I sent an email to the chapter prez asking what was up with the work I did for the re-introduction of the autocross at a venue we lost a couple of years ago....the AX chair said he was actively working on it....

I got a shitty response back that they were not considering it all, not a thank you very much no, but NO.....

I answered back that I was no longer a member.....freaking club is more interested in whine and cheese concour and computer assisted rallies.....

What a worthless POS club.

my PCA chapter sponsors12-15 DE's every year... and a like amount of AX's

weird.... I thought the club was about driving the cars.... not performing rectal type exams with q-tips to get them clean

Some blow. Some no.

Mine's a pretty good mix of bashes and crashes. We do Las Vegas Motor Speedway every year and a dozen or so auto-x's. Even do a bunch of tours. It's hard to find a bunch of wine guzzling Porsche fanatics here on planet Utah. I think I'll stick around for a while.

Every year when my membership is up for renewal, I have to stop and ask myself why I belong to PCA. Sometimes it takes days for me to think of a reason.

Paul

well - that's the thing, you see. people tend to have the impression that 'THE" PCA everywhere is like where they are. not so. there's a tremendous amount of local Regional diversity.

Mikey's in a part of the world where a ) there are no racing facilities and b ) most of the membership is about being seen in (or with) the car, and much less about driving it.

my old region was drivers - did a rallye a few years ago, a sho-noshine every 3-4 or so. lots of tours, lots of excuses to go somewhere through the twisty Sierra for lunch or over to wine country.

my new Region is drivers - and we've got the big tracks on which to do it. we'll probably do a 'show' event this year, and maybe a rallye. lots of semi-organized tours to places.

i was in Zone 8 for a long time; it was okay when i didn't know any better, but that was a long time ago and i do, now...

it was 5F this morning - i don't see Mikey surviving very long in his flipflops tho ...

Because you love their shitty magazine

(Pano blows...)

I read it while I'm on the crapper. I 'm done with it before I'm done. If you know what I mean!

Eric, when does the one here in Utah meet? Is it pretty often? Maybe I should join.

I knows what ya means... I think . You mean you're done with one piece of shit before the other right?

Join up... it's a fun group. Plus we need more teeners at the auto-x events. Next "social" is February 21st at Lamb's Restaurant. Downtown SLC. It's the opening social. Next is the "weather-be-damned" autocross the following month at SLC Community College.

You join you get to see my exciting magazine n/c (whoopee). I'm the newssletter editor for the region.

What do you all think about the Porsche Owners Club? They have driving schools and stuff? I am pretty new to the porsche scene, so I dont know if this is a stupid question or not...

POC....different animal than the Porsche Club of America (PCA).....

POC is pretty much a race only group. Some of the guys are very nice. A lot of the long time members seemed to have a :finger2: attitude to new guys. There is A LOT of $$$'s in some of the cars. I found that a few to many of them take their racing to seriously for me to enjoy their events.

POC = race, race, race

Mikey, maybe you need to come up here for the 2 AX's planned for this year. They ain't much, but I bet you could show us hicks a thing or three.

It depends on what you want to do. The POC is all race oriented, no wax and shine parties. It suits me real well, I wasn't looking for social events. If you don't want to be at the track there's no reason to join the POC. If you want to be at the track, they'll give you plenty of opportunity. The old time members have come to realize the value of a starter series to keep new blood flowing in. So they are giving a lot more support to the Short Track Series. I haven't gotten any negative attitute from any member in the 2 years I've belonged.

If you guys want to do autocross, SCCA does autocross. They AutoX at Qualcomm stadium in San Diego. Here is the website for the California Solo 2: http://www.solo2.com/ .

POC sounds fun, but do they have classes for modified street cars? Or is it kind of unlimited with different chassis' (ie a 914 class where all 914s could race)?

Clubs are whatcha make em. I belonged to one chapter, resigned, joined another. Some squids in both, some really great people too. Too many members can't see beyond the brand and I find that I like clubs that are not marque specific....so sez he as he enters his reply on the 914club page.... hmmmm.

Mike when I lived in smeLA I quit the LA region and joined the Grand Prix region. Much happier after I did that.

-sean

If you join the POC they give you a rule book. You start at stock and add points for what ever mods you've done. Depending on how the points add up you could be in the same class as other similar 914's and maybe have 911, 944's also in the same class.

I thought I saw a Zone 8 AX in the SB region for this year. Is that not accurate?

We in the ORPCA just had a meeting of those wishing to help organize our AX events.
There were 10 or so guys there with a couple that couldn't make it but volunteered to do whatever was left over after permanent assignments were issued.

We normaly have 40-50 drivers at out AXs. We usually get some spill over from the SCCA. These guys are hardcore and can really be a big help.We gave the club a profit of over $3k last year....so we're a profit center. A dozen folks can make it work. If we can get as organized as we want, we could prolly handle 60-70 drivers.

Rumor has it we get the Parade in 2006. No way 12 guys can deal with that. We'll prolly hire the SCCA and supply volunteers.

Mikey, you need to move North.

The SB AX is at the Camarillo airport.....in Ventura County. All the board members live in Ventura County......the NAME is Santa Barbara COUNTY PCA....not freaking Ventura.

