Thinking of joining PCA. Worthwhile?

[RobertKing]

Originally Posted by rexcramer

Yes, but I'm biased. Just got home from a PCA BoD meeting. My wife and I have made new friends with some really nice people. Gone on some nice group trips/drives. What chapter are you considering?

From a purely financial view, you get a monthly subscription to PCA's Panorama magazine. Dealers will give you a 10% discount on parts and service. Most indy shops will also honor the discounts. (In my case, my membership has paid for itself via parts savings.) You can tap into a network of people who really know these cars and where to take your car for help.

Here is the link to their webpage that goes into more details. https://www.pca.org/membership-benefits

Zone 7, in California. Sequoia region I believe they call it. My one concern is, my car is a Boxster... I've met a lot of snobs in the Porsche world.

[RobertKing]

Just joined PCA but, I am very much averse to placing decals anywhere on my
vehicle. To me, it's a sacrilege to do so. Always has been. Honestly, I don't like
stickers/decals. I find them to be cheap looking. Don't want to hurt the paint,
don't want to block the view and certainly could never place it on the plastic
rear window so, what do You do? I don't honestly care if anyone knows I'm a
PCA member, not knocking them just, don't care about false status.

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by RobertKing

Just joined PCA but, I am very much averse to placing decals anywhere on my
vehicle. To me, it's a sacrilege to do so. Always has been. Honestly, I don't like
stickers/decals. I find them to be cheap looking. Don't want to hurt the paint,
don't want to block the view and certainly could never place it on the plastic
rear window so, what do You do? I don't honestly care if anyone knows I'm a
PCA member, not knocking them just, don't care about false status.

The decal you get from PCA is a static cling decal that goes on the interior of the windshield, I've got mine down low on the passenger side, it doesn't block the view and is easy to move around and reposition if needed. In fact this decal was on my previous windshield that was cracked by a rock and I moved it to the new windshield. That one along with the Boxster register decal (to the left) and the 60th anniversary decal were reused, the rest are exterior vinyl and I had to get new ones dang it.

Way back when it was the only decal I had, it was in the very corner of the passenger side. It looks good there, try it



It kind of blends in with the other decals though on mine

And +1 to all the stuff thstone said above about joining PCA, I too am about 45 minutes to an hour away - they do have socials and dinners around every month or so, and they had a car show at a nearby airport, and while I have only been to a few, that combined with the folks I see every few months at the track events, I have made a lot of new friends And the Panorama magazine is pretty good too.

And welcome to here, even with the various FB groups (and I really like the Boxster Outlaw one) - this 986forum is in my opinion the premier 986 Boxster hangout and technical resource.

[Geof3]

Do some track events... it will teach you that car, and your car will be the better for it. There is a distinct difference between a guy who “owns” a Porsche and a guy who “is” a Porsche. There will be a few in the club, but generally that’s not the case. My chapter is all over the place with 914s all way up to gt3’s. It’s all good!

[Topless]

+1 on what Tom said.

Like any organization or relationship anywhere, you will likely get out of PCA what you put into it. For me that means lifelong friendships and a large network of people who are far more talented and connected than I am. If you sign up thinking this volunteer organization is there to serve you, it will probably be disappointing. Get actively involved and have some shared experiences with other enthusiasts.

Snobs? Sure, every organization everywhere has em. Car clubs, yacht clubs, churches, business associations, musicians, homeowners associations etc. Yep the world is ripe with them. They are as thick as rats everywhere. Who cares? We have three ways to deal with car snobs: We can hide from them, simply ignore them, or drive around them on the race track. Choose the method that works best for you.

We were sitting around the campfire one night at a PCA event and I casually noticed there were 3 MDs, 1 hospital CEO, 2 engineers, 1 Chemist PhD, 1 Nuclear physicist, 1 Planetary astrophysicist, 2 small business owners, and 2 Porsche master mechanics. We all called each other friends, chased each other around the track, trash-talked each other in the pits, and helped each other change wheels, bleed brakes, diagnose issues, exchange track data, and looked out for each other when someone might have had too much to drink. That one event was worth a year PCA membership to me. There are a lot of those events.

You get out of it what you put into it.