Monterey Bay Region celebrated its 65th anniversary on Saturday, March 28th, with a dinner and guest speakers at Veloce Valuations on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey. Everyone who brought their Porsche was able to park in the Veloce parking lot.
A binder from PCA included the original correspondence from when the region was first chartered in 1961, as well as the original Bylaws. The original charter included Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties, however Santa Cruz County split off in 1970 to form the Loma Prieta Region.
Dinner was buffet style, with all the fixings to make your own burritos or tacos. Special cookies commemorating the event were handed out.
New members were welcomed, and those who had been members for 20 years more were asked to stand up and be recognized.
Guest speakers started with David from Porsche of Monterey, who brought a yellow Spyder RS for us to admire.
Following David was Alan from the Porsche Track Experience at Laguna Seca, who brought a green GT3 for us to admire and who described the track experience for us. They have 80 days during the year at Laguna Seca for those who want to participate, and have signups available at porschedriving.com.
Next we had Brian Adkins from Diablo Region, our Zone 7 representative, who said a few words about the 10 regions in Zone 7, how Zone 7 includes most of Northern California and Nevada, and that all members are welcome at any region event.
Our last guest guest speaker was Bruce Canepa, who brought his 959SC for us to admire. He gave us the history of the 959. The car was produced in 1987 and 1988, with a total of 292 built. Of those, Bruce has sold over 130. It was originally built for competition in Group B rallying. Bill Gates bought one in 1988 but was not able to drive it then since it did not have NHTSA and EPA approval, so it was stored by the Customs Service until 1999, when the “show or display” law came into force (after lobbying by Bruce and others) allowing certain privately imported vehicles to be exempted if they meet a standard of historical or technological significance, allowing usage of the car to 2,500 road miles.
Bruce described some of the enhancements his shop makes to the 959, including changing the suspension and rebuilding, replacing or upgrading all components, removing 243 pounds from the car, and replacing the 17″ wheels with 18″ wheels. He has provided cars for Paul Allen and Jerry Seinfeld, and specializes in making race cars into street cars.
He wrapped up by telling us about how he was driving a test 959 on Molera Road near Moss Landing at high speed when he spotted a CHP car on the overpass as he was approaching. While talking to the officer it turned out that the officer’s commander had driven on Laguna Seca with Bruce. The officer deferred to his commander and Bruce did not receive a ticket, but the officer did ask if he might be able to drive on Laguna Seca with Bruce at some time.
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A big thank you to Mark, Al and the other volunteers who made this a very special celebration.
