Porsche Club of America
Golden Gate Region
Election Issue

Print page 1 of this email to print your ballot, or click here for a PDF.

Candidates' Statements

  John Celona
  Candidate for President

I've had the privilege to be editor of The Nugget for the past five years and to be secretary on the board for the last two years. Along the way, I've been active in autocross, concours, social events, and a little bit of track time (no room for a dedicated track car!).

For me, the greatest part of being a member of GGR has been getting to know and work with the other club members who do great work on a volunteer basis to make events happen and deal with the challenges facing the club as they arise. The volunteers are the true heroes of the club, and all members should thank them for making the club what it is.

I've also had the good fortune to have worked with and learned from three oustanding club presidents: Bill Benz, Claude Leglise, and Bill Dally. We are also fortunate to have dedicated past presidents still active in club affairs, such as Terry Zaccone, Sharon Neidel, and Larry Sharp, just to name a few.

I hope to continue in the tradition of thoughtful and effective service to the club these past presidents have established.



 Bill Benz
 Candidate for Secretary

Bill Benz has held a variety of offices for GGR including presently serving on the nominating committee for new officers. Unfortunately, Bill can not keep his mouth shut.  This rendered ineffective   the established nominating committee strategy - sneaking up on members when they are feeling extra good about GGR  and getting them on the ballot before they have a chance to formulate  the  usual excuses -  "My cat was just neutered and needs me to comfort him for the next two years." or  "I'm getting a Spec Miata so I can hang out with the Thomases and Andrew Forrest - They're way cooler than you guys, dude."  Since Bill blew it, he has agreed  to run in place of the many great candidates for secretary he scared away.



 Linda Adams
 Candidate for Treasurer

My qualifications for Treasurer include nearly 20 years of financial experience, with 10 years with a bank and 5 years as an office manager/bookkeeper.  I am also familiar with many of the club's activities, having attended and volunteered at PCA events locally, as well as Parade and Porscheplatz.  My husband Larry and son Greg are also active at all levels of the club.  I have recently retired from full time work and would appreciate the opportunity to contribute my time and experience to the club as GGR treasurer.

October 2009. Volume 49, Issue 9

In This Issue

Candidates' Statement

Debunking Drivers' Ed Myths

President's Message

Letter from the Editor

Competition Corner

Board of Directors

August Membership Report

The Power Chef

Driving the Panamera

The Adventures of Grass Racer

Getting GGR's RSS Feed

Military Vehicle Tour Photos

All About DentPro Day

An Electric Porsche?

PCA Corral at Laguna Seca

Yosemite 50th

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.

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Pawlina Paraskova CG
Executive Editor of The Nugget

Debunking Drivers' Ed Myths

--by Susan Angebranndt, GGR Member & past Vice President

GGR's driver's ed program has changed quite a bit in the past 2 years, changes you might not have heard about. With an upcoming event at our local world class track, Infineon in Sonoma (affectionately known as Sears Raceway), we'd like to do a bit of myth busting, and encourage you to come out and get to know your Porsche better.

GGR events require modifications to my car and special equipment.

Nope, not so. Our events run under PCA Driver's Ed rules, which were developed to encourage people to drive their unmodified street cars on the track. No annual tech required, just check over your car yourself before arriving at the event and there's a safety tech at the track when you sign in. And you won't need any special equipment -- no special clothing (just long pants, long sleeve shirt and helmet), no fire extinguisher or special seat belts or seats. Many of our participants drive to the track in the car they'll be using all weekend.

GGR events require a big commitment -- an entire weekend as well as an entire day orientation

Nope, not so. We know not everyone can commit to a 2 day event, so we've changed the format so you can drive only on Saturday. This consists of 4 20-30 minute sessions, with an instructor if you're just starting out. Our 2 day event consists of 4 sessions on Saturday and on Sunday 3-4 sessions plus a timed run. "Timed runs" are the a chance for you to drive, alone, on the track, against the clock (1 warm up lap and 2 timed laps). This is a wonderful chance for you and your Porsche to test what you've learned over the weekend. But  you don't have to participate in the time trial, although we encourage you to take advantage of this special opportunity to drive alone on the track.
    We hold the orientation on the Friday night before the event, at the track at 6:30pm. You'll learn more about the track you'll be driving, see an in-car video, as well as what to expect at the driver's ed events and have a chance to ask questions.

Track driving isn't safe, I can't afford to hurt my Porsche or me.

Nope, they are safe and our events have an excellent safety record. You'll be driving with one of our instructors all day your first event. Our instructors all own and drive Porsches, so they understand your car too. Their experience and guidance will make you a better driver after only one session.

GGR events are competitive and serious.

Nope, while participants take safety seriously, we all attend because spending a day or 2 with our favorite marque and other Porsche owners is so much fun. Lots of families attend, with both parents and grown children driving. Walk around the paddock and you'll hear people chatting together about their cars, the track, and all things Porsche.

So please join us the weekend of October 10-11 at Infineon?

