The move to Waynesville by Appalachian Adventure ’23 continued the string of Appalachian Region successful events.
On Thursday, September 7, 2023, 63 Porsches and 118 PCA members arrived at the Waynesville Inn & Golf Club to start three days of driving, showing, testing and socializing in the area. Attendees were greeted at registration by Toni Goetzman, Jan Herrmann and Norma Price who provided a Welcome Bag of great goodies on behalf of the Appalachian Adventure organizing committee led by John Goetzman and Bob Herrmann with support from past chair Bill Price.
Porsche Asheville provided a beautiful metal Porsche license plate frame and official Porsche hat in a Porsche gift bag. The gift bag also included a Porsche Clubs throwback houndstooth key fob from Porsche AG and a high-quality Appalachian Region microfiber towel for attendees to use to shine their car for the concours.
Welcome Social – Thursday Evening
At 5:30 p.m. attendees made their way to the veranda overlooking the golf course with a beautiful mountain view for cocktails, light snacks and a welcome address by event chair John Goetzman and tour instructions from Tour Chair Don Lowcavage.
The social was only scheduled for an hour but it could have lasted for many hours more as friends gathered to talk and enjoy the refreshing mountain air of Waynesville. Many familiar faces were on the veranda from events’ past as Appalachian Adventure plan of a new location every two years brings another reason besides great driving roads and mountain scenery that makes Appalachian Adventure a “don’t miss event.”
Appalachian Adventure brings PCA members from five states with just over half from Appalachian Region, close to 20% from Florida and the remaining from Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and one participant from Illinois.
Slowly the veranda cleared as people made their way into Waynesville to enjoy one of the wonderful restaurants of downtown Waynesville. The proximity of the hotel to the city provides members with options besides cars if desired since Waynesville is known for its shops, galleries and restaurants.
Driving the Roads – Friday
Tour Chair Don Lowcavage organized four great tours to the enjoyment of drivers and passengers alike. In each case the roads to drive were fantastic Porsche driving roads with an end destination that provided a reward for the passenger as well.
The first tour to stage and depart was to PARI, the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. The tour used local favorite roads NC-215 and Charlies Creek to provide for a thrilling and scenic drive led by John Goetzman with Bob Herrmann as Sweep and Doug Scheer as Rocker. At PARI members enjoyed a two-hour tour of the former NASA facility and CIA listening post before lunch on the grounds before a return to Waynesville.
Charlie Giudici led Tour 2 off to Franklin via the Nantahala Gorge and Wayah Road with Jim Moore as Rocker and Scott Pluene as Sweep. The roads are built on former trails used by the Cherokees that traverse the now great class III kayaking Nantahala River.
The gorge is deep with steep walls that caused the Cherokees to name the area Nantahala, meaning “land of the mid-day sun” since the sun only reaches into the gorge at high-noon. The scenery was beautiful and roads amazing as out-of-state drivers were introduced to some of the best driving roads in the country.
Rest stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway (left) and rest stop in Nantahala Gorge (right)
Tour Three to Gatlinburg, Tennessee proved to be the most popular tour at sign-up as it traveled through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park with an end destination at the great tourist city of Gatlinburg. Two tour groups were required with Don Lowcavage leading one with Dan Dazzo as Sweep and Bill Price leading the second with Doug Scheer as Sweep. US-441 through the National Park is rated as one of the most beautiful roads in America so drivers and passengers were treated to a lovely scenic drive up to Tennessee.
Tour Four traveled the famous Rattler, NC-209 to Hot Springs, North Carolina a stopover village on the Appalachian Trail and home to famous hot springs where the name is derived. The Rattler is a well-known sports car and motorcycle road in the area that is not to be missed for pure driving excitement as it delivers 290 curves in 24 miles. Local resident Michael Stupp led this tour with Don Therien as Rocker and Don Zelm as Sweep.
Testing Porsche Knowledge with the Tech Quiz – Friday Afternoon
After a good day’s driving, the Porsche trivia experts were challenged to test their knowledge with the Historical and Tech quiz created by Dan Dazzo and Nort Northam. Fourteen “Porsche experts” met in the hotel bar to test their knowledge with the goal of being recognized as THE Porsche expert. The quiz consisted of 25 general knowledge questions about Porsche history and technology.
Here are two of the questions that will give you an idea of the type of knowledge the winners have about Porsche:
- What was the US model color name for the Porsche1972-1973 “Rest of World” color Viper Green
- Answer: Kelly Green
- Why was the ignition switch located offboard of the steering wheel of early, post-war Porsches?
