The Taj Cicada Killer Tour

[cegerer]

Thanks to John Dixon for organizing a fantastic event. The 'tour' was around 90 miles of southern Ohio's best twisties was limited to 75 cars - 90% Porsches. I've never flogged my car so hard, for so long!! Unfortunately, I was too busy driving to snap many photos of the tour itself.

The paddock:



One of the few times we were going slow enough to actually grab the camera and snap a photo!



A slight delay due to a broken throttle linkage. Quickly repaired with some barb wire salvaged off a nearby fence (we think the building in the background may have been a WWII nuclear weapons facility ........ either that or a dairy farm. ) BTW: that's JCR's silver 73 S, Cornpanzer's black 70 S under repair, my 71 Targa and a sweet M5 that was running with us on the last leg of the tour).



All cleaned up after a long, hard run.



A surprizingly nice early car turnout at the show!

[cegerer]

A crowd favorite - the Schimmwagen ..... the perfect vehicle for that daily commute on the crowded Interstate:





And only at the Taj show will you see an official category for 'Porsche Wannabe's'. It consisted of 2 cars: the 360 Modena and the Laser 917 ...... of course, we stuffed the ballot box with votes for the "917".

[cegerer]

Here's the winner of the concours in the early car category. A 1971 T with 37,000 miles, original paint, original Michelin XWXs, etc. A near perfect example. This car was the 1971 representative at Rennsport II in the 40 Years of 911s display.

[Adam]

Great pictures, Curt! Looks like a great day out.

[Eric M@ Ashers]

What great event it was this year!! SO GLAD you guys made it down.. Please come again next year... did you guys have FUN on the drive or WHAT! haha it was and is always a great part of the weekend!.
i thinjk Dave C is hooked!! on driving the S fast and hard! now.... I am going to try to gethim out to PUTNAM park DE this August.. I think he knows what owning a POrsche is ALL ABOUT NOW!

Glad ya have a blast Curt!
see ya next year?

Eric

[Eric M@ Ashers]

Yeah that orange car was KILLER!!! I loved it!!!

[cegerer]

Eric, how I failed to blow my motor up is beyond me. I ran that pig as hard as it would run - between 5000 and 7300 RPMs almost the entire 90 miles. What a blast. Plan on a larger Michigan contingent for next year!

[Eric M@ Ashers]

You betcha..
I know our run group had the same fun... we all ran the **** out of of them and they simply love it.. so many people said.. I have never driven my car like that before and they F'ing loved it!!! that 's great to hear and see Porsche ghuys/gals loving thier cars like never before..
I love it.
so Next year set some time aside and shoot on down brother.. I am glad you guys came down and had a great time.. this WILL be a HUGE event .. I KNOW IT WILL it will rival the west coast guys in a few years once people come and see it fisrt hand.. dob't you agree?
I think it will.
I'll see you guys next year!! I am glad to hear the hard run cleared up the missfire as well
Eric

[cegerer]

My one suggestion for next year would be to limit the Tour to Porsches only. Then, if there are any slots left over, open those to anyone. As an example, there were a couple of guys in a non-modified Toyota something-or-other straggling along at the end of our group. I talked to them at the break and they said they were basically there just to check out the other cars. They didn't know there was a limit on the number of cars and would have gladly given up there slot to a Porsche.

[Oh Haha]

Sorry i missed the run fellas. As Curt said, plan on a bigger MI contingent next year.
Wayne

[k9handler]

very cool stuff, thanks for posting it.

[JCR]

Great pics Curt. The weekend was a blast! Many thanks to Dave (Cornpanzer) and Melissa for their hospitality! Also to Mr. Dixon for putting such a well organized event together - all for charity! It was fun to hang with the Cornpanzer VW guys and watch the drag races on Sunday. Those suckers MOVE!

The driving tour was an absolute blast - lots of flat out running, but safe and respectful driving too. We did the early cars proud by raising a few eyebrows over our ability to run with the larger displacement pigs . There was a guy in a red 356B Roadster in our group that deserves a medal for running with the pack.

I'm expecting to see a full dissertation on the barbed wire roadside cable repair Dave. I'm just hoping it isn't radioactive from being next to that ominous WMD plant in the background.

Did anyone count who spattered the most cicadas??? I have a new respect for the "Kills Bugs Fast" ad! Count me in for next year!

[KobaltBlau]

very resourceful on the fence repair! did someone have wire cutters?

[GrindingGears]

that '71 T....wow...unrestored...wow. i'd be afraid to drive it on public roads. thanks for the pictures!

[Doug Zielke]

Lets have a moment of silence for the cicadas and their families.

[cegerer]

That orange 71T was trailered in .... maybe a good thing given the original 33 year old tires!

Yeah, JCR and I had to preach a little bit of 'Early Car Religion' on the tour ...... the guy behind us had a 964 that sounded VERY nice and he claimed it had 300HP ...... well, he had a bit of trouble keeping up with our old rickety early cars. I could out accelerate him off every corner by several car lengths At the first stop he said "those old cars go pretty good (understatement of the weekend) .... when I saw I was "stuck" behind a couple of old 911's I thought it was going to ruin my drive." heheheheeee ..... why is it that so many owners of newer 911's have the misconception that the small displacement early cars are slow?

[cegerer]

did someone have wire cutters?

I'm quickly becoming Cornpanzer's tool/parts support vehicle on these tours .....

[TKO]

Thanks for the pics Curt. Glad I was able to meet you and see you and Jared off at the start of your trip. Fun to see your car in person. Sounds like a great weekend.

I'll bring an extra set of wire cutters next year,

Cheers,

[cegerer]

You missed a great weekend Tom, but next year will be better yet. I hear our little parking lot repair job may have cured your running problem

[JCR]

Originally posted by cegerer
... why is it that so many owners of newer 911's have the misconception that the small displacement early cars are slow?

Curt, guess I'm somewhat guilty of that too. I saw the 356 ahead of us (it's in front of the yellow Boxster in the touring pic above) and I thought we'd be passing him early on. I STILL don't know how he ran so fast - did anyone see what was in the engine bay? A flat 6 maybe? I was going to take a closer look but we got separated from the pack with the road repair.