Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have the windows down, warm air blasting in your face, AND get a quick chill cooling at the same time? Yes, I’m talking about having your cake and eating too!

A company named Just 2 Cool promises their Cool Off product will darn near do just that. Cool Off is a natural, personal cooling towelette the company claims will invigorate and refresh you whether you’re behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS on the race track, or simply spectating race day from the stands.

They sent us some samples to test out. Since I don’t have much of an opportunity to race, I decided to throw some into my pack for a day hike my wife and I took with some friends.

It was a hot day, a rarity this year in the Pacific Northwest, setting us up for a good test of the Cool Off towelettes. On the return leg of the hike, all 4 of us were sweating up a storm with the sun beating down. We stopped about half way back and I broke out the Cool Off towelettes. At first, it felt kind of like rubbing one of those moist towelettes they hand out with a plate of ribs on your face and neck. I was a bit skeptical these worked.

After about 60 seconds, the cooling effect seemed to kick in. I definitely felt refreshed and cooled off. I don’t know that I’m in love with the Citrus Ice scent, but I do have to say I at least felt some quick relief from the heat. What’s more, my wife and I both felt a bit of the cooling effects for another 15 or 20 minutes.

The Cool Off cooling towelettes are infused with a clean-scented formulation of natural ingredients that include cooling herbs, botanicals, and essential oils. This residual on the skin is what helped prolong the cooling effect we felt.

Overall, I don’t know that I’d rush out to buy a box of Cool Offs, but I sure wouldn’t hesitated to try them again, especially if you’re sitting somewhere hot with no hope of relief from the heat coming (a Boston Red Sox game a couple of years ago comes to mind).

I have one Cool Off left. I’d like to send it to someone who would try it while driving their Porsche in the heat and report back what they think. If you’re up for the assignment and don’t mind giving your thoughts, let me know via the Contact page and I’ll get this over to you.

You can check out the Cool Off product at TheQuickChill.com.

Those of you who are parents love your kids and would do darn near anything for them. That’s no surprise. However, just because we love our kids and want them to enjoy the carefree years that mark the beginning of a person’s life, doesn’t mean we love all of the programming geared towards our kids. I know you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. I’m not sure which I’d rather hear on a long trip: “Are we there yet?” for the 20th time, or “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family.” by a big purple beast.

It’s really no big deal to watch just about any TV show or movie a couple of times. When you get to literally the 50th or 60th time through, though, you’re ready to do some illegal stuff to not only those happy characters but also the people that created them.

Fortunately, Kidz Gear has come to the rescue and is there to help you regain some sanity, not only on the road, but at home as well.

Kidz Gear headphones are specifically designed for kids bringing grown-up performance in a product built for kids. They are sized right for smaller heads and smaller ears, without sacrificing a decent sound, even though most kids could care less. Gotta start those audiophile tendencies young.

The Wired Kidz Gear Headphones work with about any audio source and are great for use on the go in the car or on a plane. They feature a built in volume control along with comfort padding. They keep the sound in allowing you to enjoy NOT listening to the same Disney movie for the 61st time.

The Wireless Kidz Gear Headphones have the same features as the wired version, only these work with the IR technology in vehicles with entertainment features that include video. Kidz Gear even guarantees compatibility with all cars so equipped. They have a volume control along with power on/off, automatic power off and automatic muting. A great quality product and solid addition to the entertainment system in your car, hopefully a Porsche Cayenne!

One additional accessory that’s available is an IR transmitter you can use in your home to give you a broader range of uses for the Wireless Kidz Gear Headphones. The transmitter easily plugs into the audio source of your TV, DVD player or video game system and let’s peace and quiet reign in your house while your little one (whether they be 2 years old or 17 years old) gets entertained.

Check out Kidz Gear headphones at GearForKidz.com. Let them save you from doing something that results in your imprisonment!

Now you may be asking, “What the heck kind of review is this?!” Fear not, I did actually try several of these products, just from the relative comfort of my garage. I’ll have more to say, I’m sure, once I have a chance to give the car the full detail treatment in another couple of months.

