20th May 2007

• PCA Parade San Diego - Registration for the Porsche Paddock is now open!
• The RSA owner who really knows a good Porsche when he owns one.
• A couple of customized RS America interiors
• RSAs run together at Carolinas Motorsport Park.

• Registration for the Parade Paddock is now open - mail in your form to join the RS America Corral before 1st June.

PCA members are invited to join in the Porsche Paddock at Parade San Diego on Monday 2nd-July this year even if they have not signed up for Parade. There is a $20 fee for participation and a few other requirements - such as keeping your Porsche on the Paddock field until 2pm.

Come on....... take Monday off work and enjoy a day in your RSA as part of a swarm of nearly a thousand Porsches. In fact why not drive down Sunday afternoon, clean the car, stay in a local hotel and then drive back Monday PM.

What.......? You're so incredibly important that your company would crash and burn if you weren't there for a single day? Yeah ....right!
We understand that the real reason you can't make it is because “she who must be obeyed” wouldn't be happy about you taking the time off. Think of it this way, if you miss this Parade there will be another one in Southern CA ..... probably in about another 10 or 12 years!

The Paddock is only open to members who have pre-registered by mailing in the form, so don't even think about just showing up and expecting to roll onto the paddock field with the rest of the RS Americas. You'll need to decide if you're going fairly quickly because ....

• A man who knows a great deal about Porsche ownership.

One RS America registry member who has experienced Porsche ownership enough to really appreciate his RSA is Bill F of NC. Each of us appreciates our Porsche to varying degrees, from being blase about it - to full on obsession. Strangely, it seems Porsche owners do have a reputation for being ...... shall we say .... a tad “anal” about their cars. I guess it's all relative because if you have only ever owned one Porsche, your appreciation of it may differ from a person who has owned numerous Porsches. “Numerous” is a word that fits Bill F's Porsches very nicely as this retired NC Highway Patrol Major has owned more than his fair share ......

“What exactly does that mean?” you ask. Well, Bill has owned no less than 41 (forty one) Porsches - all models from 930 Turbo's to 356 Speedsters, 912's, 911's, 914's, 924's. Many were in excellent condition and over the years he restored a lot of them back to original condition. Bill maintains that the RS America that he currently owns is probably his favorite of all the Porsches he has owned because in his words “...it is beautiful, fast, rare and very much an attention getter”. Bill has entered his RSA (which has only 6,300 original miles on it) in several concours in the past five years - in every one of which he has won first place - usually scoring only a tenth or two off of a perfect score.

Bill says that often when he takes the RSA out for a drive, people see his Highway Patrol license plate and ask if it is a license to speed. He is often asked how does one obtain such a plate, Bill answers - all you have to do is have over thirty years with the State Highway Patrol.

So if you see an RSA with an 0911 license plate, make a point to say hello to Bill and ask him for more info about his “numerous” Porsches - he is indeed a very interesting man to talk to.

• Customizing RS America interiors

With only 701 RS Americas made you might think that there would not be many variations between different examples. While many of the more “particular” owners insist on keeping their Porsches in original condition, there are also numerous owners who choose to customize their cars to suit their own tastes, these modifications take many forms with some of the more popular being the fitment of wider 8” & 9” wheels in place of the original 7” & 8”, or perhaps the addition of 5-point harnesses and a fire extinguisher, a secondary muffler by-pass, or maybe a light weight fly-wheel and competition clutch. Most of these modifications are at least in the general vein of performance enhancements, but there is one area where customization is done almost exclusively for aesthetic reasons, and that is the interior. Below are some images of a couple of registry members cars which have had their interior customized ........... because their owners felt like customizing them!

The first member has gone to great lengths to ensure that only genuine Porsche components have been utilized in the upgrade of the cars interior. Every modification made used genuine Porsche parts fitted professionally by qualified Porsche technicians. The results, whether they suit your personal tastes or not ........ are really quite remarkable!

On a slightly more modest budget, Registry member Ed B of CA decided he wanted to customize the interior of his RSA and he certainly gave it a unique appearance by fitting maple door panels. One has to wonder if in keeping with the lightweight theme of the RSA he considered balsa!

• RS America Registry members at CMP.

Three Carolinas Region PCA members showed up at a weekend Drivers Ed at Carolinas Motorsports Park for a wonderful weekend (the weather cooperated) of tossing their RS Americas around CMP's challenging 2.1 mile, 14 turn course.

Jim W, Bill W and Rob P all of North Carolina had their RSAs out on the track. It is an interesting group of cars and drivers. Rob's RS America is already a full-on club racer. Rob moved right into club racing after a couple of years of Driver's Education events. Bill is an experienced PCA Instructor (now nationally certified) and after years of instructing has decided to join Rob in club racing this year. This was Jim W's first track event and he had a great experience. While Bill and Rob have been on the track together up and down the east coast this was the first time that we've had three RS Americas running together at the same track event.