PCA: To join or not, convince me either way.
 

Hey all,

I was pitched pretty hard this morning by the local region rep at cars and coffee and am sort of neutral on the idea of joining. I'm sure everyone with good or bad experiences is sure to draw from those so I'm expecting to get a wide variety of responses here. I'm mainly interested in the driving events which makes me wonder if my money/time wouldn't be better spent on something like the SCCA or something else.

Would love to hear some experiences!

Thanks,

Erik

Its $50 / year

Big deal.....join, you might like it, if you don't, don't renew

+1

I don't do much with my club but have met some great people at the vents I did attend.

Every chapter is different, so every experience will be different. Attend a few meetings, seek out the other track rats and see if there is a fit.

Just the Panorama magazine is worth the $50.00/year

Not familiar with your area or how close you are to tracks but find out the PCA Driver's Education schedules for the tracks you are willing to travel to. My experience is that PCA has a great instructor pool, offers from 90 minutes to two hours of track time per day (instructed), and they run a fun event centered around safety. Rennlist has a much more focused forum on Driver's Education, you may want to ask some questions there also - Racing & Drivers Education Forum - Rennlist Discussion Forums

And yes, I joined PCA as a total newb back in 2005 and have been racing for 5 years, a PCA National Instructor going on 3..

Join. You get to DE!

As the others have noted, unless your region has some serious local dues on top of the national dues, it's pretty cheap. While I had reservations as to whether it was right for me, I joined anyway as I figured there was no other way to know for certain.

That said, there are things you can consider. Is your region local to you? Or will you need to drive for two or more hours just to get to the starting point for a day event? What types of events do you think you will be interested in? Does your local region do much of that? Is your local region active, or stagnant? What type of owners are active in your region, older air-cooled cars with owners who tinker and do their own work? Or late model cars that normal people can't service themselves?

As for some of the other comments above, not all regions do DEs at all regularly. (Mine doesn't, seems to be almost no interest in that.) And while the Panorama magazine is nice, it's not reason to join in my opinion.

While I had reservations about how well the local region would suit me, I did join to find out first hand. Turns out that I was correct to be concerned, my region doesn't suit me at all. I probably won't be renewing my membership when it next comes due. The PCA doesn't suit everyone.

I joined 8 years ago, I was so excited to be part of the group until I went to a new members meeting. Within the first month of me joining there was a meeting, so I gave the boss the night off and while she was out with one of the neighbors, I and my two little heads go off to the Porsche dealer where this event was taking place. I couldn't wait to get there. I should have stayed home, what a bunch of pompas asses. I was wishing that I had not joined until I went to a DE with my current club. What a bunch of great folks, never made me feel unwelcome or as an outsider. 8 years later I'm still a proud RTR member and will be as long as I can keep renewing my membership.

Being a new owner I haven't yet joined the PCA. I was wondering if it offers anything other than the magazine, events and the web site. For example, the MBCA offers its member a 15% discount on parts, which if you are buying parts for an older car can add up fast. They also offer discounts on new cars (up to $1500). Just curious.

I've got one year of PCA membership here in the Central PA region. I ate and drank more at the various events than what I actually spent in my membership. :D Add to that the local companionship, meeting some folks that have an amazing stable of P cars, and some which have had fantastic history in motorsports. I even met a gentleman in his 90's that was an F1 mechanic in the late 50's and 60's and a Luftwaffe pilot that flew a Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket powered fighter.

I've belonged to 3 different local regions and loved every one. The National group just plain sucks. All they care about at the National level is the latest gee whiz expensive Porsche.

Panorama will be redone shortly. It's become a pr organ for PCA. Once the Turners retire PCA can turn it into a real magazine. At least we can hope.

The real value is in the local region.

Richard Newton
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I'm in PCA, it's OK, but SCCA has different makes of cars. It's a totally different experience for us true car guys. Try both then decide. Or you may keep both and do some events of each.

If you do DE it's worth it, otherwise don't waste the $50!

All you need to do is meet one or two peeps that share your enthusiasm that you can BS and fiddle around with cars with and it's worth it.

Generally, you will meet folks with newer cars that couldn't give a rat's ass about the workings of their cars. That part is a bummer. I would rather BS with a dude at Home Depot in the plumbing isle that the new Porsche set.

As to the higher level PCA zone reps and such, they are self absorbed narcissistic ass hats who don't have time to shoot the breeze with the low life. Not all, surely, but from my experience, definitely yes. Makes me want to puke - a lot. Pompous effers.

Get to some DE's and talk with folks in your circle and they got a lot of time for you.

PCA members are much more willing to talk about, share stories, of Porsche design FLAWS (rubber clutch) vs other venues.

Well said! When I was DE'ing I had a handful of friends that would do most anything to help, the rest were idiots and the non air cooled ones just want you off the track.

PCA Potomac's been really good--I was concerned it'd be all new car owners, but we really do have a good mix of cars / people. I don't race or do the DE events, but have been a regular at rallies and drive n dine events because I can get my son (now 16 involved) in navigating and my wife sometimes enjoys these also. The local Porsche dealers also are good sponsors for local PCA events and that's been a real plus, because they're actually things we'd have done whether or not with the Club.

I recommend trying it out.

Dave

I've been a PCA member my entire Porsche ownership (914 and 911) and its worth the money, they host a lot of nice track days and DE's in the AZ region, plus some auto-x's for the days its nice to just go and beat on the car

Plus my local PCA was cool with me turning up with my NG900 when the 914 decided it didn't likes it ignition system anymore and I had already paid for the auto-x day, which was nice of them! and yes on touring tires the 900 was competing with boxsers ;) if I could have control the wheel spin and or had the r compounds on would have run a lot better times

Anyways I enjoy my membership, but I'm also an SCCA member the PCA gives me more opps to run my car on the track compared to the SCCA (as the VERY active SD is so close to me as well) the SCCA is fun to go to as well, lots of awesome cars to see. If you want to really race your car than why would you not join both? haha

We have had 911's since the early 80's and have always passed on PCA membership. Defining moment was while exhibiting our spyder (which by the way, is built with a substantial amount of 911 DNA), a couple of PCA fellows decked out in full dick-head regalia, monogrammed shirts, PCA hats, pins, probably even had Porsche underoos on, began in very loud terms to refer to our car as a "nothing car...a throwaway car..." etc.

Join PCA? Kiss my ass. We do alot of different car events with people who LIKE to talk to us...

Forward up a couple of years, same car on exhibit and two very nice PCA members approached us. We probably spent 45 minutes visiting with them. Both were members and local club officers. We joined after that.

We've now been members for a couple of years. Though I'm disappointed with the no DE events in our chapter, most of the people are the write-a-check kind, not hands on a upgraders/repairs (though a few are), I have to say that I've met some pretty terrific people.

All in all - worth the join. Plus, Pano is always a pleasure to get in the mailbox.

angela