- Answer:Save wire and driver convenience (many believe it ws the LeMans race but it was done on the first cars; Porsche had entered several races where the drivers were already seated in their cars before the start of the race; and several years prior to their first entry in the LeMans race.
There were reports that the bar location was right as several threw down their pencils and had a beer instead. In reality all 14 tests were submitted without anyone resorting to drinking.
To avoid a tie as occurred three years ago, five tiebreaker questions were included but we still ended up with a tie as four questions were missed by each in the regular quiz and they each missed one tie-breaker. The winners and awards were presented at the Saturday night Awards Banquet.
BBQ in the The Grill – Friday Evening
The Carolinas are known for their barbeque so how can you have a gathering in North Carolina without barbequed brisket and chicken on the menu. The smokers started at 6:00 a.m. providing 12-hours of tenderizing and adding the flavor that makes a Carolina BBQ so special.
Special Guest PCA Zone 3 Rep Rick Daniels was attending Appalachian Adventure to see first-hand why Appalachian Region was recognized as one of the top Regions in the country by PCA National in this year’s Region of the Year competition. Rick gave a pre-dinner talk highlighting PCA Zone 3 activities.
Prep for the Concours – Saturday Morning
The car wash station was busy first thing Saturday morning as drivers prepped their cars for the Concours to remove the road grime from the Friday drive. At the same time the Concours Staging and Display crews were busy preparing the show field and the staging area in anticipation of 45+ cars at 10:30 a.m.
A new venue always provides challenges as the teams take their theory of how to stage the cars to the reality of getting them on the show field. Poor Charles Branch from the Carolinas was re-routed several times as the team made staging adjustments “on-the-fly”. Thank you Charles for being so good-natured about the changes. It must be the fact that he got to spend more time in the driver seat of beautiful new-to-him, two-week old GT Silver Metallic Turbo S cab.
Appalachian Adventure People’s Choice Concours – Saturday Morning
The Concours started right on time at 11:00 a.m. with over 40 Porsches on the Show Field. The largest class was Porsche 911’s (996 and 997) with seven cars and the smallest class was Transaxle cars (924, 944 and 928) with just one car after last minute cancellations by the other entrants.
Charlie Hickey and Dan Dazzo staged the show field with planning help from Dave White that provided a beautiful presentation of the entrants’ Porsches.
Entrants and visitors wandered the cars looking at the varying models and colors with the difficulty of picking “the best” in each class. Since it was a People’s Choice concours, entrants voted for a favorite in each class plus a Best in Show.
Sponsors Porsche Asheville and Hagerty Insurance anchoring the back of the field ready to speak with visitors. Rhett Blanchard, GM of Porsche Asheville and Luis Alvarado, General Sales Manager were on hand with a tent and three beautiful cars, ready for purchase. There was a white Cayman and a GT Silver Metallic Cayman S with a Bordeaux interior and manual transmission that Porsche Asheville spec’d specifically with the collector in mind in anticipation of the model becoming electric in the future.
The Carmine Red 911 Cab was pre-owned but with minimal miles making it almost new. As a highly optioned car in a prime choice special color this car drew a lot of attention. All three Porsches are available for purchase through Luis Alvarado at Porsche Asheville.
Spencer Gates was staffing the Hagerty Tent with the usual assortment of giveaways that everyone looks forward to picking up. Spencer was busy throughout the show with visitors discussing their insurance options for their collectible Porsches.
Near noon the spectators started to dissipate as entrants made their way to lunch. Publix provide a wonderful box lunch of a sandwich, chips, cookie and an ice tea. Everyone enjoyed their lunch on the veranda overlooking the golf course.
By the end of show at 1:30 p.m., the votes had been cast and the cars enjoyed. Now it was just a matter of time until the evening’s Award Banquet to learn the winners in class and the Best of Show.
Parade of Porsches on Main – Saturday Afternoon
At 1:30 p.m. Porsches started to line up in front of the Inn for a police-led parade down Main Street. Organizer Bob Herrmann had to get special approval from the City Council and Police for this first of its kind Porsche Parade on Main.
Over 45 Porsches lined up and traveled down Main Street with parking at the end of the route for participants to enjoy shopping and strolling downtown Waynesville.Shoppers stopped in their tracks when they saw the flashing lights of the Police Cruiser with 45+ Porsches parading down their Main Street.
