter-ing fool, dropping a bag of empty beercans right into the front of my car. Thatvideo cost him. By the weekend of July18, I was at HPR with a now broken-inTurbo S. I did two DE days at HPR inJuly, and the car flew—much bettertracking corners than the 997 hadbeen—on the factory Bridgestone RA-050A tires. But at a second, two-day DEevent in August, the compound chem-istry in the factory tires was cooked.

Now, I was only good for two or threelaps, before acceleration grip and lat-eral adhesion were “pay attention,dummy” compromised—to the pointwhere I retired early. By the final ses-sion of the two-day August event, I wassmart enough (read “scared”) to gridstart at the end of the pack, so Iwouldn’t be in the middle of everybodyas my tires (inevitably) gave out.

Lucky move. Because, on the “warm-up” lap, the cars were already flying...so fast, the guy ahead of me went off-track with two wheels. Then, on the first“hot” lap, three cars ahead of mepassed on the long straight—almost allthe way into the exit turn—without ahand signal that I could see. A few lapsof that I and I got off the track becauseof a snarky driver in a GT3. I didn’t seeany of that at Laguna Seca, where thecorner workers absolutely rule withradios and black flags—even soundordinance enforcement. [Editor’s note:You shouldn’t see such behavior at HPR,either, as Driver Education is foremostabout safety. If you observe any unsafebehavior at a DE, please bring it to theattention of the Chief Driving Instructor,the event chair or a board member!]

In September, I did one “Launch Con-trol” start. It threw me back so hard, my

foot lifted from the pedal (see YouTube).I then had new Bridgestone RA11 tiresmounted. In the process, I discoveredthat the security lug for the old 997’swheels was in a coffee can in thegarage. The old car had been sold to awoman—without the lug. I personallydelivered the lug to the dealership.Days later, I e-mailed the dealer’ssalesman—twice—asking aboutpurchasing a GT2RS with delivery in2011. The first e-mail “wasn’treceived,” and the second e-mail gotme, “I’m on vacation with my familyand I’ll get back to you next week.”That’s fine, but I never heard back fromhim—or anyone—about buying a$245,000 car. (My GM dealer sent me aChristmas card for buying a used Aca-dia!) Ferrari of Denver sent a card, justfor doing maintenance. The Porschedealer, where I generated a quarter-mil-lion in sales in two years? Nothing. InAugust, the dealer did send me a bat-tery charger, which was nice anduseful, and I did appreciate that.

But I must say, there’s somethingweird about Porsche, showing in pressreleases and write-ups for almost ayear a color, Ice Blue Metallic (first pho-tographed in Norway in 2009), that

wasn’t available for months after the“S” model release in May 2010.Porsche’s strange culture seems to ruboff on dealers who make you “be avail-able” five hours for a 30-minute LoJackinstallation... and who—despite yourproven high-end business—don’t

answer two inquiriesabout buying a quarter-million-dollar GT2RS in2011! Should I have toask a third time?

No, thanks. After mytrack experiences thissummer, I’m not evengoing to track the “S”again. I’m just going torespect it as probably thebest road car in the worldright now. Because, ontrack with the added AWDweight, it’s no match fora properly-driven, high-horsepower,rear-wheel-drive car. The“S” rules (everywhere)with unbelievable acceler-ation, but on track, thelater braking of a lighter,rear-wheel-drive car willcatch you in the corners(where they’ll cut tighterlines with faster exitspeeds). Compared to the997 Turbo, the new “S”model’s torque vectoring,

throttle response, full-time overboostand brakes are clearly superior. Buttrashing a work of engineering genius—making it do something it’s notdesigned to do (regular track use)—isegotistical nonsense. If I “make it inHollywood,” I’d like a second-genera-

March 2011

16 HighGear Busted? Nahh... just filing a police report against some highway litterbugs.

Motoring through Yosemite National Park. Does it get any better than this?

Have an idea for an article—generalinterest, technical or otherwise? HighGear welcomes reader submissions!Submit articles and photos to newsletter@rmrporscheclub.com for consideration.Deadline for submission is the 10th ofthe month prior to issue date.

