Shameless Self Promotion

[Jeff Higgins]

So, my sons and I were recently featured in our local PCA chapter's magazine, Spiel. The cover features my friend Eric's ("soteric" here on Pelican and on the S Registry, proprietor of Auto Foreign Services) car and, inside, you will find an article about my sons and I and our involvement in R Gruppe. My good friend Randy Wells graciously offered to write an introduction to R Gruppe as a lead-in to the article, and took the cover shot of Eric's car as well.

It was kind of funny how this all came about. It started with a local monthly cars and coffee kind of gathering known as Exotics at Redmond Town Center. They meet every Saturday, featuring a broad variety of marques. Every now and then, however, they will declare a "German Car Day", or an "Italian Car Day", and so on, highlighting the country of interest. This particular day was the German Car Day, and on my way in to park, I was directed into the center courtyard, right next to their big fancy fountain - "center stage", so to speak. I usually park well out in the back of the lot with the rest of the plebeians...

At the end of the day, as I was approaching the car to get in and leave, a couple of guys stopped me and asked if it was my car. Turns out it was our local PCA chapter president and a writer for Spiel. They wanted to do an article on my car, and had been trying to catch up with its owner (me) for quite some time. Like more than a year, apparently. I didn't think I was that hard to find.

Anyway, they seemed to like the car, and were pretty excited to do an article about it. Until they saw the R Gruppe sticker in the window (we haven't always had the best relationship with Porsche and the PCA)...

"Are you really R Gruppe?"

"Well, um, yes I am..."

"Wow, we didn't think there were any of you guys around here." (Seattle area.)

"Yeah, um, we kinda keep a low profile..."

It looked like that might have been enough to make them reconsider. Then, after a little discussion amongst themselves, they thought it would still be alright to do an article in their PCA magazine, so they asked me if it would be o.k. to do that.

"No way in hell" was my response. They looked kind of taken aback, at least until I followed up with "unless you include my two sons. They are both members as well, the youngest since he was 14 years old". That certainly got their attention, and now they were even more excited, with the idea of doing a "father/sons" or "family" kind of a story.

And, well, as they say, "the rest is history". Here is a link to the issue containing the resultant article, and Randy's intro to R Gruppe:

https://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/1432571-november-2021/0?

[Soterik]

Jeez that's a stunning car on the cover!!!! (it's spelled "soterik" not "esoteric")

Cheers, and a great article!

E

[Jeff Higgins]

Oops... fixed it. And yes, that is a stunning car on the cover!

[Tim Hancock]

Awesome Jeff! Thanks for posting the link!

[LWJ]

What a gorgeous car!!!

Shameless or not. NICE!

[Bill Douglas]

Excellent.

[red 928]

[Joe Bob]

Ohhh, that hurts....%^)

[oldE]

Jeff,
Excellent job, bringing two more to the "dark side"

Nice looking cars too.

Best
Les

[blucille]

Very cool, Jeff. Congrats

[svandamme]

Now there's a Face to the well known name
Very cool article Jeff !

[shadowjack1]

Thanks that was a good read.

[ted]

Nice Jeff, very special that your family is part of your 911/club experience.
Great to see Randy offer his expertise with the photos and article.
All car clubs need more members like both of you.

[Superman]

That is extremely cool, Jeff! Very cool cars. Beautiful family. Great pics and write-up.

The PNWR has more than its fair share of talented drivers and Randy Wells is one of those. He's also an excellent photographer and writer, and just all-around good guy.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by red 928

There is more to that story than most realize...

My late, great buddy Marc Sanders, known here on Pelican and over on Rennlist as "Drago", was the man almost solely responsible for what turned into one of the all-time greatest car forum schitt shows in the history of the internet. He was relentless. He was merciless. He stirred the pot for months, and got a lot of mileage out of that whole thing. So what did R Gruppe do about it?

We invited him to our annual Treffen, which was in San Louis Obispo that following year. He rode shotgun with me, in my car, all the way from Seattle. I told him the whole way down that he was going to meet one of our founding members and Gruppemeister, Cris Huergas, and settle this thing once and for all. He had it coming...

On the first evening at Treffen many of us were sitting in the bar that was in an open courtyard kind of setting on the ground floor of the hotel. I was rooming with Drago, and our room was on the third floor. The elevators were glass walled and rimmed the center courtyard. Drago had not yet met Cris, and was about as nervous as a whore in church.

After a drink or several, I mentioned I had "forgotten" something in our room. Drago, being the kind of guy he was, volunteered to go up and get it. Perfect... So, as about half of R Gruppe was watching, Drago got in the elevator and went up to the third floor. When the door opened, Cris stepped out from around the corner and got into the elevator with him. You see, Cris and I had been planning this for some time...

We all watched as the elevator came back down, with Cris and Drago engaged in a somewhat "lively" conversation. When the door opened next to all of us, both stepping out, Cris announced "I would like you guys to meet our newest member of our 'merry band of misfits' - Marc "Drago" Sanders, 'Mr. Black Audi Wagon' himself!!!"

So that's how R Gruppe rolls. Drago was an honored member for several years before his untimely, all too early passing. We still miss him, and now Cris, dearly.

Oh, and it was a wagon, doofus - pay attention.