SO YOU FINALLY GOT THAT PORSCHE

When Spring arrives in the Bay Area, there's no better way to celebrate the fresh air but in a Porsche.
Consider this blog as a depository for awesome Porsche drives/tours in and around the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California.

Draw an imaginary line across the center of California. Anchor one end off the Monterey Area/Santa Cruz mountains, on the Pacific coast. Run the line east over the Coast Range, through the Central Valley, and over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Tether the other end of the line at the Nevada border, on the fringe of the Great Basin Desert.

"Backroads of Northern California" covers the incomparable natural beauty, the myths and the history of the Golden State on the northern side of that line, while "Backroads of Southern California" does the honors for the lower half, from the San Joaquin Valley to the border with Mexico.


TOURS are what they sound like - someone leads a bunch of Porschephiles hither-and-yon for the express purpose of having them follow onto great Porsche roads, go interesting places and generally have a wonderful time driving their cars.

"Email-a-Ride" - called short notice drive/tour

"Email-a-Ride

Thursday, April 29, 2010

The 50+ Greatest Automotive Quotes of all Time.


Here is a listing of some of the greatest quotes as they pertain to the automobile industry and racing.Also included are the photos of those who said them as well… who knows, maybe their pictures will give you a little insight as to the reasons why they said what they said. Either way though there are some kickers in there, so start reading and enjoy.
We all love famous quotes don’t we? Little snippets of verbiage that for whatever the reasons, are so profound that they stay with us forever.
Some, like Neil Armstrong’s famous moon landing quote have made history: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
Others, like the beauties from Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees have just made us laugh and wonder: You can observe a lot just by watching or Baseball is 90% mental — the other half is physical…?


1. To finish first, you must first finish. Rick Mears
2. Nobody remembers the guy who finished second but the guy who finished second.Bobby Unser
3. The winner ain’t the one with the fastest car, it’s the one who refuses to lose. Dale Earnhardt


4. You win some, you lose some, you wreck some. – Dale Ernhardt Sr.
5. Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.Enzo Ferrari
6. The client is not always right.Enzo Ferrari

7. If you think the last 4 words of the national anthem are gentlemen, start your engines, you might be a redneck.Jeff Foxworthy.

8. Need to tie some kerosene rags around his ankles so the ants don’t eat his candy #$@
- Dale Earnhardt speaking of Mark Martin.
9. The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical.F1 commentator Murray Walker.

10. Turbochargers are for people who cant build engines.Keith Duckworth
11. Here Kitty Kitty Kitty! - Tony Stewart
12. We broke something, I think it was traction…Carl Edwards after getting spun out by Dale Jr. at Michigan

13. Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports… all the others are games.Ernest Hemingway
14. Calling upon my years of experience, I froze at the controls.Stirling Moss
15. Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death…Hunter Thompson

16. I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s. - Ayrton Senna
17. It is amazing how may drivers, even at the Formula One Level, think that the brakes are for slowing the car down.Mario Andretti
18. Once you’ve raced, you never forget it…and you never get over it. - Richard Childress

19. Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.Enzo Ferrari

20. There’s no secret. You just press the accelerator to the floor and steer left.
Bill Vukovich

21. To achieve anything in this game you must be prepare to dabble in the boundary of disaster.
- Sterling Moss

22. To achieve anything in this game you must be prepare to dabble in the boundary of disaster.Sterling Moss
23. What’s behind you doesn’t matter.Enzo Ferrari
24. When you win a race your on top that day, so take it for what its worth, have a good time and party, cause the next day when you get out of bed, the meter goes back to zero again. - Bobby Allison

25. No, no, he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he *rubbed* you. And rubbin, son, is racin’.Harry Hogge, Days of Thunder
26. If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking 
zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue
27. If you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough.Parnelli Jones

28. Mr. Bentley – He builds fast trucks.Ettore Bugatti
29. Why worry about death, it’ll come sooner or later. - Jim Dunn
30. Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary… that’s what gets you. Jeremy Clarkson


31. Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built. - Henry Ford
32. As far as cheating goes, they’ll never stop it. The only way it can be done successfully, only one person can know about it.Smokey Yunick
33. It’s like flying jet fighters in a gymnasium - Dick Trickle was asked what racing at Windchester Speedway was like.

