Year: 2017 - Page 3 - Northeast Region, Porsche Club of America

For Enthusiasts, News Update, Social, The Nor'Easter Magazine, Tours

First Annual Dow Fall Tour

What a gorgeous day to take a drive around New England, it was this past Sunday! Thirty five cars with sixty people joined us for the First Annual Charlie and Martha Dow Fall Tour. Many thanks to Gary Cooper and Tony Miniscalco for all the work they did to arrange and run this event with help from our veteran tour-meister and ramble-guru, Dennis Friedman, and the activities committee. Charlie Dow’s son, Eric, and his family were kind enough to come and we presented them with a custom plaque made specially for them that will hold a photo of everyone at the event. Thanks to all who participated and thanks to our volunteers for making a very memorable event. We all look forward to continuing this wonderful tradition in Charlie’s name for years to come.

Attendees arrive. Here comes Ramble Master, Dennis Friedman, who is used to a large number of cars at his Rambles.

First Annual Dow Fall Tour - anticipation

When do we get this thing started?

Under Bill’s watchful eye, Gary explaining to the group that McQueen was cool, but the tour drivers are not McQueen.

Charlie’s son Eric telling the group how much his Dad loved NER and Porsche, and how he would be thrilled to know his name will forever be associated with the tour.

The group posed for a shot before taking off

NER only parking at Michael’s Harborside

The tour organizers failed to check the commuter rail schedule. Provided by Linda Montoya Mullen from Michael Kaleel’s car.

Where’s the beef?

Gary telling the group that normally the sweeper car is not the first to arrive at the destination

And thanks to Anker Sonne-Berg for the photos unless otherwise noted!

September 12, 2017/3 Comments/by Sterling Vernon

For Enthusiasts, Social, The Nor'Easter Magazine

Porsche Day

Every year, we look forward to Porsche Day at the Larz Anderson Museum in Brookline, MA. This year was a tremendous success with at least 70 cars. The weather was perfect. And NER was out in force.

Hanging out with Rocketman Ron S.

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - ruffians and hoodlums

NER ruffians and hoodlums right here.

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - 914-6

Beauty of a 914-6

Solid structures

Why else?

Expressive

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - great stripes

David from RI’s got great stripes

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - ri crew

The RI crew with Josh and Chris

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - ron oil check

Is it time for an oil check, Ron? Wait, what was that noise?

Original paint

Perfect patina

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - senior row

The senior row

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - classic

So classic

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - tom tate 356

Tom Tate’s maybe?

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - something for the kids

There is fun for every age.

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - good crowd

Now that’s a good crowd!

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - gary planning trip

Looks like Gary is planning another trip!

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - rigruppe

The RI GRUPPE is on hand.

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - 928

928

Cayman corner

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - white 991 targa

991 Targa in white

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - spring

Get sprung

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - rally 911 back

911’s make great rally cars

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - rally 911

Stripes!!

Boxster Spyder

991 Targa

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - kachel motor company

The Kachel Motor Company

968

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - gt3

GT3

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - david v

New transfer into NER. Great car!

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - cup to rsr

Look who’s coming to the October “Porsches on the Mountain” at Palmer on Oct 8

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - cup to rsr motor view

The business end of a Cup-turned-RSR

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - one of our favorite tracks Palmer

One of our favorite tracks – Palmer Motorsports Park

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - 918 spyder

918 Spyder on display

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - shiny

The shiny corner

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - serious

Serious fun.

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - hiding

Does he think he can hide in here?

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - rgrupe plate

The best license plate award

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - happy people

Many happy faces

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - burgundy

Lovely color 911

The trophies

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson Museum - historic car shows

What an early Porsche Day looked like…before Porsches.

Porsche Day 2017 Larz Anderson - Carrera GT Supercars Origins

Supercars Origins Display – Carrera GT

For 944 specific pictures:
944’s

September 12, 2017/3 Comments/by Sterling Vernon

For Enthusiasts, News Update

Added Spice

Porsche unveiled the 2018 version of the Cayenne SUV. While this may not be as exciting to the sports car crowd as the 911 Targa GTS might be, it is the car, along with the Macan, that allows Porsche to keep building the lower-volume cars we drool over. And, as a three-time Cayenne owner, I’ll have to admit that it’s a vehicle you can’t help but appreciate. For what it can do, you’d be very hard pressed to find a more capable all-around vehicle out there. The newest version is 164 pounds lighter than the already-lightened prior generation. These are heavy beasts, make no mistake, but the body is now fully aluminum and the chassis combines aluminum and steel.

