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

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Porsche People - Porsche Owners Club at El Toro

DREAM PORSCHE

~Russian River Fun Run ~ Sat, June 19th, 2010 - PCA - San Francisco

..North of the Golden Gate Bridge via Panoramic Hwy, Ridgecrest Rd to the famous twisty Bolinas-Fairfax Road via the Shoreline Hwy 1 straight up to Occidental for lunch, drive after lunch along the Russian River & Bohemain Hwy to Goat Rock Pacific Coast Hwy 1 to Bodega Bay

Russian River Fun Run- Saturday, June 19th, 2010 - San Francisco Bay Area PCA Regions
I lead a tour from the Golden Gate Bridge up to Occidental/Russian River with a fantastic group
of San Francisco Bay Area PCA members. Awesome day!

~~Brief description of drive up to Occidental for Lunch~~


Click the  image to open in full size.


Meeting area at the Golden Gate Bridge "Vista Point" parking lot, then headed north to Mill Valley, via Shoreline Hwy 1 to the Panoramic Hwy. Cruised through Mt.Tamalpais State Park via Ridgecrest Road (view is spectacular). Took the famous twisty Bolinas-Fairfax Road to Shoreline Hwy 1 north towards Pt. Reyes as our 1st Pit stop was at Point Reyes Visitor Center/Pt. Reyes Station. Merged in with PCA Diablo region group, then headed north on Shoreline Hwy 1 to Freestone, where we met PCA Redwood Region. Had lunch in Occidental at the Union Hotel. After a fantastic lunch (PCA-RR, Ron Breeze organized) Ron lead the way on the beautiful Bohemian Hwy out to Goat Rock on the Pacific Coast Hwy 1, where we had a photo opportunity and then drove south to Bodega Bay.

Great food, great people, great cars, great roads, great weather....what more could you ask for!

"It's not just the cars, it's the people too!"


Here we are at the first meeting place north east side of the Golden Gate Bridge (Vista Point)
...great picture from Mike! Mike's silver 911 is parked next to Troomi's awesome Boxster (speed yellow)

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x283.

Click the image to open in full size.

At Point Reyes Station, Shoreline Hwy 1 - merging with other group (PCA Diablo Region) organized bt Tito Y., we filled up the whole side street and more...all in all maybe 42+ Porsches!......close to 60 people.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x345.

Click the image to open in full size.
Photo by Mike B.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x501.

Click the image to open in full size.
Photo by Mike B.

 

Headed north on shoreline Hwy 1...James in the Red Boxster, Troomi in the Speed Yellow Boxster,
Mary (aka as DreamMachines) in the black Honda and
you can barely see me in front (Dede) the Pastel yellow Boxster leading the group.. Click  the image to open in full size.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x848.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Mike B.
Looks like Jeremy in front of SteveW & Rhonda in their new 911...beautiful car! Click  the image to open in full size.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Click the image to open in full size.
Photo by Mike B

MORE....
from Steven S.
Click the image to open in full size.

Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point Parking lot - photo taken by Steven S.

Click the image to open in full size.

Point Reyes Station - photo taken by Steven S.

Click the image to open in full size.

Point Reyes Visitor Center - photo taken by Steven S.
Click the image to open in full size.

Point Reyes Station - photo taken by Steven S.

Click the image to open in full size.

Goat Rock Beach, Sonoma County, California - photo taken by Steven S.

Click the image to open in full size.

- photo taken by Steven S.

Click the image to open in full size.

photo taken by Steven S.

Click this bar to view the full image.

Click the image to open in full size.

me..... photo taken by Steven S. 

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.


me in the red hat....
Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.

Photo by Jacquie L.Click the image to open in full size.

all the yellow together...(me - pastel yellow)


Photo by Jacquie L.

Click the image to open in full size.


Photo by Jacquie L.
 
Click the image to open in full size.

Dede leading the group. Pastel Yellow Boxster in front.

Photo by Jacquie L.


Click the image to open in full size.

Goat Rock State Park - Pacific Coast Highway 1 - mouth of the Russian River, Sonoma County, California

Photo by Jacquie L.

