Alansglide

Another good source for fun roads is http://www.twistypedia.com

Lots of great driving here in southern California.

porschemikeandnancy

If you can, make the drive up Ca. Highway 1 - at least up to Monterey. Stop at the Hearst Castle - in San Simeone. One of the most beautiful driver's roads in the world.

Oh, don't attempt this on a weekend - or you'll be stuck behind innumerable campers.

david

Clarification re the CHP's radar band: CHP uses Ka (and some local LEO's use K).

pmkazz

Hey nice.. I have lived in Dana Point for 30 years. Just relocated to Las Vegas.. You and your Porsche will have a blast. Best weather, great roads and awesome resturants. Enjoy!

ntouched

If you travel on the toll roads (through Orange County), don't forget to pay the tolls within 5 days (even if you forget, you'll get a warning letter in the mail). Toll Camera takes picture of your license plate.
Here's the link: http://www.thetollroads.com/
All tolls are paid online (if you don't have the toll tracking device). Enjoy your stay here in So. Cal (where it's summer time, all the time)!!!!

Rpompea

Thanks to all for the thoughtful feedback this is a great community.

5CHN3LL

I think the most important thing to know is that Porsches are a dime a dozen out here, so if you're accustomed to ANY kind of street cred for having a 996, prepare to be disappointed.

Beyond that, enjoy. Dana Point is awesome, and PCH (Highway 1) between Dana Point and Seal Beach is a lot of fun to cruise. PCH through Laguna Beach (north of Dana Point) on the weekends has a lot of traffic - but if you cruise it Saturday or Sunday between 9 and 11 AM, ALL of the really nice cars will be out...Lambos, Ferraris, Bentleys, and a good amount of classic sheet metal.

The 5 freeway between Dana Point down past the San Onofre nuclear plant and along Camp Pendleton down to Oceanside is the unofficial California Autobahn between 10PM and 4AM. Cruising speed at this time is generally at least 90MPH in the fast lane, sometimes over 100. The speed limit is 65 almost everywhere in CA, 75 in rural areas, so even though everyone else may be going 100MPH, you can still get busted for 20+ over. Don't be that guy.

The Grand Prix PCA region - which is north of where you'll be - has a Breakfast Club at the Glory Days Beachside Grill every so often. Google it and see if there will be one while you're out here.

If you want to go to the most bitchin' Cars-n-Coffee-type-event ever, look up Supercar Sunday. It's up in LA County, but you have to see it at least once if only to meet some of those people who really can afford $10,000 annual maintenance visits...

If you have a concealed carry license, it is probably no good here - do the research, and don't get pulled over with a handgun you're not licensed to carry. We have ridiculous gun laws here; unless you're a LEO, best to leave the guns home.

Be sure to post up once you're here - we'll do some kind of San Diego-area meet-up so we can drink some beer and welcome you to the People's Democratic Republic of Kalifornia.

If you're a history buff, Dana Point is named after Richard Henry Dana, author of Two Years Before the Mast. It's a good read and provides a very interesting picture of what California was like when there were no real cities, just ports to put into for trading furs and the like. The annual Dana Point Tall Ships Festival is an amazing sight - I worked as a cannoneer once during the mock cannon battle between several tall ships, which was epic fun even without cannonballs.

Things to be wary of: Parts of oceanside, especially at night (intoxicated marines and gang members); hookers (not in Dana point - just in general. We have lots of prostitution stings); PCH traffic on weekends; traffic on all roads every weekday @ rush hour (7AM-9AM; 4PM-7PM). If you drive into downtown LA (60-70 miles north of where you'll be), traffic ALWAYS sucks. I am not exaggerating. You can find yourself in traffic in LA at 4AM on a Sunday morning. Don't break the carpool rules - the fine when I last checked was $491. Don't drive your 911 to Tijuana. If you go to TJ, do NOT bring a weapon of any kind unless you want to rot in a Mexican prison. Do not try to bribe a Mexican cop - if they are corrupt, they will suggest a recommended bribe. And for the love of God, don't buy any drugs in Mexico and try to bring them back into the US. However, you CAN bring back a 750ML bottle of tequila, which I highly recommend.

