Introduction: A Strange Moving Van

Hi, guys. I've never made an introductory post, but I just picked up a new 996, so here goes: It's a '99 C2. I'll post some better pictures when I have a chance to wash it, but it's a very, very clean car with full leather. This will soon be my only car! Now, for the thread title: I'm planning to carefully pack this car full of all the stuff that we haven't been able to sell, store or give away. Then, on September 25th, I'm going to hop in, turn the key, and drive it across the country from our current home (Kingston, Ontario) to our new one (Vancouver, BC).

Movin' on up... to a dee-luxe apartment in the sky... If you have to move, might as well do it in style.

Awesome, these cars eat up the miles so nice. Make sure the cruise control works.

Also, it is a 30 minute longer way to go towards Timmins but it's a much smoother way.

I belive that 996 can tow a sub 2,000 lb trailer just fine if you have to. Got to buy the hitch adapter and you are GTG.

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Perfect! I am going to try using this pic with the wife. She has recently been saying "wouldn't it be cool if we just sold everything and travelled the country in an RV? - it could be our home too!" So now I am going to tell her that we can sell everything except a 996. I can drive, she can sit in the trailer in tow. Fair compromise me thinks.

Charlie, take lots of pics on the way and keep us updated !

thatll be a nice drive. if time is on your side, id recommend driving the #1 to Salmon Arm, then turn down to the Vernon area, zip through the Okanagon on Highway 97 (boring but its a connector to....) to Osoyoos. Then turn onto Highway 3 (Crowsnest Pass) on to Vancouver. beautiful drive. enjoy. check your speed around Manning Park if you do do it.

Thanks, guys! I do hope to make a travel thread out of this at some point. I'm going to spend a couple of days getting used to the car and I'll shoot some photos of it on the lift this weekend. Imre, I appreciate the guidance on smooth roads. I'm thinking of going through the states for cheap gas and a marginally shorter trip -- any advice there? CDL, thanks for the specific recommendations. If I don't make it that way on the way there, they could make a great trip afterward!

So how is the guy in the photo 'driving a Porsche as though he stole it' with a caravan hitched to the back? I just don't see the point. That's like having a dog and barking yourself. Why not a truck? why not no caravan. But together, that guy driving ,must be a complete dick head.

That's such a good point. When I think of the benefits of dog ownership, the barking is invariably first.

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So Hurdi, now you are qualified to tell people what car they should own and then how they should use THEIR cars? And calling them nasty names at the same time while they are doing nothing illegal? I just don't get your comments sometimes......

That should be a great trip. If you don't have power seats with the adjustable lumbar option, I highly recommend you get some aftermarket bladder bags that you can stuff behind the back seat cushion. They are only like $40 the last I checked, or at the very least get a hand towel rolled up to stuff back there. Your back will thank you on trips anything longer than a couple hours.

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Interesting idea. It has the GT3 sport buckets, so I may make something out of foam to go under the back pads. I've made those previously on my track cars and they really improve the fit for me.

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Oh, I just looked at the pic and just now noticed you have the sport buckets. My comments might not apply to the GT3 sport buckets.

I saw the for sale ad on this car and the interior is gorgeous. Have a fun and safe trip.

Congratulations and good luck on the trip. I look forward to reading about it

Agreed. I may have one left over from my 996.

One issue, so far: the low beams (Litronic) work, but the halogen high beams only work when I pull the stalk, not when I push it forward. Preliminary searching implicates the rotary switch on the dash for some headlight issues, but could this really be the cause, given that they work when I pull the stalk but not when I push it forward? Also, I spent a bit of time under the car this weekend. It's pretty clean. I'm missing one of the little rubber mud flap things, forward of the driver's rear wheel:

Some minor irritations, today. I figured installing the new OEM roof rack would be a piece of cake... Three of the four slot head set screws were so soft and so seized that they broke and had to be drilled and tapped. To make matters worse, I had broken a good tap a few weeks ago, and only had a cheap one in the right size. I chanced it. And it broke on the third hole. Grrr... Broken set screw: Drilled (pilot hole, followed by a larger one not shown): Tapping (M6x1.0): Three of four are like this now. One has a broken off tap in the hole until I can borrow an extractor:

