Author Archive: Phil Reese

From the Archives #19, October 2023

I thought we might jump ahead a few years to 1980, when our Region was seven years old. The Sandscript has been enlarged to a full 8 ½” x 11” size, from the 7” x 8 ½” they started with.

The kickoff article in January, 1980 was a report of the December Board meeting. It seems that the Las Vegas Region, for unexplained reasons, had proposed at the Zone Presidents’ meeting that the Zone 8 rep be a competitively-elected position instead of an appointed one. I’ll leave it to you speculate why they did this, but a hint might be that Carl Young was the LVR President at the time.

Well, LVR got turned down flat. Then our Region sent a letter to Chuck Stoddard, whom I believe was PCA National President at the time. That apparently went nowhere as well.

In other news from early 1980, the Board [...]

From the Archives #18, September 2023

We came across a vintage and telling advertisement in the June 1975 issue of our Region newsletter. The ad offered engines (!), either complete or “basket cases” for the buyer to rebuild. They said they had the parts you’d need if you chose to do it yourself. The advertiser was Porschaus, which became Carl’s Place, and is now 900 Series Motorsports. Buit it’s still in the same location. Stop by and ask Tony if the ad is still in effect. I know of only 50 or 60 of our current members who would take the engine out of their 911 or Cayenne and rebuild it. Or their Taycan. Right?

The Region held an autocross at the Las Vegas Speedrome (predecessor to the current Speedway). The times of some of the participants are interesting: Fastest was a Lotus F/F (whatever that is) at 118.6 seconds. Slowest was an Audi (maybe [...]

From the Archives #17, July 2023

Ruffling through the old newsletters is quite entertaining, and sometimes you come across a real gem. The story below is from an April 1975 newsletter, and is reprinted with the permission of the Editor at the time. 

McGee Finds God

Last week I woke up early one morning with a startling revelation: sometime during the night I had died. With this in mind, I had breakfast and then started up to see ol’ St. Peter (I hoped).

The receptionist at Pearly Gates, Inc. was a cute little blond, and she greeted me by name.

“Hi, McGee.”

“Well. Hi there, cute little blonde receptionist.”

“We’ve decided to accept you here, Bob. How would you like to spend your time?”

I had one immediate thought, but decided against it. I didn’t need to push my luck. The cute little blond smiled, as if she knew what I was thinking. I decided [...]

From the Archives #16, June 2023

In the past months we’ve jumped ahead from the beginning years of our region to see how things were going after, say, 10 or 20 years. Now let’s go back to 1975, when the fledgling Las Vegas Region had two solid years under its belt.

For its third year, the LVR had its third President, a fellow named Paul Riley. His opening column promised a number of events for the year 1975: 5 autocrosses, 3 rallies, 3 tech sessions, a ski tour, dinner meetings (presumably several), a swim party, summertime picnics (how many?), a fund-raising dinner (although he referred to these in the plural), a Christmas party, and a gathering specifically for the officers’ installation. 

And in the next paragraph he invited members to suggest other events, especially if the member was willing to chair the event.

All this with a total membership of 64 primary and 38 associates [...]

From the Archives #15, May 2023

In looking through the Sandscript issues in 1984, we came across a fascinating letter to the Editor, bemoaning the terrible situation that driving and automobiles were in. The writer claimed that the 1980s of driving was the first era in auto history that was slower than the previous one. He complained about the terrible effects of emission controls on drivability, the increased weight due to crashworthiness requirements, and the general total lack of pizazz in cars. He was worried that the age of automobile fun was over, and that things would only get worse.

He was half right. For those of you who aren’t old enough (like over 60) to remember the dark ages of the car, let me educate you. For those of you that are, I’ll refresh your memories.

The smog and general air quality in big cities across the US had deteriorated from the late 1940s [...]

From the Archives #14, April 2023

We’ve chosen this month to look through 1984, at least the first half of that year, a time when the Las Vegas Region was ten years old. The most striking thing to us was the sheer number of major events/activities that the rather small (about 100 members) LVR managed to put on the in first half of 1984.

In mid-February 1984, the LVR folks put together what was called the “West Coast Weekend.” This was a 3-activity event, not counting the eating, drinking, and gambling that was very favorably reported on. The venue was at Laughlin (hence the gambling); the activities were a slalom, a rally, and a tech quiz. The number of workers was huge, and all were thanked individually in the subsequent issue of Sandscript.

In mid-March there was the “Holtville Weekender.” The three activities at this one were an autocross, a rally, and a slalom. Again, [...]

From the Archives #13, March 2023

We’ve spent most of the last year reviewing our Region’s first year, 1974. Once we jumped ahead ten years to look at 1985, only to discover that poor attendance at Las Vegas Region events was the primary topic in most of that year’s newsletters.

Now let’s take a look at …April 1995. The big event was the opening of the Las Vegas Speedway Park, now known as Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Our LVR held a track event, in coordination with the Porsche Owners Club (POC). The new twist was that they did actual wheel-to-wheel Porsche racing on the brand new road race course. They held two races on Saturday and one on Sunday, and all apparently went well. They were described as “good clean racing and intense competition.”

In the May 1995 issue of Sandscript, there was an article about a product offering that looked really good pre-internet (yes, [...]

From the Archives #12, February 2023

We’ve spent most of the last year reviewing our Region’s first year, 1974. Once we jumped ahead ten years to look at 1985, only to discover that poor attendance at Region events was the primary topic in most of that year’s newsletters.

Now let’s take at look at 1995, at which point in our history the Las Vegas Region was 20 years old (and the Porsche 911 had been on the market over thirty [yes, 30] years).

In the February 1995 meeting, the main topic of discussion was the Region’s need for a computer and printer for publishing the Sandscript, and a compatible laptop to be used for racing events. Note that the Region still had “meetings.” We don’t have meetings of the membership anymore. I guess the monthly brunch at the RRCC is as close as we come to a membership meeting. The Board meeting are open to [...]

From the Archives #11, January 2023

After looking through the Las Vegas Region Newsletters from the first couple of years of the Region, I was struck by the number of ads from gas stations. Yes, just regular old Phillips 66, Esso, and others, all trying for customers. The ads must have been worth something to the advertisers, because those little business-card-sized ads cost $8 per month.

Yet today, it makes me wonder why we’re not getting ads from electric charging stations. The conspiracy theorist in me has several explanations for this, but I’m sure you have your own. We’ll be glad to publish the most outlandish ideas if you send them in.

There was an interesting report at the April 1975 LVR board meeting. The Newsletter reported: ”If all of the advertisers would pay their past due bills, the newsletter would be nearly self-supporting.” Maybe I should rethink the value of the gas station ads.