Archive for month: March, 2022

You are here: / / / March
, ,

Newcomers Meeting: 4/10

Date/Time/Location
Date(s) – 04/10/2022
10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Porsche Norwell, Norwell MA

Come one, come all! All members are welcome! See what’s new, and improved, as well as what NER has to offer! If you are new to NER PCA, trying to decide whether to join or maybe an existing member who has been out of the loop. This year’s meeting is hosted by Porsche Norwell.

Whether it’s the various Social Events, Driver Education, the Ramble, Autocross, Concours, Tours, or Tech Sessions, NER PCA has something for all its members.  

Doors open at 10:00, followed by presentations starting at 10:30 pm.  Coffee & refreshments will be served. 

Learn more and sign up here:

Newcomers Meeting 2022

 

/by

2022 Ramble Registration Ends April 8

Despite the morning chill, the calendar says that Spring has arrived. Kick-off your driving season in style, and don’t miss out on experiencing NER’s largest single event – The New England Ramble. This year we’ll be leaving from Gurney’s Newport Resort, and exploring most of the Ocean State, from April 29 – May 1. We already have 297 people registered, and our attractively priced room block is nearly full. We’re all feeling more than a little cabin fever these days, so treat yourself and your favorite navigator to a weekend of good food, friendly people, and Porsche-worthy roads.

Learn more and sign up here! 2022 NER Ramble

  • Dennis Friedman
/by
,

My SIM Racing Experience

Sim Racing may look really daunting from the outside looking in, but I definitely think it’s worth a try.  You’re finally able to drive the cars you watch on tv and read about online.  The only difference is you’re racing from the comfort of your own home and you don’t need to worry about the expense of crashing your GT3R 25 times in a row whenever Jeremy Mazzariello comes near you.  For people who have never done sim racing, the investment of time, equipment, and the steep learning curve are hurdles to consider before taking the leap into sim racing.

Before I get into what I believe the key to improving is, I’ll tell you a little about myself. I’m a 16 year old boy from Andover Massachusetts, and a competitive swimmer. I train with my club team 20-30 hours a week, while attending high school. In a mere 3 hours or so a week of practice in the sim I’ve been able to improve vastly.

This past June I started off by borrowing Anker’s extra sim rig, consisting of an Oculus Rift and g29 wheels and pedals. I invested in the software and started buzzing around Lime Rock Park in my little Miata. 

I sucked completely.  I found new ways to crash that no one else has managed to recreate. But with time and practice I came third overall in my class for the Zone Group Challenge Championship earlier this month. And yes, I achieved this before even having my actual drivers license.

My family and I were all enthralled with how lifelike Lime Rock Park was, or I’d assume it’s lifelike since I’ve never been. (working on that) It was so realistic it even had the Harpoon sign! 

Overall I think that the biggest thing for newcomers to understand is that there will be a steep learning curve. You need to adjust to the goggles/monitors, get used to the wheel and pedal setup you have, and in my case I had to learn how to drive a car.  It took a week of struggle before I could finish 2 laps in a row on Lime Rock.  Controlling your level of frustration is half the path to improving. 

Once you can finish laps, go to every PCA session you have time for.  In these sessions you need to ask one of the coaches to help you either through ride alongs or you hopping into their car. They are super helpful and will not judge you at all.  For me I was very fortunate that I knew Anker from going to autocrosses with my dad. Anker got me right into the car with Chris Braun (one of our NER coaches) who helped me right away on my first practice.  My first session was at Bathurst, which is a very hard track since there’s a lot of hills, hence the official name Mount Panorama.

That first lesson I had with Coach Braun was really difficult, he was using a lot of terms and concepts I was not familiar with yet.  By the end of the session I could finish laps on Mount Panorama, and if he can stay calm with a 16 year old who couldn’t even get out of the pits without binning the car 4 times, he can stay calm dealing with anyone.

After those first few sessions you will improve like I did.  After my first session I was about 15 seconds slower than the fastest people, second session I was about 10, then 7 and so on.  Today, about 8 months later, I am about 2 or 3 seconds off on most tracks.  So far in my sim racing journey the key to improvement has been to ask the coaches for help, it will pay off.

