What could possibly be better than cruising down a wonderful twisty road in one of Zuffenhausen’s finest sports cars? How about piloting this same great road but with a pack of purring pouncing Porsches, sharing with fellow enthusiasts the entire exhilarating experience!
Enter PCA UCR’s popular driving tours program, formerly called fun runs. Sure, alone attacking S-curves in a P-car is a blast, but doing so with several others, the weapon of choice the same sharpened German artillery, is even more thrilling.
A driving tour is defined as a friendly and social non-competitive driving event on fun twisty roads that are in good shape and usually with some nice scenery, for Porsche club members to enjoy the company of each other and their fine cars, usually with a lunch, dinner or snack stop at a nice venue. A driving tour can have five to 50 Porsches and last just a few hours of a day or can go longer and last several days and span a greater distance.
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCHEDULE OF DRIVING TOURS ON THE CLUB CALENDAR
And another rewarding aspect of driving tours is discovering and exploring new roads as well as breathtaking scenery, much of it right here in our back yards in Ontario, as well as new restaurants and wineries.
PCA UCR hosts around 20 driving tours each year — in Niagara, Muskoka, Blue Mountains and Georgian Bay, along Lake Erie, Lake Simcoe, Kawartha Lakes, and many points in between.
You’ve heard the motto before, PCA is “fueled by volunteers” — so if you have a cool Porsche-friendly route and a favourite lunch restaurant, then host a driving tour! Your Driving Tours Chair Larry Funnell is here to help, you may be surprised at how easy and rewarding it can be. Drop him a line with any questions or comments at driving-tours@pcaucr.org.
Registration for most driving tours opens up one month in advance, but please check ClubRegistration.net for the most current information.
Differences between Gimmick Rallies and Tours
- A Tour – all cars leave at essentially the same time and groups follow closely behind their lead car. Keeping cars close together is usually a desired goal.
- A Gimmick Rally – cars are released 30-60 seconds apart, so each car can drive independently along the route to the finish. Cars may or may not see other event cars during the drive.
- A Tour doesn’t evaluate performance during the day and has no prizes or awards.
- A Rally is a game performed while driving your car from the start to the finish. There are things to observe, questions to answer, or other methods of evaluating performance along the route. Prizes are awarded at the finish.
- A Tour requires a driver. One or more passengers are optional.
- A Rally requires a driver and a navigator. The independent directions and competitive gimmick instructions require two or more people in the vehicle. One to drive and the other to read the written instructions. There are no cars to follow.
- What Gimmick Rallies are not:
- A PCA Gimmick Rally is not a race. A Gimmick Rally is run on public roads and follows all traffic laws.
- A PCA Gimmick Rally is not governed by the rules of TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) rallies. The only time constraint is a deadline to be at the finish location.
- A Gimmick Rally is not a Tour- it is designed to be a low-key competitive event that two or more people per car can enjoy.
- A PCA Gimmick rally should not be filled with traps or difficult instructions. Rather the gimmick should be fairly straight-forward, with the objective being powers of observation, rally team ingenuity, and, for some events, a little luck.