34. You can’t fix stupid - Larry Morgan, NHRA Pro Stock driver
35. You can tell that you’re in trouble when you feel the air on the back of your neck instead of in your face. - Buddy Baker
36. I got hit in the head pretty hard. My clock ran backwards for two years. - Buddy Baker

37. He ran out of talent about halfway through the corner.Buddy Baker
38. After the third flip, I lost control………… - Don Roberts after crashing in the Jade Grenade at New England Dragway in 1975.
39. We worked 80 hour weeks for 30 years to keep from having to get a real job.Tom Lemon’s comment on the rigors of being a drag racing.


40. It’s basically the same, just darker. - Alan Kulwicki, on racing Saturday nights as opposed to Sunday afternoons.
41. Auto racing is boring except when a car is going at least 172 miles per hour upside down. - Dave Barry
42. If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari.Gilles Villeneuve


43. There are seven winners of the Monaco Grand Prix on the starting line today, and four of them are Michael Schumacher.Murray Walker
44. When I raced a car last it was at a time when sex was safe and racing was dangerous. Now, it’s the other way round. - Hans Stuck
45. I love this kind of racing, (but) these guys sure change their personalities in race mode. They’re like Doberman Pinschers with a hand grenade in their mouths. – Road racer Boris Said speaking of NEXTEL Cup drivers.


46. The crashes people remember, but drivers remember the near misses.Mario Andretti
47. When I started racing my father told me, ‘Cristiano, nobody has three balls but some people have two very good ones. - Cristiano Da Matta
48. Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into their cars than any racer ever will. Lose on the track, and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey, and you go to jail. Junior Johnson, NASCAR legend, and one time whiskey runner.


49. There have been other tracks that separated the men from the boys. This is the track that will separate the brave from the weak after the boys are gone. – Driver Jimmy Thompson speaking about Daytona International Speedway.
50. Winning is everything. The only ones who remember you when you come second are your wife and your dog. Damon Hill
http://www.juliasantengallery.com/php/getthumb.php?refnum=1764
51. “Racing Is Life. Anything That Happens Before or After is Just Waiting.”...The headline quote is a favorite line from Steve McQueen’s character in the movie Le Mans. It sums up well my current state of mind.
http://www.petersen.org/imgs/carroll_shelby.jpg
52. “Thank god there’s no 48-hour race anywhere in the world, because chances are nobody could beat Porsche in a 48 hour race. They’re probably the only cars in the world that would stand up for something like that.” – Carroll Shelby, quoted in Porsche advertising brochure, 1972.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Porsche, There Is No Substitute - Risky Business

Warner Bros. film - "Risky Business" a 1983 teen comedy-drama film written by Paul Brickman. It is best known for being the film that launched Tom Cruise to stardom.

Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is a tame high school student who lives with his wealthy parents in the North Shore area of suburban Chicago. His father wants him to attend Princeton University, his alma mater, so Joel participates in Future Enterprise's, an extracurricular activity in which students work in teams to create small businesses. When his parents go away on a trip, Joel's friend Miles (Curtis Armstrong) convinces him to take advantage of his new found freedom by having some fun.

On the first night, he raids the liquor cabinet, plays the stereo loudly, and dances around the living room in his underwear and pink dress shirt to the tune of "Old Time Rock and Roll". Another night, he races his father's Porsche 928, despite his parents' explicit instruction to drive only his mother's car.Tom Cruise breaks it down in Risky business... showin' the ladies how to work it....dances around the living room in his underwear and pink dress shirt to the tune of "Old Time Rock and Roll".

Quest for "Risky Business" 928 Porsche

 

Posted via web from dedeporsche's posterous

Monday, April 26, 2010

Porsche Motorsport - POC El Toro Airbase Road Course 2010

Video of the Porsche Owner's Club at the Orange County Great Park – Old El Toro Marine Airstrip on March 13th & 14th, 2010. This is a professionally designed 2.14 mile high-speed road course with 15 corners, elevation changes, and painted curbing. The track is smooth and clean, minimizing rock chips! Racing through the heart of Orange County without getting a speeding ticket!
PORSCHE OWNERS CLUB

 

Posted via web from dedeporsche's posterous

Sunday, April 25, 2010

From Road to Sky: The Porsche FlugMotoren, Auto Engines that Fly

pfm-world-ad-1

Engines from road-going vehicles often prove to be good for powering aircraft.  

