2012 Charter Dinner

by Helen Riser

What do you get when you have a brisk spring evening, a beautiful, scenic drive, a grand open space with a panoramic view of the Cascades, delicious cuisine and delightful friends?

The 2012 Porsche Club Charter Dinner, of course!!!

Held out at the Events Center in the Barn at Brasada Ranch, this year’s Charter Dinner was truly special. What a lovely venue, complete with our own bar and plenty of space for our silent auction. One couldn’t ask for more.

 

Special thanks are extended to Al and Gerry Frickey for leading a caravan of Porsches through the gorgeous countryside to convene at Brasada Ranch, and the numerous people who contributed wonderful silent auction items-Club Carrera, Roger Sanders, Bill and Linda Bein, just to name a few, who contributed oil paintings, collections of wines, Porsche carry-on suitcase, etc. The auction items brought in $1,200 which will be shared between two charitable organizations. Also, thank you to the Club members who shared their model cars to add to the Porsche-theme centerpieces. And last, but not least, a HUGE thank you to Bill and Marjorie Calhoun for organizing this wonderful Charter Dinner for all of us Porsche Club members to enjoy.  What a perfect evening!!

On to next year-enjoy the ride! . . . 

View the full photo gallery here.

Visit Our Sponsor

Congrats to the High Desert PCA "Pole, Pedal, Paddle" Team!

From left to right: Mike Simmons (Alpine ski), Ambrose Su (Nordic ski), Tim Hagner (bike), Jeanene Faria (5 mile run), Dennis Snodgrass (Kayak), David Sarmiento (sprint)

The team finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes and placed 1st in the 55-59 coed team catagory. This is the 7th year the High Desert PCA team has competed and their 3rd year to finish 1st in the annual Pole Pedal Paddle race. 

The Driving Season Begins!

by Bren Hirschberg

The Driving Season arrived on May 5th with the first-of-the-season Arrive and Drive. The “May-gical Mystery Tour," led by my wife Shannon and I, was blessed by the Porsche gods with perfect driving weather and started with a short history lesson by Bren on Lake Billy Chinook, our destination. Billy Chinook was a Wasco Indian scout who gained fame with the Fremont expeditions of 1843. The lake created by the Round Butte Dam in 1964 was named for him.

35 Cars with eager drivers and copilots were divided into 2 groups for the tour. Our tour led us “the back way” to the lake, and most participants experienced roads they never knew existed! Once at the lake, we took a ride on the lake edge road, across a narrow bridge and out to "the Island," which is not really an Island, more of a peninsula, and not really a peninsula, more of a mesa….oh,well its really cool anyway. Then back to the Lake Marina for rest and cookies stop.

Refreshed, we continued on around the East side of the lake and up to Madras, catching the highway back toward Prineville for a backroads drive home. Once back at the Cascade Village 20 of us stayed to enjoy a Cinqo De Mayo lunch at El Rancho Grande and socialize. The driving season is off to a great start! Thanks to all who participated for a fun day!


See the full photo gallery here.

Visit Our Sponsor

Redmond (Flag City USA), Firecracker Fourth of July Parade

Mark your calendar to participate in this great "Home Town Parade." 

We will need to check in around 8:30, the parade starts at 10.  Flags and decorations are encouraged. We need a few volunteers to march in front of our group carrying our club banner. After the parade we will have a short "arrive and drive" ending with a 4th of July lunch at Brand 33 Restaurant at the Aspen Lakes Golf Course. They will have reserved parking for us and a separate dining room with a balcony.  Grilled hamburgers or hot dogs will be served along with potato salad, baked beans, and condiments, all for $15 each.

RSVP to Larry Johnson, lrjkona@gmail.com or 541-639-6401 by June 18 or sooner.  Please include your email address,

the number in your party and the year and model of your car.  Also, you are encouraged to invite any non-member Porsche owners that you know so they may participate in a club event and meet our fantastic members.

Thank you,

Larry Johnson

Visit Our Sponsor

Presidential Ramblings

by Tim Hagner,
Club President

Road Trip, there’s nothing like it.  There’s still something romantic and adventurous about them.  Long ones or short ones, fast ones or slow ones, destination or no destination, time constraints or casual wander, it doesn’t matter; let’s just go.  An open two-lane road, a great car and a good companion are all you need.  Americans have been doing Road Trips since we got here. Lewis and Clark had a pretty famous one. All the wagon trains that followed made the road and then the migration west from the “Dust Bowl” in the 30’s (no, it was never a BCS bowl) used the new paved roads.  Then we started getting our kicks on route 66 and never looked back!  It took Todd and Buzz to really romanticize Road Trips.  Road Trips have become as much of our culture as mom and apple pie.  This Saturday (May 5th) is our first Road Trip of the new driving season, called the Arrive and Drive.  So bring your great car, good companion, a full tank of gas and your wanderlust.  You never know what romance or adventure waits around the next curve!  My problem is I never slow down enough to find out!