I hope that you reading this has helped influence your decision on whether or not to start sim racing. Sim racing has helped me immensely to learn car handling skills, which will be tested at Autocross next month. It also provides an awesome learning environment where you have nothing to lose. Iracing has allowed me to drive cars I likely will never be able to drive in real life, all on a lifeguard’s salary.

Please let your kids do sim racing. I’m lonely.

-Scott Kessel

/by

The One That Got Away

Here’s another challenge to you, our readers, to recount your experience with the car purchase that got away for you. I’ll kick it off with my own, actually two cars that got away for me. (send your story to the Submissions Team!)

The first one was in 1975. We decided to sell our fairly new car, a Simca Ti and buy a new car. This was prompted by a rumor that Denmark would increase the tax on new cars from 200% to something higher. Our new car choice was a BMW 316, but unfortunately there was a long wait on that, so we ended up with the worst car we have ever owned, an Austin Princess. By the time we sold it two years later we had gone through a transmission and the paint had started peeling off the car. Other than those “minor” issues it was a great car, roomy, and with a fantastic air suspension. I have always regretted never owning a BMW.

The second is much more recent. In January of 2020 we received an email addressed to the NER board from a woman whose brother had just passed way. She explained that he owned a Boxster that she needed to sell, and could we help her? She also explained that they had received an offer for $15,000 for it and had no idea whether it was reasonable. I responded that I was happy to do what I could and that the first step would for me to take a look at the car to determine exactly what it was. So I drove down to Wrentham where the car was parked, got the keys to the car and the garage and drove over to take a look at it. On opening the garage, I saw that it definitely wasn’t a Boxster, but rather a 996, a C4 convertible, black. I fired it up and pulled out of the garage. I don’t remember the exact mileage, but it was somewhere in the 70,000 mile range. The engine ran will with no smoke. Next, I examined it closely looking for any flaws. Then I opened and closed anything that should. The only one I could find was that the plastic around the passenger electric seat switches was missing.

I email the lady back and told her what the car actually was, and that the offer they had seemed very low. I offered to post the car on the NER Facebook group and see if anyone in the club was interested in making an offer.

Unfortunately, all I got was a couple of feelers from the NER membership and no one was interested enough to even look at the car, much to my surprise.

By now the lady and her brother’s executor were anxious to get rid of the car and they asked me if I would take it for $15,000. I asked my wife, and she wasn’t keen on the idea. She felt that going from owning 5 cars to 6, two of which were Porsches, and one a Caterham, was a bit too much, especially since we only have garage space for 4. It didn’t help either that the car was black, a color my wife isn’t keen on. Also,  this was early in the epidemic, and we had no idea what effect it would have on car prices, so I reluctantly declined.

As you all know I could have flipped the 911 and made a good profit or sold one of our Boxsters and kept the 911.

 

-Anker Berg-Sonne

/by

An Evening with Judy Stropus and Donald Osbourne

Last night we attended a special event at the Audrain Motorsports Club in Newport.    We expect that most people know who Donald Osborne is from his appearances on Jay Leno’s Garage on TV (CNBC) and his appearances with Jay on the Audrain Museum You Tube Channel,   and also at Newport Motorweek and National Classic Car events.   If you were involved in motorsports way back in the 70’s you probably even know who Judy Stropus is.  However, for those PCA members, who weren’t yet born, please allow a short history update.

Back in 70’s there was no such thing as Computerized Timing and Scoring with transponders in every car.  Instead Timing was done manually with banks of stopwatches and rows of people with paper and pencil,  all unpaid trained volunteers,  sitting on benches as the official SCCA Timing and Scoring staff.    There was always a delay before the Official Results were announced, particularly during the long races where there were multiple pit stops. It was possible to lose track who was leading.   Disputes and confusion were frequent.  There were no Jumbo-tron screens keeping everyone informed in real time on who was leading.   Although there was often a public address loudspeaker system, it frequently was impossible to hear the commentary over the noise of the racecars, even when the PA was actually working.  The solution to knowing what was going on in the race meant that the spectators and all the individual race teams had to keep their own Lap Charts and Timing Sheets.  

