IMPORTANT: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED TO 11/8 DUE TO WEATHER. EVERYTHING ELSE (MEETING PLACE, TIMES, ETC. REMAINS THE SAME.

PorschePalooza IV – The “IMS Failures Be Damned” Tour

This is the next 2008 installment of the venerable Bay Area food and wine--and twisty road--Porsche drive event! Never for the faint of heart. I'm pleased to say the itinerary for the PorschePalooza IV is complete, designed first and foremost--as are most of this group's drives--for maximum twisties at a brisk pace. So if it seems like the route itself meanders... that's because it does, but the pace will not. Roads, people... roads.

If you'd like to attend this drive, PLEASE RSVP on the Evite so we know how many people are coming. If you're not ON the Evite list but would like to be, drop me a note at bryan@sbcglobal.net and I'll forward you the invitation.

HERE'S THE LINK TO THE EVITE

In the meantime, I have the complete route mapped, and you can find it here:

THE COMPLETE PORSCHEPALOOZA IV DRIVE ROUTE

IMPORTANT: The Ahlgren stop didn't come through. They cannot accommodate the numbers of people we want to bring to them, so note the changes to the route early on below.

ITINERARY

Date: Saturday, 11/1/08
Time: 10:00 am
Meeting location: 11401 Stevens Canyon Rd, Cupertino, CA (lower parking lot)

This is going to be quite a day. You’ll need to bring picnic food and supplies, as there will be no stops to pick up food or non-wine beverages along the way.

We’ll kick off the first leg of PP-IV with a route we used in the latter half of PP-II last year. (We lost a lot of people on the second half of the drive for that event, so I figure we need to do it again to catch the people that missed it last time.)

Here's the meeting spot:


Another view of the meeting spot... note the compass direction:


From Stevens Creek Park (our meeting spot this time), we’ll:

- Continue out Stevens Canyon Rd.
- Bear left onto Mt. Eden Rd. at the stop sign
- Turn right onto Pierce Rd.

UPDATED 10/18/08
We'll then merge onto Big Basin Way and head to a specially-arranged 10:30am private tasting at Savannah-Chanelle, where they have graciously offered to let us use the hilltop overlook of the vineyard with a dramatic mountain backdrop for car photo opportunities, so bring your cameras and your best Ansel Adams impression.

Once finished there, we'll get back on Big Basin (Hwy 9) and head up and over Skyline Blvd, and we may or may not stop for a lineup and photo shoot at the overlook a mile or so down Big Basin, overlooking the sea of redwood canopy there.

Then it’s off through the redwoods on 236 (Big Basin Way again), where we'll:

- Drive that dodgy little corkscrew of a one-lane road down into the cool redwood tree shade
- Roar through the Big Basin Redwood Forest campground assembly area
- Turn left in downtown Boulder Creek
- Take a quick right onto Bear Creek Road

We’ll stay on Bear Creek Rd all the way to two places that were on the docket for PP-II, but never happened due to the late hour—Byington and David Bruce—both of whom make some fantastic pinot noirs. We’ll do another tasting or two—or split up to do whichever winery you prefer, and reconvene on the picnic grounds of David Bruce’s fine property for food and wine, some time around 1pm or 1:30.

From there, we’re off on a short jaunt to Burrell School Vineyards, where we’ll do our final wine tasting of the day before continuing down the very screwy Summit Road and into Corralitos and Aptos…

Whereupon we’ll rest our weary accelerator feet on the terrace of Zelda’s On The Beach in Capitola. More drinks? Who knows, but one thing’s certain… the tireless Southbayers brave enough to do so will be taking Hwy 9 north out of Santa Cruz, while the rest take 17. I know which one I’m taking…

All cars welcome! Looks like we may have a couple of M3s and some Peppers joining the fun this time, and maybe even a 911 or two.

-Bryan