UPCOMING EVENTS

Mid 911 Gippsland Day Run - Sun 29th Aug 2010

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Mid 911 North East Tour - Fri 17th to Sun 19th Sept 2010 - BOOKED OUT - WAITING LIST

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PAST EVENTS

Mid 911 Red Hill Run - 26 June 10

Story - Trevor Leavesley

It had been some time since the last Mid 911 Run and Paula and I were really looking forward to it with some excitement. Our white CS4 was duly washed, buffed and shined, ready for the run the next day. Of course upon rising early, it was pouring down and very cold on Arthurs Seat! Nevertheless, as keen Register members we were quickly up and running. We were looking forward to this particular Run, as it was to end with lunch being taken at the locally well known, Tucks Ridge Winery and Restaurant, which is situated only 12 kms from our home!

After leaving in heavy rain and anticipating a steady and careful drive to our meeting point at the Hungry Jacks in Hallam, we were pleasantly surprised to see the weather beginning to clear and the rain ease, on the drive up. Upon arrival, about half of the fleet were already there and we were then quickly joined by all the others, including two new register members cars, to form a group of 17 Porsches of various types, plus the BMW X5 of Graeme and Yannick Anderson, evidently their 964 was in for some scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. Peter Cromie, our Register Captain, promptly called the group to order and described what should be a day of relaxed and safe driving in the probably inclement weather. The cars left the car park in orderly fashion, except for the Targa SC of Ken & Harriet Anson, which had promptly decided to refuse to co-operate with neither it’s windscreen wipers, nor electric windows working properly, although everything was operating when they had arrived! Upon observing Ken being positively assisted by Will Darvall, it started to drizzle again this writer, (somewhat guiltily), drove off to catch the rest of the group.

From Hallam, we joined the Monash Freeway travelling towards Berwick, then via the Five Ways and the Sth Gippsland Highway, taking the turn off towards Tooradin and onto the Frankston-Flinders Road towards Tyabb, our destination, where we were to stop for morning tea. This was to be taken at the Tyabb Packing House, famous for it’s collection of antiques and old wares. This unique complex is supposedly the largest collection of antiques and collectibles in Australia. Whether it is or not, I cannot say, but it is BIG. Although for a place of its size, casually organized as expected, but surprisingly well laid out. A fine Devonshire tea was provided which was delicious, although some of the scones were big enough to be used as ‘doorstops’. Whilst we were finishing morning tea we were very pleased to see the arrival of Ken and Harriet, who had managed to get the Targa’s wipers and windows going again. Evidently Ken thought oxidized fuses to be the source of the problem. Peter’s schedule had originally planned for us to stay for about an hour, but the rain came back in ‘bucketfuls’ and I think most of us were there for much longer. (So much to see and buy, so little time!)

The cars all resumed the journey in ones and twos proceeding towards Moorooduc and down the Mornington Peninsula Freeway to Dromana. We all then turned left for a short, but spirited, (within the limit), run up to Arthurs Seat, continuing on to Red Hill and then Tucks Ridge Winery, which is situated on the Red Hill – Shoreham Road. The weather by this time had cleared and with blue skies we parked among a surprising number of cars in the car parks of both Tucks Ridge and a neighbouring winery. Obviously business is still pretty good, no matter what the climate!

The restaurant was very busy when we arrived but we were made to feel very welcome and allocated to special tables laid out for the Club. Although it did not seem too long since morning tea, we were all rather hungry, a feeling that was exacerbated by the aroma of food being delivered to other tables. It was noticed at this time, that we had not been joined by Ken and Harriet. Assuming that the Targa’s fuse problem had come back, we understood and wished them a dry and safe journey home.

The restaurant service was a little slow to start with, which was not surprising with the numbers they had booked for lunch, but the food, in a word, was superb! A short menu but with choices for each course, we managed on a share basis, to sample everything on offer and it was all interestingly different and very, very good. Tucks Ridge’s wine is well known in the region and has won many, many medals and we enthusiastically sampled their Pinot Noir. Like most Peninsula wines, they are not inexpensive, but usually very good. A good time was had by all.

Whilst waiting for our lunch. Peter had given us a run-down on the Clubs activities with specific reference to future runs and plans for the Mid 911 Register. As the Register is very active and busy and we have a good programme of events coming up, keep a look out for the regular PCV updates.

Peter and Clair had, as usual with Mid 911 runs, arranged a raffle with prizes of wines and auto cleaning accessories. To our joy and subsequent embarrassment, three of the prizes were won on one table, ours! With no reason to feel guilty and no prompting to leave by the Tucks Ridge staff, we stayed on and enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon.

On behalf of all register members who attended, I would like to sincerely thank Peter and Clair for their efforts on our behalf and their usual professional standard of organization. Irrespective of the wintery weather, it really was, a great day out.

