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.

Since before I could drive, I always wanted a Porsche 911. But not just any 911 though, I wanted a Red Targa, as that always seemed the most aesthetically correct combination. I had this want long after Red Targas fell out of fashion. Heck, even after air-cooled Porsches fell out of fashion. I also wanted a Red Ferrari 308 Targa, but that is a different story.

Then one day in 1997 my better half and I were at a used car lot investigating a Mercedes 300TD to replace our dying commuter car. And there it was: a slightly rough looking but beautifully classic red 1974 Porsche 911 Targa. My childhood desire was for a later car, complete with obligatory whale tail, but this was better! I forgot they even used to have brushed stainless Targa bars! I had to have it! It was cheap (relatively) and I justified it by saying that I always wanted to have a project car to work on and that this was just a glorified Beetle. Right? Well that argument worked and both the Benz and Porsche came home with us.