5000 Mile Trip, Porsche Parade or Bust!
07-09-2012, 08:56 PM
#47
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Thread Starter
So... After delaying an update for a number of different reasons (turns out ModdedEverything951S is a task master when you're working on his car...) here are the photos from yesterday and today.
Yesterday we went to Little America and checked in. It was like almost-organized chaos! Since this is our first Parade, we were attending the Parade 101 presentation. Thus, semi pressed for time we attempted to quickly make our way through registration. Naturally, we ran into PCA members that we haven't seen in years and had some great conversations but that meant that we cruised into Parade 101 seconds before the presentation started. After finding out more about the history of Parade than I ever thought I could know, we left Little America and headed back to Darwin's house to change for the Pirelli Welcome Party. When we made it back to Grand America, the party was already in full swing. We met some great folks from the Maverick Region and a local couple. The highlight? Pirelli gave away a set of tires and Fastlane Travel gave away $1000 off and $2000 off gift certificates to their tours. Unfortunately, we didn't win.
Today was the Concours/Concours Corral. We signed up for the Concours Corral because we've never been big on concours but love to see the cars. Darwin signed up as well and this was his first trip out of town with his 951 since we reassembled the exhaust. The concours was held on the grounds of the Capitol building, with the concours corral located on one of the side streets. We arrived about 20 minutes before they wanted to start populating the corral but we were allowed to park. Luckily, we found some shade because it was already starting to get hot and bright at 9am.
The PCNA tent. Notice that the 968 is highest? They were giving away commemorative calendars and goodie bags with all kinds of neat stuff associated with Porsche Classic.
The trip to concours, Darwin's car finally moving under it's own power:
Minta and the Pink Panther:
Darwin's car, Eagle Gate and the Capitol building:
Utah's capitol building is very beautiful:
Right after we got there we saw this 968. Besides deleting the 968 badge and replacing it with a "Carrera" badge, he also blacked out the tail lights. Why someone would intentionally want to make it harder to tell people you're stopping is beyond me. Never talked to the owner but I hope he doesn't get rear-ended.
We saw this speed yellow 968 in the concours. The license plate read "968M030" so you can imagine that he meant business. Very pretty car and I hope they placed well.
This 968 might have been the saddest story at the entire concours. The car was parked at Little America last night when someone that worked at the hotel backed into the car. As the story was told to me, the hotel worker tried to leave the scene and another PCA member saw it and stopped them. To the owner's credit they decided to show the car regardless, but what can you do?
Here are some of the other oddities that we saw, including a 1 of 8 928 convertible and a 924 Carrera GT clone:
One of the neatest 356's I've ever seen wasn't in the concours, just parked in the concours corral.
Naturally, they had to get a few race cars out there and one in particular caught my eye:
An early 912 parked out in the concours corral, a great example of the spirit of PCA and Porsche ownership in general:
One of the Glockler Porsche Specials was on display and Minta caught a picture that I think is absolutely perfect:
And finally, a 911 that was featured in Excellence last year and embodies the spirit of driving the car because you love it:
Yesterday we went to Little America and checked in. It was like almost-organized chaos! Since this is our first Parade, we were attending the Parade 101 presentation. Thus, semi pressed for time we attempted to quickly make our way through registration. Naturally, we ran into PCA members that we haven't seen in years and had some great conversations but that meant that we cruised into Parade 101 seconds before the presentation started. After finding out more about the history of Parade than I ever thought I could know, we left Little America and headed back to Darwin's house to change for the Pirelli Welcome Party. When we made it back to Grand America, the party was already in full swing. We met some great folks from the Maverick Region and a local couple. The highlight? Pirelli gave away a set of tires and Fastlane Travel gave away $1000 off and $2000 off gift certificates to their tours. Unfortunately, we didn't win.
Today was the Concours/Concours Corral. We signed up for the Concours Corral because we've never been big on concours but love to see the cars. Darwin signed up as well and this was his first trip out of town with his 951 since we reassembled the exhaust. The concours was held on the grounds of the Capitol building, with the concours corral located on one of the side streets. We arrived about 20 minutes before they wanted to start populating the corral but we were allowed to park. Luckily, we found some shade because it was already starting to get hot and bright at 9am.
The PCNA tent. Notice that the 968 is highest? They were giving away commemorative calendars and goodie bags with all kinds of neat stuff associated with Porsche Classic.
The trip to concours, Darwin's car finally moving under it's own power:
Minta and the Pink Panther:
Darwin's car, Eagle Gate and the Capitol building:
Utah's capitol building is very beautiful:
Right after we got there we saw this 968. Besides deleting the 968 badge and replacing it with a "Carrera" badge, he also blacked out the tail lights. Why someone would intentionally want to make it harder to tell people you're stopping is beyond me. Never talked to the owner but I hope he doesn't get rear-ended.
