Video on Highway One (PCH)

My friend Vasco, from Portugal, was travelling with Dave Conklin, and he shot some video with his camera, which he just sent me. It is of me driving along PCH after having left San Luis Obispo last October and on our way back to LA. This was my last day here and it was en route to parking the car in storage in LA, and taking my flight back to NY.

TOTD - the movie !!

Finally, here is "dealsgapRing - the movie" or how i learned to flog the dog (a massachusetts terms for driving the crap out of the car, as I learned from Paul). At some point in the movie, there will be some wind noise, as well as some speedometer cable noise. The cable noise goes away after a few minutes. I tried to hold on and be as steady as possible. I also had to cut a lot, so apologies to anyone if your best moments were left on the cutting room floor. Hopefully the HD aspect and resolution remain. It was 2.5Gig but vimeo had a one gig limit, so more compression occurred in the preparation.
Enjoy ...

TOTD - pics

Vic Rola's rally car ... just gorgeous
Hal put some new shoes on the 993 and wow do they pop. Great job Hal.
A polo red 67S that was one of the nicest cars I have ever seen. Color is too bright here in the sunlight. Bill Bausser's car, and a real tribute to his ownership. The car is flat out fast ... nimble and quick, and a lot of it is down to the skill of the driver.
The wailing wench indeed, complete with rally strips, matching the minilites. Great job Paul. Like the carrera script ;-)
This was prepping to leave NY, where they picked me up. Last minute packing by Fred in the black cab, and by Mark in his GT carrera

Actual Next Trip - TOTD

The actual next trip is not to Cali, but first to Tennessee, and North Carolina, to ride the Tail Of The Dragon (TOTD with 381 curves in 11 miles). As our car is in Cali, I ride with my buddy from MA, Paul Ripley and co-drive his twinplugged 2.8 litre wailing wench (as he calls it affectionately).

Can't wait to get some wheel time on this puppy !!!

the next trip

Proposal is to bring the minx back from Cali to NY in May

I fly to LA, stay at airport and pick car up in Pasadena, Fri May 1st.
May 1st to 3rd is Treffen 09, 10th anniversary of Rgruppe gathering, in Cambria, CA.
Sun, May 3rd, I'll pick up Nikki at airport in SFO. Then head to Sea Ranch, CA (www.searanchlodge.com). Stay until 6th. Drive on 6th from there to Battle Mountain, NV.
May 7th head to Yellowstone Drive MT. Drive thru Yellowstone Park, depending upon weather.
May 8th head to Badlands, SD. Mt.Rushmore etc. Stay at Custer, SD.
My 9th head to Beloit, WI, for no reason other than to break journey.
May 10th stay at Mill Run, PA and visit Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright's american masterpiece.
Then home.


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Carrera 2 China

There are 2 crazy belgians, who are trekking from Belgium 2 China in a bahama yellow old porsche 911.
They were in Iran, and now are in India, near Amritsar. Here are some shots from Iran ...
(the pale dude on the right is the Belgian ;-)

Tintin with some local porsche fans
Some hot-rodders eager to give it a go
A shot taken on the road from Darab to Bandar Abbas
Mechanics and various car fans at Minab. They worked on the rear wheel bearing

Getting more pics ready for another calendar

Not sure if i loaded these before. I am doing another calendar.
At Lime Rock Park with my buddy, Paul Ripley. We had separate parking at the porsche corral, thanks to Steven Harris who interceded with Prescott Kelly to get us a good spot.

2009 Calendar of the Early 911S Registry

The 2009 calendar for the Early 911S Registry is being prepared and should be ready on Nov 17th. This is the site where most of the 1965-73 owners hang out as it has the most knowledge on things related to these cars, and has members worldwide.
Well its not the 356 registry (large, well organized/funded and long established) but it has passionate members with a few behind the scenes guys that do all the heavy lifting for the rest of us, such as Chuck Miller and John Dilger to name a few.
In order to raise money, a calendar was proposed. Never got off the ground for '07 or '08 but gained real traction for '09.
Members were asked to submit photo's and we all sent off pics of our own cars, plus some other shots we considered decent or worthy of a calendar effort.
Well, one of mine was chosen. Below you see the teaser shot that Chuck Miller posted today.


Below is the original pic that I took at Daytona Speedway, in the infield, during Rennsport iii (Nov 2007). You can see the banking in the background. The cars pictured belong to fellow members ... Randy Stenson's Conda Green 70S, my Beige Grey 73E targa behind it, Brian Fryar's 71S targa in Signal Orange (I think).
There is a white 911T that belongs to Steven Harris (I believe) that is lurking there near the front (behind the green car). Scott Hansens 69E in Silver is visible as well as Alan Brody's 69S Targa, and Vic Rivera's red 911R homage with Cibie hood lights. I n black at the back is Bill Gottschalk's black SC targa.

more Vasco shots

Vasco has a good eye for people. Here is my brother Aidan on the left, and Jared (auto designer from Detroit and Rgruppe member who unforgettably added the trucker mudflap logo to Curt's car --- highlight one, of several, on the trip)
El Tovar Lodge porch on South Rim of Grand Canyon, after a long day in the saddle, and it's time to have a beer with your friends ... from left
Alan, Randy (sitting), Brian, Ed, Bob, Curt (sitting) Aaron, Dave & Bill (sitting)
Jared (center) explaining to Brian (on left) the mysteries of the universe, and how to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together, if your porsche cigarette lighter fails to work.
Scott (right) cannot believe his eyes.
Bill, wearing his George Kennedy Cool Hand Luke mirror shades, breaking the sad news to me that Spurs lost again. At least they did not lose to Arsenal.
If Sigmund Freud, ever developed a mid-life crisis, bought a porsche and drove it across america wearing aviator shades and pink t-shirts, he might look like this :-) But what would he make of the yellow french lenses ???

