OK, so it's finally here. The day I've been waiting for for months. I could barely sleep last night, anxious with anticipation, dying from 9 hours of jet lag caused by a back to back trip from San Diego to Hartford to Stuttgart. But that's all irrelevant. I feel like I am dead on my feet and dying to sleep, but the anticipation is too much. I was up every couple of hours last night looking at the clock like a kid on Christmas eve. The morning finally arrives.

I wake up long before the alarm clock, which was set at 6:15. I jump in the shower and start working the details of the day out in my head. It's an important one for me. I wake up Ina, who is quite slow and a tiny bit grumpy in the morning, and who is suffering from half the jet lag I am feeling, so she feels like death has struck. But she's a great girl and knows how important this day is to me so she slowly works her way back to life.

The morning flies by and before you know it, we've finished breakfast and are looking for a cab to take us to Zuffenhausen, home of Porsche, where my Cayman S is waiting for me. It's about a 20 minute ride, it's about 8:00am and the temperature is already brutal. It's 27 degrees C, which is 80 for us American folk. That's hot for early morning. It's going to be another scorcher like yesterday when it hit the high 90's. But that's OK. The air conditioning in the Cayman's is supposed to be top notch.

As we approach the factory, I see the first Porsche sign and my chest gets tight. Holy cr*p, we're here. A sudden shot of adrenaline enters my blood stream. We take a right and come to a stop near a security gate. We jump out and start unloading our pile of luggage, which we were not certain would fit in the car. Then I see a sign on the wall that says, "Neuwagenabholung" which means "New Car Delivery" in English. I point to it and call to Ina, "Hey look at this. We made it. Woo, hooooo......"



Moments later, a nicely dressed gentlemen walks up to us to see what we are doing and Ina instantly starts talking German at a mile a second. Suddenly I hear, "Ya, Ya, sure, right this way.....", he is pointing up up the steps, he grabs one of my bags like I'm a family member and leads the way. Up a few steps we go, through a door, and we are in the reception area. A very friendly woman greets us and she can't help but smile feeling the excitement obviously oozing from me. She knows why were are here, and she knows what this means to me. She leads us to a locker room where we can store our luggage and bags.



After stuffing all of our luggage into locker number 5 and taking the key, she escorts us to the 'New Car Delivery Area' where Peter greets us and asks if he can fix us some espresso, cappuccino, etc.... I take a coffee, and Ina takes an espresso. What nice people. All of them. Peter asks us to make our selves comfortable while we wait for a representative to come by. We did.

A few moments later, while I'm checking out the magazines and display cabinets full of Porsche-phile contra-ban, I hear another couple enter the room speaking American English. Yup, they are here for the same reason we are. Their picking up their car too, only theirs is a Black on Black Boxster S. Nice pick.

Once Peter has greeted them and given them the same instructions and beverages he gave us, I wander over and say in a fabricated German to English accent, 'Mehr craZy AmerIcans coming to drive ze vonderful German countryside, ya...?'. This guy looks at me like he doesn't know what to say, then I break into my American English and introduce myself. "I couldn't help but over hear your conversation with Peter. We too are Americans here for tourist delivery. My name is Mike, and this is my girlfriend Ina........" And the conversation is off to a great start. This guy is a real car fanatic. Very nice fellow, and his wife Elana is super nice too. We all hit it off.

Then a representative comes in to talk to Jim and Elena. He starts doing the paperwork and explaining the whole delivery process to them. Moments later, a represenetative show up for us. But instead of going over paperwork, he takes us up to the delivery center where I see this waiting for us:

one picture of the car?!? cmon... what a tease, lets see that stitching.

Good write-up though

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- Suneet

Oh man, I can't believe my eyes. The car looks amazing. More beautiful than I could imagine. Harald demonstrates the car to me and then does the paperwork, after which he returns me to the delivery center where we meet back up with Jim and Elana and take a factory tour. Very very cool tour. I loved it.

After the tour, we had a nice lunch in the Porsche executive lounge. This was really a 5 star lunch. Amazing. But we want out of there to go play with our new toys. When we come back, our cars are in the parking lot.

Jim's new Boxster:
(I don't want to post any pics of Jim and Elana without their permission. Once we get back to the states we'll see if we can get them to join the club and post their experience too.)



Our new Cayman:



See the tourist delivery plates? Cool, huh?

Then we part ways and Ina and I try to stuff our luggage into the car. It all fits. Amazing.





That little car gobbled up everything we had and wanted more. What a great day so far. We were really having a blast and we hadn't even started the car yet. So off we go, on our way to Munich for some sight seeing. I can't help but notice that the shifter is pretty heavy and extremely notchy. OK, I am pretty disappointed with the sport shifter. It feels awful. But maybe it needs to loosen up.

