Echoes from the Interior: Vol 2
Post date: Dec 01, 2010 6:10:15 PM
BCIR Newsletter Volume 2 (Published Nov 2010)
Table of Contents
Request for Executive Nominees
Message from the President
It’s not just the People
Don at the Drag Strip
Targa New Zealand
20 Years of Development
Porsche Escape 2010
Your Porsche was Designed to Race: Silver State & Salt Flats
Hibernate? Big White Winter Rally & SnowX
It’s Election Time: Request for Executive Nominees
It is time for our annual BCIR-PCA executive team election. If you are a Porsche keener, enjoy organizing, a people person, or just simply have some spare time you wish to contribute to this chapter of PCA, please send a brief summary of yourself and Porsche experiences (if any, it is ok if you have no club experience) to dinger928@hotmail.com to nominate yourself for one of the following BCIR-PCA positions:
· President
· Vice President Nelson
· Vice President South Okanogan
· Vice President North Okanogan
· Vice President Kamloops
· Treasurer **
· Secretary **
** preferably same location as presidentPlease send your self-nominations by Friday December 10th, 2010. Elections will follow shortly after. If you have any questions on any of the responsibilities and rolls involved in the above executive positions, please request them and we will send details to you.
Message from the President
by Gordon Heidinger
We have grown from 31 members last year to 44! This is great news and thank you to all our new members for joining. I very much look forward to personally helping the region grow and establish itself over the many more years to follow. We truly do have a variety of excellent members and car owners throughout our region. We hope to encourage everyone to network via our BCIR connections to coordinate get togethers. Whether it’s simply getting together for a coffee or beverage to talk about cars, or cruising some of the best paved roads in North America right in our own back yard, BCIR networking will allow you to make such arrangements.
Each sub-region has a friendly representative that you can reach out to to find out about the more local events, or if you’re interested in arranging and sending out notifications to other BCIR-PCA members, we can do that for you.
We are always welcoming new members and new enthusiasm in the world of Porsches and other exotic car lovers in the great interior. So if you’re a bit of a keener, and like to network with other fine car owners, please drop us a line. We look forward to hearing from you.
Happy motoring, Gord Heidinger, President, BCIR
It’s Not Just the Cars, It’s the People!
by Dale Eurich
Own a Porsche? Join the club. Over 100,000 of your fellow Porsche owners already have.
For over 50 years, the Porsche Club of America has been dedicated to enhancing the Porsche ownership experience. Social, technical or competitive - no matter your interest, the PCA has something to offer every Porsche owner. The Porsche Club of America offers driving experience, technical assistance, member benefits, and camaraderie second to none. Over the years, the club has grown to 139 Regions across North America.
While our cars are very exclusive, the club is not. Membership is open to all Porsche owners, co-owners or lessees, who are 18 years of age or older. At the time of joining, the member of record is permitted to name either a member of his or her family to become a family member or other interested person to become an affiliate member, at no additional cost. The family or affiliate member must also be 18 years of age or older.
Membership dues are payable in U.S. funds by cheque, money order, Visa, MasterCard or American Express. The fee includes the monthly Porsche Panorama magazine, the world's premier publication dedicated to Porsches. A portion of your dues is returned each year to your assigned local region for support of its local activities.
Please Note: If you are already a member of PCA and have requested to be assigned to a PCA region other than the British Columbia Interior Region, the BCIR Executive would encourage you to contact PCA and request to be assigned to the BCIR.
You may securely apply online by going to the following address:
https://pca.org/Membership/JoinPCA/ApplicationForm.aspx
Happy and safe driving!
Dale Eurich, Membership Chair, BCIR
Don at the Drag Strip
by Don Anderson
The Wine Country Racing Association's holds several drag races every spring summer and fall in Osoyoos. I went in spring, and in fall and had a surprising amount of fun. it's side by side 1/8 mile drags on an airport runway. There are different classes but I ran in the open street class. There's also bracket racing and faster classes for full-on dragsters.