 

 
Northern California - Porsche Club of America regions
Click the image to open in full size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted via email from Northern California Porsche Backroad Destinations

Thursday, June 17, 2010

911 GT3 R Hybrid - 24 electrifying hours at the Ring

"Porsche – The 911 GT3 R Hybrid delivered a storming debut and led until hour 22, when a technical problem brought the fairytale to a premature end. So no laurels this time - but we didn't plan to rest on them anyway. Bring on 2011!..." This video relives the dramatic events of the 24 Hour Race at the Nürburgring. Although the 911 GT 3 R Hybrid failed to score a sensational victory, it showed the potential of Porsche Intelligent Performance at the ring. For more information click on http://www.porsche.com/intelligent-performance

Posted via web from dedeporsche's posterous

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Inside Racing - Faces: The Gangs of LeMans

Audi and Peugeot???? ...... the duel of the year.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Porsche TranSport Pickup Truck - concept

Designer Nouphone J. Bansasine knows that Porsche already has a Porsche Panamera sedan, the Cayenne SUV, and a sports car line up. Now comes the time for a new Porsche TranSport!

May 23, 2010 — This concept focus upon for high end market buyer. To achieve the concept strategy, below is his proposal to design the Porsche TransSports Premium Truck to be more power, sophisticated, premium and better handling performance than the rest of the competitors. The ultimate goal is to gain the consumers interest and trust in Porsche.He believes this proposal will achieve not only its estimated growth in the prestigious image statement but also the overall branding of the Porsche quality product. Unlike in the past, the automotive industry is highly sophisticated and technology advanced. As a result, consumers demand more and the automotive industry are challenged with competing for consumers loyalty.
Engine Displacement
1.The engine locates behind the occupants underneath the truck bed..
2.Front hood will be used for a trunk and available space for gas tank.
3.Transmission locates underneath the truck bed.
4.Combustion Powered is in consideration.
5.Engine flat six
Designer: Nouphone J. Bansasine
Yankodesign 2010 Porsche for Hauling

 

Posted via web from dedeporsche's posterous

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

What If Porsche Made a Pickup Truck?

Ever wondered what it might be like to pull a trailer at 120 mph on the German autobahn?
Neither have I, but designer Nouphone J. Bansasine apparently has. He's created a new vehicle idea for Porsche's lineup: a pickup truck.It's called the Porsche TranSport Truck, and it's supposed to be the ultimate fusion of luxury and load-carrying capability.

Bansasine figures that since Porsche is selling SUVs and recently added a four-door sport sedan, why not a pickup, too? We'll let you answer that question. Maybe Porsche could base it off the VW Amarok? In the meantime, we're going to imagine hitting the Nürburgring after the next trip to Home Depot.

Porsche Pickup Truck Rendering

Porsche Pickup Truck Rendering

I'm sure it would come with lots of cool tech; air lift suspention, paddle shift 6 speed etc, an all wheel drive system close to what the SUV has.

I wouldn't buy one, but I bet there is people out there who would.

[Source: Bit Rebels]

via news.pickuptrucks.com

 

Posted via web from dedeporsche's posterous

$180,000 Porsche goes through a garage door! - Reporter's son crashes Porsche

 
This Porsche Turbo boasts 500 horsepower, a leather-lined cockpit and a 330 km/h top end* (*Unless jammed under a garage door).
Photo Credits:
Peter Cheney/The Globe and Mail
Peter Cheney's son drove a $180,000 Porsche through the garage door while attempting to check out the stereo. Take an expensive sports car, a curious teen and a garage door – and mix together to get one very embarrassed automotive writer

