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Activities
Nor'easter News
Car Care
Membership
Other Cool Stuff
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Porsche
Club of America
Around
The Cones
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Before I get to this month’s spotlighted members, I’ll share a bit of statistical data that I have gleaned from the region’s membership database. According to the most recent updates region members own at least one Porsche from every year of manufacture since 1953. We actually have 3 1953 vintage Porsche in the region, in this current model year of 2005 there are 16 owned by members. The most popular year is 1989 with 194 Porsches owned, followed by 2001 with 174, 1999 with 161, and 2000 with 143. The least popular years are 1954 and 1956 with one each. A reminder that not only does this count not represent multiple car ownership (since we have no way of capturing that information from National), but also is only as good as the updates you members give to National when you renew your membership. As an alternative you can send me an email with any updated vehicle information, and while you’re at it, address and email changes would be welcome too. My email address is membership@porschenet.com. This month we have a pair of rather senior members, one of whom was involved in the founding of this region in the late fifties. Charley Dow and his wife Martha have been fixtures in the Region since joining in June 1958. Early on he participated in most everything the Region did, which at that time included many tours including trips to Montreal (in the winter with 356's), rallys and some driving events. Charley was the chairman of the 1970 Parade which was held at the newly opened Newton Marriott. He relates that all the participants could be easily housed there. Contrast that with this year’s event with 750 entrants plus many daily visitors. Charley and Martha were also very involved in the earlier New England parade held in western Massachusetts, at the Jug End Barn. That was one of the first parades to be held outside the Mid-Atlantic area, taking place almost 50 years ago. Charley and Martha have participated in 27 Parades out of the 49 held thus far and are planning a trip to Hershey for this year’s event. They’ll also stop by to see one of their daughter’s family in the area. As with every other participant in this survey, the Dow’s recognize that the friendships and social aspects of the region and national members is the prime attraction of being involved in the club. Currently they involve themselves in rallys, tours (of which they have planned many including our annual Fall Tour during leaf peeping season), concours, and many of the monthly meetings that are held throughout the year. I remember an interesting concerning the Dows. A number of years ago the region held a photo contest and Charley entered a wonderful picture of a Speedster posed in front of a covered bridge in a rural setting during the fall leaf changing season. He won an award for the picture then revealed that this was no recent picture but one when the car was NEW in the fifties. The Dows have been avid Porsche owners having owned the following models; ‘57 Cabriolet, ‘58 Speedster, ‘60 Roadster, ‘62 Super Roadster, ‘66 912, ‘68 912, ‘63 coupe, ‘69 912, ‘69 911T, ‘70 911T, ‘62 coupe, ‘84 944, ‘85 ½ 944, ‘86 944Turbo, ‘87 911, ‘89 944S2, ‘94 968, ‘01 996, and now a ‘05 997. Our second profile this month is another long time member, Jeff Leeds who joined in 1978 after purchasing the proverbial car in a basket (or as he mentions many baskets). His thought was that he would need contacts for parts and expertise, and both would be available in the PCA network. Unfortunately this project became a garage icon, much to the chagrin of his wife Christine until it was finally swapped to another senior member, Jay Barry who completed the reconstruction. Prior to joining PCA Jeff was an avid SCCA racer driving such cars as a Volvo 122S, a P1800, a Bugeye Sprite, and the old Datsun 2000 roadster. He eventually became the NE Region’s chief instructor. Upon joining PCA, he naturally gravitated towards track events and became an autocross junkie, later on co-driving with son Tyler once he obtained his driver’s license. Jeff has been Treasurer and Activities VP for the region during his long tenure in the club. Professionally he is VP of a local bank and adds that at one time he arranged a special auto financing loan program just for PCAers that enabled members to acquire their Porsches. He also serves on a number of professional committees and yearly attends the national SAE convention to learn of new advances in the technical end of the automobile industry. A frequent participant in Tech Tactics, 24 of the 25 years it has been held (the Zone 1 annual tech session held in Springfield Mass) and missed just one because it conflicted with his tour of the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. Parades have been a major interest, Jeff having participated in 15 of them including some on the west coast and Colorado, to which he drove. Porsches he has owned in addition to the “basket case” 356B, have been a ‘64 356C and 2 ‘74 911S’s one of which became the infamous “pink car” rebuilt and raced by Jerry Pellegrino of EPE. Currently in his stable are an ‘87 911 Targa (for sale by the way), an ‘81 911SC, which was the vehicle of choice for those long trips and many of the driver education events. This year he added to his stable with the purchase of a ‘94 911 Targa, purchased this past winter. As was mentioned by other members that have been profiled, get out and participate, meet new people and remember there is something for everyone in this club, try it, I guarantee you will enjoy it. |
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