October 2017 SPINNER. Schönesland Region Porsche Club of America. Page 1

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1 October 2017 SPINNER Schönesland Region Porsche Club of America Page 1

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Schonesland Officers & Board Members...3 President s Apex... 4 Recap: Concours d Elegance... 5 TIme for a new car?... 7 Recap: Rotary s Oktoberfest... 8 A Note about Facebook... 9 Events Calendar Porsche of Omaha NOTICE: The Spinner newsletter name and content herein are copyright protected and may not be reproduced without SL-PCA s express written permission. All logos belong to their respective owners. Porsche, the Porsche Crest, Targa, Boxster, Carrera, Cayenne, Cayman, Panamera, Tiptronic, VarioCam, PCM, 911, 4S, are trademarks of Porsche AG. This newsletter is only for our Iowa Subscribers. We do not intend to establish contacts or enter into any contracts outside of the State of Iowa. INFORMATION IN THIS NEWSLETTER IS PROVIDED AS IS WITH NO WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Inclusion of an advertisement or Internet link in these pages does not imply any endorsement of the services or the site, it s contents, or it s sponsoring organization. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Spinner, the Porsche Club of America, the Schonesland Region of the Porsche Club of America, its officers, newsletter editors, or webmaster. Classified ads are welcome from SL-PCA members. Nonprofessional, non-corporate sale of personal Porscherelated items only. Classified cost is FREE!! Editor reserves right to limit ad size due to space limitations. Please jeff.t.david@gmail.com for more information. Page 2

3 SCHONESLAND OFFICERS & BOARD MEMBERS Will MacFarland President David Safris Vice President/ SPINNER Editor/ Webmaster Terri Johnson Secretary Doug Hillman Treasurer Bob Timmerman Membership Chair Garry Seemann Safety Chair Julienne Krennrich Social Media Chair Tom Rusk Club Historian Ron Newman Tour Director Jeff David Former President Mary Alice Hill Former President ZONE 10 Julie Bailey Zone 10 Representative Page 3

4 President s Apex Will MacFarland President There are leaves on my lawn, which means autumn is well and truly here. Tops down, windows and throttles open the cool, dense air makes for just incredible driving. Think about getting your order for winter tires in early! We had a great September, with an especially fantastic turnout for the Des Moines Concours D Elegance and when I say fantastic turnout I mean in both cars and volunteers! Thanks and kudos to all who participated. We were also well-represented at two community fundraising car shows, at BeerStyles West Glen and at Principal Park. It feels great to be at the helm of such a vibrant, supportive organization. October has long been host to one of our signature club events the Fall Tour! This year is no different, and tour boss Ron Newman has worked diligently to put together another high-quality experience that more than 30 members have already committed to and no doubt anticipate eagerly. To everyone going: be sure to take pictures of the bold fall colors and share them on Facebook! The tour departs Des Moines on Friday, October 13th. Our neighbors in the Great Plains Region are celebrating their region s 50th Anniversary with a party at the Hilton Omaha on Saturday, October 21. They ve gone so far as to have secured the presence of legendary Porsche racing driver Hurley Haywood! Per their website, the soiree is open to GPR members only, but I ve got a very nicely-worded request in with their organizers to see if we can t get a few spots. Our calendar of monthly events is a little non-standard this month, so stay sharp! Drive & Dine is up first on Tuesday, October 17th, at Hickory Park in Ames. Cars & Coffee is on a non-standard date (Saturday, October 21st) this month to avoid conflict with the Fall Tour. The board meeting shifts this month, too, due to Halloween we will handle club business on Tuesday, October 24th. Less than two months remain before another signature Schonesland event the Holiday Party! We re back at Embassy Suites Des Moines this year, with overnight stays available for the preposterously low price of $79! Mark your calendars, dust off your formal wear, and keep an eye out for registration, which will open soon on MotorsportReg.com. Lastly, remember that club leadership adjusts over the winter, and we conduct our annual planning meeting in January. If anyone is interested in taking on a board role (or has suggestions regarding anything the club does), please confer with any board member. The bigger the board, the more fun the meetings and the more varied and exciting our events become we always welcome new brains, new ideas, and new suggestions. Stay safe out there. Kia: Stinger sedan is a long-wheelbase, rear-drive, serious-looking piece coming to US dealers in December with a base price of $33k for the turbo four and $48k for the top-end AWD 3.3 turbo six. Australia is salivating over this -- they love cheap, fast, rear-drive sedans, as everyone should. Lamborghini: Huracan gets faster with more power and a trick fixed rear wing. Aventador gets rear-wheel steering. Urus SUV is coming soon on the Bentayga architecture, sporting a twin-turbo 650hp V8. Land Rover: Chris Harris has gone on record saying he doesn t care about the Range Rover Velar, but lately I can t stop staring at Rovers and this isn t helping my problem. The Velar has three optional engines but only one makes sense (the 380hp supercharged six from the F-Type) and it slots above the Evoque but below the Sport in the Range Rover lineup. Prices start at $50k but the one you want is easily mid-sixties. Lincoln: Navigator is all-new for 2018, looks far better, and gets a 10-speed auto (also appearing in some new F-150s) paired with a 3.5L EcoBoost V6. There are many things you can buy for seventy-five to one hundred thousand dollars -- this is one of them. Page 4

