As I sit here on a Sunday morning drinking coffee out of a Charlotte Parade mug, a week before the OVR Club Race & DE, The Editor says she needs an article about Parade as she directs the comment at me. Well, I did take most of the pictures…

Parade is a gathering of Porsche people and their cars, over 900 cars in all.  So, everywhere you look, Porsche is evident. Included in these Porsche peoples is Hans-Peter Porsche, Patrick Long, Norbert Singer and numerous Porsche executives.

We arrived and began the process of preparing our 2008 Boxster S for the Concours.  This is a process of cleaning, fretting over small details, trying to obtain the perfectly clean windshield, depth to the finish and of course, the camaraderie of other poor concours souls and a steady flow of admiring Porsche people.  Need something? Someone has it. Share a towel or an electric cord, take a break to talk to strangers who want to snap a picture.

The concours prep is also a learning experience.  For example, after cleaning for about 6 hours, and the Boxster S really looks good, an ex-judge walks by and tells us we will have to show the engine. What engine? It’s a Boxster. Well, we do not have a clue how to expose the engine.  Lew Trusheim, from Connecticut Valley, with a 1973 911E Targa, working next to us, offered to help, as did our chief competition from the Carolina Region.  Milton Scott from MOR, who was also showing a Boxster, came over because he did not know either.  A small tech session ensued: Put Cabriolet top to ¾ open, unsnap bottom of the roof, disconnect the top speaker section behind the seats, disconnect the speaker connection and remove the speaker section, remove second section of carpeting to reveal engine cover that is removed with 4 screws (with a tool loaned by Lew) and wa-la- the engine.

Well, that was a challenge (not to mention we now had to re-wipe and re-polish the entire rear section of the car, redo the back window inside and out).  It had to be put back together and redone at judging, which we did.  Over 200 cars were presented to be judged in the concours on the streets of downtown Charlotte that beautiful Sunday morning.  Ten cars were in our class, they were all immaculate.  Somehow the judges felt ours was the best.

The next day was the Tech Quiz, which I won’t talk about.  And then the tours to Prenske and Hendrick Race Shops where Penske allowed us to walk around the two American LeMans Series RS Spyders ( #6 & #7) which were in various degrees of disassembly, and talk to the mechanics who maintain and travel with these machines.  No pictures.  Amazing to see.  Even the transporters were open for walk-through though they were loading two of the transporters.  In the Indy Car and Nascar sections we were kept at a distance, but very interesting. Hendrick Motorsports was also interesting but we were also kept at a distance, mostly behind the glass.

The third day was the TSD Rally.  Top down, beautiful weather and in the running for a good score in this 4-hour driving event until the navigator, me, misread his watch which resulted in not one, but two legs, receiving maximum points to put us out of the trophies.  That afternoon the Historic Display opened. Wow.  That is all I can say. Porsche racing history including the 1987 McLaren Tag-Porsche F1 car, the #14 Lowenbrau 962 of Al Holbert, the Porsche Sunoco 917/10, and the Porsche 2.18 Carrera Turbo RSR for which Norbert Singer gave several talks on its development.  Too many to name, one had to see it.  The Autocross was held at Lowe’s Motor Speedway using some of the oval and infield sections.   That place is big.

The Zone Challenge was a fun afternoon of teams from different PCA Zones competing in a Nascar style timed tire change, a timed exercise of changing a valve spring, and a driving simulator driving event.

And then it was over.  Time flies when you are having fun. I have all year to try to re-hook those rear speakers until next year in Keystone Colorado.