PATTER - Porsche Club Chesapeake Region PCA

Tech Session by Rob Mairs
Tech Session at Porsche of Annapolis
A bright and sunny day brought over forty enthusiasts to the November 10th tech session at Porsche of
Annapolis, where they got their fill of information about four wheel alignment and corner weighting. The
morning started with a catered continental breakfast arranged by Porsche of Annapolis, which included
coffee, tea, juices, bagels, pastries, and other assorted items. After everyone had signed in and had their fill
of breakfast goodies, Rob Mairs got things underway by introducing the presenters. G.H. Sharp, a veteran
SCCA ProSolo competitor, led off the demonstration with a discussion of alignment and corner balancing
and the new Hunter alignment equipment that Porsche of Annapolis had recently added to their shop. G.H.
clearly knows how to get the most out of a car and a quick Google search on his name brings up quite a
successful history on his autocrossing successes. We then held a drawing from the participants to
determine whose car was going to be used. The first draw was Dave Sharp with his beautiful black ’86 930,
but Dave declined. The next pick was Joanne Trippi and Rich Waddell’s Macadamia Brown 911 Carrera S.
Above: G.H. Sharp prepares Joanne and Rich's 911 for
some alignment work. Below: Gress Wilson aligns the
car and shares his knowledge with club members.
Photos by Scott Kirklighter.
15
G.H. then introduced Gregg Wilson, a Gold
Meister certified technician, owner of Porsche
race cars, and PCA driver education instructor
who then began to demonstrate the alignment
process. Gregg spent the next 1.5 hours setting
Rich and Joanne’s car up, aligning the front end
followed by the rear, and describing in detail
each adjustment and the resulting effect. The
Hunter equipment is incredibly precise with
measurements displayed in hundredths of a
degree. There were lots of questions from the
audience and Gregg’s knowledge was clearly
demonstrated to all.
It was a great day and the participants left with a
much better understanding of why alignment is
important for just about any kind of driving.
Special thanks to G.H. Sharp and Gregg Wilson
for giving their time to PCA Chesapeake, and
thanks to Frank Donatoni, Porsche of Annapolis
General Manager, for hosting the event.
Continued on the next page . . .