A friend lived in Croatia for 6 years (based in Dubrovnik but saw a lot of it - he has been back every year since!). Stunning place. Only managed Dubrovnik myself but a holiday seeing more of it is on the list of things to do!
The Boxster keeps looking better and better - glad you are enjoying it, keep the updates coming. Not wishing to turn this into a holiday thread but do you mind me asking where you flew from to Rovinj? I have heard great things about it elsewhere but there looks to be very limited flights to get there..
I think EasyJet to Pula is the way to do it.... certainly how my friend (who lived in Dubrovnik) got his family to meet him there..(Luton, Glasow, Bristol, Gatwick)
Holiday thread hijack alert….. We flew from Birmingham as that’s the closest to us. TUI was the carrier, we booked with them as a package deal. Pula airport is small but efficient, we were impressed coming in and going out from there.
Maybe you could drive there - I know my friend drove to / from Dubrovnik a couple of times as they had the dog out there - and he had to drive back in a van when he relocated back here... allow 4 days each way in the Boxster and a week there to enjoy the location, job done!
A great day out in the Boxster today. Up early, in the car for 7am. A drive over to the M54 and down to the A5, stopped outside Shrewsbury for a coffee and a fill up of 99RON (weirdly cheaper at the A5 services that it is local to me, 9p per litre cheaper!). Then a brief blat down the A5 to the A458 Welshpool road. We had the roof up for the first part of the journey, rather dull and noisy on the M54/A5, no point driving with the roof down. Just around the Cyfronydd area, it think, I had to slow down for road workers fitting cat's eyes in the new road surface, perfect spot to drop the roof. Once we'd cleared the works the road was pretty much empty, brilliant. The hills started to grow and the curves came at us at regular intervals, a perfect opportunity to test out the recently replaced front suspension and the new wheels/tyres. Keeping within the speed limits is easy in the Boxster as relatively low speeds feel fast, especially with the roof down, the howl of the engine/exhaust adds to the feeling. Mrs W did look across at the speedo a few times, and was shocked to see I was within the limit....! After the A458 I turned right onto the A470, more hills and twists/turns, great fun indeed. The destination was the carpark for Morfa Mawddach train station, a small (but free) carpark the other side of the estuary from Barmouth. The plan was to walk across the Barmouth Bridge and spend the day over there. All parked up and ready to stroll: The views over the estuary are simply stunning, hills/mountains to the right, the estuary and salt marsh to the left. After a good 30 min stroll, with many photos, we stopped in Barmouth for a cuppa and toast. Mooched around for a while, sat on the beach and watched the world go by, then over to the Last Inn for a fish and chip lunch, marvellous. Ice cream and a walk later we headed back to the carpark. The bridge always seems longer going back to the car.... Stopped in Dolgellau for some supplies: Car loaded up we headed back for the return journey. Great fun was had again.... Back home by 7pm, a fantastic 12 hours out and about in the sunshine. The car performed fantastically. I've really grown to admire the engineering of this thing, how it sits on the road is simply astonishing, I described it as a howling limpet today, the chassis responds to the steering and throttle input, feeding back through the steering wheel and the seat. I genuinely think I hardly touched the brakes on the twisty parts, the car just turns in and waits for the throttle to push the rear end through the corner. All the more entertaining with the roof down.
Fab day out. Those mid Welsh roads can be wonderfully entertaining. Car sounds fully sorted now but I'm sure you find some fettling to keep you busy with it...lol
Oh yes, plenty more fettling to be done! Just ordered some brake caliper paint (original silver) and new Porsche badges to go back on. Then some new discs/pads on the front in a month or two. I've been looking at CarPlay HUs on eBay/AliExpress, there are some that look relatively OEM, including matching switches etc, I am tempted as the current unit does FM/AM and CD only. I'd probably add a DAB antenna as well. Maybe. Kind of like the original look of the CDR24 unit, but it is proper old tech.
