Porsche Club of America
Golden Gate Region

April, 2008 - Vol 48, Number 4

In This Issue

President's Message

Letter from the Editor

40 Years Ago in the Nugget

Porsche Roads

Car Clinic for New Drivers

2008 Parade Registration

Yosemite Region Concours

LPR Swap & Concours

Quick Links

Event Calendar

Classified Ads

Join PCA Now
Nugget Archive
More About Us
Zone 7 web site
PCA web site
Great Links

Dear Porsche Enthusiast,

Welcome to The Nugget, the email newsletter of the Golden Gate Region, Porsche Club of America.

If you have any trouble viewing this email, you can click here to go to the archive of PDF versions of this newsletter. For comments or feedback, click here to email the editor.

Thanks for reading.

Pawlina Paraskova CG
Executive Editor of The Nugget

President's Message

--by Bill Dally, GGR President

Finding the line

As an autocross instructor I often see a student who is pushing their car very hard, driving right at the limit, having a great time - but not getting a low time. The problem, of course, is that they have cranked up their speed without first finding the right line. The line here refers to the exact path a car takes through an autocross or road course and the right line is the one that gets the car through the course in the least amount of time. To drive well, you must first find the right line, and only then start dialing up the speed to the point where your car control skills find their limits. The driver who keeps pushing without backing off and finding the line will ultimately find themselves frustrated when they see that people who clearly aren't driving as fast (or at least not sliding the rear end out as much) are getting lower times.

Finding the right line is more of an issue in autocross. Our road courses don't change and so over the course of time there is general agreement as to what the right line is on a road course for a particular type of car and you can find course guides and videos that demonstrate driving the right line (and even discussing the few popular variants - do you double apex turn 2 - at Laguna or Thunderhill?). Each autocross, however, is a new course and a new line to be found. For a few courses it is a challenge to just find a legal line - that doesn't result in a DNF (did not finish) - but for most courses the challenge is to find the fastest line.

The fastest line is rarely the shortest path around a course. Rather its is the path that widens the turns in a manner that allows the car to carry the most speed through critical parts of the course - and in particular enables the car to carry the most speed into the longer straights where the higher velocity is integrated over a considerable distance.

On some courses the right line is pretty obvious. These courses tend to have individual turns separated by straights. The right line consists of starting at the outside of every turn, getting as close to the apex cone as you can without knocking it over or out of the box, and then accelerating out of the turn using all of the available room. The free variable here is where you apex the turn (where you get the closest to the inside edge of the turn). If there is room left over at the exit - apex earlier - if you have to back off the throttle at the exit - apex later.

The harder courses are ones where turns are linked together so that a fast line around one turn requires sacrificing the turn before or after. Optional slaloms (where the direction you pass the first cone is optional) can also complicate finding the right line. Leaving the first cone to the left may favor entering the slalom while leaving it to the right favors exiting the slalom. You need to figure out which is strategically more important.

Find the right line at an autocross - as in life - involves planning, foresight, reflection, and experience. The planning process starts with the course walk in the morning. As you walk the course, do two things. First, draw a map. This will help fix the course in your mind and will also give you something to refer to later in the reflection stage. Second envision your car negotiating each feature (turn, slalom, or gate) and decide (a) where to turn in, (b) at what point you apex the turn, (c) where you exit, and (d) where you should be looking. It may help to number the features and write down these four points (at least where they are non obvious) for each feature. It sometimes helps to turn around and look backward through a feature to see if the path that seemed very smooth forward looks as good backward.

Foresight comes in when you drive the course. The single thing you can do to improve your line is to look ahead. Many "line problems" stem from a driver fixating on the current feature - I've got to hit this apex - and then upon arriving at the feature looking up and realizing that the car is not pointed in the right direction to get to the next feature. This can be avoided by always looking one or two features ahead. Once you turn in, ignore the apex and look to the exit. As you approach the apex look past the exit to the next turn. For linked turns you may even be looking to the exit of the next turn or the one after that. Looking ahead causes your brain to compute a smooth path to the point you are looking at. Driving to one point and then looking up to the next point results in a jerky - and slow - connect the dots path.