You can run your car as hard or as easy as you want. I didn't try a burn-out or anything, just let out the clutch and got on the gas. it would be fun to run some Porsches and other sports cars against each other.
You can race almost as many times as you want. After your run you can head back to the pits or line up to go again. It's $10 admission for everyone and a $20 driver's fee. Tech is very easy. Just make sure your battery is tied down.
Below are links to the WCRA site and videos of my runs. I can't emphasize enough that it's just plain fun. Any questions just drop me a line. Hope to see you there next year!
Don
http://www.winecountryracing.ca/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5SYVQk7WVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2el8gACBbz8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YTzriAWy0&feature=related
Targa New Zealand
by Duane Bentley. Photos courtesy of Groundsky Photography & author.
Targa New Zealand recap... the week of racing went really well: finished 3rd in Classic Category 2, and 9th overall in the Classic Division (any vehicle built before 1986). Kelly is a solid driver – keeping cool under pressure. He has the discipline to not let the "red mist" take over and avoiding apexing too early. Thankful to have been invited into the co-drivers’ seat.
Happy to say I seemed to have Beginner's Luck and nailed the co-driver / navigator duties, the most important of which are as follows:
a) don't get car sick and obscure windshields with vomit.
b) don't grab the steering wheel or handbrake... especially on corners.
c) don't constantly scream "We are all going to die!"
d) don't mistake your "left" and "right" (e.g. "...90 degrees left after blind crest, caution cliff on right... you can see it would get interesting if you switch those little words.)
Also, if interested, a series of videos recapping each day from the Targa NZ organizers.
Prologue Day: http://vimeo.com/16164587
Day 1: http://vimeo.com/16202700
Day 2: http://vimeo.com/16238438
Day 3: http://vimeo.com/16270890
Day 4: http://vimeo.com/16306329
Day 5: http://vimeo.com/16339608
Our 1973 Porsche 911 3.0 RS was superb, considering the pounding a car gets racing on public roads with variable tarmac surfaces, including many humps, jumps and bumps. Furthermore, considering it was built in the same year I was born (1972) is pretty amazing for a car that old to be so solid.
Thanks to EuroPacific / Carrera Sport Racing, an Auckland, NZ, Independent Porsche Specialist: they provided the "turnkey racecar" (arrive-and-drive rental) that was well prepared – and a superb crew: superb team of Steve, Luke, Jarrod, Nathan and Hoods. They kept us on the road, fixed they few little issues that naturally spring up and treated us like the royalty we aren't!
It was a "bucket list" adventure of epic proportions... Final thanks to my good wife Janna for supporting this hobby/work passion!
I am a lucky man.
More photos at http://www.targacanadawest.com/.
Duane Bentley, PCA BCIR VP Kelowna, is also the CEO of Targa Canada West, and is bringing this ‘tarmac rally’ style of motorsport adventure to the BC Interior.
20 Years of Development
by Gordon Heidinger
It seems as though the Porsche owner gets bit by the Porsche bug between the young age of 6 and 10. Which I lately have been learning is really the peak age of influence for the over-all male species, particularly when it comes to the future careers and more relatively the toys we end up collecting and playing with as adults. Well really, let’s admit, we don’t really grow up, we simply get bigger, better and usually more expensive toys. Sometimes seemingly not maturing at all when it comes to play time. I always thought I was pretty unique when I had my first ride in a white 79 911 SC, at the ripe age of 8 years old. That had influenced me so much that I ended up pivoting my entire career around this simple “rip around the block,” my older brother’s friend’s father’s car. I suppose it also helped that I am a mutt mix of German and Austrian and therefore felt like I had this silly magical family connection to Porsche brand. Sort of like that connection that most young Americans typically feel for celebrities, almost this make-believe friendship or relationship, describes exactly what I had felt for this superior automotive brand. To add to that, throughout several of the subsequent blooming years of my childhood coincided with the truly blooming years of Porsche products. Reading reviews in Motor Trend magazine, articles about their dominants at Lemans, GT racing, not to mention watching the birth of the legendary 959. And how could I ever forget the Rothmans 911 SCRS rally car, which, being born and raised in the frozen prairie city of Winnipeg, was the driving style that most attracted me throughout my pubescent development. To the point where I wore out the handbrake cables in my mother’s car during my early driving years. To me it was not a parking brake, more a secondary much more efficient lever to help get around the corners of the frozen solid streets. A driving technique which later enhanced into left foot braking methods, and only used the handbrake on sharp slow speed hairpins or to quickly turn around on single residential streets. I would try to impress my passengers (male and female) with successfull attempts of the Scandinavian Flick. Which, I might add, can go wrong so utterly quick if not precisely performed or if road conditions aren’t exactly what is expected, or… on a first date!
