NE vs. NW

[Adam Wright]

Yeah, but when Cali runs out of water, oranges won't grow...

[C J Murray]

Hi Roy,
I have driven in that area many miles in the last 40 years. Speaking of rush hour...Rome is even better than LA. In the past many years we have visited my wife's brother in Anaheim, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Duarte, and now Rancho Cucamonga. The sports car/motorcycle canyon roads and the PCH I have always found to be crowded but when you get way far from LA some of the roads are nice. I have better roads where I live but I've seen much better roads still. The Lewis and Clark Highway along the Clearwater River in Idaho is unreal. You can run that road at Nurburgring speeds for 80miles steady before you come upon an obstacle. Just you and the fabulous road following the most pristine twisting river you will ever see. There is a road in Tuscany that the locals have nicknamed the "motorcycle university". It's around 50 miles of the most gnarly continuous curvy road on the planet. Up and down and all around with endless medium and slow speed corners. When you get finished dragging your motorcycle metal parts through all those corners you have to stop to regain your breath and take inventory of yourself....and to wait for the slow guys.

Good weather is nice, but. Even New Jersey has beautiful areas!

Cliff

[John Ward]

Yeah, but when Cali runs out of water, oranges won't grow...

Adam
That is a problem. The snowpack in the Sierras is better than years past, but it`s still 20% below normal. Thats alot of L.A.`s water supply.
I live by a Ski area and we are hurting for snow, and have been for quite a while.
There are some ski areas in the Tahoe area that haven`t opened for 2 years and thats really hurting the economy (food, lodging, etc.)

[Steve Harrison]

Drought?,...what drought?
We drilled a well in the Sierra Nevada mountains this past summer (Quincy, just north of Tahoe) and hit the motherlode.
Free flowing, artesian, and something over 95 gpm,...that's the highest the guy could measure. It came rocking up out of the ground like a gusher. I felt like Jed Clampet, and in some ways, it's true, water is the new resource we're gonna be fightin' over soon.
Lucky? yes. But like they say about oil, if you want to find it, you gotta know where to drill haha.
I love the NW and as a Porsche tie in, when I check the registry member list for Quincy (pop est 2,000+-) I find 3 members. My current town, Cartersville GA (pop 19,000) grand total of....one, me. Can't wait to move, but it'll be a few more years as the wife just got a job at Auburn. We might just be the first people in the history of the USA to retire TO California, not from it.

[C J Murray]

We might just be the first people in the history of the USA to retire TO California, not from it.

You have picked a beautiful area. You could move a little east to Nevada and live longer on your retirement savings. My sister lived in the SF area for 30 years and then moved to Eureka to marry her husband. That is very pretty up there even if it is known as "the people's republic of Arcadia" or is that "peoples republic of Humboldt". My sister retired to FL via 6 years of RVing full time. The exodus from CA is mostly a SoCal thing according to this study. There is a lot of data here which is very interesting as to which states are growing and which are shrinking and who is moving there, native or foreigner. They also assert that NoCal is far less volatile. Anybody curious about their state should take a look. I blame the Eagles for the PA numbers!

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html ... MkQ8cZDEUU

[James Davies]

Porsches are great in the snow! Always fun to rewatch this video of Jeff Zwart driving his '53 coupe on snowy Colorado roads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iQjTZvRWmg

[Gordon Maltby]

This thread seems to have been sidetracked. I thought we were talking about winter, snow and Porsches. Here on the frozen Tundra we make the best of winter and try to have some fun. I don't cross country ski or ice fish but for several years I ice raced. It's a tradition that goes back to the early 1950s when the St. Paul Winter Carnival had a feature race on Lake Phalen, where many 356s took part over the years. In the 1980s the sanctioning organization IIRA at one time attracted factory teams from Honda and Chevrolet to our frozen lakes. There were even some big-time drivers. My co-driver had the dubious honor of being T-boned by Geoff Brabham. We had a rear-drive Opel that was very competitive (and cheap) but the front drive car classes flew by us, up to 90 mph on the long straights. In my last year of racing (early '90s) I shared a Scirocco and while we weren't really competitive we had fun a on a budget.