Here’s what Autoglym sent me:

• Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care
• Autoglym Instant Tyre Dressing
• Autoglym Rapid Detailer
• Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner
• Autoglym Super Resin Polish
• Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner
• Autoglym High Definition Wax
• Autoglym Perfect Palm Applicator

You car nuts out there will be appalled to hear that I’ve always been a bit of a household goods type of car washer. I pretty much just fill up the mop bucket with hot water and use a little dish soap to create some suds. At least I don’t just run through the car wash (which I’ll admit I’ve also been known to do when I’m feeling particularly lazy). I always just figured soap was soap, although I know better.

Autoglym may have just singlehandedly changed my ways. The product they sent me is top quality, but not only that, there’s something for pretty much any car cleaning job you set out to do. Check out the sheer number of products they carry:

Autoglym has built their business around providing high quality products for automotive care and valeting. They were established in 1965 with a commitment to developing products to enhance the life and look of your automobile. They continue to look for ways to enhance their products and bring new technology to the products used in the automotive world.

Each of their products is designed to meet a specific cleaning or finish enhancement need on your car. One of my favorites, though, is the Instant Tyre Dressing. I’m sure I’m not alone in loving the look of shiny black tires on a clean Porsche, or any car for that matter. I’ve always had a tough time finding a product that would do the trick though. The Autoglym product worked great when sprayed on to washed tires, then left to dry, resulting in a nice glossy sheen. Love it!

Couple this with the Custom Wheel Cleaner and you’re going to be the talk of the neighborhood.

One item is especially unique and worth mentioning. The Autoglym Perfect Palm is one sweet applicator. It’s got the mold of a hand on one side, along with a foam pad on the other side providing even application of the cleaning product being used. It’s light, fits the hand perfectly and worked great with the Vinyl & Rubber Care product I used on the interior. One particularly cool feature is the ability to put the Perfect Palm on the back of your hand for those hard to reach or awkward places, like the bottom of the windshield inside the car. I love this product.

The perfect product to see how cool the Perfect Palm can be is the Autoglym High Definition Wax Kit. I’m a sucker for things with HD in the name, and evidently that applies to auto care products. I was ready to rush out into the snowy weather we had a couple of weeks ago to try this stuff out. The kit includes a pot of high definition wax, two applicators and one hi-tech finishing cloth. A far cry from old green bottle of Turtle Wax I used on my girlfriend’s Nissan Pulsar in college. I suppose that’d be akin to watching TV in black and white.

The other products are pretty self explanatory and seem to work as advertised. At least when I gave them a shot. I don’t really know what you say about cleaning products like this other than my car, especially the inside, looks great. Definitely a step up from the old ArmorAll that dad used to use on the car.

I love the results of the cleaners and would happily use these on any car, including the Porsche. You can pick up Autoglym products at Pep Boys, Canadian Tire, PartSource or WalMart. Check out other locations at the Autoglym web site: autoglym.com.

A little over a week ago, we fired up a little giveaway for something probably more on the unusual side for a Porsche blog. An On The Job gift pack is on the line. All you have to do is submit a Porsche picture…or pictureS! Send in 1 or 100 pictures. Whatever you have that you’d like to share. Legally of course.

Above are a couple of the submissions so far.

You’ve got just a week left before the cutoff and we draw a winner. See the details here: Submit Your Porsche Picture, Win An On The Job Gift Pack.

Send in some pics!!!

Fortunately for a guy like me, companies like Black & Decker make products designed to help out wannabebutneverwillbe “mechanics” like me. I was pleasantly surprised to find just such a product show up at my door recently. Black & Decker sent over their 500 AMP Jump-Starter with Inflator to review.

Let me just say, this is one heck of a handy product and one similar to it saved my bacon while I was out in a Ferrari 348ts last year and it kept dying.

The Black & Decker Jump Starter is just that. It’s a jump starter that doesn’t require you to have another vehicle available to start a car with a dead battery. You hook up the heavy duty jumper cables to the dead battery, give it a minute and let er rip.

A couple of other cool features about this particular model is the included inflator. Very handy for car tires, bike tires, basketballs, soccer balls, etc. They even include a little compartment with a needle and some other adapters for the inflator. It’s got a built in pressure gauge. This model also has a built in area light that is very useful if you’re trying to hook up the unit on a car at night. Last little touch is a USB charger outlet. Helpful for juicing your electronics in a pinch.

