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We are now in full swing here at NER/PCA with a myriad of activities happening and soon to be happening in the Eastern Mass. area. This past month we saw 25 hardcore concours people brave a misty and sometimes rainy day to show their pride and joy at the Inskip Porsche car show in Warwick RI. Two weeks later under much better weather conditions our first autocross of the season was held at Devens in Ayer, with 70 participants. Amongst which were more than a dozen first timers. Finally June was concluded with the annual MOT German Car day where again Porsches were the prevalent marquee numbering over 80 cars in a field of 150 on another beautiful day. Now to July where the second Tremblant Driver’s Education is being held on Thursday and Friday of the July 4th week, closely followed the next week by round 2 of the autocross competition on the 11th and concluding with our first rally of the year on the 25th. Quite a variety of events for anyone’s taste. Make your plans to attend the annual PorscheFest at the MOT on September 11th, you will enjoy yourself. Now to some more remembrances of days past., a friend reminded me of a couple of other memories from the years past, “Neckers knobs” those ingenious devices that allow you to hold on to your sweetie while you drove (of course most cars had bench seat back then) your Detroit Iron sedan. Back in the 50’s and probably the 60’s too, cars were prone to oil burning at an early age so one remedy was thicker oil. I remember using Gulf “reconstituted” oil in an old Ford I owned, worked great and was cheap when you bought it by the gallon. Another fix was Marvel Mystery oil, which I believe is still around, a reddish light weight fluid that was supposed to free up those sticky rings. Andy Granetelli and later Richard Petty popularized another performance enhancement called STP. Some of you may also remember valve adjustments. Porsche finally eliminated them on the 993 but it was an integral part of a tune-up on many cars including most American makes until the 60s. When it came to car cleaning who can forget whitewall cleaner (now think of any car that now offers these useful tires) or Simonize which has become a generic term. You bought these items in your local car parts store, no Pep Boys, AutoZone’s just Sears and maybe Lechmere (fondly remembered by locals) had anything to spiff up your car. Before Armorall and it’s ilk the hot tip to shine up those vinyl seats was Lemon Pledge, looked great even if the car did smell like a ripe lemon on a hot day. If your car needed some hard core cleaning, Dupont #7 polishing or rubbing compound was the hot ticket. Back then clear coating of the finish was rare so the paint could be cleaned up directly by these products. A technical note for earlier model Boxsters, those with some miles, are starting to see some top failure caused by the cables stretching. A good preventive measure if you or the previous owner used the top a lot and/or has it sit in the sun for extended periods of time with the top down is to replace both cables. Porsche updated the cables in late ‘99 early 2000 and those units should be more resilient. Another new policy of Porsche that has been relayed to dealers is that they will not take any parts back, so if you are ordering something make sure it is correct and that you truly do want it, as I would suspect dealer would not want to be stuck with unique trim or a rare part. Now that spring rains have subsided it is time to check those drains again especially the 996 and Boxsters both front and rear (on open cars) and sunroof drains on all such equipped vehicles. Back up from clogged drains can be extremely expensive when the water damaged components. See you at the many PCA/NER events in the next months. |
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