We are working with the Deschutes Historical Society in Bend to hold our Porsche Car Show on their lawn on Saturday, June 9th.  It will be a great setting for us. I’ll keep you posted on this.

Board meeting and Carrera track day later this month, it’s that time of the year when Porsche things really start to pick-up. I’m so glad.  I’m already making my plans for the Parade at Salt Lake City. I hope you’ll be part of them.

Would you like to do a High Desert “Porsche” family portrait?  Get all our members and all their cars into a panoramic photo.  Do we arrange by type or by color?  We could make a Porsche rainbow.  How about doing some “by type” photos first than the “family” photo?

How many 3.2 Carreras do we have in the club now?  It just seems to me I keep seeing more and more of them.  

Have you ever noticed that there is no correlation between “need” and “want”?  As in “I don’t need another Porsche, but I want one!”  “Want” almost always trumps “need” every time.

And the answer is 240 MPH.  Bill Riser was the first to answer the question correctly.  See last month’s “Ramblings” for the question if you don’t remember it.  Did you know that in 1975  a 917/30 Spyder set a new lap record on the Talladega oval of 221 MPH?

Auf Wiedersehen!
tim

What a Porsche Owner Needs to Know About 15% Ethanol Gasoline

Not very long ago the EPA OK’d 15% ethanol in gasoline. They originally OK’d it in 2010, but a class action law suite delayed this. Unfortunately, they ultimately have been able to get it OK’d. It is debatable if adding ethanol in gasoline does more good than harm to both the environment and to your car. Because of the harm that this gas can do to your car, I decided to look into what can be done to avoid it and why it is so bad for some cars. I also, wanted to see what could be done to mitigate the effects of this on an old Porsche (like my daily driver which is a 1983 Porsche 944).

Manufactures of various automobiles have come out saying that cars older than 2001 should not use the 15% ethanol gasoline blend (with some voiding any warranties on the car if the 15% blend is used on even some cars newer than 2001). The reason for this is that these fuel systems where not designed for ethanol use. Because they weren’t designed for it, many parts of the fuel system (especially rubber parts) can begin to fail due to the use of this fuel. Beyond this, if a car is not ran very often (for example a car that is mainly driven on the weekends) the ethanol can cause condensation to form in the gas tank and we all know water in your gas is never a good thing.

So, what can we that own an older Porsche do to keep our cars from having trouble with this new higher ethanol fuel?

Read the rest at theporscheguys.com

Presidential Ramblings

by Tim Hagner,
Club President

Do you remember MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers)? MADD was founded to stop teenagers from killing themselves because they where driving drunk. It’s now time for the “Mothers” to rename themselves and change their focus. I suggest their new name to be MADD (Mothers Against Driving Distracted).  I just read that “driving distracted” is now the number one cause of teenage automotive deaths. To all the “Mothers”, “Good job on the drunk thing”! Now onto new technology, new challenges.  I road with my nephew recently and he really scared the -------- (insert your favorite word) out of me. He spent more time looking down to text than looking at where we where going at 70 MPH, whew! But it’s not just the young afflicted with “driving distracted”. On our trip to the Monterey Historics we road with some friends of ours, who are in their 60’s, to Carmel. This is the same route we have driven for years to the same destination. My friend was driving, maybe I should say he was in the drivers seat, with the Audi navi system up and running, his iPhone had route guidance up and running and his Garmin was up and running. How much time did he spend driving? Not enough to suit me. After multiple offers he let me drive and he “navigated”. How often has someone’s poor driving caught your attention and then you see the cell in use? My point, we all are subject to distraction when driving, from the touch screen climate control, to texting. It’s hard to remember the objective was to drain the swamp when you’re up to your ass in alligators, the old saying went. It’s now hard to remember the objective is to drive when you’re up to your eyeballs in technology. I like alive and well Club members the best! So hey, don’t allow yourself to be distracted out there! Take a moment while I put my soapbox away...

The Charter Dinner is just around the corner (registration ends today) and the Arrive and Drive is coming and the “Red Napkin” is back, yeah! Spring is here.

 

Charter Dinner Unique Auction Item:  Oil painting variation on the well known Porsche poster of the 1952 Liege Rome road race over the Alps. Opening bid = $100

The Club meeting format changed this year, we (the Board) would like your feedback. So let us know yeah or nay. I’ve received both reviews and would like your review.

Did you sign-up for Parade? We (Sue and I) are number 244 and it was a painful two hour process the first day. I’ve been told it’s much faster now. We are excited to be going and hope you’ll be touring over with us to Salt Lake City. Tour details in the coming month, I’m working on the route. What does 386 KPH translate into MPH’s? The first person that emails me the correct answer will receive a prize at the next Club meeting. That would be the top speed of the Porsche 917 “Long Tail” at Le Mans in 1971. I believe the record still stands today.

Auf Wiedersehen!
tim