Chesapeake Region
Porsche Off Roading with NNJR Randy Richter It started innocently enough, we heard that there was an off-road event being hosted by Northern New Jersey Region in the New Jersey Pine Barrens on November 10th. Having grown up in New Jersey and having my parents enjoy their retirement at the edge of the Pine Barrens we were intrigued as we knew very little about this vast swath of New Jersey. After regularly driving across Route 70 for years to visit my parents, we would finally have a chance to see where some of those unmarked and unpaved sand trails branching off would lead. We had heard the event regularly is oversubscribed, so I contacted the event chair even before registration had opened; he replied that we were in! The event required that you bring a four-wheel drive vehicle that had a minimum of four inches of ground clearance. As we had registered about three months before the event, the question now became which of our two four-wheel drive vehicle we would use for the event. On one hand we had a GMC Yukon XL which had skid plates, high traction tires and about twelve inches of ground clearance. The big negative for the Yukon, however, was the shallow entry and departure angle due to the vehicle’s long overhangs. The other choice was our Lexus RX 350, not exactly known as a paragon of off-road performance. On the minus side, it only had about eight inches of ground clearance and all-season tires. On the plus side had shorter overhangs, making the entry and departure angle much better. Over the
14
next three months, periodically Janet would ask me which vehicle were we taking, and I still had no good answer. The answer came with about a week to go when we got an update from the event chair telling us we were going to be on some narrow trails. That settled it, we were taking the Lexus. The big day came and we arrived at the check in hall to be greeted warmly by coffee, juice, donuts, muffins and the members of the NNJR. As we arrived it was clear that we were probably the least
