Sociology question in association with face and car thread
 

After looking at most folks on the "Face and Car" thread, I am somewhat perplexed. I originally joined PCA to try and meet some other folks who are like minded. I soon discovered I was the youngest person there. The "face and car" thread would seem to debunk my stereotype. I just wish my local PCA chapter was at least close to my generation. Why does it seem the preponderance of the folks on this board in close association with our particular car seem "younger" than the average Porsche owner?

You are assuming that the sample of people posting pictures is representative of the membership as a whole -- and that may not be the case, as younger people are more likely to post pictures. They are both more comfortable sharing information on the internet (myspace phenomenon) and at the same time, they are likely to be better looking than the older folks thus more willing to show what they got. Just some sociological thoughts.

Z.

Agreed with Z. When I was in high school and college, I don't remember seeing many students driving Porsches. It's also going to be heavily regionally influenced, obviously. The PCA is probably more representative of the ownership age group.

Not enough data.

I don't know what Panorama might be able to tell you but
I wouldn't be surprised if the average age of a Pcar owner was over 50.

This is always apparent to me when I autocross with the local PCA vs.
the more 'blue collar' SCCA and other local clubs. The latter clubs were significantly younger in age and seemed to have a higher skill level, except for
the PCA autox chair who was an older guy (80's 911) and could outlap anyone on his first lap, take a pass on his 9 remaining laps and still place 1st.

Incidentally, a not so young autocross friend complained about "how many museums and historical sites can you go to? I want to track/autocross!" when he was a Miata Club member. the wine and cheese label isn't just a PCA thing.

Boxster owners on average are going to be younger than 911 owners. The boxster is far less expensive to buy, and it's not that "classic" porsche everyone wants to buy. However, almost every boxster owner I meet on this forum is my age or older and I am 44.

If you do a thread search, you'll find an old survey someone did on this forum asking the question, How old are you? The majority who answered were older than 40.

Every camera broke that tried to take a picture of me... ;)

Agree with all the comments below.

I don't think you can argue with the black and white of being an owner of a Porsche. The black and white being that these cars are expensive and impractical. Given this you can probably guess what the dominant demographics look like.

Sammy :)

Im not 40.

In Sacramento there are very few Porsches to begin with,so seeing one is rare(there are more 911s then Boxster around here though). The youngest man I know of in Sacramento that drives a Porsche was in his mid 30s. At PCA meetings I by the FAR the youngest person there by about 20-25 years,everyone thinks I'm there with my dad or something.

You folks are too old for a Boxster....

Tool Pants, I don't think it's safe to drive without shoes. I hope you got into the car just for the pic. Nice GF. :)

Z.

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What's worse is they're driving on the curb!! Get those rascals outtaa there!!

Tool Pants, you are a little too young to be wearing dark socks with shorts...don't ya think? :)

Sorry,

I wasn't trying to start a debate about the scientific merits of my observation. It just seemed to me, based on the pictures of the thread I mentioned, Boxster owners seem to be younger than the regular P-car owner I am used to. Take it as you will, young at age or young at heart ;)

well nowdays pcars are getting alittle more cheaper than what they were when they jsut came out, and new models came out driving prices of 'older' models down.
the problem is that younger people as soon as u tell them porsche they thing 90 thousand and dont even bother looking in clasifieds for them, and in general older people have more money than broke highschool kids

I wish I wasn't 40. Does that count?

Our local PCA is has a spread of ages... but probably 70% are over 40. As far as skill level goes, it's the older guys that have dedicated race cars, and aggressively pursue racing. No autocross for them... they do club road races at Robling Road (Savannah, GA), Charlotte Motor Speedway, Daytona, etc. 130+ mph on the straights racing. These old guys can teach you a thing or three.

When you young guys see an older guy, all you see is the snow on the roof. Believe me, there's still a fire burning in the fireplace for most of them/us. :p

I'm 45, and I used to think that was old. Now I'm thinking 65 or so is getting old... :D

Got shoes....

Hi,

That's really true. But, you don't have to be older (peak earning years) to be actively involved in racing.

I started in my '20s, co-owned and championed a Formula Ford with a buddy. We alternated driving race to race. Cost us $6k each to get in (car, spares, trailer) and about $3k/yr. each in entry fees, consumables, misc.

But, you can go even less expensively than that. You can get a Formula VEE car for under $6k complete w/ annual costs as low as $3k. Steriodal VW Flat-4 - 130MPH in the straights, and plenty fast for those cars. You can even Auto-X them, I do mine. Vintage races, open class, SCCA Club, etc.

And, age doesn't limit you, only your own skill. Here's a shot of me in my last race this past Sept., in the lead in my Protoform P3 FV ($6500 New, that's less than the cost of some of the mods discussed here, but as low as $3k for a used one). I got held up by traffic and the Silver car behind me got past on the outside on the last lap so I had to settle for 2nd, that's racing...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

damn Jim, is ther anyting out there that you dont race? :)