Appalachian Region member Jim Gauntt was one of those spectators and captured the whole parade on video. (Due to file size, there are five videos for viewing in chronological order)
Video 1 Start of parade - https://youtu.be/ZuzFhklOwpg- Video 2 - https://youtu.be/DGOdFEYCd0k
- Video 3 - https://youtu.be/JjfEEUkfAck
- Video 4 - https://youtu.be/xA2wiDAO4qU
- Video 5 End of parade - https://youtu.be/RBIzt7CKeUc
Social and Awards Banquet – Saturday Night
Saturday evening festivities started early evening with a social hour on the veranda prior to the Awards Banquet. By 6:00 p.m. most of the attendees were enjoying themselves with old friends and the new friends they made the past couple of days.
Porsche Asheville drove the 2024 Cayman S Collector Edition along the cart path to become the centerpiece of the social hour. It provided the ideal rallying point for a group photo of the over than 100 attendees with a backdrop of the golf course, mountains and dramatic sky. Watch for this one in an upcoming Panorama “From the Regions.”
Once everyone filed into The Grill, dinner was served with a choice of Ribeye steak, roasted chicken, salmon or a vegetarian entrée. There was an exquisite choice of desserts including cheesecake, peanut butter cake or a chocolate crunch torte.
The meal was just the appetizer for the night as the best was yet to come with guest speaker Ray Shaffer and then awards being presented for the Tech Quiz and Concours.
Appalachian Adventure Chair John Goetzman handled emcee duties by starting the program with thanking the over 40 volunteers for their assistance in producing another successful Appalachian Adventure. (Names for the volunteers can be found at the end of the article.)
Appalachian Region President Jim Moore introduced guest speaker Ray Shaffer who joined us from our sponsor Hagerty. Ray is currently a Car Specialist and Ambassador with Broad Arrow Auctions but has an extensive Porsche background racing them, selling them at Brumos, and promoting and restoring them at Porsche North America. His new role at Broad Arrow entails working with major collectors who buy and sell some of the best Porsches in the world.
Ray spoke about how pursuing his passion led to this fantastic career in the world of Porsches that led to him becoming a renowned Porsche expert. He also shared that contrary to the old maxim of “Never meet your heroes”; he actually had the opposite experience during his career of meeting his heroes and having them help him excel in the world of Porsches.
Ray ended his talk with a tip of his hat to PCA and noting the importance of such clubs so we all can foster our passion for Porsche with fellow owners. When the night ended, Ray was deluged with members wanting to speak to him about their special cars, selling cars and enhancing their Porsches.
Appalachian Region members Don Zelm (left) and Paul Houmann (center) in discussion with Speaker Ray Shaffer (right)
Thank you to Hagerty, Broad Arrow Auctions and Ray Shaffer for spending the night with us.
The Awards Presentation – Saturday Night
Emcee John Goetzman took back over to move the program onto the award presentation for the Tech Quiz and the Concours.
Dan Dazzo and Nort Northam created the Tech Quiz, proctored and scored it and presented the award to the winners. Yes, winners. Even thought five tie-breaker questions were used, we still had a tie. The two winners were Mark Jackson from the Carolinas Region and Don Lowcavage from Appalachian Region. It is a challenging quiz that requires a lot of broad and obscure knowledge about Porsche so congratulations to Mark and Don for demonstrating they are this year’s Porsche Experts.
Concours Winners
Dan continued at the podium and was joined by Concours Co-Chair Charlie Hickey to present awards to the 10 winners in Concours. We had over 40 cars on the show field representing Porsches from 1968 – 2023. Owners competed in one of nine groups depending upon the model and year of Porsche.
POR 1 and POR 2: Combined due to numbers entered.