The new motors are something we’re getting used to seeing from Porsche. The base Cayenne has always had a bit of a gutless V6 in there. Now both the base and the S models have V6’s but with different displacements and turbo capabilities. The base car is a 3.0L car that puts out a respectable 340 horsepower. For reference, my first Cayenne S with a 4.5L V8 put out 325bhp. The S model only has 2.9L but has twin turbos and puts out 440 horsepower. One early driving review seemed to indicate that the base engine was throatier and more satisfying if a bit winded at times. But they preferred it to the more powerful S. We’ll see if that’s the consensus until the uber-Turbo-Hybrid-SE-wunderbar version is announced.

This newest version continues the interesting Cayenne quirk of offering sophisticated off-road capability to folks (myself included) who barely ever use a fraction of that capability. Porsche Traction Management (PTM) is now standard on all models. An interesting new option is rear-wheel-steering. We’ve seen this applied to the 911 range recently to provide more agility as the wheelbase increases and by all accounts, it seems to succeed admirably. I’m not a big fan of diluting the sports-car ethos with gadgetry but in a Cayenne it seems wholly appropriate. Agility in your 4000+ pound SUV is never a bad thing!

There is more cargo space – which is good as my ski equipment isn’t getting smaller – and revised suspension parts too. The tiptronic transmission is still a torque-converter but it’s all new and faster. And the interior has that new style with a big 12.3″ screen in the center and buttons electronically integrated under a glass surface for a seamless look.

Porsche is also offering something really new – Porsche Surface Coated Brakes (PSCB). What is it? Apparently they have coated the rotors with tungsten carbide – you know, like on drill bits. They claim it increases friction, reduces pad wear, and reduces dust. Where has this coating been all my life? Tungsten carbide is twice as strong as steel and has good high-temperature stability, hence the use in drill bits, so I guess I can see the potential. And this should be something that might also filter through to our track cars!

All in all, it’s a version that definitely seems to be pulling many of Porsche’s various desirable bits into a car that should sell very well. Who knows, I might even have to see if it’s time to avail myself of these updates.

August 31, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

For Enthusiasts

Wheel to Wheel

Porsche has just announced a carbon fiber wheel option (for the 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series). Very few production cars currently have carbon fiber wheels – just the Mustang GT 350R and Koenigseggs, that I can think of. They are certainly a bit expensive. Carbon Revolution, maker of the 350R’s wheels, offered early carbon fiber wheels for about as much as a loaded Corolla per wheel. It’s also interesting that Forgeline recently announced a carbon wheel barrel with forged aluminum spokes. That’s a hybrid approach that hasn’t been seen before now.

Now, it appears Porsche, in true Porsche-fashion, reinvented the manufacturing process in order to bring these to market – an impressive feat in and of itself. They built a huge wheel to weave carbon fiber into…wheels. One can rarely, if ever, claim that Porsche takes short cuts when putting out new products.

What does this mean for the rest of us? If Porsche follows their normal playbook, the use of this manufacturing capability will only increase and more models will offer this option. These could be on your future car someday. Your suspension and brakes will thank you.

August 18, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

For Enthusiasts, Social

Renegades and Record Breakers

If you had to pick a place to park your Porsche and have some coffee, why shouldn’t it be a place inspired by Sonny Bono that also had a hand in breaking two Guinness records – one for the largest surfboard and one for having the most riders on a surfboard? The monster board, partially created in Westerly RI, now resides at the International Surfing Museum near Huntington Beach. But you can visit this unique coffee shop with your fellow Porsche fans this weekend at our Cars and Coffee event. We’ll meet up at Lalajava in Northborough, MA from 8am to 10am on Saturday morning.

Get all the details →

August 16, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

For Enthusiasts, Social, The Nor'Easter Magazine

Air Cooled And Caffeine Powered

On a beautiful – if slightly hot – day in August, the “SoBo” (South of Boston) arm of Northeast Region swarmed the Newport Car Museum in Portsmouth, RI. With over 100 attendees and over 70 cars, the museum let us know that we were the largest club group they have had the pleasure of hosting to date! Thanks to all who turned out to check it out and brought their phenomenal cars. This venue has a huge parking lot, huge interior areas for socialization, a great collection of cars, simulators so you can have some fun at the wheel, and some really great staff. Thank you, Newport Car Museum, for doing such a wonderful job hosting us!

