1986 911 M491 Targa FL to UT "Top Gear Challenge"

[famoroso]

Greetings all,

My good friend recently purchased this 1986 M491 Targa on BaT...

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1986-porsche-911-carrera-targa-m491/

We depart Ft. Myers, Florida with it tomorrow morning, Thursday, 9/14.

The plan is not to fall in love with a plan and to eventually roll into SLC at some point on Sunday (or perhaps Monday? Only the Porsche gods know for certain.). We aren't necessarily going to adhere to the attached route as there is talk of detours to, among others, Santa Rosa Beach, FL tomorrow and / or Folsom Field in Boulder on Saturday to catch the CU Buffs game.

Have spare DME relay, will travel (hopefully, at least 2,500 miles). Wish us luck and stay tuned for updates and potential distress signals.. I may be reaching out to the Pelican community in seek of help along the way.

To quasi-paraphrase JFK... "We choose to drive this funny little German car through the American South & Midwest this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard"

[H-viken]

Fun stuff!!

[McDeeb]

Good luck Frank! We are with you! Hit me up if you need anything along the way. I can throw a pretty wide Porsche net for you…

-Deeb

[ToySnakePMC]

I like this. Please post up some pics and observations along the way. Not sure I have the stones to do such a trip in my air-cooled with that M-F work stuff always hanging over my head... Best of luck. We're rooting for y'all.

[GH85Carrera]

If you have the time, it looks like you will be close to Rocky Mountain National park. Make the detour to see it, it is is still open and free of snow.

Another slight detour is Dinosaur National Park.

There is one in Colorado and one in Utah. The Colorado one is where fossils are visible and the Utah one is just pretty scenery, and the fossils are still underground.

[famoroso]

Thanks!

Pick up...









Progress so far...



Wind noise? What wind noise?

[PeteKz]

Ditto what Glen said. Get off the superslabs in Colorado and take US 40 after you pass Denver. And drive the snot out of it!

[absinthe]

I'm Denver-based and a Boulder Alumn so some quick notes/tips:

*If it can be avoided, avoid Friday afternoon on I-70/US 40 into the mountains. It is an uphill crawl.

*Your best is to take 70 past Denver and exit onto US-40 at the Empire junction exit and go up and over Berthoud Pass. If semi-suspect mountain passes aren't your bag, you can also take I-70 to Highway 9 north out of Silverthorne.

*CU/CSU will be a hard ticket but an 8 pm kick in Boulder is going to be an absolute riot. Parking lots open around noon. Your best bet would be to find a hotel room or Airbnb and take a cab to the game with it on national TV, it will be close to midnight when it is over, and lots of people will be driving who should not be.

* If you do stay in Boulder take 119 up the canyon and use it to connect to 70/40

[darrin]

another Colorado resident here -- although I-70 from Kansas City to Denver is pretty boring, it's no more so than the parallel path I-80 takes north of there. Conversely, there's a reason the transcontinental railroads followed the path of I-80 through the rockies, it's pretty darn flat/straight. Unlike I-80, I-70 is a LOT more sinuous and fun of a drive with some nice high speed twisties heading up out of denver and through to Glenwood springs (Glenwood canyon is quite beautiful) You'd also pass by a # of ski resorts after you cross under the continental divide at the Eisenhower tunnel (Breckinridge/dillon/sliverthrone area, Copper Mountain, Vail and Beaver Creek), each of which provides good diversions/place for lunch. If you're hazy NEIPA fans, Outer Range Brewery in Frisco's right off the highway and makes/serves/sells to-go world class beers along with some very tasty Korean-style fried chicken. That said, taking US-40 through berthed pass (berthod's only kinda sketchy in a 911 when snow-covered in the winter, it'll be super fun this month) and continuing on I-40 through steamboat and vernal, co is a NICE drive too, which will take you through Steamboat Springs (lots of good casual Mexican in town for lunch, etc.) and then onto what I think of as 'sandstone desert" west of Craig. Only real "downside" is that 40 is frequently not a divided/limited access highway, though that simply means more opportunities for dotted yellow line passing and running through gears. Have Fun and don't miss the centennial state

[Old H2S]

Easy ride, best long distance car made. Run 12 hours and want more, more, more. I picked mine up in San Clemente right at the Pacific Ocean and drove it to Cape Hatteras. The PO said I was insane and the car would never make it, I told him I brought my tools (a duffel bag full) and I do not care if it blows up- I can fix it. I did it in 3 days..Yes I made plans to stop and see this and that but I could not stop driving it, and it was a *****BOX with NO suspension and 350k on the the clock but what a blast trip.

