Copyright © 1999

Porsche Club of America Around The Cones September, 1999 Steve Ross SLR944@aol.com

Well here we are back from a fun filled and cool (tempature wise) week at the 44th Porsche Parade, held for the first time in Canada.  As has been the case with all local Parades, NER members did very well in the competitive events bringing home a large collection of the unique granite and aluminum trophies, see the complete story elsewhere in this issue.
 
Some observations on the Parade in no particular order. Parades provide a great opportunity to meet or reacquaint oneself with PCAers from other parts of the country, find out what they do in their region and get ideas for our events. As always there are some very unique Porsches generally related to their paint scheme. You also see model variations you’ll never see anywhere else. When was the last time you saw a turquoise greenish 356, especially one driven to the Parade from Alaska. Going along with the latter observation, I found that some concours people don't drive much (no surprise). How about an '89 Speedster with 40 miles, or an '83 944 with 40k. In fact the water cooler preservation class I judged was filled with low mileage cars, including 2 924's (old style) that were actually in decent shape.  Everyone we came in contact with in the service/food trade went out of their way to be cheerful and helpful, quite a contrast to the typical Boston surly types to which we have come accustomed.
 
I guess it's great to hear your name, car, score and region when you receive a trophy, but it does make for a long evening of trophy presentations. This years' tent, where most of the dinners were held, was not only waterproof, it had a floor, very useful when it poured on the last night.
 
It's a nice gift for yourself when you stop at the duty free shop at the border and get money back. Of course it's just the taxes (almost 15%) you get back for being a US citizen. Unfortunately it's not for all items, food and dinners being the largest exception.
 
PCA racing has sure grown in the year since I attended my last one. The rigs competitors use rivals those of any professional racers, again showing the intense competitive nature of club members. The driving event site was an incredibly large expanse of pavement (brand new by the way) affording the luxury of a remote prestage and paddock area.
 
For those of you who have not experienced the Mt. Tremblant area, do yourself a favor and either visit it or take in one of our or Rennsport's driving events, you will not be disappointed and remember the US dollar goes much further in Canada.
 
September is another very busy month for NER, although the local autocross series will have been completed, we will still have the Zone event on the 25th and 26th at Devens, plus the multievent concours/40th anniversary and rally weekend on the 18-19th. Upcoming later in the fall will be the annual autocross rumble and the fall tour, plus our final NHIS days, this time on a weekend in October. Finally we’ll host the usual fall tech sessions for 914,928 and Boxsters.
 
See you all at the 40th anniversary weekend, be sure to enter now.