The meet. | |
I met Loren P and Michael V of California (both owners of guards red RS Americas) for the first time at the credentials building at what used to be called “California Speedway”, but is now “Autoclub Speedway” in Fontana at 8:45am Sunday morning. We immediately started checking out each others RSAs and pretty soon all agreed that no two RSA's are identical. The two guards red cars, which at first glance appeared to be twins, but closer inspection revealed subtle but distinct differences. |
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Michael V's car had some of the best chrome finish Mille Miglia Cup 1 wheels I have seen, in fact they looked as if they had been refinished 15 minutes ago. The Cup 1 wheels are standard equipment for the RSA, but the mirror finish is not. Additionally, Michael had fitted a fabspeed twin tip exhaust pipe along with associated rear bumper left quarter panel - which we all three of us agreed significantly improved the rear view of the RSA with the symmetrical exhaust tips a-la 965 (C2 Turbo) making the whole car look much more balanced. We also agreed that this should have been stock factory configuration for the model. |
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Just as the three of us decided to head in to the Paddock area, Mark L pulled up in his black RSA. This swelled our ranks to a lofty four RS Americas and at this point we really had no idea how many other owners might show up for the paddock and track tour. |
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I had heard from two RSA owners - Steve G of CA and Jim B of CA that they had entered the Club race and the time trial and would be running the track at full speed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Understandably, having driven the track at competitive speeds for three days, a reduced speed lunch time track tour was not really that appealing. |
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that weekend he understandably declined my invitation to participate in a reduced speed lunch time track tour. |
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As previously arranged with the event organizers, the $10 entrance fee was waived for all RS America registry members in attendance, but the $20 fee for track tour participation still applied. We went to the credentials building paid our $20 and were given wrist bands, speedway maps and directions to the Porsche paddock. The four of us “saddled up”, formed an RSA convoy and headed to the infield. |
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The Paddock. | |
To get to the paddock area we had to go through the narrow tunnel under the track - which is where we realized just how good the Fabspeed dual tip muffler on Michael V's RSA sounded. Apparently, while we were driving though the tunnel there must have been some kids driving through the other way that we didn't see because, as we emerged from the tunnel, a lot of heads were turned to see who was roaring through gunning their engine almost to the rev limiter, and can you believe it ... everyone thought it was us! ........... those darned kids !!! |
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Once inside the track, Michael V headed off as he had to report to the track tour area because he had signed up to lead one of the tours. The black, red and yellow cars selected a spot away from all other cars in the middle of a huge open expanse of parking lot and claimed it as the RS America corral. We parked parallel and spread out leaving an empty space between each of us and the next car. We fired off a few digital pictures of the three cars together, decided to go and check out the event activities and meet back here at the paddock at 11 so we could head over to the track tour area so as to be first in line for the 12 o'clock tour. |
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The main event. |
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There was a lot to see and any Porsche fan would be like a kid in a candy store. There were roughly 160 Porsches who were actually participating in the weekends competitive driving events, from the full on club race - door to door racing with unrestricted passing, to an enduro, plus sprint races and the regular PCA Time Trials. With this much track activity there was never a minute when something exciting was not going on with much to see both out on the track and in the pit/paddock area. On many occasions it was actually more fun to watch similarly matched cars and drivers battling it out for a place in the middle of the pack, than it was to simply watch the race leaders. |
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he decided not to join us for the reduced speed lunchtime track tour. |
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There was also a large paddock with well over 100 Porsches gathered by model which made interesting viewing, the largest model group by far was the 993's - which consisted of roughly 25 - 30 cars, and the next largest group was the Boxsters and Caymans, of which there were around 20. |
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The Track tour. |
...... or so we thought!! |
As we waited, more and more cars arrived and formed three parallel lines. There was a huge variety of vehicles, it soon became clear that although the California Festival of Speed is a Porsche event - billed as the largest Porsche event on the West coast, there were a large number of non-Porsche drivers in attendance who were interested in a track tour. There were SUV's, pick up trucks and family vans, saloon cars as well as sports cars. There was everything from a Lincoln Town car, to numerous Honda's, Toyota's and a Ferrari 360 Berlinetta. |
All three of the images of RSAs out the track were taken by my passenger - who I only knew as Bob - many thanks Bob - great job! |
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Once we were flagged to continue once again, we picked the pace up to an almost mind blowing 75 mph on a perfectly smooth, clean, 5-lanes wide track. With that wide a track, 75 mph felt like you could get out and hop faster! We cruised around about 1/3 of the way up the banking into NASCAR turns 1 and 2 and not surprisingly all bunched up together for turn 3 the 90 degree left-hander turning into the in-field. Under normal circumstances turn 3 is right after the hardest braking on the track, with the highest approach speeds, and one of - if not the slowest turn-in speed. A good turn in here is critical during competition as a good driver will select a line to set himself up for the immediate right hander (turn 4) leading onto a straight. We rolled around the infield behind the pace car, only to be stopped once again at the point where we entered the track. After we let another group go onto the track in front of us, we cruised the remainder of the in field, and, before we could get back onto the front straight .... we were flagged off the track and directed into pit lane and then out through the pit area. So that was it!! One and a half laps, all at under 75 mph. There were a lot of unhappy people. |
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The “huge misunderstanding.” | |
What happened next is best described as a huge misunderstanding. As the line of cars came in through the hot pits and then the cold pits, we were following the lead car from the track tour, who made his way back to the front of the track tour parking area so he could head out onto the track and lead the next group of cars. Well, most drivers realized that the track tour was over and dispersed back to wherever they had been parked before the tour ... but ..... a couple of RS America drivers must have had a brain-fart or something because they followed the lead car when he went back out with the second group. It was very confusing, and nobody realized what was going on until it dawned on us that we had somehow got mixed up and ended going out in the second track tour as well!!! |
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So with a turn out of a total of four street RSAs and a further two competing in the PCA Club Race/Time Trial, the registry turn out was far from spectacular, but, having said that, ask yourself how many times have you driven a Speedway track - including the infield - in a pack of RSAs? |
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The California Festival of Speed event in Fontana was fun and continues to develop into an annual Southern California Porsche spectacular. Adding it as an annual event to the calendar for RS America registry members does indeed seem a logical next step. |
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Picture the track tour ...... but instead of a line of 4 RSAs ..... imagine an entire run group of nothing but RS Americas! All it takes is a little organization and a commitment from a group of owners who want to have a little fun!! |