Peter Cheney
Globe and Mail
Some moments are lived backwards. The great ones run through your mind like a favourite movie. Then there are the other kind, where you try to roll back the clock – like the afternoon my teenage son launched a brand new Porsche Turbo through our garage door.
So far, I have not managed to invent a time machine, go back, and snatch the key from his hands (and in case you were wondering, the car goes for $180,000, not including freight, tax or a new garage).
That day began with deceptive perfection. I woke up in a sunlit bedroom next to my beautiful wife. We had celebrated 26 years of marriage just the day before. Our cherry tree was in full blossom, and in the garage, locked away like a crown jewel, was a 2010 Porsche 997 Turbo, the latest (and costliest) in a long series of test cars.
When I decided to transition into automotive journalism after more than two and a half decades of news reporting, no one was happier than my son Will. Instead of telling his friends his dad was in Afghanistan (or at a murder scene) he could bring them over to check out the latest ride.
My new trade did have its perils, which include the creeping cynicism of the professional test driver. An auto journalist’s existence is like a mechanized version of Hugh Hefner’s – when you are presented with an endless cavalcade of automotive beauties, you can easily become jaded.
Now I had the Turbo, the car that every driving aficionado and pension raider dreams of – 500 horsepower, leather-lined cockpit and a 330 km/h top end. Until I drove it, I’d been a little skeptical – I’d seen too many Turbos employed as male enhancement devices by hobbit-looking accountants who couldn’t even drive a stick shift.
But the previous day, I had taken it to Mosport racetrack for a high-speed lapping session where it inhaled other cars like so many insects – when they saw the Turbo in their mirror, most simply pulled over to let us pass, acknowledging the Porsche as the alpha car.

I was experiencing the acme of German engineering. The Turbo had launched me up Mosport’s kinked back straightaway at more than 250 km/h, then purred back to the city through rush hour traffic, as though it had been magically converted from a race car into a Honda Civic. Best of all, my Turbo was a purist’s model, with a six-speed manual transmission – a factor that would play a key role in the events that were about to unfold.
It was early afternoon. Will had just returned from summer job hunting, accompanied by a friend. I was in my home office, writing and looking out at the green park in front of our house. That morning, Will and I had appeared together in a Globe Drive column called A Hockey Dad’s Last Ride that commemorated his 14 years in minor hockey.

Will stuck his head into the office and asked me if he could show his buddy the Turbo. I told him to go ahead. He and his friends always checked out my cars. Their main focus seemed to be the interior and stereo systems – details I barely cared about.
I went back to my computer. My car buddies knew I’d been at the track with the Turbo, and they wanted my verdict. I told one it was like a tiger in an Armani suit – killer chassis, unbeatable power, but suave and comfortable, too.
I shut down my computer and prepared to head to the office, smiling at the thought of a few minutes in the Turbo. As I headed out the back door, I saw my son running toward the house. His eyes were the size of dinner plates. He sputtered: “Dad, the Porsche … the Porsche …”
I thought the Turbo had been stolen. Our garage has a full security system, but this is one of the most desirable cars in the world, so you never know. Will tried to speak again. “The Turbo rolled into the door….” I walked past him into the garage.
For nearly a minute, I was too dumbfounded to speak. The Turbo hadn’t rolled into the door – it had launched itself through the entire structure. In a distance of approximately four feet, the Turbo had developed enough kinetic energy to blow the entire door apart. Parts of the roller mechanism were scattered through the alley. Dazed, I picked up a bent metal piece – it looked like a Crazy Bone, a toy Will had collected as a little boy.
When I parked it, the Turbo had been pristine. Now it looked like the car from Dukes of Hazzard after a chase through the southern backwoods. Stunned, I surveyed the damage. The hood was raked with gouges, the top of the right front fender was flattened, and the driver’s door (which is made from aluminum to save weight) had taken a beating. Worst of all was the rear fender, which had hit the concrete door frame as the Turbo launched itself into the alley – it looked like a giant blacksmith had smacked it with a sledge hammer.
Like a man surfacing from a deep dive, I slowly returned to reality. I yelled at my son for a minute or two. Then it was time to make some phone calls. Will stood in the garage, quaking. I dialled Rick Bye, a professional race driver who manages the Porsche press fleet. The day before, he had been with me in the Turbo at Mosport, teaching me the fastest line around the track and making sure I didn’t destroy his car. After decades of racing and dealing with idiot journalists, Mr. Bye has seen almost everything there is to see in the car business. But as he turned the corner into my alley, he was greeted by a new first: the nose of a $180,000 high-performance car projecting halfway into the lane, with a shattered garage door draped over it like a curtain.
Mr. Bye quietly surveyed the scene for a minute. Then he walked over to my son. “Stuff happens,” he said. “We’re glad you’re okay. This is only a car. You don’t need a lecture. You already know.”


Porsche 911 the ultimate everyday supercar

Click here to read Jeremy Cato's recent review of the Porsche 911 Turbo. His remained unscathed, and was returned intact.

