First Sunday each month – Cars & Coffee – Vintage Oaks, Novato

3/17 - 356 Registry Cars & Coffee – Vintage Oaks, Novato

4/7 - ESCA's April Fools Rally - Santa Rosa. Flyer

April 5 - 7 - Redwood Region Porsche Corral at Fanatec GT Races @ Sonoma Raceway

Porsche will be taking on some of the top GT3 race cars from around the world. As with last year, PCA will be hosting a club corral at Turn 3. However, for this year, a shuttle will be provided between the corral and the paddock area. Weekend Schedule

Stay tuned!

Sept. 26 – Sept. 29 – Third Annual Murphys Ironstone Concours D’Elegance.

This is another overnight in beautiful California Gold Country. After a spirited drive from the Bay Area to Murphys the weekend will include:

 28th Annual Ironstone Concours D’Elegance.

 Group BBQ dinner at the Historic Murphys Hotel.

 Tours on the twisty roads of Calaveras County.

 In-town wineries, shops, and galleries and more…

Stay tuned for registration information. While the host hotel has been sold out with members from last year, there are many more lodging options in the area!

We're looking for a webmaster to maintain our club's website. If you have experience and would like to join our volunteer team, please reach out to Stacy.

Hope you enjoy this month's der Riesenbaum.

If you have an article you'd like to include in a future issue, please email me.

2024 is our 55^th year as a PCA Region.

Questions – email me.

Sharon

Happy March to all Redwood Region members!

I’m writing this to you on the night before my wife Katherine and I depart on a trip of a lifetime! We’re off to Jordan, Egypt and Greece! We’ll be traveling for the better part of

the month and are extremely excited to experience both the new and old worlds. I have a personal mission which, is to take a picture of every Porsche that we see, and I will

share them with you all in a future article.

Looking back on the last two weeks, the Redwood Region has had two extremely

successful events. Our annual (sold out) “Run for the Crab” was hosted at the Marin

Yacht Club. The pre-crab feed driving tour took over 60 cars through the scenic and

exciting country roads of Marin County. The tour worked up our appetites enough to

consume 250 pounds of fresh, cracked Dungeness crab! What a treat…

As I look forward, our future events are already beginning to spark interest. To name a

few, The Charity Adventure II is on March 14th, then, a brand-new monthly event, the

Porsche Owners Sunday Social Event at the Vintage Oaks in Novato on March 24th, The

Tour to Paso Robles – May 9 thru 12, and Ironstone Concours Weekend in Murphy’s –

September 26 thru 29. And, a teaser, Save the Date for December 14th. Please visit our

calendar and register early because this year’s events are proving to be very popular

and fill will up quickly!

As always, I’m extremely honored to be your Vice President and I look forward to

seeing you at one or more of our future events and, if we haven’t met, please introduce

yourself. I’d love to meet you! You can always reach out to me directly via email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

And to share a personal touch.

I was working on building a stand for the Zone 7 banner.

My dog Jack is “Positioning” himself to be the K9 mascot. Is there any competition?

Zone 7 Website Loads of info and links.

Zone 7 Facebook main page

Zone 7 Facebook Autocross page

Zone 7 Facebook Concours page

For a list of upcoming PCA events check out pca.org/events/

 April 21-25, 2024 - PCA - Spring Treffen – Sonoma, Ca. - Treffen website

-SOLD OUT in less than 8 Minutes!

 June 9-16, 2024 - Porsche Parade, Birmingham, AL, - Porsche Parade website

-Registration open.

 July 27th, 2024 - SVR invites Members of Zone Z Regions to join them:

SVR Tour - Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards II, Registration opens Feb. 1st, at 8:00 a.m.

What Better Way to Combine a Thrilling Drive in Our Cars with the Equivalent Experience in the Wine World?

Come join us for a drive to the St. Helena wine region and this unique winery, world renowned for its vintages.

