Category: From The Archives

From the Archives #26, August 2024

Again this month we’ll look at 1995, the 25th anniversary of our Region. The year 1995 was a mere 29 years ago (it seems like about two or three years ago to me.) The first thing I noted in reviewing the old Newsletters was that many of the social events, such as dinners and pool parties, were held in individual members’ homes. Even with a participation rate hovering around 15%, we can’t do that nowadays with a membership of about 1000. 

It looks like 1995 was a good year for the “Nevada Open Road Challenge” event. In this event, entrants choose a speed they believe they can average over nearly 100 miles of a (temporarily closed) public road. Their speed choices ranged from 95 mph up to 170 mph in 5 mph increments, and there was an unlimited speed class as well. This on a PUBLIC 2-LANE road!! The [...]

From the Archives #25, June 2024

Last month the LV Region celebrated its 50th anniversary, and began looking forward to the next 50 years. Since this column is supposed to recount the history of the Region, I thought we might look back to the time the Region celebrated its 25th anniversary and began looking toward its second 25 years.

That would be 1995.

Bill Clinton was President of the US, and an equally audacious character was President (again) of the LVR. That would be Carl Young. If you’ve read this column previously, you’ll know what I mean. Suffice it to say that Carl was Region President in 1975, and he founded Carl’s Place.

During the first few months of 1995, several members praised the new 993, while at the same time complaining about all the “bells and whistles” that they didn’t understand (They should try a 2024 Cayenne.)

The Las Vegans started the year with [...]

From the Archives #24, April 2024

Since this issue of Desert Drives commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Las Vegas Region, we thought we’d bring out some history of PCA and the LVR.

PCA National (often referred to as ‘PCAN’) itself was founded in July 1955 by Bill Scholar of Alexandria, Virginia. The first PANORAMA came out in December 1955, and the first “Region” was the Potomac Region, founded in 1956. To join PCA there was an Initiation Fee of $5.00 and annual dues also of $5.00.

Before the Las Vegas Region was founded, in 1973, if you were a Las Vegan who owned a Porsche and tried to contact other Porsche owners or members of PCA, you were pretty much out of luck. The closest Region was Riverside and there were actually a few Las Vegas Porsche owners who were members there.

Eventually enough Las Vegas locals met other Porsche-owning locals and managed to [...]

From the Archives #23, March 2024

This month I thought we might look at our Region’s last year the printed Newsletter (“Sandscript”) was published. That would be 1991.

The February, 1991 edition reported on the December 1990 Christmas Party, saying that it had a couple of outrageous moments and was fun for almost all the participants. There was no report on who didn’t have fun. I was surprised that the Party was held in a private home, just as it had been in the earliest years of the Region. And there was no limit on the number attending (as was the case this past January 2024 at the M Resort). 

Our Region had only 91 members in 1991 (I assume this didn’t count the associate members i.e. mostly spouses), which represents only about a tripling of the membership from 1974. (From 1991 to 2024, the LVR approximately sextupled its’ membership, on the same basis of [...]

From the Archives #22, February 2024

After a month of joblessness, here we go again back into the LVR’s past. BTW, the Prez let me go last month (actually, he fired me) in an attempt to reduce Newsletter costs as a result of some production problem with the Region’s newsletter. To get me back he had to TRIPLE my salary. 

And I bet you thought this was a volunteer job!

So let’s go back again, this time we’ll look at the year 1980. (IMHO the nadir of the dullest dozen years (1974-1986) in the automotive world, what with emission regulations, crash safety requirements, MPG requirements, digital computers still on the horizon, et al.) 

The Region announced the formation of a new car club in Las Vegas in January 1980… the SNRR, or Southern Nevada Road Racers. The SNRR’s first event was a “Club Race,” or a “Drivers’ School” according to two consecutive sentences in SNRR’s [...]

From the Archives #21, December 2023

In our Region’s middle-age, in 2002, Ed Pacini was the President. He was the LVR’s 19th President by individual, and 29th by year. Our Region had almost 200 members at the time.

Ed died at 90 last month. He had been still sort of active in the Porsche world, having bought a new Macan just two years ago; it was black, and he had it custom pin-striped with red. And he was a member of the POT.

So I thought I’d look back at Ed’s Presidential year and report some interesting happenings under Ed’s guidance. First, you have to realize Ed took over the Region leadership just three months after the horrible events of September 11, 2001. Against this background it looks like Ed rallied the Region quite well. To quote from his “President’s Corner” in the Jan 2002 Sandscript: “It could be argued that activities like car clubs [...]

From the Archives #20, November 2023

In the spring of 1980, our young Region held an autocross (today we’d probably call it a time trial). In June, they congratulated themselves for the success of the event. Among other good things, about 40% of the Region membership turned out to help and work the event. Imagine if 40% of today’s members worked an HPDE event at Spring Mountain. That would mean we would have about 350 track workers. We could have a flag person stationed about every 50 feet around the track. We can dream on…..

Additionally, they had five large sponsors for the event, allowing the LVR to have the lowest entry fee of any Zone 8 Time Trial and still make a little money. Unfortunately, they forgot to include one of the five sponsor’s name on the written materials given to the participants. They acknowledged the big OOPs and apologized in the newsletter.

The [...]

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 [...]