Our driver's ed event October 10 and 11 at Infineon is a unique opportunity. It's a weekend, so you don't have to take time off from work. The track is close so you won't have to go far. Early October is a "dry weather" time, so the conditions should be perfect -- not too hot or cold, nor wet.
   It's also the perfect opportunity to learn car control and to go fast in a safe environment. On the street you barely scratch the surface of what your car can do. But at a driver's ed event, you get up close and personal with capabilities of your Porsche, some you probably didn't know existed. It's the perfect chance to spend a bit of special time with your Porsche. Hope to see you at the track!

To register, go here. Got a question? Want to know more? Look on our user forum.

Susan


GGR members show how it's done in a past weekend at Infineon Raceway

President's Message

--by Bill Dally, GGR President

iPhone Data Logging

In last month's column I wrote about how recording in-car video could provide great entertainment value - and how by critiquing this video you can improve your driving.  While watching your video can help you improve in some ways, gathering information about the forces acting on the car - acceleration, deceleration, and left and right turning forces - can provide even more insight.  While the video can help you spot where you are missing an apex or not using all of the room at the exit of a turn, collecting a time series of the forces acting on the car will help you spot where you are coasting, where you could carry more speed through a turn, and where your transitions (e.g., from braking to turning) can be improved.  Together the video and the data log of forces give you a more complete understanding of your run.

High quality data logging setups can be acquired from companies like Traqmate, Race Technology, and MaxQData for hundreds of dollars.  However, if you have an iPhone you already have a basic datalogger - with accelerometers to acquire the force data and a GPS to log position.  While not as precise as the more expensive systems, an iPhone datalogger can still teach you a lot about your driving.

A first order of business is mounting the iPhone securely in your car.  For my 914/6 autocross car, I fabricated an aluminum bracket that accepts my iPhone belt holster and fastened it to the top of the tunnel just ahead of the shifter as shown in the photo below.  The second photo shows the iPhone in holster firmly held in place by the bracket.  The iPhone slips easily into and out of the bracket, but yet is held securely during the run, despite the considerable forces and vibrations it experiences.

 
Figure 1 - A bracket to hold the iPhone in place


Figure 2 - The iPhone in its holster held firmly in place by the bracket.

Another possibility - if you keep your iPhone in a silicone "skin" is to use a strip of Velcro to hold the skin to a horizontal surface of your car.    If possible, mount your iPhone in a location where it can "see" as much of the sky as possible so it will be able to receive the signals from GPS satellites to get position information.  My mounting is not ideal in this respect, but the other logical places - further aft on the tunnel - were already taken by my fuse block and ignition switch.

To record data I use an iPhone application called "g tac-pro".  While its user interface leaves something to be desired - and its GPS feature doesn't work reliably (although this may be due to where I have the phone mounted) - it works well enough to be educational.

Now that we have our iPhone loaded with the application and firmly mounted in place, we are ready for our first run.  After pulling into position, launch the "g tac-pro" application, select the "lap" option, and press the ready button.  When the starter waves the green flag and you start accelerating, the iPhone will start recording.  After your run, press the buttons to stop recording and save the data.

Saved data can either be viewed on the iPhone or exported for analysis by other packages.  The display on the iPhone - accessed by selecting the "graph" option - will show a friction circle, a map of the course (if you acquired GPS), and time series of lateral and longitudinal forces.  Unfortunately the "g tac-pro" user interface doesn't allow one to select which of these graphs appears on the main display or to display any run other than the most recent.  It will, however, let you play back the most recent run.  During playback a little blue dot traverses each graph showing the progression over time.    If you have GPS data, this playback mode is very useful to correlate the force data with positions on the course.

For this column, I exported the data from one run at the August 22nd autocross and plotted the various graphs in Microsoft Excel.  This static display is not quite as useful as the moving blue dot, but it still gets the point across.

First, I plotted the GPS position data to get the following plot of my line through the course (see the plot below).   Unfortunately I don't have any data on where the cones are, but you can get some idea by watching the video of the run at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6CS41sIikE

The long, thin nature of the picture drives home the fact that we run our Alameda autocrosses on a narrow runway.  It is convenient that the runway is oriented in a east-west direction.  The numbers along the left edge of the plot are latitude, and the numbers along the bottom of the plot are longitude.  North is up - as it should be.  I have placed dots - labeled "A" through "L" on the plot to label the major features of the course.  We will use these dots when referring to the force plots below.

The line shown here is smoother than my real line is because of the course sampling of the iPhone GPS.  On this run, the iPhone took a new sample each 0.75 seconds (1.33Hz).  High-quality data loggers sample at 20Hz - taking 15 data points for each iPhone GPS sample.  This course resolution is good enough to orient our force data.  However, it's not good enough for fine critiquing of the line.
 

Figure 3:  GPS plot of one run of the August 22 autocross course.  Course features are labeled A-L.