[famoroso]

We measured sound pressure levels as high as 95 decibels. It was noise cancelling headphones or cancelling the trip and calling the transporter...



Tony had the idea to tape the roof gaps. Even tho I was pissed that I hadn't thought of it, I a
sourced a roll of PTS Acid Green masking tape. The difference was transformational (10+ dBs quieter)...

















As well as the tape on the leading edge of the top performed, the tape on the trailing edge was a tactical error a.k.a. the rainwater ingestion roof scoop.

[famoroso]

[livesportm]

Wow great progress! The tape obviously helped!
Is there are stereo or just 6 cylinders/wind?
Stan

[famoroso]

Originally Posted by livesportm

Wow great progress! The tape obviously helped!
Is there are stereo or just 6 cylinders/wind?
Stan

There's a Pioneer head unit. Haven't tried it yet.

[winglesss]

Oh boy. Looks like sooo much fun! GREAT topic, thanks for sharing!

Opposite direction of my BAT '86 911 Targa friends and family Austin to southern FL road trip.

The weather was TERRIFIC on my road trip. The Targa roof was collapsed in the front trunk almost the whole time.

In my case, the shifter coupler degraded leaving Houston, requiring two-handed reverse selection and being a solo trip losing the ability to engage fifth gear. This slowed me waaay down, to NOT have excessive long-distance RPM traveling in fourth instead of fifth on the highway.

[GH85Carrera]

Last June I drove my 85 911 out to Palm Springsfor a week, and then back home. My route home was to go to H-60 to the Very Large Array, south to Truth or Consequences, NW, over to Alamogordo, up to Roswell, and back to Clovis. I did two 11 hour days, and the last day was a short day to OKC.

I do have coupe, and one of my friends with Targa pleaded with me to never let his wive ride in my coupe so she would know how noisy his car was.

The worlds most boring road on the planet is the road from Kansas City, to Denver. Drive for hours, stop for necessities, drive for hours and it is just the same like in the Twilight Zone. I am just glad I never had to drive it in the bad old days of the 55 MPH limit.

[darrin]

Famoroso -- don't be too surprised when you hit a traffic black hole between Chattanooga and Nashville and ignore Waze' suggestions . Do, however, use Waze if you're not doing so already, did a very nice job of giving us advance warning of speed traps when we did the same route last spring (though some GA cops seemed to be in on the game, dropping false cop car warnings just ahead of us for an hour or so)

Glen -- couldn't agree more re I70 between KC and Denver -- my worst experience was driving a rental truck towing my Targa -- a) could've/should've put a brick on the accelerator and slept through the whole ordeal (it's that straight/flat), and b) worst part was when I discovered it was a "false flat" as my truck slowly lost speed as the altitude increased, leaving me wishing for 55mph . . .

[absinthe]

I'm intrigued to see how you feel the altitude affects your experience in the 911 - I just put one back on the road but have not driven it at sea level in 20 years.

[absinthe]

Originally Posted by famoroso

We measured sound pressure levels as high as 95 decibels. It was noise cancelling headphones or cancelling the trip and calling the transporter...


Tony had the idea to tape the roof gaps. Even tho I was pissed that I hadn't thought of it, I a
sourced a roll of PTS Acid Green masking tape. The difference was transformational (10+ dBs quieter)...

As a former 1980 hard top Jeep owner (front window to roof and door seal issues) as well as a 1990's Land Rover owner (door seals, rear lift gates), may I suggest a quick run through Lowes or Home Deport for some thin weather stripping for the roof and door seals. It is a temporary fix but will be noticeable.

[bbturbo]

Great beef jerky! What a trip. This is on my list (both the m491 and the trip). Safe travels.