Coastalaire - December 2022 Issue

Coastalaire

California Central Coast Region Porsche Club of America

California Central Coast Region Cover Story of the Porsche Club of America

Editor

Bob “Kit” Kitamura coastalaireeditor@gmail.com

Creative Editing and Layout Chris Kitamura

The Coastalaire is available on the CCCR website at http//ccc.pca.org/.

The Coastalaire is published online every month and printed in January, April, July and October

Member Services

Contributors

Alfred Abken

Pedro P. Bonilla

Bob Bruington

Bill Chadwick

Ron Green

Fred Herr

Gil Igleheart

Chuck Jennings

Joseph Kuntze

Joe Shubitowski

Bern Singsen

Carol Walker

Andy Winterbottom

Photography

Alfred Abken

TB1

Chuck Jennings

Jeff Koskie

Bob Kitamura

Photographer Alfred Abken

This month’s cover shows Alfred Abken’s 924 Carrera GT replicar at PCA’s UnStock show in November at West Coast Customs. He was selected to display his Porsche inside of the building, quite an honor.

Classified Ads Classified ads are posted in the CCCR PCA website at http://ccc.pca.org. Submit your text and photo (if required) by email to: Joe Shubitowski at joseph.shubitowski@gmail.com.

The editor reserves the right to edit the ad if it is over 40 words. The ad is Free To Members.

CCCR Name Badge

CCCR / PCA Mailing Address: California Central Coast Region of Porsche Club of America (CCCR/PCA) 3030 Johnson Ave. San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

California Central Coast Member Name Badges. Cost for your beautiful 5-color CCCR standard badge with pin, swivel clip or magnet closure: $20.00. First Name, Last Name, optional 2nd line, for example, your club office within the club, your Porsche model. To order contact Joe Shubitowski at joseph.shubitowski@gmail.com

Coastalaire is the official publication of the Porsche Club of America, California Central Coast Region. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the California Central Coast Region of the Porsche Club of America, its officers or members. Permission is granted to charter regions to reprint if appropriate credit is given to the author and Coastalaire, with the exception of copyrighted material. Any material appearing in the Coastalaire is that of the author, and does not constitute an opinion of the Porsche Club of America, the California Central Coast Region, its Board or Appointees, the Coastalaire Editors, or its staff. The Editorial Staff reserves the right to edit all material submitted for publication.

The deadline for submission of articles is the 5th of the month preceding the month of publication.

The Prez’s Corner

We just enjoyed our California Central Coast Region Holiday Party at the San Luis Obispo Country Club on December 3rd. One hundred CCCR members attended as well as representatives from Porsche-Santa Barbara and Porsche-San Luis Obispo. Many Thanks to Sanja Brewer for again organizing our annual Holiday Party. Raffle gifts were contributed by Bob Kitamura (our esteemed Coastalaire Editor), Porsche-Santa Barbara and The Stable (formerly SGS Independent Porsche Care) [members Brian Pritt, Guy and Alice Ober]. Brian, Guy and Alice weren't able to attend because of competing Holiday Parties.

This will be my last missive for the President's Corner as I am being "promoted" to the Past President status. I will continue to attend the monthly CCCR Board of Directors meetings because I can sit back, listen and watch our new and improved 2023 Board in session. I want to thank each and every 2021 and 2022 CCCR Board Member for their contributions and making a great team in my humble opinion; especially considering that we had to operate our region activities under the constraints of COVID. To the best of my knowledge, we had no epidemic transmission due to CCCR activities.

Your 2023 California Central Coast Region of the Porsche Club of America Board of Directors are:

President - Joe Shubitowski Vice President - Bob Bruington Secretary - Carol Walker Treasurer - Bill Chadwick

Membership Director - Sanja Brewer Activities Director - Gil Igleheart Safety Director - Jeff Bartel Autocross Director - Chuck Jennings Drivers Education Events - Bob Bruington Mark Schilling Webmasters - Scot Burns Joe Shubitowski Coastalaire Editor - Bob Kitamura Directors at Large - Ron Green Joe Kuntz

by Andy Winterbottom, President

I also want to sincerely thank our 700 member strong California Central Coast Region for participating and supporting our volunteer organization. You are invited to attend our 6pm, first Wednesday of the month, board meetings (please pre-notify either Carol or Sanja of your intention to attend). We appreciate your feedback on our activities and organization whenever you see "room for improvement". One of our members recently provided valuable suggestions on how to improve our New Members Barbeque event recognition of our “New Members.” Excellent advice.

Happy Holidays! and Till we meet again, Andrew W.

If you missed it, here is our article in the November Panorama, From the Regions section. Another one of our great events!

Wow, I can’t believe that 2022 is over! What a great year for the California Central Coast Region of the Porsche Club of America! Okay so what did we “not” do this year? Just wait until next year when we add the Porsche Parade down in Palm Springs along with the Rennsport Reunion VII up at WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca. I thought this year was busy with all of the events we did, just wait until next year.

Most of all I want to thank Andy Winterbottom for his great job as president of our club. Under his top notch leadership we have been able to increase the opportunities for our membership to participate in a variety of activities. We are now looking forward to some great times with our new president, Joe Shubitowski. I also want to thank Bill Gibson for his great work on the board and as our Safety Director. We welcome our new board members, Jeff Bartel, Mark Schilling and Scot Burns, we look forward to working with them in 2023.

