Who is this Nord Sterner?

Can you guess who the Nord Sterner is on the left? This would be from the early 1970's. The race car is Larry Skoglund's. When it was a street car, it belonged to Peter Kitchak.

Thanks to Larry Skoglund for the photo and several others I'm using here. Add you guess to the comments below.

A little history from Charlie Lloyd

Charlie in his 912 which by this time was a 911!

At Sebring with Dudley Davis' 911 and a bunch of Nord Sterners.

Last year about this time, 1970 Nord Stern President Charlie Lloyd emailed me regarding the Winter Party. That email is excerpted below. I had set it aside until recently and thought I would share it here.

I had a 1968 912 Targa which I bought new in Geneva Switzerland. After shipping it to the US, I drove it from NJ to Mpls in April 1969, making it from Chicago to our house here in 4 hours and 45 minutes!
I started racing a Speedster which I acquired from my brother-in-law that year and rolled it up in a ball at Road America in 1971, so I gradually converted the 912 to a race car. I always thought I might put it back on the street some day, but the deciding factor was in about 1975 when I sawed the wind screen off to gain some aerodynamics! My best season was in 1976 when I came in 10th in EP at Road Atlanta in the SCCA Runoffs. The 912 was always at a disadvantage because while it ran the same engine as the Speedster it was penalized about 300#, presumably because of better aerodynamics, but with the extra weight it could never accelerate with them. After 1976, I got tired of rebuilding the 4 cly, as it continued to break from trying to get upwards of 175 HP out of it. I converted the car to a 911 and raced that until 1980, finishing in the top 15 in DP in 1979. The car went to a buyer in Denver in about 1982, and I never saw it or any results with it after that.
Dudley Davis, Hank Godfredson and I drove Dudley's 911 to a 5th in GTU in the 12 hour race at Sebring in 1981, and one of the pictures you published in the Nord Stern this past year was of the three of us with that car. We also ran it in the IMSA races at Road America and Brainerd that year, finishing in 4th or 5th as I recall at RA, and DNF'd at Brainerd due to 2 bad rod bolts that let go (would you believe?; must have been from the same bad batch), one in practice and one in warm-up for the race.
I acquired a 1956 Speedster from by brother's estate in 1987, and bought Frank Hunt's 1959 Cabriolet about the same time. They were both fun, but as some will attest, required continuous maintenance. So in 2000 I sold both for enough to buy a 2001 Boxster. I enjoy being able to just go turn the key and go, without all the maintenance hassle.

Winter Party Set for January 23rd

Nord Stern is wrapping up it's 50th year with a Garage Party! What would be a better place for a Garage Party than a Porsche dealership? Carousel Porsche is graciously hosting Nord Stern. There will be a cash bar set up in the showroom for socializing and then we will have very nice sit-down dinner in the service writing area catered by D'Amico. Former Porsche Factory Driver David Murry is confirmed as the guest speaker. We will also celebrate more of Nord Stern's 50 years of history. A new booklet, autographed be David Murry, will be given to each attendee.
We will have a small number of very nice silent auction items benefitting Courage Center. One item will be breakfast for four the morning after the party with David Murry. Additional items will be announced by email in the coming weeks.
Sign up info is available on Nord Stern.org by clicking on the picture below.

By popular demand, the dress for this gala is now "dressy". Don't worry, at this garage party you won't be asked to rebuild a carburetor.

Watch for additional emails in the coming weeks!

Billy G Speedster Nears Completion

Bill Groschen invited a few people over to see his 1955 Speedster. It has been under restoration for about 20 years! There is quite a story here that you can ask Bill to recant, but the car looks good. It is a bit of an "outlaw" 356 with a 2.4 liter engine and disk brakes. Myron Cotterell did a lot of the work in the last couple of years.

Pictured here is myself, my son Ryan, and Bill Groschen.

Email recieved from an early member.

Mark Bouljon forwarded this email to me. I found it interesting in that I had given quite a bit of thought and put a lot of effort into helping the newer members understand our rich hertiage. I hadn't given much thought to the fact that the early members may not know much about what is going on with the club today. Conrad's comment about not knowing anyone after the first few pages of the booklet seems to be something we may want to give some thought to.