The course there is really great......you go about 600 yards straight do acouple of wiggles thru a chicane to keep ya from getting out of second, do 180 and come back....woooooohoooo, :finger2:

Lemme know.....

IIRC there's one set for May.

I'm letting my PCA membership lapse. After 2 years I've learned that the AZ PCA region thinks Northern Arizona is just a place to visit. When I've shown up at meetings it's just a good ol' boys club where they talk to each other. I like reading the European Windows article in Pano, but everything else is basically just about pushing the latest Porsches that I'll never own. $45 a year for a magazine is a lot of money and then they want another $18 so I can be a member of the local region and get another publication that has nothing in it for me. I'll use the money for 914 parts... I'm sure I need to put in an oil pressure gauge

I think I only went to one PCA event in the last year or more; the Concours (Santa Barbara Region). It is < 2miles from my house and is one of the better whine-and-cheese types of events in these parts.

They had one Camarillo airport autox in the last couple years. The dickwads refused to give me money back when I prepaid and couldn't drive cuz my car was not quite ready. The course sucked too...basically a 40 second slalom and "U-turn" on a vacant runway. Yippee.

I get some mild enjoyment out of Panorama but is it really worth the annual dues for a few minutes a month of reading? I dunno...other mags I enjoy are half the price, or less.

I actually made a feeble attempt a couple years to help Z get some kind of autox or TT action started back up in LA/SB but no dice. Even though this is the p-car capital of the world, there was no serious interest at all. Granted, venues are tough to come by here, but it is still weird. I guess everybody else figured out long ago that the local PCA folks are a lost cause, and went to play with POC, Alfa Club, OTR and so forth.

Now the POC "management" (board) and venues have changed fairly dramatically too, and it does not work great for me. Like Andy, I have had a very positive experience overall with POC. Sure there are your cranky or overly-cocky types but they exist in every large group of people. I have always felt welcome, even in my "cheap old" 914 out there with guys in new 996tt's and GT3 Cup cars.

BTW the POC GCR's are downloadable online in PDF format on the web site. http://www.porscheclub.com/pdf/2003GCR.PDF Everything from stock 914 1.7's, to R-Gruppe style 70's 911's, up to brand new factory race cars can run; NOT just fully prepped dedicated race cars.

I've been in the ORPCA for only a year & I gotta say that it's been alot of fun at the AX's. So far, it's the only event I've had time to attend but would like to try other events too. Great bunch of guys.
Oh, and I was one of the few that couldn't make it but, guaranteed, I'll do the left overs

.......b

I forgot -- Matt the POC has a small but extremely dedicated group called "Spec 914" that is essentially a stock-improved 2.0 (four) class.

These guys and gals (yep there is at least one extremely quick one) run in the 1:41-42 range at Big Willow....in virtually bone-stock 914/4's. That's smokin for a car with an optimistic 115mph top speed. They would beat a lot of fairly serious drivers in 3.0 and up 911's...not to mention me in my -6 conversion...

In addition there is the HSR West 2.0 Challenge group, which John Rogers and Jim Patrick run with, among others.

We are definitely NOT lacking in PCA alternatives here.

I think you need more then just a pressure gauge!

POC is a great club. Track driving focus. Its like any club where you have lots of competitive people. Some take themselves a little too seriously, but overall everyone is out to have a good time on yhe track.

Mikey. Come on up to Marina (Monterey) and AX with some 914s. Just because your SB chapter doesn't race doesn't mean you can't travel a bit.

Show us how its done old man......

Hmmm, cool 600 yard more or less straight? Maybe I'll borrow a buddies Charger drag car that's got a blown 4xxCI and enough torque to have permanently tweaked he chassis. I could probably munch that 600 yards in 8 or 10 secs bootlegger turn it, aim it the other way and do it again.

I've got 22 driving events (AX and track) on my calendar so far this year between Zone 8 PCA and POC. I haven't even looked at the SCCA but that would probably add another 10-20 all within two hours drive of home. The local 914 crew will get together a few times plus and I'll attend a handful of other p-car events that'll get my attention as time goes by.

I got no complaints. There are enough assholes in SoCal to issue everybody a pair, but, I just keep mov'n and ignore them 'cause there's plenty of good people as well.

The San Diego crew and the southern parts of Zone 8 have their collective shit together..... it's just the local region I have the bitch about.

Getting SOUTH to attend is the big hassle. JUST getting to San Diego or Willow or other venues is a huge unndertaking.....5 hours from Santa Barbara to SD.....that blows. I moved from SmelLA to get out of traffic.....

Yeah, and they changed the rules right in the middle of my car contruction which bumped me up a class. I would have to take things off the car that I feel are necessary for good all around safe driving and performance. Like brakes. And 7" rims. So, I am eyeballing HSR for racing. As far as TT, I don't know, maybe Alfa Club.

I have never given PCA a 2nd thought. I went to Irwindale and saw what they had to offer. Thought I might try it once in the future, so I approached the registration table. The people at the table would not even look up at me and say 'hello.' I had the money in my hand as I walked up. Probably because I drove the Boxster over there.

Why not just run in the class your car falls into and give it a shot. I set my best time this past weekend and it was only good enough for 3rd place. I still had fun.