We saw this speed yellow 968 in the concours. The license plate read "968M030" so you can imagine that he meant business. Very pretty car and I hope they placed well.
This 968 might have been the saddest story at the entire concours. The car was parked at Little America last night when someone that worked at the hotel backed into the car. As the story was told to me, the hotel worker tried to leave the scene and another PCA member saw it and stopped them. To the owner's credit they decided to show the car regardless, but what can you do?
Here are some of the other oddities that we saw, including a 1 of 8 928 convertible and a 924 Carrera GT clone:
One of the neatest 356's I've ever seen wasn't in the concours, just parked in the concours corral.
Naturally, they had to get a few race cars out there and one in particular caught my eye:
An early 912 parked out in the concours corral, a great example of the spirit of PCA and Porsche ownership in general:
One of the Glockler Porsche Specials was on display and Minta caught a picture that I think is absolutely perfect:
And finally, a 911 that was featured in Excellence last year and embodies the spirit of driving the car because you love it:
07-09-2012, 10:59 PM
#50
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What a great thread. Next year it is in beautiful Traverse City Michigan, I'm sure most of you fella's know that. But I hope to have my 951 cosmetically 99% perfect (everything minus the dash, 1 crack it's not bad).
Anyways I hope to meet some of you next year, as for the op keep the updates and photos coming. I am loving it.
Anyways I hope to meet some of you next year, as for the op keep the updates and photos coming. I am loving it.
07-10-2012, 03:09 PM
#51
Burning Brakes
Thanks Aaron, your a Gentleman and a Scholar, and whoever took the 912 Dash shot is an Artist. Hope you find the time to tour the local Countryside, bout 90% of the Country would kill to be at Alta for an afternoon.
07-10-2012, 04:08 PM
#52
Rennlist Member
I used to own that 968 M030 at one point. Sold it to the previous owner with the understanding that if he would ever sell, I would get 1st dibs. Never called...
Oh Well, Lesson learnt.
Oh Well, Lesson learnt.
07-10-2012, 11:27 PM
#53
Burning Brakes
Aaron
Missed you at the capital. I had a major head ache so I left after parking the cars. I was wondering where you guys were. Any way I finally saw you as you were leaving for your tour. I wa the red turbo pulling out of the gas station. Right away I recognized your car with its stripes.
I have seen several 968's but not many 951's. 914's are very rare.
Any way I hope you r having fun.
Missed you at the capital. I had a major head ache so I left after parking the cars. I was wondering where you guys were. Any way I finally saw you as you were leaving for your tour. I wa the red turbo pulling out of the gas station. Right away I recognized your car with its stripes.
I have seen several 968's but not many 951's. 914's are very rare.
Any way I hope you r having fun.
07-11-2012, 01:35 AM
#55
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Today we took a guided tour to Bear Lake and Garden City, UT. If I remember correctly when we signed up for this, they said that the tour was limited to 50 cars. You tell me if this is 50 cars:
So we hit the road and in true 944 fashion, the rear hatch popped open before we could even get onto I-15. The nice part about new hatch shocks is that the hatch stays open. The downside is that it will sometimes open even when you don't want it to. I'm sure that the 911 behind us laughed as the hatch popped up.
We began our ~200 mile loop with some amazing views. Luckily, the amazing scenery would continue throughout the rest of the trip as well. We quickly ascended through the mountains, tearing through switchbacks and long sweeping corners. The Tourmeister had laid out the basic route and said that we would be running more or less 5mph over the posted speed limit. Because of the amount of cars in the tour, our group was quickly separated and we clung together in clumps of 5-8 cars. This turned out to be a boon as it allowed us to keep a pace that didn't feel rushed or that we were running behind.
As we drove through the first portion of our tour, the temperature rapidly increased. While I've heard folks describe desert as a "dry heat" a high temperature is still a high temperature. Mixed with the high altitude, the overall theme of the day became "beat the heat." On our way to the lunch stop, we had to switch off the AC because the engine couldn't handle constant 10+psi runs up the mountains while keeping us cool. For the first time since I finished the rebuild on this engine, the temps were staying between the two white tick marks and creeping higher under hard loads.
We received a brief respite from the temperature once we arrived at Bear Lake. Beautiful. Breath-taking. Really nice. See?
To complicate matters we ran into road construction. I think the road workers were more interested in us than we were in them:
Have you ever seen a line of 50+ Porsches driving on gravel? How about 10 miles?
In spite of everything, we were still in good spirits:
We finally arrived in Garden City at a park over looking Bear Lake. The grass was green and soft, the food was good and we had some great conversations with fellow PCA members. On a side note, we ran into a couple that we had known when we were Longhorn PCA members and they just bought a 991. What a nice car!
We arranged all of the cars on the grass and managed to get a great picture.
After an hour break, we hit the road again for a few minutes until we hit a turn out for another photo opportunity.
