Category: From The Presidents Desk

From the President’s Desk,

We are certainly in the dog days of summer. Even the dogs don’t want to leave the house! Dana and I had a nice Colorado trip in our travel trailer. While Las Vegas was setting record high temps, we were enjoying a cooler time visiting Mesa Verde NP, the Great Sand Dunes NP area and Black Canyon NP, all above 6000 feet. In July we are planning to head to California and assist the Santa Barbara Region PCA celebrate their 60th Anniversary.

As many Porsche Club regions in the northern states have a less active winter season, we tend to offer less activities this time of year. We had our planning session for Fall activities and many dates have been added to the calendar. We will populate it as we firm up plans.

In addition to our regular monthly brunches and Mix & Mingle get-togethers you can look forward to AutoFest, [...]

From the President’s Desk,

Well, it has been an incredible 50th Anniversary year so far! It began in January with our Winter Gala where we pulled out all the stops. Our guest speaker was none other than the Face of PCA, Executive Director Vu Nguyen. Then on our actual club’s 50th Birthday, we held the largest LVR member event in history, with over 250 members registered for our EXTRAVAGANZA. I have never seen such a display of Porsches, not to mention the live music, magical acts and Las Vegas showgirls. What a memorable celebration for the club! A shout out to our LVR Board, Committee, and volunteers. And a heartfelt thank you to Gary Ackerman, Paul Jarrett, and all of the members of the Gaudin Porsche team that helped make it happen. You are the best!

LVR members are welcome to participate in our planning session for possible future events and activities. Bring your ideas [...]

From the President’s Desk,

Due to deadlines, I am writing to you two days after our big 50th Extravaganza blowout. Our Board and volunteers put in months of planning for this once in a lifetime event and I am so proud of the outcome.

We had over 250 members sign up for the Extravaganza and we also hit our limit of 100 for the Mt. Charleston Drive. We had perfect weather for the morning and the display of Porsches was something to behold. I want to not only thank our dedicated volunteers, but to personally thank Gary Ackerman, Paul Jarrett and their professional crew at Gaudin Porsche for offering the venue and assisting with the event. We are lucky to have what has become an increasingly rare family-owned dealership that truly cares about us local Porsche enthusiasts and considers us as part of the family!

We are planning a three-day, two-night tour to Southern Utah, [...]

Well, my President’s Desk also doubles as my rehab safe space while I recover from hip replacement surgery. Unfortunately, I took a tumble and cracked my hip. Fortunately, I had a fantastic young surgeon who called me the day I went to the hospital and said he had my X-rays and had the replacement sized and ready to “install” the next morning. And he did! A few days out of surgery and I am walking and feeling no pain (even without the Oxycodone)! Now I can’t wait to see if I still fit into the Boxster GTS and the Carrera S. 

The BIG DAY is only two weeks away. Las Vegas Regions’s 5Oth ANNIVERSARY EXTRAVAGANZA! Our Birthday is April 20th with the party kicking off at Gaudin Porsche at 10:00am. We have planned quite a bash with coffee, pastries and entertainment along with an unbelievable collection of Porsches on display. Make sure that if you [...]

From the President’s Desk

Our Board has been quite busy planning for Las Vegas Region’s 50th Anniversary. It will be quite a celebration that will take place on April 20th, the same day of the inception of our charter, in 1974. Make sure that you sign up soon as we are having to limit attendance. Gaudin Porsche has generously provided their venue for the morning. Check out the article and registration in this issue of Desert Drives. SIGN UP SOON! Also, check out the 50th Anniversary Gear website. Great prices on quality merchandise.

Topock is an Arizonan town that most have never heard of, or let alone, visited. Topock 66 BBQ and Grill was a very interesting destination for our day drive in February. The historic mountain Route 66 Highway through Oatman brought smiles to Porschephile’s faces. It [...]

From the President’s Desk,

First of all, I want to thank JP John Polnik, and Mikey Patriquin of Interpolnik LLC for their creative talents with editing and publishing our Desert Drives. Both are professionals in their fields and are LVRPCA members. How lucky can we get! I took time to view the newsletters of the 16 regions in PCA Zone 8 and we are among the best. If you do not take time to click through each monthly issue of our Desert Drives, you are totally missing out.

January started out with a bang! 

Week 1

First Lady Dana and I set out for sunny CA during the first weekend to attend the Zone 8 President’s meeting. One of the topics was for each President tell of improvements needed in their region. When it came to me, I shared [...]

There were so many high points with our club’s activities during 2023 that I don’t know where to begin. So, I won’t! But I will say that it has been a joy to meet so many members having a great time at our many events. Our Board and volunteers made it happen! I’m not a pessimist, but sometimes I remember the challenging times. The event that created anxiety for me was our Tri-Region drive to the Valley of Fire that we hosted last March. We had everything planned to a “T”. Dana and I left home plenty early with the waivers, drive directions, $500+ worth of NPS and NVSP passes, and traffic cones to help line up dozens of cars from Arizona, Utah and Nevada at our meetup location. We live in the northwest area of town and it was raining. Little did we know it would take nearly 2 ½ hour to get there. [...]

The holiday season is here! If you haven’t put those decorations up yet, I’m sure it’s on your short list. During the month of December, we usually do not offer as many club activities because it seems like many of us are busy with family and other commitments during the holiday season. 

The new year will include the Phoenix Fun Run Tour, which take place January 12-14th. It will include a unique Cars and Coffee social, a day drive through the Sonoran Desert and a visit to an incredible Secret European Car Collection. 

Our Winter Gala will take place at the M Resort and Casino January 21st. It will be a wonderful evening to kick off our Las Vegas Region 50th Anniversary celebration year. We are excited to have Vu Nguyen, PCA Executive Director, as special guest speaker. We will have a big birthday party for our 50th anniversary on April 20th, the day of [...]

Fall and Spring are typically our busiest time of the year for club activities and this year has been no exception. I really enjoy seeing the increasingly large turnouts and interest in our club. In just the third week of October we had the Maloof Collection Tour, Chef Dan’s cooking presentation at D’Agostino’s Trattoria, and the Tuacahn Cars and Coffee in Southern Utah! Each one was a hit with our members.

Because the Maloof Collection Tour was limited to 25 attendees, I am planning to work with them to have another tour in February. I’ll keep you posted.

Looking to the future, we have our last High Performance Driver’s Education weekend November 3rd-5th. We will offer four run groups from beginning to advanced. Check out the details in this issue. 

Our Mix & Mingle social gatherings have been quite successful. Our strategy has been to pick interesting establishments at various locations around town. The November [...]

September has been an active month for our club. Our Yosemite/High Sierra Tour started the day after Labor Day. We had perfect weather and some windy roads on our way over to Big Pine and then north to Mammoth Lakes. We turned the Porsches loose to explore the sites and scenery around the area and or course, Yosemite National Park for a couple of days and then headed to Tonopah on a very fun road. We will have to do this tour again! 

The next week we had a great turnout for AutoFest. Although a little warm, many of our club members displayed their cars. There was some healthy competition from the Corvettes, but they conceded when a total of 93 Porsches showed up! A special thanks to all of our LVR volunteers and especially Barbara Barron for organizing our Porsche corral!

Randy and Martha Burba have stepped up and done an excellent job of [...]