RSAmerica.net: Article: PCA Parade '05 RS America corral.

2005 - PCA Celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a Parade in Hershey, PA

A visual record of the RS America corral.

by: Keith V of CA

Photos by Bill S of MD, Jim M of VA, George P of PA, Bert R of MD, Bill W of NC and Anthony C of RI plus...
Greg Phillips (Editor of San Diego Region's award winning Newsletter The Windblown Witness)

MANY THANKS GUYS!!

DISCLAIMER: This article is not intended to cover all of PCA Parade 2005. Books (and newsletters) could be written entirely on this subject and would be unlikely to cover all the events or even to begin to do them justice. Please bear in mind that this is intended to capture one small part of one day of Parade, and that is the PCA RS America registry corral at the Parade concours.

THE LARGEST GATHERING OF RS Americas EVER!!!

For those of you that didn't make it to Hershey and have been following the “Latest Breaking Site News” page of this website, you may be wondering ...

“How many RSAs showed up at the “Field of Dreams” RS America corral at PCA's 50th Parade in Hershey?”

To cut to the chase, there was a total of thirty (30).

29 were actually parked in the RS America corral on the 5th fairway of the Hotel Hershey Golf course, and one registry member had his RSA (along with several other cars from his collection of numerous rare Porsches) in the display of historic Porsches.

I arrived at Hershey Lodge late Friday June 24th and met with Matt Romanowski the car show coordinator and I volunteered to coordinate the 964/993 group - which consisted of just over 120 of the total of 550 cars registered to park in the “Field of Dreams” on Sunday.

After some discussion with Matt, I learned more about the plan which was for all cars to meet in Lot “M” of Hershey Park for staging early Sunday morning before being escorted up the hill by the Hershey police to the concours site on the Hotel Hershey golf course.

THE PRE-CORRAL GET TOGETHER.

I had compiled a list of cellular phone numbers for registry members who said they would be attending, so on Saturday morning after going through Parade registration and getting my RSA teched for autocross, I called as many RSA owners as I could and suggested meeting at 5:30pm in the bar at the Hotel Hershey for a beer and some socializing.

There were probably 20 RSA owners present, and it was good to put faces to the names or e-mail addresses. As a “thank you for participating in the Registry” gift, each attendee was given an RS America.net window sticker in their choice of either red, white, blue or yellow for the lower middle of their rear windshield (these decals are available to registry members on the “Marketplace/Parts & Accessories” page) [Show me]

It was great to meet the RS America group and to trade stories. It would seem that NOBODY simply bought their RSA, everyone had some kind of story about how they ended up with their car.

The worst story has to be of the fellow (who shall remain nameless) who purchased an RSA from across the USA and had it trailered to his home. The driver of the transport truck didn't follow his delivery instructions and wound up on a road with narrow hump-back bridges that could not support the weight of his vehicle. He decided to offload the RSA on this two-lane road about 100 yards past the crest of a small hillock. He felt safe since the speed limit is 25 MPH along that stretch. When the new owner arrived, the trailer's ramps were in place and the truck driver soon offloaded the car. Then for some reason, he left the car running at the bottom of the ramps while he put the ramps back on the trailer. Right about then, a youngish guy in his father's Lexus came blowing over the hillock, and .....

...... yup! you guessed it .....

.... crashed right into the back of the RSA. The new owner watched all this unfold right in front of him - before he even got to touch his “new” car!!!

After commiserating with him (by that you know I mean we drank beer and were really grateful it hadn't happened to us) we celebrated his car being fully repaired and now being in excellent condition. We continued to socialize for a couple of hours with help from our friends at Yuenglings brewery PA, and then we agreed to meet at Lot M of Hershey park at 7am the next morning and headed out.

LOT “M” - THE STAGING AREA.

This shot shows half of the RS Americas present at the Lot M staging area.

