Why aren't you autocrossing? A chance to say why.

[Aavitt]

Hi Kim,
regarding "Perhaps some mailers to the 2500 or so PCA SDR Members"

It is very easy to send an email blast to all 2500 (1400 primary/1100 afiliate) members with no cost to the club or any other business. If you, or anyone else, would like to write something up for me to send out closer to the next AX date on Oct 8th, I would be happy to send it out. We have 1400 primary members, so a mailer sent to just the primary members would cost over $600+ any affiliates with a different address, would add to the cost. I also send out a $30.00 gift certificate to every new member and another $30. when they renew for the first year. These are good for AX and I understand we do have many members using them. I think the new blood is out there and they are aware, but it is just getting them to take the first step.

Mike and I have continued to Autocross, (hardly ever miss one) since 2006, (when I first began) even though we have gone on to the Time Trial series. I still enjoy the competition at the AX, even though it is a really long day, with not much seat time, and the dreaded corner working. Mike started Autocrossing in 1994 with the club and he still enjoys it. The costs involved with 2 time trialers in a family is starting to add up but I find it enjoyable and don't want to look back and say I shoulda, coulda, woulda. I want to still continue to drive as long as I am able.

Angela Avitt
Membership Chair
Car #425
04 GT3

[Bob Gagnon]

Increasing attendance decreases seat time, a major concern here.

Are there any ways to increase seat time?

I don't even know what the time limits are at the stadium.

[JERRY B]

THE CORRECT DATE FOR THE NEXT AX IS OCT.1st
The driving hours are 9-5

[Greg Phillips]

One theme in this thread strikes me - "I did AX and then moved up to DE/TT for the seat time."
While there are some, like me, whose spouse isn't keen on me taking off a whole weekend for a DE/TT event away from home, it sounds like a key issue is that a lot of folks find DE/TT much more fun and decide not to run AX anymore.
Nothing wrong with that, but what that means is that we need new blood. How do we get more new people into AX? They may "graduate" to big track events, but some may find AX is a lot of fun and it's local.
Perhaps some mailers to the 2500 or so PCA SDR members (team with Black Forest, Pioneer, Hoehn to share part of a mailer)? "Enjoying your Porsche? Want to find out what it will really do? Want to drive it fast without worrying about tickets? Come down to Qualcomm Stadium on _date_ and see what Autocrossing is all about."

Yes, we do need to replenish the autocross corps

But it is more difficult these days.
Until a few years ago, every car Porsche sold was a great car for autocrossing, and starting when the Boxster came out, they sold a lot of them.
But now the best-selling Porsche is the Cayenne, and while it is keeping the company afloat, not nearly as many owners want to bring it out to autocross.
The Panamera is likely a very good autocross car (for a sedan) but most of the owners are also not interested in autocross.
So we have a smaller pool of 911, Boxster and Cayman drivers to convince to come out to play with us

Greg

[Bob Gagnon]

Yes, we do need to replenish the autocross corps ...So we have a smaller pool of 911, Boxster and Cayman drivers to convince to come out to play with us

Greg

I am not sure if the total number of actual sports cars sold is up or down, I do know the totals are up if you include the non-sports car stuff.

However, I think the demographic has perhaps changed a lot, it seems to me people just don't have the technical interest in the cars any more. Take for instance the fact that, due to lack of interest, PCA no longer offers "Up-Fixin der Porsche", the anthology of technical articles from Panorama something that was published from time to time and very popular for years (my earliest, Vol. IV was published in 1972, they stopped with Vol. XI I believe in 1998).

Having said that, a GT3 buyer has a probability of something like 80% of tracking their car.

[Greg Phillips]

Yes, we do need to replenish the autocross corps ...So we have a smaller pool of 911, Boxster and Cayman drivers to convince to come out to play with us

Greg

I am not sure if the total number of actual sports cars sold is up or down, I do know the totals are up if you include the non-sports car stuff.

However, I think the demographic has perhaps changed a lot, it seems to me people just don't have the technical interest in the cars any more. Take for instance the fact that, due to lack of interest, PCA no longer offers "Up-Fixin der Porsche", the anthology of technical articles from Panorama something that was published from time to time and very popular for years (my earliest, Vol. IV was published in 1972, they stopped with Vol. XI I believe in 1998).

Having said that, a GT3 buyer has a probability of something like 80% of tracking their car.

