Porscherama 1970 February

POIISCHEI/A MA February

Periodical of the Porsche Club of America Los Angeles Region

CALENDAR

FEBRUARY 9th

14th

February Meeting Moonfire Inn Topanga Canyon Road 7:00 PM Contact: Bob Cogen at his office, 277-305.5. Seating is limited, so please respond before February 6.

See PREVIEWS for more info.

February Event FASCH ING " Pheonix Club, Anaheim.

Contact Ron Ramage for further word.

PREVIEWS

Just a word about the February meeting. It looks like the trend is towards dinner meetings, and away from the "schoolhouse" type of business meetings.

The Moonfire is the first in the series. Bob Cogen has set up what looks like a great evening, starting with dinner at the N~oonfire(take Topanga Canyon Rd from the Valley or coast side and meet about halfway in between. It looks a little overgrown with all manner of occult trappings and is on the right as you come from the coast if my memory serves me. ) Bob has promised an interesting group of reports from the board to inform you on some of the new ideas rampant in the organization.

To follow dinner dancing will be the order of the evening at the "Corral" an exclusive Topanga Canyon establishment. We will probably caravan there since nobody but Bob seems to know the way.

This should be an entertaining evening. Remember that there is limited space, so please contact Bob’s office as soon as possible.

Don’t forget Fasching. More of the same good fun experienced in earlier years.

JIM EWING editor ANN HERMAN co-editor

~elc/ors

Dave Kalbach

president

Bob Cogen vice-president George Gideon secretary Lynn Bockmole treasurer Cliff Yost membership Ron Ramage activities Dick Kadani technical Ann Hermann publicity

Welcome to the new version of Porscherama. The format is new and so is the editor. We look forward to good things for 70 with the help of Ron Ramage et al who made the past monthly so informative.

The various departments herein should be self expanatory. Even the one in French below shouldn’t be too hard. INSIGHT will be a quick look into the authors or events that lead up to some contribution to Porscherama. And one thing every decent monthly needs is contributors. We’ll find room for most anything you pen. Pack it up in any form and send it to Jim Ewing, 2804 Alma Ave. Manhattan Beach, Cal 90266.

This month we include the last part of "Big John" by your editor.

Also a report on Ron Ramage’s economy run last month, and some brief previews of the two February happenings scheduled, the monthly meeting at the Moonfire, and Fasching.

Please let us hear your comments, and pardon some of the name misspelling; when the editor gets his hands on a complete list of the group he will increase the probability of some accuracy.

,

.

CEDRIC DUNHAM is a bachelor who drives a ’62 coupe. He lives in Los Angeles where he is a graphic artist.

DOUG FREEZE is a transfer from the Pacific Northwest Region(we’ve been trying to think up an appropriate one liner for this statement.

Can’t bring ourselves to write them down however. -ed) Doug lives at 355 S. Oxford St., LA. Welcome to Los Angeles, Doug.

LEONARD HARRIS and his wife HELEN drive a ’59 Cabriolet when the engine isn’t out for doing, which it currently is. Leonard makes his living as a commercial artist.

Lt. COL EUGENE MARTIN Jr. is an Air Force pilot currently on tssignment in South Vietnam. He looks forward to joining our activities in June, on his return.

We look forward to seeing you at a future event.

I attended my first board meeting last week. It seemed sort of sedate to start with. However, Ann Hermann is an excellent hostess, and living up to the most accomplished our throats were not want of liquid refreshment.

All this is to say that the meeting got better, and better. To the point where the ideas for events were staggering. Picture the following. Nick Friesen is getting married. And that’s a great thing. We all agreed and after some serious deliberation wondered aloud if the ceremony would not be quite complete without two rows of I0 Porsche pushers emeritus in attendance.

They would be clad in black tie to befit the formality of the occasion. To identify their cause, of course, they would wear the traditional yellow PP(Porsche Pusher)jacket with records of their most daring do attached in the form of patches, badges, feathers, etc. Then, and here comes the best part, in true military fashion, the beaming bride and groom parade majestically through an arch made by twenty PPs in formal crossed dipstick formation. How about that ! Anyway to a rather retiring editor, who had, after all, never seen twenty PPs in formal crossed dipstick formation, the whole thing sounded swell. Fortunately, for the happy bride and groom, cooler heads prevailed.