Imagine my surprise when I arrived at lot M at around 6:45am to find that there were already eight RSAs already lined up ready to go. We had a brief “drivers meeting” and started lining all the 964s and 993s up ready for the trip up the hill to the Hotel Hershey.

Things went pretty well in the staging area with only one disappointment, and that was that Mark H of PA was unable to make it because he had a blow out in his color-to-sample Peru Red car. We were looking forward to seeing it “in the flesh” so to speak - but it was not to be. This brought the number of RSAs in the staging area down to 29 which was still a pretty impressive sight. There was much car chatter and info exchange as owners inspected and compared RSAs.

The first 15 RS Americas gathered at the staging area.

The first 15 RS America gathered at the staging area.

RS America tails at the staging area.

David W of MD going through “pre-flight checks” in the staging area as he prepared
his beautiful Guards Red RSA for the ascent to Hotel Hershey.

THE RUN UP THE HILL.

After around an hour we were given the 5-minute warning and all got in our cars ready to head off. As we started up the hill single file we were lead by Doug H of FL in his Grand Prix White one-of-a-kind Grand Prix White RSA with a body conversion by Gemballa.

The first 12 going up the hill with Doug H of FL
at the head of the line slip-streaming the school bus in his Grand Prix White Gemballa RSA.

Excuse me! Did you know that there are another ten RSAs on your tail!!

It's not too often that an RSA driver has the experience that George P of PA had,
which was to look in his mirror and see another ten RSAs on his tail!!!!

The next 12 in line going up the hill.

A parade of RSAs.

ACROSS THE HOTEL HERSHEY FAIRWAY..

At the top of the hill we entered the main gate of the Hotel Hershey and were ushered down a short paved road and then out onto the main fairway. As we passed the main gate a crowd of pedestrians gathered to see the spectacle as 29 examples of the same model Porsche went burbling by.

We headed across the main fairway towards the area designated as the RS America corral.
Bill S of MD, Mark T of PA and Don C of NY.

An impressive view from inside the yellow car of Anthony C of RI showing Don C of NY, Mark T of PA and Bill S of MD.

A similar view from the yellow car of Keith V of CA including Fred S of TX, Bob W of NY, Jim M of VA and Brent B of VA with Anthony C's yellow RSA five cars ahead.

Boxsters to the left of me, Boxsters to the right, here I am .... stuck in the middle with you.

As we approached the corral parking area we all kept left in order to swing hard right and park parallel.

Final approach - at right you can see the Guards Red car making the turn into it's final parked position.

The last RSA to arrive at the corral was Keith V of CA.
Note: Porsche only ever made four “color-to-sample” Ferrari FLY yellow RS Americas ...... and they're all in this shot.

AND FINALLY...... THE LONG AWAITED RS America CORRAL.

I had great plans to line the cars up as perfectly as possible for the ultimate RSAs “in a row” shot. In fact I had even purchased some fishing line which I intended to draw taught and inch the cars up until they were just touching the line. I had even asked drivers to stay in their cars until we had had a chance to perform this wondrous feat of alignment, however, it was not to be. The people marshalling the cars to their parking positions said we didn't have time, and to be honest it was pretty darn impressive with the cars parked just the way they were, so, I just did a little “lining up by eye” and let people go and enjoy the concours.

Keith V of CA lining 'em up.

Looking down the line with 3 Registry signs.

To give you an idea of how far the RSA corral stretched, the first car is the Fly Yellow car number 034 at left, and then
every ten RS Americas I placed a large white rectangular RS America Registry sign in front of the car.
If you look carefully, you can make out three of the signs in this image.

I suspect that every RS Americas in attendance had some detail work done before arrival.
As this image shows, every RSA there was in excellent condition.

You could stop at any point along the line .......

..... and shoot a really impressive image.

The RS Americas corral drew a lot of attention and a lot of questions were asked about the model - and the Registry.

George P of PA (#097), Gary H of PA and Marc F of NY.

Left to right - George P (#097), Tim M and Earl S all of PA.

It's a water bottle.