I am absolutely babying the car, trying break her in easy. Harald told me the same thing the other rep told Jim, for the first 1,000 km, keep it under 5,000 RPM. After that, have fun. But I am sticking to the US break in recommendation of 4,200 RPM. Call me a sissy.

It takes 50 km before we hit the first strip of open (no speed limit) autobahn, and I start to stretch her legs a little bit. I run her up the through the gears and we very quickly reached 4,200 in 6th, which looks like this:



OK, this is too much fun and I am feeling sort of greedy. At 74 km, I pulled into a rest stop and handed the wheel over to Ina. I wanted her to have some fun too, and she loves this kind of stuff (I'm a lucky guy, I know). We are right back onto the autobahn and Ina is commenting on how fast and effortlessly it reaches speed and how short the shifter throws are. She is also surprised at how heavy the steering wheel is, so I explain to her why that's a good thing in a sports car.



About 20 km later, we run into our first traffic jam. Oh well, it had to happen. We slow down and it's now stop and go. Then, suddenly, Ina stalls it. She gets real nervous. It was hilarious, she was feverishly groping at the right of the steering column looking for the key. Then she realizes it's on the left, reaches over and can't get it to start. This is my second Porsche, so I know what's happening. I tell her, "Stop. Relax. Now turn it all the way to the left and try again." Vrooommmm, she comes back to life and we are off again.

A short moment later, ca-put. The car stalls again. Now I'm getting a little annoyed. She knows how to drive stick. She must be letting the tension get to her. Again, I say, "take it easy and relax". She starts it again, and it stalls before it even starts. Again she turns the key and taps the gas this time, and back to life the sweet 6 comes. We roll a little, and Ina tries to pull the stick from 1st to neutral, but the stick doesn't want to obey. I see her struggling and panicking again. I tell her to relax, I grab the stick, and I instruct her to press the clutch. I try to pull the stick and I instantly know we are screwed. That thing is not moving.... Oh ****....! Please tell me this isn't happening.....

I tell Ina to feather the throttle and let off as I apply pressure. POP. It jumps into neutral and I tell her to coast off to the shoulder. She does. We switch seats so I can see what's going on and now I know why Ina was stalling the engine and that we are screwed. The clutch pedal is on the floor and it is not coming back up. I know immediately, because I have counseled many here, what's going on. My damn pressure plate was not properly tightened down and it's coming loose. This is why my shifter felt so nasty. I should have known.



We've been driving the car for about an hour. We logged 92 km, and now I am calling Porsche Road Side Assistance. After some confusion, they dispatch a tow truck.



A two hour ride in 35 degree (95 F) weather with no AC took us and the car back to the factory. Stay tuned. We will find out tomorrow how severe the disruption will be.......

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Gator Bite
(View My Articles : Blogs : Car : Profile)

Seems like they reserve the pressure plate issue for tourist delivery, I bet someone at the shipping company is responsible!!! Ugh, sorry to hear this happened, but PLEASE keep us all informed as to what takes place!

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K-Man S

Kee-razy!

But if anyone can make things right, you should be in the right place to have it all done.

Hope it all works out (and maybe some extra Porsche goodies for your troubles).

Keep us updated.

Oh. My. God.

I am DYING to find out what Porsche will do for you.

If they are smart, they will treat you like visiting royalty and realize that it is money well spent. Tell them that you represent a very large community of Porsche customers.

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2007 Speed Yellow Cayman GT 2.7 (retired)
2008 Guards Red Cayman GT 3.4
"Carpe Cayman"

Mike - Hang in there... how crazy, but as I said before, now it's an adventure. Thanks for the detailed report, and it does sound like you were having fun... you'll have fun again too, once things get back on track. Btw, the way car looks great - the black full leather and the stitching is awesome... remember too that the smile you see on Ina's face in that picture above, is just like the one on your face when you're driving it, too. Keep us updated...

brad

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PCA DE Instructor

You sound like you're taking it in stride. At least you know it'll get fixed. And by picking up there, I think you've accidentally done all of us near-future buyers a huge favor, because now a specimen exhibiting this common and serious bug, in full bloom, is in Zuffenhausen. Maybe they'll emerge from the denial stage now and admit they have a problem.

Gator,

So sorry to read about your unpleasant day 01. So you're on vacation, in a foreign country, with your SO, in your new car and car breaks down in stop and go traffic. Hard to imagine a greater stress inducing situation. Congratulations on keeping a cool head and moving forward. Vunderbar!

Please be sure to share the link to this thread with Porsche's service manager. I'm sure he'll enjoy following the next chapter in your journey along with the largest Cayman oriented audience in North America.

I know this has been a nightmare thus far, but it will get better. Hopefully you and Ina are back on the road tomorrow enjoying the rest of this experience. Before you know it, this will be something you laugh about.

Mike, I must say, your CS is beautiful. I freaking LOVE the stitching! It really jazzes up the interior. Nice choice.

Have fun with the rest of your trip.

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