Includes Porsche 356. 912, 914, and all air-cooled Porsche 911’s
Winner: Jim Moore, 1968 Ivory and Orange Porsche 911HR (Hot Rod) (left)
Runner-Up: David Linton, 1968 Radium Green Porsche 912 (right)
POR 3: Porsche 911 (996 and 997 models, 1999 – 2011)
Winner: Julie Harwath, 2008 Grey Porsche 911 (997) Turbo (left)
Runner-Up: Don Zelm, 2012 White Porsche 911 (997) GTS (right)
POR 4: Porsche 911(991 and 992 models, 2012 – present)
Winner: Jim Hess, 2013 Silver 911S Cab (right)
Runner-up: Paul Houmann, 2018 Racing Yellow 911 Carrera T (left)
POR 5: Porsche Boxster
Winner: John Goetzman, 2016 Mahogany Metallic Boxster GTS (left)
Runner-up: Jim LaPiana, 2015 Lime Gold Metallic Boxster S (right)
POR 6: Cayman
Winner: Paul Alfano, 2014 Agate Grey Cayman S
POR 7: Transaxle Porsches (924, 944, 968 and 928)
Winner: Steve Kalmin, 1988 928 S4
POR 8: Panamera, Macan & Cayennes
Winner: Jay Parker, 2017 Mahogany Metallic Panamera 4
POR 9: Specialty and Limited Production Porsches
Winner: Nort Northam, 1989 Silver 911 Speedster
Best of Show: Jeremy Montgomery, 1987 Guards Red 930 Turbo
Best of Show Winner Jeremy Montgomery was a well-deserved winner. The Guards Red paint had a terrific shine and the car has a great history as it is a one-family car originally purchased by Jeremy’s Uncle. The original window sticker is still with the car along with records since new.
Thanks to Sponsor Porsche Asheville and Hagerty Insurance
The night ended with Porsche Asheville General Sales Manager Luis Alvarado drawing a winning ticket for an official Porsche Car Care Kit valued at $189. Appalachian Region member Scott Pluene was the lucky winner and was happy to have won something since his car missed out on a prize.
Luis also announced that for that night only, if someone bought the 2024 Porsche Cayman S featured in the group photo that Porsche Asheville would provide four years of free service. I didn’t hear whether someone bought but it was a tempting offer on this beautiful GT Silver Metallic Cayman.
Porsche Asheville is the Region’s Platinum Sponsor and the prime Appalachian Adventure Sponsor so we need to thank them for not only their financial support but the Porsche license plate frame and the official Porsche hat found in the Welcome Bag.
Porsche AG provided the unique houndstooth Porsche Clubs key fob and the Appalachian Region provided the microfiber towel as a gift.
Hagerty Insurance is a Titanium Sponsor of Appalachian Region who also supports us financially but as important helps to provide unique speakers such as Ray Shaffer and the Roadside assistance program that provides a level of assurance as we travel the great Porsche-roads of Western North Carolina.
Enjoy this photo gallery of the people at Appalachian Adventure 2023
Place the cursor on the photo to pause the show.
Thank you to the Volunteers
An event like Appalachian Adventure cannot happen with members volunteering to help and put the event on. We had more than 30 Appalachian Region members contributing to the effort. Thank you all.
| Chair: | John Goetzman |
| Co-Chair: | Bob Herrmann |
| Past Chair: | Bill Price |
| Registration: | David Butler |
| Web Site: | Dick Maybach |
| Finances: | Jim Symington |
| Welcome Table: | Toni Goetzman |
| Jan Herrmann | |
| Norma Price | |
| Tour Chair; | Don Lowcavage |
| Leads & Sweeps: | Charlie Giudici |
| Don Lowcavage | |
| Don Zelm | |
| Michael Stupp | |
| Jim Moore | |
| Scott Pluene | |
| Bill Price | |
| Doug Scheer | |
| Dan Dazzo | |
| John Goetzman | |
| Bob Herrmann | |
| Don Grainger | |
| Concours: | Dave White |
| Charlie Hickey | |
| Dan Dazzo | |
| Concours Staging: | Jim Moore |
| Scott Pluene | |
| Don Zelm | |
| Doug Scheer | |
| Dick Maybach | |
| Concours Parking: | Bob Disney |
| Bill Price | |
| Carl von Schummer | |
| Charlie Hickey | |
| Dan Dazzo | |
| Concours Scoring: | Dick Maybach |
| Bill Price | |
| Trophies: | Don Therien |
| Marketing: | Jim Moore |
| Sponsorship: | Yohan Sookdeo |
| Don Therien | |
| Juan Hollingsworth | |
| Jim Moore |
Attend the Next Appalachian Region Event
Please join us October 28 for Oktoberfest at a private 600-acre estate where we will enjoy authentic German food and beer after driving the roads of Western North Carolina. This is a fundraiser for MANNA FoodBank. Registration opens on September 15, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
We hope to see all of you at Luft Wasser 2023 at the end of April to welcome the 2024 driving season and Appalachian Adventure 2024.
Jim Moore – Appalachian Region President