Porsche Club of America
Los Angeles Region
Dawn Patrol
My First Autocross
At 6:30 in the morning on March 10 this year, the “Dawn Patrol” set out for a spirited morning drive to the Waypoint Cafe at the Camarillo Airport. Group photos document the “dawn” portion of the event title. Art Yuter Photos.
By Jason Zammit I have always wanted to do more than just have my Porsche look "good" and redlining it on the road is not an option. The problem is after you start spending hundreds of hours of working on its presentation you start to become selective when you drive it, and where you drive it to. When I first got my 996 I drove it in the rain, to the grocery store even to Home Depot more than once. I still parked it away from every other car to avoid door dings and the such. When a friend invited me to watch him racing his Porsche a couple of years ago I knew that it was what I wanted to do as well but asides from it getting dirty and chewing threw some rubber and brakes I was worried about other damage and more importantly that my vehicle was prepared for the day. I enjoy working on the mechanics of my car and perform all my own work (so far). I created a checklist and started completing each task one by one. Most of the work was due to be completed but at the conclusion of the work I knew I had to go and drive it on a track or in our case a parking lot with lots of cones around it. After I saw my friend at Little Willow Springs racing his GT3 RS I thought that an Autocross would be too tame
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and not enough of a rush for me…… boy I was wrong!! We arrived at Fontana Speedway after 6:30am as invited guests of BMW CCA. We signed in and progressed to the “tech inspection” area. I was curious as to how much “inspection” there would be. It was quick and painless and the hours of preparation for this was well worth it as I knew exactly how prepared my car was down to the millimeter of depth on my brake pads and tread on my tires, milliliters in my brake reservoir, and tenths of PSI in my tires. After “tech” we met with some of our fellow drivers and we were assigned color groups and each group was then assigned duties and scheduling to help with the running of the day. Four color groups that had been assigned one group would start practice laps, one group would rest and two groups would be stationed on the course helping to right cones that had been knocked over and warn drivers of hazards on the course. First-timers, like me, had the privilege of having seasoned instructors with us to drive our vehicle for the first lap and then to direct and educate us for several more laps. There was a break in our day for GoKarting on the course, which was also fun and gave some of us the opportunity to re-affirm Continued on Page 2.
NOT I F I C A T I O N
May 2013
INSIDE Dawn Patrol . . . . . . . . . . 1 First Autocross . . . . . . . . 1 First Concours . . . . . . . . .1 New Members . . . . . . . . . 6 Classified Ads . . . . . . . . . 7 LA & Zone 8 Events . . . . 2
My First Concours By Colleen Stein For me, it all started with a club run to Smartwax in Inglewood. As we entered the building, the aroma of detailing products hung in the air. We were lead to a large workshop, where specific methods of detailing would be demonstrated. One of the club members offered up his Porsche as a subject. It was an older model, pre 996. The paint was scratched, dirty, and had lost its original shine, and depth. Paul, and Greg of Smartwax were our instructors, and they then began the work on the paint with Porter-Cable power buffers, and compounds. Right before our eyes, the paint was transformed to the vibrant original Carrara white. This was amazing to see. I wondered if I could achieve the same results on my 2001 996. They asked for volunteers to try the Porter-Cables. The machine felt powerful, yet was easy to control. I purchased the compounds, Porter-Cable, Continued on Page 6.
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