Reflection is what you do between your runs and during your rest period. In addition to socializing, drive the course over in your mind - and critique your line. Look at your map and find the longest straights. Are you getting the fastest launch into them? What could you do on the turns before the straights to carry more speed on exit. Go through each feature and ask yourself if your line could be improved.   Make some notes on your map about what to do differently next time. You will quickly find that driving the course a few times in your head is almost as good as taking a lap in the car.

Experience takes two forms: your own and others. As you become more experienced yourself you will start to see the right line without thinking about it as much. At the same time, you can learn from the experience of others. Watch the lines that the top drivers take and ask them why they are taking a particular approach.   Ask to take a ride with them (if they are an instructor) or to have them ride along with you and critique your line. Under their mentorship you will wind up learning a lot faster than if you left it to trial and error.

Most of what I have said above about finding the right line on an autocross course applies to life as much as it does to driving. Instead of the turns, slaloms, and apexes of an autocross course, in life we deal with decisions, jobs, and relationships. While completely different, the same principles of planning, foresight, reflection, and experience apply. I see many friends who are working very hard but not getting to where they want to be. To avoid their trap, back off on the speed a bit and find the right line. Start with planning - draw up a "map" with goals, decision points, and options. As you execute your plan, look ahead - just like on the course - to see the effects of a decision a few months - or years - down the road.   Take time to reflect (odd how working too hard can interfere with this). Periodically revisit your map and update it. Critique your own decisions. And finally, take advantage of the experience of others. Cultivate a few mentors whose experience can help you progress faster than you could on your own.   Pretty soon you will see your times coming down - and goals being achieved.

Finding the right line is also an issue for the club. We (the club) need to make decisions about how to evolve our existing time-trial and autocross series. Our long running debate on time-trial safety rules and our search for a long-term autocross site are examples of the issues we face. We also need to plan new types of events and find ways of better serving the needs of our evolving membership. In addition to the four points above, to find the right line as a club, we also need two things from you the members. First, we need your ideas. If you have feedback on our existing events or ideas for new events or services, please contact me (at ggrpresident@gmail.com) or the board (ggr-board@pca-ggr.org). Second, we need your help. We are an all volunteer organization. Get involved. You will find that its rewarding and a great way to get to know some great people.

Bill

Letter from the Editor

--by John Celona, Nugget Editor

May Be a Late Nugget

My apologies if this month's Nugget arrives in your inbox a bit later than you're used to. Work has been rather busy lately. I'm actually writing this on an airplane, but, unfortunately, actually putting the Nugget together requires Internet access to the service's web based tools. Possibly I could risk turning on my wireless card without crashing the plane, but there's far too much tread remaining on my tires to risk it.

What! No Historian?

My call for a GGR Historian last month appears to have fallen on deaf (busy?) ears. A few folks volunteered to make their back issues of the Nugget available for the purpose of creating an electronic archive of them, and thanks very much to those folks for stepping forward.

Perhaps a clarification would help. I used the term "GGR Historian" only because that term appears in the GGR Redbook, which is the repository of all the club history and procedures we are trying not to lose track of.

However, we presently have and are only considering one task: taking the lead in creating an electronic archive of back issues of The Nugget. After that task is completed, the lucky candidate can have their name recorded in that same Redbook for all posterity and enjoy an early retirement party.

For some number of years going back, assembling the electronic archive will only require assembling PDF versions of The Nugget which already exist but are not all in one place. At some point, scanning old issues in paper form would be required. It is an open question (on which the candidate may certainly opine!) how much and in what manner to undertake scanning. An easy, cheap solution would be attractive. Too much time and money would argue against taking that road. Yes, the club is prepared to provide some financial support for this task, and, no, how much has not been decided.

There are two reasons for trying to get a complete, electronic Nugget archive. First, we have hopes of obviating the need for GGR's rented storage area, which is currently costing the club $1,200 per year. Although we've not yet entirely excavated the storage area, we expect that back issues of The Nugget will be a large part of what's there.