There are many of you who probably heard about PCA’s UnStock event at West Coast Customs this past year. What you probably did not hear about is our very own Alfred Abken’s modified 1982 924 Turbo that he converted to a 924 Carrera GT with a 968 3 liter engine hooked to a 6-speed. The PCA video for the event, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfdBxhdad24, shows his car at the 5 minute, 35 second mark. It was presented and talked about by Manny Alban, the Technical Director for PCA. Some of us have been watching Alfred’s Porsche taking shape over the years and he has done an amazing job! Congratulations to Alfred. You can read about UnStock on page 28 of this publication.

Please welcome our new advertiser starting this with this issue, The Butler Hotel in San Luis Obispo. It is owned by one of our members, George and April Garcia. Please let friends and family know about their unique and very nice accommodations.

The focus and theme this next year for the Coastalaire will be “Putting Names with Faces.” So all of you will hopefully come to know more of your fellow members as we will be trying to put the names next to the members you see in the articles. If you do

by Bob Kitamura, Editor

not see your name next to you in a publication then just drop me a note. That way, you will be recognized at the next event. We will see if that helps…..at least it will help me.

I want all of you to get a lot of rest because we have a full slate of activities for you to participate in coming up in 2023. I am looking forward to another great and busy year. I hope to see all of you out there. In the meantime have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

.......And remember to Get Out and Drive!,

Bob ‘Kit’ Kitamura

FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

APRIL

JUNE

UTOCROSS 2023

Looking back on 2022, CCCR had a very busy and successful driving events season. We held an autocross school and six autocross events, produced by Chuck Jennings and his autocross team that included Jon Milledge, Fred Herr, Bill Deviny, Sonny Brown, Bruce Morgenthaller, and Joe Shubitowski. Three Drivers Education events were produced by Bob Bruington with help from many dedicated participants. We also had at least 26 social events organized by Gil Igleheart, with help from Carol Walker, who also is our Board secretary. We continued the excellent monthly Coastalaire produced and edited by Bob Kitamura. Joe Kuntz, with much help from Joe Shubitowski, our Webmaster and new President, organized the hugely successful 356 Registry West Coast Holliday.

In addition, thanks to the stewardship of the 2022 Board, Andy Winterbottom our President, Ron Green our Vice President, Bill Chadwick treasurer, Bill Gibson the safety officer, and Sanja Brewer our Membership director, we were able to donate $5,000.00 to the Nor Clinic, $1,000.00 to MS Society in behalf of Jason and Bonnie Lin, supply the funds for the New Members Barbeque and subsidize the Holliday Party. The money to make these donations possible, come through the Track Events, advertising and PCA payments to CCCR.

We are now planning another busy year in 2023. Besides the phenomenal social events Gil has planned, we will have an opportunity for nine track days. We have three Drivers Education events and six autocrosses planned.

The first DE event will be May 5th at Buttonwillow Raceway in conjunction with the Golden Gate Region. We will have Friday the 5th, followed by GGR on the 6th and 7th. We have had many successful track days with GGR. If you have not stayed after our event on Friday to run with GGR, you are missing a fantastic opportunity.

With three straight days of tracking your car, you will find how relaxed it is to know you do not have to run in every session. Many times, I will skip a morning session, then take advantage of the afternoon sessions when there are fewer cars on track. I have had less then twelve cars on the track with me with open track available to everyone. GGR runs a fantastic event, you should take advantage of this opportunity. If you can’t make all three days, GGR has a package for a single day too. Buttonwillow Raceway is only one and half easy hours from San Luis Obispo. Stay the night or drive to the track and back home in the same day.

June 26th, we have a date set at the beautiful Laguna Seca Raceway. This always seems to be a very popular track event.

Laguna Seca is now remodeling the facilities and re-surfacing the track. This will be one of the first track days on the new and improved track surface; I can’t wait to see what improvements they’ve made. The final date will be at Buttonwillow again, but this time, on the longanticipated 2nd track. We have been waiting years for this track to be completed. The final date has not been set, but should be in late October or early November. It will be exiting to run the new track for the first time. If we can find someone who has driven the track already, we will have one session of lead-follow to learn how to drive it. If not, we will have a least one session of open

Porsche Santa Barbara

Our major sponsor for

Autocross and Drivers Education Events

Scot Burns at our Santa Maria AutoX

Drivers Education 2023

track at a slow pace.

We will continue the very popular Parade Lap Sessions during the noon time break at all of our DE events. If you would like to take your car out on the track at slower speeds, this a fantastic way to get the feel of driving a true race track. Speeds are limited to 60mph with less than track speed in the corners. You will follow an experienced driver down the straights, in to the corners, on the line we would take at full speed. Passing is not allowed. This is so safe, you can have passengers in your car, helmets are not required. You may find you like it so much, you will sign up for the next DE!

As always, instructors will be available at all of our driving events. We use only experienced PCA approved instructors. They will instruct you how to drive on the track, but also to help you out the entire day to make if fun and comfortable. Are there some nerves on you first day? Sure, but with the help you receive from the entire staff, you will have an enjoyable experience.