What I really got from the meeting, though,was the portent of a great PP year. The ideas are in great supply; the willingness on the part of board members to go all out for the membership is surely there; all that remains is the memberships participation. I would like to hear your comments for Porscherama’s pages. The power of the press and all that.

What follows in this column is the second and final installment in the

¯

saga of Big John, driving instructor.

".~,,~_

Please enjoy.Jim Ewing

’

~.i~l~~i

"ARE YOU THE GUY WHO WANTS AN INSTRUCTOR?" says he.

"Ahh... I guess so," was my sparkling retort. The kneecaps moved away and Big John was next seen winding himself up in the passenger seat. "1 SCARE EASILY," says he. Since he looked like John Wayne I had just assumed he was fearless.

This was not to be. Next came that short period when two people in close quarters and in somewhat dangerous circumstances calibrate each other and adjust. This consisted of

John telling me not to screw around out there because he was terrified. So much for psychoanalysis.

The driving commenced. I accelerated smoothly towards Turn I and reached the first braking marker at about 65 in 3rd gear. Normally you approach at 100 so I didn’t brake, However I noticed John attempting to stamp a hole in my floorboard in a Pavlovian braking reaction. As 1 assumed I knew what I was doing I feathered the throttle, passed the marker pylon and bent it left, with full power on, driving straight for the inside pylon like the book said to do. John began his Drill Instructor routine. It was Hoppy to Harroun to Jack Webb. "YOU’RE NOT ON THE LINE... GET ON THE LI-BRAKE, FULL POWER - GET IN THE GROOVE, THE GROOVEFULL POWER", etc. Now I didn’t stop to inform him that I didn’t see any groove to get in! I had heard about the "line" but his semantics left something to be desired, Turn 2 is constant radius, so you set the car up, hold it, and check your gauges and mirrors for other traffic. A c)IIS flew by on the outside. "DID YOU SEE THEM?" John asked. "YES", I said. "NEXT TIME S IGNAL, THEN".

That was not the time to inform John that my window was rolled up and to. signal would have been somewhat painful and noisy. Somehow John wouldn’t have understood. We were drifting to the outside of the track as we completed 2, with maximum power on still in 3rd. Turns 3, 4, and 5 are the tricky ones if you get off the line. So far I had been on it. Head to the inside of the track, scrub off 25 mph, downshift to second and straighten out at the last second for Turn 3; straighten out as you climb up hill, let it slide out to the top of the track and then ....

By this time I was used to John’s punctuation for every move 1 made. I was almost accustomed to the dents in my floorboard ~nd the beating my r:ight armrest was taking as John braked and shifted for me. As we entered Turn 4, in good position, John kept asking for more power. My foot had long since been on the floor. We were cresting the hill on the inside with John stamping the brakes, bending the armrest and screaming for more power, when it all came unglued and we were suddenly going backward down the hill in a cloud of blue tire smoke. We entered the turn about 10 mph faster than I’d done it all day. We also left it about 60 mph slower. We reentered the track in front of six or seven other cars patiently waiting for me to straighten it out. Actually John was pretty good about the spin and didn’t repeat his "don’t screw around - I’m scared" speech. We both re: marked that it was kind of exciting even, spinning downhill backwards at 50 mph. John gave me some helpful pointers like "you didn’t do it right", and we motored off into Turns 5 - 0 which were all pretty uneventful except for a couple of genuine compliments from John on my driving prowess,

We started down the straight accelerating in 3rd out of Turn 9, John was relaxing a bit since I had recovered from the spin without extreme nervous reaction and we were negotiating the course with some calm, generally in the right place, at the right time. As I shifted to 4th at about 80 mph John asked if I minded him hollering at me. For all the ebullience John was a very likeable fellow. I felt the clamor was his way of communicating in a tense situation so I told him I loved it, and besides we were all having a good time, weren’t we? About then I was over the second braking marker for Turn 2 at 100 mph, stamping the brakes and down shifting to 3rd to dump the 40 mph necessary to negotiate the turn. As we progressed through I and 2 I felt the pressure of the Turn 4 crisis moment building up. John began to brake and shift harder, and yell louder, my heart rate was increasing as I hit the Turn 3 markers just right and climbed to the top of the track to set up for 4. We went into 4 at about the same place and speed as before, and I suddenly realized I didn’t have the foggiest notion of what I was going to do to avoid another spin.