18 tails - go ahead, count 'em!

Roof line - three black RS Americas without the sunroof option.

PORTRAITS.

A portrait photo was taken of each RSA in the corral, but to reduce the number of images on this page so it is quicker to download, they are on another page easily accessed via the following link.

WHAT ABOUT THE 30th RSA?

One RSA registry member was kind enough to loan his Grand Prix White 10,000 mile car for display in the Historic Porsche Exhibition which was an un- judged part of the concours.

There were many significant Porsches from tractors, through street cars including 356 Beutlers, Gmund 356 356A/B/C, '73 Carrera RS, 924 Carrera GT, 959, to 2 street legal GT1s. There were also numerous significant racing Porsches - the Formula 1 car from the 60's, 917 Langheck (Longtail), 917-30, 908, too many racing 911's to list, 956, 962, GT1 plus much much more!!

This meant that he was unable to park his RSA in the registry corral - and although it was on display with some extremely significant, high quality Porsches, .............. I can't help thinking that he missed out!!

Don A of NY displayed his RS America in the Historic Porsche exhibition.

The plaque that described the RS America.

RARE AND UNUSUAL.

This section is intended to show some of the “different” things found on and in RSAs in the corral.

Doug H of FL's very rare custom RS America with a full body conversion by Gemballa.

Bill W of NC has light blue “RS” side decals on the flanks of his car black RSA.

Bill W of NC has an odometer but no trip meter with the reset to zero button at the bottom of the speedometer in his RSA.

Mark W of VA has European “bumperette delete” light lenses between his fog lights and his turn signals - notice no black plastic bumperettes.

Don A of NY had the original fitted 964 luggage in the front trunk of his RSA.

Brent B of VA's Guards Red RSA has its rear deck lid emblems “creatively” placed on his rear deck lid.
When RS Americas were delivered new, they came naked i.e. with no identifying emblems or decals,
these items were in the glove box and dealers would fit them if the new owner so desired.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

One of life's lessons I have learned, is that whenever somebody does something that results in great enjoyment it is not only appropriate, but a mark of personal integrity to take a moment to ensure they realize that you appreciate their effort.

There are numerous people involved in putting on a PCA Parade and many go unthanked - but not unappreciated. It is not feasible to thank all who contributed to the event but two names stand out.

As prime examples of the spirit of camaraderie that is PCA, and for spending 5 years making a series of ideas become reality - all involved who gained even the smallest enjoyment from the event - have to thank two guys who took this thing on and made PCA's 50th anniversary Parade the outstanding success that it was. These two are Bob Gutjahr and Manny Alban.

True Heroes - Bob G “checking his six” & Manny A (still looking for the apex!)
to those in-the-know, this Parade was codenamed “The Bob & Manny show”.

Thanks indeed to all the RSA owners who took the trouble to show up and make the RSA corral the success it was - you know who you are, but for everyone else ..... the list consists of:

Keith V of CA

Fred S of TX

BoB W of NY

Jim M of VA

Brent B of VA

Anthony C of RI

Don C of NY

Mark T of PA

Bill S of MD

Bill W of NC

Michael G of NJ

Bert R of MD

David W of MD

Earl S of PA

Tim M of PA

George P of PA

Gary H of PA

Marc F of NY

Mark W of VA

Bert B of Can

Joe P of PA

Dean J of PA

Steve M of PA

Michael W of NJ

Danny N of PA

Ned L of MO

Marvin J of MD

Al T of PA

Doug H of FL

Don A of NY

A huge thank you to the photographers listed in the title heading above. Without your work guys, this article would be really dull!

At risk of sounding like an award recipient at the Oscars .... I also want to express a sound debt of gratitude to my unfailing one person support crew, who, although she has her own Porsche (of the non-RSA variety), still permits me to obsess over all things RSA.

The most patient woman in the world - Martha M of CA.

The most patient woman in the whole world - Martha M of CA .....
Why? ..... because she puts up with Keith V of CA!!

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