December 2007 - PCA - Orange Coast Region

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Autocross (Well, Almost) Snapshots October 21, 2007 Photos by Gary Barnhill Cathy O’Brian takes to the skid pad. Peter Schreyer corrects a little “oversteer.” Jack Farwick - Cayman in a drift! Darrel Whithead on the power! “Is it my turn?” Peter Liso’s new 997 GT3. Three down, one to go! Steve Eguina wetting down the skid pad. Just part of OCR’s Auto-X team - oh well, better luck next time! Jerry Griffin “red flags” October Auto-X. 30
Autocross Corner The Best Day I’ve Ever Had With My Car— and My Wife! By Steve “Friend of the Cone!” Eguina We had a blast at the Autocross Driver’s Clinic…No doubt the best day I’ve ever had with the car…Our instructor Tom was very good…We were amazed at how friendly everyone was… The day was really good for me and my wife. The above comments were typical of those I received the week after the Autocross Driver’s Clinic, put on by OCR’s own Autocross Team. About 45 students, 40 instructors and 10 more support staff attended the event. Jerry Griffin and Adam Nguyen, OCR’s Chief Driving Instructors, arranged for the instructors and had a fun day planned. Now, some of you who are not familiar with the concept of Autocross may be asking yourselves—what exactly is an Autocross? Autocross (or Auto-X) is the sport of trying to navigate your car through a defined course of pylons, usually on a large parking lot, faster than your competition. Autocross courses are set up using soft orange traffic pylon cones (which should not damage you car) and events are run at speeds usually between 40-65 mph, usually all in 2nd gear. Autocross is a “performance driving event” and a way to learn how to drive your car at its limits. You not only learn how to handle your car at speeds that you drive daily, but you also: Gain confidence in your driving ability • Learn the limits of your car’s brakes • Learn correct seating, hand and feet positions • Learn the limits of your car’s tire adhesion • Most importantly, Autocross is also a social gathering of friends with a common interest and is simply a ton of fun! Saturday Driver’s Clinic October 20, 2007, about 7:00 a.m.: Kevin and his son Christian Van Fleet, with some of the instructors, start to tech the students’ cars for basic safety. Once everyone was signed in with OCR’s crack registration team Lisa Goetsch, Margaret Knight and Lisa Hunter- Eguina, the drivers and students were split into two groups for a morning briefing while they enjoyed coffee and donuts, provided by our 2007 Event Site Sponsor, Stuttgart Performance. Thank you, Stuttgart! Some students had owned their Porsche for only five weeks, some five months and many had driven Porsches for five years or more. Have you ever wanted to push your Porsche to the limit but were afraid you would lose control? Many of the students wanted to do just that and now were given the opportunity in a controlled environment. Students learned how to throttle steer their car and how to control oversteer and understeer in the middle of a turn. In the accident avoidance exercise, they learned the gas pedal and steering wheel may be your best friend in a tight situation. During the threshold braking exercise you learn just how fast a Porsche will really stop! Many of the students had never attended an Auto-X event. After the morning exercises, a mini Auto-X course was set up so students could practice their newly learned skills. The course included increasing and decreasing radius turns, a slalom, a fairly long straight followed by a 180 degree turn then back through another slalom to the finish. Normally the course is outlined with flour, however, due to time constraints we did not outline the course. Most students started out slow, learning the course during the first four runs. Then the pace started to pickup! Joe Lipnisky, our Chief of Timing and Scoring, was kind enough to set up the timing equipment so students could gauge their improvement on each run. By mid-afternoon, the instructors were as excited as the students, cheering as they crossed the finish lights. Based on the times toward the end of the day, many of OCR’s 2007 Class Auto-X Champions may have some real competition next year. At the end of the day students and instructors were all smiles. By 6:00 p.m. Dave Palmquist and his team set up the course for OCR’s Newport Auto Center Driving Event Series championship event to be held the following day. As is tradition, everyone helped pack the equipment into OCR’s equipment truck. We were ready for the next day’s regular monthly Championship Auto-X event…or so we thought! DECEMBER 2007 31
Page 1: December 2007 INSIDE: • • •
Page 4 and 5: Orange Coast Region Calendar of Eve
Page 6 and 7: Contact Information OCR Executive B
Page 8 and 9: Zicke-Zacke, Zicke-Zacke, Hoy, Hoy,
Page 10 and 11: OCR Membership Anniversaries [5 yea
Page 13 and 14: The Porsche Bug Story & photos by E
Page 15 and 16: Fast-forward through about 17 motor
Page 17: DECEMBER 2007 15
Page 20 and 21: experience, you realize that everyo
Page 23 and 24: DECEMBER 2007 21
Page 25 and 26: We have the largest selection of in
Page 27 and 28: Rice’s Ramblings Some Unfi nished
Page 31: New Members/Breakfast Club November
Page 35 and 36: Revo Technik offers the smoothest,
Page 39 and 40: Upgraded 86 engine transmission and
Page 43 and 44: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S LEADING PER

December 2007 - PCA - Orange Coast Region

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