Trip Report - R Gruppe Treffen 2007

[mjshira]

Because I missed last years event, I was hell bent on making it this year. I have to tell you guys that it killed me to not be able to make the run out with Curt and the rest of the MidWest R Gruppe guys. Having recently read the magazine article on the journey, I was really excited to head out to Cali last week.

As some of you may already know, Tyson Schmidt and I did a trade of our cars nearly three years ago. We planned to finish each car in a manner to suit our planned use of the car and then get them both back to Treffen.

We didn't make that happen this year but we did plan to take a couple cars from his place in the bay area down south to meet up with the rest of R Gruppe. We wanted to run as many back roads on the way that we could.

That is where Hayden of Wevo (owner and founder) comes in. Hayden had a car which he needed to bring down so he, his wife, Tyson and I headed out around 2 PM on Thursday.



Here is a shot of the cars as we got them loaded up and ready to hit the road.



the (if not already) soon to be Pelican famous, "Tangerina Jolie" on the road. More shots of her later...

Once we got down there (no tickets!) the conversations and endless 'car talk' got started to be later contributed to by beverages at the bar



"Scruffy 2" as we've taken to calling my old car, has really turned into a very potent track machine. I had the pleasure of driving her down on R compound tires.



It was great to see old friends too! This 72 911 is nice!



The next day a group of us gathered for a drive. The roads were exceptional this past weekend.



A common myth is that guys in our club don't work on their cars, I am here to tell you, this is not the case.



This GT3 sounded A-M-A-Z-I-N-G on the road. So did the stealth turbo early car shown here parked behind the GT3. If you look close you can see the unique exhaust tips the owner designed, very cool!

[mjshira]

Here are a set of pictures of various cars. The quality of the cars and the unqiue elements to them were over-the-top in my view. I especially enjoy seeing people put an individual touch to their car.

[mjshira]

More to come tomorrow, lots of pics to share not to mention pics from the combined meet with the 356 guys... stay tuned

[Zeke]

Originally posted by mjshira
stay tuned

Thanks, man. I'm right here glued.

BTW, that white fendered, black hooded car has become an icon. Hasn't changed since I first went out with the Gruppe. That was more than 2 years ago.

[SCHNELE]

I hope I could make a trip like this one day it seems like there is always something getting in the way. Great Pics!

[Zeke]

Originally posted by SCHNELE
I hope I could make a trip like this one day it seems like there is always something getting in the way. Great Pics!

We say that here in CA about Woodward.

Very nice James. Keep the story going

[mjshira]

[mjshira]

[DaveE]

Great pics, James. I love the look and philosophy of the R-Gruppe cars!

[herman maire]

James,

great pics.... it looks like soooo much fun. Just wondering, how many days do you guys drive around for? Do you stay at hotels then head out in the morning kinda thing?

[mjshira]

Thanks Joe, Milt & Dave.

What I did after a few beers at the bar was to head out to the parking lot to capture the cars while everyone else was back inside. The above pics are some of those that I found that evening.

The thing about attending an event like this is that you always come away having more passion for the hobby. We all know what a pain in the butt it can be to work on a car over a period of months and years and yet still have 'a ton more' to do.

This years event provided a chance to see many different and unique approaches to modification of a 911 (or 914, etc).

I will post some more later and continue the tale then.

[mjshira]

Originally posted by Noah
Great pics, James! Please post more.

will do bro, just gotta wait until later in the day when I am home from work. when the board gets busy it takes longer to post them but I've got about 50 more I'd like to share. stay tuned!

[mjshira]

Originally posted by herman maire
James,

great pics.... it looks like soooo much fun. Just wondering, how many days do you guys drive around for? Do you stay at hotels then head out in the morning kinda thing?

We got down there on Thursday and took the back roads most of the way. Hayden knew a great road that was about 80 miles of wide open winding roads with few stop signs or other traffic - only in Cali!

On Thursday evening it was more about people getting there and hanging out together, catching up, etc. Friday and Saturday there were driving events but this is never 'racing' or anything stupid. I didn't see anyone taking risks. Rather the drives were more of a cruse event.

With respect to where do we stay, there is a hotel that most everyone uses for the weekend. Normally it sells out pretty quick so some folks have to stay at alternative hotels, but that is rare.

All in all it is basically a big 'car-gasim' for the whole weekend. I found it to be very low key and I only saw one guy with his quick detail kit out. But then I was not in the parking lot at 4 AM either...

[bpoteat]

God, those are some beautiful cars. Sounds like a very fun time.

[}{arlequin]

if there was ever a group of cars that should be seen doing some wheel-to-wheel...

[mjshira]

Originally posted by }{arlequin
if there was ever a group of cars that should be seen doing some wheel-to-wheel...

some do, like Tyson's car which you can see above with the door number, others are really more show cars or drivers than racing cars. In some cases you'd have to really cause damage to a collector car to get it race worth. I can appreciate why some wouldn't want to do that.

[Drago]

Originally posted by mjshira

Nice pic's James. Sorry to have not met you. I was the tall blond guy riding shotgun in the above car which belongs to R-Grupper Jeff Higgins.

[mjshira]

me too man, so many cool people and cool rides, hard to sqeeze it all in! maybe next year?

[Drago]

Next year I'm bringing the Smurf: