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| How
many of you are old enough to remember when the Sears catalog was known
as the “wish book”? Long before shopping on the web and K-Mart and BJs
many people virtually lived out of the catalog. I think it’s interesting
the factors that led to this situation.
In the late 1800s railroads had already connected the two coasts and most areas in between and the federal government decided that regardless of how remote they may be, farmers should have free mail delivery. A natural synergy was thus put into place, the railroads provided a distribution network to many places previously inaccessible and mail was able to get to every person in the country. A. Montgomery Ward in 1872 and Richard W. Sears in 1895 saw this potential and launched their catalogs. Within several years the 780 page Sears catalog was carrying more than 6,000 items, everything from clothes washers to gumballs to wagons to drawn by horses. Seems that we’ve come full circle as shown by opening your mail box any day between September and November and finding it loaded with catalogs. Somehow I don’t mind unsolicited catalogs – as I do spam- they don’t intrude upon my space and they’re easy to dispose of if unwanted. I guess more to the point, Joyce and live out of catalogs; I’d be lost without LL Bean, Lands’ End and all the seed and plant catalogs and gift catalogs. Add to this mixture on-line shopping and auctions and everything is available from UPS or FedEx save perishables and convenience items. Well, my “wish book” arrived several days ago from Stuttgart, the “Porsche Driving Experience 2004”. Let me give you a taste of what we have to chose from in this 120 page, full color catalog. We’ll get the more plebian out of the way first. Most of you are familiar with the Porsche Driving Experience – known as the Porsche Sport Driving School in this catalog - here in the US at Barber Motorsports Park, well you can also enjoy that experience in France, Italy, and Australia for comparable costs plus airfare. Then, if you are able to supply your own Porsche – maybe with a factory pick-up to then be shipped home or renting one – you can add several courses in Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, etc. Between April and September 790 Euros will get you a factory 911 in Ludwigsburg and a weekend’s drive through the Black Forest to the opulent Schlosshotel Buhlerhohe for dinner and breakfast. The following day requires returning via a different route and leaving the car with Porsche. There are many Boxster trips (supplied by Porsche) such as a three day weekend drive from Stuttgart along the Rhine to the Schlosshotel & Villa Rheinfels followed the next night with accommodations at the Kempinski Hotel Falkenstein in Konigstein with formal dinners at both. All three days will have you lunching at places like Schloss Rheinhartshausen and the Homburg Castle. Not bad for 1,150 Euros. Even with a rather poor exchange rate of roughly $1.25US / Euro we’re talking less than $1500US here. I like this one for the more adventurous of us called the Porsche Camp4 experience in Rovaniemi, Finland…above the Arctic Circle. Available only in January and February so you’ll probably have to plan on 2005, you’ll get three days of instruction in your choice of a 911C4 (all through this brochure Porsche refers to 911s rather than 996s) or Cayenne at the Arctic Driving Center, a test facility used by Porsche and other manufacturers. Rauno Aaltonen, one of the world’s most successful rally drivers leads your instruction here. The trip includes all accommodations and meals for 4 nights, a reindeer sleigh ride, dogsled ride and snowmobile tour and they even provide “protective clothing”. So get yourself to Finland and lay out 2,911 Euros and you’ll have an experience to tell the grandkids. For a bit less pricy winter driving experience you can select a two day similar course in the Austrian Alps, with fewer “extras” for 1,490 Euros. For those track and race junkies among us here goes. First you get yourself to Dresden and enjoy an exclusive dinner at the Hotel Taschenbergpalais. The following day you’ll drive 60 km to the EuroSpeedway in Lausitz where you’ll spend the morning being briefed and debriefed around driving a Formula Three for seven laps on the 4.5 km track followed by a similar afternoon…driving six laps in a Formula One. All safety gear is provided if you don’t want to haul over your own SFI suit, helmet, shoes etc. The final day is the drive to Leipzig for a factory and customer center tour followed by driving a Cayenne on the Porsche on and off-road circuits. Is your tongue hanging out thinking about actually driving a Formula Three and Formula One? I’m sorry I can not report prices as they are only “available upon request”. Following along for our track junkies, how ‘bout an F1 Grand Prix Weekend. After meeting at the Schlosshotel Monrepos in Ludwigsburg the previous night, we’ll be flow via helicopter to Hockenheim to watch the German Grand Prix qualifying session and enjoy the hospitality of the exclusive Formula One Paddock Club and a tour of the unlimited access area of the Porsche Michelin Supercup paddock, returning to our hotel via helicopter. The following day we board our helicopter again to watch the Porsche Supercup race followed by the F1 Grand Prix from the Formula One Paddock Club and all its amenities, returning after the race to our hotel via helicopter. Sure sounds like the way to go – first class…prices are “available upon request”. There are many more trips available. For 3,550 Euros you can borrow a Cayenne from Porsche for five days of real desert driving around Dubai, staying at the Ritz-Carlton and all meals. Or there are excursions through the Italian or Swiss Alps, Burgundy and Alsace, and Austria to name only a few. Now, for those seeing no need to travel such distances Porsche has a ten day Route 66 trip beginning in Phoenix and ending in Beverly Hills with first class accommodations along the way. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s an easy one day drive, but if you like more leisurely travel the price tag is 5,300 Euros or $6,625US at today’s exchange. But,,,and this is a major but, you’re driving a Cayenne…guess Porsche AG is really trying to promote and liven up the Cayenne sales picture. So there you are, let me know if anyone’s interested in pursuing one of these trips and I’ll forward addresses and phone numbers for additional info. It would certainly be more fun with a small group of likeminded Porschephiles…I think I’d even give up a Club Race or DE event for one of the F1 experiences. WHAT IS OLD?
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