Because the apple picking resulted in a packed lawn last month, I was at Sweet Berry shortly after 9 AM Sunday to ensure that the parking of Porsches would be as orderly as possible. By 9:30 AM more than 6 Porsches arrived. By late morning parked Porsches exceeded 60.
I have to say that these monthly meets are one of my more pleasurable experiences; the sharing of stories exudes enthusiasm of Porsche ownership. There is a consistency in design from my first Porsche (65 356C) to my current 996 C4. The view in both cars is similarly shown to the driver, like the gauges seen through the steering wheel. And, I have always been impressed with the stiffness of the body design, and the absence of rattles, even as the car ages.
Elizabeth Kahane exuberantly parked her 2021 25th anniversary Porsche Boxster; it is #364 out of 1250. On the passenger side of the dash is the engraved number beneath the Boxster 25. Silver, with a red interior, this Porsche is a keeper. With a stick shift Elizabeth says the car is sexy, fast, and fun to drive. Previously she owned a 2017 Boxster.
Elizabeth Kahane’s 2021 Boxster
Ariel, and son Apollo arrived in a unique and attractive 2018 911 Targa 4GTS. A graphite Blue metallic with a matte paint protection film reflected an attractive glow. This is Ariel’s first Porsche, bought new, now showing 31K. Ariel says that he “always liked Targas and the best part is feeling it, even just around town”.
Ariel and son Appollo’s 2018 911 Targa 4GTS
Matt Meeks parked his basalt black, with sand beige interior 2006 911 C4S. This is Matts first Porsche; he is the third owner, purchased this past February, now showing just 47k miles. I like the option of the white gauges and Matt likes some of the older attributes making the car a bit analog.
Matt Meeks’ 2006 911 C4S
In closing. I have to mention that this coffee had more dogs as Porsche passengers than any previous time; I think there were five different Porsches with dogs, two as passengers in one of the selected photos.
This was our last SoBo of the season. As you may know, the first SoBo of the season starts before Sweet Berry Farm officially opens. So, if anyone has any ideas for an early alternative location anywhere south of Boston, please forward your suggestion.
Rog Slocum 127 Center Ave. Middletown, RI 02842 e-mail: [email protected]
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/sobo-211017-jpg.webp215599Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2021-10-28 11:10:102021-10-28 11:10:11South of Boston (SoBo) Porsches and Coffee – 17 October 2021
We have an amazing few days in front of us at the end of September 2021. The Audrain folks are again holding Motorweek – a celebration of the automobile – with an event of national import right here in our backyard – Newport, RI. Starting on Wed 9/29 and running through Sunday 10/3, it’s a non-stop tap right into the carotid of everyone who has petrol flowing in their veins.
Wednesday 9/29
This is the big setup day for Motorweek with most of the action happening in the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHOF) on Bellevue Avenue. The great part is that parking is pretty easy, things are in motion so you get a behind-the-scenes look at much of the greatness to come. Last time, I saw new C8 Corvettes coming off trucks…auction cars set up without the crowds on the grass tennis courts…and many of the vendor booths getting set up. If you have tickets, you can get them on this day. Motorsports members will meet and greet with Porsche driver, David Donohue. And the excitement will be palpable.
C8 Corvette at Audrain Motorweek
Thursday 9/30
This is the official first day of Motorweek with lots of seminars happening and the ITHOF Concours Village fully setup and running. The McLaren racing team seminar looks stellar. There is a wine event at 41 North (ticketed).
Friday 10/1
Friday might be my favorite “sleeper” day of Motorweek where you can relax and take it in. The Gathering is the main event, held over at Rough Point, Doris Duke’s place. It’s a who’s who of the car world showcase among jaw-dropping machines strewn across the rolling lawns of the estate. The food is excellent, the drinks flow, the merch is on display. And guys like Rod Emory, Justin Bell, and Jay Leno have some spare time to hang and chat. There will likely be something special with a cover to be pulled off at some point. As if a Jesko and some Chirons aren’t enough to call it a party!