The only thing I’ve found it won’t start is a completely dead battery. My neighbor’s son was over at their house for dinner one night last year. Something happened with his Porsche Cayman battery and it was completely dead when he came out. I think he hadn’t driven the car much in a month or two and it just slowly drained. The jump starter we used on it wouldn’t give it enough power to turn it over. Course neither did jumper cables connected to another vehicle.

Overall, I can’t say enough good about the Black & Decker Jump Starter and Inflator. Personally, I think every garage should have one. Even if you have newer cars. Just comes in handy, and you never know when.

Check em out on the Black & Decker site here: Black & Decker.

Up until B&D sent these, we’ve relied on what the family has come to call “the blue thing” which is a power supply for a cigarette lighter that offers a couple of standard AC outlets. The thing is beat to crap because it’s traveled with us for so long and has started to act up a bit, most likely due to age. It has been a life saver powering laptops, game boys, iPods, cell phone chargers and a host of other unremembered electronic items. I even used it to power my coffee grinder one time while camping.

Both of the products B&D sent are designed to provide power while on the go.

First is a 100W Electronics Charger, part of Black & Decker’s imobile line. As you can see from the picture, it’s pretty simple, which is part of it’s beauty. Plug it into your lighter socket and you’ve got an AC plug and USB outlet for charging gadgets like an iPod.

One of my favorite things about this accessory is it’s size. It’s small and the lighter adapter folds behind the housing. Would fit perfectly in a glove box or center console. The Electronics Charger also has lights that show fault settings and a warning mechanism that warns against draining the battery in your vehicle.

Second is a 500W 2-In-1 Automotive Power Supply, from the Black & Decker Power It line. This steps the power supply up a notch offering not only 100W operation through the use of your car’s cigarette lighter plug, but 500W operation when connected directly to a vehicle or boat battery. This allows for continuous operation, even when the vehicle is off and increased power for heavier duty applications.

The unit provides two AC outlets and a USB outlet. It has similar features to the 100W compact power supply such as status lights and low battery protection. The housing is made of a sturdy hard plastic and is relatively compact. Overall a nice replacement for “the blue thing.”

Both accessories are well made and worth a look. I know I personally couldn’t live without one (sad…I know), nor could my family. Heck, we have trouble just having 2 AC outlets available and I’ve thought about bringing a small power strip along on long trips.

Of the two of these Black & Decker power supplies, I personally like the 100W compact unit. It’s a perfect companion for a Porsche where space is tight in the car.

Check out more product info at Black & Decker’s site here: Black & Decker, as well as your favorite retail outlet for their products.

Paul sent me a link to this picture this morning. Here’s a great solution to all you Pontiac Aztek fans out there who have resigned yourselves to attempted happiness driving a Porsche Boxster. Finally a company has come to your rescue!

Sadly, someone will probably try to produce such a thing.

Fanatec recently released a new Porsche inspired racing wheel that’s worth mentioning. I’ve reviewed two different Fantec wheel and pedals setups in the past. You can read my reviews here:

Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S Racing Wheel Review

Fanatec Does The Racing Wheel ONE BETTER!!!

Both are simply amazing for enhancing game play on a PC, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. My personal favorite (so far!) is the 911 GT3 RS wheel.

Fanatec’s latest iteration, the 911 GT2 wheel, promises to not disappoint. Here are some features of the new wheel:

• ALCANTARA wrapped wheel that is larger in diameter than previous versions. This is 100% the same stuff used in the actual Porsche 911 GT2 car.
• Carbon fiber shifter paddles
• Pedals made of CNS machined aluminum
• Adjustable settings outside the game like steering and brake sensitivity
• The ClubSport pedals even have ABS vibration!

Several versions of the setup are available starting at $249.95.

This thing is absolutely gorgeous. I hope to get my hands on one sometime in the near future to test out. I’m glad Fanatec keeps upping the ante on what they’re bringing to the game play table.

If you haven’t looked at Fanatec wheels in the past, you owe it to yourself to check them out. They’re not cheap, but they’re well worth the money spent. My son and I now walk by the wheels by Microsoft and Logitech and just shake our heads at the fact that we used to think those were THE wheels to have for racing play.