Hello, Mark:

Thanks for sending me the 50 year booklet for Nord Stern. After the first few pages knew almost no-one.

Attaching picture of Nord Stern gang at Parade in 1962 or 3 in the Poconos. Very hot and humid week.

L to R, Bob Schoening, Wiggy Woolery, her son Mike, Conrad Berg, and standing behind, Curt Skou, who took this picture, and Jeanne and Gordon Oschwald, once an Archie Walker Porsche salesman.

Sorry about dust, old slides hard to clean...Conrad.

Photos from 50th Dinner

We had some fun with the Spyder to Spyder theme. Tom Countryman raced an RS61 Spyder in 1962 and of course Patrick Long raced the RS Spyder in 2008. We did a little "compare and contrast" between racing then and racing now. Patrick Long was very gracious, commenting that racing those old cars was really tough on the driver because of the skinny tires, low grip, and things like the much less sophisticated components. One of the questions I asked Tom was "How many sets of tires do you take to the races for your spyder?" His response - "the tires on the car, of course!" Patrick responded that he didn't know how many they brought, but they change tires every stop or every 50 minutes.

Bruce Boeder was honored for his service to Nord Stern by Board member Rick Laverdiere.

Porsche Panorama Editor Betty Jo Turner and Panorama Photographer Leonard Turner enjoy the program. They very much enjoyed the graciousness of Nord Stern and had a great time.

L to R: Cindy Holton, Christie Boeder, Teresa Vickery, Jim Holton

Every birthday needs a cake to two.

Craig Alexander's model of his 550 Spyder and the Ferry Porsche Award

Nord Stern received as PCA Region of the Year for 2008.

Interlachen was the perfect venue for this very special event.

The lighted ice cubes were a very special touch to a special evening.

The feedback from the 50th Anniversary Dinner has been extremely positive. It was amazing to see lots of old friends we had not see in many years. We had almost 30 Past Presidents in attendance as well as two of the Charter Members, Tom Countryman and Craig Alexander. Special guests included Patrick Long, Porsche factory driver, Betty Jo and Leonard Turner from Porsche Panorama, and Doug Pierce, PCA Zone 10 Representative.

The photos will give you a feel for the event. Thanks to Kristen Fritze and and Leonard Turner for the photos.

Slide Show from 50th Dinner

I have posted the slide show from the 50th dinner here. It runs a little over 30 minutes and recaps Nord Stern's history. We also producted a printed piece for the dinner that does a nice job of documenting Nord Stern's very rich history. They are available at the parts counters of both Carousel and Maplewood and we will also have some at the Club Race. Be sure to get one.

View slideshow.

Woolery Navigator's Award

Wiggie and Mike Woolery present the Bill Woolery Memorial Trophy to 1962 winner Curt Skou.

The Porsche Parade award for the Navigator with the lowest total score is still known today as the Woolery Award. It was given to PCA by Mrs. Wiggie Woolery in honor of her late husband Bill Woolery. They were charter members of Nord Stern and quite active in the Club at both local and national levels.

Article from the January 1963 Panorama

We would really like to find the Woolery Trophy. Any leads would be appreicated.

LeMans Winners at 1976 Brainerd Parade

Manfred Jantke, 917 owner Gerry Sutterfield, LeMans winning driver Jackie Ickx

Porsche sent the LeMans winning 936 and it's driver Jackie Ickx to the 1976 Porsche Parade at Brainerd. The headquarters was at Madden's and the Concours held on the golf course there. The autocross was at BIR.

Basically about 15 people made this remarkable event happen. Nord Stern had less than 100 members at the time. An amazing accomplishment!

Leonard Turner To Do Presentation For Nord Stern

Just confirmed. Leonard Turner, the extraordinary photographer for Panorama will do a very special presentation for Nord Stern the afternoon before the 50th dinner. (Saturday January 17th at Interlachen. Sign up today by clicking here.) Leonard will share with us his travels attending Porsche new car introductions all over the world. His presentation will include his fabulous photographs of very special cars in very special places and the stories that go with them. Betty Jo will be there as well. Maybe another special guest as well.

