by Jim Millick

Those of you attending Parade know I staffed the Fast Lane Travel booth for our Treffenmeister Peter Sontag, who was busy celebrating his 50th Anniversary of his arrival in the U.S. Peter came to Steubenville, Ohio, on the 4th of July, 1960. After hearing the fireworks on the 4th, he wrote his mother that there were shoot’em-ups going on, just like in the cowboys and Indians western movies! Little did he know then that 50 years later the 5th of July 2010, and every 5th thereafter would be declared the official “Peter M. Sontag Day” in Steubenville.

I really enjoyed meeting many of you at Parade, both alums and hopefully future Treffen members.

I worked to get to everyone, but as busy as the crowds were at times, I hope I got all of your questions answered. If not, drop me a note at jim@fastlanetravel.com. A few intrepid couples came back Monday because I was too busy Sunday, special thanks to Kathleen and Mike from Ohio. Kathleen clued me into the excellence at the Blue Ridge Boxster Summit. It’s akin to a PCA escape, run by people on Porsche Pete’s Boxster Board, one of the friendliest places on the web. I plan on going next year, I love that area. Kathleen says you don’t need a Boxster to go, any Porsche will do, and some people bring other cars, too.

I hung up my Germany map from my 2006 Treffen, and many people dropped by and told me tales of where they lived and worked in Germany. Even Porsche AG folks came over and used it. I got several Autobahn route tips from Sascha I’ll pass on to Peter.

I spent most of my time in the Fast Lane Travel booth, but I did get out to see the concourse. Whew was it hot. It makes me wonder about next year’s Parade in August, at Savannah, Georgia. I looked up their weather when I got home, the heat index was 106! For 2012, Parade heads to Salt Lake City, Utah.

In the hospitality area, we had the pieces of the new hybrid Cayenne set in front of us. Porsche elected to go with a nickel metal hydride battery pack, with 10 years or 100,000 miles, if I recall correctly, as its lifespan. It’s comprised of hundreds of 1.2V cells. Porsche is proud to point out all of the power goes through the main transmission, making the hybrid behavior seamless to the driver. It’s an Aisin 8 speed Tiptronic. I asked why not a PDK, the answer was the Tiptronic can creep better when you’re off-roading over rocks and tough terrain.

While the Cayenne hybrid is an interesting technical exercise, color me skeptical about its popularity. It weighs hundreds of pounds more, we don’t yet know the cost of the battery pack (likely to be an issue for the 3rd or 4th owner), and it’s a $4,000 premium over the Cayenne S. Let’s see, at $3.059 for my local Shell dealer’s 93 Octane V Power (no ethanol), I can buy about 1,300 gallons, which would take me somewhere past 25K miles. I don’t see the logic in buying a hybrid Cayenne, given the analysis – if I were looking at Cayennes, I’d take the V8, probably a GTS.

I spoke to one gentleman who was seriously studying the hybrid power train; I asked him what he thought. He paused, then responded thoughtfully, “It looks like a $18,000 solution to a $1,200 problem – gas is not that expensive, even if it doubles in price.”

I see that Porsche has received over 16,000 orders for this third generation Cayenne, with the hybrid garnering a healthy 15% of the orders. It’ll be very interesting to see how sales plays out after the early adopters buy their hybrids. I don’t see how fuel expense really plays into buying a new high-end vehicle in the U.S. Driving it off the lot costs more in depreciation than you’ll ever spend on fuel, probably fuel, insurance, and registration combined. Even at 2X the per gallon cost, it’s still not significant. Obvious yes, as you see the numbers roll at the pump at every fill-up, but significant in the grand scheme of things, not really.

I did make it to PCNA’s Paul Gagliardi’s Cayenne tech sessions – whatever Paul puts on is well worth the time to attend, I always make a special effort to see him. Paul began his session with a photo from a protest in Germany where Porsche was branded an environmental pig, he had a slide where someone brought a Cayenne painted pink with a large hog nose on it – you can see this is driven by a number of interest groups, not Porsche buyers. Porsche has done a very impressive job in shaving almost 400 lbs. from the Cayenne, and it looks pretty good too, you can see the Panamera influence in the interior, it’s much more refined.

