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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Bruce Corwin, Bruce968@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - July 2000

When I bought my racecar, I was fortunate to already have the equipment needed to transport the car to the track. I have a GMC dump truck and a flatbed trailer designed for a large Bobcat. Adding a few boards to the ramps extended them far enough to get the racecar on. The main problem was that once on the trailer, the car doors couldn't be opened due to the wheel wells on the trailer. So I would just climb out the window, Dukes of Hazzard style. If it was raining though and I needed to close the car windows, I'd have to climb through the rollcage and out the rear hatch. Not great, but it worked.

So I decided I need to buy a real trailer. As always, the club was a great resource to me. At track events I would ask people about their trailers and they were always very happy to spend time and answer all my questions. I decided to buy an enclosed trailer. Besides the obvious advantages of protecting the car and having a nice place to store all your things, you can just keep your car in there. It's like buying a trailer and getting a garage free. (Amazing how I can justify buying almost anything, isn't it?)

I spoke first to track junkie John Ktistes who owns a Pace brand trailer. His is 20 foot, but he wishes he had a 22 foot or longer so there would be a little more room in front of the car. He was very happy with his "Carefree of Colorado" awning, and the fact that the inside of the trailer was "finished" and didn't have springs and wiring showing. He said low priced trailers are Cargo Made and Haulmark, Pace was mid priced and Featherlight was high priced.

Bill Hawe uses a Featherlite gooseneck trailer, which is capable of holding two cars. He said the price for a Featherlite starts around $7-10K and the guy to talk to is Danny Westbrook with Lazy-B in Bristol, OH. 330-857-2353. This trailer didn't have the finished fancy-looking interior, but was more industrial looking, made of aluminum and built to last.

The most popular trailer in our club though is the Dominator, made by Classic Trailers, which costs about $10K. They can be ordered gooseneck (attaches to the bed of a pickup) or tag-along (standard trailer hitch). Sizes range from 18 feet to 32 feet with most people choosing 20-24 feet. The floor can either be plywood or aluminum diamond plate. The diamond plate is lighter, looks nicer and requires less maintenance. The wood is less expensive, less slippery when wet and easier to work with, if you want to screw things to the floor for example. I went with the wood floor.

Exterior walls and roof are aluminum. Interior walls can either be vinyl or aluminum. I chose vinyl, which is less expensive. There are many choices for cabinets, for example L shaped or straight across. I chose straight across with a closet at one end. Most people choose 1 or 2 tire racks mounted on the inside wall on the passenger side. Be sure to bolt these straight through to the outside of the trailer. Don't depend on sheet metal screws to keep all those wheels and tires from crashing down onto your car!

Most are also equipped with both 12v and 110v lighting. Just plug an extension cord into the trailer and it activates the light switch and receptacles. One mistake in the design of my trailer was that one of the 8 foot fluorescent lights was too close to the tire rack, so I ended up changing it to a 4 foot light.

Another mistake was the trailer's spare tire location. You can optionally choose to have it mounted under a hatch in the floor. If you choose this, be careful of the location. Where mine ended up, I'll have to unload the racecar to get to the spare tire. Chances are I'll already be in a bad mood if my trailer gets a flat, and this won't help.

And speaking of loading and unloading, there seems to be significant difference of opinion on the best method. I just drive my racecar right in there and I'm skinny enough to squeeze out without any problem. Doug Adams had a large access door put in the side of his trailer and a raised floor, so after he drives in, he can open the car door wide, making ingress/egress very easy. Dave Weber swears by hooking up a winch and pulling his car in, rather than driving it. He feels this is especially important because if the car is badly damaged, it might be the only way you'll get your car onto the trailer. If that does happen to me, hopefully Dave will be there and I'll borrow his winch!

The back 4 feet of the trailers are beaver tailed (slope down), then there is the rear door (ramp) which folds down, but you'll definitely also want an extension that folds out from there, probably another four feet. You can either get a wide single extension or two narrow ramps. Once on the trailer, I have four D rings in the floor, which makes tying the car down with wheel straps an easy task.

The side door and awning typically go on the passenger side (also known as curb side). The theory being that you would want to get in from the curb, not the road side. I very rarely park my trailer on the street, so I wasn't too concerned, so I did something unusual and ordered my door and awning on the street side. This way, when I go to an event, I can park next to a friend with our awnings facing each other and have a large, shaded area. Most trailers come with 48" side doors; I chose a 36" door.

One thing I found is that it's easier and less expensive to buy the trailer already equipped with the things you need, rather than add them on later. So I bought mine with the lighting, cabinets, tire rack, extension ramps and awning as part of the package. The total cost came to $11K.

Most of us bought our trailers from Gill at Atlantic Coast Trailers, 888-414-2287. There are a zillion other options not mentioned here, which he can tell you about. I ordered mine in December and it took about 10 weeks. If you wait until February to order, you're now in the busy season so be prepared to wait a long time.

Don't forget you'll need something serious to pull a trailer like this. Either the biggest SUVs (Excursion or Suburban) or pickup truck (Ford 250/350 or GM 2500/3500). Once you're all set though, it's really nice to have all your stuff organized and in one place. No more gathering all your stuff in bags and worrying about forgetting or not being able to find things. See you at the track!

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region