Porsche Club Of America
SHENANDOAH REGION
IT'S NOT JUST THE CARS, IT'S THE PEOPLE
2018 Shenandoah PCA Holiday Party
by Jim Kaczorowski
Posted 2018 December 8
With a good ‘ole Virginia fire crackling in a rustic setting, our
traditional Holiday Party at Michie Tavern was full of good cheer –
not an empty handshake or glass could be found…..with stockings,
ribbons, bags, tags and trimmings all ’round.
Now bring up that old tune in your head…..
and relive these party highlights:
12 raffle prizes
11 drumsticks drumming
10 exhaust pipes piping
9 ladies (if they let ’em) dancing
8 Hank’s work thank you’s
7 Toys4Tots a bagging
6 AutoX recognitions
5 Christmas sweaters
4 country side dishes
3 new club officers
2 cobbler servings
and
1 Jeffrey Elmore Driver of the Year
Twelve 2018 Holiday Party Raffle Prizes:
New Cayenne Launch
by Jim Condon
Posted 2018 November 26
Flow Porsche of Charlottesville hosted a launch party for the third-generation Cayenne at the scenic King Family Vineyards near Crozet on the evening of November 8. It was well attended by PCA members from the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Regions, plus other area “car guys.” A wine bar and excellent heavy hors d’oeuvres added to the draw.
The third generation 2019 Cayenne includes “glass cockpit” with touch-sensitive controls and increased power from smaller engines. The capital-T Turbo model now produces 550 hp and, with the aid of Sport Chrono, will launch the massive Cayenne from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. After an introductory presentation by Will Reifsteck of Flow Porsche, Chris Beverage and Ray Tinsley unveiled the new Cayenne for all to see and sit in.
New Member Event
by John Odden, Membership Chair
Posted 2018 October 25
The Shenandoah Region hosted a New Member Event on October 7th at Hank and Jolly Weil’s home in Crozet. We had 24 in attendance and everyone had an outstanding time. All of the new members can now understand why we say, “It’s not just the cars, its the people!”
Ed and Donna Rehorn brought their 1974 914 Porsche. Kevin Sheets drove his gorgeous, newly purchased, graphite blue metallic 2018 Boxster. David Seidenfeld brought his father who was visiting from Pittsburg and thoroughly enjoyed the cars along with the great conversations (David’s Dad is a long time car lover). Everyone enjoyed meeting David and Amber Tyson who drove up from Scottsville.
Hank and Jolly’s neighbors were overwhelmed with the eye candy parked on both sides of the street.
The food was catered by Smoked Taphouse & Kitchen which is now my favorite barbecue restaurant!
Michelle Odden, always the team player, helped with the planning and food presentation which I could not have done without her. Many thanks to Hank and Jolly Weil for opening up their home and their wonderful hospitality.
SRPCA 23rd Anniversary and Summer Picnic
by Marty Doherty Posted 2018 September 4
On Sunday, August 26, 50 Shenandoah Region PCA members gathered to celebrate the Club’s 23rd anniversary with a summer picnic at the Market at Grelen, in Somerset, VA. They came from Richmond and its environs, led by John and Michelle Odden and from Charlottesville and points west, led by Mark Doherty and John Pfaltz. The day was bright, the views were sensational, and it didn’t rain! To see a photo gallery covering this event, click here.
The program consisted of a Club Sponsor award presented to Mike and Ana Kilmer for the sponsor banners displayed during the Richmond Porsche Meet by Hank Weil, President. Mike received a plaque with a model of his Porsche! Three door prizes went to the following lucky attendees:
Tim Messer — an Xpel front bumper application for a Porsche, provided by Capital Autobahnd
Mike Kilmer — a gift certificate from Detailers Domain
John Pfaltz — a gift certificate to Note Bene Restaurant
This event also benefited the Feedmore Food Bank in Richmond and the Blue Ridge Food Bank in Charlottesville. The Club issued checks totaling $260, including a donation from Beverly McNeill.
IMSA Michelin GT Challenge and PorschePlatz at VIR
by Jim Condon Posted 2018 August 23
The top races of this multiday event at VIR took place on Sunday, August 19. As usual this summer, heavy rain was predicted, but all of the races were completed on a dry track. The PorschePlatz tent was set up on NASCAR Bend this year, not just after Turn 4 as before. Shenandoah Region members in attendance on Sunday included Cam & Lisa Abernethy, Kim Butcher, Jim Condon & Sherry Westfall, Howie Dunbrack, Michael Evans, Dan Graff, Steve McCaughan, John Odden, Dick Pitman, Alex Smith, Bill Speidell, Steve Upman, and Keith Welty.