Sitting on forty acres, this will be a truly unique, highly personal and educational wine tasting experience. If you are

● Meet in West Sacramento (details TBD) @ 8:00 am, driver’s meeting and departure at 8:30

● A wonderful drive to St. Helena via Lake Berryessa and Pope Valley

Details and Registration

 July 28th to August 4th, 2024 - Treffen at Sea - Alaskan Adventure (Alaska Inner Passage) - Seattle departure and return port. Treffen at Sea website.

 August 16, 2024 - Werks Reunion, Monterey, - Werks Reunion website

-Registration opens May 22, 2024.

 Porsche Parade, Oklahoma City, OK, 2025

It’s the Porsche Owners Sunday Social Event…

Well we got lucky again on Saturday February 24th, when

the sun popped out, cleared the clouds, and sent temperatures to near 70 degrees for our ever popular Crab Feed!

63 Porsches carrying more than 100 members assembled at

the Marin Yacht Club in the early morning, generating a lot of excitement. We were last here just a few weeks before the March 2020 COVID lockdown (last year’s Crab Feed took place out at the Vine Hill

Druids Hall). Paul & Kay Simmons, longtime MYC luminaries, got us back into this great venue for 2024.

Not missing a beat, original Crab Feed Queen Sharon Castle Rogers had everything organized down to the last detail, so it seemed just like old times. VP Pat Burke also had his fingers in the mix (this is why lemons and handwipes are a key part of any crab feed), and new-to-us caterer St. Peter’s Fare of Santa Rosa had everything prepped so that all that the rest of us needed to do was…drive and work up an appetite.

Early birds John & Penny Dolan, Cheryl & Bruce Lawton, Paige & Eileen Gaines, Craig

& Sandy Steele, Sharon Neidel & David Bunch and Kurt Fischer got us ready to go.

This year’s driving route took us out Lucas Valley Road towards Point Reyes Station like it often has, but new twists from Past President Vern Rogers included a glorious section out along China Camp first, avoiding the traffic of downtown San Rafael. A short stint through Samuel P. Taylor Park on the way back gave us the ultimate “share the road” experience, as a few hundred cyclists had also noted the perfect weather! We returned driving the opposite direction on Lucas Valley, which had cleared out nicely. Many, many thanks to Tom & Wendy Strobel, Lisa Davoren, Craig & Sandy Steele, Pat & Katherine Burke, Jeff Hall & Kathleen Smith, Essy & Rosa Fariab, and Joe Burroughs for providing complex lead and sweep duties for our four run groups, including the use of new radios that the club has purchased to enhance communication.

Back at the yacht club, all the Dungeness we could possibly want, along with salad, drawn

butter, bread, lemon, some spicy louie sauce (and of course mandatory plastic bibs), plus an amazing assortment of desserts was already set out and quickly assaulted by our enthusiastic mob. As in years past, one of the best things about the MYC table arrangement was that we got to meet new and old friends and share lots of stories. After all, you have to have something to do while you are cracking open shells and fashioning your crab meat pile; talking to your neighbor is it!

At least five new members came to this great event, and it was a sure sign of success that many of us stuck around until the very end when the catering staff came through to clear off the last of the tables. Although we are sad to see her go (because she and Vern are moving), this was Sharon’s final crab feed, so it was fitting that it was outstanding…again. Fear not, word has it that we will have crab feeds in the future, and I hope to see you there.

For more pictures of the day, please check out Paige Gaines’ collection in our

On March 2nd, Porsche Marin hosted the Redwood Region

for a “Meet the New Management Team” event at the Center (formerly “Dealer). Event registration sold out in 70 minutes

and the waitlist was longer than the confirmed list.

In August of ’23, Kyle Festog began as GM of Porsche Marin. Kyle, and his mostly new team, welcomed fifty-five Redwood members with coffee and pastries followed by introductions and behind-the-scenes tours of all the departments within their four walls including the 2004 Boxster “restoration project”! We were then treated to wonderful sit-down BBQ lunch featuring ribs, chicken, salad, cornbread and all the fixings.

We dined among the 2024 Porsche models on the showroom floor!

