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Porsche
Club of America
By Dave
Weber, 38RSR@PorscheNet.com
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 Here's
yet another cell phone related question for your consideration. Are State
Police officer's noticeably better drivers than you or I? I'm asking myself
that question having traveled next to a state trooper riding a motorcycle
while at the same time talking on his cell phone. We've been told lately
that driving an automobile while using a cell phone is dangerous. The distraction
of a phone conversation gets in the way of paying attention to one's driving.
Now add in the need to balance a moving motorcycle while steering with
one hand on the handlebars. I have a hard time believing that troopers
can manage these multiple tasks much better than you and I, so the obvious
conclusion is that we should instruct our legislators to seek a ban on
trooper use of handheld cell phones and police radios. It's for their safety!
Porsche is apparently planning on moving even further from their original sports car concept. At least that is my conclusion having read in AUTOWEEK that the 2004 version of the 911, the next major revision, will be longer, wider, and taller. Larger in every dimension suggests that Porsches will be even more sports sedan like in the future. The larger dimensions will apparently accommodate an eight-cylinder engine (an outgrowth of the SUV project). If these rumors are true, Porsche must desire to more directly compete with BMW and Mercedes. Stuffing an eight-cylinder engine in a larger 911 may be the way Porsche wants to compete with the eight-cylinder BMW's that are currently beating them in the American LeMans series? It's not where I think they should be going with their streetcar program. While on the subject of Porsche plans, I've not heard much about the Carrera GT program. Have they decided to go forward with the idea to build 350 examples of the $350,000 Porsche? Anyone know anything definitively? Also who's going to be first on the block with a 996 GT2. I'd like to see an example, to see how Porsche is planning to address the performance addicted customer. It looks like I missed a great event at Lime Rock a few weeks ago. The Porsche Rennsport Reunion event brought together a fantastic collection of Porsche racecars. I'm told the assembled collection was perhaps better in breadth and depth than was brought together a few years ago at Laguna Seca for Porsche's 50th Anniversary celebration. Next month I hope to feature an article with lots of pictures of that event. Several of our region members participated in that event - maybe a few of them might be inclined to drop me a note on their experiences? Congratulations go out to the new team of autocross timers and scorers. After twelve or thirteen years I opted to retire as a timer for region autocross events, which necessitated putting together a new group of experts. Fortunately a number of region members stepped forward and volunteered, and we now have a new very capable team. I'm impressed with the results, noting that they've handled high levels of participation and lots of runs at several events. Best of all, I don't have to haul a lot of timing equipment around anymore, nor store in my basement! We have need for even more volunteers in all our areas of activity, the pay isn't great but you do get to hang out with great people. I want to thank several region members who have stepped forward to contribute articles and photos for the newsletter. I know the Bruce's lobbied for contributions in recent columns; apparently many of you were motivated by their comments. This month Tom Tate joins the newsletter as a regular contributor, with an article on a recent trip to Germany and the Porsche factory. I've received several contributions of digital photography some of which you'll see next month in the Reunion article. If you wish to submit digital material, I thank you, but do request that you submit very high-resolution material - shot at the highest resolution possible with your camera. Low-resolution jpeg files do not reproduce well in the newsletter. They are fine for use on your computer or web page, but are not acceptable in a printed piece. Send you submissions to me via a CD as opposed to email to avoid bogging down my primitive Internet connection (something less than 56K)! Our weekend event at Mont Tremblant was terrific, despite a dirty paddock and less than satisfactory bathroom facilities. I was confronted, as I suspect many others were, with a bit of a mystery. Normally when I return home from an event my wheels are coated in rubber bits adhered to the inside of the rims. Additionally the front of my car usually has rubber smears all over the bumper and hood. For whatever reason when I inspected my car after the Tremblant event, there were no bits of rubber anywhere! Was it the new pavement? Did the dust in the paddock coat everything to such a degree that no rubber could adhere? What accounts for the absence of foreign material? In closing our trip home from Mont Tremblant went smoothly until we encountered I-93 just south of Concord, NH. There we encountered a massive traffic jam, caused by the tollbooths, returning weekend traffic, and a slow clearing NHIS after the big NASCAR race. We spent the next one and a half hours traveling at an average speed between 5 and 10 miles per hour. It's past time to add an additional lane to I-93 between Concord and the Massachusetts line! |
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