Check out Fanatec’s site here: Fanatec Racing Wheels.

I have to admit I was a little surprised and skeptical when I got an email from Alan Shaw of Shaw Pens asking me to give him a call. He claimed to be responsible for designing and producing the recent PCA special edition carbon fiber pen. I took a quick look at his site, though, and he has some beautiful designs. What’s more, he was recently featured in Pen World (arguably the most important magazine in the pen/writing instrument world), which only further legitimizes this penmaker.

I’m not usually much of a fan of logo’d gear or accessories of any sort. I love Porsches, and I’m a PCA member, but I don’t need to go around announcing it to the world. This, however, is one PCA item I wouldn’t mind having on my desk. The pen is absolutely gorgeous, which is part of the reason I was so skeptical when Alan emailed me.

A little about Shaw. He learned penmaking years ago. In 2006, he ended up making it his full time business. One thing he mentioned to me on the phone, and that he seems very proud of, is everything is made in the good old USA. From the pens themselves to the nibs and boxes.

The PCA special edition pen is made of carbon fiber and features the PCA medallion recessed on the end of the cap. It’s not a limited edition, but only 55 will be made in time for Christmas delivery this year. The pen sells for $349.

The pen speaks for itself and anything I try to say to describe it won’t even begin to do it justice. Just take a look at the pictures. I will say this combines two things I absolutely love: pens and Porsches.

This would make a great Christmas gift or addition to a collection.

UPDATE: Alan emailed me a minor point of clarification. The nibs used in the pens are made in Germany, not the USA as I mentioned in the post.

My wife first stumbled across Route 30 Classics a few years ago while on a bike ride in the area with some friends. As soon as she told me about it, I was ready to roll that day, but it took another year to actually get back there. Unfortunately it ended in a failed attempt to get through the doors.

Route 30 Classics is a little over an hour out of Portland, Oregon, on the Columbia River Gorge right off I-84. The name of the town it’s in is Mosier. There really isn’t anything there other than a couple of restaurants (that happen to be very good) and the Porsche Ice Cream Shop as I’ve come to call it.

About a year after my wife told me about Route 30 Classics, we ended back up in the area for a soccer game for my son. I’d had all sorts of intentions of getting there for a blog write up in the Giveaway Porsche, but never made it, so this provided the perfect opportunity to take advantage of a heck of a long drive for a middle school soccer game. After the game, we made our way over to one of the restaurants, right next door to Route 30 Classics.

We finished dinner and walked next door to get ice cream along with some pictures of what was inside this Porsche time capsule. It had CLOSED in the time it’d taken us to eat dinner! Big time disappointment.

We FINALLY made it to Route 30 Classics, while it was open, when my wife and I went to Hood River for our anniversary. Hood River is along the Gorge as well and just a few miles away from Mosier. Needless to say, it was worth the multiple attempts to get there.

When you walk into the place, it feels a bit old and run down. There are shirts and other Route 30 Classics trinkets you can purchase, as well as a few Porsche accessories. What I found extremely cool were all the pictures along the walls. Different write ups on the place, celebrities that had visited and pictures of various Porsches throughout the years. This picture and note from Jerry Seinfeld’s visit to Route 30 Classics was my favorite:

The wide hall through the middle of the place leads to a garage/shop sort of space in the back. It’s roped off, but had a couple of nice older Porsches in the back. A Porsche 914 and what looks to me like a Porsche 911 Targa (correct me if I’m wrong). Both appeared to be in great condition from a distance. The place was pretty dark, so the pictures are a bit on the dark side.

They also have a big display case with all sorts of Porsche models and miniature cars. Between that and the Porsche posters on the walls throughout, it felt like I’d been transported back to my room when I was a kid. I didn’t get a chance to meet the owner, but maybe I will when I get back to the place.

Route 30 Classics is definitely worth the visit if you’re in the Portland area. It’s right off the freeway, and the Gorge on a sunny day is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Lots of water falls, hiking trails and scenery to take in.

Here’s a link to the Route 30 Classics site if you want to take a peek: Route30Classics.com. Not much there, but some great Porsche pictures on the Cars page.