There is no sign up for this presentation. Just show up at Interlachen at 2:00.

Be sure you sign up for the dinner. We will have to cut off sign-ups on Wednesday of next week to make the food deadline. If you go to the presentation and meet these people, you will be very sorry you didn't sign up for the dinner. It is without a doubt going to be a very memorable event.

Email if you have questions: rsamerica93@comcast.net

Not sure what to make of this...

Peter Kitchak sent me some great photos this evening. You'll see a few more at the party. One of the subjects I had specifically asked him about was ice racing. Here he is in 1974 racing his 911 on the ice. I think it is fair to say that the wing is up in the "clean air." It would be worth buying Peter a glass of wine to hear this story...

First Club Race Trophy

This was the trophy for winning the first Club Race. The photo fails to show the really cool ear flaps. These were the trophies until 1998. How truly Minnesotan!

Cool Cars Abound!

The aluminum body 910 on display at a Nord Stern car show at Carousel.

Jack Zimmer, then owner of Carousel Porsche+Audi, took note of the 910 at the SCCA Run-offs at Road Atlanta one year. That winter he located one in Canada and purchased it FOB Detroit. The seller just threw it in the back of a truck without properly securing it. On the trip to Detroit, the car bounced around and the lightweight 910 body was destroyed. He then had California aluminum race car body builder Troutman-Barnes built a custom body for the car and it was converted in a "street" car. The car was on display for many years at Carousel until Tom Countryman bought it and put a 910 body on it. He sold it to a Japanese collector.

Fallon Interviews Ferry Porsche

Photo from Fred Senn, Fallon Minneapolis. Ferry Porsche was 80 years old in 1989 when this was taken at his home in Austria.

Received from Fred Senn, Fallon Founding Partner and active Nord Stern member:

Who would imagine that Porsche's advertising would be created in Minnesota?

The strength of Nord Stern, and the creative reputation of Minnesota's advertising community combined to accomplish that feat twice. In the fall of 1987 Fallon won the Porsche national advertising account. The agency celebrated the win by placing a mint condition 1963 356 in their new offices on the 31st floor at 9th and Marquette in downtown Minneapolis. Nord Stern was involved from the very beginning, helping the local agency come up to speed.

Nord Stern hosted two PCNA marketing executives at a BIR Fast Fling to give them a firsthand taste of club activities. One of those clients, Hartmut Kristin, went on to become worldwide head of Porsche Motorsport. The agency did award winning work for Porsche, and the team was invited by Ferry Porsche himself to a film interview in his Stuttgart home. Those interviews became classic long form commercials and auto show videos for years to come.With a change in top management at PCNA, the account then moved to a San Francisco agency. But not for long. In 1999 Carmichael Lynch parlayed their experience with Harley Davidson motorcycles and brought the Porsche account back to Minnesota.

Roger's comments: I remember visiting with Hartmut Kristin and Fred at BIR. The conversation revolved around bringing the 964 Carrera RS to this country. A couple of years later we had the RS America which wasn't exactly what we were asking for and sales languished. The conversation was right on the money, however, as today we have the GT3 and GT3-RS which sell very well for Porsche and are very popular in PCA.

You can tell when speaking to Fred about his two days at Ferry Porsche's home in Austria with then-retired octogenarian the that project was one of the highlights of his stellar advertising career.

It was a phone call from Fred to Carmichael-Lynch the fall of 2002 that sparked our current relationship.

Met Stadium Autocross

Jim Harris readies his 356 Cab for a run at an autocross at Met Stadium
May 1971. Photo from the Skoglund Collection.

For many years the competitive driving season for Nord Stern kicked off with an autocross at Met Stadium. Early SCCA races were held there as well. For you youngsters out there, the Stadium in the background is where the Mall of America is now, roughly Nordstroms's, and the car is where Ikea is today. Jim Harris was Nord Stern President the year this photo was taken, 1971. He will be at the Winter Party so be sure to say "hello" and ask him about autocrossing at Met Stadium.