So I got the extractor and got the racks on. Then I got a little preoccupied with packing the car and actually moving, so I haven't updated this thread. Now that I'm in Vancouver, here are a few more pictures! Using all available space (the car was so full of picture frames and pots and pans that it sat about an inch lower, front and rear when fully loaded): Stopping for gas the first of many times. A guy on a motorcycle commended my choice of vehicle. He said he had done the drive a total of five times, and that the urge to floor it and just get it over with usually strikes about halfway through. Michigan and Illinois were a breeze once I discovered that the area just inside the outer fog line on the farthest left lane of the highway is the smoothest part (no potholes), since no one drives there consistently. Don't worry, I was usually in an overtaking position. Wisconsin and Minnesota were foggy, so I didn't really get to see much of them. I fought the urge to floor it discussed previously by setting the cruise control. South Dakota's Corn Palace. Those are all husks of corn making up the designs. I didn't go inside: More South Dakota. These are deer antlers, all mounted: Mount Rushmore was my stated purpose for driving through South Dakota. However, to get there, I had to endure literally hundreds of highway billboard ads for tourist traps around that area, on a highway where there are almost literally no other features. By the time I actually reached this point, I was so allergic to the thought of tourism that I decided not even to pay to park in the parking lot at the monument: There was a fair amount of construction in Wyoming and Montana: First view of the mountains in Montana: From there, it was a fairly short trip after a night in Missoula through Idaho and Washington State to get to the border, and thence to Vancouver. I didn't waste a lot of time (except for the numerous times I stopped for gas -- something to do with averaging almost 80 MPH across the country with 1,000lbs of payload and two mountain bikes on the roof). And for those who think a 911 is impractical, I did the trip in a little under four days, in pretty fair comfort, and brought this stuff with me: And: If it's hard to judge scale in that picture, that wall can fit two full length sofas, and the computer monitor is a 24". Oh, and I could still see out the back window when it was all packed in the car.

Thanks for the travelogue, I enjoyed it. Yet another reason why I bought a 911 over all of the other sports cars I had considered. You sure never could have done that in a Ferrari!

Great write and thank you for taking the time to share. You sure did fit a lot of stuff in the car and glad to see you made it back with out any problems.

Great drive, great experience, great car! Thanks for sharing and all the pictures. You will have those memories the rest of your life. I really admire your traveling experience in your Porsche.

That was an awesome road trip. I wish speed limit down here is higher than 62 mph. One observation, your water temp. was a bit high. Had you just started the 85 mph run, or had it always been that high? If I was driving consistently at that speed my water temp needle would be between 1 and 8. Not that I had ever driven that fast.

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Thanks, guys! When I knew I had to make the move out here, and that I wanted to drive, it didn't take me long to find the right car. If you look closely at the driver's side rear window, there is still a track tech inspection sticker on the car because I set out two days after running this car at Mosport! That is taken at about hour six of a sustained 85 MPH (except when I stopped for gas) on a warm day with two big mountain bikes on the roof -- they push a lot of air, and the car was averaging about 18MPG the whole way because of it (usually almost 30, according to the computer). In normal driving, the needle sits exactly where you mention. On a warm day on track, it registers about where it is in the photo (if not a little higher) after about 15 minutes.

Damn!! U sure fit a LOT of stuff in the 996. Thanks for the pics, enjoyed the post

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That pic reminds me of how my wife used to pack hers when she was DDing it and had to move around store inventory and stage equipment. It's rather shocking what you can cram in that car when you put your mind to it (and we have the small C4 frunk!). I love the interior BTW.

Awesome trip! I too slapped the roof rack on my car, and stuffed it with all my crap in anticipation of a cross-country move. But at the last minute an auto-transporter came through. So the car rode piggy back.

Well at least now I can say I've seen that. Have an awesome trip..

Well done!

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That picture is of a 997, not a 996.

Looks like a great trip, thanks for sharing .