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Porsche
Club of America
By
Win Perry,
wperry@winbro.com
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Well, the warm weather seems to have ended pretty soon after our Paul Russell meeting. I’m not big into conspiracy theories, but the weather sure went downhill after the Patriot’s loss to Denver. At least I took my Boxster out for a good drive on Friday the 13th. Forget superstition, a warm sunny day in January is a gift around here. For now, it’s back in the garage until who knows when. Lately, I am trying to arrange as much of my business travel as possible for the non-track season. I was in the UK in December, and will be visiting a supplier in Taiwan at the end of January. I have only had the opportunity to visit Taiwan and China a couple of times, and, unlike in the UK, I have never driven in either Taiwan or China. From the passenger’s seat, there’s a world of difference in the road etiquette of these two neighbors. Taiwan is a relatively small (but warm! ) island. Like Japan, it’s fairly mountainous, densely populated and build able land is at a premium. Taipei is a huge, modern city, and the streets are what you’d expect: congested. I only saw one Porsche during my visit in Taipei, and it was an “I have arrived” 996 TT. Given the traffic, I wonder if it had a tip. Taiwanese drivers would have no trouble fitting in around here, except that they’re probably more courteous than Boston drivers. China, on the other hand, is something else. My first visit was just over 20 years ago. At that time, private ownership of cars was not allowed. Sufficiently important people were assigned a car and a driver by the state. In the cities, the roads were a swarm of bicycles; it seemed like millions of them. Away from the cities, the bikes were joined by tractors, belching old trucks, and ox carts. Fast forward 20 years. My next visit to China was to Fuzhou, the capital of prosperous coastal Fujian province. There were still plenty of bicycles, but there were at least as many motor bikes sharing the roads (and the sidewalks). In addition, private cars were now legal, and there were plenty of them. Chinese built VW Jetta's were everywhere, and if you were a little more prosperous, a Chinese built Buick Regal was your ride! Most Chinese drivers haven’t had a lot of experience; I’m told the accident rate is high, although I fortunately neither witnessed or was involved in a road accident. However, the rules of the road still seem to be evolving. Are you driving down a 4 lane road with double yellow stripes down the middle and feel like passing? No problem, just pull over into one of the lanes of oncoming traffic and pass as many vehicles as you can. Are you riding your motorbike on a crowded city street and are getting frustrated by the congestion? No problem, just ride up on the side walk. It does seem to be bad etiquette to actually hit cars in the oncoming traffic lanes or, likewise, to hit pedestrians on the sidewalks. Drivers do seem to obey the traffic lights at least as well as we do (i.e. mostly, but watch those yellow lights ). Strangely but impressively, this style of driving doesn’t seem to cause any road rage. A driver is flying down the wrong side of the road heading straight for you; just lift and figure that he’ll get back in his lane reasonably soon. No big deal. Who knows how long this will last, but right now lots of new cars and new roads are being built in China. I don’t remember seeing any Porsches, but there was a shiny black BMW 760iL parked conspicuously in front of my hotel in Fuzhou. Well, enough travelogs. Closer to home, I’ve been seeing a salt covered silver Boxster driving around Lexington. It hasn’t been lowered, and I would hope it isn’t wearing summer tires. I’m not sure whether this guy is smarter or dumber than I, but he’s getting more seat time. Even if your Porsche is off the road for winter, check out NER’s events for February and March. See you there. |
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