Want a driving event closer to home, with slower speeds, with just as much of an adrenalin rush? You should come to one of our six Autocross events at the Santa Maria Airport. In 2010, Porsche built a small track to debut the Porsche 991 at the Santa Maria Airport. Fortunately, we now have a track available to our club

for our autocross series. We use traffic cones to change configurations of the track for every event. You will not wear out your brakes or tires in one day. Speeds rarely exceed 55mph. If you are new to the sport, we have instructors to help you through the day. We have a very dedicated autocross team lead by Chuck Jennings. The team is always looking out for your enjoyment and safety. Autocross is a fantastic way to begin your future in the world of racetracks.

The Autocross dates start April 15, then May 13th, June 3rd, July 15th, August 26th and the final AX is October 21st. All dates are subject to change. While it is always fun to have your car out on the track, there are many hours to fill through out the day. A major part of the typical track day, Autocross or Drivers Education, is the social time you have with other drivers. Participants come from California and beyond. We have drivers from the East Coast, Alaska, Canada among other places. We get together for lunch and dinner, in between sessions and a beer or two when the day is over. It is much more than just driving your car, it is the atmosphere of the track, the social aspects, that makes the day so fun. We are always looking to build the sport, we and PCA, are especially interested in having more women included in our events. Last year at Laguna Seca, we had fourteen women join the fun, by far the best turn out for women we have ever had. We would like to keep that trend going forward. If you have any questions about the Autocross, contact Chuck Jennings at concourschuck@gmail.com, questions about Drivers Education, call Bob Bruington at 805 431-0919 or Aircooled911SC@gmail.com, we both will be more than happy to help you get started tracking your car.

Details and Registration at MotorsportReg.com

For any questions, you can contact Bob Bruington, Drivers Education Events Director at aircooled911sc@gmail.com

Have a great Christmas!, Bob and Chuck

Bill Chadwick at our DE at the Laguna Seca “Corkscrew”

The 2022 New Members BBQ

It was another great New Members Bar-B-Que at Jason and Bonnie Len’s Edna Valley Ranch; we had about 83 Porsches and 148 members. Jason and Bonnie are long-standing members of the Porsche Club of America and they graciously allowed us to use their home at no charge to the club. By the way, it is a perfect setting for this event.

Some of us arrived early to designate the parking areas and area for our catering crew, the Sea Shanty Restaurant from Cayucos. Our menu for the NMBBQ (New Members BBQ) is barbecued tritip and chicken. Carol Kramer, co-owner of the Sea Shanty, fixes her specialty items that are always delicious. This year these included some incredible potatoes and rolls, along with some tasty deserts. She has been a Porsche owner for almost 30 years and we’re still trying to get her to join our club! The food tasting team liked everything that was dished out and everyone seemed to go away full!

23 of our new members joined us on a beautiful Saturday for a great meal and to display their cars along with telling stories about their adventures in their Porsches. Once more the weather could not have been better, a great day!!! So everyone felt comfortable, the tables and chairs were set up so everyone had plenty of distance between each other.

The group started gathering around 11am with everyone initially going to see Jason’s collection of

cars and motorcycles at his museum and shop…and what a collection it is! Along with the many motorcycles, of different kinds.

He had cars in different stages of restoration, some very close to being finished and some just started. An amazing sight to see. After viewing the museum and shop we settled in the big trees, out of the sun to enjoy the food.

The fun didn’t stop here. It seemed like most everyone stayed around for more chatter and fun… this event is always in Fall, so mark your calendars for next year. Time and place to be announced by our Activities Director, Gil Igleheart. Hope you see you again next year, if not sooner!

Story by Bob Kitamura

Photos by Chuck Jennings, TB-1 & Alfred Abken

The 2022 New Members BBQ

Bonnie & Jason Len Bill C. & Andy W. (BoD)

Porsche at the 2022 LA Auto Show

Story by Alfred Abken

On Friday, November 18, PCA again held their preview for the L.A. Auto Show at the L.A. Convention Center. If you have been there previously, you might remember that they either served a fairly substantial breakfast, or at least a Continental breakfast. This year, only coffee was offered. It was good coffee, and it was hot. Which, I suppose, left more time to check out the new Porsches on display.

This year, Porsche had their world premiere of the new 911 Dakar. This is a new 992 coupe based loosely on the 953 Carrera 3.2 4x4. The new 911 Dakar has a raised suspension for more ground clearance, and what appears to be plastic cladding around the wheel wells.

To go along with the off-road theme of the new Dakar, there was a Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo decked out with a roof mounted pop up tent. I was assuming this would be aimed at folks who don’t want to burn hydrocarbons on their next “glamping trip”. I had thoughts of the interior of the tent being decked out lavishly. I was disappointed to look inside and see nothing in it. If this is your idea of transport for your next camping trip, be prepared to take along your own accoutrements.

Another world premiere was the new 911 Carrera T. This was in a vivid shade of green. I would like to call it Kermit green, but I somehow doubt that is correct. The new 911 GT3 RS is a very dramatic looking car.

There was a full-sized display model of the new Hybrid Prototype 963 race car on display. This will make its race debut in Daytona January 26-29 2023.

