What’s New
The resistance of a car to leaning, or roll, while cornering is a primary factor in how a car behaves. There are two reasons for this: Roll affects how the tires touch the pavement and relative roll resistance determines how much weight transferred each corner of the car will carry in a corner. It is clear that a car’s body roll influences grip by tilting the tires on the pavement, but tires are also sensitive to how much vertical load is placed on them. More load equates to more grip, but the tire is also less efficient. Increasing the roll resistance of one axle of a car causes more load to be transferred at that axle, making the tires on that axle work less efficiently. It is this principle you work with by stiffening or softening the chassis. Sway bars and shocks are part of a car’s roll resistance. They are commonly adjustable and work in different ways to affect a car’s behavior.
Oktoberfest is not only celebrated in the homeland of Porsche, but also here in New Jersey at the Deutscher Club in Clark, NJ. This year NNJR was again invited to participate in their final biergarten fest of the season on September 30. The Deutscher Club, in conjunction with NNJR, sponsored a lively dinner, complete with German food, plenty of beer, and a traditional oompah band, in combination with a people’s choice concours event.
After what seemed like a summer of continuous rain, we finally lucked out and had great weather for our Oktoberfest celebration – at least before 9:00pm after which, you guessed it, it started to drizzle. This in no way, however, hampered the enjoyment of the NNJR members who turned out for this fete. Once again we had an outstanding turnout of spectacular Porsches that our members put on display for all of the Deutscher Club attendees to view and enjoy.
Jeff McFadyen took first place in the people’s choice concours with his outstanding 1957 356 outlaw. Murray and Akemi Kane took second place with their always immaculate 1994 911 coupe, and Anthony Cristello took third place with his beautiful metallic blue 1989 911 turbo.
All right, not really but that sounded cool. Actually what happens at our events at the Meadowlands is talked about, debated and argued for several months after each event. We use what we learned to tweak our cars, our attitudes and most of all our reputations albeit strictly in our own minds. Yes, we can tell our friends and loved ones how incredibly fast we are and how knowledgeable we are but sooner or later the results (granted mostly later and sometimes never) get posted. OK boys and girls, this is one of those times when if you read all of our articles on preparation and strategy and got a good nights sleep in advance of the event and put your heart and soul into it, you actually have the right to brag that you are the fastest in your class (not kindergarten) on any given Sunday, especially July 31, 2011. Oh yes, these are actual results from that event. And by the way a special thanks to our X class and Audi Club drivers for bringing it and laying it all out there. Most of all the course setters for us this season were led by Perry Adlebaum of SCCA fame and our own Robert Ida.
