930 Road Trip Central CA

[bleachii]

Hello All,

Reminiscing about a recent road trip I took from Orange County to Ventura CA. Only about 125 miles each way but a sort of shakeout cruise for my car. This car has been the bane of my existence and we have a love/hate relationship. You see, we've recently been down the broken head stud road and the financial impact and '10 year car sits in garage' fallout of that experience. It's a real uphill battle costing time, money, patience and determination. I had finally sorted a gremlin and had the car running well. Time to do what I had been wanting to do for over 12 years, take her on an overnight road trip.

Departure: Huntington Beach, CA
Destination: Ventura, CA
Date: August 2023
Distance: 250 miles r/t

Departure time for a California road trip can never be too early. So, we fire up the 930 at 4:30a and she roars to life spitting nails out of the Monty muffler. 20 seconds later she calms down but neighbors might not agree. We head out and point North on the 405 heading for Santa Monica. Honestly I'm nervous something will go wrong but mildly confident with a lower case c. Once we near Santa Monica we jump on the 10 West for only a few miles before hitting Highway 1 the Pacific Coast Highway.

We pass by the Santa Monica Pier as first light shows us the Pacific Ocean and entire day of 930 highway 1 road tripping awaits us. The car sounds incredible. The smell of the interior mixed with the ocean air filtering in through the open sunroof, the noises, the ocean, the Recaro leather seats, the beautiful dials giving you all the information you need in the most analog of ways. Pretty dang cool.

As we pass through Malibu the sun is now up and the ocean is very blue. As we leave Malibu there is a sublime section of Highway 1 with minimal traffic and lots of photo opportunities so we take advantage.



We take our time stopping often and grabbing photos. Takes maybe an hour and half of slowly making our way to Ventura. Here we will camp overnight and head back the next day. For me, all road trips (even short ones) are just a sticker collecting adventure so we hit a surf shop in Ventura to pick up a few to add to our 25 year collection.

I had been watching a lot of Porsche road trip YouTube videos and one thing I noticed is Europeans like to collect stickers for mountain passes they traverse. They then stick them on the underside of their hoods. I like stickers so I'm easily convinced this is a good idea. But, my 930 is so clean I contemplate my judgement here. After about 1 minute I realized I'll be dead before I get rid of this car so removal will be someone else's problem should they disagree with stickers on a painted surface. I will collect stickers for towns and areas the car visits rather than only mountain passes, painted surface be damned. They are also not visible until the hood is opened so there's that.



Camping in a 930 is cool by the way. Sorry no photos of the campsite but it was next to railroad tracks allowing us to railfan The Pacific Surfliner as well. The other advantage is essentially sleeping next to the car making theft more challenging on my car with no alarm and as a high value target. If I left it in a hotel parking lot I don't think I would sleep very well. By the way, this is the first night the car has spent away from my house or a repair shop in over 23 years. Criminal. Embarrassing to admit.

The next morning we fire her up and annoy the campers. Except for one 13 year old kid from the midwest with his family on vacation. So we gave him a ride in a 930 up the coast a few miles and back. Big smile on his face and one to tell his friends when he gets home. We then point south another awesome day ahead. Oh, and we stick our first sticker.



A day of photo ops and a cool one greets us early in the day. We found a distant cousin and the two of them take a photo together.



So, I had this idea in my head that when the car was finally done the first thing I would do is take her to the beach and smoke a big fat cigar. And not one of those funny smelling CA cigars. A normal cigar. I had not had time to do this as of yet. Today would be that day.

I had one in the car with me and planned to stop on the side of the road over the cliffs and enjoy a cigar with my 930 on this beautiful Sunday morning. We find the perfect spot and pull over. We grab the cigar and and cutter and lighter. Wait, where the %$#^& is my lighter? I forgot it! Now, I could flag people down asking for a lighter, I could give up on this idea altogether. Then it hit me, my car is from 1979. It has an ashtray and even better it has a cigarette lighter. I pressed the lighter in and low and behold it still works! Finally, my car seems to like me back and I'm granted a small token of her gratitude.

Not exactly a big fat cigar but it got the job done


Sat here for almost 2 hours taking it all in, not wanting it to end.


I ran into one small issue later that day. I took my time a little too much and ran into serious traffic in Malibu and Santa Monica. It was a warm day and the car was not happy as I watched the temps increasing. I almost pulled off and stopped to cool off but things picked up just enough to keep the temps low enough to forge on. No other issues the entire trip and other than being too short it was the perfect blueprint for how to enjoy this car.

[colingreene]

what did the temps creep up to?

Also, I texted you a while back and you did not respond.
wanted to know how the car was doing, this is a nice update.
Glad you gave that kid a ride.

[bleachii]

Hey Colin. I must have missed your text. Shoot me another if you still have my number or I can PM it to you.

Still in the white but creeping towards red. I don't have any dials to tell me more than that. We are down again with failed turbo seals. About to send it to Evergreen but hopefully once that's done I can her out again for a longer jaunt.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by bleachii

Not exactly a big fat cigar but it got the job done


.

What is that? An Oliva maybe? 50 ring gauge roughly? Connecticut wrapper? Looks like a nice smoke

[JacobS911]

Well done! Love that blue as well.. glad to see another one back on the road and being used as intended. Keep on driving and adding those stickers! I started collecting stickers under my hood too on national parks and memorable areas I've driven through.

[bleachii]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

What is that? An Oliva maybe? 50 ring gauge roughly? Connecticut wrapper? Looks like a nice smoke

Ha! Can't recall the brand but honestly could have been a turd I was smoking it would have been the best turd I ever smoked. Definitely wasn't no Swisher Sweet.