I was curious about the green effects in the sports car line in the 3-5 year range. I don’t see how they could package the present hybrid technology in either the 911 or the Boxster/Caymans, it just takes up too much space in an already tight fight configuration. The GT3 R hybrid racecar was also on display. The flywheel energy storage mechanism takes up the passenger seat area (usually empty on race cars) and the front trunk is gone to the associated gear. That scheme wouldn’t work with the 987/997 series, you’d loose too much space. I keep wondering whether their will be what I call a “1974 moment,” will legislation corner Porsche and make their new cars less desirable to me? I certainly hope the Boxster and Cayman continue with 6 cylinders (I really can’t see a 911 with other than a flat 6.) I think it’s almost a given there will be a new sports car slotted beneath the Boxster/Cayman line in the next 5 years.

When I asked Paul about the EU and U.S. forthcoming legislation, he thought the EU’s carbon emission rules would be the tougher hurdle to meet. In the U.S., the new CAFE fuel economy average comes in during the 2014 model year, with a possible exemption for small manufacturers, such as Porsche, until 2017. That gives Weissach engineering a while to meet those goals. Thinking back to those pre-1974 days, I keep admiring the early 911 models, particularly ‘’69-71. There’s just “rightness” about them, shibumi, as the Japanese would say, before the ridiculous and useless 5 MPH bumpers were legislated on, and an evermore-choked engine. Next year’s raffle PCA raffle car will be a 911T, restored by the Porsche Classic department in Zuffenhausen.

The first FLT Treffen trip was given away at the rally banquet, held in the Morton Arboretum. The weather didn’t cooperate, as the blue-black clouds over our head let loose before we got there, but as we were following a Carrera GT, it was interesting to see how it handled the downpour – no problems. Even more remarkable, the owner, Randy, drove the CGT was driven to Parade, over 800 miles one-way, and also autocrossed it! They didn’t know what to do with a CGT for run class, so they put it with the GT-3s. Randy has 26,000 miles on the car, and says he doesn’t understand folks who buy cars, then don’t drive them.

While it took a couple of draws to find a winner, a hearty congratulations to David Stone of the Santa Barbara region. He was already interested in going, he and his wife had been by the booth earlier.

After the vendor booths were closed up, I made it to the Michelin challenge autocross in Boxster Spyders. While I can’t say a lot based on the two runs I made, the Spyder grunted out of corners very well, with wonderful turn-in and very little body flex. I’d love to have a longer test drive on some good back roads, but I’d say this car is a contender. I’ve been told a couple of former GT3 owners on the west coast have sold their cars and bought Spyders. The wow factor – they’re within a second of the track lap times they ran with the GT3s! Speaking of autocrossing Spyders, Hans Peter Porsche piloted one of the Michelin shod-cars to a very competitive 58 seconds and change lap, with a co-driver on board!

The second Treffen prize went out Thursday night, to “Porsche Lady” Sallie Jameson of New York state, who’ll be enjoying the sights and sounds of Swabia and Bavaria in a Porsche 911 this autumn. Congrats Sallie!

I rounded Friday out with a non-car event, a Parade-sponsored walking architecture tour of downtown Chicago. Highly recommended! It covered buildings from 1880 to 1934, including my favorite style, Art Deco, though not quite equal to the great Chrysler Building. I also found out that it’s about $40,000 to buy one parking space in downtown Chicago – no thanks, that’s better spent on Porsches. I had lunch with Glen, Randy, and Eleanor. I asked Randy of his extensive stable of other cars, including the CGT and other Porsches, which was the most fun to drive? It’s actually his daily driver, an Audi R8. He says it’s easier to drive it fast than any of the others, and a great road car. I’ve heard similar things from Evo as well as U.S. magazine editors, so Porsche has to raise their game with the next generation of cars, their rivals are at their heels.

See you in Stuttgart!

Special thanks to Mike and Cindy of Reliable Auto Transport, who graciously helped me haul the FLT booth gear the ¼ mile to my Porsche!