Also, on display was a new 718 Cayman Style Edition. There was also a new 911 Turbo S Cabriolet in a stunning shade of yellow, with matching yellow accented wheels. The perfect vehicle for cruising to the beach.

There were also non-PCA Porsches on display, Galpin had several of their Porsches on display in their room. West Coast Customs had their reimagined 1977 911S on display, this time with the engine cover open, but there was no good visual access to get much of a look at it. Vintage Chariots had a display of mostly Fords, but among them was a very nice 1969 911 RSR race car.

Like last year, neither Mercedes-Benz nor Audi had

any cars on display. VW had two of their new almost production ready ID. Buzz’ on display.

Since there was no Tech Tactics held in Southern California the same weekend, I decided to leave early in the afternoon to begin my long trek home. Another remarkable L.A. Auto Show!

Photos by Alfred Abken & TB1

Porsche at the 2022 LA Auto Show

Gimmick Rally

Story by Chuck Jennings

Gimmick rallies can have numerous formats. One of the most common is called a “poker rally” in which drivers navigate to five waypoints to collect five playing cards. At their final destination, whoever has the best five-card-stud hand wins the competition. Wild cards can be added to spice things up a bit. When I was a new CCCR member, I attended a session presented by Dave Mills about how to design a gimmick rally that required participants to clock mileage between unknown waypoints. At which various symbols were given for a right or left or U-turn. Miscalculated mileage and mistaken turns could lead a driver off course into the ‘hinterland.’ I fondly remember one of Dave’s fun rallies, won by the team of Winterbottom and Milledge, that ended in Parkfield.

Since Dave passed on to Porsche Enthusiasts’ Heaven (Yes, I’m sure there is one.) I have volunteered to design and conduct several gimmick rallies, two of which ended in Parkfield. (Some of you may remember my trying to give away half empty bottles of wine as prizes.) My primary goal in designing a rally is to make the experience fun and interesting. But I also want to create an experience that takes our members to various unique places within our region. My first two rallies were formatted for participants to correctly answer questions by finding clues at each waypoint. I designed the route and determined the waypoints via Google Maps. In some cases, waypoints changed or disappeared between the most current Google Map and the actual rally, which resulted in a few

Photos by TB1

Bob & Sue Sanders

people wandering angrily in the ‘hinterland.’ I humbly learned to drive the route and verify waypoints before I handed out the instructions.

A couple of years ago, Gil Igleheart and I established friendships with Charlie and Cole Gibson, fatherand-son Porsche enthusiasts and owners of the Cypress Ridge Golf Course. With them, Gil explored the idea of hosting a CCCR luncheon event, and out of that conversation grew an enthusiastic invitation to park our Porsches on the grass in front of the clubhouse, a perfect destination for a gimmick rally. Since then, we have had three rallies, May of 2021 and January and November of 2022, that terminated at the Cypress Ridge Golf Course.

At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 5th, fourteen Porsches and twenty-eight CCCR members at Hardie Park in Cayucos were given instructions to find and photograph thirteen waypoints ending at the Cypress Ridge Golf Course. A route was not given, but pictures of waypoints were. The objective was to navigate the shortest total distance between all the waypoints in the most efficient order and document the waypoints with photographs of each. This was not a timed event, but the drivers and navigators were given two and a half hours to arrive at the golf course. Most drivers and navigators were married couples, hence success in the rally may have created opportunity for some practice on delicate marital diplomacy.

I drove directly to the Cypress Ridge Golf Course, parked my Cayman on the grass in front of the club

Andy Winterbottom

Gimmick Rally

house, and waited for the Porsches to arrive. Around 11:15, our president, Andy Winterbottom, arrived and parked his GT3RS next to my car, and we waited. Soon, other Porsches began to appear. Eventually, everyone who rallied managed to arrive safely and on time. By noon on a perfect day for a Porsche corral, we had quite a lineup on the grass.

When I was certain that all the cars had arrived, it was time for the rally pairs to check in. At a table in the clubhouse, drivers and/or navigators give me their instruction sheets and showed me the photographs of their found waypoints. Some folks did not find all the waypoints and were unceremoniously disqualified. But those who did photograph all the waypoints submitted their total mileage for the competition, without knowing how they had placed. That was to be announced after lunch.

Charlie and Cole set up a scrumptious hamburger buffet “with all the fixin’s”, and most of us sat outside on the patio in the wonderful Fall sun, munched on our lunches, and shared our wild stories about determining directions to waypoints on the Central Coast.

Finally, it was time to announce the winners. First place with a distance of sixty-eight miles went to Ron and Lynn Ayers. Second place was won by Russ and Margo Zink with seventy-one miles. And third place went to Bob and Betty Bruington with seventy-two miles. (Even though Bob admitted that he had navigated a wrong turn and was certain they would lose.) Each winning team won a gift certificate from

Chuck Jennings

Bob & Betty Bruington

Hamp Miller

Jason Len & grandson, Jake & Christiane Childs

Mersea’s Seafood Restaurant on the old Harford Pier in Avila Beach.

As far as I know, at this point, all the marriages survived the test of marital finesse and tactfulness (or the lack thereof). Congratulations to all those navigators who managed to find whatever waypoints that were found, and to all those drivers who managed those last second left turns, hysterical stops, and embarrassing u-turns. No one was rear ended or ticketed. And some folks got to see parts of the Central Coast they had never seen before.