This is where Judy Stropus comes in.   She had a special skill of being able to accurately track lap times and positions of the entire field of a race.    She was legendary for the accuracy of her charts.   So much so that, at the Trans–Am and Can-Am races in the 70’s,  the SCCA frequently  crossed checked her sheets with theirs before releasing the official results.   Her timing sheets changed the results in at least one Trans –Am race and helped Race Teams win others.

It truly is an extraordinary talent.   Her ability to focus on the conflicting tasks of watching the race cars go by while simultaneously writing down all the car numbers and their times without missing any of them.  And in addition to that task, accounting for the cars that may have stopped or crashed on the part of the track she could not see.   She did this all using just a single stopwatch and without taking a break, even for the 24-hour races.   She worked for many of the major teams of the time,  most notably for Roger Penske and Mark Donahue when they were a major force in the Trans –am, Can-am Series and the Indy 500.  She taught others her system of timing and scoring, but only a few were able to master her system.   Only Judy seemed to have the focus and built-in math skills to achieve such accuracy.   She laughing admitted to having made one mistake in her long career.   But that’s a story for her to tell.       

She gained worldwide recognition and respect during a time period when women in motor racing were yet to be taken seriously. Judy was a primary force in the movement to allow credentialed women into the working pits in NASCAR and USAC/Indy Car.  She was a significant instigator in providing wives and girlfriends with a meaningful way to contribute to the team and be recognized as much more than decorations and distractions.  

Judy worked with many famous Porsche Teams and drivers, for example,  Hurley Haywood, Al Hulbert, Bob Akin, Bruce Leven, Dick Barbour and Ted Field.      

Judy herself was an accomplished driver, an author and ran an award-winning public relations firm.   She was also part of the legendary original Cannonball Baker Sea to Sea challenge.   Her all woman team made it to Texas before the Cadillac Limo they had borrowed for the event came apart. 

      Donna Mae Mimms,  Lynn St.James  and Judy Stropus ready to depart the Red Ball Garage for the Cannonball

It was an astounding evening with a legendary member of Motorsports and well worth the trip to Newport and back.   Stay tuned to the Audrain Channel on You Tube and hopefully the video of the event will be released soon.  Even if you weren’t around for the wonderful days of Motorsports in the 70’s you need to hear the stories and know the History.                    

Lesia and Ted Shaw

/1 Comment/by
,

Chase In the Desert!

After a year and a half driving Rob’s 2014 C4S it was time to give the car back. It wasn’t a bad deal for him either as he had my 2015 Turbo S in his garage in Arizona. There was a tire/rim swap to be done between the two cars so it was necessary to have them both in the same place at the same time , at least for a while. Since the driving season was at full speed in the valley of the sun we decided that it would be fun to run both cars at a PCA Driver Education event when they were both in the same garage.

I set about getting a shipping company to pick up his car in Medfield and buying plane tickets and he worked on getting us into the same Run Group at the DE so we could play on the track together. To level the playing field a bit we put the Hoosier race tires on his car to compensate for the extra 200 hp that the Turbo produced. That was after a few modifications, like exhaust, intake plenum, and Cobb ECU tune boosted the output from 520hp to around 650hp. While I was driving his car Rob and his crew were playing mechanic on mine. With four year old street tires on my car we figured they would lap at about the same times.

 The pick up went smoothly considering that it was in the middle of a snowstorm. It was pointed out to me that modern car carriers are now built so that the sides are open and the drivers door can be used for easy entry/exit. Apparently, in years past drivers had to get in and out of the car by climbing through the window.  For the 300lb driver that picked up this ride that would’ve been a nonstarter.

The trip out to Goodyear only took a week and the cars were finally together. Tires were swapped and the cleanup was done by Louie, Robbie and Tommy and they were rewarded with rides back and forth to school. Louie even ran errands with it after calling me to get permission. Great crew.

