2025 January Spinner by schonesland

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Apex President’s Message

Happy New Year!

2025 welcomes Schonesland’s 50th Anniversary as well as the 70th Anniversary of PCA. We have many new board members who are bringing new ideas to the club, as well as plans to preserve the rich heritage of our driving events.

I would like to thank Jen Scharff and Herman Riva for their past two years as President and Secretary of our club. Their efforts have helped the club grow in so many ways.

As I take on the job of president, I thought I would provide a little introduction. I have been a Porsche fan since my teenage years. As a teen I subscribed to VW & Porsche Magazine. At the time owning a VW Golf, but wished I had a Porsche. My dream came true about 20 years ago when I was looking for a project car for my son and I to work on. By accident we found a 1991 Porsche 944 Cabriolet for sale in Minnesota. I was sunburned by the time I got back

to Iowa but had a smile on my face. That car became my daily driver from spring to fall for many years, always with the top down. By 2013 the 944 needed some garage time, so found a 2000 Boxster S in Arkansas to provide summer driving fun. I remembered to wear sunscreen on the ride home this time. At that point I knew that I was hooked and needed to find a community of like-minded people.

Schonesland was exactly that group. I have enjoyed the driving tours, Cars & Coffee, and Drive & Dines over the many years. I have made many good friends as well. As we prepare for another exciting year of adventures, I would like to remind you all:

It’s not just the cars—it’s the people!

John Peeler

President, Schonesland Region of the PCA

Announcements

Your Help is Needed!

Did you know that our amazing club was founded in 1975? In 2025, we’ll celebrate our 50th anniversary! I recently learned about this milestone and, being curious about how things work, evolve, and come together over time, I decided to take on the role of historian for this special occasion. Throughout the year, I’ll be sharing our club’s journey in Spinner articles, but I can’t do it alone—I need your help!

While I’m working with the National PCA to gather data, past president details, and other official records, they can’t provide the heart of our story— your memories, photos, stories, and insights about the events that shaped our club’s culture and community.

Here’s how you can contribute:

• Old Photos: Pictures of people, events, or cars.

• Spinner Newsletters: Copies of past editions.

• Special Events: Information about memorable events or milestones.

• Stories: Recollections of events or members.

• Contacts: Names of people with historical knowledge who I should connect with.

I’m already in touch with a few original members to discuss the early days of the club. However, your input could uncover hidden gems and bring forgotten stories back to life.

Winter is the perfect time to go through those old boxes in the attic or closet—who knows what treasures we might find to share with the club? Let’s work together to make our

50th anniversary a celebration to remember!

Thank you for being part of this journey, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Ben Nordman, bennordman@gmail.com

2025 Board Members

President: John Peeler

Vice President: Cam Torstenson

Treasurer: Phil Patterson

Secretary: John Carlile

Safety Chair: Garry Seemann

Social Chair:Belinda Nordman

Social Media Chair: Kevin Wickham

Membership Chair: Ken Watkins

Website Chair: Erik Johnson

Competition Chair: Bob Eddy

Tour Director: Skip Hammerman

Newsletter Editor: Megan Wickham

Advertising Chair: Ben Nordman

Dealership Liaison: Jeff David

Past President: Jen Scharff

Cars and Coffee

January’s Cars and Coffee will be 8 a.m., Saturday, January 11 at Cozy Cafe in Johnston. Come warm up with coffee and conversation!

Drive and Dine

Drive and Dine returns! The January Drive and Dine will be 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 21 at Destination Grille, 2491 E 1st St., Grimes.

2025 Driving Tours

April 12: MadWarren Drive

May 3–4: Loess Hills Run

May 17–18: Drive to Nauvoo

June 5–8: Tour to Red Wing

June 21: Dragoon Trail Drive

July 12: John Smith Collection Tour (Cedar Rapids)

July 25–26: SAC and Museum of American Speed Tour (Lincoln)

August 9–16: Lake Superior Great Circle Tour

August 28 to September 1: Eureka Springs Arkansas Drive

September 13: MA Hill Charity Drive

October 2–5: Wisconsin Drive

(Dates tentative; Drives subject to cancellation or change)

2025 Driving Tour Preview

The Board held its 2025 planning meeting in December, and we spent quite a lot of time discussing the Touring Drives and the schedule for those. I am assuming a new role this year as the Tour Director and want to share what we have planned this year for all of us to enjoy. As before, we have a mix of one day drives and multi-day drives. In 2024 we did one super long drive, the Great Western Skies Tour. We were able to attract quite a few people to join the drive, even with its 8 night and 9 day length. We decided to develop another epic week long drive this year. Daryl Metzger and Bryan Shiffler are working on the details of the August Lake Superior Great Circle Tour which I am sure will be another phenomenal success for the Club. If you are thinking of joining us on the tour, you may want to check the expiration date of your passports as you will need it to cross the Canadian border. Who would have thought a few years ago that Schonesland would be conducting international driving tours?

