Went for a Drive at -40

[Hladun]

My F150 won’t start so I drove my 78SC at –40 yesterday. (Celsius or Fahrenheit…same at –40.) It stays in an unheated garage so I had to boost start it and it wasn’t happy when the AAR and WUR transitioned to warm running, but it ran and it got me around. I’ve added footwell blowers so it was quite comfortable as well.

Anybody beat me for lower temperature running?

[DavidI]

Wow! I was complaining that it was 65-70F here in LA.....

[pwd72s]

That's a contest that I hope I NEVER qualify for...

[MotoSook]

It wasn't -40F here when I started my car a couple of weekends ago (had to swap ends for body work), but it was in the 20's. Bonus...I drove the car downt hte street and back without the driver's fender and no bumpers...talk about weird...can I subtract 40F?

[Tim Walsh]

Souk,
In that case riding in one without the seat bolted down should count for a drop in 60 degrees.

[MotoSook]

No way Tim...you live below the Mason-Dixon line...it never gets cool down there even with no seats!

[Tim Walsh]

Uh huh.. walked to work today in ~17 degree weather on unshoveled sidewalks.

You'd think these southerners could at least do their civic duty and shovel their sidewalks or salt the roads sometime before 4 days after the snowstorm.

[993.986.]

Great post! Reminds me of an article I once saw about factory testing of the 996 turbos up in Alaska I think. The factory thought most owners would not do that, but the car car should be able to perform under those conditions if called upon to do so. Gotta love that Porsche mentality. I doubt they saw any Lambo's or Ferrari's out there.

[MotoSook]

snowstorm...you once in a 100 year 3 inchs of snow Tim...I came home from work tonight at 8PM and inhaled dinner before I had to go clear my driveway and sideway...I want SUMMER NOW!!!!!!

[Tim Walsh]

ohh come on my 'rents are from alot colder than where you're at(WI). I'm just crappin' at the way they deal with winter here, it's comical.

[MotoSook]

Just giving you a hard time kid..I know you are a Midwest homeboy!

[Paul Franssen]

Originally posted by Hladun
I drove my 78SC at –40 yesterday

Now I know why the electric heating elements in my Carrera burn my bum within 5 minutes of having turned it on!

[NY65912]

Look at the upside.......there's no way your going to overheat it.

I took my car out last Sat and it was in the low 20s and it ran sooo nice.

Cheers

[beepbeep]

-40? That's chilly! It doesn't get that cold often here, not even in swedish sub-polar circle. Are you canadian?

I believe thin oil is the key for starting motors at those temps. And yeah, not havin any coolant helps too

[Paul Valcourt]

Must be Fort McMurray, its only been -35 around Red Deer. And my Chev truck has no problems starting not beeing plugged in. I did drive the 911 a few weeks back when it was -20 and it ran well, I even had to turn the heat down it was working so good.

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by l33t9eek
ohh come on my 'rents are from alot colder than where you're at(WI). I'm just crappin' at the way they deal with winter here, it's comical.

4 days later and things still aren't right here in DC.
The P-car is happy in its snowy cocoon.

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by 993.986.
Great post! Reminds me of an article I once saw about factory testing of the 996 turbos up in Alaska I think. The factory thought most owners would not do that, but the car car should be able to perform under those conditions if called upon to do so. Gotta love that Porsche mentality. I doubt they saw any Lambo's or Ferrari's out there.

I remember seeing a similar article on the Porsche site. Amazing sequence of pictures -- whole rows of Turbos out in absolutely blistering cold for many thousands of miles. The crazy part is that they engineer the "worst case cold" scenario just like they engineer pretty much everything else on the car. Anybody feel like questioning the quality of our cars?

Dan

[ChrisBennet]

There were "spy" pictures of the Carrera GT in cold weather testing. Gotta love Porsche's testing regime.
-Chris

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by ChrisBennet
There were "spy" pictures of the Carrera GT in cold weather testing. Gotta love Porsche's testing regime.
-Chris

Yeah, i posted those.

Porsches are not cold-tested "in Alaska" but in Gällivare, northern Sweden.
It's not just Porsche that test their cars there...almost all european (and many other) manufacturers do. You'll see fleets of new BMW's, Mercedes, Volvo's and whatsoever...it's a industry since many years ago.

[djmcmath]

I could almost believe that Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes would do cold-weather testing up there. Anybody know, of the top of their heads, if any of the American types do this extensive of testing? Just curious...

Dan