Originally Posted by robstah

This. It was great meeting up with everyone. As much as people are saying this was a failure, I like to see it differently. After looking back at the BMW one in 2008, all we needed to beat the record was 272 BMWs. Not only that, but the BMW event was held in April and there seemed to be a lot more influence from outside of Georgia.

The more I think about it, 2300 seems almost impossible to beat. Not only is Germany the size of a state, but they have Porsche there manufacturing cars and probably providing plenty of backup/support during that run. The Porsche community is small and spread out in the US. I also feel that the Porsche community as a whole is quite immature when it comes to make/model separation. Coming from a BMW background, I sat there and watched how the event almost turned into a "highschool click" environment. The BMW one had the exact opposite feeling. Socialization would have been nice too. I feel that a lot of people there were pissed at the fact that we were not going to beat the record. Because of that, they decided to stay in their cars and not partake in some friendly conversation. I do want to say that not everyone did this and the ones who didn't probably enjoyed the event better.

The only things that I can blame the organizer on were the lack of signage/directions for the course and the lack of organization on a few parts. Not only did I enjoy getting lost (that back road was quite fun), but the standing around wasn't the end of the world. I could have left whenever I wanted to. While we can all sit here and blame the organizer for failing, I see it as the community failing as a whole. The organizer only created the means in which to get everyone together, but there was no way he could force people to show. He provided the tool and we failed to use it. He did not fail, we did. I feel if as if the Porsche community as a whole were more tightly knit together and not fighting for separation, not only would we have more people there from a better spread of word-of-mouth, but it would have been a more enjoyable time.

With that said, I am pretty sure that the helicopter pictures will be pretty epic and will probably end up in a magazine anyway, and with the couple of flaws in organization, I still find the event to be a success. It was great meeting new faces and throwing out advice/help when needed. Hopefully we can throw together another event soon, but with a different attitude.

/soapbox

Originally Posted by Schuepbach

is this a ruf? I couldn't quite tell...

Originally Posted by drift a 944

Well, despite breaking a timing belt on the way up there and costing me a whole day and a lot of extra money I wasn't planning on spending ($110 tow, $50 hotel, $36 timing belt delivered from Atlanta to the wrong town, $25 taxi fare to have the belt delivered to the right town LOL, $18 spare timing belt (thanks Josh!), $etc.), I am really glad to have attended the event and overall had a great weekend.

I wish I had the time to meet up with you guys on Friday evening, because cruising down to AMS as a group was perhaps the most fun part of the day on Saturday.

As for the event itself, I personally didn't mind any of the trouble with signage or bathrooms, etc. However I was confused by the extra $20 parade-lap fee because it seemed like everyone in attendance got to do the 5 laps, and I felt like I could have saved myself $20 had I not paid that extra, and then did the laps anyways. I guess that is where organization and instruction could have been improved.

But anyway, it was indeed great to meet a lot of guys on here and match usernames to faces and cars. Hopefully I can get a couple pics uploaded soon so I can post them up!

If anyone finds the helicopter's areal view photos, pleast post them!!

Originally Posted by reno808

How did you break the Tbelt and nothing else happening to the engine??