Since the new management team’s arrival six months ago, not only have they injected

a long-needed enthusiasm into the dealership, but they have risen to #1 in new car AND

certified, pre-owned sales in the entire U.S. They are also in the process of adding a

20+ bay service facility to lessen the time we must wait to have our Porsches serviced!

Stop in and introduce yourself to Kyle and his new team!

“The times they are a changin”.

Stay tuned for more events featuring and sponsored by Porsche Marin. They are very

involved with Treffen; will be sponsoring our final “pre-Treffen” tour runs on April 13 at

Viansa Winery and will have a major presence at Treffen Registration on Sunday,

April 21!

If Rick Blaine were a Redwood member, he would say,

“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.

For those of you who might not realize, the Redwood Region PCA is celebrating its fifty-fifth Anniversary this year! We’ll

be receiving celebratory PCA decals marking this milestone

and will be distributing them at our meetings and events soon!

It was great to see so many new faces (new and long-time members) at the “March 2 Porsche Marin” event last weekend! It was wonderful to hear from so many members who hadn’t been to an event in a while saying that they plan on attending more events in 2024!

Keep your eyes on the Calendar of Events as more events are in the works and being added constantly! Keep your eyes out for Paso Robles weekend event coming up in May as well as the “Weekend at the Ironstone Concours” in Murphys in late September!!

On behalf of the entire Redwood Region of the Porsche Club of America I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all our new members and transfers (from other regions) enrolled in the month of February! If you are new to the club, you will soon be receiving a complimentary Redwood Region name badge. Please wear your badge to our events and meetings.

My member quote of the month was from the Porsche Marin event last weekend: “I haven’t been to an event in over 20 years – I’d forgotten how much fun they are and how wonderful it is to connect with the membership!” So, c’mon out!

In the month of February, Redwood Region celebrated forty-two anniversaries! Twenty-seven members celebrated five plus years and SIX members celebrated being with the club for over forty years!!

Congratulations to all those celebrating anniversaries, but a special mention goes out to the following: William Lee (42 years); William Walsh (44 years); John Byrne (48 years); Fred Jung (48 years); Albert Boro (51 years) and let’s hear the applause for, Darnell Walton who celebrated 56 years with the Redwood Region! Congratulations gentlemen for being such dedicated members!

As always, please send any and all questions about membership, email me.

Don’t forget to patronize our sponsors and always ask for our PCA membership discount! If you ever have ideas on how to add to, improve or have questions about our Sponsorship Program please don’t hesitate to ask me. Please don’t reach out to the sponsors directly as we may already have discussions in the works about the exact idea you are enthusiastic about. Thank you!

Our sponsors are in the der Riesenbaum monthly and are on our website. They are:

Porsche Marin, Hi Tec Automotive, Auto Sport Detailing, Autobahn Automotive and

Santa Rosa Body Shop!

Keep an eye on the calendar for upcoming events at Auto Sport Detailing (May 4th)

and Autobahn Automotive (July 20th Pech Merle event).

A special thank you to Porsche Marin for hosting 55 Redwood members last Saturday

for introductions to their new management team, tours behind the scenes and a terrific BBQ lunch in the showroom!

2024 continues to be an Excellent year for Porsche Motorsports!!

At the World Endurance Championship race, QATAR 1812 kms, Porsche 963's swept the HYPERCAR Class Podium with the Roger Penske 963's Porsches finishing P1 & P3 and the HERTZ Team JOTA 963 Porsche in 2nd.

The Manthey Racing Porsche GT3R finished P1 in the LMGT3 Class.

The next race for WEC will be the "6 Hours of Imola".

The month of March will be busy for the Porsche Race teams, with IMSA racing at Sebring Raceway with 4 of the 963's racing in the "12 Hours of Sebring" on Saturday 3/16, AO Racing's "REXY" 992 GT3R in the GTD PRO Class and 3 992 GT3R's in the GTD Class.

