Copyright © 1998

Porsche Club of America Around The Cones July, 1998 Steve Ross SLR944@aol.com

Well we are now in the busy season of Northeast Region’s schedule with events just about every weekend, even a couple on a single weekend. So far just about all of them have experienced overflow crowds, a real tribute to the folks who take the time and effort to organize them. An interesting non-Porsche event to take in, on the 12th of July, is the annual Endicott estate old car show in Dedham. This is the largest collection of mostly American old cars to be seen in one spot, in the New England area. You will see everything from turn of the century runabouts, through T’s, A’s, 30’s era Caddys, Packards, up to an incredible display of 50’s and 60’s cars, many in absolutely show condition. They number around 800 just showing, plus a used car corral of 100, and the always-present spectator’s cars, which are great to see too. If you plan to go arrive early, by 8am, or you will have to park in a satellite lot and take a shuttle bus. For the small donation it’s a great take.
 
Speaking of old cars remember our August meeting on Saturday the 22nd when we will invade Framingham at the Riley’s Roast Beef cruise nite. See the current Noreaster for details. Plan to arrive early if you want to display your Porsche. Two weeks prior to that event is our annual Concours in a new site with a new chairman, Eric Kessell.  I’m sure the same great results will be achieved - a fun filled, sunny (we can all hope) day spent viewing beautiful Porsches. Again see the newsletter for full details.
 
At a recent other car autocross, I got into a discussion with another long time competitor about the old days when we all used stop watches to time, and the rubber hose you used to see in the gas station was a modern advance in timing.  The cars were different too, many British cars, a handful of 356s, or the very early 911s, American pony cars, Corvettes and Cobras, and of course the Italian connection Fiats and Alfas made up the field. Slowly the mix of cars changed as more Japanese cars started to show up, S600 Honda sports cars, Datsun 2000 roadsters, even a Toyota 2000GT. The 911s got more modern, and they started vying for FTD. Then the 914s became the car to beat, especially a well set up 914-6.  The fascinating aspect of those days compared to now is how the tires have changed. Back then some drivers would wow the crowd with real race tires (Blue Streaks Goodyears or Firestones just like they used at Indy or Formula 1. But due to financial constraints, I remember drivers only using them on one end of the car.  Interestingly enough even those race tires couldn’t hold a candle to a good, current high performance radial, let alone the sticky tires now  commonly available. Trailering of cars was solely for the unregistered specials, rarely a registered streetcar. Most people experimented with the then new radial tires or the super wide 70 series “wide ovals”, rarely changing tires at the event and pumping them up with hand pumps of all things.
 
We sure have come a long way in these 3 decades. Now we have electronic scoring, bar code reading to stage, enough electrical power to run 6 different devices including a PA which can shake windows at 100 yards, and a on- site printer for instant results versus the old mimeographing which came to the competitor a week or so later.