Now Mr. Bye and I were both on our cellphones. He was talking to Porsche’s insurance company. I was trying to find someone who could get the garage door off the Turbo and get my garage closed up for the night – it was filled with mechanic’s tools and my homebuilt airplane project. If we left it open, we’d be picked clean by the morning.
I found three companies that advertised 24-7 emergency service. That was a joke – none of them could come within the next two days. Then I remembered my contractor, Marty Edge. Six years ago, he rebuilt my house. Now he works full time for David Thomson (yes, the one you’re thinking of) on his properties around the world.
Luckily, Marty was in Toronto. An hour later, he was at my garage, along with a door expert named Frank Dyer. The cavalry had arrived. I was starting to feel a little better. Frank used the remains of our ruined door to close up the opening. Will had never used power tools before, but Frank put him to work driving screws.
As the dust settled, my wife and I confronted the parenting issues that attended the disaster. What was the appropriate punishment for a boy who trashes a car worth $180,000? Friends were flooding us with stories of costly child screw-ups – like the son who flushed an action figure down a toilet, creating a deluge that caused more than $100,000 damage to their house. A colleague told me how she damaged her parent’s brand-new van – she got distracted and rear-ended a truck filled with huge stones (driven by two women who were starting a rock garden project.)
I recalled a childhood friend who rolled a bowling ball off a garage roof (it seemed like a good idea at the time) only to have it land on his father’s newly restored Porsche 356. Another had totalled the family Mercedes by taking it out of gear and pulling off the handbrake – he jumped out as the car began to roll, and watched helplessly as it headed down their steeply sloped driveway, across the street, and into a ravine.

Peter Cheney test drives a Smart car 

Will’s ride through the door was getting around. I got an e-mail from a partner in a Bay St. communications firm: “Congratulations on your son’s Ferris Bueller moment,” it read. “ It’s all over town. There must be just a touch of parental pride that he has the sense of adventure, the stones, and the good taste to give it a try. That will be a wedding day story. Hope you got photos.”
Ferris Bueller had crossed my mind. There were some obvious parallels to the movie. Like Ferris, my son is a spirited, upbeat boy who loves a good time. And, also like Ferris, his coming-of-age story featured the ruination of an extremely valuable car. He had taken a four-foot, 500 horsepower ride to manhood.
We had a hard call to make. Would it be grounding for life? Let it go? Something in between? Will was a teenage boy. One of the world’s hottest cars had been sitting in our garage, calling to him like the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey. He had a friend to show off for. Will had taken the key, intending to turn on the stereo and navigation system, only to inadvertently fire up an engine that could launch the car to 100 km/h in just over three seconds. He didn’t know how to drive a standard. The outcome had been written in bent metal.
A lawyer friend who has known Will since he was 11 called me at the office. He was laughing so hard that he cried. In his view, Will had made a standard teenage mistake that happened to involve an expensive car. “He’s a great kid,” he said. “Give him a break.”
As I saw it, raising our boy was a lot like training a horse. I didn’t want to break his spirit and turn him into a pit pony. Neither did I want him to become El Diablo. I hoped he would end up as Secretariat – a disciplined champion.
My wife and I decided that Will would have to repay our insurance deductibles and discount losses by getting a summer job. The total would be about $750. Porsche’s deductible on the car was $10,000. I offered to pay it. Mr. Bye said no.
via theglobeandmail.com

Driving Tours

Driving Tours
Have a destination in mind ......? click on photo

Maps & Information

Useful Information

BAY AREA WEATHER FORECASTS:
Bay Area Weather

ACCUWEATHER CHANNEL up to date weather video:
Weather Channel

CALIFORNIA WEATHER WEBCAMS
Weather Webcam

CALIFORNIA AUTO NEWS & EVENTS WEBSITE
We Drive California

I have added great information on specific drives on Facebook.
Access the library on "Posted Items" of assorted drives/tours for the ideal trip best suited for the occasion.
Facebook
Enjoy!

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

More Porsche destinations will follow. Stay Tuned!




Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter

    Be sure to check back often for more backroad destinations!

    Pack up the car and enjoy California backroads through the breathtaking mountains, spectacular valleys, rugged coastlines, and dry desert plains of the Golden State. Have fun exploring California’s best scenic byways and back roads.



    NetworkedBlog