As I meet more and more Porsche enthusiasts from around the world, some owners and some not yet, I find that my conception of the Porsche bug was not such a unique occurrence at all. Most of us owners, all most all owners in fact, have been influenced by Porsche at some young age, which then lead to a purchase many years later. Porsche has even produced and aired a couple commercials with that exact story line, which I must admit, would jerk a tear at a moment of emotional weakness.
As all companies with uber-successful products, they do change, a lot. Year after year, Porsche has made slow, small, and stable steps to refining their products. Listening to what their customers may want, enhancing product with only perfection in mind. Perfecting the product year after year, durability test after durability test, lap after lap on the Nordschleifer.
In one of our 2009 jaunts to Meadow Creek for Breakfast, well okay, we were out more for the asphalt corners than breakfast, breakfast was merely a convenience along the way, I met Paul. I’ve heard a little bit about his 83 930 from my neighbour who ended up connecting us. So only 3 of us on the road this time since it was fairly late in the season. Along the meandering way back to Nelson from Kaslo, we decide to swap, which is a pretty normal routine for us trusting P-car owners. Finally a chance to drive the car that was plastered all over my bedroom walls as a boy, truly the epitome of my automotive life. When I first got into the car I stumbled across a very fun and quite unique fact, my 996 was exactly 20 years newer, and had almost identical odometer reading. At first you may think , “big deal, get to the point”, but here’s the fun bit, to test drive these cars back to back, on a quiet mountain road, clear of traffic. It was almost like stepping back in time and getting into a new car from the dealership in 1983. What a fantastic experience. Now I suppose a more direct comparison would have been a 996 TT, but not from a power-to-weight point of view. And keep in mind both 996 and 930 are propelled by the rear wheels with similar power to weight ratios.
We pull out from the gas station and I immediately notice my feet/legs are pointing to the right, something I always hear about, but now noticed it so much it felt like my right big toe was directly under the crest on the hood. I also quickly learned that the synchros felt a lot like the ZF in my 79 928, very fussy, somewhat noisy and rough if not shifted properly. It was at this exact time I remembered that the new owner of this vehicle was behind me in my own cabriolet, so he certainly can hear everything I’m doing write and wrong. Well our lead car was getting rather “spirited” with his driving enthusiasm since it was only 3 of us, and I truly had to keep up.
Our roads along the west side of the Kootenay Lake are very typical of the BC interior, extremely windy, but smooth as there are never any transports that use them. With that there are very few passing opportunities. At this point we were encroaching on a poor lonely little red Audi TT. Lady luck shook her stick at our lead car and he flew by with a beautiful passing opportunity, exactly long enough to barely use three dash lengths of the dashed passing line. Probably only meant to give Ducati Monster the opportunity to pass a hay hauling ox and wagon. So now it was my turn, cruising along at a hair under triple digit speed in the third of four gears. Not a chance of boost given that I was under 3000 RPM. At this moment I had to question my mannerism and thought to myself, “do I really have to drop into second, at near triple digit speeds?” Well, sorry Paul, but I had to pass the poor little Audi that could. Dropped into second, floored it at about 3 seconds earlier than I normally would to in order to obtain the perfect max boost timing while I pass, or einlass druck as the gauge in the center of the dash. Needless to say, Paul never did mention anything about that, probably out of politeness since I was someone he didn’t really know that well yet at the time, but I’m sure he must have cringed slightly.
