
Fresh back for an intense week of all-things Porsche, otherwise known as the annual PCA Porsche Parade. This year’s Parade was held in the world-famous Palm Springs area, the winter escape for Hollywood stars in the Coachella Valley of Southern California. I would never have put that on my short list of places to visit, which is really the beauty of Porsche Parades. A team of 50 PCA volunteers makes up the Parade Staff and spent a whole year (plus) making this another special and memorable week well spent. A complete immersion into fantastic Porsches and Porsche fanatics.
Here are some highlights:

Special Porsches galore. From the latest Penske Porsche 963 gracing the center of the La Quinta Resort’s ballroom area (now with victories at Long Beach and Watkins Glen!), to the Dakar “Rough Roads” 911, the Concours field of beautiful cars, the historic display with even more special and rare ones, to the latest GT4RS and modified class cars driven flat out at the AutoX event. All balanced by an almost endless variety of well-chosen street Porsches driven to the event and filling the local roads and resort parking spots.

CVR AutoX-U goes National. Those that have participated in CVR’s AutoX program know about the AutoX-University approach of designing a course focused on two key driving skills. Now this approach has been shared with the West Coast. Held in a big parking lot at the Palm Springs Convention Center, the “CVR style” course highlighted Vision and Weight Transfer skills, just like we did at CVR’s AutoX #1. Compliments from many experienced and novice drivers made my week. Lots of DNF’s the first day made me sad. Despite the usual CVR touches like pre-publishing the course map, in-car video, and Zoom “Chalk Talks” before the event, typical novice tendencies (only looking 20-30 feet in front of their car) surprised many. After instructing many of the “lost” drivers, most then realized they were not actually “looking ahead”, like all drivers initially think they are. The coaching used our CVR green course arrows and 29 florescent green apex cones to help lift their eyes, helping send most home now realizing a whole new level of that critical vision skill. I was happy to have spread the AutoX-U lessons West. The course also had many challenges for the experts and it was a treat to witness them extract every fraction of a second from it.


Mark Porsche can really drive! Often a Porsche family member visits Parade, however it is unusual that representative actually drives the AutoX. AutoX is not big in Europe and many don’t “get it”. I am happy to report that Mark Porsche now does. He visited for a few laps, never really having AutoXed before, nor having the benefit of seeing the map or videos before showing up on-site. He hopped into an Exclusive Edition Turbo S 911,m after a very quick debrief by me showing him the course map. While I’m sure he has had the best training opportunities available, that doesn’t diminish the impressive driving skills he showed. What a special moment to be able to guide him around the course and see him quickly progress. He wasted no time in attacking the course and honing each of his 4 runs. He was indeed having fun and had a thirst to do better on each. Could we ask anything better from the Porsche Family? I think not. Our future looks to be influenced by enthusiastic family members. Who knows, maybe that experience will somehow lead to a Porsche AutoX edition Cayman in the future? I can only wish.


As I left the brick-oven-like So-Cal landscape and landed back in cool green Connecticut, I re-affirmed that the real Porsche paradise is right here! The people and vibrancy of CVR, and the natural beauty of the Connecticut area should never be taken for granted. Join us at our next CVR AutoXs on July 15th and August 5th to see why we are all smiling. We know! Registration and info at: AutoX – Connecticut Valley Region, Porsche Club of America (cvrpca.com)

