Zone 6 tour and the Aufderheide

Jaems · 06:34 PM

We meet the group making the PCA Zone 6 tour, in a little Cascade community. There ended up being about 49 cars, with JT912's (John Thompson) 66 912 being the oldest. Most of the cars were rather new with all of the latest technology.

I thought, since it was a tour, that it would a leisurely drive over the Aufderheide. Crazy me, with 10 year old tires that still looked and felt new and a ex-student visiting from Germany here for a few weeks. We took off on this 60 miles of very twisty roads. I was in the middle of a group of about 15 cars, none of which were older than 2004 except one 80 SC, and I in my almost 50 year old 66 912.

Someone most of dropped the green flag, because they all took off. Now, there is nothing but logging trucks, Winnebago's, and a couple of bicyclers on this road, no police. Luckily they, with the exception of the two bicyclers, were going the other way. This drive turned out to be very spirited. It was third gear most of the way. The longer straights you might make it to fourth and a couple of times to fifth, and then back into third. I didn't want to hinder those 8 following me. I was, most of the time, between 5000 and 6000 rpm staying on my side of the yellow line.

The only turn that was mark was a left handed horseshoe turn that said 15. After a short straight that I actually got into 5th. The car in front had pulled away being it probably had over 200HP more than my 912. When I saw the sign I was probably doing about 145+ KPH. I had to heel and toe, braking and down shifting back into third. The car that I was following entered the turn about 10 car lengths in front of me. The tires started squealing as I turned in the curve. I had to stay in my lane, because there could have been a logging truck coming the other way. As I move the wheel just enough back and forth to keep the car from drifting . So it was back and forth all the way through the turn. The tach was reading between 5500 and 6000 RPM which is probably around 90 KPH. I actually caught the car, I was following, as we exited the turn. This was the most exciting and tightest turn of the day. There was many others almost as tight. We were also airborne a couple of time.

All in all it was a fun day and so much for a leisurely drive. I just hoped that I didn't slow those following me too much.

matt930s · matt930s's Garage

Any pics? I'm sure people are amazed by the 912 nimbleness on the twisties.

MattR

Jaems · 08-09-2015, 08:23 AM

John Thompson may have some and a video. I was too busy and my rider screw up on the video part with me. however, he did take some still and said that they came out. I asked him to send me a couple. I will post them when he does.

JT912 · 08-09-2015, 01:22 PM

Great description Jaems. Seeing that I was running sweep I didn't push it and it was mostly a fourth gear drive for me (outside of the hair pin tirns and the climb) which was around 3300 rpm and 60+ mph. The tight corners for me were in the 35mph range. The new Boxsters and Cayman that were in my group easily dusted me. I bet I had the biggest smile of the group though. I did take my GoPro but apparently you need to install a memory card for them to actually take video. Grrrr!

matt930s · matt930s's Garage

Great shots..thanks!

MattR

Jaems · 08-09-2015, 06:44 PM

Thanks John.

There seem to be a curse on the Aufderheide run for taking video's. A couple a years ago I tried to take a video and there was nothing on the hard drive. I had even tested it before we left on the run. Christoph tried to take video's with his new Canon 5D3 or whatever it's called, there was nothing on his card either.

Christoph said that he did get some stills of the run. If he sends me some I'll post those too.