With the Arizona Motorsport Park less than a mile from the house the oil wasn’t even warmed up the morning that we drove both cars over to the track. It was chilly as the sun came up but turned into a great day for driving. Our shelf paper numbers looked great on the doors. The only panel done in metal anymore are the rear fenders so my old magnetic numbers have been retired to the back of the garage door. Rob made it easy by requesting numbers 31 and 311, all straight numbers in the Porsche font. Details are important.

                                     

Our advanced run group didn’t start until 9:30 so we had time to go back to the house for breakfast after dropping our gear in a premium parking spot.

The track is flat as a pancake, think big autocross, and over three miles long. With a couple of decent straights the C4S was going to have to be better in the turns to keep up with the Turbo S. The grippy race tires were definitely up to the task. There were to be four 20 minute sessions and they kept to the schedule down to the minute, very impressive.

The first session saw me finding my way, I didn’t want to be the guy who went off into the dirt and there was a lot of dirt. The video I had watched at home was helpful but it was tough to look ahead which what we tell every new student to do at a new track. If you know the track it’s easy to know when to keep your right foot down and when to tiptoe. As I was still learning, Rob was driving away. In the second session I had a better feel for the playing field and was able to keep up a little better. I chased him for a while but couldn’t get around him, he just went way too deep into the turns. He motioned me by to see if I could drive away but I couldn’t. We ran nose to tail the last ten minutes of the session, passing other cars like a train. Great fun.

By the third session it was catch me if you can. I had a better sense of the PCCB (Ceramic brakes) and could brake later that the C4S. Rob was still keeping up well but he ended the session early after his brakes began to fade. Turns out, he also corded a new Hoosier tire, a left front (we were running the track clockwise), so I know how hard he was trying. All in all, a terrific day at the track.

 The Big Dog is now back in Medfield having made the trip on the same truck with the same driver that took out the C4S. Strange how some things work out.

I may give the ’72 a rest this year and run the Turbo S in the Autocross series just to keep the young guys honest. I wonder how the Turbo S would look in a Martini suit? We’ll see.

Meanwhile, Summer is just around the corner.

KTF

 

 

 

 

/by

NER Annual Gala at Gillette Stadium. 3/21 Last Day for Sign-Up!

Hello NER Friends,

You still have a few days to sign up for the Annual NER Gala!

Event signup deadline is 3/21

Join us for the annual NER PCA Gala being hosted at Gillette Stadium on MARCH 26th in Foxboro, MA.

Date/Time
Date(s) – 03/26/2022
6:00 pm – 10:45 pm

Tickets are $75 per person and include dinner + 1 beverage:

Get more info and purchase tickets here

Spending the night?

Hotel rooms are available at the Hilton Garden Inn within walking distance of the event location (NER Member discount deadline was 2/24 but rooms may still be available)

 

/by

2022-02 Board Meeting Minutes

February 2022 Board Meeting Minutes

The February board meeting was held on February 9th at 6:00 PM via Zoom video conference.

In attendance were:

Robert Jacobsen – President

Kristin Larson – Treasurer

Glenn Champagne\Betty Mae Mosley – VP Administration

Lisa Burke – Membership Chair

Erick Aubin – Secretary

Jerome Gangitano – VP Driving Events

Luis Rivera – VP Communications

Stan Corbett – DE Registrar

Adam Schwartz – DE Co-chair

David Melchar – Concours Chair

Not in attendance:

Nick Shanny – Past President

The Board approved the monthly Treasurer’s Report. The January Meeting Minutes had been approved via email and published on Porschenet.com prior to the February meeting. A discussion of club activities, events, and general business followed.

  • Sponsorship & Advertising Update – Robert circulated the latest sponsorship & advertising deck prior to the meeting, requesting feedback. Discussions included limiting allowance of business promotion on the NER PCA Facebook pages to those with paid advertising agreements in place. Logistics around policing this to be determined as additional administrators may need to be set up in Facebook. Luis also proposed pursuing paid advertising opportunities within the Facebook platform.

The board also discussed wording of Gala sponsorship as the event typically celebrates all of the advertisers and sponsors who support the club throughout the year. Listing this opportunity will be framed as one of the benefits of advertising with the club rather than an opportunity to be a sole sponsor of the gala itself.