Much thanks to Charlie and Cole Gibson for their generosity and enthusiasm for supporting our club. If you play golf, Cypress Ridge is one of the great courses on the Central Coast. Much thanks to Mersea’s sponsorship with donations of gift certificates. Please stop in and try their menu. Much thanks to Gil Igleheart for helping me put this together and riding along with me on our shakedown cruise. And much thanks to all of you who participated and endured my devious schemes to confuse and frustrate.

grandson, Abel

Russ & Margo Zink

Rob & Patty Bollinger

Bob & Pat Howard

Martin Howell

U n S T O C K

Story amd Photos by Alfred Abken

The weekend of November 12-13 turned out to be an epic weekend. To get things started, on Saturday, CCCR held the New Member BBQ. Once again this was ably hosted by Jason and Bonnie Len at their home in Arroyo Grande. Like in the past, the event was catered by the good folks at Sea Shanty.

Chuck Jennings presented the Dummkopf Award to Gil Igleheart. Andy Winterbottom introduced the new managers for Porsche San Luis Obispo that will be opening this week (Nov. 14) at 12100 Los Osos Valley Rd.

The weather cooperated, and it was a gorgeous day.

Sunday, I had overcome my disdain for being out on Sunday, and I made my way down to Burbank for PCA’s second ÜnSTOCK event. This year the event was held at West Coast Customs. I was quite surprised when I was directed to park my car inside their building.

As you might guess from the name, this is a show for modified Porsche cars. I was pleased to be accepted. Instructions were to be there at 8AM Sunday morning. This meant I needed to be on the road by 5AM. Fortunately, it was not that cold Sunday morning as I got underway. It was clear when I left Paso Robles. I went east on 46, and once I was east of Highway 33 it was rather cloudy. It stayed that way all the way down I-5. I even got into a wee bit of moisture in and around the Gorman area. There was even a light dusting of snow near the peaks of the mountains in that area. It cleared off by around Highway 138 and was mostly clear the rest of the day.

It turned out to be a beautiful day in Burbank. It was fun running into lots of folks I know from Southern California. There were three different food trucks serving a variety of tasty food.

PCA had on display a limited supply of new running shoes and luggage that was a collaboration with Porsche Design. More info about these items can be found at: https:// www.porsche-design.com/us/en/pcacollection-explore/.

The event was open to the public from 10am to 2pm. All too soon, 2 o’clock rolled around, and it was time to head back home. In the meantime, it was a fabulous day, and a fabulous weekend.

Stolo Winery .... donut & burrito breakfast

Story & Photos by Jeff Koskie

For many years prior to my arrival in the Central Coast, a group of dedicated Porsche and special interest vehicle owners have met every Tuesday morning as Cambria Cars and Coffee. This group includes many CCCR members, including Cambria Cars and Coffee cofounder Joe Korpiel, and current members Joe Shubitowski, Jason Len, Ken Finney, Sue Foreman and others.

On October 29th members paraded over 40 of their special vehicles from Cambria Tin City to Stolo Winery for the annual Stolo Winery Donut and Burrito Breakfast. This event brings the group together in a big, beautiful outdoor setting with plenty of room to display their vehicles.

Planned and managed by our tour masters Leland and Marissa Powels, cars were staged by our “creek squad” parking crew including CCCR member Joe Shubitowski. Coffee, donuts breakfast burritos kept folks warm and full while vehicle judging went on through the morning.

Vehicles were judged in a variety of classes, including best German, British, American, race car and People’s Choice, with very nice trophies for winners.

With great weather, great preparation and event management by Marissa and Leland, and finally support of Stolo Vineyards, a great time was had by all!

Stolo Winery

Joe Shubitowski

Ken Finney

D r i f t i n g .............

My grandson, Evan, turned nineteen on September 20th. For his birthday, his girlfriend bought him tickets for the Formula Drift “Photography Experience” Round 8 of the 2022 Formula Drift Pro Championship at the Irwindale Speedway on October 15th. (I didn’t have a girlfriend when I was nineteen, let alone one so generous!) So, Evan and I set off for Irwindale on Friday the 14th. Spent the night in Duarte. (Before this time, I’d never heard of Duarte or Irwindale or the Irwindale Speedway.)

The Irwindale Speedway has a half-mile banked-oval track that converts into a diminishing-radius spiral that ends in the infield of the oval. There’s a grandstand that seats 6,000 with exclusive corporate “Sky Box” suites. The speedway is positioned just off the 605 in the floodplain of the San Gabriel River surrounded by great beds and mounds of different grades of gravel and river rock, gravel processing plants, and not much else. Appropriately, there are neither commercial outlets nor residences within a few miles of the track. It’s a very dusty, smokey and noisy area, not fit for human habitation. Hence, a perfect location for a very dusty, smokey event with thunderous noise.