On Friday 3/15, in the Michelin Pilot Sport Challenge race, 6 of the Porsche Cayman's, 718 GT4 RS CS will be battling 27 GS competitors over 2-hour race.

Also, next week will be the start of the "Porsche Carrera Cup North America Championship" with races this Thursday and Friday at Sebring with 31 entries.

We also have two Formula E races coming up in March, Sao Paulo, Brazil on the 16th

and Tokyo on the 30th. Tag Heuer Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein is 2nd in the Championship after winning the first race in Mexico City and finishing in the top eight at the next 2 races.

Jake Dennis of Andretti Formula E powered by Porsche is in 4th Place after his win in Diriyah.

I had changed the transmission oil in our TR3A. The next evening, we drove to a movie. Driving home, the engine sputtered and died. We coasted into a nearby parking lot. I opened the hood to find lots of smoke and nasty smells that no polite car should ever emit. We walked home. The next day, I discovered that I had drained the engine oil, not the transmission oil. With no oil, I had destroyed the engine. We ended up replacing the TR3A with a TR4, which I promised not to abuse. It became my daily drive for four years. (See the comment about the rollbar in Story #6.) The TR4 is, in my opinion, the best of all the Triumph sports cars, 2 through 8, combining the simplicity of the 2s and 3s with a few modern conveniences like roll-up windows, a heater that actually works (or perhaps it’s the lack of cold air on the rib cage) and synchromesh on first gear.

We entered some rallies and I quickly discovered what I liked, and what I disliked. Driving on back roads and sharing the challenge with my partner was fun, getting lost or doing math while driving on back roads, was not fun. I decided to create a rally I would want to enter. Being totally unknown, I needed to attract some attention, so I announced a $1.00 entry fee and called it “The Dollar Rally”. It featured clear instructions with no traps, minimal speed changes and checkpoints identified in the route instructions. The event

was very successful, with about 50 entries, and I was encouraged to do more. However, some experienced rallyists told me that what I was trying to do had already been invented; it was called a Monte Carlo style rally. So, I ran some, and that has been my preferred rally format ever since.

The Monte Carlo Rally was first run in 1910. It has undergone many changes since then, but one of the most enduring features was a well-defined route to the checkpoints, with stated expected arrival times. The current Monte Carlo Rally is now part of the FIA World Rally Championship.

I organized many rallies for the Triumph Travelers Sports Car Club over the years. The TTSCC board would question and eventually approve my plan, members would pre-run the route looking for problems, and then they would staff all the checkpoints (there was no Richta GPS system in those days). I tended to write long rallies, usually well over 100 miles and sometimes all-nighters. One was 300 miles long, with 18 checkpoints, lasting about 15 hours. Entries came from Northern and Southern California.

Overcoming adversity is the essence of rallying, and that applies to rallymasters as well as contestants. During the oil embargo of 1973, most gas stations were open only during the day, and they restricted sales on even and odd numbered days by your license number. Lots of annual rallies were cancelled, but I discovered that, on Highway 5, the gas stations were open 24-hours and would sell to anybody, so I staged a successful all-night rally based in Santa Nella. Years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I staged the “Social Distancing Rally”. Contestants could drive the course anytime during a two-week period and report their scores via email. No face-to-face contact whatsoever.

In 1972, Lori graduated from San Jose State with a master’s degree, got a job, and needed her own car. After some searching, she decided upon a British racing green

1970 Volvo 1800E. The body was iconic, but the rest was basic Volvo 122, and very reliable. The 1986 cc inline four delivered 130 HP at 6000 RPM. The 1800E had a four-speed transmission (more on that later) with overdrive, and leather seats. It was sporty

yet sophisticated; it was great to drive and great to look at; and it was all hers.

Volvo began building cars in 1927. Engineered for Swedish winters and dirt roads, their robust design and reliability made them a competitive choice for endurance rallies. Both the PV444 (1946 – 1958) and PV544 (58 – 65) achieved victories in international competition, including the East African Safari, the RAC Rally in the United Kingdom, the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands, and the Monte Carlo Rally. Rally successes continued

with the Volvo Amazon, or 120 series (56 – 70), the 140 series (66 – 74), and the 240 series (74 – 93). (More on Volvo 122 and the 142 rally cars next month.)