To review the course, it starts with a hard right turn (A) across the lights  the following straight has a jog to the right (B) and ends in an offset 180-degree sweeper (C).  After the sweeper is a slalom (D) which ends in a left turn (E)  and right turn (F) to jog through a two-cone slalom.  A short straight ends in a very tight 180 to the right (G) followed by a not-quite as tight 180 to the left (H).  A right turn (I) then leads into a slalom down the back straight (J) (some might label the left into this slalom as a separate feature, but I'm tired of dropping blue dots).  Another offset sweeper (K) leads into the final straight across the lights before hard braking and a turn to the right (L) at the finish.  If you watch the YouTube video at the URL above, you should be able to spot each of these features.

The plot below shows a plot of the forces encountered during this run as a function of time.  The blue line shows lateral (sideways) forces (left is up, right is down), and the purple line shows longitudinal (fore and aft) forces - acceleration is up, braking is down.  Blue dots label the features corresponding to the same lables in the position plot above.  The data here has much better resolution because the iPhone samples its accelerometers every 50ms (20Hz sampling rate).


Figure 4: Force data vs. time for one run of the August 22 autocross course.  Lateral force is shown in blue (left is up) and longitudinal force is shown in purple (acceleration is up).

Lets walk through the force data from left to right segment by segment.  We will start with the segment from A through C - through the first sweeper.  At the start, I apply a small amount of acceleration (0.4G) to get the car moving and then lift (0G acceleration) to get the car to rotate to the right.  The turn to the right pulls about 0.8G (point A).  After the turn, acceleration resumes at nearly 0.8G with a momentary lift for the right/left jog (pulling +/- 0.4G laterally) (point B) and then back on the throttle at about 0.6G before hard braking (-1.0G) before the sweeper.  I "trail brake" into the sweeper - reducing the braking first to -0.4G and then gradually to zero as I turn into the sweeper.  As the braking force is reduced, the lateral force is increased - rising to about 1.4G to the left.  We will discuss this transition from braking to turning in conjuction with the friction circle more below.  In the middle of the sweeper the lateral Gs are reduced to about 0.8G and then increased again to 1.4G.  At the exit of the sweeper the turning force is gradually reduced to 0.8G as the acceleration ramps up to 0.6G.

So what can we learn from this first segment?  First, I probably didn't need to lift at point B.  The car is only pulling 0.4G sideways and it could have done this at nearly full 0.8G acceleration.  I probably lost a tenth of a second with this lift.  I often refer to such an unecessary lift as a "chicken lift" - similar gratuitous braking is called "chicken braking".  I'm lifting (or braking) not because I need to, but because I'm "chicken".

The braking and transition from braking to turning on the entry to the sweeper are ok - as we shall see looking at the friction circle below, there is room for improvement with this transition.  Backing off to 0.8G of turning force in the middle of the turn indicates a problem with my line.  I suspect that the offset nature of the sweeper led me to start turning more tightly than necessary and I backed off when I realized that I was going to undershoot the exit.  Its possible I could have picked up a little time by taking a wider line into the turn and holding a constant 1.4G the whole way around until dialing in the acceleration at the exit.  The transition from turning to acceleration at the exit of the sweeper is good.  However, I might have done better to start my acceleration a little earlier - by taking a slightly different line.

Now lets consider the next segment from D through F.    This is the right-left-right  slalom after the sweeper.  I pull 0.6, 1.0, and 1.2Gs laterally on the right, left, and right respectively.  The only place the car is near the limit is on the final turn to the right.  I start out this segment accelerating at 0.8G but lift - dropping back to a bit less than 0G after the first right.   This is another "chicken lift".   I could have shaved a few tenths off my time by staying on the throttle through the left and then braking before the final right.

Elements E and F are a left and a right that jog through a two-cone diagonal slalom and enter a short straight leading to the first tight 180.  Element E shows a good balance between turning and braking - staying at the outside of the friction circle (see below) while F shows good balance between turning and acceleration - getting on the throttle early for a good launch down the short straightaway.  No complaints here.

Now lets consider the segment from G through I. These are the two tight 180s followed by a turn to the right before the back slalom.  These segments look good.  The trail braking into G is one of the best transitions on the friction circle below.  I have the car turning at the limit (1.4G to the right) most of the way through G, get a small burst of acceleration (only 0.4G) for the microscopic straight from G to H, corner at the limit (1.4G) through most of H - entering with trail braking and exiting with acceleration.  I modulate the throttle through I to throttle steer the car around the turn.

Now lets consider the final segment from J through L.  After I, a left turn at the limit (1.4G) turns me into the back slalom.  I back off on the turning G forces (to 1.0G) to get on the throttle (0.6G) and then perform the right-left-right for the slalom pulling 0.8, 1.2, and 1.0Gs respectively.  I lift for the turn to the left - which is probably needed - but my lift is a little early and a little long.  I should be closer to 1.2G on these turns.  Another tenth or so that could be shaved off my time.

