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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dave Weber, GT3Cup@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - November 2002

When you need to tow something heavy, you need lots of horsepower and torque. When I heard that Ford was soon to start building a new engine for their F-350 series trucks, I knew that a bigger and stronger truck was a must for the Weber’s. We’ve avoided trucks with diesel engines, because we didn’t like the noise they produced. The new Ford 6-liter V8 diesel engine is 18% smaller than their 7.3-liter diesel engine, and generates 25% better performance. Additionally the new engine gets 10% better fuel economy, with 20% reduced emissions, and generates sound quality equivalent to a gasoline powered engine. Best of all it’s 20% cheaper! Horsepower for the new engine is 325, and torque 550 foot-pounds, enough I think to haul most race car trailers! So we’ve ordered one, that apparently will not arrive until late January. When we get a chance to drive the new truck, I’ll let you know if Ford delivers on their press release promises.

By the time you read this column we’ll be back from our annual end of the year trip to Road Atlanta. This year we extended the trip to include a visit to Virginia International Raceway for three more days of driving that track. VIR and Road Atlanta are two of our most favorite tracks, which makes for a great end of the driving season adventure. I’ve not previously scheduled back to back weekends of driving, so hopefully the weather will have cooperated, and we will have been on track the full six days. A number of NER region members make the long trip to Atlanta, which makes the weekend much more fun. The Peachstate PCA organizers find our intensity a bit out of character with their more laid back southern approach to things. We like to run by the “clock”, they don’t want to be hurried!

To break up the two DE events we scheduled a few days at the Grove Park Inn & Spa in Ashville, North Carolina. A couple of days of pampering in a spa will no doubt have worked out the kinks we acquired while driving Road Atlanta. I’ve not visited Ashville before, but have heard nothing by good things about the area, the vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the hotel itself. The stay should have made for a nice change of pace from our race track activities.

While I generally dread the oncoming winter season and the months of hibernating, I think I’ll find myself plenty busy over the next several months. I purchased a Mini DV video recorder this year, so I have plenty of on-track footage to edit into a little video of the tracks we’ve driven. I have no experience with video editing software, so I’ll have lots to learn while tackling this project. I hope to be able to produce something that will not bore to death anyone watching the video!

Other activities that will help pass the time include a trip to Arizona for the Barrett Jackson Classic Car Auction. I’ve watched this event on television for a number of years, and have found it to be very entertaining. I’m constantly amazed at the prices paid for most of the cars auctioned. I will not be buying any cars, but will of course check out all the memorabilia on sale. I’m still looking for collectibles for my new garage. Plus a trip to a warm climate in the middle of winter should do wonders for my attitude!

We’re also planning to return to Goodwood next year, this time to attend the Goodwood Reunion event at the famous circuit on the grounds of the estate. Our trip to the Festival of Speed this year has really wetted my appetite for these historic car events. I think we’ll need to allocate a few non-car event days to tour the surrounding countryside, something we didn’t do on our trip this year. Now that I’ve gained some confidence with driving on the wrong side of the road, I’m feeling more adventurous! I’ll spend some time this winter planning out that trip, I want to make room reservations in a more timely fashion this time to avoid having no options as to the quality of the accommodations.

A question to ponder: why are there so few good places to eat in the towns near the racetracks we drive. With the exception of Mont Tremblant, there are very few options even worth considering. When you go to VIR, the only option in nearby Danville is an Outback. Dinner near Mid-Ohio is limited to one option, the nearby RoadHouse. Dinner options in Watkins Glen are essentially non-existent. Every meal I have during a trip to the Glen is marginal at best. Mosport options are far and few between, with another Outback the best choice. Road Atlanta options are also limited with even the Panoz owned Chateau Elan not really that great. Over the years we’ve suffered through meals of absolutely terrible or boring food, endured painfully slow service, once even doing without knives, forks and plates, and even had to do without a beer on several occasions! We’ve learned to not trust hotel staff recommendations, which in the past have sent us off to some of our worst experiences.

Another question to ponder: why are the beds in every place we stay so darned uncomfortable. Where are they purchasing theses mattresses? I end up with a major backache on every trip we take. I don’t care if it is a name brand chain of hotels or a privately owned one of a kind hotel. They all have really uncomfortable beds. You’re either rolling to the middle of the bed, or sleeping on a surface no more comfortable than a sheet of plywood. Compounding the pain are the pillows they provide. Pillows that are so resistant to being crushed down, that they cause you to sleep with a crink in your neck. They bounce back each time you press down on them. It’s equivalent to resting your head on a rubber ball.
I could also bitch about hotel room arrangements, the lack of comfortable chairs on which to sit and watch television, the inevitable obstacle course you need to walk in the middle of the night to find the bathroom, and the lack of water pressure in the shower and the curtain that sticks to you.

I guess the only real solution would be to stay home, but that would deprive me of lots of fun on tracks around the country. I guess miserable meals and accommodations are not so bad after all.

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region