I think the Up-fixin der Porsche is a victim of the internet, although it is likely that drivers are less interested in their cars, coupled with the fact that the newer cars are not as easy to work on without lots of special diagnostic tools.

For the sales news, check out this chart:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/1 ... 1995-2010/

Yes the total number of sports cars is down the last few years.

Greg

[Bob Gagnon]

Good point on the internet Greg. A gomer like me likes a book in hand.

Sadly, looking at that sales data, Porsche is no longer a sports car company, but a company that happens to sell sports cars.

[Bob Gagnon]

THE CORRECT DATE FOR THE NEXT AX IS OCT.1st
The driving hours are 9-5

Anyone have any ideas on what can be done to maximize the number of laps between 9 - 5?

[Kim Crosser]

We have 1400 primary members, so a mailer sent to just the primary members would cost over $600+ any affiliates with a different address, would add to the cost. I also send out a $30.00 gift certificate to every new member and another $30. when they renew for the first year. These are good for AX and I understand we do have many members using them. I think the new blood is out there and they are aware, but it is just getting them to take the first step.

I should have been clearer - I was thinking more along the lines of seeing if Hoehn/Pioneer/Black Forest/Dieter's/etc would consider including a small blurb on one of their mailers - either for free or for a nominal amount. Something maybe 1/2" x 5" - a box with "Want to find out what your Porsche can do? ..." or "Want to get more out of your Porsche? PCA/SDR...".

The new member gift certificates are very good, but we also need to periodically reach out to the rest of the local Porsche population.

[gulf911]

I vote for continuous lapping until timed runs...

[Jackie C]

Personally, I don't want more laps at the Q. That's all the tires can take. I still AX, still TT . Too much time between TTs and it's a cheap way to work on skill sets. I miss the camaraderie with the instructors that lured me into wanting to become one. That energy brought us together as a team and spilled over into the students we taught. I feel if we had an instructor day,(much like the PDSs) we have an opportunity to drive with our friends and learn from each other like the non instructors/drivers are currently enjoying. I realize this isn't a solution, but it's part of the validation process that was talked about earlier in this thread. As far as corner working goes, can't someone link to that thread that went on...a couple of years back so the new people can benefit from our previous discussion (please)? I see problems and I am happy we are all coming together to look for solutions. Remember, new board members are coming up for election. Tell them what you want or better yet volunteer for a chair position and be a part of making a change.

[Mike]

I vote for continuous lapping until timed runs...

chalk outline track and only use a few cones for timed timed runs.

[Kim Crosser]

Anyone have any ideas on what can be done to maximize the number of laps between 9 - 5?

The autocross team has actually been doing a great job of maximizing laps. We have commonly been running 14 laps these days (5-5-4). We have even had 15 laps (6-5-4) when the turnout was closer to 90 cars.
Historically we have achieved 12 laps (plus some re-runs, etc.) with as many as 144 drivers = 1728 laps.
Last weekend we had 103 drivers (104, but one broke) and did 14 laps = 1442 laps.
Barring major schedule problems (track break-up, major incident), we should be able to do around 1500-1600 total laps in a day.
The tradeoff on laps is that we need at least 100 people in order to have enough corner workers (double working, anyone?). (Plus, we generally need at least 90 to break even financially.)
1600/100 = 16 laps per driver
1600/110 = 14.5 laps
1600/120 = 13.3 laps
1600/130 = 12.3 laps
So - depending on the number of attendees, we can get between 12 and 16 laps, with 15 being the most likely (between 105 and 115 cars).
We *could* start the cars closer together, but then we get cases where drivers catch other drivers, which frustrates them (and makes the slower drivers nervous - plus if they tailgate over the finish line, it screws up timing).

The only way to increase laps significantly would be to restrict attendance to a much smaller group (with 80 cars, you could possibly get 20 laps). BUT - we would have to raise fees just to break even... AND - either everyone does double corner working (yeah, right) OR we hire a crew of professional corner workers (who take a 1 hour lunch break, so we lose about 1/8 of our time (or about 200 potential laps!)) AND the fees go up some more to pay for the workers (say $400 pay/80 drivers = +$5/driver).

[gulf911]

Kim, check your math... $400 into 80 drivers is $5 not $50... You will be hard pressed to find ANYone that wouldnt pay $5 extra dollars to not corner work. Plus not having to deal with all the issues of it..

Does anyone know if Kim has anything to do with the treasury??..

[RETII]

Pls correct me if my math is bad but another $5.00 @80 drivers buys 4 corner workers.... NASCAR track?