Second, our super new webmaster Paul Larson advises that enormous storage is available at low cost with our new web site hosting service. He further promises to put at least some of the back issue online. Members would then have the opportunity to peruse back issues at their leisure. As the monthly column by our nefarious past editor Jim Bauman shows, more than a few yucks and escaped bargains are lurking there.

Sadly, of course, success in this project might raise a question about the continued vitality of Mr. Bauman's column. Not to worry. I have complete confidence in his editorial ability to extract the "nuggets" each month and save readers the trouble.

If you're interested, do email me and, as always, thanks for reading.

John

Competition Corner

--by Dan Thompson, Competition Director

All righty folks. Spring is now officially here and it is time to drag your garage queen out and participate in one of GGR's many competitive events. Our first AX of the 2008 season was a success. We are back at Alameda Point, albeit at a new site. We are on runway 725, which is very long and very narrow. For those of you that came out to the first AX of the season, thank you for participating. It was a bit wet and cool in the early morning, but by 10am or so it was nice a dry, with a party sunny sky.

There has been some discussion about the course, I will take all the responsibility for your enjoyment or lack thereof. It is just an AX and the next one will be different. It was the first time any of us had actually set foot on the venue and we weren't sure what we would have. Expect all the courses for now, to be similar, although a bit less twisty. We should be purchasing a new wireless timing system, with a repeater. This will enable us to do a long one way course, giving us the entire 200' width to make a very enjoyable, less twisty, course. Don't forget our next AX will be at Alameda on April 12, make sure to come out and give it a try, or at least come out and watch and say hello to some friends.

Our next Time Trial will be at Thunderhill on April 18, 19 and 20th. Yes, that is right, THREE days of track driving. Should be a fun long weekend.

On the "rules" front, there should be a Technical Bulletin issued in the next week or so concerning the big subject of the off season. Yes, we should finally have a closure to the Seats/Belts/Harness situation for DE and TT cars. Stay tuned. PCA National has approved Minimum TT Standards that were proposed and pushed thru by our very own Larry Sharp. Thank you Larry for seeing this issue thru to it's completion. As soon as the GGR Board has had time to discuss these new standards we should be able to finally put this to rest for this season.

OK, weather is getting nice so get out and drive that Porsche.

Dan

February Membership Report

--by Jeff Kost, Membership Director

Total Members: 2523
Primary:    1477
Affiliate:    1045
Life:       1
New Members:    24
Transfers In:         33
Transfers Out:    2

New Members

Laurie & Kurt Delimon		San Jose
Jason & Evelyn Derderian	San Francisco	2005 Boxster
Eric Ebbel	Hillsborough	1968 912
Charles Faulk	Redwood City	1984 911
Robert Faust	Redwood City	1977 911 Turbo
Nina Feero	Half Moon Bay
Bruno & Becki Filice	Foster City	2002 996 TT
Jason & Jocelyne Gardner	Oakland	2007 997 C4S
David & Susan Haase	Moss Beach	2004 Carrera 4S
Jeffrey Harris	Los Altos	1985 911
David Harrison	San Francisco	2006 911 C4S
Dennis Jacobson	Clayton	2001 Boxster
Vivek Jain	Cupertino	2008 911 Turbo
Candace Kirsch	Redwood City
Noel Lara	San Carlos
Derek Lee	San Francisco	2008 911
James Lee	Orinda	2007 Cayman S
Julian Lighton	Portola Valley	2008 911 4s
Stuart & Caroline Marshall	Los Gatos	2005 Boxster
Nils Mattisson	Mountain View	2002 Boxster
Todd Mckenna	San Francisco	2003 Carrera 4S
Scot Plewacki	San Francisco	1987 911
James Stubbe	San Jose
Victor & Loren Viegas	Atherton	2004 911
Marvin Weitz	Santa Clara	1982 911 SC
James Yee	San Jose	2004 911 GT3
Paul Yeh	Sunnyvale	2008 911
Jeff Yu	San Jose

