Perhaps these are rare situations, but still no excuse for Porsche not to include a donut spare.
Rear tire blew 1/2" hole, glue useless. plugs useless. Car towed to local tire store..closed..after 5pm. Turbo has to be left there until Monday. Tire may come in by Wednesday, who knows until they open. Car rental places closed, tow truck furnished ride to motel.

This no spare crap is bad. I guess donut spares are available ($700) but I'm told no room in trunk if CD player there. A donut spare would at least get you to a motel or home for the weekend, holiday or whatever. What a bad-waste of time in a person's life. Probably a best idea when changing tires to keep a front and rear tire in storage for emergencies.

With an experience like this, really seems chancy to take these turbos too far from home. Maybe that is why you don't see many too far from towns.
On the Forums, haven't seen too many complaints lately, but I wonder how many instances like this are really occurring.

 

Stupid not to include a donut? No. Inconvenient as hell on those rare occasions? Heck yeah.
It's a sports car. Not a family minivan or 4 door boat sedan. Performance is the name of the game. And adding a 100 pound spare (or whatever it weighs) in the f-runk is not going to make that car any faster or handle better.

Heck, my M5 didn't have a spare either and it's a 4000 lbs sedan.

Sorry for your bad experience. But it's a trade off and a gamble. Performance vs. convenience.

 

^^ Agreed. Porsche is not the only one that puts cars out there without a spare. I guess they could've used runflats or aka runcraps, but the handling will change.

 

For many years all Porsches had a spare, the lack of a spare is a 997 thing. It is a huge PITA, that's why I carry a plug kit in the car and keep my stock wheels/tires in the garage.

 

John sorry to hear about that, did pull trigger on exhaust yet?

 

Bonehead, u the same bonehead from M5 board, went on couple of runs with u to bear mt.

 

Sorry to hear about your ordeal.

Agree with Doug...+1 plug kit.

 

One and the same. Sorry, who are you?

 

Hey bonehead, nobody said the word stupid, you said that. There are plenty of collapsible wheels Porsche could offer if the buyer wants one. At least, that way there would be some space to store it, if he/she wants to take it with them on a trip.

I got lucky with this one, if the wife/kid would have been with me, the situation would have been exceedingly more embarrassing. That is, having to stay at this out of town motel for a couple days. Real crap. For my previous M5, the family car, I put in a space saving spare, but with that car there was plenty of room in the trunk for the spare when trips out of town were planned.

Such a strong comeback obviously suggests a lack of weekend/away from home flats; an attitude that will change quickly with upcoming blowouts

 

Easy there fella. I never said or implied that you said that. Those were my words, and mine alone. Again, I'm very sorry you had a horrible experience without a spare. My intent was not to minimize the experience or the potential horrible consequences. Will my tune change if/when I get a flat in the middle of nowhere? Probably. But for now, I'll stick with regular high performance tires without a spare.

 

Don't know how far from home you were, but AAA offers a premium service that will tow up to 200 miles. Maybe something to consider.

 

Have AAA, the Porsche and Easy Care road service plans so towing distance is not an issue. The issue is (on the highway at night) when towed to a closed tire place and then there is a 2-4 day wait for a P2 to be shipped.
I have heard it a good idea when making a long road trip, to call Porsche dealers along the route, to check if they even have any P2s is stock, some do, some don't. At least with a collapsible space saver tire, you could use your car to drive to the motel until car rental place/tire dealer open the next day. I just hate leaving my little gem at some tire store for the weekend. For those not liking a space saver spare, just leave it at home.
I guess my next trip to the keys, I best carry a front tire behind the front seat. Seems like such a bother with a +$130K porsche. At least this way, days won't be wasted waiting for a tire to get shipped in.

 

I had to use the spare on my c4s on two occasions with blowouts, lifesaver. However, if i had a tpms I may have had advanced warning and placed a plug, who knows.
Cooches had a long thread on supplementing a c4s996 spare into a 997tt over on rennlist.

 

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. In my 32 years of driving I have never had a flat (prolly just jinxed myself) and am thankful for that! My NSX had a spare up front and it sat on the floor in my garage! I am sure I would do the same with one if it existed in the turbo. Not sure if they make runflats in our sizes, could be an option for you. About your tire....did you hit something??? Blow outs are pretty rare in today's tires...

 

where are you going to fit the stock rear (assuming that one goes) when you put the spare on and the car is full of kids / luggage?