The sweeper K looks good.  On the entry transition, hard braking (-0.9G) tapers gradually off to 0G as the turning forces ramp to over 1.4G.  The forces stay over 1.2G - although they do dip a bit in the middle.  At the exit, the throttle ramps up (to 0.5G) and the turning forces ramp down to about 0.7G to accommodate.    The acceleration out of this turn at 0.5G looks a bit subdued compared to the 0.6-0.7G seen elsewhere on the course - is it possible that I wasn't at full throttle?

The forces don't say much about the finish (point L).  However, from the video, I suspect that I may have been getting on the brakes a bit early - before the timing lights.

So what do we learn by analyzing this force log?  Mostly that I need to avoid "chicken lifting".  I should stay on the throttle at the jog at point B and until the last turn of slalom D.  I should also lift a bit less at the middle turn of slalom J.  I should try to pick a line through the sweepers that lets me hold full Gs the whole way around (rather than dipping in the middle) and that lets me get on the throttle a bit earlier.  I also need to make sure that I do get to full throttle at the exit of turns.  Of course all of this is easy to say and much harder to do.

The figure below shows a "friction circle" for this run of the autocross course.  This is the same data as Figure 4 but with the longitudinal force plotted on the Y axis and the lateral force plotted on the X axis.  As time advances, the line in the figure traces out the instantaneous combined forces seen by the car.  While the figure is a bit cluttered, one can start at the 0,0 point at the center of the figure and follow the line to trace the entire run.


Figure 5:  Friction circle for one run of the autocross course of August 22, 2009.

Of course the circle isn't actually a circle - its more of an oval - because while the car can pull 1.4G to the left or right, maximum acceleration is about 0.8G (before the rear wheels spin) and maximum braking is about 1G (before a wheel locks up).

The friction circle graphically illustrates that the car can pull a maximum total force sqrt(X2+Y2) of about 1.4G at any point in time.  In other words you can't apply maximum braking force (or acceleration) and maximum turning force at the same time.  To turn you have to back off on the braking or acceleration to get more turning force.

The friction circle is particularly useful in analyzing transitions between braking or acceleration and turning.  Ideally the line should stay near the outside of the "circle" - indicating that you are getting the maximum possible total force out of the car at every point in time.

In general, I do a pretty good job of staying at the outside of the friction circle and some of my transitions look pretty good.  However, there are a few other places where I am filling in the middle of the friction circle.  Most of these correspond to the slaloms where I am pulling less than maximum lateral G forces.  Also, my transitions from braking to left turns (shown at the bottom right of the figure) could be better.  

Like the other plots, the friction circle is one more tool to spot opportunities to improve.  Once spotted, the real challenge is to translate this knowledge into action.  With driving, its much easier to understand what needs to be done than it is to do it.

Bill

Letter from the Editor

--by John Celona, Nugget Editor

Keep the contributions coming!

We're very pleased to have gotten another contribution from a member this month. Mike Sherman offers his impressions and photos from driving the Panamera at its introduction at the Monterey Historics. Thanks, Mike, for putting that all together and sending it in.


Remember to vote!

October means election time for the open board positions. This year, the president, secretary, and treasurer positions are open. Candidates have stepped up for a two-year term in each position. You can print the first page of this email for a ballot, or click the link at the top for a PDF. You'll note that our high-tech fraud-proof ballot does not allow even the possibility of a hanging chad. Perhaps they should have used these in Afganistan...

Do take a few minutes to print and vote. And, yes, the post office will require a stamp.

Thanks for reading.

www.highperformancehouse.com

Competition Corner

--by Wayne Van Norsdall, Competition Director

We are nearing the end of our competition season but we have one Drivers Education event left at Infineon raceway on October 10th and 11th. Last chance to drive on the track with GGR this year! (There will be one final autocross at the Marina Airport on October 24.)

On another note, I am asking that anyone with any rule change proposals please send them to me before the end of October. I have a different time line than in the past and it is as follows:

• October 30 - Deadline to submit rules change proposals
• November Nugget Change Proposals printed
• November 14th Open Meeting for comments on proposed changes (Tentative)
• TBD Rules finalize and approved by Drivers Events Committee
• December Nugget Approved Revisions published and Rule Book published to the
• Web, and made available for download

Please send all rule change submissions to me at weirw@msn.com or call with any questions - 510 773 2081.

-  Lets get out and drive!

Wayne

Board of Directors

--by John Celona, GGR Secretary

GGR Board of Directors
Meeting Minutes for September 9, 2009

Call to Order. The meeting was held at the residence of the president, Bill Dally. Present were: Bill Dally, Larry Adams, John Celona, Matt Switzer, Mark Powell, Paul Larson, Andrew Forrest, Mike Cullinan, Bill Benz, Sharon Neidel, Claude Leglise, and Rob Murillo.

The meeting was called to order at 6:53 p.m.