The next few corners needless to say were at a bit of a quicker pace. The manual steering really made it feel like the wheel, column, rack, rod ends, wheels and tires were all extensions of your very own limbs. You have to work hard in order to muscle the car around corners, feeling every little pebble on the road through your palms, which in my mind is all very fantastic. The steering response was incredible. That coupled with a lower stiffer suspension set up really made the vehicle dynamics very exciting. You can feel the raw handling and low center of gravity of the design, purely brilliant.
As I was rolling into each corner, the brake peddle feel was also a little more raw, not that the 930 was short of stopping power since there was Brembo meet in between the metal piston sandwich of the brake callipers. It just took a little extra to get that initial brake response, but then the stopping grip was plentiful. Much more linear than traditional power brakes found in today’s cars.
This car’s layout was truly placed with passenger comfort and weight placement in mind. The wind screen feels like you’re really wearing it, a bit more upright and close to your face than a traditional super car. Doors were as thin and small as possible, rear seats for little ones, some room for some luggage up front, truly a wonderful daily driver if so desired.
Once we slowed down for the Balfour speed reduction zone, we decided to pull over and switch back. It was truly at this moment that I noticed that the newer Porsches almost have had their character completely refined from them. I can comfortably sip my on my Americano from Oso Negro and accelerate, almost forgetting to remember, and not needing to care, what gear I really need to be in. This thanks to vario-cams that give plenty of torque from 600 to 6000 RPM, so gear selection is less important. I can have a comfortable conversation with my passenger with out shouting, even with the top down. As I pass through the cooler air from Kokanee creek (a phenomenon only convertible or motorcycle riders truly know about) I can flip on my heated seats to comfort my rather pampered bottom. The system employs pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controls that in fact will heat the seat elements slightly more with the top down than when it is up. If there’s a slight drizzle or mist of moisture around the next mountain gulley, I have what is seemingly an infinite number of wiper delay settings ranging between half a second and three days. It’s almost a distraction from fiddling with it all the time, only because the rain here in the mountains is never ever consistent.
I have also noticed that my hydraulically lifted glove box on the 996 perfectly accommodates the extra copies of Panorama I get for membership endorsement. Rather ironic, almost eerie as to how well they fit.
The styling lines, body curves, and overall fun factor of the 930 is 100% in my books, and fulfill that ever so important roll that a sports car does to every owner. That true Porsche character that has truly made this brand is epitomised in the 930. 20 years later, the 996 is much more subtle and refined, truly a great daily driver. Not as heart-pumping exciting, but not lacking character either. It’s just been evolved into something different. Not to mention they made so many that they’re a-dime-a-dozen. I must say, however, I do somehow still love my 996, and the car still seemingly has that magic of captivating and enchanting it’s owners and those young ones who ride along with them. And believe me, I poison those young passengers of mine when ever I get the chance. I plant that exact same bug with my little rides I give up and down my street to those young members of family and friends when they visit. It makes me insanely contemplate adding a 3rd member to the family living in my garage.
Porsche Escape 2010
The two biggest Porsche events of the annual calendar are the larger Porsche Parade, and the smaller Porsche Escape. These events alternate annually east and west of the Mississippi. September saw the first time either event had been held in Canada, with more than 350 registrants for the gathering at Sun Peaks, located just north of Kamloops. Some of the activities that took place driving tours, golf, a show & shine. The show and shine is a very unique one because it’s held among the shops of the pretty alpine ski village. A rather picturesque display for the finely crafted machinery.
Your Porsche is Designed to Race
Author Kelly Silverthorn & Duane Bentley, line up to race in Duane’s Martini liveried Porsche Carrera S.
