Panorama Magazine…What Gives?
 

Having recently joined the Green Mountain (Vermont) chapter of the PCA, I do appreciate having a subscription to Panorama magazine thrown in.

Pretty slick mag…but why, oh why, is there next to no 944 content?

I mean...c'mon, editors...throw us 944 fanboys an occasional bone!

All of my Panos have 356 content with some 912 and 911 stuff in the last half

But then I only have Jan 1960 - Dec 1969 .....

There are three different kinds of Porsche guys. Concours. Guys that get new ones as jewelry. And drivers. Most of us fall into that latter category. PCA leadership is overwhelmingly the folks in the first category.

Interesting about the PCA - and while our group, the GMTPCA (Green mountain, Vermont chapter) consists of a truly wonderful group of folks, and while, to the GMTPCA’s credit, the club website does admit that “we are mainly a social club,” I’d joined up with some expectation (or at least hope) that maybe a few of this club’s members might share at least some of my own passion and enthusiasm in the arena of DIY repair/rebuild and maintenance. Turns out that I am pretty much a complete anomaly in this regard, except for the club member who also happens to own a very successful Porsche-only repair shop up in Williston (Vermont).

On balance, when I’d attended a recent club driving event, my 944 at least garnered a good amount of interest…which came as an unexpected surprise. My thought here is that (the singularity of my 944 on this drive notwithstanding) when folks do get to see a well-kept 944 in the flesh, they can finally see what a truly nice car this is, and that it actually fits rather well within the broader pantheon of the Porsche marque.

At any rate…I don’t want to step on any toes here - PCA wise, but to those who’ve responded, thanks for the reaffirmation of what has become my own perspective - that by and large, the PCA caters heavily to the “concourse/Treffen crowd,” augmented by a fair amount of racing-related content.

And while it would be great to have a (real, paper) magazine “for the rest of us,” one which might include a goodly amount of DIY (rebuild/repair/maintenance) content (any deep pockets out there care to take a stab at this?) - it seems the reality here is that there do exist other resources for this, in the form of internet videos, repair manuals, and forums such as this one.

The caviar set get the glossy magazine; the mechanical set get's youtube... BTW, Panorama at one point created the Up-Fixin der Porsche series, so they must have had a mechanical bent at some point.

At one point, they offered a full set (? - it's been so long I actually can't remember the full or accurate range of content) of the past Up-Fixin series. I bought one & still have it unopened in the box it shipped in. In the days I belonged to PCA, I found a lot were the wine crowd at the meetings. The events were the places I felt more comfortable at.

I've been a PCA member for 20+ years. When I joined, there was a group of us that gathered together at each meeting and discussed maintenance and repairs of our Porsches.

Over the years, our numbers dwindled. The last meeting I went to it seemed that there were no technical discussions going on anywhere in the room.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1689645139.jpg
Got this and about 15 others

Each chapter is different. When I was with PNWR I only did DE's with them and they did a bunch and were good at it. They probably still do. The group east of the mountains does a lot of social stuff and organized drives. We have a sub group for "classic" Porsches. Basically the guys who do a lot of their own work. We typically meet at someone's shop over the winter to discuss a project they are working on. The spring and summer are more drive oriented. I bet we had 20 air cooled cars on the last drive I went on with that group. You can find your people in any group. As for the magazine. I enjoy some of the content but typically spent maybe 30 minutes with it.

PCA is a club that tries to include everything for everyone. Pretty much an impossible goal.

Our local region is active, and we have a club breakfast, one per month, an event at the dealership with free coffee and donuts, and lots of members cars to look at. We have a monthly autocross, and next month we are going to do or first ever nighttime autocross. We have a club drive to some cool place and end that with a meal.

I have dozens and dozens of friends I met from PCA, and my life is much richer due to PCA.

The Panorama is a nice magazine, but like all magazines, it needs content. It is really easy to write about the new cars. They have occasional articles on the older cars, and the interesting owners.

Takes some quality photos of your 944. Write a long article, and submit it to your local club regional magazine. First you will see it is a LOT of work, BTDT. I was the editor for many years of our local club magazine, and it is nothing close to Panorama.

The 914 or 968 have few articles about them. For sure, the new vehicles see the most attention.

The biggest thing you can do, is pitch in, participate, have fun and meet new friends.

At the club breakfast recently, we sat next to a couple that my wife and his wife bonded with the master gardener degrees, and love of gardening. He has some really neat Porsches and we are invited to their house to gee the gardens, and go out to eat. They will swing by soon to see out gardens. Just nice folks.

get a "real" Porsche....problem solved.

I just got the July issues of Pano. It has an article about a 914, 992, 356, GT3..

Covers a wide range of interests