Many of the 2025 tours are the

same, or similar, past tours and as you can see, we have many that are completely new. In addition to the aforementioned Lake Superior Great Circle Tour, the John Smith Collection to Cedar Rapids and the SAC and Museum of American Speed, visits to Lincoln are brand new. Further details to follow. The Red Wing Tour will most likely see

some new twists and the Eureka Springs Arkansas Drive will return with minor changes in the route for 2025.

A great amount of planning and detailing goes into putting all the drives together and it has been nice to see several new Trail Bosses taking the responsibility of planning and executing a tour

2025 Driving Tour Preview

for the club. Please let me know if you have an interest in getting engaged in the process as we have several opportunities this year for you to team up with us. If you have an idea for a drive that you would like to work on, I would be happy to work with you to put one together. We can always add drives to the schedule and as we have had such great interest in the members coming onto the drives, additional ones would be absolutely welcomed.

Skip Hammerman

Point, Counterpoint

Gettingitright!

When my wife and I got married our assets consisted of $137.00 (after paying for a honeymoon) and a 1970 Torino GT in dark blue with a light blue “lazer stripe” that some of you may remember from my farewell letter as editor. Both my wife and I had jobs so the world was not as bleak as our meager assets would suggest. We were getting by great because we both knew that finances would get better. Get better…bit by bit.

I present all this to set the stage. Two upwardly mobile young people trying to get along with the previously discussed Ford Torino GT. The Torino actually worked pretty well. It worked because our apartment in Des Moines was close to a bus line and my first job was in the nexus of all bus routes…downtown Des Moines. My wife got the car. I got the bus. As time passed, my work demanded transportation more than DART could provide. Like many families, the solution was a second car, which begins my story.

I was done with big Detroit land yachts so my eyes turned to used European sports cars. Back before iPhones and caramel macchiatos were invented you could buy those for a couple of thousand dollars. So, over the early years I owned an Opel GT, the under-powered German Corvette, a MGB, cute but not a serious car, and a Fiat 124 Spyder, the best driving most undependable car I will ever own. All owned long before I could afford a Porsche.

I discovered you could buy and drive a used sports car for a few years and sell for almost a break even amount. So, after a couple

of sports cars I thought the next logical car would be a Triumph.

Back in the 70s the Des Moines Register was my main source of car ads. So, while I diligently kept my eye open for a TR6, a Triumph Spitfire popped up instead. The ad for the red 1972 Spitfire 1500 was from Big John’s used cars on East University, which was the last place you would expect to find a British import. Big John’s lot was mostly filled with 10-year-old American heavy metal. Four door sedans and pick-up trucks were their daily trade. Apparently, if it didn’t weigh 5,000 pounds. it wasn’t worth selling.

How a diminutive red Spitfire got to that lot, I’ll never know. So, on a crisp fall morning I drove to Big John’s. It was a windy day with multicolored banners flapping in the wind, strung from light pole to light pole. A salesperson resembling a Carhartt commercial rushed to greet me. I asked if the Triumph was still for sale since it was no where to be found. I wasn’t sure he knew what a Triumph was. I had to describe the car to him. Small,

red, two door, etc., etc. He concluded that it was a new arrival and may still being prepped for sale. So, he ushered me back into an oily, poorly lit service bay behind the sales office. The scent of motor oil, gasoline, and testosteroneinfused sweat engulfed me. This is where I found Big John himself bent over the engine compartment of the soon-to-be MY CAR. Big John had a rattle can of Rustoleum matte black paint in his hand, which he had sprayed all over the engine.

Awkward!

I’m not sure who was more embarrassed, the salesperson or Big John. But, that rattle can of paint made the negotiation interesting. I think Big John knew the Spitfire was not a good fit for his lot and he was caught redhanded putting lipstick on a pig.

Turned out I got a great deal on the car. Undoubtedly, one of the best buys of my life. I had the engine compartment steam cleaned. Goodbye Rustoleum. Got the car undercoated and with my own meager skills and put on

Point, Counterpoint, con’t

a new vinyl top. That car turned out to be a great drive. Fun and, believe it or not, incredibly dependable. I drove it 365 days for two years in the sun, rain, sleet and snow. Sold it two years later for a $100.00 more than I put in it.

Big John, I hope you are well… wherever you are. Thanks for a great deal.

Bryan Shiffler

Point, Counterpoint, con’t

I’ve had some hits and some misses when it comes to car buying, but my most recent purchase, a year-plus in retrospect, feels like a big win.