Previously, on television, I had seen amateur “drifting”, but nothing I had seen compared to this procompetition. These highly modified, stripped-down street cars produce 1000+ horsepower and 500+ lb-ft of torque. Some of the most popular models include Toyota Supra, Nissan 350Z, Mustang, BMW M3, Dodge Viper, and Chevrolet Corvette. The extremely boosted horsepower and torque with very light overall weight and a radically tight turning radius creates a machine that’s not designed to break any speed records but purposed to reduce a brand-new set of rear tires with a 200 treadwear rating

Story & Photos by Chuck Jennings

at 8 psi (You read that correctly: 8 psi) down to the cords while going sixty mph at ninety degrees of intended direction. The result is a dense bluish-white plume of smoke that follows each car like the ghost of a Japanese dragon that lingers in the air long enough to bring tears and completely contaminate your lungs.

After skidding and drifting around in tight circles behind the start line to heat the rear tires, two cars pull up to a staggered holding line. The lead car starts on the outer (upper) side of the banked turn while the chase car slightly delays its start on the lower side of the start line. As they depart the start line, the chase car is supposed to maintain its closest and most consistent parallel position next to the lead car, as they drift together sideways around the banked oval. At the midpoint, they must “fishtail” around a pylon, shifting from a left drift to a right drift and back to a left drift. Then they follow around a tightening left turn in the infield to the finish line. The runs are not timed, but I noticed that most of my videos of runs from start to finish were clocked at around thirty seconds. The lead car sets the pace for the run and the chase car is supposed to maintain a parallel position for the entire run. For at least twenty-five seconds, both cars are spinning their rear tires at a very high rpm all the while spuing a thick cloud of white smoke.

The drivers are evaluated by three judges: One for driving the tightest line around pylons, one for the chase car’s position, and one for “style”. Each judge watches the live run and then watches the video so as to evaluate both drivers. Points are assigned to each driver by each independent judge. The judges do not know the other judges’ points awarded. After I watched several runs, I could begin to see the difference between the better

Evan and Chuck

and lesser drivers. Faster and smoother was clearly better than slip-slideherky-jerky. The best reminded me of a pair of figure skaters in unison but with their costumes on fire.

Evan and I had the Photography Experience media passes. To participate, we were required to attend a photographers’ orientation meeting where we were informed of all our restrictions and safety protocols. We were required to wear specially colored vests that identified our special status. Until this meeting, neither Evan nor I were aware of how up close and personal we would be experiencing this extreme event.

After the meeting, we gathered outside with a professional photographer who led our group to our shooting venues. From there, we were led across the asphalt to a destination in the middle of the track! Yes! In the middle of the track! I was I astonished that we would have such an incredible view of the cars. We were about forty feet from the cars inside a concrete “K-rail barrier” with no obstructions between us and the cars and a 360 degree panoramic view! Incredible! Race car photography heaven!

As each pair of cars encircled us, we were trapped with an eardrum assault of unmuffled 2000 horsepower at about 7000 rpms. I have often experienced very loud exhaust noise at autocross events and at trackside venues such as Laguna Seca and the Indy 500. Those cars passed by for just an instant. These cars circled us closely on three sides for about ten seconds. Unfortunately, I forgot my earplugs! Desperately, I turned off my hearing aids, left them in my ears, and it was still painful!

After about forty-five minutes, the drivers took a break, and this allowed us to move to a different venue. Just below the start line and, yet very near

the finish line, there was a second Krail barricade for photographers. We were fifty yards from the start line. From our position, the start of each run was neither loud nor smokey. But as the cars again encircled us, they passed by very near us, within ten feet, towards the finish line. The sound was beyond description, and the smoke was so thick, it was a challenge to see the person standing next to us. Unfortunately, there was little wind, and the dense smoke lingered.

I had lost my mask and resorted to a handkerchief. Evan tucked his nose and chin inside his white sweatshirt speckled with black chips of rubber.

It was again a wonderful venue for photographing these cars, but it was also the closest to any experience I could imagine as being in hell.

After another 45 minutes, we were moved to a venue behind K-rail barriers on the outside of the second turn of the banked oval. From there, we could see the cars coming directly at us out of the long sweeper that followed the start. It was another wonderful view of the track and the cars, but now we were downwind of the track, both from the cars passing us by and as they came into the finish line. It was a double assault of putrid smoke.

I was getting some fantastic photographs, but this event was likely the unhealthiest thing I had ever participated in. (Unless you want to include eating a hamburger at Sylvester’s.) Nonetheless, I didn’t want to disappoint my grandson by asking to leave while there was still about six more hours of this torture to be endured. But my grandson is a jewel. Not long after we moved to this last venue, he said, “Papa Chuck, I’ve had enough. Let’s just go behind the grandstand and look at some of the cars on display. Besides, I’m hungry.”

We hung out (I’m picking up

teenager slang.) behind the stadium for another hour or so. On display were about a hundred street cars pretending to be drifters, including two Porsches. One was a very beautiful stock 911 SC. The other was a highly modified late model GT3 (Or at least as well as I could tell.) set up sacrilegiously with the hand brake for the front wheels. It was a monstrous machine with a lot of negative camber.

