There were a few things that I could always depend on while growing up: Mom’s chocolate chip cookies, wedgies on the school bus, and my monthly issue of Car & Driver. It was a happy day for young Drew Karpinski when the mailman would deliver a fresh new car magazine. I had read it from cover-to-cover, including the letters, the ads, and most of all, the articles on all of the new cars. To this day, I can visualize the layout of these articles, the attention-grabbing cover headlines, and even the advertisements that seemed to appear in every magazine. Yes, it was a time when you could have 10 records for just a penny, California Car Covers were serving up sheep skins by the Benz-load, and eternal bliss was just a set of Kleen Wheels away!

I had not driven anything more powerful that a Big Wheel at this formative stage in my young life, so I obviously had no real experiences to validate anything of what I read, save for my passenger seat observations of whatever cars my dad had at the time. I would hang on to every word, except for those of which I had no clue of their meaning. Understeer? Oversteer? Trail braking? No problem for kids today…look it up on the iPad and read Wikipedia, or better yet, watch a YouTube tutorial. For me, though, I only had a Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and a set of World Books from 1972. Great for learning about the transformation of Europe or the pollination of a flower, but not so much for brake fade or sway bars. I would have to rely on context clues, and trust the overall opinions of the writers.

I can remember like it was yesterday getting dressed to go out and play in the snow as a kid. There was usually a turtleneck shirt involved, thermals, snow pants, snow jacket, gloves, boots, a hat (sometimes with a mask included), and a scarf. There would be so much snow on the ground, piled up by the plows from multiple storms, that we would have all of the materials we would need for a season of snow forts, snowmen, snow cones (don’t eat the yellow ones), snowball fights, and whatever else begins with “snow.” This was all winter long, too. There were snow days, early closing days, and those magical moments on snowy mornings when we would sit huddled on my parents bed, listening to school closings on AM radio. As soon as I heard the “Men-” of “Mendham,” I would react like I had won the lottery…and my mom would grimace as if she lost a bet.

I thought about all of this the other day as the kids and I washed the remaining bits of 2011 from my track car. I had followed the old adage last fall of “running it hard and putting it away dirty.” The paint still has black marks from all of those sticky Hoosiers and slicks in front of me (as I passed them, of course). A dog-eared Watkins Glen II tech sticker still adorns the center of my windshield, and a couple of water bottles roll around the floor of the passenger side. On this fine sixty-degree day in February, with the sun way up high in the sky and the water drops drying almost faster than I can take a towel to it, those old winter memories seem a world away. There has not been a snow day since October, and the kids’ boots still have tags on them. Pity for my kids, but not bad at all for me as I start to prepare my car for the long track season. Indeed, as distant as winter seemed, Lime Rock is dead ahead in my sights.

As you read this, we will be about a week from our season opener, at beautiful Lime Rock Park. I am already having those panic dreams like you get before a prom (I forgot to rent my tux!) or my graduation (I needed three more credits??), only this time I am waking up in my dream at 10am and missing a DE that I am supposed to be running. Maybe I’ll assign someone a wake up call function just to be safe.

Can you believe that it is March already? Where has the time gone this winter? When you are reading this, our opening day at Lime Rock will be scarcely 40 days away! If you have not uncovered your car, unplugged the Battery Tender, and started getting things ready, well, now would be the time. For many of us, the preparations for the track season can be a daunting task, both in effort and expense. Making matters worse, the economy is obviously not great, and not getting better anytime soon. Let’s face it, with the battle going on between the dynamic Mitt Romney and the enigmatic Newt Gingrich, the only things Barack has to worry about is picking a new Secretary of State, and deciding if the curtains in the Oval Office need to be updated. So with that, I decided to put together a compendium of sorts spanning the obvious to the overlooked. Here are some tips that I have accumulated over the years that may be of some help to you as you prepare for the season.

Buy early, buy often, buy wisely. There is no question that this hobby is expensive from a parts and maintenance standpoint. You can lessen the blow however, by picking things up well before you may need them and getting some deals along the way. Take brake pads, for example. For whatever reason, I always find myself in a time crunch, usually right before a track event, searching for the right pads for the car. I end up buying them at full retail, and then add insult and injury by needing expedited shipping. If you keep your eyes and ears open, though, there are often savings throughout the year. Shops will run sales, often in the winter months. You can also get great private sale deals. Many times a club member will change Porsches, and sell the extra parts from the former car in our Porscheforus Mart or the “for sale” section of our club website. Swap meets like our own NNJR “white elephant” sale every January, or the famous annual Saturdday Hershey show on April 21 are also great sources. Case in point, I watched a fellow club member this past weekend at the white elephant pick up two sets of new Pagid front pads for “Big Red” brakes, plus a set of rears, for $100! Full retail on those Pagids is easily more than $800. Another example is motor oil. Many Porsches use tried and true Mobil 1 synthetic oil and if you have a 911, you are buying eleven quarts of it for each oil change. Buying it when it is on sale, or in bulk five-quart containers, can literally cut the price in half, from around $9 a quart to $4.50. You can apply this logic to almost anything, of course, the common theme is to avoid waiting to the last minute to buy things you need. Stock up on those expendables that you know you will need throughout the season. Do not forget about bottled water and sun block, either.