5 Recap: Des Moines Concours d Elegance Many thanks to the volunteers who turned out for the annual Des Moines Concours d Elegance on September 10th. The weather was once again amazing and the cars did not disappoint. Club member Peter Kovacevich even snagged an award with his beautiful red (Pictured on the cover of this Spinner). Jackie and Michael Nickolaus spearheaded the volunteer effort and everything ran perfectly. The after party at Star Bar for the volunteers was a great way to round out the day. Club member Drew Hillman coordinated the drive again this year and had 65 cars participating. Wow. Enjoy some pictures from the event. Page 5

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7 Time for a new car? Will MacFarland President For me, the most obvious indication of the macropassage of time is my two boys. They nonchalantly toss ever-more complex words and sentences at me every day, they type almost as fast as I do, they are suddenly so tall that it s easier to throw them over my shoulder and carry them like logs than it is to carry them upright, and lastly excitingly whereas in the past their toes barely touched the floor when sitting in the rear seats of the 996, now their knees are pushed up past the horizontal plane, even with soles flat. It must be almost time for a new car, right? Can t have the kids be uncomfortable, right? This is a convenient excuse to drive some of my prospects, among them the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. I m not usually a pickup-truck guy, but the ZR2 is remarkably compelling. In short-box crew-cab form, it seats 5 with just over five feet of cargo bed out back. It s offered with a four-cylinder diesel engine making 369 pound-feet of torque at just 2,000 revs, but that engine adds over three thousand extra dollars to the MSRP, and you sacrifice horsepower for all that torque the Duramax s 181 horses are realistically not enough to keep all 4,758 pounds of ZR2 at equal pace with highway traffic. My choice is GM s ubiquitous but respectable LFX aluminum-block gasoline V6, displacing 3.6 liters and producing (in the ZR2 s case) 308 horsepower and 275 torques while itself weighing 226 pounds less than the iron-block diesel. The LFX also gets two more gears in its transmission eight versus the diesel s six. The ZR2 s real party trick isn t its powertrain, though it s the Multimatic DSSV (Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve) shocks that come as standard. Multimatic makes most of their money putting their trick shocks on high-dollar race cars and when I say high-dollar race cars, I mean cars such as Sebastian Vettel s ridiculously dominant Red Bull Formula 1 machine. However (as good racing technology tends to) Multimatic s efforts have trickled down to some road cars, for example the Camaro Z/28. Multimatic s factory in Toronto is also, wouldn t you know it, the primary assembly location for the current Ford GT supercar. When bolted to the ZR2, the Multimatic DSSVs make the midsize pickup s ride incredibly compliant. I happened to test-drive the ZR2 on a lonely stretch of road that periodically was interrupted by sections coned-off for repair, requiring me to drop some wheels off the tarmac to navigate around. I was reminded of the episode of Top Gear where the trio drive through Albania in top-end luxury sedans at one point, driving on a rocky dirt road, James remarks from the comfortable driver s seat of his Rolls- Royce Ghost, As far as I m concerned, the road merely changes color occasionally. From the helm of a Colorado ZR2, the surface passing beneath you has absolutely no effect on the sensation you experience as you glide effortlessly over it. It s uncanny. The truck is plenty fast enough, capable of 0-60 in 7.1 seconds and a quarter-mile in It sounds unobtrusively okay with the stock exhaust, and the available Performance Exhaust offered by Chevrolet nudges the acoustics firmly into the good category. The truck doesn t feel excessively wide or tall or long from behind the steering wheel, either, so it s easy to fit into normal gaps in traffic, garages, and parking spots. There are a zillion accessories and ways to customize it, so it can be configured to do just about anything. The ZR2 tows less than its plain-jane Colorado brethren (5,000 lbs versus 7,000) but that s still capacity enough for a light trailer and a track car. It should be an easy transition for my boys. They ll simply transition from being admired at school as they go home in the back of a sports car to being admired at school as they go home in the back of the neighborhood Stadium Super Truck. Oh, did I forget to mention? It does sweet jumps. Page 7

