My son and I drove to my mothers house in Oklahoma for Christmas, a 500+ mile drive. Fortunately we had clear weather on the way up and about three hours after we got there it started to snow, something we rarely see in Austin.

The next day we saw a light coating of snow on the ground and decided to take the Cayenne out for some friction-free fun. My mother suggested we go to the parking lot of her church and that would have been a good spot if there had been a bit more snow. As it was, there was only about 50% coverage so the spins were somewhat jerky and we were leaving some skid marks on the parking lot, so we decided to move on.

We next tried the parking lot of a vocational school because it seemed to have a little better snow coverage. Even there the coverage was no better than 75% and not quite as much clear area as at the church parking lot. We had a go at it anyway and were having some pretty good fun doing figure 8's. Unfortunately, on one of the slides my front tires caught some dry pavement causing the rear to spin and hit a curb, breaking my right rear wheel. Wow! Talk about putting a damper on your fun!

I get out the collapsible spare and mount it, only to find it will not air up. I feel air escaping from the side and conclude the bead is not sealing against the rim. No amount of pushing or squeezing would make the bead seat so we gave up and had a friend pick us up.

I call Porsche roadside assistance and explain that I have a broken wheel and the collapsible will not hold air. The person answering asks if I tried the tire sealant. "On the collapsible spare?" I ask. "No, on your original tire" she says. "Hmmm, no I didn't, but I am reasonably certain that wouldn't work. .... Did I mention that the wheel was broken?" I ask if they can get me a new wheel and they say the only thing they could do was tow my car to the dealer. I noted that the nearest dealer was a two and a half hour drive away in Oklahoma City. That was going to be a very expensive tow. She said that was all they could do so I arranged for the tow, which turned out to not be available until the next day, Christmas Eve.

I met the tow truck at my car and I first suggested we try to air up the collapsible spare. He had a big compressor on his flatbed and it was able to put enough volume of air into the tire that we were able to seat the bead and the spare begin to fill up. Since I was mobile at that point I told him to forget the tow to the dealer and I would just order the wheel myself.

As it turned out, parts and service were closed at the dealership on Christmas Eve so so I was not able to order the wheel until the following Monday. The new wheel finally arrived on Wednesday so I drove to Oklahoma City with my broken wheel, swapped the tire and pressure sensor and returned to my mothers house. I mounted the new wheel and we started down the road back to Austin, about three days later than we had planned to return. Oh well, something to talk about I guess.