Fuse Note – We later heard back from Ken that the problems were not the fuses, which turned out to be all OK. Evidently the fuse mounts, for both the wipers and the windows, were badly oxidized. With a little WD40 and rotation of the fuses the problems were solved. He now intends to put into his SC tool kit, a $5 test light, some WD40 and spare fuses. He also recommends a copy of easily read fuse application instructions. (The inside of the cover is very difficult to read!) This is probably good advice for everybody.

Mid 911 Christmas Lunch @ The Point, Albert Park - 29 Nov 09 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Warrnambool Tour - Jul 09 - Image Gallery

Story - Trevor Leavesley

July the 18th at last, dawn had arrived on the day of the much anticipated run to Warrnambool. After the build-up that the Warrnambool Crew had given us on the previous Mid 911 run, we could not wait! Paula and I were ready to go for the 7.00am Queenscliffe ferry, until we realized we didn’t have to meet until 10.00 am. After a now more relaxed breakfast we were off, eventually arriving ahead of schedule in Moriac, just west of Geelong.

On a cool and damp winter morning the cars began to arrive and eventually assembled before us were; Ted Brotchie’s Boxster; thirteen 911s, including three 993s, a 996, our 997 and Ron Wisharts’s Hyundai, (of which more later). We were then joined by the three 911s of Peter Johnson, Graeme Aberline and John Reeves, our organizing crew from Warrnambool. After very welcome cups of hot coffee, we joined Peter for his briefing on the highlights to come. There appeared to be general relief when Peter indicated that all rooms were full at the Salvation Army Citadel, his promised accommodation for our stay in Warrnambool!

We were soon in our cars and ready to go, when it was realized the bright yellow, left hand drive, ex Japanese racing 911 of new members’ Rohan and Dominique Little, had refused to start. With a hearty push from several enthusiastic members, it readily jumped into life and we were all away, heading west for adventures new.

With Peter leading, the cars were all line astern heading for Deans Marsh on what appeared to be virtually deserted roads. Through Deans Marsh and across the Birregurra Road, the spaces separating the cars grew until from our point of view there were just the three cars following Peter, with nobody visible astern. This writer was in the fourth car and after a sharp right turn Paula, who was navigating, thought we were on the wrong road. “How could that be I disparaged, Peter the organizer is the leading car!!” It wasn’t long before we all came to a shuddering halt. After some discussion (Peter and Jenny had been talking about last night’s TV, or something), we turned round and went back to find the rest of the ‘fleet’ had turned left correctly onto the Old Yea road and we were now the ‘tail-end Charlies’.

After driving through Gellibrand and through the occasional mists we found we were on the very twisty and very appropriately named Charley’s Creek Road on our way to Lavers Hill. We then proceeded through Ferguson until we arrived a little behind schedule, at the Otway Fly Tree Top walk, a well known tourist attraction in the area. The majority of members felt in need of exercise and went off to enjoy this beautiful and relaxing walk. A few stragglers, including this writer, found the open fire in the café just a little too much of an attraction!

It takes a good hour to enjoy the walk hence we were really ready for some lunch when we regrouped in our cars. As it happened, we only had a 15 minute drive to Lavers Hill, where we all had a very satisfying and hearty lunch at the Blackwood Gully restaurant.

After lunch the original plan was to go to the Bay of Martyrs to view the Apostles, but as we were running a little late and the traffic in what is a popular tourist area was rather slow, it was decided to give this a miss. We headed down from Lavers Hill, which was its usual damp and misty self, towards the Great Ocean Road and Port Campbell.

This road is normally a great driver’s road with its twists and turns, but we were often held up by tourists more interested in the view than looking where they were going. There were still many nice sections to drive and it was from this point on that I repeatedly noticed in my rear view mirror, a white Hyundai that obviously thought it was a Porsche, because it stayed with the group no matter what, how and where we went. I had only briefly met Ron at morning coffee and no idea until we stopped later in the day, that it was him. Quite amazing handling and breaking from what is a family car!

Through Port Campbell, where we were smilingly waved through by a friendly policeman conducting .05 checks! We continued onto and through Peterborough, driving on good roads and in beautiful and surprisingly flat countryside towards Warrnambool. Before going into town the whole ‘fleet’ went to Logan’s Beach, hoping to see some whales. Peter Johnson, who had been remarkably accurate about the clearing weather and blue skies, said there would be whales and there they were. In fact an avid and patient older whalewatcher, who had been there most of the day said we had just missed seeing eight of them just off from the beach. We actually saw at least three whales and claims that there were two more to the west were soon discounted, when through binoculars ‘they’ were seen to be waves breaking on a broken reef!