Nick Schorsch and Rod Emory displaying custom 356 Porsche
Saturday 10/2
I hope you got some rest Friday night. This one is a joyously grueling day. It starts crazy early with some options. Do you have a car in the Sunday concours? Then drive around in a huge parade with closed roads on Saturday morning in the Tour d’Elegance. Regular cool car or want to drool? Head to Fort Adams for the cars and coffee 8am-10am. Do you have a Porsche? Of course you do. So scrap those events and come to the Elms starting at 9am for our annual NER Porsche Concours event. Rod Emory hangs out with us there, Rob Sass from Panorama, and we’ll try to get a skiff out to Matt Farah, Spike Ferestein, and Jonny Lieberman who will like be hung over out on a boat in the harbor that morning. Prizes awarded at 12:30pm. When that’s all done, take in more cool seminars and then change into your tux for the Gala back over at the ITHOF. The ticketed prices…well…it’s for charity! And Kenny Loggins will play Highway To The Danger Zone a few times so you won’t miss out on hearing it, don’t worry! Now go to bed!
NER Porsche Concours 2021 will be at The Elms mansion
Kenny Loggins plays to a full house at the Breakers mansion in 2019
Sunday 10/3
That alarm clock is going to hurt! 6:30am kicks off coffee and dawn patrol over at the Breakers for the main event, the big concours. Word is that there are both the crazy Pebble-beach type cars and also an innovative 30-under-30 class showcasing folks under 30yo with under $30k into their car. Rumor is that there will be 944s! This is your chance to meet Sandra Button from Pebble, Donald Osbourne, Jay Leno, you-name-it. All the heavy hitters will be at this one. And the cars are some of the best of the best. I’ll bet the Begovich 904, a nearly perfect specimen with 1,200 miles on it will be on display and will take home a trophy. Our own Lee Hower isn’t saying what he’s bringing, but you can bet it will be very impressive. It’s a car-person’s day of the year. So come on down to Newport and enjoy it all!
Allard at the Audrain Concours at the Breakers in 2019
Porsche has grabbed pole position for two classes – GTLM and GTD – for the 2020 Rolex 24h of Daytona! This should be a spectacular race with Aston Martin entering some of their cars at the 11th hour, the new C8.R Corvette’s making their maiden voyage, BMW M8’s, Lamborghini Huracan GT3’s – all kinds of machinery to watch battle it out.
Nick Tandy in the 911 car got a new track record for the class and GTLM pole position with his time of 1:42.207, besting the record he set at Daytona in 2019. Laurens Vanthoor was just 0.049 seconds behind in the 912 car.
Zach Robichon topped the time sheets for GTD in his 911 GT3 R (#9) with a time of 1:45.237 minutes, record setting time as well – the fastest time ever in a GTD-class qualifying at Daytona.
Porsche does not run cars in the DPi or LMP2 classes. Mazda Team Joest will start first in the DPi class. PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports will lead the LMP2 class from the start.
The 24 Hours of Daytona gets underway on Saturday, 25 January, at 1.35pm EST and will be initially viewable on NBCSN.
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pfaff-911-GT3R-jpg.webp506900Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2020-01-24 18:24:372020-01-24 18:24:40Front Row Is The Place To Be
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.
If You Can’t Take The Heat
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.
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.
Porsche’s Brand Of AWD
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!]
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.
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/911_carrera_4_2019_porsche_ag_1-sm-jpg.webp6751200Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2019-09-11 09:34:442019-09-11 14:18:59It’s Where You Wind Up That Matters – Porsche All Wheel Drive
Porsche may have been a little slow getting out of the blocks to celebrate their 70th birthday, but they are more than making up for it with a huge presence at some very high-profile events. Take the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS) for instance. The festival is always an amazing show with just about one of nearly everything racing (in an interestingly “gentlemanly” manner) up what is in essence a British royal’s driveway! There are hundreds of thousands of onlookers and fans over the course of a whole weekend to watch people drive up a driveway at speed! And this year, it was a real treat to watch an array of Porsches – literally starting at Porsche #1 – all the way up to the 919 Evo and latest 991.2 Speedster. What was in between? Well, nearly everything. The icons – Moby Dick, an 804 (yes!) 917s, 904’s, 908’s, 935s – you name it…they sent it. Here’s an array of photos from a friend of ours, Tariq Horani, and a video for you to enjoy. Feel free to add more in the comments and let us know which cars were your favorites to see going up the hill!
There were a few oddities at Goodwood this year too – how about a driverless car doing the racing?? Not sure I’m too excited about that. But here’s an interesting race – GT3RS versus drone – and with the drone pilot sitting in the passenger seat of the GT3RS during the race!! Something about it is pretty cool.
