- Porsche Club Malaysia

December 2012
Porsche Club
News 1 2 /12
PCM PRESIDENT’S NOTE # 32 - December 2012
Dear Porschephiles
As a door closes, so another opens. It is time to bid 2012 goodbye, and
welcome 2013. So the Mayans were wrong, and we are still alive and kicking,
and the world moves on. 2012 saw the 60th Anniversary of the formation of the
Porsche Clubs Worldwide. It was great having and belonging to the large
Porsche family. Now in 2013, another Anniversary is coming.
1.0 50th Anniversary of the 911
This is the most iconic of Porsches, and it
turns 50 in 2013. The 911 started as a
901. Penned from sketches in 1959 by
Ferdinand 'Butzi' Porsche, son of 'Ferry
Porsche, with the prototype appearing in
1963.
The nomenclature '901' was
protested by Peugeot who held that three
numerals with an 0 between belonged to
them, so Porsches became the 911.
The first production 911 displaced
2.0(1991 cc) liters and 128 bhp with a flat
6 boxer engine. It replaces the 356.
Various models and ranges came out, like
the L, E, T, S, SC and the most collectible
of them all the RS. Icon tails are the
ducktail and the whale tails. In 1978, a
turbo version appeared with 3.0 liters and
a whale tail that looked more like a picnic
table. More modern versions are the 964
and 993 series in air cooled form.
In water cooled incarnations, we have the 996 and 997 and the latest 991. The
reason why Porsche changed to water-cooling is that the air-cooled engine has
reached the limit of its development.
The numbers to remember.410,014. That is the number of air-cooled 911s ever
built. From the 996 onwards, as of Nov 2012, more than 420,000 have been built,
and still growing.
The 911s were the most successful racing 'production' and homologation make,
and cars like the RS had to have a minimum of 500 cars to qualify under FIA
regulations. Racing specialist cars includes the 934 and 935 that races in Group
4 and 5 in world GT championships. Other more modest versions are the RSRs.
Specialist cars like the 906, 908 and 917 raced in the prototype category and
PORSCHE
CLUB
MALAYSIA
PCM PRESIDENT’S NOTE # 32 - December 2012
based roughly on the 911. The most beautiful 911 to me is the 911 GT1, which
had production versions. The first time I came close to a GT1 was at a BPR
World Championship, the fore runner of today's FIA GT series. Piloted by Ickx
and co, it ate up McLaren GTR F1s, Ferrari F40s like a hot knife thru butter.
Idling at the pits, the flames at the exhaust was like a oil fire, 0.5m long, and
when blipped, comes off like a bazooka. My knees turned into jelly.
Notable championships won by 911s include 24 heure Du Man, Targa Florio,
Daytona, Nurburgring and Sebring. In Rally form, the 959 took numerous
championships too. There are thousands of race wins by 911s over the last 50
years.
LONG LIVE the 911
2.0 Supercar Charity Challenge Version 2.0
CSRs are always close to our hearts, and this year, continuing from 2011, was
held at Publika. Porsches were probably the largest contingent, and several of
our members brought their other cars for variety. All in all, we raised more than
$200,000 for the YOKUK, to set up palliative facilities for the hard core poor.
Thank you to all, Porschephiles and others and Rodwin Bahadur for leading it.
Thank you Maya Karin, for flagging us off!!
PORSCHE
CLUB
MALAYSIA
PCM PRESIDENT’S NOTE # 32 - December 2012
3.0 Annual Dinner 2012
The theme for the night was 'Diamonds are Forever' with the 60th Anniversary in
mind. This must be the biggest Annual dinner of all time, with 346 taking up the
350 places available. We tried the payment up front format and it worked
beautifully as for once, everyone paid up before coming, letting the Sub
committee do its work properly without distraction.
Mixing around at One World's Ball Room Lobby pre-dinner, the place was
packed. A lot of catching up with old faces, and with so many new members
coming for the first time, we hope to integrate them to our Porsche family. For the
first time too, we get major media asking to cover the Dinner. I hope many of you
get your faces in those magazines.
Dinner proper, the presentation was some what different. We wheeled out 3
large threadfin fishes (giant kurau) of more than 7.5 kg each in dimmed lights,
and the Gangnam dances did the rest. Instead of an Anniversary cake, be
unveiled fishes, oven baked in foil. All in all, 21 fishes. Every thing had to
multiples of three that night. For Life and prosperity.
PORSCHE
CLUB
MALAYSIA
PCM PRESIDENT’S NOTE # 32 - December 2012
This year, we wanted more audience participation. The PORSCHE IDOL. Some
were good, others better, but all in good fun. Winners were determined by
audience voting. Congratulations to Tan Chee Kang on being the first Porsche
Idol. More audience participation and the floor was open for an auction of very
high quality prints donated by Edwin Ng. A total of Rm21,500 was raised for
Assunta Hospital's hard core poor patients who cannot afford quality medical
treatment and cannot wait for long queues at government hospitals. Thank you
so much for all your kindness. As for the Sapporo beer drinking contest, for the
life of me, I can't imagine how 4 beers can be downed in less than 2 minutes.
Congrats, I have learnt something.
Personally, I like the band and the Gangnam dancers who kept everyone on their
feet. Of course, the last but not least, our lucky draws. More than 100 prizes
were given away. We always seem to have a lot of sponsors and contributors
every year, and we would like to thank everyone. Sime Darby Auto Performance,
HP, USPA, Sapporo beer, Leica, Pierre LeDent, Amee Phillips, Junghan watch,
Bina warehouse, 3M, Goodyear, Kurnia amongst the larger sponsors. There
were more than 25 all together. Thank you everyone.
The most important person, Our Social Director, Amelia Kong - her maiden
Annual Dinner. She was extremely afraid to fail, and was really driven. Nothing
is perfect, but she scored an A+ in my book. To the rest of the sub-com too,
thank you so much.
PORSCHE
CLUB
MALAYSIA
PCM PRESIDENT’S NOTE # 32 - December 2012
4.0 NTV 7 Bella show
We were invited by NTV 7 to be a panel to answer questions on 'Men and Cars'
Our host Daphne Iking is really easy going and charming, and made Dato Derrick
Lim feel more relaxed on his maiden live TV appearance. He did well too. I was
somewhat shocked to see him turn up with gelled and spiky hair though. We
were the only Supercar club invited to this, and stood out for the rest. Women
have Supercars too !!!
5.0 Directions for the new year 2013
We will need to get organized and be prepared as we exceed the 1,000 member
mark. Aside from the major Porsche staples, we will internationalize some PCM
drives with Germany, Italy and Japan in mind. We will welcome the PCHK in the
middle of the year on their visit to Malaysia. In September, we look forward to PC
Singapore's SEA parade.
6.0 Heart felt thankfulness
We would like to thank all our members for supporting us this year and hope to
do better next year. For me personally, I thank the hard working Exco for all their
selfless work, support, time, effort and cash. Sometimes I feel I have frightened
my exco into doing work, but they did the work fantastically when called upon.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate our Exco, Dato Lim Wern Siang on his
conferment of a Dato’ship.
Thank you all, and a Happy New Year
Key Soon Yue
President
Porsche Club Malaysia
PORSCHE
CLUB
MALAYSIA