Anniversaries

40 Years

Richard Wallace

Los Altos

1987 944s

20 Years

Stanmore Cooper

San Francisco

1970 914

15 Years

Anita Cullinan

Hollister

10 Years

Thomas Ahlberg	Greenbrae	1996 993 TT
Jim Montalbano	Montara	1998 911
Doug Ostler	Alamo	1997 986
Pamela Reitman	San Francisco
Dietrich Schulze	Pleasanton	1991 944
Debbi Waterstone	Los Gatos

5 Years

Dan Child	Half Moon Bay	1999 996
David Chune	San Francisco	1984 911
Thomas Dinkel	San Francisco	1967 911 Coupe
Tyler Gage	Orinda
David Ledford	Fairfield	1982 911 SC
Lisa Murad	San Ramon
Tracy Paugh	Belmont
Roger Peacock	Bolinas	1987 911 Carrera
Bev Prowell	Lafayette
Mary Stanton	Alameda
Annette Stringos	Hamburg
Ron Wong	San Carlos	2003 Boxster Ca
Charkene Xuereb-Yovino	Union City
Rick Zobelein	San Mateo	2003 911
Paul Goldman	Redwood City	1973 914
Alex Kilgo	San Francisco	1991 C2 Turbo
Jean-Francois Vincent	Cupertino	2000 Boxster

Board of Directors

--by John Celona, GGR Secretary

Due to the heavy travel schedule of many folks, the March board meeting has been rescheduled to the first week of April. We'll catch it in next month's Nugget.

2008 Drivers' Ed & Time Trial Schedule





Sat Mar 29, '08	Ground School	Round Table Pizza, Concord

Apr 18-20, '08	Driver's Ed & Time Trial #2	Thunderhill

Sat May 3, '08	Ground School	Round Table Pizza, Concord

May 24-25, '08	Driver's Ed & Time Trial #3	Buttonwillow

Sat Jul 26, '08	Ground School	Round Table Pizza, Concord

Aug 16-17, '08	Driver's Ed & Time Trial #4	Thunderhill

Sat Aug 30, '08	Ground School	Round Table Pizza, Concord

Sep 20-21, '08	Driver's Ed & Time Trial #5	Thunderhill

The Power Chef

Food on the Road

--by John Celona, The Power Chef

No, I don't mean eating food lying on the road (unless you have a taste for venison and are sure the dearly departed deer is fresh!). I mean eating while traveling, especially while traveling for business.

Certainly, traveling for business has been reliable formula for bringing a more "prosperous" form to your physique. Meals are often late, involve entertaining clients and colleagues with caloric (read "alcoholic") beverages. With charging the meal to the company, it's tempting to indulge.

Tipping the balance even more in the wrong direction, time and facilities for exercise are often extremely limited. Working, entertaining, and trying to catch up on sleep to cope with jet lag easily consume entire days. And even if you're awake and can't sleep at 1 a.m. because it's some entirely unrelated time at home, who wants or is able to exercise at 1 a.m.? (See my past column on finding exercise facilities while on the road.)

The issue isn't just the oddness of the hour. Traveling and loss of sleep severely tax one's energy level and body. Trying to do too much can easily lead to an injury that turns a difficult trip into an ordeal.

So I fall back on one of my strategies that's simple enough to remember without the organizer: Balance what you take in with what you put out.

On the road, that means I'll just exercise as much as I have time and opportunity for and not worry about the missed workouts. Consistency at home gives you leeway to miss a few workouts on the road without sacrificing your fitness or form.

But, with reduced physical activity (no, pressing the button to change the PowerPoint slide does not count!), watching the calories becomes even more important, along with really trying to eat right.

Accordingly, here are my tried-and-true strategies for managing diet and calorie consumption on the road. They've worked for me for enough years to still fit into the clothes from the 80's(!), but, since everyone is different, feel free to develop variations for yourself.

1. Stay at a hotel with a free continental breakfast. Many "business oriented" hotels have these, and they're easier to find than you might think. Check the hotel's web site for information. Even in hotels which don't offer this to everybody, there is often some sort of a club or executive floor which does offer this. The extra cost for these rooms is often comparable to what you'd spend for breakfast and is peanuts compared to what you're probably paying for air fare, so justifying the extra expense isn't so hard.