Call for agenda changes: none

Call for calendar changes: none

Approval of July minutes: already approved via email

Postmortem of events

• 7/15 Friday Night Social
• 7/18 Auto X 5 Alameda
• 7/25 GGR Vasona Picnic
• 8/1-2 DE/TT # 3
• 8/1 Porsche (Boxster) Brunch
• 8/2 Carlsen Concours
• 8/22 Auto X 6 Alameda
• 8/22 Ground School
• 9/5-6 DE/TT/CR # 4

Directors' Reports

President: nothing to report.

Vice-President

Upcoming event status report:

• 9/12 Ground School
• 9/26 Military Vehicle Tech Foundation Tour
• 9/26 Autocross at Alameda

Certificates are in place for the following events:

• 9/26 Autocross at Alameda

Treasurer: about the same funds on hand as at this time last year. The club is about breaking even with the sponsorship money and dues remitted by PCA National, although the club is no longer accumulating the savings from not printing and mailing The Nugget.

Secretary: our normal election schedule is to run candidate photos and statements in the October Nugget, and to include a ballot. Ballots need to be postmarked by November 15.

Social

 Calendar of Past Events:

• Friday Night Social at Harry's Hofbrau: Friday 7/17/09. The Friday Night Social is no longer an "official" GGR event, but many members continue meet at Harry's in Redwood City the 3rd Friday of each month to enjoy the food and share each other's company. At Shirley Neidel's request, an announcement was made via ggrannounce to contact her at gsneidel@yahoo.com for additional information. Information was also posted on the GGR website. Ten to twelve people attended the July Social. The August Social was cancelled due to a conflict with the Monterey Historics.
• GGR Family Picnic / People's Choice Concours: Saturday, 7/25/09. GGR's Family Picnic / Wash and Shine Concours was held in Los Gatos at Vasona's Gateway Pavilion. Thanks to a last minute serge in reservations, the event was a big success. We had over fifty people in attendance. Guests enjoyed volleyball, croquet and a display of over twenty-five pristine Porsches. Hoss Rahnema's 1964 356 Coupe placed first in the concours, with Bill Benz's 356 Carrera Speedster second and Scott Detro's '73 914 third. The catered lunch was provided by Armadillo Willy's. Expenses for the picnic totaled $2,067, with revenue of $750, leaving a net expense to the Club of $1,317.

Upcoming Event Status Report:

• Friday Night Social at Harry's Hofbrau: Friday 9/18/09: The next Friday Night Social will be at Harry's in Redwood City on 9/18. Contact Shirley Neidel's at gsneidel@yahoo.com for additional information.
• Military Vehicle Foundation Tour: Saturday, 9/26/09: GGR member Kevin Laird has arranged for a private tour of the Military Vehicle Foundation in Portola Valley. The tour will take place at 10:00 AM on Saturday, September 26, 2009. The event is already fully booked. A donation of $20 is requested. Contact Kevin at kpl@kevinlaird.com for additional information.
• Flying Lizard Paddock Tour at Laguna Seca ALMS Races 10/9/09 - 10/11/09: Currently in discussions with the "Lizards" to arrange paddock tour(s) at the Laguna Seca ALMS races. Tours will be limited to twenty people on a "first come - first served" basis. When details are finalized, an announcements will be made via ggrannounce and the GGR website. Sign-ups will be taken at the Porsche Corral.
• TRG "Wine and Wrenches" Tech Session: Saturday, 10/17/09: The GGR Tech Session/Wine Tasting/Catered Lunch at TRG was rescheduled to 10/17/09 to give more people the opportunity to participate. We will be sharing the date with the Diablo Region. The cost will be $20 per adult, with children under 12 will free. A reminder announcement will be sent via ggrannounce.
• Year-End Banquet at Blackhawk Museum in Danville: Sunday 1/10/10: Nothing new to report. Per the Boards recommendation the date for our Year-End Banquet was changed to Sunday 1/10/10. The deposit check for $3000 and signed contract was mailed to Scott's Catering. (Scott's is now handling both catering and Blackhawk rental.) Cost will be $45 per person.
• GGR Family Picnic / People's Choice Concours: Saturday, July 24, 2010: Vasona's Gateway Pavilion and parking lot has been reserved for our 2010 picnic.

Membership

Motion to approve the new members from July and August was passed unanimously. Ideas were exchanged for involving new members in a club function. Mike Cullinan offered a complementary "taste of the track" to new members.

Competition

Autocross

7/18 AX 5 Alameda

• Made further improvements to registration and worker sign up. Results very encouraging with lots of positive feedback via email and the GGR Forum.
• Greater enthusiasm regarding the "sponsor a friend" program (15 entries).
• Last minute registration surge brought us to 97 participants.
• Event ran flawlessly with 10 runs for all participants.

8/22 AX 6 Alameda

• Increased registration fee with hopes of breaking even, or generating small profit:
• Online registration fee is now $45 with $10 discount for PCA members.
• On-site registration fee is now $55 with $10 discount for PCA members.
• Adjusted number of participants was 92 (98 registrations with 6 no-shows).
• The "sponsor a friend" program attracted 19 entries.
• Event ran flawlessly with 10 runs for all participants.

