Slipstream - February 2003

Road Ramblings
by Keith Olcha, Maverick Region President
Iwas glad when I saw Ted Glover’s
published calendar of more one-day and
weekend driving tours throughout Texas
and the surrounding states for this year
versus last year. Tours are one of Maverick
Region’s most popular events-they always
sell out. It warms my heart because it means
we are using our Porsches as the good
Doctor intended- we are driving them. In
the midst of all the controversy of the Cayenne deviating
from the bloodline of Porsche History, or the lack of a
Porsche contender for the overall win at Le Mans the past
few years, few can argue that for the past 50 years, nothing
beats taking a Porsche out on the open road and driving it
safely but spirited. Little has changed there. The tours are
a fantastic opportunity to combine many recreational
activities- history, dining, scenery, driving, spending time
with friends, weekend-getaway, etc. After all, touring by car
is Americana at its finest. Ted’s tours have sure come a long
way from my first tours as a kid driving to Florida with no
A/C and my family for twenty-hours straight in a 1969
Buick LeSabre. If you have never done a tour with the
region, you must make it your top priority this year. You
won’t be disappointed.
...February is the start of our 9-month
high-performance driving season...
autocross schools to prepare you for getting the most out
of yourself and your Porsche. Read more about them in
the following pages of this month’s Slipstream. What a
great selection of driving activities and venues. I’ll be at
a couple of the schools shaking off the cobwebs. The
autocross, time-trial, and race track events offer a
wonderful way to get the most out of our cars without
worrying about tickets, accidents, bad judgment, etc.
A special thanks to Jan Mayo for serving as our PCA
National Zone 5 rep for 6 years. Now she gets to be in
charge of our 2004 Parade! Jan’s replacement is the
capable club racer Brooke Van Horne from Oklahoma.
One final thought with respect to my comment above
about the overall win at Le Mans. Frankly, sports car
racing ain’t what was prior to about 1991. I know Le Mans
and the Daytona 24 hours are still among the crownjewels
of motor racing, but since the fractioning between
Grand AM and ALMS and the demise of the old GTP
prototypes, the move has been away from sports cars
towards all the other series. I guess TV and sponsorship
has had a lot to do with it also. I think if there ever was a
time when it didn’t hurt not to be in the top ranks of
sports car professional racing; it’s been the last few years.
I certainly hope that changes and, when it does, that
Porsche is right up front competing for the championship.
The Cayenne issue has also gotten me thinking. There
are those who say Porsche shouldn’t stray from its core of
sports cars and they shouldn’t have built an SUV. However,
the Cayenne is a joint venture with VW that allowed
Porsche to spend far less money out of its own pocket than
other companies have in developing their respective SUVs.
Also, like it or not, many Americans and Porsche owners
already own SUVs or have said they would buy one if
Porsche made it. While I know there was a time when there
was a wide array of 928, 944, and 911 (and turbo) product
lines, I’m not sure there won’t be even more Porsche
model diversity and choice in a year or so. Over the next
year or two it looks like a person will be able to get a
Boxster, Boxster S, 996 Coupe, Cabriolet, Targa, C4S, GT3,
Twin-Turbo, GT2, Cayenne S, Cayenne Turbo, and even a
Carrera GT. All you need is the money. We truly are in a
golden era of ultra-high performance combined with
mild-manners and low maintenance, in all cars, not just
Porsches. Let’s see now, if I had won that recent Powerball
Lottery of $300 Million, what would I buy…
And while we’re on the subject of choices, February is
the start of our 9-month high-performance driving
season. We have a Drivers Education event at MotorSport
Ranch, Lone Star Region has one down at Texas World
Speedway in College Station, and we have several local
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