Time flies when you are having fun and so it was that about an hour later we headed off to the Olde Maritime Inn, where we had accommodation in Warrnambool. Rooms had been previously organized by ‘the Crew’ and we were soon parked up, ready to relax and enjoy ourselves. Clair and Peter Cromie did a great job using the wing of their car as an improvised table to serve cheese, biscuits and wine to the congregation and this was much appreciated by all. We took time out to look at Rohan’s 2.7 ex-racing car, the girls were aghast and sympathetic for his wife Dominique, as inside it had just the two seats, still absolutely bare paint for racing, but luckily a heater had been added for the winter run!

A quick shower, change and into the bar for pre-dinner drinks, then across the road to Pippies Restaurant, which is situated in the historic Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village. A great evening was had by all, beautiful food and copious supplies of various liquids throughout the evening. A bottle of wine and a cake with lit candles were then presented to a very surprised Henri Telkes in honour of his birthday.

The Warrnambool Crew had previously and ingeniously put together a series of mainly pictorial conundrums/puzzles for us to solve during the meal. This was intended to be competition between the occupants of each car versus the other cars, but of course it rapidly became group versus group and then, as we were on two or three large tables, table versus table. Needless to say we all finished up with the correct answers! In a bid to resolve the situation, the Crew’s Muriel Aberline, who was question master for the evening, gave the prize to the most original, but incorrect answer to one of the questions. This went to Neville Sampson for his answer of ‘Mae West’ to a picture question which showed four large capital ‘D’s and within each ‘D’ there was an individual letter of the word ‘West’. (See note below for the correct answer.)

Muriel then announced that placed under one of our chairs there would be a prize winning sticker. Everybody immediately leapt up to check their chair and with furniture going everywhere there appeared to be no winner. Until Gabby Clair, who was still sitting, was eventually persuaded to have a look under hers and she found that she was indeed, the winner of a large jar of local honey. After what had been a big day we all retired for a good night’s sleep.

Up early for breakfast on a cold and miserable winter morning, the crews in many layers of clothing, except for Ron Wishart who didn’t seem to notice the weather, we all assembled with our cars in the Flagstaff Hill car park, where we were visited by a photographer from the ‘Warrnambool Standard’ newspaper. He seemed to take innumerable shots of us, one of which was later published in the ‘Standard’ that week.

This was followed by a briefing from Peter Johnson, who again stated that he had been in touch with ‘his’ weather Gods and confirmed that it would become a clear and pleasant day. We then set off on what turned out to be a short drive to the Hopkins Falls, which are to be found on the Hopkins River, just outside of Warrnambool. Although not too high, they are spectacularly wide with seemingly abundant amounts of water (for Victoria!) flowing over the edge. Very picturesque, especially as we were able to view and photograph them from both the top and bottom levels of the river.

The group then re-gathered, (without Roy & Kerryn Witherington, who had succumbed to the ‘potential attractions’ of a warming local Spa!) and set off on a meandering, but really interesting driver’s road back towards the Great Ocean Road. Proceeding via Cobden and Simpson, we bypassed Port Campbell, stopping for morning tea and the other attractions offered by the Apostle Whey Cheese Company. This company’s products can really be recommended and whilst we all received a cheese of our own choosing as part of our package, many of our party splashed out to purchase a wide range of their products.

After morning tea, the weather had indeed cleared and under a blue sky we continued down the Great Ocean Road through Princetown, Lavers Hill and Apollo Bay, which amazingly was not too crowded with tourist traffic. There was the odd hold up as we all became separated on the road, but the resulting overall driving experience was very enjoyable indeed. We all came back together on the final approaches to Lorne, where we gathered for our last meal of the Run, which was to be lunch on the beach at the ‘B’ Bar & Grill. Jackets and sweaters came off as we walked to the restaurant under a rapidly warming sun and Peter was again complimented on his choice of weather for the week-end. A delightful meal was served to all as we swapped stories on what had been a wonderful Run. As a finale, Peter rose again, looking for answers to a sheet of conundrum/puzzles that were included in the original Driving Notes that we had been given at the start of the Run. Everybody it seemed had left their Notes in their cars, so it became a memory exercise. With sincere thanks to my wife Paula, who had spent some time working out the answers, we were fortunate enough to win the prize of another large jar of local honey.

Sincere thanks were given by all to the Warrnambool Crew for their tireless efforts in organizing and running what was a great week-end.

Note - The correct answer to the conundrum was ‘West Indies’ (West in ‘D’s !!)

Mid 911 North East Vic Tour - May 09 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Macedon Run - Oct '08 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Rutherglen Weekend - June '08 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Mini Tassie Tour - Apr '08 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Flowerdale Run - Mar '07 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Mangalore Airport - April '07 - Image Gallery

Mid 911 Technical Afternoon at Weissach Sport - Jul '07 - Image Gallery