Pyrenees trip 2024 extended!!!!!

When I saw the post about a driving trip to the Pyrenees, it was a pretty straight forward decision to make, my wife and would be co-pilot (who has no interest in cars) didn’t take much persuading either.

We then had a brainwave, we usually visit family in Czech in October so why not make it an epic road trip, starting with WCPDC in the Pyrenees and parting ways as guys headed back to Santander.

So, ferry booked, hotels booked and a year to wait!

I’ve had a 2016 Boxster 981 for 3 years, I delayed the major service due for a couple of months until shortly before we left. Had a brake calliper fault rectified and we were ready for the off.

Having booked the ferry a year ago, we assumed it would leave in the evening so didn’t bother to book the day off work, checked 3 weeks before departure and finished up leaving work early, meeting everyone in Plymouth before going straight to the ferry.

There was plenty of banter on the boat over a couple of beers as we got to know everyone , not a lot of sleep was had as it wasn’t the calmest crossing and before we knew it we docked in Santander.

A few of us went with Alan Cookson at pace over some epic roads in some challenging and rather wet conditions with the rear end regularly sliding out.

An hour or so into this drive I noticed a very occasional misfire which sometimes occurred when pulling away at low speed and low revs. This problem came to dominate the beginning of the trip and took the gloss off what should have been an epic trip.

Day 2 arrived, the weather improved and another epic drive followed with some
Mega roads, dizzying altitudes and we enjoyed a slightly more moderate pace than the day before which was ideal with the very minor misfire problem. Roads were fabulous, scenery unbelievable and vultures overhead waiting for any mishap!

After chatting to a couple of the guys and reaching out to Adrian Crawford for his thoughts, conscious that we were moving into the weekend I found a Porsche Specialist a couple of hours drive from the hotel and near the hotel of the final night. Given that we had another 4500 km ahead of us, it seems prudent to get the problem checked out.

An email in my best French followed by a phone call (the first time I’d used my degree on French in anger for nearly 30 years led us to peel off from the group and not expecting to see them again until Pau.

Off we went over a fabulous mountain road to GTS Motors where we had a great welcome and a look around the facilities before the car was plugged in to find no fault codes. After a test drive and more diagnostics, a slight misfire was found on 4 cylinders. Given that the car had just had new plugs and a 4 cylinder misfire plugs and coil packs were eliminated.

We were advised to drain the tank, fill up with Total 98 and see if that cured the problem, if not the guy’s suspicion was the lambda sensor. So we had half a tank to burn, plotted a route to the hotel where everyone was staying and had tonnes of fun in sport mode with PSE on and relieved that the problem was deemed nothing too serious.

Sunday arrived and the car behaved impeccably over some of the most amazing roads I’ve ever driven, beautiful surfaces, vistas to die for and the problem seemingly gone. We were in the second group which overcame the quandary of making the most of the car and the roads versus enjoying the magnificence of the Pyrenees. Fairly relaxed though spirited at times and noisy – especially behind Plumdog in the tunnels! Alas, on the last and narrowest pass of the day with lots of low speed stopping and starting the misfire problem returned.

After a last dinner, we said our farewells as we were leaving early next morning for our 500 mile drive to Annecy. Whilst there we visited another Indy who found some minor electrical faults but nothing more. He emailed me a summary of what he’d found, wished us well and told us not to worry and enjoy the rest of the trip.

We’re now in the Czech Republic 2500 miles and 7 countries in even with out minor and infrequent misfire.

Looking back, it was a great few days though clearly over shadowed with the misfire. Would I go on another trip? Yes, definitely, though I fear my copilot is a little less enthusiastic than me!

We’ve had a couple of significant incidents where we’ve lost traction including a massive fishtail on a damp roundabout in Slovenia which is probably behind this lack of enthusiasm!