The great advantage of staying somewhere with a free continental breakfast is you can grab some fairly healthy food and bring it back to your room to munch on without investing a lot of time in doing so. Last week, I grabbed a big plate of fresh fruit (decimating the grapefruit slices--sorry!), and snagged a whole wheat bagel of all things with a little lean ham and some cheese. A perfectly acceptable light breakfast under the circumstances. One just needs to pass on the donuts, bacon, and the like.

The extra time means you can sleep in a little later without taking the time for breakfast, or even, in my case, sneaking out for a brief early morning workout. Thirty minutes on the treadmill in the morning while traveling is a whole lot better than nothing at all, and I still had time to shower, dress, and pack while munching, then make it to my 8:30 a.m. meeting on time.

Plus, these sorts of places often have a fruit bowl set out for in between time that you can snack on. I consume as much fresh fruit as I feel like. No harm in that.

2. Look for Salad bars & Entrée salads. Lots of places have salad bars where one can either order separately or along with an entrée. And, if not, chicken Caesar salads seem to be universal. I'll often dine on just the salad bar. There're not what I would usually have for a meal at home, but healthy versions of full-on meals (like the recipes you've seen here) are very hard to come by. At least with a salad bar you'll get a lot of nutritious greens and fiber as part of your meal.

Be sure to throw on lots of green peas, green beans, kidney beans, garbonzo beans or the like if available. I'll often add a decent topping of some calorific stuff (blue cheese dressing and bacon bits, for example) to give it flavor and make the salad more filling. It's your dinner, after all. Oil and vinegar dressings I avoid because they have as many calories as the blue cheese and usually lack flavor. And the "fat-free" dressings are typically loaded with sugar or sugar substitute and taste simply dreadful.

If by some chance the salad bar has some whole wheat bread (not as unusual as it used to be, though without a label you can't be sure how "whole" the wheat is!), include some by all means. I'll usually dip the bread in the dressing and skip the butter.

3. Order carefully. If you're ordering a sit-down meal because there's no salad bar or it would be awkward to order when others are ordering off the menu, pick your selections carefully. The baby back ribs and New York Sirloin are likely to be loaded with fat, and you won't get the benefit of the fat editing you could do at home. French onion soup is likely to be topped with hundreds of calories worth of cheese on top of buttered and grilled bread.

On the whole, it's just common sense: avoid fried foods, heavy sauces, and anything that looks loaded with fat while being light on fruits, vegetables, or whole grains. Pizza is almost always a bad choice from a dietary standpoint: Lots of fat in the cheese and toppings, token amounts of tomato, and a fiber-free white crust. Likewise for most fast foods, though McDonald's salads have come in handy for me many a time.

4. Less is More (Healthy!). Unfortunately, when you don't have much time to exercise, the amount of food you need to take in to sustain yourself is less that what it takes to make you feel really full. Plus you don't have the option of making the kind of totally satisfying, tasty, and healthy fare I fill up with at home. (Disregard this if you're one of those people who can eat and eat and not gain weight. And I hate you.) (Kidding!)

For me, this means I have to really watch quantities when my food choices are limited. If the only choice for lunch is a fatty panini sandwich on white bread, I have to take a really hard look at whether I want one (or maybe a half). Any other possible choices? If not, I'll maybe eat a half so I don't fall over and not worry about it. In a true emergency (such is being in the middle of nowhere and a long time till the next opportunity), I've even been known to have two or three pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The long-term average is what really counts. Or I may take a careful look at how long until I get to the airport and can maybe get a turkey sandwich on whole wheat.

Hopefully, this gives you a few things to think about in keeping your size together while on the road. If all else fails, just consider what yummy stuff will be waiting for you when you get home. As I write this, I'm about to venture forth to see what the hotel restaurant has to offer. But I have a chicken at home marinating in the fridge, just waiting to be barbecued when I get home. I can't wait!

Bon appetit,
The Power Chef

40 Years Ago in The Nugget: March 1968

--by Jim Bauman, Notorious ex-editor of The Nugget (presently at large)

40 yrs April

The cover this month featured a lineup of GGR members' cars at the Cotati Driver's School held March 17th.