17HighGearMarch 2011

John Guthrie, Laramie native, is anauthor, producer and artist. He hasowned a 2007 911 Turbo and a 2011911 Turbo S and runs a Ferrari 550 witha prototype tuned exhaust. John can befound at www.Wyo550.com and at"wyo550" on YouTube.

tion Atom 500 with paddles for track-blasting... and a trailer... and a truck...and instruction!

My only interest in “DE” was literallyto become educated about my car(s),performing at the very edge of theirlimits. By the August DE event at HPR, Iwas “educated” enough not to findmyself in the middle of a pack of carsthat were running each other off thetrack in the last session of theweekend! I once skied into a tree on thelast run of the day, so I know the dan-ger of being lulled to disaster. Frankly,there were many times on track (inboth the 997 and “S”) when thePorsche stability and traction controlssaved me. Sing along, boys and girls!“Johnny Danger! He’s a racer! At home,he drives a Pacer!” So what if I’ll neverbe a good “racer”? Thanks to DE, Iknow my car and I’m the defensivedriver from hell, anywhere... in Chicago,or on I-80 in Iowa, or with deer on theroad around any corner.

The best fun on track was whenJohnny Danger’s DE instructor atLaguna Seca got angry at a BMW M5

driver who wouldn’tlet us pass with awave, for most of alap. So, as we climbedto the top of theCorkscrew I heard thewords, “Charge him atthe apex!” We’dalready proven I hadthe “Brakes of God”with multiple 145-mph charges of turn5, last-moment brak-ing at the 130-degree,turn 11 hairpin andmodulated 130-140mph entries into thedouble-apex turn 2.So, behind the BMW, Icame out of uphill turn 7 at 70 mph andwent straight for the tight apex of 8A...where the BMW driver’s door would be,seconds later from the right. I’ll neverforget the whites of this guys’ eyes ashe saw me coming straight at him likeAlex Zanardi in the 1996 CART race!

The Brakes of God worked, and weboth fell 70 feet through the Corkscrew.He was completely off-line at 8B, wav-ing me by! By turn 9, my good line andspeed had him 100 feet behind me. Byturn 11, he was almost a block behind—not because of my driving skill, butsimply because I had the accelerationand 500 foot-pounds of the “S”unleashed (and this car gets 26.3 mpgon state roads at 7,000 ft with cruisecontrol!). When I got back to Colorado,Poudre Sports Car found that the (rear)Brakes of God were completely shot.The heat load of 150 miles of LagunaSeca laps had even melted the brakesensors. I was amazed that the frontbrakes were fine.

After the California trip, I put the OEMtires back on and drove the “S” toChicago and Detroit in October. I had agreat drive—avoiding dangerous,unconscious and a few malicious driv-ers across the rural/urban/rural midwestwith the 911’s superior handling, accel-eration and braking. Porsches onlyincite a fraction of the dangerous idiotswho want to “take on” a Ferrari. The911’s sound system, with the $700 Sir-ius radio option, is wonderful, and thecar is generally quiet and sublime. Youcan even sleep—really sleep—in thefully-reclining drivers seat. It’s a driver’scar! From July to November, I did11,500 miles of wonderful driving.

The 2011 Turbo S will be my #1 road

car for years and years. I didn’t buy itto destroy it on a track. My 57-year-old’s ego is simply satisfied being ableto write fiction, in order to pay for con-sciousness-expansion like this 911—notby beating nice people up on a trackday event with more horsepower,torque and electronic controls than theymight have. I’m just an inconsistent,middle-aged track-event driver onstreet tires, that’s all. Next week, I’ll bepicking up Playboy cover model AmyLynn Grover in the (vacuumed of-dog-hair) Acadia, for lunch in WestHollywood with me and my co-writer,Kia Hellman. You know what they sayabout guys who drive GMC Acadias...it’s true.

Be driven! Life is good. Life is short.There are only so many good drivingdays left.

The author gearing up at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.