What's your impression of PCA?

[dillinger]

I've gone to a few meetings to try and get involved. Our group seems to be well organized. Track time is getting more expensive. It looks like groups are going to have to pool together to afford these weekend events now.... VIR (Virginia Int'l Raceway) just jacked their rates big time for next year.

[al lkosmal]

Mostly boring

[AntiCHP]

When I lived in southern Cal 12 years ago, POC was where it was at if you had any interest in racing/time trialing/et. al.
POC was a group of drivers.

PCA was, in comparison, more of a preservationist/wash-n-shine kind of crowd. Nice p-car people, just not as focused on motorsport as I would have preferred.

Tnom is right about there being so many groups in here in N. Cal that there is seldom a shortage of driving opportunity.

That being said, the Golden Gate Region is a good group of hard-chargin' Porsche enthusiasts!

Personally, I like running with PCA because its a group of seasoned owners who appreciate wringing the last ounce of performance out of their car while sharpening the saw as drivers... yet the club also enjoies a very solid record of safety.

At the same time its fun to mix it up with multimarque clubs for a change of scenery and/or a "highten sense of awareness". The trade off, of course, is the yahoo-ratio is a lot higher, so there is a greater chance -especially with open passing- that you may get collected by some yahoo.

I do remember when i first moved up here, I asked some lady at a (different region's) PCA tent if they had any timetrials, club races, or autocrosses going on and she replied,

"Uh, no. We only do the fun stuff..." - WTF????

Then I found GGR and my life suddenly had meaning...

[911Rich]

NNJR (Zone1) is great and has lots of friendly people especially if you like to autocross, rally or track events.

[Quicksilver]

Originally posted by nostatic
I let my PCA membership lapse. PCA-LA does zip of interest to me. POC now gets my dues.

It has seemed to me that there is something weird going on up in LA's PCA. Here they are, sitting in the highest density of Porsche ownership in the world and they seem to be just sitting there.

Wayne

[ChrisBennet]

Here in New England we have great PCA. Perhaps the relative lack of "track only" alternative clubs makes for a greater diversity in our PCA membership. My own region (NCR) is like a big family. I imagine that in California that a lot of people who are only interested in track events join POC instead of PCA. As a result you'd expect the membership of the effected PCA regions to have a higher concentration of non-trackies i.e. those more interested in social and concours activities.
-Chris

[JonT]

After reading this thread I really feel bad for the folks in areas where their local PCA is not full of friendly, hard driving, helpful, fun to drink beers with people. The Great Plains region I'm involved with is a fantastic group of people and can be attributed to key people in the group--president, social chairman, newsletter, safety and on. Definitely comes from the top down.

[justesen]

Maybe a little off subject BUT, I'm looking for a guy named John Giles. He was a friend of mine when I lived in LA back in the late 70's. He lived in Anehiem Hill at the time. He was a Porsche nut at the time and had a 77 or 78 Turbo.

I'd like to find him so if anybody knows John, please send me a pm and I'll verify that I'm not some whack job looking to locate a hit!

Thanks,

Jay

1977 911S

[Joe Bob]

In my area...So Central CA....they suck...mostly Whine and Cheese weenies....wished the San Diego Chapter enthusiasm for AX and DE was up here....

[anthony]

Mike, what about doing the AX events at Marina next year?

The PCA is what you make of it. We are truly fortunate in the SF Bay Area where we have the Golden Gate Region, Sacramento region, Redwood Region, and the Loma Prieta region all organizing good events within an hour or two drive of most parts of the Bay Area.

[911Rich]

Ofcourse there are more lax clubs than PCA for speed events. Nasa & Emra are among the most lax and the cheapest events youre going to find.
(On another note ...it's amazig how many people hate Porche drivers too! A couple of years back NNJR ran a quarter mile event at Eglishtown which coincided with a Corvette club event. Let's just say some of the Corvette guys and even some of the track workers weren't very fond of our presence there. Even when most Vette's were running between 10-11 sec. quarter mile times and the fastest Porsche was barely braking 13's !! )
I guess it all depends on where you are for PCA involvments, My idea of a car club does dot include chinese auctions and picnincs in the park... yet some people join just for that.

[akguitar]

I have just joined the PCA, and most likely will be assigned to the Los Angeles chapter, based on my geographic location. The main reason I joined the PCA is to participate in DE and track experiences. I sense that there is a wide spectrum of PCA experiences, depending on different chapters. It doesn't sound like the LA chapter is what I had in mind( I don't care too much cheese and wine, or picnics in the park activities, which you can do out side PCA on your own time).
Is it possible to join other chapter (i.e., San Diego chapter) even though I'll most likely be ASSIGNED to the LA chapter?
I am looking forward to my first PCA experience.

[911Rich]

AK,
You can participate in any region's events. Find out wich is suited to your expectations and go to their events, and yes you can belong to multiple regions. You will find there's a waiting list for Track events with some regions and you need to register months in advance.

[rhk109]

I think it varies quite a bit depending on region. My region does monthly autocrosses and has a lot of low key social and technical events. The monthly meeting takes place at a German Society Club and includes free beer and brats. Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised.

[bill3667]

I am the membership chair for the DE PCA (Delaware). We are a small region (apx 160 members). A couple of items on this topic.

1) You can be affiliated with any region you wish. Yes, National will assign you based on where you reside but you can send National an email or fax and they will change your affiliation to any region you wish. Your local will get apx. $12 of your $42 membership dues and you'll be on their roster. I reside in PA but the DE club is closer so that's where I hang my hat.

2) National tried to upgrade the membership database S/W app. earlier this year, as I'm shure many on this board have experienced in their own professional lives the "upgrade" has been far less than seamless and has caused many problems and to the best of my knowledge is still not resolved. It has been a major headache for everyone associated. They're trying to get it resolved.

3) Your local club is going to be a reflection of the ACTIVE members. Just saying you want to do something diff. isn't going to make it come to pass, you have to, at the very least, assist in making it happen. Our small region has a very diverse activity list because of members who are willing to step up to the plate and take charge.

I have to go but one other item to share, there is only ONE compensated member on the PCA National staff and that's the Pano editor, all others are non-comp. volunteers. We/they are always looking for anyone willing to assist!

HTH,
Bill W.

[84porsche]

Alright, here is my official impression after the breakfast club we had today. The Orange Coast region seems like a legitimate organization and this looks like it is going to be fun. I met some really good guys today and saw some very nice cars. I was also really impressed with the turnout and the involvement. Many of these guys drove over to the children's hospital and donated toys in a large group. The whole hospital entrance way was full of Porsches and donated toys for the kids. But as many said, you can only get out what you put into it so I intend to get involved more if I can.



By the way, thanks for all the advice and opinions.

[450knotOffice]

Chris, I was glad to see you there. That was a really nice turnout of cars! We'll have to make a habit of attending those breakfasts. I know you took more than one pic though. Let's see 'em! Post some more! (BTW, hmmm...Who's black car is that behind that red Targa of yours?)

Sam, it was really good to see you again. You are a fountain of knowlege and it's always interesting to hear of the things you've done with that super-quick SC of yours (I wish mine had that kind of pull).

Take care.

-Scott

[umgang]

Though you may be assigned to a particular region by address, you can still check out neighboring regions. I am assigned one region but choose to do track events and socialize with a different one that is much friendlier with more comraderie-and in turn they profit by the money I spend with them. Look around and find a group of like-minded members.