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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dave Weber, GT3Cup@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - November 2001

Three cheers for the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association and the New England Motor Press Association for their sponsorship of an advanced driver training class for young drivers. This new program focuses on teaching real-world driving techniques. I’ve consistently lamented the weaknesses of current driver training programs that focus more on mastering parallel parking than on the mechanics of driving in general. The consequences of our current approach are high accident rates for young drivers, dangerous driving in general, and an inability to control a car in a accident avoidance situation.

They are teaching braking technique, how to stop and steer in ABS equipped cars, lane changing to avoid accidents, the importance of car spacing at various highway speeds, and car control in general (utilizing a slalom exercise).

Apparently the sponsoring organizations and those hired to run the program were unsure as to the level of interest there would be in such a program. Much to their surprise the course was oversubscribed from day one of the announcement. They even had to hold a lottery to determine who could attend. Instead of one class they are now operating the program six days a week through November and plan on training some 180 young drivers before winter sets in. Next year they are targeting to train some 2500 individuals.

Most of the exercises they are using in their program are identical in concept to those exercises we utilize in our region’s annual autocross school. The good news for region members with young drivers (16 & 17 years of age) is that they can now participate together in our region autocross events (details to be published in a future issue) and school.

PCA’s new policy on young drivers, and the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association and the New England Motor Press Association sponsored program are positive developments. In time the benefits of teaching more advanced car control will show up in reduced accident rates for young drivers, and being real optimistic maybe more acceptable automotive insurance rates for those drivers. The next step of course is to rethink traditional driver training to incorporate more advanced concepts. To make that happen a lot of instructors would probably need to trained in something other than very controlled driving conditions. Anyone want to challenge the idea that those typical “young driver” instructors have ever attended high performance driving schools?

Another recent Royal Ford column talked about his experiences driving the old Nurburgring racing circuit. I think he enjoyed the experience but he seemed to focus much of his thoughts on the risks involved and the amount of carnage that apparently occurs. I suspect there was a bit of exaggeration contained in his comments, but no doubt also some factual content. Any time you put high performance vehicles on a high speed track with few controls, plus add in a bus or two, some motorcyclists, and tourists from the US and you have a mix of speeds and skills that’s bound to result in a few problems. In the US those accidents would translate into lawsuits, but not in Germany where personal responsibility is taken a bit more seriously.

Nik & The Nice Guys
Many of you may have noticed that we scheduled an event in March 2002 under the notation of Nik & The Nice Guys. For those of you not familiar with what or who this references and what we’re planning, Nik & The Nice Guys are America’s #1 Rock & Roll Party Band. Nice Guy performing credits include numerous performances at Super Bowls, Winter and Summer Olympics, Canada's Grey Cup Festival, special events hosted by Disney World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Lee Jeans, Reebok, Apple Computer, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Blue Jays, Time-Warner and many more.

They performed at the Lake Placid Porsche Parade in 1994 and were a huge hit with the crowd. Peter Porsche started that evening off by dancing with the band to the tune “Too Sexy For My…” The evening’s fun quotient went upward from that point. They kept everyone on the dance floor for nearly three hours performing hits from the 50’s to more current fare. They enliven their performances with costumes, audience by-play, and high energy. We’re planning on turning this into a party not to be missed. While we will have to limit attendance due to space limitations we will sell tickets to region members that can be used to bring friends, neighbors and work associates should you so desire. We’ll also be promoting this event to other Porsche Club regions since many of their members will have seen The Nice Guys at Lake Placid and will want to catch their performance again.

An initial promotional piece for the event will appear in the December issue of the NOR’EASTER, and on our web site. In the meantime reserve March 23rd on your calendar. I know we’ve promoted must attend events in the past, but this is really a “must attend” event. You’ll have more fun listening and dancing to this band than you thought possible. Best of all non-dancers have been seen on the dance floor having a great time at Nik & The Nice Guys performances. Imagine the best party you’ve attend in high school or college and multiply the amount of fun you had then by probably a factor of 10+ - that’s how much fun you’ll have with this 12 person Rock & Roll Party Band.

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region