Five Islands Lobster Company

I went to Portland, Maine over the weekend with the intent of getting to Five Islands Lobster, about 1 1/2 hours out of Portland. This was the place used in an early Japanese luxury car TV ad where a guy drives from Manhattan and while having chowder is asked, "Are you here for the summer?" And he replies, "No, lunch." Right until the night before, their website said they'd be open the next day. I got there just before nominal opening time and it never opened. I checked their site and it said closed due to weather. So much for tough Downeasters! It wasn't raining and the weather cleared to a gorgeous day.
Portland is a nice, entertaining town, with a small, but first rate art museum and several terrific restaurants. Many of the outlying roads have ridiculously low speed limits, and the drivers are mostly catatonic; almost all driving well below the limit. Ironically, the evening news had two separate stories about traffic fatalities. One was where a car plowed into a bicycle group, killing two and injuring several others. Another was a stop sign runner who killed the driver of the other car.
Anyhow, here's a shot taken at Five Islands:

is picking up bad habits. Like the CURVEN8R, it's got a sneaky way of slipping into your pictures.

Terrible about owning a Boxster. You just can't find any REALLY good food close to where you live. Sounds like you had a great drive for the rest of the day.

I think the slow speed limits do lead to catatonic drivers. Everything goes by so slowly that it puts you to sleep. I've also found that in areas where there are very low speed limits that drivers have a tendency to drive below the limit. Must go back to horse and buggy days.

Had to laugh when I read that; Naples, FL is the first place that came to mind with that phrase.

Getting new Goodyear rears (finally) put on Thursday. ≈ 23,500 total on vehicle, but ≈ 3k on the PA4s. The old tires are just about at the wear bars.
Last year had the PA4s rebalanced, and will do the same for the fronts. It might be their ride characteristic, but they feel "rough," but not enough amplitude as an imbalance. The Goodyears are stiff but very smooth. Hopefully the new rears balance as well. If not, we'll have another go at it in 500 miles.

Although likely it was the constant low gear usage in the Maine molasses that passes for traffic, but when I refilled up there, the station's premium was 91, rather than the 93 the car would otherwise get. Does engine mapping, etc. cause the motor to be less efficient? Actually, the slower driving was done mostly with the first tankful. The consumption wasn't reset until returning home and filling at a local place.

I did not find that octane changed the mileage much but once I got west and ran into oxygenated fuels again, the mileage drop was noticeable.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to fuel consumption.

Did you calculate your consumption on your first tank and your second separately or did you use the two (Since and Total) computer readouts? The remaining distance would just be based on your second fillup since it resets each time you fill up.

If that 27.5 mpg was the readout for the whole trip at the end, then your actual mileage on the return trip would have been in the 25.5 mpg range to average out to 27.5 over all.

I believe the main engine remapping would come when you're under power (accelerating, driving up hill etc). Timing would be retarded to prevent the engine from pinging with lower octane fuel, resulting in poorer performance and, I believe, poor economy. I just checked back on our California trip log. There wasn't a significant difference between mileage east of the Mississippi (93 octane) and west of it (91 octane). A lot of that was cruising 70 - 80 mph on the Interstates. .

I notice in your post that you had the top up because of rain/cool temperatures in the morning. Did you put the top down for the return drive when the weather improved? I've noticed about a 1.5 - 2 mpg improvement with the top up, which I attribute to better aerodynamics. Not as enjoyable on a nice day, but less expensive to drive.

MPG is a funny thing. Recently took an 800 mile roundtrip in the wife's Prius. I keep the display on fuel consumption as a "game" to see how high I can get it. Amazing that it can drop like a rock going up hill, passing, etc., but it seems to take for ever to gain it back. So, the difference could have been a few miles of spirited driving, more passing, more uphill, etc., on the way home vs the way there. By the way, averaged 50.1 mpg over 800 miles. Not as fun as the Porsche, but the gas mileage game keeps my mind off the fact that I'm driving a Prius. For some reason, in the Porsche, I keep the OBC display on tire pressure the entire time. Might be a thing about no spare tire, or the fact MPG is not a concern when driving it; although, on long trips, I do zero it out to see what I do average over the course of the drive. The only time I had it on the track, I believe it was 9 MPG.

Or a Corolla. A recent review of the Corolla S said a way to make the car go faster would be to take off the badges.

Quote
Laz
Or a Corolla. A recent review of the Corolla S said a way to make the car go faster would be to take off the badges.

Makes sense to me. You're making the car more aerodynamic and lighter. Bet it would save about a cup of gas a year.

was down for both legs to and from Portland. It was up for the 100 odd mile round trip to FILC. (The overall trip was 723 miles.)
Just north across the Portland harbor there's a Porsche dealer, Marong Falmouth. Funny, if I needed them while in Portland, they were only fifteen minutes away.
Then again, the red light sequences always seemed to be against me. The traffic engineers probably figure those Down Easters are never in a hurry to get anywhere anyway.
Got a wave back from a guy in, I think, a 993. A 987 was right next to me on a city street, but after giving a sideways wave I was too busy looking out for somnambulant pedestrians to know if he replied in kind. A guy on a sidewalk called out, "Nice Cayman!" I nicely (really) corrected him.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

When I filled up, the range said 446 miles. Hadn't seen anything like that since being out west last year, when I saw something like 505. The range warning usually comes on at 50 miles; this time it was at 65.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2013 04:55PM by Laz. (view changes)

And all kidding aside, I wouldn't be too tough on the locals, lol. Didn't most people originally move to Maine to get away from the 'fast life' of the big cities?

Regardless, you have an absolutely beautiful 981, Laz, bordering on stunning. Hope you had a thoroughly enjoyable getaway!

Best regards, -rick.

Didn't eat here but had wine (how fitting!) on the balcony: [www.restaurantgrace.com]
And this place: [northpointportland.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2013 03:07PM by Laz. (view changes)

we have a slogan here in Maine that you all might disagree with - "Maine, the way life should be". Great place to visit, but only some of us are lucky enough to live here, even though our Boxster season is a bit short