Goodbye 2023. Welcome to 2024.

Positive Camber

Mar 7

With Jeff Clark, President and Turbo, illustration, Roger Warrick

The holidays were wonderful, thank you for asking. Like many of you I had my entire family at my house. It's never chaotic but rather laid back. This year I just simply looked around the room and the reality of what the day is crystalized. I wouldn't trade Christmas morning with my wife and kids for anything in the world. Nothing.

First:

Fred and Ruth Zacharias reached out a few weeks ago and let me know that it was time to retire from the work they have lovingly taken on with publishing the Bent Pylon. I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Fred and Ruth who have for 8 years created, produced and published our monthly newsletter. The Pylon has been a staple of the Ohio Valley region for decades, while the Zacharias cannot be replaced, we are working on the project and interviewing a few prospects to take on the task. I will say with confidence that the Pylon is going to be fully online and will be available on our website. (ovrpca.org)

“Oh that we, could always see, such spirit through the year”

— Vince Guaraldi

A particularly vexing issue I was determined to fix upon my arrival as President was the state of our website. Its served its purpose but had become ungainly, unattractive and simply outdated, especially since the tech exists to create a really beautiful, colorful interactive site. We found ourselves having to communicate with members via an e blast, The Pylon and our website. So in a sense, tripling our workload to get the same job done. We will continue getting e- blasts but only once a week and direct as much “info-traffic” to the website as possible. I’m grateful for David Dalton and his team at the Think Shop to come in to rebuild and “re-imagine” the OVR website. David's team was able to decipher what we were looking for and make it real. This tech is not my wheelhouse so describing to David's team what we were looking for required patience and genuine concern for our goals. Much more to follow.

As you have seen in a couple of Bent Pylon past issues we have been presenting a page or two with OVR logoed merchandise. I pursued this after a number of members over the years were asking for Ohio Valley Region products like PCA has offered. Big thanks to Chuck Lindsey for spearheading this and doing an incredible job getting the sites squared away as well as getting our hands on the merchandise. For now you can get several dozen OVR products at the PCA webstore: https://www.pcawebstore.org/

Our merchandise will be available on our new website shortly and members will be able to purchase products directly from the Club. Thank you to the members who have reached out over the last few months questioning the legitimacy of the cheap, inferior garbage offered by nefarious groups that advertise on our FaceBook page. For the record we remove one of these from FB every couple weeks,followed with cease and desist letters. We are very diligent about protecting our and PCA logos.

The Board and Committee heads have been busy through the winter. Our calendar is being loaded as we speak and members should know if you have an event, rally, cars and coffee you want to host, please reach out to me ASAP at president@ovrpca.org.

Our Board meeting schedule will be set for the season shortly so we eliminate the questioning of where we are meeting and when. The website will allow you to post it directly to your calendar with the tap of a button. We are really trying to steer a lot of info to the website and make it a one stop shop for the info you need.

Side Notes

Please take a few minutes and go to the PCA.org website and make sure your personal information is correct. Name, address, contact email, your car. It's something that should be tended to annually and I am not able to do it on your behalf. If you are not visiting PCA.org on a regular basis, do so. Many of you will be surprised at how much is available. The monthly Panorama is usually available a week before you get the hard copy in the mail. PCA offers several newsletters sent to your inbox and if you need something to do while eating lunch, “the Mart” is a great place to go if you want to see what your car may be worth, look for that obscure part or be reminded that there are cars out there for sale that you will never own, 911 S/T? I'm looking at you.

PCA also produces a weekly podcast and has an accompanying YouTube channel.

I hope you take the time to read Panorama. It's a big benefit to being a PCA member. I’m taken aback monthly at the quality of the content, the photography and the way Rob Sass produces theme issues. No other car club has a publication quite like Panorama.

Recently Panorama brought on Jethro Bovingdon as a contributing writer. He has written for EVO, Road and Track and several other Euro publications. This is a shameless plug because this guy is one of my favorite automotive journalists. He was the only one worth watching on the horrific Top Gear-America and while not an early Porsche fan, he has become an unabashed lover of all things Porsche. His article in the December Panorama is worth a read several times over.

I tread a fine line sometimes with car loyalty. I love Ferrari. There, I said it. I don't want any admiration I have for the Italian to be regarded as a betrayal of our beloved Porsche. My family on my mothers side is Sicilian, my father is Scot. As far as i know I haven't a drop of German blood in me. I don't own a lot of Ferrari stuff, I quietly cheered for the F1 team and was not disappointed at their win at LeMans although a Porsche win would have been preferred.

Anyway, I saw the new Ferrari movie with my wife a couple weeks ago. If you're looking for a movie about race cars etc, this is not the one. But, if you want to get an understanding of Enzo Ferrari during a period where the company was on the verge of collapse, his son died, his wife's incredible dedication to him, despite him having a 2nd family, it's great. Michael Mann did an extraordinary job. The scenery and photography are some of the best I've ever seen. I'm planning on seeing it again shortly.

Finally

Once I become Emperor of the world there are 2 things I want done. My first act as your benevolent overlord is to end Daylights Savings, it's stupid. We don't live in the 18th century and we have electricity and caffeine. Only Hawaii, Arizona and part of Indiana have said enough of this nonsense. Let's move along.

My second act is the elimination of Right Turn on Red at intersections. The original intent was a way to “save fuel” during the 70s oil embargo. Beyond that, the idea is you come to a complete stop, look around then proceed. You and I know this isn't happening, it's a reason to run the light. Bills are being introduced nationally and in DC to repeal the practice that has been in place since the ‘70’s under the guise of “saving fuel”. You can thank me later.

I know I'm repeating, but if you have an event you want to sponsor, a cars and coffee, a rallye any kind of event that involves the club or members please let me know as soon as possible. We want to get the calendar for the season as complete as possible so members can plan accordingly.

Any questions or concerns don't hesitate to reach out.