The trailer was burglarized again while stored at Pacific Power Motorsports. It has been relocated to a storage yard used by Carlsen Porsche. The yard is in a "sketchy" area in Redwood City near Docktown. Recommend looking into a more secure paid storage facility for the future.
o Not having a tow sponsor will likely cause additional headaches for future AX Chairs as it seems almost impossible to get volunteers to tow the trailer. Current compensation for trailer tow is two free registrations and $30 for gas. This will be raised to $50 plus two free entries.

Time Trial / Drivers' Ed / Club Racing

The committee looking at possible changes for the series has a lot of ideas, including better publicity.

The series attendance is down about 30% from last year, though overall it is breaking even. However, prospects for getting enough sign-ups for Infineon in October are problematic. Break-even for the event is 115 drivers. One-day pricing will be offered.

Webmaster: The webmaster now has a netbook so he can fix the web site while out of town.

Topics for discussion

Succession: candidates are needed for treasurer and secretary. A number of possibilities were discussed.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

        

August Membership Report

--by Jeff Kost, Membership Director
 

First I apologize for missing last month's issue. To make up for it, I've included the June, July and August new members and anniversaries. Congratulations to everyone listed! The primary membership levels seem so have leveled off over the last few month, with a continued small erosion of affiliate members.

As always, I encourage each of you to do what you can to recruit new members and engage and retain our ever more important existing members!

Total Members:            2365

Primary:                       1373

Affiliate:                          991

HQ Life:                              1

GGR Life:              3

New Members:     25

Transfers In:           0

Transfers Out:        9

New Members

Anniversaries

 45 Years

 40 Years

 35 Years

None this time

 30 Years

 25 Years

 20 Years

 15 Years

 10 Years

 5 Years

The Power Chef

When It All Gets to be A Bit Much

--by John Celona, The Power Chef®


Sometimes I get really busy, and right now is one of those times. I'm simultaneously getting ready for a talk I'm giving at a Safe Patient Handling conference and trying to get The Nugget out. Last week was similar: I ended up so piled up with teaching a class and business meetings that I canceled out of the military vehicle tour just to have a day with no scheduled events. Darn it. Will have to catch the Panzer tank some other time (or look again at the photos Kevin took! See the article and link in this issue.)

Strange as it may seem, when I get super busy I especially savor making and eating a home-cooked meal. Eating out just isn't the same; it's seldom as good, satisfying, and healthy as what I can turn out at home.

Still, when time is short one doesn't have a lot of time to shop and cook. That's why I have certain go-to dinners I can turn out in less time than it would take to order and wait for take-out food (even if it's delivered!).

Following is the plan for one of these go-to meals: a complete barbecued steak dinner in less than an hour. I can whiz through the grocery store in a few minutes to pick up the three necessary ingredients and then have it ready at home in less time than it takes to change, mix a cocktail, and open the mail.

Here's hoping this might work for you, too.

Bon Appetit,
The Power Chef

See Notes at the end for my thoughts on the type of steak to buy.

The Almost-Instant Barbecued Steak Dinner

The Gist
Marinate and grill some steaks. Bake some potatoes. Steam some broccoli. Eat!

Ingredients

• Steaks
• 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper, and 2 tsp. vodka per steak (multiply by the number of steaks)
• A bag of broccoli florets for steaming
• However many potatoes you would like to bake

Method
Start your oven heating to 450ºF. A toaster oven would also work. Wash the potatoes and place them in the oven.

Combine the salt, pepper and vodka in a bowl or baking dish to make the marinade. Toss the steaks thoroughly in it.

Rinse the broccoli and place it in a pot with about 1/4-inch of water in the bottom.

Start your barbecue heating.

Take a break until the potatoes have been in the oven about 45 minutes. Turn over the marinating steaks. 

Turn the broccoli on high to steam it. Cook the steaks. Turn off the broccoli. Take the potatoes out of the oven. Salt, pepper, and butter on the side for the potatoes and broccoli.

Enjoy!

Notes
Opinions do differ on the kind of steak to buy, but allow me to offer you my very definite opinions.

I find New York sirloin to have the best flavor and I like how easy it is to trim the layer of fat around the edge. There's plenty of fat marbled throughout for flavor!

Ribeye steaks are more tender, but have less flavor and more fat throughout the steak. Still good to have on occasion.

Filet mignon is the tenderest of all, but rather bland. I'll marinate a whole filet to go on the barbecue when I have it.

Other cuts of steak (top sirloin, London broil, etc.) are good as steaks if you really enjoy chewing. Otherwise, buy them on sale for a superlative hamburger or stew!

Variations
In the summer, I'll take 5 extra minutes in the store to husk a dozen ears of corn, then have steamed corn on the cob instead of the year-round staple of steamed broccoli. Yummy!

For extra nutritional punch and a little sweetness, bake some yams or sweet potatoes instead of or along with your regular potatoes. They pack a real wallop of nutrition and fiber.