But these were all sporty sedans, not true sports cars.

The Volvo P1800 (1961 – 73) was initially created as a concept by Pietro Frua, the

same Italian firm that designed my Glas 1300 GT (Story #2). It was initially built by

Jensen Motors in the United Kingdom, with production later moving to Volvo in Sweden. With the addition of Bosch direct fuel injection in 1970, the name was changed from P1800 to 1800E. The engine size was increased to two liters, but by then, “1800” had

become a brand, like “356” or “911”, so the name was retained, even with the larger engine.

At a Triumph Travelers party one evening, our friend Brian introduced me to a fellow who was organizing a performance rally on the dirt roads of the Mendocino National Forest. The only hitch was that cars needed to have a roll cage, not just a rollbar, or a metal hard top. Brian and I were enthused, but neither my TR-4 nor his TR-6 had a full roll cage, but Lori’s 1800E did have a hard top!

We approached her, refilled her drink, and explained what we wanted to do. Perhaps it was the drinks, but she said we could use her 1800E, as long as we promised not to damage it. I would drive and Brian would co-drive (navigators are called co-drivers in performance rallies). I bought a set of Cooper M+S (mud/snow) tires, which were the preferred rally tires at the time. Since it was a night rally, I converted the headlights to quartz halogen, added a pair of Cibié Oscar driving lights and mounted a pair of modified fog lights as cornering lights. We already had helmets from autocrossing, and fireproof driving suits and Head and Neck Support (HANS) devices were not required in those days. We even practiced on a local dirt road one night. We were ready and the

Mendocino forest was calling us.

We were not very fast, but we were having fun. At one point on the rally, as we forded a small stream, I noticed a fellow in a big 4X4 truck, with a winch and cable, ready to rescue any rally cars that got stuck in the mud. We waved and kept going. I would meet that gentleman 35 years later when I was organizing my own performance rally. What a small world we live in!

We were doing fine in Lori’s 1800E until the transmission broke. The engine was running, but I couldn’t change gears. I put in the clutch, and we coasted into a nearby clearing where we put out our “OK” sign and waited for the sweep car. If we were 20 minutes late at the next checkpoint, we would be time-barred, but what could we do, overhaul the transmission on dirt with a tire jack and hand tools? And what would I tell Lori when I got home, with or without her car?

To be continued…

Redwood Region PCA’s albums | Flickr

If you’re interested in joining the next meeting via Zoom, send me an email and I will forward you the meeting link.  

Back by popular demand, Redwood Region will roll up our sleeves again to support the Redwood Empire Food Bank, while also having a great time. The date will be Thursday March 14.

Just like last October, our theme is “Work a Bunch & Earn Your Lunch”, with a combination of a short (and optional)

one hour driving tour, a 3-hour volunteer shift at the Food Bank, and then hosted lunch. The work in the warehouse creates meals for Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino County families who suffer from food insecurity. The photo above shows the amazing warehouse and staff, as Redwood’s Assistant Santa provided them with a check for $1500 from our club during the holiday season.

At the Barley & Bine Beer Café the club will pay for your lunch item; you just pay for your beverage of choice. We are hoping to field a team of 20 to top last fall’s group of 17.

Just register on MSR and if you or your companion volunteer need to set up

a volunteer account at the food bank, I will get you through it.

Let me know if you have any difficulty.

Hope to see you then!

Visit Redwood's on-line Goodie Store here.

We encourage letters to the editor, feedback, questions and suggestions about our newsletter and the Redwood Region in general. Want to contribute to the newsletter?Submit photos and articles about Club events or related activities. Please submit your entry by the 5th day of the month for inclusion in that month's newsletter. Articles received after the deadline will be considered for the next month's newsletter. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit all materials submitted for publication.

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