The NER Annual Winter Gala will be hosted this year at the Andover Country Club located at 60 Canterbury St. Andover, MA 01810.
The Gala is the club’s featured social event every year and provides attendees with a great “off-season” time to connect with friends while some of our cars are hibernating dreaming of warmer days. Please visit the event page to register by December 25, 2019. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Registration Opens Wednesday January 22, 2020
2020 marks the 35th year for NER’s Annual Spring Ramble, typically the region’s largest event of the year. At the Chatham Bars Inn last year, we welcomed 195 cars and 371 people to a weekend of good friends, good food, top-notch accommodations, and of course, lots of Porsche- worthy roads to travel. This year we’re looking forward to having both veteran Ramblers and first-timers join us at The Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, NY.
You’ll arrive Friday (or earlier at our attractive rate) for our evening Welcome Reception, and begin your social and partying activities before the serious driving commences on Saturday morning. My wife and I just returned from a route planning visit, and you’ll traverse many memorable 2-lane country roads thru the Catskill Mountains, and along the creeks and rivers that honeycomb the area.
After registration and breakfast Saturday morning, drivers will head out on a navigational, directions-based tour for about 3 hours before reaching our lunch destination. Following the buffet lunch, there will be another roughly 3-hour route back to The Otesaga, or a more direct route for those wishing to avail themselves of that option.
We’ll meet Saturday evening for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres before enjoying our plated dinner dressed in festive attire. Sunday morning’s buffet breakfast will mark the official end of the 2020 Ramble, after which you’re on your own again to head home, or stay longer and enjoy the charms of Cooperstown.
Mark your calendar for registration opening on January 22, 2020 as this one sells out within two weeks, typically. More info to come!
As a good New Englander, you probably own a car that is “good in the winter.” That may mean simply fitting snow tires, driving more carefully in the snow, or adding some mechanical advantage – such as front wheel drive or all wheel drive (or four wheel drive – yes, it’s technically different, I know). Whatever your solution to the problem of slippery surfaces, how much do you think about how your vehicle does what it does?
Porsche recently introduced their latest Carrera 4 and 4S models with, beyond the standard 992 changes, new tech: a liquid-cooled front differential for the all wheel drive system. As an owner of a 2007 Targa 4 with AWD (not to mention a string of Cayenne’s), I was curious why they would bother investing time in a system that most of us won’t ever really think about. Liquid cooling implies that the goal is to disperse heat, right? Why is there heat here to worry about? I was curious so I did what anyone does these days and Googled it.
As I’m sure you know, when a car turns, the wheels on one side go faster than on the other. This is because the wheels on each side are suddenly following two different arcs with two different radii. All that high school geometry is coming back to you, right? But why clear those cobwebs? Well, if you solidly connect all those wheels together, they literally get themselves into a bind. The binding pressure builds up and has to go somewhere. To get out of this bind (known as torque-wind), the parts might deflect and bend or they will break. This, of course, is bad. We need to add something with a bit more give – a “differential” – a brilliant little bit of engineering that allows a wheel on one side to temporarily “slip” a bit and go a different speed. The price you pay for this controlled slippage without breaking? Usually that energy from the “slip” is dissipated as heat, often through a clutch pack or viscous coupling device of some sort. There is always a price to pay.
During my 4am Googling, I came across a cool article from Design News in 1995. It recounted the history of how Borg-Warner (the transmission folks) came to develop the 1995 “Control Trac” system for Ford’s Explorer, etc.
It was a great story arc that went from an origin of concerns about the fuel economy of four-wheel-drive systems born in the 1970’s and how saving every drop of fuel became a primary design goal – sound familiar? The Borg Warner chaps decided that being able to disengage a four wheel drive system’s front wheels manually at the hubs just would not do. Would you want to have to hop out in the snow and mess with turning some big dials on the front of your car? How plebeian. Our computer overlords could surely do a better job of doing this for us.
Gone are the inconveniences associated with part-time-four-wheel drive. Drivers don’t have to ruminate over their choices; they don’t have to wonder whether they’re in four-wheel drive; they don’t need to possess a shred of knowledge about the technology.
In the 1980’s they set to work fitting a dodgy station wagon with a prototyped computer-controlled torque sensing/splitting central transfer case that did away with the center differential completely – by using sensors to react to wheel spin by sending more torque to the front wheels via an electronically-controlled clutch (clutches are basically two spinning discs that rub together to different degrees to vary the rotational speed differences between them – but they get hot with all that friction). The computer to control the new transfer device took up the whole back seat.
Eventually they found that constant measurements of the change in RPM between various bits told them what they needed to know about slip to tell the central clutch pack to engage and grab some power for the front wheels. They packaged it up and sold it to Ford. And shrunk it so it didn’t take up the whole back seat anymore. As a side note – the clutch material was paper-based – odd choice for a heat-dependent system, no? But they tested it and raced it and it worked – after they made it bigger…to handle the heat.