Driving the Panamera

--by Mike Sherman

I had the pleasure of driving the new Panamera at the Porsche expo in Monterey last month and wanted to file a report back to the club.

The Author and His Drive

The actual Porsche pavilion was quite nice with a two Panameras on display and one weird Panamera that they had coated with pictures of Porsches.  It became a very Dali-esque piece of art.  Sort of a waste in my mind. They also had all the Porsche gear on sale -15% off and no sales tax...had to buy
another polo shirt.

The Porsche Dalimera

With regards to the Panamera, I have to tell you that it's an exquisite machine...pure Porsche...solid, poised, and what you'd expect from this incredible marque.  Most of the pictures I've seen don't do it justice as it's much prettier and sleeker in person - not just a 911 with two more doors.  I know there are also skeptics who look at that back seat and say, "it can't possibly seat someone over 5;9"."  But I'll tell you that a guy 6'2" sat next to me in the rear seats at the expo (there are only two) and he had plenty of headroom.  The driving experience was also awesome.  They had something like 32 Panameras there and each of us was allowed to drive with a rep as a non-interfering co-pilot.  He was there merely to guide us through some of the new systems. And there are many, including electric
seats with an incredible number of optional positions.

The PDK is effortless and, teamed with the 400HP power plant, the drive is jet fighter incredible.  We didn't have the twin turbo versions to drive, but the S is plenty strong.  Vision over the hood is excellent and the driving position is pure Porsche.  We were allowed to whip it down Carmel Valley Road for a few miles at whatever speed we wanted (CHP was evidently warned to stay away),  I pushed it a bit through some gentle esses and it begged  for more.  And when it came time to U-turn, the turning circle was incredibly small...akin to my old '98 MBZ ML320 which can follow its own
tail around a ring.

One Big,Clean Engine

Cool interior features abound and dial placements were excellent.  They even have a sort of head's up display with the GPS navigational system duplicated in one of the speedometer/odometer gauge clusters so you don't have to look to the middle at the big screen while driving.  And that system can be wired to just about any language you can imagine. Very cool.

I would urge all Porsche nuts like us to drive one...and then go home...the price tag is pretty high and unless you have somewhere near $90k+ sitting around the house, it's sufficient just to drive it once and say you did. I didn't see anyone reaching for a checkbook, but many will, I'm sure.  I'm attaching some photos so you can see how nicely Porsche treated all of us lookie-loos on the day.  Cheers.  Mike

Red Brakes Stop Better

The Adventures of Grass Racer

Many thanks to Ted Lawson for contributing these photos, which were taken at the Pebble Beach Grass Races. --Ed.

Getting GGR's RSS Feed

--by Paul Larson, GGR Webmaster

There are a lot of users that are not aware of the RSS feed for the Golden Gate Region Website.  To find it, go to the bottom of the page on the website and you will see a small orange box.  By clicking on this box, you can subscribe to the RSS feed to see if the site has been updated.

In simple terms, you can view the site for updated content without going to the site.

When you subscribe to a feed, it is added to the Common Feed List. Updated information from the feed is automatically downloaded to your computer and can be viewed in Internet Explorer and other programs.

Hope you enjoy this feature.
Paul Larson
webmaster@pca-ggr.org

 Here are answers to some common questions about using feeds (RSS).

What is a feed?
A feed, also known as RSS feed, XML feed, syndicated content, or web feed, is frequently updated content published by a website. It is usually used for news and blog websites, but can also be used for distributing other types of digital content, including pictures, audio or video. Feeds can also be used to deliver audio content (usually in MP3 format) which you can listen to on your computer or MP3 player. This is referred to as podcasting.

How do I know if a website offers feeds?
When you first view a website, Internet Explorer will search for feeds. If feeds are available, the Feeds button  will change color and a sound will play.

How do I view a feed?
When you visit a webpage, the Feeds button  will change color, letting you know that feeds are available. Click the Feeds button, and then click the feed you want to see. To get content automatically, you should subscribe to a feed. Click Related Topics to learn how to subscribe to a web feed.

How does a feed differ from a website?
A feed can have the same content as a webpage, but it's often formatted differently. When you subscribe, Internet Explorer automatically checks the website and downloads new content so you can see what is new since you last visited the feed.

How can I automatically get updated content?
You can receive content automatically by subscribing to a web feed. When you subscribe to a web feed, you set the interval at which Internet Explorer will check the website for updates. Once you've set an interval, Internet Explorer will automatically download the most up-to-date web feed list. Click Related Topics to learn how to subscribe to a web feed.

Does a feed subscription cost money?
No, it's usually free to subscribe to a feed.

How can I view my subscribed feeds?
You view feeds on the Feeds tab in the Favorites Center. To view your feeds, click the Favorites Center button  , and then click Feeds.

Can other programs display my subscribed feeds?
Yes, Internet Explorer provides the Common Feed List to other programs. This allows you to subscribe to feeds with Internet Explorer and read them in other programs, such as e-mail clients.

What does RSS mean?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is used to describe the technology used in creating feeds.