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/singer-williams-gerry-judah-goodwood-fos-2018-tariq-horani-sm-jpg.webp586900Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2018-07-18 10:41:402018-07-18 18:27:3270 Up The Hill at Goodwood Festival of Speed
In the pro-category, Porsche 911 RSR #92 drove 344 laps to victory. Drivers Kévin Estre (France), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Michael Christensen (Denmark) led the race nearly from wire to wire – quite a feat. This win marked 106 class victories for Porsche.
Car #91, driven by Richard Lietz (Austria), Frédéric Makowiecki (France) and Gianmaria Bruni (Italy), fought hard to retain second place in the GTE-Pro class. Frédéric Makowiecki had a great fight with another car for an hour and a half!
Porsche has extended its lead in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ classifications of the FIA WEC world championship.
Winner in the GTE-Am class: the #77 Porsche fielded by Dempsey-Proton Racing
The #77 Porsche from Dempsey-Proton Racing got an emotional win in the GTE-Am class. With young Porsche talent, Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell (Australia), Christian Ried (Germany) and Porsche Junior Julien Andlauer (France) grabbed the 107th class win for Porsche. Julien Andlauer at age 18 has become the youngest class winner at Le Mans.
Porsche 911 RSR, Dempsey Proton Racing (77), Julien Andlauer (F), Matt Campbell (AUS), Christian Ried (D), Le Mans 2018
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pink-pig-911-truffle-hunter-le-mans-victory-porsche.jpg8121440Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2018-06-18 10:25:062018-06-18 10:25:06Porsche Double Victory at Le Mans
Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that donut in the car today?
As a board member and enthusiast volunteer, I have been briefly involved for the 2018 NER Concours d’Elegance. Most of the real work is being done by Rick Archambault and the rest of the Concourse committee, and they are planning a spectacular event this year at Prowse Farm in Milton.
My introduction to the world of Concours began last year when NER hosted the Zone 1 Concours, and I had volunteered to work the registration table. So I got a brief taste of it, and was blown away by the presentation of many fine cars from around the Zone. This year, the call went out for volunteers to judge cars. Now, I didn’t see how that could be for me, since I’ve never entered a Concours, let alone judged someone else’s car. However, Rick explained that anyone can judge, once they know what to look for. See, the thing about the NER event – even though it has a fancy sounding name reminiscent of the world famous Pebble Beach or Amelia Island events – is that the only things that are judged are cleanliness and presentation. You won’t lose points for not having the correct valve stem cover for your 1965 356C – but you may, if it is found to be dirty!
However, new judges can’t just show up on Concours day and don their blue blazers, straw hats, white gloves and clipboards. Just kidding, I don’t think anyone does! So, we were asked to attend a judges training seminar at the home of long-time Concours attendees, winners and judges – George and Cindy Markell. When I arrived, George asked me – much to my horror – to pull my decidedly non-Concours, 140,000 mile 2003 Boxster into his garage. He wanted the judges to be trained by evaluating my car!
They explained the Boxster, because of its mid-engine design and the access difficulties that entail, would not have the engine bay judged. However, if you have a pre-997 Carerra, you better detail that engine fan. For the Box, they would just focus on the exterior (top only) and interior. George walked us through things to look for and what we could and couldn’t do as judges. For example, when judging the interior we had to have our feet on the ground and could not sit in the car.
George, explaining the four issues he already spotted on my car!
Needless to say, it was a fairly humbling experience to have these guys going over my old car – I hadn’t even washed it recently! But George, perhaps feeling bad for me, explained my car was actually in pretty good overall condition and – with some preparation would certainly be a car he would encourage me to enter in the August NER Concours d’Elegance event. And if I didn’t want to be judged, I could simply enter the Display Only group. So, what the heck, I have a garage full of cleaning products – I think I’ll give it a shot. You should too!
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/gary-cooper-rick-944-s2-lg-jpg.webp526700Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2018-06-15 10:37:162018-06-15 10:37:16Training to Judge a Concours
It’s finally time. From 8 -10 June 2018, Porsche is celebrating its 70th birthday with its first international Sportscar Together Day. Join Porsche, sports car drivers, friends and fans as we celebrate with events around the world.
We will see an amazing array of events throughout the Porsche world. For more information, we’ll continue to update the links below:
https://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/porsche-70th-birthday-sportscar-together-day-jpg.webp466900Sterling Vernonhttps://porschenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NERegionVectorLogo-siteicon.pngSterling Vernon2018-05-06 20:27:412018-05-06 20:27:41#SportscarTogether Day – June 8, 2018