I was surprised at the size and density of the crowd of fans. The median age was probably twenty-five to thirty. Most of those in attendance were wearing mostly black with pristine white tennis shoes. I was also wearing black, but I was conspicuously a very small ethnic and elderly aged minority. Although “drifting” competition appears to have been born out of rally racing in Europe, Asian drifting drew worldwide attention and inspired the American Formula Drift Championship that began in 2004. The event we attended in Irwindale was one of eight leading up to the World Championship. The best drivers in the world were competing. The fans were the young underground “street drifters”, a contemporary subculture of the West Coast but with origins in Japan and Mexico, and hence, mostly Asians and Hispanics with a passion for

cars with radical street performance. The professional drifters were their heroes.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend a drifting competition, I have a few recommendations. First, bring a mask or two. Second, bring ear plugs. Third, bring eye wash or plan to wear goggles. Fourth, sit upwind of the track or as high as you can in the grandstands. Fifth, bring a young man, preferably a grandson, who knows all the details about the cars and the drivers. And last, bring your video camera. It’s a spectacularly visual and audio experience with action somewhat like a drag race but around an oval track. You see it, you hear it, you breath it, and you feel it.

Clunk!

by Pedro P. Bonilla - Suncoast Florida PCA

A clunk is very different from a tick, which has nothing to do with a hiss, a click, a squeal, a knock, a pop, a rattle or a bang.

All of the above are sounds that you don’t want to hear coming from your beloved Porsche. But if you do, we’ll try to steer you in the right direction. There are hundreds of different sounds a car can make. Some good, others not so much. Also, please keep in mind that a bad component may make more than one sound, and what I describe as a clunk, you may think it's a knock. It’ll be difficult trying to verbally describe the sounds, but here we go….

Clunk:

That’s the most common one and usually comes from the front end. If it happens when driving on bad roads it’s usually a ball joint that’s worn. Ball joints have a flexible dust boot to protect the joint. When the boot tears it can allow grease to escape and road grime to come in doing damage to the joint. Usually the drop links are the first to go, but control arms, trailing arms, steering arms, etc., all have ball joints that wear out with time and mileage.

Strut Mount

If it happens when driving over bumps, it could be an issue with the suspension, such as a bad upper strut mount or even a bad strut itself (it happened to me recently). If it happens when you’re turning a corner, it could be a problem with the steering rack, or a worn out wheel bearing.

New Ball Joint

Tick-Tick-Tick:

So many things can tick! Generally ticking sounds are heard coming from the engine itself. First check if the ticking varies with engine speed or car speed. That’ll tell you if it’s coming from the engine as you rev it with the clutch in or if it’s from the drivetrain as you accelerate.

The fuel injectors (all 6 of them) can tick quite loudly. The lifters, especially if the oil level is low can tick-tick-tick. A shredding poly-ribbed belt can tick as it goes around. Believe it or not, a very loud, metallic sounding tick can also be caused by a loose sparkplug.

Squeak:

Drop Link

I mention squeaking here because many times it’s a precursor to clunking. If your car starts squeaking when the suspension is depressed, it may be one or more of the ball joints that has dried out and is letting you know. If you determine which one it is check the condition of its dust boot. If intact, you can try to inject some lubricant (high quality lithium grease) into the boot with a syringe or with an aerosol straw tube. If it quiets down you know it needs replacement soon.

If you can get the car on a lift, with the engine running, try to determine the general area where the ticking is coming from. The best listening device I use is a long screwdriver. Place the butt end against your ear and touch with the tip where you want to listen. You’ll be surprised what a great stethoscope it is.

Knock-knock:

If you can hear knocking sounds from your engine, get it checked out ASAP, something could be seriously wrong. A knowledgeable technician can tell you if it’s serious or can be easily fixed.

What’s generally called engine knocking really sounds more like clattering and is generally due to using a lower gasoline octane rating than what’s recommended. On high compression engines, you need to use high octane to avoid pre-ignition and knocking which can damage the engine. Fortunately most modern Porsches have automatic

Old Ball Joint

Old Strut

New Strut

knock sensors that will retard timing to avoid pre-ignition (but you will lose power).

Octane

Hissing:

A vacuum leak while accelerating makes a loud hiss.A fluid leak getting onto a hot engine surface also hisses.

Rattling:

Bang!, Pop!:

A loud bang, like a gunshot, is usually a backfire. Backfiring happens when unburnt fuel comes out of the engine and gets ignited in the exhaust pipe. This could be due to a vacuum or exhaust leak or a problem with one of the catalytic converters.

The bang can also happen in the intake at the throttle body and could indicate an issue with the fuel and or the ignition system, caused by a blocked fuel filter, bad spark plugs or damaged catalytic converter.

Grinding or whirring:

If the grinding happens when shifting, you probably have an issue with a synchro in the transmission which makes your gears not mesh at a synchronized speed and therefore they grind. A dried-out CV Joint (drive axle) or a failing wheel bearing can also grind quite loudly.

If you hear grinding while applying the brakes, your brake pads are probably worn or you may have some debris caught between a disc and its pad.

Rattling under the car means that something is loose and making noise as it vibrates. Generally a heat shield in place over the catalytic converters is one of the most common culprits. They are mounted with hardware that deteriorates in time and allows them to vibrate and create rattling.

Whistle

(Coke bottle whistle):

A very distinct and loud “coke bottle” whistle is most likely the air-oil separator (AOS). If the inside membrane tears, it can create this unique sound.

www.pedrosgarage.com

Belt

If the squeal is coming from the wheels without using the brakes, you probably have some debris between the disc and the backing plate. If it happens when applying the brakes, then your brake pads may be worn out…. … and, if it’s coming from your tires, back off the gas pedal!