pics from Vasco

Vasco Ricardo, rgruppe member from Portugal, and one of the knights of the"longhood" table that traversed this great country, sent us some examples of his fine photography. My car is the one in the reflection belowDave Conklin, wunder-mechanic/photojournalist/wit/sarcasm dripper, in this wonderful shot where he is repairing Randy Stenson's fuel line, somewhere in Oklahoma or Texas. Randy smelled fuel and pulled over, and he was right ... leaky fuel line. So Dave happened to have fuel hose with him. Another practical tip for those of you jokesters out there thinking of emulating this bunch ;-)
Last laugh on me of course. Here is Dave pictured facing camera, with Ed May knelling to the right. Ed is owner mechanic of famous Mayo Performance in Texas, and the man i owe a debt of gratitude for swapping my fuel pump on the road, and getting me road worthy. Ed, you are the greatest.
Aaron winans, co-owner of Zuffenhaus (big time Porsche shop in Charlotte), who helped Ed get my car on the road. Aaron, you are also da man, with Ed. Thank you. Picture with him in glassed is Marco Gerace. Marco is a great guy, top Porsche mechanic at the place his dad and he own/run called TLG autos in LA. Sponsored our track lunch they did. Boy can those guys drive!

Curt Egerer, chaptermeister of Mid West Rgruppe chapter, point man, radar rabbit, soul of the reckless posse .... Curt once sawed his ipod in half just to see what it was made of inside (not-so-crazy mo-fo did this once he had procured a newer replacement of course).
With gravelly mid west accent, you take away the sports purpose porsche 911 2.5 litre targa, and the snazzy sunglasses, and he is a throwback sort of Wyatt Earp character !!

more pics from other sources

I am getting more pics from other sources ... ie. buddies with camera's who are better photographers than me ;-)
All pics below are courtesy of Rick Uhlmann, a great photographer, and rgruppe member from Orlando.

below is me prepping my tire pressure
on the track @ Willow Springs
Below is the bbq at TRE Motorsport in LA on the Thursday evening, same day as track

My goofy "I-love-these-tacos" look as I munch down with my buddy Vasco (on the right)
Track advice from my instructor, Dave, owner of TRE Motorsport, and host of taco bbq extr-ordinaire!

Amazon trip continued

Cris with Ed Barnett's turbo boosted margarita blender, tequila courtesy of another member, RodolfoCris, the margarita master
i believe that this was Rodolfo's car and his dog, ... cute dog - who's got the right idea ... take a break ;-) ... the car is a 1974 Carrera, and it might even be a Euro Carrera which would mean it has the same engine as the famous 73 Carrera RS ... the hi compression 2.7 litre MFI
Heather Hunziker, Bob Tilton, Bill Gottschalk, Nikolas Hunziker ( his paintings: http://nicolashunziker.com) and myself, discussing ... cars perhaps? Nikolas is an artist that makes very cool paintings and posters of racing and porsche
Aidan, preening for a good photo, except that Johnny "Riz" Risvold saw this and jumped into the frame;-)

Amazon trip

I call this the Amazon trip, only because the distance travelled in total, equalled the length of the Amazon river. Amazing fact, believe it or not ....
Brian on right, holding court
Alan Brody, being very philosophic (he is thinking about how much time to breathe should he give the 1986 Cos d'Estournel) with Ed Mayo (i think) and Bill Barnich (Jr Sr iiird 4th ??)
Vasco and Aidan
Vasco and myself, yakking it up
Randy, Brian and Bill

the end ... 3980 miles to parking car at storage

Just got in on red-eye to NY from LA. 3980 miles in total and parked car yesterday. Bunch of us had dinner in old town Pasadena and Curt Autenrieth dropped myself and Bill Gottshalk to the airport. Rest of the Mid West / Portugeese contingent head back today.
I will look for more pics this week, plus maybe add some shot by other members of the group.
edit --- here are more pics. The main idea is to have fun, and show some people shots as opposed to just cars. So let the fun begin.

Cris Huergas (co-founder of car group), Curt Egerer (head of Mid West chapter), Bill Gottschalk (Treasurer), Vasco Ricardo (new member from Portugal)
Cris, shooting the breeze with the guys .... Randy Stenson with his back to us in Martini jacket, Aaron Winans in brown short on right, Stacy Schulman in orange cap in background
Vasco being made official member of group by Cris
what a kidder he is. Great guy.
me, Vasco, Aaron, Scott Hansen, Brian Fryar, Dave Conklin, Randy Stenson

Day 8

Bryan's car with Cris Huergas, Ron Wolfe, Vasco Ricardo, Dave Conklin, Aaron Winan's striped t-shirt ;-)
Ron Wolfe, AN Other, Stacy Schulman, John Thornton, Vasco Ricardo, Dave Conklin, Bill Gottschalk ... Bryan's car came with a spare steering wheel, an RSR wheel !!!!!!
Aidan, with all the cars
Scott Hansen, the pelican wave, and Aidan
Aidan, chilling.