We saw everything from a 356 Speedster to new Macans and Panameras – with 911 “outlaws”, 935’s, 930’s, 911’s, 964’s, 993’s, 996’s, 997’s, 991’s, Boxsters, Caymans, and just about everything in between! This was the place to be to see such a huge array of Porsche hardware.

But the real attraction is always the people. It was a delight to be able to walk up to anyone and just start talking about their cars, the cars in front of them, or anything else.

Special thanks to Roger Slocum and his wife, Rosemary, for being the ones to pull all this together!

Our next Sobo event is September 17th at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown. Come join us!

We also have the West-of-Boston Cars and Coffee this coming weekend on 8/19 in Northboro. And another one on the Cape the same day. The summer BBQ at Marcus and Dani’s house is next Sunday 8/20 as well. Mark your calendars!

august-sobo-pca-ner-newport-car-museum porsche events 911 boxster air-cooled

Porsches as far as the eye can see.

august-sobo-pca-ner-newport-car-museum porsche 356

David’s beautiful 356

august-sobo-pca-ner-newport-car-museum porsche 356 speedster 997 targa 4

Speed and Speedster

August 14, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

For Enthusiasts, Porsche Events, Social, The Nor'Easter Magazine, Tours

Virginia is for Outlaws

by Gary Cooper

Greetings NER members! We are in the middle of a great summer and the heart of the driving season. I recently returned from a short trip to Virginia and thought you might enjoy this account of the weekend’s activities.

The invitation to go to Virginia came via my friendship with Bruce Russell, the Membership Chair for the Shenandoah Region of Zone 2 PCA. I last saw Bruce when we were returning from the Blue Ridge Boxster Summit, (read about that adventure here if you missed it). Bruce had just purchased a beautiful 997.2 Carrera S and we made plans for a weekend of driving fun.

But, before I could leave, I needed to get the bumper of my Boxster fixed. Yours truly was behind the wheel for a very low impact (while inching forward in heavy traffic) tap into another vehicle, causing some minor damage to the front bumper. Some call it operator error – I call it stupidity. In any event, based on the many good things I’d heard about them in the Nor’easter, I made an appointment with Mike’s Auto Body of Malden. While the insurance appraiser said the damage could be repaired, I suspected – and Mike agreed – a new bumper cover would be needed. I asked if they could complete the job before I was scheduled to leave for Virginia. Well, they worked with the insurer and were able to expedite the job just in time. When I picked the car up I was impressed with the quality of the perfect paint match, but even more so by the attention to such details as reinstalling my homemade front grill meshes (helps to keep road debris out of the rads), and by making sure the emergency frunk cable release was just where I had relocated it on the original bumper. I cannot recommend Mike’s highly enough! And I was ready to head to Virginia.

Bruce lives in the Richmond suburbs, so I left very early on Friday morning. Before I left, I purchased a few small items as I way of thanking Bruce and his wife for yet again putting me up in their beautiful home – as they did when I returned from the Werks Reunion in Florida earlier this year. Some assorted German foodstuffs from Karl’s in Peabody and a few little accessories for the new Carrera seemed appropriate. I think he was pleased.

Bruce let me know what he had planned for the weekend. On Saturday morning we’d meet up with some fellow Shenandoah members and go on a 55-mile PCA driving tour – ending up at the site of Region’s 22nd Anniversary picnic at Keswick Vineyards outside of Charlottesville. We had a small, but enthusiastic group of 11 cars.

Note: Speaking of driving tours, be sure to check out the NER Events site for the First Annual Charlie and Martha Dow Fall Tour on September 10th. This is sure to be a fun tour of beautiful Cape Ann and the Essex coastal plain.

The picnic was a great time for me to meet many of Bruce’s friends in the region. Shenandoah is a small region of less than 300 primary members, so it was very impressive that about 85 people came out for a purely social event.

Thanks to the region and it’s president, Hank Weil (pictured above speaking to the group) for warmly welcoming me!

After the picnic, Bruce had planned a fun route for him and I to visit his family’s rustic cabin in the mountains. We traveled up and over the Blue Ridge, across the Shenandoah Valley, and up again into the Alleghenies. If you’ve never been to this region, you should plan a visit – it is gorgeous. I attempted to keep up with Bruce in his good-as-new Carrera S and it’s 425 ponies.