After the early morning practice session, the first race was the Porsche GT3 Cup (platinum), with best lap times about 1 minute, 49 seconds. Next up in the morning was the Lamborghini Super Trofeo. In the PorschePlatz, a representative from Michelin described their race tires, answered questions from the audience, and gave a set of tires to a lucky winner. Michael Levitas and the TPC racing team told us about their GT3 Cup efforts.
The Michelin GT Challenge ran from about 1 PM to 3:45 PM. Sherry Westfall and Dan Graff won passes to the Porsche pit area during the race, were given an explanatory tour of the pits, and got to watch Porsche GTLM car #912 come in for a pit stop. Dan made a short video of the pit stop; click on the arrow in the image below to play it.
Porsche #911 led the race from lap 32 to lap 40, when it caught fire at the top of the climbing esses and had to drop out. #912 driven by Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor finished fifth in GTLM, with best lap times 1 minute, 43 seconds. Patrick Long and Christina Neilsen drove the Porsche #58 car to second place in GTD with lap times as fast as 1 minute, 46 seconds.
Selected race results:
Tech Session—Dorn’s Body & Paint, Feb 24, 2018
by John Odden Posted 2018 March 1
Barry Dorn, Vice President of Dorn’s Body & Paint greeted 16 Shenandoah Region members with coffee and a bountiful array of pastries for an introduction to the advanced elements of collision repair of premium vehicles. Dorn’s Body & Paint is one of two Porsche Factory Certified repair centers in Virginia and the only one in central Virginia. Dorn’s is also factory certified for Tesla, Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo. Factory certification requires extensive personnel training and a broad investment in equipment to meet manufacturer’s specifications.
We were presented with the complexities of working with the combination of a steel structure and aluminum panels. Due to galvanic action of dissimilar metals, the two materials cannot come in contact with each other. Very specialized bonding materials must be used to insure the two materials do not interact. With the increased government mandated mileage requirements of motor vehicles, the automobile manufacturers are using more aluminum to reduce weight and increase fuel economy. We learned that there are very few collision repair operations that have the ability to work with aluminum. An interesting point with aluminum is that it has no “memory” whereas steel has memory. Steel is inclined to resume its original stamped shape and aluminum does not. This makes repair of aluminum a very challenging undertaking.
We had the opportunity to view a current model Range Rover which is all aluminum including the frame rails. The vehicle had a front end collision which damaged the initial 18 inches of aluminum frame rail. The engine and transmission required removal to perform the repair. Dorn’s cut out the damaged portion and welded new aluminum frame rails to the existing frame. This required, in additional to aluminum welding, eight different factory specified rivets and a special bonding compound manufactured by 3M which is only available for purchase from the UK. The Range Rover was on a special jig to insure proper alignment of the frame. The repair cost for this vehicle was approximately $50,000.
All in attendance received a very detailed education on the sensors that current automobiles have. These include backup cameras, distance detectors, blind spot monitors, and adaptive cruise control. Barry Dorn, who is on many national collision-repair boards and councils, shared with us that the paint thickness is a critical component for these sensors to function properly after a repair. An additional layer of paint can make a sensor inoperable. Paint thickness is now a critical component to collision repair. The sensing safely systems in current automobiles are called ADAS, Advance Driver Assist Systems. After a collision repair, it requires twelve hours of calibration to recalibrate all of these safety systems. Porsche, Audi, Tesla, and Mercedes Benz are the leading manufacturers providing these advanced systems.
A common maintenance service to prolong tire life and reduce wear is a front-end alignment. Barry shared the common service provided is typically “toe and go”. The two other critical adjustments besides toe adjustment are castor and camber. Today’s cars monitor the steering angle through a Steering Angle Inclination Sensor. These sensors must be reset after each front-end alignment. Not having these important sensors reset to the new settings can cause a vehicle rollover in a crash-avoidance maneuver. How many shops actually address the Steering Inclination Sensor? Less than 1% have the equipment to perform this very important component of a front-end alignment.