Not got round to doing the brake callipers as of yet, heavy rain and DIY seemingly getting in the way. Will probably save this for when I change the front discs/pads, will make the front job easier to do. One small failure and massive fix: - the passenger side electric window switch has left the chat, it just doesn't work. I've tried contact cleaner etc, no joy, so a second hand one from eBay has been ordered, £17 delivered. - after the biblical rains we have had recently I am very pleased to say that my roof drain fix has worked perfectly. The interior carpets are bone dry! Really please with this, especially as it was a wee bit of a Heath Robinson affair... I'm currently looking for a local garage to rent for the winter, don't fancy leaving it out to the elements for the duration, especially as I won't be driving it in the worst of the weather. My garage would work if it weren't full of "stuff". We are planning on some building work over the autumn/winter, so the garage will be even more stacked to the rafters, maybe a 2027 job to clear it, sort some more useful storage solutions so that I can get the car in there next winter.
Also want to get my Mini indoors for winter - just to keep the roof better protected and less prone to a green tinge! Mine is full of the usual stuff - 4 bikes that havent seen the light of day in 20 years plus, various boxes of stuff from the move when three houses came together in one, a 22 year old Pug 206 that hasnt been on the road for 8 years. Maybe I should just give stuff away to clear space...
Update on the little Porsche: The window switch has been repaired, seemingly a bad connection rather than a broken switch, took the door car off and turned the new switch but still not working. Unclipped the main electrical block, checked and refitted more securely and all worked again. At least I now have a spare switch..! I've managed to find a local garage to rent, its a 10 min walk away, dry and secure, so the car will be snuggly stored in there for the bad weather that is no doubt around the corner. I need to do a bit of reading as to how to store the car, whether to leave it unlocked, negative terminal off or however is best. May have a read about a solar trickle charger, there is no electricity in the garage, but a solar one may be an interesting solution. One of the known failure points on the 987/997 era cars is the key switch. This is an electrical unit that reads the key chip and communicates with the car body computer, it also sends the signal to the solenoid for the steering lock. What is weird is that they are not key specific, so any key can be used with one of these, the car is already pre-set to the chip in the key fob. This technically makes the physical key blade redundant in terms of the car starting. Mine has been playing up for a few months now, for example this morning it took three attempts to start the car, the key goes in, the solenoid releases but when the key is turned there are no dash lights and no turn over. At some point this will fail altogether leaving the car high and dry. There were a few options as to a replacement: - used eBay one, £100-120 - new OE Chinesium one, £160-200 - new Porsche Bosch one. I've had parts from a well know Porsche website called Design911, they wanted £365 plus VAT, whereas the local Porsche dealer wanted £266 plus VAT. Ordered one on Wednesday, collected it this morning. Fitment was a bit of a faff, the official guide is to drop the lower dash, this involves a whole load of trim and panels that need removing, didn't fancy this job... So I did the job without, rather pleased with myself. New unit has a part number ending 07, the old one ending 03. After some minor head scratching and swearing I removed the side panel, took a few screws out, took the headlight switch out and two screws from the lower dash. This gave me enough access to drop the old switch unit out and fit the new one. All back together perfectly, refitted the battery negative terminal and all is good. Glad I've done the job, gives me confidence in using the car again. I am still impressed with the quality of the build and parts, screws and clips come out easily and go back together perfectly, all very well made and designed.
Good you got the switch sorted . After years of slightly iffy window, sunroof and rear wiper switch operation I finally plucked up the courage to remove them in the 944 (worried about breaking plastic on a 35 year old car) needn’t have worried took all switches out took apart, cleaned contacts, lubed, put back together (a bit fiddly) and all worked like new. Build quality very impressive. In terms of storage I would try to get a solar trickle charger if you can and leave it locked up. My father has one on his old VW camper and it never fails to start when required. On Design911 they are often very good but as you have found definitely worth checking the OPC as sometimes cheaper. Keep the updates coming the Boxster is looking great
Thanks for the reply. Would love to see some content on the 944 if possible. Sounds like an absolute beauty, the days of proper build quality. Fascinating taking a 19/20 year old car apart, seems as though things were made/designed to be fixed. I’m pretty sure if I tried any such jobs on the G21 or the Cupra I’d be in a whole world of plastic pain. Researching solar 12v chargers at the moment.
Haven’t done any jobs on the 944 this year apart from take it for its MOT and drive it. Will do a write up on any future endeavours . Need to update my report on the M440i. Will have had it a year in a couple of weeks. Just been in to BMW for its first major service and MOT both of which it flew through with nothing to report although with only 20k miles on the clock and 4 years old in October that should be the case. Still another year of very expensive road tax though