To this day neither John nor I can remember what he said at that critical moment when the rear wheels broke off. To him it meant drive out of the slide, to me it meant full power and keep turning. I think I mentioned something about a semantics problem earlier. We were both very quiet while I straightened the wheel, declutched, and feathered the throttle and the car played out Newton’s Laws of motion through 350 noisy degrees. We came to rest off course, releasing nervous energy with very raucous laughter punctuated by some four letter semanticS more easily understood than our earlier discourse.

John and I got out and walked up the hill a little ways to see some others negotiate Turn 4 with more success. I observed for the first time that I had made a very sharp turn out of what was a reasonably shallow one for the speeds we started with. With renewed spirit we finished that lap and left the course to let the car and passengers cool off a bit. My little driving act met with grea~ acclaim since two spins on the same turn on two successive laps deserves a fairly substantial booby prise. John bid me bon voyage and went back to his speedster. Later, he drove past alone on his way out to practice. I stopped him and said "be careful out there John, there’s one helluva turn up there on the hill!". I could hear his stratospheric laughter all the way to Turn I just before he started screaming"YOU’RE NOT ON THE LINE... GET ON THE LI - BRAKE, FULL POWER ..... " A couple of weeks ago I was walking around in the pits at the Times Grand Prix when I ran into John. In normal sports clothes he appeared older to me than he did at Willow.

Perhaps it was my driving. He told me that another time trial was being held at Riverside the next week, and why didn’t I come out and get some more practice. All of a sudden I was rather looking forward to another of Big John’s driving lessons.

REVIEWS ~ December Meeting The Membership meeting of the Los Angeles Region of the Porsche Club of America was held December 8, 1969 at the Alexandria Street School, and was opened by President Joe Schneider at 8:05 p.m.

An SC Gets Better Nlileage Than angllE! (True of False?)

"Is this where you sign up for the economy run?"

I looked up and saw several youngish men unroll themselves from the inside of twin yellOW-"- and green Fiats.

(Oh no!)

"Gee,

sorry but this run is only for Porsches."

That’s the way the day started. And with the Clippinger Corvette Club sharing the parking lot with 25 shiny bright smiling Porsches(with Bill Mclnerney in a Rambler?) participated in our January economy.’ run. Economy being a factor but not the sole factor for winning. The imain theme

was know your P0rsche. So what else, guess you gas consumption; before you drive the 95 mile section of highway. The person with the best guess wins. But although it is a nice drive and all that, just to keep driver and nav.=a.or awake there were ~uvs.,on~ en route to answer, The questions’" suggessted’- the ,correct route to take. And

the Question ?

Well if you knew the posted population of Pomona, the location of Bowser’s Garage, the distance from the Archibald off ramp to the Southern Pacific railroad by Mission Blvd beforehand, then you could have relaxed some and en joyed a nice sleep. But most did not know these answers even after the trip. At the end there was a general tire kicking and shivering contest in the parking lot before retiring into Welch’s Carriage Inn. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event to the extreme that no one hung the event chairman for once. As far as the winners are concerned they will be published next month after awards are given at the February meeting.

Ron Ramage

Joe welcomed members and guests and then announced that the minutes of the November meeting would appear in the December Porscherama and would have to be approved later. Reports were th .... quested.

Vice President AI Gray gave no report, however, he expressed his thanks to all for the support he received and that he was glad that he had the opportunity and privilege to do his little bit for the Club. Secretary Owen Champion, no report and only added his thanks to Al’s well chosen words.