At this point our fun meter was just about pegged. So was the temp gauge. Heat soak from the extreme temps and sun had rendered our car just about useless. We were still blowing past Caymans and Boxsters but they had their tops up, windows up and AC cranked. We had the windows down, top cracked and AC off. Pretty sure we might have lost about 2lbs of water weight in the last 90 minutes of the tour.
In the end, we had a good time but in our opinion the tour dragged on a bit too long. Everyone on the tour were great to drive and talk with and I think more than a few owners were surprised at how well our 944 Turbo managed to humble much newer cars.
So we hit the road and in true 944 fashion, the rear hatch popped open before we could even get onto I-15. The nice part about new hatch shocks is that the hatch stays open. The downside is that it will sometimes open even when you don't want it to. I'm sure that the 911 behind us laughed as the hatch popped up.
We began our ~200 mile loop with some amazing views. Luckily, the amazing scenery would continue throughout the rest of the trip as well. We quickly ascended through the mountains, tearing through switchbacks and long sweeping corners. The Tourmeister had laid out the basic route and said that we would be running more or less 5mph over the posted speed limit. Because of the amount of cars in the tour, our group was quickly separated and we clung together in clumps of 5-8 cars. This turned out to be a boon as it allowed us to keep a pace that didn't feel rushed or that we were running behind.
As we drove through the first portion of our tour, the temperature rapidly increased. While I've heard folks describe desert as a "dry heat" a high temperature is still a high temperature. Mixed with the high altitude, the overall theme of the day became "beat the heat." On our way to the lunch stop, we had to switch off the AC because the engine couldn't handle constant 10+psi runs up the mountains while keeping us cool. For the first time since I finished the rebuild on this engine, the temps were staying between the two white tick marks and creeping higher under hard loads.
We received a brief respite from the temperature once we arrived at Bear Lake. Beautiful. Breath-taking. Really nice. See?
To complicate matters we ran into road construction. I think the road workers were more interested in us than we were in them:
Have you ever seen a line of 50+ Porsches driving on gravel? How about 10 miles?
In spite of everything, we were still in good spirits:
We finally arrived in Garden City at a park over looking Bear Lake. The grass was green and soft, the food was good and we had some great conversations with fellow PCA members. On a side note, we ran into a couple that we had known when we were Longhorn PCA members and they just bought a 991. What a nice car!
We arranged all of the cars on the grass and managed to get a great picture.
After an hour break, we hit the road again for a few minutes until we hit a turn out for another photo opportunity.
At this point our fun meter was just about pegged. So was the temp gauge. Heat soak from the extreme temps and sun had rendered our car just about useless. We were still blowing past Caymans and Boxsters but they had their tops up, windows up and AC cranked. We had the windows down, top cracked and AC off. Pretty sure we might have lost about 2lbs of water weight in the last 90 minutes of the tour.
In the end, we had a good time but in our opinion the tour dragged on a bit too long. Everyone on the tour were great to drive and talk with and I think more than a few owners were surprised at how well our 944 Turbo managed to humble much newer cars.
07-11-2012, 02:17 AM
#56
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Hey Aaron,
I saw your car there today but did not see you. Got to the picnic area late so I didn't have much chance to chat either. I did see you next to me by a light but by the time I realized it was your car next to me I was already taking off. The heat really got to me today.
I was in a white Boxster S with white wheels and grey stripes. Dark tinted windows.
I saw your car there today but did not see you. Got to the picnic area late so I didn't have much chance to chat either. I did see you next to me by a light but by the time I realized it was your car next to me I was already taking off. The heat really got to me today.
I was in a white Boxster S with white wheels and grey stripes. Dark tinted windows.
07-11-2012, 12:35 PM
#58
Great photos and great thread!
Sadly, I came away from my last Parade experience (2010) with the same feelings about the entire event. Just a liiiitle too long. I didn't think it was possible to do, but by mid-week I was completely "Porsche'd out". I was grateful that it was in my home town, and was able to skip the occasional day or two and spend it at home!
Sadly, I came away from my last Parade experience (2010) with the same feelings about the entire event. Just a liiiitle too long. I didn't think it was possible to do, but by mid-week I was completely "Porsche'd out". I was grateful that it was in my home town, and was able to skip the occasional day or two and spend it at home!
07-11-2012, 02:12 PM
#59
Rennlist Member
Sorry for the idiot question, but was the 50-car caravan the "parade" aspect of "Porsche Parade"? Or is "Porsche Parade" more of a symbolic title at this point.
07-11-2012, 02:21 PM
#60
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Very nice! I would to do an event like this at some point when my 951 is in nicer condition.
I spied that #512 is a white BMW e39 2001-2003 facelift car with the sport option (if the owner did not modify the window trim & wheels) that snuck in. Not sure if it is a 525i/530i/540i, but definitely not an '03 540 M-Sport or an M5. How well did it keep up? 