Carrera28

Porsche, there is no substitute.

My personal experience is that I neglected a brand new battery and in around six months it was dead and needed to be replaced. Now my 996 sits on a CTek trickle charger for most of its stationary life. I have fitted the CTek plug to the battery so its a 5 second job to plug it or unplug it. I recently left mine parked interstate for a month and it started perfectly when I tried. So I guess my experience is somewhere between 1 month and 6 months between no problems and failure.

A lot of car restorations are being done in Poland as costs are much cheaper and there is a network of providers that appear to do quality work on classic cars. So it might not be crazy to investigate the cheaper option, particularly as you allude to Covid may have affected their throughput.

Sabine Schmitz, former racing driver and Top Gear presenter, dies aged 51 German-born Sabine Schmitz won the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in 1996 and 1997. Photograph: DPA/Alamy PA Media Wed 17 Mar 2021 22.02 AEDT Sabine Schmitz, the only female winner of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, has died at the age of 51. The Top Gear presenter revealed last year that she had been dealing with a rare form of cancer since 2017. The German race track released a statement paying tribute to the driver. “The Nürburgring has lost its most famous female racing driver. Sabine Schmitz passed away far too early after a long illness. We will miss her and her cheerful nature. Rest in peace Sabine!” Adenau-born Schmitz’s first triumph at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring came in 1996 with Johannes Scheid and Hans Widmann in the BMW M3. She won again the following year with Scheid, Hans-Jürgen Tiemann and Peter Zakowski. Schmitz, who was widely known as “Queen of the Nürburgring”, later impressed with her own team Frikadelli Racing, which she had founded with her husband, Klaus Abbelen. She first joined Jeremy Clarkson on the BBC show Top Gear in 2004 and became part of the presenting team when Chris Evans revamped the programme in 2016. “Terrible news about Sabine Schmitz. Such a sunny person and so full of beans,” Clarkson tweeted. “Very sad to hear of the passing of Sabine Schmitz, a proper driving legend who’ll be sadly missed by many. The Ring has lost its Queen. RIP” wrote Clarkson’s former Top Gear co-host, Richard Hammond. Formula One paid tribute to Schmitz on Twitter: “We are all deeply saddened to hear that Sabine Schmitz has passed away. An incredible talent and wonderful person who made us all smile. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.” The FIA’s Women in Motorsport commission added: “Such sad news about Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring. Our sincere condolences to all her family and friends.”

I cannot speak highly enough of my Numeric short shifter. It's all metal and beautifully engineered, when compared to oem 996 and 997 shifters having some plastic components, I don't understand why anyone gets oem over Numeric. I found on the track the shifts, with standard shifter, were a bit long relative to standard clutch and found I was having to hold clutch on floor for a fraction longer to avoid hitting synchro particularly on longer shifts such as 2-3. It has three positions you can set shifter in so you get to decide how 'short' you want your short shifter and I love the fact that you fit it under the standard centre console and therefore it's low key and subtle. From my experience I would not hesitate to do it again if I got another 996 or 986.