PCA Drivers Education Class

[Dave Erickson]

PCA is having a drivers education (DE) class this coming Monday at Laguna Seca, so I downloaded the rules just out of curiosity ( https://www.zone8.org/assets/docs/2019/2019Z8Rules.pdf ). Not exactly friendly to a 356 is my reaction. I guess PCA has forgotten its roots. To enter a DE class with a 356 speedster or Conv. D/Roadster would require a full driving cage installation in the car. So how do vintage racers get away without a full cage?

[John Brooks]

PCA has stopped thinking about pushrods and focused on the leasing rates.

I also received a notice of early tickets to Rennsport 7 for PCA members, are we getting old timers “head of the line” also?.

[Doug McDonnell]

If interested Dave I would call the organizer. I did local Drivers Ed for years with my 356s and the late 65 SC Cab owner Kurt Wurth in our region was always there running his totally stock Cab. I would guess that they don't have a lot of stock 356s that want to participate. Of course being a small Region we had Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced run groups.

[Steve Douglas]

Dave, the event at Laguna has both DE and parade laps. It is a Zone 8, which is So Cal, and they have different rules, and like Doug said, not a lot of 356s will do the DE part. Several 356s will be doing the parade laps. Zone 7 Nor Cal has some track events where a 356 might run at a reduced speed (Pace car) but only if there is more than a few willing to do it. Golden Gate Region is the one who is most active in Track events. Try autocross as they will accept 356s in stock form.

[Dave Erickson]

Doug & Steve, the parade laps sound like fun, but max speed is 35 and slower in the corners, and you can bring as many passengers as will fit. My thought with a DE class is that I might actually learn something useful and interesting about driving at speed, especially if I had a good instructor.

[Doug McDonnell]

Come to West Michigan next fall with your car and go to our two day Drivers Ed at Grattan Raceway, a really fun Gnarly old track. And yes you do learn as an experienced instructor 1st drives with you as a passenger then stays with you until he or she feels you can safely drive the track yourself. http://grattanracewaypark-mx.com/ I went for years with my 356s then 356SC after a year in a 75 911 S with 60K miles that I bought from the original owner and later 1 year with a 76 914 2.0 with 14K miles. Then finally the last year 2008 I took my leased Cayman before I got too old.

[Ted Hedman]

You might want to look into VARA's "University of VARA" DE weekend at Buttonwillow in January. Street cars are welcome, though I'm not sure if open cars require roll bars or not.
https://www.vararacing.com/university-of-vara

[Mark Roth]

About twenty years ago our club would drive out to the late Texas World Speedway which was about halfway to College Station from Houston for parade laps during DE. They let us drive as fast as we wanted. Then a new sheriff came to town and said that we couldn’t go more than 35 mph. We stopped going. (That’s a repro spyder and my sold Notchback in the photo.)