At one race the track had been plowed on a relatively warm day and the mounds of snow edging the course turned to rock-like ice when the temp plummeted before the next day's race. Tires with special racing studs chew up the ice and create a blizzard of ice dust when a pack of cars are running together. At the end of a straight you'd better know where you're going, or just get into the slot-car ruts that develop in turns over the course of a race. I was at the end of such a pack going in to a left-hander, and with some fast cars behind me I went wide to let them by. Not being able to see, I hit the outer edge of the track and a bank of ice about 18 inches high. At about 65 mph it launched the car over the bank, onto its side and then onto its roof. As the windshield departed I was happy the car had stopped rotating but for what seemed like the longest time I slid along upside down, the car acting like a scoop shovel. With a foot of snow on the ground, it started to fill the car, then the opening in my helmet. There was a brief moment when I thought about how people die in avalanches but I finally, finally stopped. First order of business was to dig the snow out of my face, then the area around me as I hung up side down. Quickly help came and they got the car right side up, got me unstrapped and out of the car. It took quite a while to shovel out the interior. When the car owner came over I apologized for bending up his roof but he said, "Oh well. It's not the first time." These ice racers are a hardy bunch!

[C J Murray]

Gordon, great stuff! Here in PA we look at people living in Minnesota as being insane for putting up with the winters and mosquitoes(state bird). (the wink implies the hypocrisy of how we all criticize where others choose to live) Besides the ice racing, what do you enjoy about where you live, 356/car related or not? There are so many wonderful places to live in this country and I think people would be surprised how good life is in some of the less popular locations.

[Paul Ahnell]

Remember "Anticipation" and the ketchup commercial? This will taste all the sweeter come Springtime in N.E.

[DonCichocki]

Similar shot from northern NJ. A little less snow but more work to do on the "C".

[Steve Harrison]

Those are two beautiful shots guys, thanks for posting.
There's nothing like seeing a classic car all snug in the dry with snow all around. Makes me miss the snow.

[Mark Reich]

The snow is piled up too high to even get to the garage, but I am working on my winter project list - original license plate lights with rechromed housings, LED dash lights, other odds and end while waiting for my original engine to be rebuilt.

Skiing looks good for Sunday morning, then on to watch the Pats do their thing!

[Alex Mestas]

The Weather, She Is A-Changin'

I live in the Inland Empire of Riverside County. Basically a desert portion of California
Where the year round temperature is probably around 79 degrees. We generally have 300 good days for driving our 356's. Living out in a rural area, we enjoy miles of beautiful two lane roads through a National Forrest.

That all came to a halt this year. Earlier last month we had 7" of SNOW fall in one night! It was devastating. It NEVER snows in Murrieta. They called it the 100 year snowfall. Palm trees don't do good in snow. Un insulated copper back flow devices burst. My well sand separator burst, we lost power for 3 days, it was shocking for us dry climate creatures. The lesson learned, was although I live in shaky California, I definitely do not want to live in the snow. I don't know how you guys do it back East. It gets really hot here, but we generally, have beautiful weather. It can all change in a moment. Did I tell you that TODAY it's a nice day for a drive here? I don't take anything for granted anymore.

[mats carlsson]

Did someone say ice racing...

Well,
the Swedish ice-racing champion 1959 and 1960 was this guy, Allan Enerstedt, in a Porsche Carrera.
The blue car belonged and was raced by Simon Boström. Simon won in 1961, 1962 and 1963.

[C J Murray]

Hi Alex,
Both of your pictures look great! I know the snow is hard on you when you aren't geared for it but it does have a special beauty. You do have the best weather in the US in that region of CA. An occasional demonstration of power from Mother Nature keeps us all honest. Last winter we were without electric for 7 days. Power outages usually only last less than a day to maybe 2 days. This time a gigantic area was hit by ice and wind. Our house was one of few that were not down along with a large group. Our problem was just our house and the electric company has to fix problems in the order that gets the most people back up quickly. Thankfully we have a nice quiet Yamaha generator that allowed us to live normally. Think about people that get hit by tornados and hurricanes. We got off easy.

The picture out the window of your 356 shows what I love about The West, big blue skies. You never get a sky like that in the east. The scale of the scenery out west is immense. Big mountains, big lakes, big rivers, big ranches. The East has a smaller scale but we like it ok. I think we have just slightly less snow than is required for us to move south. Then comes spring and spring is so fantastic as life is pumped back into every living thing. Spring is so inspiring that we forget winter. Summer is very good. Fall is gorgeous and most people here live for spring and fall. Winter comes and we watch TV and make babies. Well, that's what we used to do.
Cliff