Monterey Bay Region was chartered on March 10, 1961, the 40th Region to be chartered by PCA, which itself was founded in 1955 (Yosemite is #12, GGR is #29).
Reading through the issues of the Montereyan takes us back to past tours, past events, past officers, past meeting presentations, and past columns by the president and by Ed Havey, who had a long-running column on anything he was interested in called “Around the Bay With Ed.” His column included restaurant reviews, recipes, news about current members, stories about race car drivers, memories of Alaska and more. It was truly a highlight of each issue, and started in 1989, but Ed’s contributions began before that when he wrote his secretary’s notes as the club secretary, and occasional articles when he was club treasurer. The infamous Halloween Rally of 1992 with the open grave was described by Ed in his December column. Dave Terdy also had a column in 1996 and 1997 called Pop Pop, Fizz Fizz. Don Tevini had an occasional column called Tevini’s Travels (and other things).
The first Big Sur breakfast was in 1991; there is a cover photo showing the participants. This was called the Breakfast Club at the time and Mike Rogers reports the 1993 run in his column in the February edition. The Breakfast Club included a tour to the Big Sur Lighthouse in January 1997, when it included a new Boxster in the group of cars. There is also a tour to the Pinnacles and a kayaking tour in 1991. 1989 had a tour to see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo State Park, a tour to Blackhawk auto museum in Danville (which was repeated in April 1997), a tour to Yosemite, a visit to the Nestle chocolate plant that was then in Salinas (another visit was made in 1993), a Zone 7 Concours at the Monterey Fairgrounds combined with other organizations where Rocky Harter organized the Porsches, a progressive dinner, a Halloween Rally, a Christmas Rally (the writeup is in the Jan. 1990 issue), and presentations at meetings on a variety of topics. It looks like the last Christmas Rally was in December 1990, since whoever won that rally put on by Mahir Agha and Fred Wisser (winners in 1989) did not put on a rally in 1991. However, we started having Christmas parties about that time at our December meetings. The last Halloween Rally seems to have been in 1997, when it was put on by Monica Nathan and Dean Craig.
Longtime members still with us including Ted Voigt, Dave Terdy, Vega Roecker, and Dave and Jackie Kite are mentioned multiple times regarding things they were doing. Steve Taty is mentioned as joining in 1989. Dave Terdy is mentioned as joining in 1988 (after moving here from Chicago). Dave Aliotti is mentioned as joining in 1986 and Ed Havey is mentioned as joining in 1985. The club is like an extended family, with friendships formed through similar interests and doing things together, and we miss those who are gone, both those who have moved away, like Bill Scott, Marilyn Sweet, Don Tevini, Chris Holm and Rocky Harter, and those who are no longer with us, like Bill Reichmuth, Ed Havey, Mike Rogers and Bob Lawson. Some members (Dave and Jackie Kite, Marilyn Nathan and Dean Craig) moved away (due to military assignments) and later moved back. The name change of C&S to C&C is noted in the March 1988 issue.
If you have never been to an autocross and wonder what it might be like, see the writeup in the August 1996 issue, which also has an article about the new Boxster. The September 1996 issue describes the Pebble Beach Concours for that year as part of Classic Car weekend. The Boxster was enthusiastically received and the subject of several articles in 1997.
1988 has the second overnight tour to Calistoga, organized by Ted Voigt. The first overnight tour to Calistoga, also organized by Ted Voigt, was in 1987, as was a tour to Fort Hunter Liggett, San Antonio Mission, and Naciamento Ferguson Road over the mountain top to Highway 1 and back up the coast to Ventana (which was repeated in March 1997). MBR was founded in 1961 and a 25th anniversary dinner was held at the Pebble Beach Lodge in 1986. In 1985 all the board members were women. Tours in 1985 included an overnight trip down Highway 1 to Hearst Castle with the return trip the next day including a wine tour in San Luis Obispo County, where three wineries were visited. The elephant seals at Ano Nuevo State Park were also visited in 1985, 1986 and 1989 (and again in 1995). A Concours was a continuing tradition, moving to the Porsche dealer after several years at the Monterey Fairgrounds, hosted by Monica Nathan in 1995 and then by Dave Aliotti beginning in 1996. A continuing event held every year for many years was the Historic Car Race party as well as the Porsche Corral at the Historic Auto Races, where Vega Roecker signed in cars and Mike Rogers directed them to parking spots (described in the September 1994 Montereyan). Ginger Mutoza and her right-hand man Gary Mutoza organized lunches with the BMW Club at the racetrack during the Historics as well as t-shirt sales starting in 1996. A December 1994 winery tour that started in Milpitas is well written up in January 1995. Various rallies were held, both gimmick and time-speed-distance, as well as autocrosses. Members sometimes went to events held by other regions and advertised in the Montereyan, and members from other regions sometimes attended our events.
The region also was a sponsor of Coastal Driving School from about 2004 through 2012, a driver’s ed group run by Steve Taty and a couple of members of Loma Prieta Region.
The region had 82 or 83 members at the beginning of 1984, and 85 members later that year. Around 10% of the members were active participants, so meetings were rather small. Elections were held at an elections dinner in November; in 1984 the dinner was held at Rocky Point and in 1985 it was held at Theo’s in Soquel. The December event was the Christmas Rally. An awards dinner was held in January, often at ShadowBrook Restaurant in Capitola ,then at the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1984 some of the officers attended the dinner for the newly-established Diablo Region when it received its charter. By 1992 the region had 120 members. In 1997 the January president’s column reported 115 members. Meetings were sometimes held at various locations to be closer to members who lived in various areas – Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz, etc.
Reading through these newsletters takes you back in time to when a ticket to the Pebble Beach Concours was $20 and when the MBR Concours was organized by Rocky Harter. It also reminds you of the many events and presentations that the club had, many of which could be repeated again to a fresh audience. The year after the final newsletter,1998, turned out to be huge for Monterey Bay Region since it was the 50th anniversary of Porsche and MBR hosted a rally, other events, and a huge banquet for 1700 people at Carmel Mission during Historic Race weekend with many notable race car drivers and dignitaries from Porsche present and MBR president Ted Voigt as MC.
Learn more about the history of the Monterey Bay Region:
