Tuesday as I was driving back from the city I noticed that one of the rear tires on the Porsche was low on air. So I stopped and topped it off, then went to meet someone at a local Starbucks. When I came out an hour later it had lost 10 lbs. of pressure - not a good thing. Wednesday the wife and I were spending the day at our daughter's, so I dropped the car off at the local service station in the morning and asked them to fix the leak. Around 4:00pm they got to it, and then they called me to say (of course) the tire wasn't repairable and anyway both rear tires were worn and needed replacing. And they don't do that for Porsches. So I picked up the car on our way home and it sits now in the garage leaking air.
Normally, no problem. I'd order some tires from the cheapest place I could find, usually Tire Rack, and arrange to have them installed. But that takes at least a few days. I don't really have a few days. We leave in four days, and I can't be worried that they actually complete the work on Monday when we are heading to the airport in mid-afternoon, and it's pretty hard to get anything done on Sunday, which leaves me with today, tomorrow and Saturday. If I don't fix the tire, I'll come home from the trip to a flat tire.
And before you ask, no, the car doesn't have a spare. Not even the cheesy donut spare good for 50 miles. Why would an expensive car like that come with a spare?
What's the big deal, you say? Just go down to the local tire place and get new tires. Not so fast, bucko. Porsche, being Porsche, "has integrated tire development throughout their process of vehicle development". This results in tires requiring a special designation of "N" - a rating that Porsche got the tire manufacturers to create just for Porsche. Since there are relatively few Porsches in the world, there are relatively few tires of this sort in the world. And none of these are at any of the usual tire dealers.
So this morning's assignment will be to get on the phone and see if I can either find these at a tire dealer in the region, or find them at a Porsche dealer that will also agree to install them today or tomorrow. The later will almost certainly cost more.
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