It’s not new-new, but sure is new to me! Personalized license plates have already been ordered. The driving experience is nothing short of awesome.

Today we went around the bay, mostly on known roads, to learn the car. The tire pressure monitoring got me a little confused at first, so we started by checking the pressure with an old fashion gauge and resetting the on-board computer. I opted for the stock 17″ wheels in an attempt to deal with whatever passes for a road in the bay area. Potholes are everywhere!

I didn’t feel confident enough to drive in the city, so we parked in San Bruno and took Caltrain to the Folsom Street Fair in SF. There are leathery pics on flickr if you wanna see what that’s about. I was mostly oblivious, worrying about the car being alone in some sketchy parking lot

But it was fine. The parking lot was actually less sketchy than the fair. Once reunited with the vehicle, it was time to fill up. Apparently, typical California premium gas is 91 octane, while Texas ( being oil-producing and having a low lexus-per-capita ratio ) may have 93 or higher available. The Porsche manual says over 90 will work thanks to anti-knocking control in the engine and at the expense of a few HP. Also these numbers cannot be directly compared to the octane ratings in Europe. cf nifty chart:

Only option to get the recommended 93 octane gasoline in my car seems to be mixing the so-called “premium” with 100 octane racing fuel. Blah… I’m not out to save the planet, but I’m not out to win street races either. Already with the plain sans-plomb, I can’t wait to be on the road tomorrow morning on my way to work