8 Recap: West Des Moines Rotary Oktoberfest Nine Porsches and their drivers gathered on Saturday, Sept. 23rd at the West Des Moines Rotary Club Oktoberfest at Beer Styles in West Glen. Our Porsches were front and center at the entrance to West Glen for all to see. Schoneslanders enjoyed sampling craft beers from several Iowa breweries along with brats and german potato salad. Add to that car talk and a fun time was had by all. Also on September 23rd - Schonesland members helped raise funds for the Alzheimer s Association by showing their vehicles at the Drive Down Memory Lane event at Principal Park. Our members enjoyed contributing to a worthy cause while admiring a wide variety of gleaming cars and chatting with attendees. The event raised $6, for the Alzheimer s Association of Greater Iowa! Page 8

9 A quick note about the Schonesland Facebook page. Porsche Club America (PCA) has challenged the local clubs to keep tight control of content on their social media accounts. The Schonesland Facebook page is our primary social media platform and the page has grown over the years and is now a very useful tool in connecting members and distributing information. Along with content control in this account the question has been raised regarding who can be a member of our private Schonesland page. For those of you who may not know the process, a Facebook user must request to be a member of our private page and then manually be approved by the Schonesland Facebook page administrators. Going forward we will limit the Schonesland page to only Schonesland PCA members. Other non Schonesland members may be accepted to the page if they meet some simple criteria. Examples meeting this criteria: Local vendors who sponsor Schonesland activities. Event venues that Schonesland members might utilize. PCA members from neighboring regions that want visibility into our club. Etc. We will also allow individuals to give us the name of a current Schonesland member that would basically sponsor their being added to our Facebook group. The idea here is there is no way that our Facebook administrators can track all potential members, vendors, venues, etc. So, a simple challenge of Do you know someone in the club? Seems a reasonable question to ask people that are requesting membership. We hope to continue successfully using Facebook and will continue to monitor for best ways to control the access and content of the page. Page 9

10 Events Calendar October 2017 Fri 10/13 -- Schonesland Fall Tour; 4 PM 10/13-6:15 PM 10/15 Sat 10/14 -- Schonesland Cars & Coffee; 8-10 AM Tues 10/17 -- Schonesland Drive & Dine; 6:30-8:30 PM Tues 10/24 -- Schonesland Board Meeting; 6 PM-8 PM November 2017 Sat 11/11 -- Schonesland Cars & Coffee; 8-10 AM Tues 11/14 -- Schonesland Drive & Dine; 6:30-8:30 PM Tues 11/21 -- Schonesland Board Meeting; 6 PM-8 PM December 2017 Sat 12/2 -- Schonesland Holiday Party; 6 PM-10 PM Sat 12/9 -- Schonesland Cars & Coffee; 8-10 AM On Facebook? So are we. Join the Schonesland Facebook page by searching Schonesland Region of the PCA and hitting the Join button, then share your favorite Porsche photos or car related items. Page 10

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