We were treated to a delicious lunch from Panera Bread and our choice of YETI thermal mugs with the Dorn’s Body and Paint logo and Porsche Collision Repair Center embossed on them. Flow Porsche provided a beautiful 2018 metallic gray Porsche Panamera for us to view during our session at Dorn’s.
Remembering Pat Daily
by Dick Pitman Posted 2017 December 12
Pat was introduced to me over 20 years ago by a Retired USMC Aviator who worked with Pat at UNOS. Pat was the “Executive Director for Operations” at the “United Network For Organ Sharing” in Richmond. My friend said, “Pat has a car like yours”—meaning a 356! OK, I’m in!
Pat had retired from the US Navy Medical Service Corps as a Captain (0-7). His last command was as the Commanding Officer of the US Naval Hospital Subic Bay Philippines. One evening he and his bride Sandie were out for supper and he struck up a conversation with their waitress. He asked her where she was born and she told him, “Naval Hospital Subic Bay”! Pat said, “When you go home I want you to look at your birth certificate and see if Capt Pat Daily signed it.”
My Marine pilot friend, Pat, and I had lunch one day, driving our 356s so we could see each other’s. Pat said, “You have to come to RPM!” I said “Whats that?” “Richmond Porsche Meet, dummy, it’s at Alex Smith’s place.” OK, sounds like fun if there are more Porsches like ours! “You’ll love it” and I did.
So thats how our friendship started! How could you not have a friend with such a big smile and outgoing personality?
Pat would auto cross FAST FRIEDA at Southside Race Track on the Sunday mornings after the RPM Concours and really got it going. Pat loved to drive his Heron Grey, NOT WHITE, 1963 356B Coupe. He would lead the driving tours after the Concours at Alex’s with me in trail behind him, with a bad valve, pedalling like crazy trying to keep up.
Lately Pat’s passions went to building and flying scale model radio controlled airplanes with a group named “Maxecuters.” These were and are truly works of art. They would fly them at Mike Dale’s place in Remington. Mike was a former RAF pilot and retired President of Jaguar North America. I am truly sorry I never went up there with Pat, always too busy!
Robert Overholser did a very nice tribute to Pat on the Monday after Pat’s passing. I noticed if you scroll down there is a comment from Shannon, Pat and Sandie’s daughter. They were both very proud of their lawyer, horsewoman daughter who was recently named as one of Richmond’s “Top 40 Under 40” in Style Weekly’s 2017 listing.
The past few weeks we would see each other at the Richmond Cars and Coffee. Of course the other 356ers and Porsche folks like Sean Rooks, Greg Snell, Engelbert, Chris O, and sometimes Eric would show up. It was only at the last C&C did we all see each other and Pat was having a great time talking to folks and taking pictures as he always did.
If you didn’t know Pat in the first 30 seconds of meeting him, you soon would and be ever more glad that you did.
We will all miss so very much him. A true gentleman, professional, loving husband, father and friend. God Bless and Fair Winds Pat!
Annual Holiday Party at Michie Tavern
by Jim Kaczorowski Posted 2017 December 7
‘Twas the night of our party and all ’bout the roadhouse,
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Pineapple garlands were hung by the chimneys with care,
in hopes that Porschephiles soon would be there.
Volunteers were all snuggled so as not to be frozen,
with tickets for raffle gifts soon to be chosen.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
that Hank sprang from his seat to see what was the matter.
When what to his wondering eyes should appear…
but a chorus of members bringing lots of good cheer.
With a number of drivers so lively and quick,
he knew in an instant they’d love prizes to pick.
A bundle of toys they held tight to their chest —
which Marines would deliver ’til no one could rest.
Then the bar got abuzz with drinks and with beer,
with talk of cars and the holiday now drawing so near.
Then Santa appeared, a real jolly old elf,
and we laughed when we saw him in spite of our self.
He spoke not a word and went straight to his work —
giving a prize from each container for a Porsche…not a Merc.
And laying a finger aside of his nose,
a spare seat at a table he so happily chose.
Rick gave prizes to best racers by class,
to let Hank tout honored guests: both “laddie” and “lass.”
When all was done and applause had been given,
I heard Hank exclaim ere we roared out of sight:
Happy Holiday & Merry Christmas! …and to all a good night!
(’til next year my friends)
Santa’s lucky raffle winners by category:
(compiled by Marty Doherty)
The Shenandoah Region supported Toys for Tots at the 2017 Holiday Party
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