About the same time Borg was getting Ford on board, Porsche was putting an all-wheel-drive system into their 959. Interesting case study in economics right there if you consider the cost of an ’80’s Explorer versus a 959… Porsche’s system was similar, though, in that it used lots of computer-controlled sensors and a computer-controlled clutch pack to go from a pretty even front/rear torque split to as much as 20/80. As far ahead as Porsche was in some ways, the 911 had to make do with a passive viscous-coupling system for all wheel drive up until the computer-controlled clutch pack system went into the 911 Turbo in 2006. The fancy computers didn’t go into the base Carrera 4 until 997 gen 2 in 2008, after the Cayenne helped push the technology along a bit. [ed: some great member feedback – Nick D. pointed out that the 964 C4 had a fully mechanical AWD system with electronic controls that were very similar to the technology in the 959. The 993 went to a more simple and lightweight viscous-coupling system that was much more rear biased but slower to correct for wheelspin. Thanks, Nick!]
Side note – Porsche’s first all wheel drive car was actually the Type 350 in 1947. Had a flat 12, that one. A Turbo Cabriolet was shown with AWD in 1981. The 935 race car that won the Paris-Dakar came in 1984 leading to the 959 in 1985. And the first 964 C4 came in 1988. For more history: https://presskit.porsche.de/specials/en/30-years-awd-in-porsche-911/topic/highlights.html
Once the technology was in place, what has changed since is…power! (In Jeremy Clarkson voice, of course) The latest base 992 is up to 379bhp and 331lb-ft of torque. My 2007 only had 325bhp and about 270lb-ft. These new turbo base cars are really bringing the torques! I’m betting that this new power, along with ever better and grippier tires, is the reason Porsche is adding some extra cooling to the package. More power means more slip means more heat.
So where did we wind up? All that torque wind-up wound up getting me all wound up. And all this so you won’t wind up in a ditch. It truly is all about where you wind up.
As the summer of 2019 winds to a close, we are getting more and more information about some great things coming in the fall.
One highlight appears to be the Audrain Concours and Motor Week event coming to Newport October 3-6th. We’ve been in contact with the team pulling this event together for years, literally. But the schedule is now starting to really come together.
In addition to the headline portions – the full “Pebble Beach” style concours at the Breakers mansion on Sunday October 6, the John Legend concert on Friday night October 4, “The Gathering” at Rough Point also on Friday October 4, and the “Tour d’Elegance” on Saturday morning October 5…they have also announced a host of seminars on various talks given by an array of luminaries in many fields, even beyond cars. They have added a pedal-car race for kids at Fort Adams on Saturday October 5, as well – similar to the Settrington Cup race held at Goodwood in England.
This one will come up quickly as we all get back into the fall routine so make sure to plan it into your calendars now. Our club’s 2019 NER Concours d’Elegance is also happening right in the middle of the event – Saturday October 5 – so please visit our event page to secure a judged spot or just a spectator parking spot to enjoy the show and all of the surrounding events. We’ll be on the extensive and beautiful lawn at Chateau-sur-Mer – one of the first and oldest Newport Mansions, built before there was a Bellevue Avenue – and rumor has it that we’ll be in close proximity to displays from McLaren and Koenigsegg.
Park with us right in the middle and enjoy all of the attractions.
This is the online home of the Northeast Region of the Porsche Club of America. NER is celebrating our 60th year in 2019. And it’s another great one. We organize “DE” (driver’s education) events where our members drive on the best tracks in the Northeast – Watkins Glen, Calabogie, Tremblant, Thompson, Palmer, Lime Rock, and NHMS. We also run Autocross events at Fort Devens in Devens, MA. We host or frequent a huge number of Cars and Coffee events. And tours – we operate the largest and most unique “Ramble” in the country – an event that drew 320 people and over 200 cars for a weekend at a beautiful hotel in Maine with some awesome drives.
And there’s more – we host technical information sessions with local businesses, social events like a Summer Party and an annual winter Gala, and much more.
Come see what NER is all about by becoming a member. As we say, “It’s not just about the cars – it’s the people!”
Original: Yes, Sunday will be a huge event! We’ll be able to watch the finish of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour race streamed live from Mount Panorama in Australia! In addition to another large event happening in Australia that will be contested later that day. But this is probably the most exciting endurance race of the year and it comes very early in the season up here, whetting our appetites for an amazing year to come on track.
What makes it awesome? If you’ve not yet seen the elevation at Mount Panorama, where have you been? Watching the cars come down one of the longest downhill straights in the world – Con Rod Straight – doing 200mph often side-by-side, well, it’s about as good as it gets. Being an endurance race, you’ve got driver changes, fuel calculation, tires to manage, brakes overheating, lots of incidents – the top of the hill has some nasty concrete barriers very close to the edges of the track where some tight racing occurs, and some highly variable weather. It almost always rains a few times during the race – just enough to keep it very interesting. Many of the top GTLM drivers compete and you often see some unique cars like the Marc 1 – a V8 Ford Focus. This is the land that gave us Holden (RIP) of course.
Porsche will field two GT3 R cars via Earl Bamber Racing, numbered 911 and 912, naturally. Two additional GT3 R’s will race for Black Swan Racing and Competition Motorsports/McElrea Racing. Good luck, Porsche!!
The race starts at 1:45pm EST and ends at 1:45am EST on Sunday. Plenty of time to nap before seeing the Pats win another Superbowl!
The 35th annual NER Ramble visits the Chatham Bars Inn Resort and Spa on Cape Cod for 2019. Registration sells out quickly so be sure to jump over to the event page now and get ready for sign up on January 23rd.
