Travelled down to Houston for a blast with some guys I know from another forum.

My mate James (another Brit working out here) and I drove down in convoy from Fort Worth; me in my S2000, he in his Boxster S.

The journey down to Houston was eventful, but in a good way!

As we came onto the I-45 at Waxahachie, after taking country rounds to cut east from my place south of Fort Worth, there was a new Charger V8 R/T just passing; hearing the VTEC then seeing James and I come on to the interstate he had some fun with us up to a point. After we blasted off a few times he didn't want to play any more, but he did have his wife/girlfriend in the passenger seat, so fair enough.

We came across a 997 Carrera S cabriolet and the three of us convoyed for about half the journey. The girl driving the new 911 was up for a bit of fun and where it was safe to do so we all blasted up to 'top of VTEC in fifth' lets just say

We attracted the attention of a state trooper passing in the other direction but we were only going a little over the limit at that time. Even so, he came back after us but James spotted him on the horizon flicking his disco roof rack on to get other traffic out the way, James called me on the hand-held CBs we have to let me know as I was driving in front. He caught up with James and sat there on his tail at 79mph for a mile or so, at which point he turned off and let us go.

We kept our wits about us for the rest of the journey and found us some 'radar bait' to sit 1/2 mile behind in the form of a rented SUV travelling at 95mph.

During the fun run, of course much 'fun' was had on the empty twisty roads of Sam Houston National Park forest.

First pic, James and I discussing the Boxster S v S2000 (I'm the guy on the left)

I was 3 feet in front of the Z06 for about a second in the VTEC zone before Paul, the 'Vette driver, realised what I was up to and blew me away

Boxster v S2000

I had a drive in the Boxster on the way home on I-45. You can certainly feel the extra torque of that 3.2 compared to the S2000. The Porsche is very confidence inspiring although the only real corner I drove it round was the I-45 onramp. A much quieter car with the roof down than the S2000, but you sit a lot lower in the Porsche. Due to the MR layout, there is much more room in the cabin than the S2000 and all the controls are nicely laid out. The optional Bose / Becker Hi-Fi in the Boxster is just worlds ahead of the both the stock S2000 system and also the Z3 Harman-Kardon sub system (casting my mind back a while to recall that one!)

At WOT you can hear the boxer sucking the air in just behind and below your ears, and it's a beautiful noise. When James came past me in the Boxster a few times on the I-45 I could barely hear the car though, it is a very discreet noise which is a good thing, not cop-attracting like the banzai VTEC can be

Basically, if I had 20k lying around I would be VERY tempted to swap my beloved S2000 for a Boxster S.

When I got back into the S2000 after we swapped back I realised just how much more noisy my car is, and the lack of torque. However, as soon as I hit 6000 rpm, I was happy with my baby again

We did a couple of roll ons and the Boxster S admittedly pulls away from the S2000, but not by much. Going up a 10%-15% gradient incline (like an on-ramp) is a whole other story though - flat out thru 2nd and 3rd gear joining the interstate I could tell I was holding the Porsche back.

The journey back was pretty much roof-up because of the heat. It was nice to hear my music for a change lol.

More 'radar bait' was found in the form of a Accord V6 Coupe and an A6 2.7T which flew past us at over 100 while we sat with cruise on at 85mph.

A quick call to James over the CB and we decided to use these chaps as our decoy.

Got home at around 4.55pm having left Houston just after 1pm. Saw a C6 Z06 on the last stretch of the journey, he dipped the clutch at 25mph and did us a nice little rolling burnout. That car is brutal!

I am sure some of the single guys might have been tempted to stop off here:

Pics of the fun runners:

Disclaimer: Top of VTEC in 5th gear is 80mph due to my gearing ;)

Right, I'm off to buy some new tires

Nice pictures. What a nice young man driving the S2000!! Well he should be he is my son:thumbup:

Sounds like you had fun.

I used to love driving the farm roads round Dallas (used to live there). I like the way they have a picture of the bend and a max speed on them. Worked out that the Porsche would go round at "double it and add 10" to whatever the speed on the sign said :D

Nice piccies..... and very nice motors.

As an aside issue is there much ex-pat work in the Houston area? Oil and Gas industry. Toying with the idea of jumping ship to Aberdeen but why do things by halves

Sounds like you had fun.

I used to love driving the farm roads round Dallas (used to live there). I like the way they have a picture of the bend and a max speed on them. Worked out that the Porsche would go round at "double it and add 10" to whatever the speed on the sign said :D

Very much so' date=' the cars got a damn good workout!

We have some great roads west of Fort Worth which I travel on (FM roads) and are 30 minutes drive from my house.

As for the 'advisory max speed' signs at bends, they are very useful as they give you an idea of how sharp the bend is going to be on an unfamiliar road. Allows some sensible planning before turn in and starting to read the apex. You're right though, whatever they advise you can usually double it in a good sportscar.

My S2000 really impressed me, of all the cars it was the most nimble in the twisties, a couple of times my internal 'g meter' / sense of danger told me I was on the limit but a quick prayer and turn of the steering wheel I found the car had more grip than I thought ever possible!

Of course, the (slighty modded 450WHP) Vette and the CBR1100 bike would pull right away from me as the turns straightened up!

Nice piccies..... and very nice motors.

As an aside issue is there much ex-pat work in the Houston area? Oil and Gas industry. Toying with the idea of jumping ship to Aberdeen but why do things by halves

Thanks. I can't take credit for any of the pics other than those at the bottom of the post. The guy who took the pics in the first part of the post has a D50 with a 70-200 Nikkor lens on it (I am not a camera buff but this lens was about 10" long).

As for jobs out here, you'd be best applying through internet websites for the companies in that industry, or Monster.com. You would be very lucky to get sponsorship by applying for a job that way though, best try and get a job in Europe with a big US firm then get out here on an assignment or secondment:

My Indian friend in the pics worked as a SAP consultant in Bangalore and his company transferred him to the US on an assignment. The people he was working for in the US liked him so much that they 'stole' him. I guess they sponsored him as he has a visa to work in the US. He is doing really well for himself considering the standard of life he has now. Very intelligent guy.

Similarly, me and my friend James work for a big UK company and are out here on a 3 year secondment. Our UK company sponsored our visas. There is a chance that the company we work at (the US arm of the UK company) might try and 'keep' us but only a very slim chance of that; as it's the same corporation you get into internal politics.

One of the other guys is South African but married a US citizen while working here temporarily and hence got his green card that way. I guess to take this route you could try dating on the net, the Americans 'just love your accent' and find us colonials very cute!