Porsche PFM 3200

The Porsche FlugMotoren (Porsche Aero Engines) was either sort of a disaster, or a total disaster, depending on who you ask.

At least they look cool. PFM in a Mooney M20L.

At least they look cool. PFM in a Mooney M20L.

Derived from the road-going 911’s 3.0 liter flat six, you’d think the PFM would make the planes it flew in seem like P-51 Mustangs. Instead, it was the answer to a question that no one asked: can someone build a heavy, complicated, expensive, and unreliable engine for my light plane? Porsche's PFM 3200 was a six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled aircraft engine developed from their air-cooled line of automobile engines from the famous Porsche 911 sports car. The PFM designation was derived from the name of the division that designed the engines, Porsche-Flugmotoren (~ Porsche Flight Engines).

pfm-engine

Air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally-opposed piston engine

In the 1950s, European light aircraft builders began adapting the air-cooled automobile engines from Porsche and Volkswagen into aircraft engines with a series of limited modifications. Porsche cooperated with some of these builders and produced a series of factory-built engines for about six years between 1957 and 1963, the Porsche 678 series. These relatively small engines displaced about 1.6 litres (97 cubic inches) and produced between 55 and 70 horsepower, depending on the version.

Porsche decided to re-enter the aviation market with much larger engines derived from the Porsche 911, starting development in 1981.   As the engines ran at higher speed than most aircraft engine designs, the propeller drive used a 0.442:1 reduction gearing so it could drive common propellers. The high operating speed meant the engine ran more smoothly than older designs, and the use of a muffler meant it was quieter as well. With about 3.2 litres (195 cubic inches) displacement, the normally-aspirated N-series models produced about 210 hp, while the turbocharged T-series produced about 240 hp. This was roughly twice the horsepower of a conventional lower-rpm design of the same size. With single-lever operation, fully aerobatic fuel and oil supplies, direct fuel injection with automatic altitude compensation and optional turbocharging, the PFM 3200 series were some of the most advanced engines on the market.

After being introduced in late 1985 and starting to generate increasing interest in the general aviation (GA) market, Porsche exited the field during the massive downturn in the market in the late 1980s, closing the lines in 1991. It is suggested that the program cost them US$75 million to develop and produce the small number of engines delivered (about 80).  Although marketed for only a short period, the PFM was found on a variety of aircraft as the primary powerplant, or as one-off modifications. These included the Extra 330, Mooney M20L, Socata TB-16, Robin DR400, Ruschmeyer MF-85 and others. Only the M20L went into production, with 40 produced in 1988, and one more in 1989.

File:Porsche PFM 3200 aircraft engine.JPG
Porsche PFM 3200 aircraft engine in Technik Museum Speyer
 
Under United States law, where most of the engines were used, Porsche was required to continue to supply parts and maintenance for the engines. Instead, they claimed to have destroyed all spare parts and refuse to support the very engines they put into the marketplace. The company has even gone so far as to try and render the planes worthless by claiming the engines need certain parts replaced after a number of flight hours and then refusing to provide technical information so such parts could be privately manufactured.

 

porsche-branded-plane

So the PFM, ultimately, is the not-so-flugmotoren. It’s not really a good choice to put in anything, let alone an airplane. Surely there is some who would defend this engine.

[For more, see: Sequair.com, Wikipedia]


 

 
 
         
         
         
       

Posted via web from dedeporsche's posterous

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For Vistors to Northern California
Northern California Road Trip - Muir Woods, Redwood, Lassen and more!
Northern California Visitor Information

Start and end in San Francisco. Mileage does not include sightseeing. Take a journey that explores National Parks, Monuments, National Seashores and more! This road trip also includes Lake Tahoe and a beautiful drive along the coast. You may want to extend the time to visit the numerous state parks and tourist areas.

Approximate Mileage/Time: 1300 miles, 12 days

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