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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

Upshifting

By Bruce Hauben, Bruce993@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - August 2005
Northeast Region Logo
 Stop The Presses  - We’ve added a Drivers’ Education event to our schedule, for the first time giving us a second Watkins Glen event for the season. What better way to extend your WGI season and get a jump on the leaf peeping season at the same time? Early October in the Finger Lakes area of NY seems ideal.
   In association with our friends at NNJR we’ll be holding a joint event at The Glen on October 3-4, 2005, Monday and Tuesday. So you’ll really miss only the 2 track days from work, driving out on Sunday and home after the event on Tuesday evening. Those of us who have driven with NNJR all agree that they run an excellent event. Fees are exceptionally reasonable at $220 for students, $180 for solo drivers, and $70 for instructors for the two day event.
   
You’ll find all the information and registration/tech forms needed at the NNJR website http://www.nnjr-pca.com/site/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=4&meid=4 – or for us with short memories go to www.nnjr-pca.com/site/ - and then the “Drivers Ed” link to all those forms and information. NNJR will be handling registration and most of the ‘at track details’ while NER will be running our signature Enduros on the second day of the event.
   
The event has not sold out in the past, but who knows what will happen with our involvement this year. Preference will be given to registrations in the following order of priorities, NER & NNJR PCA members driving Porsches; driving non-Porsches; out of region driving Porsches; non-PCA (BMW, COM, etc.) driving non-Porsches. 
   
Sooooo, my best advice is to get your applications and checks in to Arlene Novack (her address and phone contacts are on the Drivers’ Ed page – she’s both Track Chair and Registrar – my new definition of a masochist) as close to the opening date of August 8 as possible. It is very likely that everyone with applications postmarked on Aug. 8 will get into the event.
   
Hope to see many of you there, and don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.
  
Many of us have recently returned from our Blues Festival Drivers’ Ed event at Mont Tremblant in mid-July. I must report that it was a high light of the season for me and from what I’ve heard, many of the other drivers also. The combination of the Mont Tremblant venue, a great, FREE, blues festival, and a world class road course is hard to beat. The rest of this article is really for those of you who did not join us this year as I’d be preaching to the choir for the rest of you.
   
First off, LCMT is the only track that NER runs DE events at where you can drop off your trailer in the paddock the afternoon prior to our event. There’s no hassle factor finding some place to park your rig that night you arrive at your hotel before the event.
   
Thursday was a gorgeous, sunny day with enough of a breeze to ease the heat factor. While there was some rain overnight, it ended before we got to the track and Friday morning and by the second run of the morning the track was completely dry and stayed that way through the rest of the day. While there were several mechanical failures and one incident requiring a tow out of a gravel trap, there was no bent sheet metal, a near perfect event from that point of view.
  
LCMT combines some mid-length and one long straight with a wide carousel, several multiple corners where each is dependant upon the previous, and an up hill, blind crested, pucker factor turn following the main straight. So the track has something for everyone along with a surface only several years old, still unmarred by giant patches created by races of heavier cars.
   
Add to all this the Village at Mont Tremblant with a myriad of restaurants, hotels, and shops and the Free Blues Festival and you’ve got a great family vacation – which more and more of our drivers are discovering as many brought their families this year.
   
The music runs from 1:00 in the afternoon til 10:00 PM at 4 different stages, all within an easy stroll of each other – and there’s never more than 2 groups playing at the same time. Constant Blues and its many forms for 9 hours a day, fantastic. And for the night owls, at 11:00 PM the live music moves to the indoor bars and clubs in the Village. I don’t recommend that to our drivers other than before and after the driving event. A good nights rest is certainly one of the components of an alert, well focused driver.
   
While there were a few well known musicians including Jimmy Johnson, Johnny Winter, John Mayall and Kenny Neal, I’ve learned over the years that there are more very good, unknown by many, blues artists than there are the big name musicians. Little Charlie & The Wildcats, Guy Cardinal (a blind singer playing 3 different keyboards), Harrison-Millaire-Bertrand (3 outstanding guitar players fitting together seamlessly), and Angel Forrest (close your eyes and listen to Janis Joplin) were just a few of the fantastic groups that many of us enjoyed.
 
I’ve already begun working towards a 3 day event next year at LCMT during the Blues Festival, so stay tuned, And Don’t Miss it Next Year.

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
 

  • First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
  • Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
  • We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
  • As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
  • We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
  • We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
  • We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because 
  • WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
  • We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
  • No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
  • We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
  • We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
  • We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
  • We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
  • We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
  • Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
  • The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
  • This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
  • The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. 
  • We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
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