July - Porsche Club of America – Northeast Region

Around The Cones
Steve Ross
Now that June is here, we finally have some
time to take a breath after the busy schedule
that we have had during May. The Ramble and
Novice Day at NHMS were covered last month.
The following weekend we hosted in incredible
84 autocrossers at Devens. A week later, 35 avid
tech types gathered at EPE for a discussion of
all things Porsche, particularly the mechanical
aspects, courtesy of Jerry Pellegrino. June kicked
off with some 60-some-odd members (many of
them first-timers) visiting the Collings Foundation
museum featuring vintage airplanes and
automobiles. As this is written, the annual German
Car Day will be held at the Larz Anderson
Museum of Transportation on Father’s Day, June
20th, and again Porsche will be very well represented.
July, although light on number of events, has
two Canadian DE events: at Calabogie, then a
few days later at Mont-Tremblant. In between, we
have squeezed in an autocross at Devens to keep
the competitive juices flowing. Truly a line up for
July, although light on number of events, has
two Canadian DE events: at Calabogie, then a
few days later at Mont-Tremblant.
anyone interested in Porsches and the people
that own them.
Here’s an interesting technical tidbit concerning
Boxsters, Caymans and 997s from ‘05 and newer:
you don’t have a spare tire anymore. Instead
you have a small compressor and some glue to
repair a flat tire. Contrary to popular belief you
don’t just ‘spritz’ the glue into the flat tire with
the compressor, but instead must deflate the tire
by removing the valve in the stem while on the
car (since there is no tool kit to remove the tire
any more) then pump in some glue reinstall the
valve and pump up the tire. This of course assumes
that you can patch the tire — if you have
a sidewall puncture or large hole in the tread you
are out of luck. One option is to carry a spare tire
from an earlier model car; they can be procured
thru various classified ads in Porsche-oriented
websites and at salvage yards. You will also need
to obtain a jack and tire removal tools; some
sellers may include the tools and jack with the
tire. The alternative is to have roadside assistance
and hope you don’t break down in the wilderness
hundreds of miles from a repair shop.
Back to the story on automobile model names
that I started last month. BMW, in typical German
fashion, followed the Mercedes system of naming
series of cars by relative size, thus we have the
3-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-series, with “6” and “8” representing
coupes. The engine sizes were also designated by
numbers in liters and were mostly accurate, but
not always. Letters many time followed the engine
size with “I” or “i” indicating (fuel) injection,
“x” as in “xi” or “ix” indicating all-wheel drive, “C”
for coupe or convertible, “S” for sport, and so on.
Of course, the “X” for SUVs and “Z” for two-seat
sports cars dispensed with the engine size designation
and, like the “M” series, were listed first
followed by the body style (e.g. X5). BMW also
uses an internal body style designation similar
to Porsches. In the early days of BMW, the 2002
and 1600 or 1602 referred to the engine size and
number of doors, and “ti” and “tii” included the “i”
designation for fuel injection.
The other major German import,
Audi, changed their designations a few
times until finally settling on a similar
body style designation in ‘95 with the
A6, followed by the A4, A8, A5, Q7,
Q5, and so on. Starting with these, the
engine size was placed after the body
name and “T” most often indicated
turbocharging (except that the new A6 with a
supercharger still has a T). When first introduced
to the U.S. market in 1970, there was the 100LS
and the Super 90 (showing it’s VW/Porsche roots),
Coupe, Fox, then numbers (4000, 5000) with various
engine and drive types added on, then the
80, 90 and 100 that came in the late 80’s (remember
the ‘90 90).
Next month I will continue with the British and
other European cars before attacking the Japanese
and American names in future columns.
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