It was dark by the time we got home that night, and we went to bed with our bellies full of some delicious Virginia comfort food had along the way. We turned in early as the next day would have a “zero dark thirty” start.

Bruce and about 10 other regional members have an informal “outlaw” fun-run group. Think more spirited, but safe, driving without the PCA forms, waivers and reports. Their main rule is there are no rules, and you can bring whatever vehicle you like. They planned an early Sunday morning (fewer cars on the road) around the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge northwest of Charlottesville. This day, Bruce opted for the more nimble ride – his Guards Red 1984 3.2 Carrera Targa. We met around 7:00am and drove a while before breakfast at a Tastee Freeze. You read that right, but don’t snicker – it was delicious Virginia baked ham, eggs and biscuits [ed: there was no mention of Jack or Diane, sadly]. Then it was off on some incredible, fun backroads in Madison County. The scenery was just as good as the roads. I love being around people who share my passion for driving.

pca ner shenandoah virginia outlaw group porsche

The Outlaw group from left: Gary Graff, his Dad – Dan, Gary Hunter, Bates McLain, Bruce, and Bates’ son Colin.

Then it was back to Bruce’s house where our rides received a nice bath, and we relaxed, ate and talked the rest of the day.

I had a long, rainy ride home on Monday, but that couldn’t dampen my memories of a great weekend spent with great people and great cars. Again, thanks to Bruce, the Shenandoah Region and lastly – my wife Ellen, who is very understanding and supportive of my fun, but sometimes distant, trips.

August 13, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

Concours, For Enthusiasts, Porsche Events, Social, The Nor'Easter Magazine

Tutto Italiano – Cars, Wine, Food

This Sunday’s 1st Annual Italian Wine & Food Pairing at Alta Strada in Wellesley was a huge success! Chef Tim Reading prepared fantastic dishes and Claudio Andreani, US Brand Ambassador for Folonari wines, shared his knowledge and passion for the Folonari brand and wines. If you weren’t able to join us, be on the lookout for more of these events so you can experience “la dolce vita”!

Here’s the full story courtesy of Glenn Champagne:

“After fielding many requests for a wine tasting, NER finally was able to hold its first annual “Italian Wine & Food Pairing” on Sunday August 6th at Alta Strada in Wellesley Massachusetts.

Alta Strada, a Michael Schlow restaurant, is the “dream restaurant” that chef/owner Michael Schlow had been planning for a long time. The hallmark of the restaurant is to be attentive, intelligent, offer without hesitation friendly service, serve delicious authentic Italian food at reasonable prices.

The REAL genesis behind the creation of Alta Strada was to make a restaurant that locals would call their OWN and be casual and approachable enough that everyone could eat there on a regular basis. Since Betty and I have standing reservations for every Friday night, I think he nailed it!

The two stars of the luncheon Chef Tim Reading and US Brand Ambassador Claudio Andreani of Folonari Wines, were at the top of their game. Chef Tim and Claudio shared their respective knowledge and passion with each course.

The three-course luncheon was quickly upgraded to a four course luncheon, additions included two signature appetizers, grilled octopus with poached potatoes, shaved red onion, tomatoes with fresh herbs which included a side of crunchy lamb meatballs which sit a on top of a spicy tomato basil sauce.

The first course started with Grilled lemon & herb chicken with arugula salad and paired with Tenute del Cabreo La PietraChardonnay di Toscana IGT. Followed by corn tortelli with shallots, mushrooms, and grana padano, paired with a Tenuta di Nozzole Chianti Riserva DOCG.

Desert was soon followed by a decadent, yet light and scrumptious dark chocolate cake served with maraschino cherries and freshly made whipped cream served with a glass of Tenuta la Fuga Brunello di Montalcino DOCG.

The resourceful staff at Alta Strada showcased their creativity by securing – legally – all nine parking spots in front of the restaurant. This made for an impressive start to our afternoon of delicious food and set the tone for our spectacular wine adventure.”

Coincidentally, it also happened to fall on the same day as the “Tutto Italiano” car show at Larz Anderson in Brookline! So enjoy some photos from that event as well. There were more Ferraris and Lamborghinis than you could shake a stick at…but also Alfas, Fiats, even a Pagani. But the real spectacle were the people. Just like being in Italy, it’s the people that are most interesting. Peter Bourassa was there with his “Was Red” Ferrari that is about to drive across country to Pebble Beach. The weather was beautiful and the everything was very colorful!

August 9, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

Archive for year: 2017

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