To arms! To arms! The British (cars) are coming! And the German cars, and the Italian cars, and the french cars, and the American cars... They're coming to Pleasanton on Sunday April 28th to Gegen Die Uhr VI, Golden Gate Region's NCSCC Championship Autocross! (Gegen Die Uhr = "against the clock")

New members included Clark Anderson of San Jose (presently residing in Sonora and known as "Mr. 356!")

Speaking of the Anderson brothers, Bruce Anderson ran the following ad in the WANTED section:

356 low type SPEEDSTER top. Speedster HEADLIGHT GRILLS. Spyder MIRROR. Contact Bruce Anderson... Palo Alto, CA.

Bruce, are you still looking for that Spyder mirror?

Porsche Roads

--by Claude Leglise, GGR Past President

San Jose to Freedom

In our on-going quest to stay off boring freeways and explore local back roads, this month's installment of Porsche Roads takes us south from San Jose toward Monterey and the Pacific Ocean.

From San Jose, take the Almaden Expressway and go to its very southern Apr Roads1

end. You will reach a T intersection, where you make a right onto Harry Road and then immediately turn left on to McKean, a 2-lane road and the true start of our trip. As soon as you leave the last housing development, McKean takes you back to earlier and quieter days in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The rolling hills are green this time of year, cattle enjoy the new grass, and wildflowers are sprouting everywhere. The first point of interest is Calero County Park, which offers boating and quiet hiking trails from which you can see great views of Mount Hamilton. About a mile south of the park, McKean becomes Uvas Road and follows the contour of Uvas Creek. There are not too many curves, but there is seldom much traffic, especially on a week day, so it makes for good driving. Uvas reservoir is another popular boating spot in the summer, and I understand the fishing is good, too. I just cannot put fishing rods inside the 911.

At the end of Uvas Road, turn right onto Watsonville Road and you enter the Gilroy wine country. The first winery you encounter is Sycamore Creek, then in succession: Kirigin, Thomas Kruse, Fortino, and Hecker Pass Winery. If one of you is a designated driver, you may want to pull over and sample some of the fine local production of Charbono, Carignan, Cabernet, Chardonnay and many more varieties.

At the end of Watsonville Road is another T intersection. Turn right on to Hecker Pass Road, also known as Highway 152, and prepare for the curviest part of this trip. As you head west, the road soon enters the redwood forest in Mount Madonna County Park and starts climbing the southern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The pavement is smooth and, if you are lucky enough not to get caught behind a slow truck, the curves make a Boxster sing. Past the summit, the road descends rapidly toward Watsonville. There are several places to pull over and enjoy the terrific views of Monterey and the entire Bay. You can stop at the Mt Madonna Inn for a drink and a bite (if it is open). For the history buffs, the pass is named after Henry Hecker who built a road to connect Yosemite to the Pacific Ocean in the 1920s.

Apr Roads2

At the bottom of the mountain, 152 enters the Pajaro River valley and its rich agricultural lands. Unfortunately, the Pajaro River has the dubious distinction of being listed as the most endangered river in America, as flood control aficionados want to line its natural bed with concrete and eliminate all vegetation and animal life. Drive a couple of miles, go through Interlaken, and turn right on Holohan Road. Another mile or so, past Green V Apr Roads4

alley Road, and you reach our destination for today: Freedom, California.

Janis Joplin sang: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." Truth be told, there is not much happening in Freedom on a Saturday afternoon, and Janis may have been inspired by this Santa Cruz county town. Freedom is known worldwide thanks to KPIG radio, available to millions on the Internet at www.kpig.com. It was one of the first radio stations in the world to webcast its programming, as early as 1995. If nothing else, you will be able to tell your friends and coworkers that you have been to Freedom. What a cool name for a town!

Claude

cale: 1¶ to 5¶	Twistiness	Pavement quality	Scenery
McKean/Uvas Road	¶¶	¶¶¶¶	¶¶¶
Watsonville Road	¶	¶¶¶¶¶	¶¶
Hecker Pass Road	¶¶¶¶¶	¶¶¶¶¶	¶¶¶¶