What formats do feeds come in?
The most common formats are RSS and Atom. Feed formats are constantly being updated with new versions. Internet Explorer supports RSS 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0, and ATOM .3, 1.0. All web feed formats are based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), a text-based computer language used to describe and distribute structured data and documents.

Paul

Military Vehicle Tour Photos

Tour organizer Kevin Laird took a number of photos from the tour, which was Saturday, September 26. You can view them by clicking here.

All About DentPro Day

--by Joe Ramos, DentPro Day Organizer

DentPro Day, Saturday, November 14

It's that time of year for the opportunity to get that sheet metal back to its pristine condition, and at a discount, too.  The DentPro Day that I coordinate annually will happen on Saturday, November 14.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, DentPro provides an excellent alternative to body repair shops for those minor (and some not so minor) dings and dents.  Taken to a regular body shop, a door ding can be an expensive proposition requiring not only the body repair, but also a likely repaint of the damaged panel.  We're talking hundreds of dollars here.  With DentPro, through the artistry of getting behind the dent/ding, they massage it out.

DentPro's normal pricing is $89 for the first small dent in a panel, and $45 for any others.  Their pricing goes up to $189 per 4" dent, so they can handle that softball dent.  At this year's event, we will receive a 20% discount.  In most cases, no repaint is needed.  In each
case, DentPro will examine your car, point out any blemishes that you may have missed (and I guarantee there will be some), and provide you an estimate before beginning work.  You may opt out at that point.

To start the day, DentPro will provide bagels and smears, and coffee.  They will also have drinks for us to soothe our throats as we bench-race and tell lies about our cars.  At noon, a tasty lunch of burgers and dogs will be provided.

This year's DentPro Day will be on Saturday, November 14, beginning at 9 AM at the DentPro facility at 2205 Winchester Blvd, Campbell, CA 95008.  For a map, click here.

We will schedule in 3-4 cars per hour.  However, you are welcome to come early and leave late, just hang out to see all the cars passing through.

Please RSVP via email to Joe Ramos, giving an idea of how much work needs to be done on your car (number/size of dents and location), and a requested time.  If the time requested is filled, I'll provide alternative times.  BTW, any and all cars (Porsche and non-Porsche alike) are welcome, but priority will be given to PCA-GGR Club members.

Hope to see you there!

Joe

An Electric Porsche?

PORSCHE SAYS IT IS WORKING ON ALTERNATIVE POWERED SPORTS CAR

New CEO unveils four new high-powered 911s and hints at future hybrid and electric vehicles at Frankfurt Auto Show

ATLANTA, September 15, 2009 - Speaking publicly for the first time at the Frankfurt Auto Show, Porsche's new president and CEO, Michael Macht, revealed that Porsche is considering and working hard on an electric-powered sports car that would meet the high demands of the Porsche brand.

"I am also convinced that one day Porsche will have an electric sports car in its line-up," said Macht at the company's press conference today.  While he cautioned that so far the available battery technology is not "sufficient to meet Porsche's strict requirements," he said "our engineers are already working hard on this challenge."

"An electric sports car would therefore only make sense for Porsche if it offers performance and a cruising range similar to that of current sports cars in the market," he said. "We are therefore taking the first step in this direction with a full hybrid - in the Cayenne, the Panamera and maybe in the not too distant future also in a racing car or a production 911. Why not?"

Macht pointed out that Porsche has a long legacy with hybrid technology as it was exactly 109 years ago that Professor Ferdinand Porsche built the first fully functioning car with hybrid technology.

Speaking about Porsche's newest model, Macht said the new Panamera Gran Turismo is already generating thousands of orders just three days after its market launch in Europe.

The highly anticipated Panamera represents Porsche's fourth model line and is the brand's first-ever four-door sports car. It goes on sale in the U.S. on October 17, 2009.

"Although the car has only been at the dealership for three days, we already have 4,500 orders for the Panamera, most of them from customers who have not even seen the car yet," he said Macht. "And since test drives for customers have only just started, sales of the Panamera are already making a very positive start."

Another highlight of the press conference at Frankfurt was Porsche's presentation of its new 2010 911 Turbo, the flagship of the venerable 911 range.

"The 911 Turbo is the spearhead in innovation throughout Porsche's complete range of sports cars. It has been successful in the market for 35 years, accounting throughout this period for almost 80,000 units sold worldwide," said Macht

Premiering alongside the venerable Turbo will be a series of asphalt-burning 911s, including the 911 GT3 RS, and its race ready sibling the 911 GT3 Cup car.

Porsche also took the wraps off its limited-edition 911 Sport Classic at the Frankfurt show, marking a return to the tradition of occasionally issuing ultra-exclusive production cars.  The Sport Classic will not be offered in the U.S.  Production will be strictly limited to 250 units.

PCA Corral at Laguna Seca

Yosemite Region 50th

Remember to vote! Otherwise you never know who might get in...


As always, thanks for reading.

John Celona
Porsche Club of America-Golden Gate Region