28th October – Cars & Coffee at Pie Performance.
The last open day of the year at Pie, with another good turnout of members with their Porsches. Chris’s Dad was in charge of the BBQ and the usual cakes and nibbles were on offer to enjoy whilst we chatted and explored the workshops. Chris intends to host three mornings on the same format next year and we will advertise the dates in good time.
4th November – Official Conference at Ettington Chase Hotel, Cotswolds.
We made the trip to the beautiful Cotswolds to meet up with other Regional Organisers and Register Secretaries for the afternoon conference. We are pleased to report that membership now stands at 19,000, with an 84% retention figure. The Club expects it to peak at 20,000 in 2018. All events in 2017 were well supported and we received the provisional events calendar for 2018.
There will be 3 National Events next year, Silverstone Classic, Brands Hatch Festival of Porsche and Concours D’Elegance at Ragley Hall, the dates of which we have listed below. We won’t elaborate too much on the meeting as a report will be in a future edition of Porsche Post, suffice to say we are part of a very successful and ever-growing Car Club!
11th November – Visit to William Hewitt Porsche Independent.
We had been invited by Patrick O’Brien to visit this newly established Porsche Independent, specialising in water cooled cars, situated just outside the town of Walsingham between Fakenham and Wells.Patrick and his team greeted us with tea, coffee, biscuits and hot sausage rolls which were very welcome on a bright, but crisp Autumn morning. We enjoyed looking around the workshop and Patrick handed out complimentary diaries and pens to everyone before giving us a short talk regarding his business which has been running for almost two years.
It was good to know that Patrick and his team between them have 60 years Porsche experience and knowledge to offer their customers.We thanked Patrick for his hospitality and then several of us, including Patrick and his Dad, plus partner Carlene, made our way to The Black Lion Pub in Walsingham for lunch which Patrick had arranged on our behalf.
21st November – Club Night
Tony and Colleen gave a presentation of their 12 night September tour of North Spain and the Picos de Europa Mountains, organised by Scenic Car Tours and staying in Parador Hotels along the way (which are fabulous!!). 14 cars took part – 4 Porsches, 1 TR4A Triumph, 1 DB7 Aston Martin, 1 Audi, 5 Jaguars, 1 Mercedes, 1 Morgan and 1 MG. Tony gave a slide show commencing at Vitoria-Gasteiz (our first stop leaving the port at Bilbao) and ending in the pretty village of Santilla Del Mar.
A highlight of the holiday was a 753 metre cable car ride to the heart of the Picos De Europa Mountain Range in the Valle de Aliva where we had golden eagles flying above us. The day was clear and the views were amazing. We also enjoyed visiting the beautiful Gothic Cathedral in Burgos which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984. The roads were pretty empty much of the time, as the main holiday season in Northern Spain had finished and we were able to travel along in the 996, top down most of the way, taking in lovely scenery with hilltop villages, lakes, mountains and forests.
All in all, a great holiday and one we can thoroughly recommend. After the presentation teas/coffees were available and Tony then discussed some of the events planned for next year, including our WOTY to the New Forest end of May, and our trip to the Loire Valley in September. We offer a warm welcome to Julian, Michelle and Dean who were attending their first club night. Hope everyone enjoyed the evening.