The Silver State Classic Challenge (SSCC) is the original of the current crop of Open Road Style (ORR) races, with further such events in Nevada, Texas and Nebraska. The SSCC boasts a single 90 mile stage of closed public road running from Eli south towards Las Vegas. This year did not eclipse the standing record of more than 240 vehicle entries, nor the 206 mile per hour (~332 km/h) average (gulp) winning speed in the Unlimited Division.
With Duane's bone stock Porsche 997 S, the fastest SSCC class we could enter was 110 mph. Frankly, it is easy for a late model 911 to exceed 110 mph average on the course, but the goal in all but the Unlimited Class is to cross the finish line at the exact correct moment. Typically the best three cars in each class will be within one second of their target times. We felt pleased as Open Road race rookies to have finished within a few seconds of our target.
For such a large event SSCC does a great job of making all the competitors feel like one big family. The mix of small town Ely and high-glitz Vegas is also well integrated. This long-running icon is more than just a competition of machinery – it is a ‘happening’ that you must experience since it’s about the great people too. Hey, that sounds familiar.
Salt Fever
Visiting the Land Speed Record home of Bonneville has been on our respective bucket lists for some time. The Utah Salt Flats Racers Association event (called USFRA 'World of Speed') dove-tailed nicely with the Silver State Classic (Reno Air Races too!). So with a minor detour the Targa Canada West team was also flying the Porsche flag in the salt... and what a surreal event it is.
Bonneville is a zany, eclectic branch of the motorsport family tree. Within a few hours we had met the LSR holders for pre-1962 VWs, for motorhomes, and for bar stools. Duane and I each went much faster than many of those LSR holders in joining the 130 mph club. Really all we needed were our helmets and some sunscreen – a testament to the 997.
Thanks to Chris Germana and Motor Werke in Kelowna, BC, for sponsorship, car preparation and post-event check-up and including a very thorough salt clean.
Never Hibernate
You’ve no doubt heard of Porsche’s “Never Hibernate” campaign, e.g. “Get out and play in the snow. In a Porsche.” Even if you aren’t someone who puts snow tires on your Porsche, you probably have thought about it.
While I can’t speak about the more practical Porsches (Cayennes and Panameras), I can tell you that modern Carreras (996 / 997) do just fine in winter. After all, it does snow in Germany.
The key is true winter tires – and discipline. The tires are a self-evident truth to car nuts – or, if you don’t have them on your winter car you are nuts. Discipline is the hard requirement... it keeps everything smooth – easy on and off the throttle and/or brakes. Oh, and an invisible bra will help your peace of mind from winter gravel.
Also, consider participating in the Big White Winter Rally – in particular the ‘Valley Mitsubishi’ SnowX on Sat Dec 4th – either as a racer, volunteer or spectator.
The annual snow rally brings professional and amateur racers out from the gravel rally racing scene. The top level of racing requires a safety equipped, caged car – and of course a penchant for sliding sideways at high speed. Dress warmly and you can witness some good racing at the spectator spots.
Concurrent to the Winter Rally, at the Happy Valley Lodge parking lot, the SnowX is running. (SnowX, aka autocross in the snow and ice, is single car race against the clock.) This is a fun event and very approachable – new comers are warmly welcomed.
The SnowX is a bargain way to experience a bit of Porsche’s new Camp4 Winter Driving Experience. (Anyone going to Quebec for this?)
Come up to the opening weekend at Big White. I will be up at the SnowX – just look for me in the blue Martini striped 997...probably with my rear end trying to pass my front end!
Entry Forms and information on Big White Winter Rally and SnowX:
http://bigwhiterally.com/ or contact organizer Jennifer Daly.
In any case, enjoy the winter in your Porsche.
And if you are looking for some race inspiration, check out a recent Porsche win: see Jeff Zwart’s record smashing (by 38 seconds!) run up Pikes Peak in a Porsche GT3.