LARRY HANNAN, PAST-PRESIDENT
For my wife Cathy and me, the Porsche experience started with a trip to a car dealership in 2005 to look at a special edition of an Audi TT. Sitting on the show room floor along with the Audi was a Guards Red 1995 Porsche Carrera cabriolet. After taking both cars out for a test drive it was obvious which was the better car. I asked my wife which of the cars she preferred, and she pointed to the red Porsche. We took the Carrera home that day and joined PCA and ORPCA that same year.
Like a lot of new members, the first ORPCA event we attended was a Saturday arrive and drive. That was followed by a few Wednesday dinners and some more arrive and drives. In 2006 the Porsche Parade was in Portland and I volunteered to help. That really began our journey in the Porsche Club. Over the years we hosted Wednesday dinners, helped with events like the clubs 50th anniversary in 2009, the 911 50th anniversary at Skamania Lodge, car corrals at Concours d’Elegance in Forrest Grove and club tours. My involvement with ORPCA increased in 2015 when I was nominated to serve on the ORPCA Board of Directors and stepped up a bit more when I became President in 2017.
While involvement in the club is time consuming, the benefit is meeting and working with some amazing people, who own and drive some amazing cars.
In 2018 the benefit of meeting members worked out for us in a different way. With the commitment to attend events as President came a lot of driving. We decided that we didn’t want to add that many miles to the 95 Carrera. Maybe that was just an excuse to go looking for another car, but looking I went. The stars aligned because a car I had admired for a couple of years came up for sale. The car was ORPCA member Joe Kelly’s 2008 Porsche Design Edition Cayman S. Knowing Joe and how he maintained his cars made the purchase easy.
The year 2020 will mark our 15th anniversary with the Oregon Region of the Porsche Club of America. The purchase of a Porsche and joining ORPCA was a great decision. We are looking forward to many more years of playing with cars.
