New Baby

The club registers have been invited to Rockingham race circuit in May to join the MG Car Club in some weekend car entertainment. Check out the full details in the 968 register section of the club website at www.pcgb.co.uk or my 968 website www.porsche968uk.co.uk.
Why don't we make it a proper register meet if you are interested let me know it would be great to have a register meet.
For those of us that tend to hide their 968s away from the salty roads in the winter it's getting to that time to bring the car out again. All we need are a couple of really good downpours ( preferably at night ) to get rid of the remainder of the salt and then a nice sunny day. As I am writing this in February and you won't read it until the end of March we will all probably be enjoying our cars in fine weather again by the time you read it. I did take mine out for a short run a couple of Saturdays ago. The pleasure in driving it was just as good as ever. Over the winter I have been using a little device for keeping the battery in good condition called believe it or not a "battery conditioner", it monitors the voltage of the battery and only allows a charge if it drops below a certain level so no chance of overcharging. You can leave it plugged in all the time and not worry about it. I have put the details on my 968 website. Does anybody know of any other useful products for 968s, car storage or anything for that matter related to cars? Just send me an email and I'll see if I can mention it in the next article.

Porsche 917
Over the past month I have been reading about the Porsche 917, most people have heard of the 917 and know that it dominated Le Mans for a few years. It is worth getting to know a bit more about the development of the car though. Such a lot went into the development of this car that it isn't surprising that Porsche came up with a GT40 beater and a Ferrari beater. At the time it was 30 mph faster than anything else on the track, it was even faster than the contemporary F1 cars. As race car aerodynamics was still in it's infancy they did have some problems keeping them on the ground and it took a very skilled and brave man to get it round a track at its highest speeds. For a relatively small car company to come up with a car that could thrash Ford and Ferrari consistently in every major international race was no small achievement, remembering also that it was an air cooled flat 12, technically it was a 180 degree V12 (something to do with the crankshaft). It's worth having a quick read about the 917. There are many car books or for those of you with Internet access there is some info about the 917 at www.carmatrix.co.uk/cars-porsche-917.htm.

Sunday Drive
On Sunday 11th May my local region is having a Lake District run which will take us through Shap, along Shap road, it's a lovely national speed limit road with beautiful scenery, we will be starting at a Porsche dealers called Parker and Parker. I would love to see some 968s there so if you can make it give me a call or send me an email and I can give you full details. If anybody has any other ideas for a 968 meet please let me know. I think we should have at least one as a register this year so let's have your ideas.
I haven't had anybody else's input regarding anecdotes or stories about their own 968 yet so please put pen to paper ( fingers to keyboard ) and let us know if you have any interesting stories to tell.
Looking forward to a great 2003 car season and don't forget Eynsham Hall.
Regards,
Stuart.