Treasurer Lynn Bockemohle also expressed his thanks to all and reported a bank balance of $1170.28. Being the good shopkeeper he is he presented his pitch on the Club’s sale items, urging all to dress-up with a Region patch, beautify your Porsche with .... badg .... d b ..... better inf .... d by purchasing an

Up-fixen book.

Technical Chat .... Roger Wag ..... ported that ..... d 40 people attended the last Tech session on the SSI ignition system and the demonstration sold him. For further information contact Curt Kuebler. Roger then announced that there would be no December meeting due to the holidays and expressed his thanks to all for the support and encouragement he received.

Publicity

Chairman Ron

Ramage reported

would be a little late,

that the eorscherama

and that he had a letter from Paul

Dicky regarding the European trip and to see him at the break

if interested. Ron also

expressed

his thanks for all the

support afforded him during the last two years as Editor of the Porsherama. Activities Chairman Peter Luelsdorf thanked every one for the help and support he received for the last two years and hoped that this support would be enjoyed by his successor.

George Ged ....as th .... quested to give a brief .... d ....

the Death Valley tour and from his descriptions I’m sure those us who didn’t make it ....... y.

of

As there was no new or old business to attend to Joe then pre-

sented the

plaques to all the out-going Board members, his thanks to each one. Four year veteran Old

Club’s and expressed

Sage Curt Kuebler then presented Joe with his plaque for a job well d ....

Joe announced that eight PCA-LA members attended Holtville and

all

had

a

great time at this fine event.

Peter then presented the year end awards to the high point P .... he Push ....

Joe then introduced the 1970 Board to the membership and wished them well.

The next Board meeting will be held jointly with the old and new Boards on December 15th at Boggs and McBurney. All members are welcome to attend.

The meeting adjourned at 10:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Owen F. Champion, Secretary.

P.S.

Sorry if there are any omissions or unaccountable additions as I had to put this together from memory as some dastardly soul snitched my brief case containing my notes.

FOR SALE: Factory Reutter Hardtop to fit Cabriolet 1960-65. Like New, $175.

Two Speedster doors, 1958. slight damage. $25 each complete with aluminum door strips.

ROBERT RAUCHER: 784-6081

LAGUNA SECA R£VlSITED

........

1955 Porsche "Continental" Coupe engine no: P35016 chassis no: 53685 liscen license no: IJG 114 Needs body and engine work Original equipment 16" rims 5 New Michellin X 1O" tires, tubes (still i n wra ppe r s)

MEN’ S

282-5061 or 355-2885

i.

BILL MclNERNEY

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

NICK FRIESEN CLIFFORD YOST ROBERT COGEN GEORGE GEDEON RICHARD KODANI DALE BOYD BOB BRIFFET MARVIN CHEESMAN BRUCE KUEBLER RUDOLPH ZIESENHENNE RAY COOPER MIKE FREDMAN

~o, ooo ON THE ENGINE AND ~’HEY COULDN’T

10.

A Message From the President

PORSCHE PUSHER POINTS

109 93 58 41 40 38 33 32 27 27 27 26 26

"Did anyone lose a pair of sunglasses on the economy run?"

Dave (That’s not much of a message so your editor implored him to speak on. Frankly it didn’t require excess imploring. - ed.)

He went on: This year is bound to be fun. I think the first board meeting was indicative of it. For starters, I suggest everybody carry a long forked stick and a wicker basket to the Moonfire. Never know who or what Hob Cogen will have waiting for us.

Most of all, we hope we can provide the widest interest to all in the context of dinner meetings, tech sessions, and familiar events.

LADLES PORSCHE PUSHER POINTS i.

DAWN WAUGAMAN

2.

3.

4.

ANN HERMAN SHELLEY RAMAGE HELEN BOYD

5.

Look forward to seeing you at the Moonfireo I’ii be the one carrying 6.

7. the forked stick. I think I’ii give Mary Ann the wicker basket.

8.

9.

Dave Kalbach. i0.

KATHY SCHNEIDER PAT LITZ MARY ANN KALBACH BETTY YOST LUANA OHMER JAN HALGENDORF ALICEGRAY PAT KUEB~ER

45 37 33 30 24 21 16 15 14 14 13