Targa Newfoundland

[A.T.]

You guys really missed something.

I know Newfoundland is about as far away from California as you can get and still be in North America but that's still no excuse. The winner of this year's Classic Division of the Targa Newfoundland was Bill Arnold of CA. in a '72 BMW Bavaria. That's a 4 door! Isn't it?

My brother/navigator and I had such a blast. It was awesome. We finished 6th in the Touring Equiped class in my '69 S coupe. It would take me hours to really describe it. I'll try posting some pictures and I hope you check out thier web site.

http://www.targanewfoundland.com/

In a nut shell it's a 7 day rally with transit (open road) stages and Targa or competion stages (closed to the public). Targa class cars run pretty much wide open. Touring class speeds are a little milder but not much. The roads range from open windy sea side runs to tight twisting bits through little villages. On the tighter stages we had to pretty much run as hard has we could to maintain our posted average speeds (in Touring).

There were a good number of Porsches and about 3 early 911s. But it would be awesome to see some of you "R" group guys out next year.

I still haven't figured out how to attach a bunch of pictures in one posting so I'll do it over a few.

A.T.

[A.T.]

Five weeks before the event.

[A.T.]

Ready for action! The guy with the mustache is my brother/navigator who incidentally has way more driving experience than I. Fortunately he also has nerves of steel.

[A.T.]

....I think his last bit of instructions before this corner were something like, "Try to avoid the spectators."

[A.T.]

Most of the towns we drove through would have a holiday for the day. Lunches would be in the local legion or town hall. The people in Newfoundland are tremendously kind. Everyone had stories about the generosity of the locals. One team blew two gears in their hopped up Dodge SRT4. The nearest dealership tracked down the only two people in the province with the same car and they both volunteered to loan thier trannies to the team for the rest of the week. They were back in and won thier division. We spent most of Sunday and all of Monday just before the event in a local shop trying to sort out some problems with our car. Gary Ball at Car Fix in St. John's was a saint. Didn't charge us a dime.

[A.T.]

This was one of the prettiest cars of the event. And there were lots to choose from.

'56 356 Carrera.

[A.T.]

...certainly a striking cross section of Porsche history.

A.T.

P.S. That Mini (a real one) in the back ground was by far one of the fastest Targa competitors. It was almost scary to watch.

[Chuck Miller]

THAT'S FANTASTIC A.T. !!! CONGRATS !!!

Hell, only about 3000 miles from SoCal... why not ???

Looks like lots of fun and adventures...
It's hard for me to think of a better way to use your '69-S

Good-on-ya...

Cheers,

[Paul Schooley]

Maybe the east coasters could make it. I've been looking at that event for two years. Entry fee is high, but it appears to give you a mega blast for the dollar. Hard to imagine a better vacation than 7 days of tearing up and down the Atlantic coastline...hehe

[A.T.]

Hey Guys

I was going through some of my old threads and thought I'd bump this up again. This is more than 11 years ago. Man time flies. I think that car is now worth more than 10 times what I paid for it. Oh and maybe a little more than twice what I put into it.
Andreas