Nailedit

You will love Dana Point. Great open roads but if you head up to LA here are the warnings...
Traffic is literally a nightmare... I have lived in LA for 11 years and no matter what time of day whether it be 2am or 2pm there is dead stop traffic. I have 19" rims and I live my life on pothole patrol. Also if your car is lowered you will scrape all over town but if you leave it stock you will only scrape sometimes and will become very good at diagonal angles lol... Beware also of valets and car washes (if you actually are crazy enough to go to one) who don't know how to drive a manual... Crazy I know but I had my clutch replaced and watched a guy stall my car 3 times before I ran down the driveway telling him to "Get out of my car I will park it myself." Now that the negative is out of the way some of the best driving experience lives literally 20 min outside of the city. Look up Angeles Crest. I have never driven a road like it. Also Malibu Canyons can be good during the week but forget the weekends... As for driving you are in a great place. Cheers and welcome!

tlakeusa

Aug 6th Super Cars and Coffee in Palos Verdes at the mall off of Hawthorne Blvd and Silver spur. About 40 miles north of you. Next to the Starbucks .... usually. Again a drive through Santa Monica to Santa Barbara on PCH is great. To San Luis Obispo even better on a weekend. With all of these people it will be very good.

white out

Approach angles for parking lots and certain intersections. Otherwise the roads are going to be significantly better than anything Michigan has to offer. You can literally go a week without hitting a pot hole.

Also, you're going to blend in. 911s are plentiful in SoCal.

JayG

You don't need to register your car in CA unless your are permanently moving here

Definitely check out the local PCA clubs. Here in San Diego we have a ton of events. Its around a 45-90
min drive depending on traffic
www.pcasdr.org

Also you can search for driving events on www.motorsportreg.com
If you track your car, there are about 5 nice tracks within a 5 hour drive, most 2-3 hours and 1 less than an hour
POC is doing a track weekend at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in early September and PCA SDR has a DE/TT in Oct
We also have our Performance Driving School (PDS) in September. If youhave never done one, it is one of the best events you can do
https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...n-diego-731136

There are 100's of miles of great fun roads to drive in So. Ca.

Dana Point is behind the Orange Curtain, so YMMV
Just kidding, it's a nice place

Also NEVER refer to it as Cali!

When will you be coming out here?

5CHN3LL

In case you're wondering, the "Orange curtain" is what many pretentious, entitled highschoolers in Orange County use to refer to the suburban vibe that permeates much of the county. My home town of Fountain Valley epitomizes the "orange curtain" - its city motto is "A nice place to live."

Once those entitled kids move out of state or up north and start trying to actually get by in life, they realize that life behind "the orange curtain" wasn't so bad and immediately start working to move back home with Mom and Dad.

Back in the day, OC was also a staunchly Republican area in an otherwise rabidly Democratic state - the "orange curtain" also referred to the political climate. Kids move away to Humboldt, burn out a few million synapses, and then move back to OC to get a haircut and go to work. I rode my bike to a "4 more years Reagan/Bush" rally when I was just a wee lad.

JayG

Lets not forget it was the home of B1 Bob as well

OC is actually a pretty nice place. Probably the biggest adjustment for you will be the traffic. Basically it sucks most of the time
There was a story once (false) that they removed all the street signs in some of the residential neighborhoods in Irvine and Lake Forrest and people drove around for days looking for their homes.

All seriousness aside, you will have a great time in So Cal, lots of things to do and of course great weather

TonyTwoBags

thanks for that.

Alansglide

You're welcome.

To the OP,

Here is the link to the to the Super Car Sunday that 5CHN3LL mentioned .

http://www.supercarsunday.com/