  • Administration – Event planning continues and new events will be added to the Porschenet.com calendar as confirmation is received by the hosts.

The team continues to monitor COVID guidelines and announcements with the hope of moving potential events to earlier dates.

Newcomers Meeting confirmed for April 10th at Porsche Norwell. Activity chairs are requested to attend. Glenn and Betty Mae will connect with Jerome for appropriate contacts.

  • Driving – Budgets are on track, no significant issues or changes over last year expected. Revenue expectations will continue to be in flux as COVID guidelines and resulting attendance may fluctuate.

Ramble: On track to be on budget, revenue dependent on final attendance headcount. Clarification requested of Ramble budget documentation method in terms of lodging expenses and credits which are paid directly by participants.

Autocross: Contingency in place for potential purchase of replacement timing electronics. Autocross to continue typical annual donation.

Driver’s Education: Tracks have raised prices including some pass-through cost for safety resources. Entry fees for specific events will increase proportionally where necessary.  Previous year discounts for 3-day bundles will not be offered this year. Instructor entry fees will be reduced for some events and the committee is proposing entirely subsidized instructor entry fees for the Thompson event as the increased beginner turn-out for this first event of the season warrants a need for as many instructors to be available as possible. Sponsorships have not been factored into the submitted budget as commitments have not been secured yet but the DE committee projects normal profitability given expected attendance rate. Additional tech inspection station has been added at Porsche Stratham in NH. Forms stamped by an NCR-approved inspection station are also accepted at NER events.

Concours: Scheduled for October 1st during Audrain’s Motor Week with a rain date of October 2nd. Porsche Warwick will continue to be the primary sponsor for this event. There were 118 entrees in 2021 and the estimate for 2022 is expected to be the same, roughly 120 participants with space to accommodate volunteers and some spectators. 2022 classing will continue to include the Full and Werks categories. David will attend upcoming meetings between Audrain management and Porsche Cars North America representatives as PCNA expects to have a larger presence at the 2022 Motor Week. 

  • Communications – Porschenet.com traffic, both users and sessions, have increased 60% over last year. Increased content availability is trending in a positive direction including contributions in response to Anker’s Drivers License story request as well as the continuation of the #WinterBeaters series with 3 new articles in the pipeline at the time of this meeting. There is a significant uptick in traffic within the 35-40 year old age group which seems to be in line with the perceived shift in target demographics from Porsche advertising as a whole. Being attuned to the age demographic and geographic concentrations of active members can impact event planning and benefit the membership experience.

There have not been opportunities to use the standardized templates for event reports yet but they are expected to be adopted as a positive gateway to foster participation by currently passive members. Luis will ask Maddox to set up a meeting to further discuss implementation of templates and logistics for members to access and submit these to the communications team.

  • Membership – Our PCA Northeast Region currently has 3,387 primary and affiliate members. No significant increase or decrease in the numbers over this time in past years. Lisa has requested PCA decals from National for the Newcomers meeting and will also bring the NER logo decals remaining from last year’s Rallies. Discussion regarding availability of NER-branded giveaway items; Lisa clarified we do not have a supply on hand but can choose to order promotional items if the board requests. Types of merchandise and quantity will need to be discussed and approved.

Recent new member welcome emails highlighted that the Ramble is not showing up on the Porschenet events calendar. Lisa will add it and link to the registration instructions.

Gala rescheduling has resulted in a number of cancellations and very few new registrations. Lisa will increase advertising push in conjunction with the reminder that the special rate for hotel bookings expires on February 24th.

The next NER board meeting is scheduled for March 9th at 6:00PM on Zoom.

The Club’s monthly Board meetings are planned for the second Wednesday of each month and typically begin with a social period at 6:00PM and the official Board meeting at 6:30PM – although when it’s a Zoom meeting, the social piece is brief and the meeting begins shortly after 6:00 PM.

Club members may attend any of the monthly Board meetings.  Please contact the Club Secretary ([email protected]) in advance of the meeting to confirm your attendance and the meeting time and place.

/by