[bleachii]

Originally Posted by JacobS911

Well done! Love that blue as well.. glad to see another one back on the road and being used as intended. Keep on driving and adding those stickers! I started collecting stickers under my hood too on national parks and memorable areas I've driven through.

Love the National Park idea. Bitten by turbo seals now but you can see the turbocharger is out as of Sunday in my other thread and being packaged for a trip to Florida to see Charlie. Next up is a trip to Reno via 395 and Eastern Sierras to see my daughter at UNR once this issue is sorted. Tried that trip back in October but unbeknownst to me the 930 picked up a pack a day smoking habit and we had to turn around at Mammoth and go home. 7 mo later I'm finally dealing with the turbo seals.

Car was doing so well too. I'm assuming the trip into the mountains and elevation and sitting in my buddies garage overnight exacerbated the oncoming worn out seals issue.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by bleachii

Ha! Can't recall the brand but honestly could have been a turd I was smoking it would have been the best turd I ever smoked. Definitely wasn't no Swisher Sweet.

swishers are ok if you cut them open with a razor blade and stuff them with .....

[JacobS911]

Originally Posted by bleachii

Love the National Park idea. Bitten by turbo seals now but you can see the turbocharger is out as of Sunday in my other thread and being packaged for a trip to Florida to see Charlie. Next up is a trip to Reno via 395 and Eastern Sierras to see my daughter at UNR once this issue is sorted. Tried that trip back in October but unbeknownst to me the 930 picked up a pack a day smoking habit and we had to turn around at Mammoth and go home. 7 mo later I'm finally dealing with the turbo seals.

Car was doing so well too. I'm assuming the trip into the mountains and elevation and sitting in my buddies garage overnight exacerbated the oncoming worn out seals issue.

Turbo seals should be a quick turn at evergreen turbo! He's great and you should opt for the raptor upgrade on the turbo while you're in there!!

[bleachii]

Was really set on completely stock. But, I'm leaning towards this Raptor upgrade now. Almost comparing it to the removal of the thermal reactors. Just didn't make sense to keep them other than the removal causing me issues with CA smog. I will talk with Charlie about it.

[infraredcalvin]

Nice to see you out and about! Next trip, Paso Robles???? Monterey? She’ll be ready, and that coastal cold air is nice!

[bleachii]

Thanks Pat! It's been such a long time. I'm happy and relieved to be making progress. Nice to hear from you again. Agree that coastal air is very enjoyable for me and the car.

[krasuskyp]

Awesome - great to finally get her out for an overnight after sooooo loooong. That's CRAZY lol.

Lovvvvvvvvvve Minerva. Loathe sugar scoops heh heh. Would look ballar w/ some proppah H1's on there 8 )

Love the stickers under hood idea! Got a bunch I never know what to do with as I think it looks a bit childish to stack them all in the quarter windows as so many favor. Think I'll start doin that!

Here's to more / longer / further 930 adventures there for you in your future! Nothing like it... I've put 40k on mine in 18yrs 8 )

[neo930]

I really love the way the light plays with the rear fender on your first picture in this thread.

930's are such gorgeous cars...

[bleachii]

I think most people seem to dislike the sugar scoops Krasuskyp. Not sure why, I really like them. Mine is a late 1979 car. Delivered into Washington in December of 1979. I seem to remember it having a few little things different about it than earlier '79's and the '78's. Can't recall when the sugar scoops were changed.

Thanks Neo. Sun had just come out and the car definitely changes color in the sun.

[krasuskyp]

Didn't mean to knock yer 'scoops... I just personally think they do the nose of a 911 a big aesthetic disservice - too "pencil-beam" lookin to me, whereas an H1 or even H4 REALLY brighten up's the 'face'... especially notable from afar. And their recess just adds to their malaise - to me

think they soldiered on thru '86 IIRC when H5's came on for '87

regardless - your car is tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitz

[bleachii]

I reread my reply and sounded too serious! No offense taken to my sugar momma. I'll have to go look but I could have sworn there are H2's in there. Does that make sense? I'll have a look later. I think they were upgraded by previous owner. I'm not sure I know what the H1's vs H4's look like. I'll poke around. Guess that's what happens when your car is covered up for 10 years. Forget all the stuff you once knew

[krasuskyp]

you could very well have H1/H4's in there - they make them to fit the 'scoops and would be vast improvement over sealed beams

Full H1 or H4 would be muuuuch larger (H1 is dual reflector - high / low separately adjustable, while H4 is Euro cut glass but single bulb/reflector)

Here's my H1's for reference (without body-colored trim rings over the chrome). While the chrome contrasts the rest of the car's all black trim, I verrrrry muuuuuch DIG how it creates an optical illusion of the headlights being YUUUUUGE - really gives the nose a bright happy look IMO...

My H1's next to Brad's (yellow) H4's:



@Mt. Washington 6,288' summit:



next to Alex's H4's:

[bleachii]

Great shot of your car on Mt Washington showing off its eyeballs. You are right about the optical illusion of larger (and newish) looking headlamps especially in that photo. It think because you can't see the ribbing so they look smooth.

Just checked. I have H4's - Sugar Scoop Edition.

Thanks for the photos and lesson!

[krasuskyp]

thanks!

Here's some more, because I lovvvvve pics heh heh:




Awesome on your H4's... very good. Protip: relay 'em and run 85/130w bulbs 8 )