For more information on silent Porsches and more, please visit my website: www PedrosGarage.com.

AOS

Roar:

Most of our cars produce a beautiful roar as we accelerate (some call it the symphony in flat-6) but if your exhaust note changes all of the sudden to a loud roar, something happened to the exhaust system. The exhaust manifold may have cracked or one of the gaskets is allowing exhaust to freely escape. The muffler may be damaged or an exhaust pipe clamp could have rusted out and become loose.

Squeal:

A loud squeal when you rev the engine, especially when cold, is one of the easiest to diagnose. The belt is most likely loose and slipping on the pulley. It could be worn and in need of replacement, or the tensioner pulley may have lost its tension.

Happy Porsche’ing, Pedro

© 2022 Technolab / PedrosGarage.com

CVJ

CCCRPCA Board Meeting Minutes

October 5, 2022 Board Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 6:03 pm at Piadina’s in downtown San Luis Obispo.

Our Board: All board members were in attendance, except for Ron Green and Sanja Brewer.

President: Andy asked Bob Bruington about progress from the 2023 nominating committee. He said several people have declined and one or two say they will help out. They are still generating nominees for the new board. A flyer was sent to Bob Kitamura advertising the New Member BBQ which he will publish in the Coastalaire.

Vice President: Ron Green was absent.

Secretary: Carol sent the minutes by email. Joe Kuntze moved to accept the report, Bill Chadwick seconded. All approved.

Treasurer: Bill Chadwick reported a $788 profit for the Laguna Seca DE. For the year to date, the DE events have raised a $5,300 profit and the Drive and Dines, $247 profit. The bank balance as of today is $46,600. Expenses coming up include the Christmas Party and the New Member BBQ which will total around $11,000. He asked if newsletters were three or four times a year, and it was confirmed they are printed four times per year. Chuck moved to accept the report, Joe Shubitowski seconded, and all approved.

Membership: Sanja reported there are two new members, eight lapsed, two transfers in, two transfers out, for a total of 419 primary members, 284 affiliates, to total 703 members.

Activities: Gil Igleheart reported we have 35 people signed up for the Saturday drive to the Buckhorn Cafe in Cuyama. There will be two meet up points, on as SLO Chevrolet and the other in Santa Margarita, for the drive over Hwy 58 to Taft and down to Hwy 166. He is working on setting up the lunch at Harbor Hut for the next drive/dine. The tables, chairs and porta potties have been ordered for the New Member BBQ. It was suggested to look at the Dollar Store or Amazon for paper tablecloths. There are 22 tables for 160 people. Andy will give a welcoming speech. Nov. 5 is the Gimmick Rally to Cypress Ridge; Nov. 12 is the New Member BBQ; Nov. 19 is Rustic Fire; Dec. 3 is the Christmas Party; Dec. 10 is the new Porsche dealership with drive to Brooks Burgers; and next year, Four Lanterns winery is a possibility, the Canepa Museum, and Healdsburg in April.

Safety: Bill Gibson has the insurance for the Cuyama event and is waiting for the Harbor Hut event insurance.

Driving Events

Autocross: Chuck Jennings has 25 entrants from PCA members signed up for the next Autocross on Oct. 22, then it opened today for non-members and there are 40 so far. He hopes to have 56 people total.

Driver’s Education: Bob Bruington stated there were 73 Laguna Seca drivers with 21 students, which was a record, and 20 instructors, also a record number. Discounts were given to women drivers, which resulted in half of the students being women. He received lots of positive feedback from the ladies and noted that women drivers have You Tube videos and Facebook pages. The Parade Lap was a success and profited $708. July 24, 2023 will be Laguna Seca with an increased track rental fee. Mid May is Buttonwillow in conjunction with GGR. We might consider going to the Streets of Willow in March or April. Buttonwillow might have the new track ready in the fall 2023. He is working with Chuck, who will be talking to the airport, on potentially sealing the track at Santa Maria. The first bid was $14,262 and they will probably get two more bids. We will have to come up with about $10,000 for the project.

Newsletter: Bob Kitamura checked with Colorcraft about printing the newsletter and their estimate is about $3,000. We now pay $2,300. He will check with some other printers and Gil will check with SLO Co Data. This month, the newsletter is 44 pages.

Website: Joe Shubitowski said the web page is up to date. Bob Kitamura has all the files as this is a print month. Joe will post upcoming activities on the web page that includes information on the Gimmick Rally. He needs to publish the election site and news bios on those who are running for board offices but October 15th. He has lots of data for the 356 club.

Director at Large: Joe Kuntze stated the 356 Registry event made a $16-17,000 profit which will be split with our club. He thanked Joe Shubitowski for all his work, time and contributions to the event.

Old Business: None

New Business: We will probably meet at the new Porsche dealership for our drives, once they open. As a thank you to Jonathan at SLO Chevrolet, we are inviting he and his wife to our Christmas Party and possibly order a plaque for the dealership as a thank you for their generous use as our meet up spot. The next meeting will be November 2 at Piadina’s, Hotel SLO. The meeting was adjourned at 8:12 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Walker

Secretary, CCCR-PCA