I wrote in 2017 that the horsepower wars were over, that everyone had won, and that suspension travel was the next big enthusiast frontier. Automakers seemed to agree with me, as in the intervening years saw the market shift toward off-road trims. As the automakers debuted their masterpieces, i paid close attention. I gave most serious consideration to three offroad vehicles: the Land Rover Defender, the Ford Bronco, and the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. In July 2023, I bought the ZR2. Every day since, I’ve felt more like I made the right decision.

The Defender looked to be a brilliant fusion of luxury and utility. Treading very carefully on the reputation of its legendary nameplate, Land Rover thoroughly updated the Defender, giving it capability and refinement ‘above and beyond’ any it had before. I put serious time and money into Defender consideration, even renting one for a weekend of driving in the mountains outside San Diego. Ultimately, the skyrocketing base price, the endless wait for an allocation, the extremely limited parts availability, and the absence of ‘serious’ off-road spec’d Defenders on the used market killed my enthusiasm.

The Bronco was a somewhat similar story. The pandemic hurt the Bronco rollout much as it did the Defender’s, with speculators happy to flip Broncos for profit as demand outstripped supply. In contrast to the Defender’s cosseting luxury, however, the Bronco was built with removable doors and frameless windows,

which severely compromised cabin noise levels, especially at highway speeds. I was also turned off, as many reviewers were, by the oddly small and unusual gauge cluster.

There were some other contenders: the Subaru Wilderness line, the Ford Tremor models, and the long-overdue new Tacoma. These were interesting but not compelling: the Subarus were disqualified for their CVTs, the Fords made a strong case but the F-150 was too big and the old Ranger too old, and the new Tacoma too far in the future, too laden with debuting tech, and too expensive (the “Taco tax” is a thing that too

many people are far too willing to pay).

Meanwhile, the ZR2 has been perfect. I immediately swapped from the spongy, knobbly, factory M/T tires to a set of Continental TerrainContact A/Ts to improve the on-road ride, and can still scarcely believe how quiet the truck is at highway speed. When off-road in the Black Hills, I became eternally smitten with the Off-Road damper setting, which smoothes a gravel road to magiccarpet placidity. The 2.7-liter turbo “high-output” L3B engine is highly engaging, permitting over 20 MPG at in-town speeds on up to 15% ethanol 87 octane (which is surprisingly affordable).

Point, Counterpoint, con’t

Conversely, stomp on it, and the L3B will happily trade such economy for its torque max of 430 lb-ft. Having a truck bed has been great for my landscaping projects and my ability to store large items away from home.

Lately, many automotive outlets are putting the highest-trim ZR2, the Bison, up against the new Ranger Raptor and the highesttrim Tacomas (the TRD Pro and Trailhunter). While the Bison does showcase some very nice extra off-roading equipment and AEV is an excellent supplier partner for GM, the Bison is eyewateringly expensive (+$10k to the ZR2 price), and the AEV gear only makes itself useful in the most extreme circumstances. The better comparison would be a plain-Jane ZR2 versus the other two, allowing the Chevy to compete as a value proposition. Besides, you can buy the stamped boron steel underbody protection inexpensively a la carte from AEV, which bolts right on to any ZR2, and those are arguably the most important components in the Bison package.

Now, when I see Defenders and Broncos (and there are so many of these that it happens often), I’m reminded that I made the right choice for me. As expensive as cars are, knowing that you “got it right” when making a purchase decision is extrarewarding. I expect to be reaping those rewards for quite some time.

Will McFarland

2024 Holiday Party

The 2024 Schonesland Holiday Party was held on Saturday, December 7 at Noce in downtown Des Moines. Around 80 Schoneslanders and guests, including PCA Zone 10 Representative Steven Kemp and future Des Moines Porsche dealer GM Ryan attendedPemberton, the party and enjoyed conversationfantastic and a catered dinner.

Awards were given for longtime membersboard for outstanding service and the top three calendar contest winners.

As an added bonus, Dustin Pettiecord made a wonderful photo book of the 2024 drives that was signed by attendees. A shoutout to Dustin for his photosamazing and putting the book together!

2024 Holiday Party, con’t

Clockwise, from left:

Future Des Moines Porsche dealer GM Ryan speaksPemberton to the group

Jen Scharff presents an award to HammermanSkip for his service to the club.

Jen Scharff awards Byran Shiffer for his dedication in producing the Spinner each month for the last two years.

Ryan speaksPemberton to the crowd.

PCA Zone 10 Representative Steven Kemp speaks to the group.

2024 Holiday Party, con’t

Dustin Pettiecord receives a print as first place winner in the calendar contest.

Chris and Maria Decker receive a print for coming in third place.

Jen Scharff awards Jeff David for his service to the club for many years.

Ryan Pemberton with the print for Ben and Belinda Nordman (not in attendance) for second place.

DeepCleaning

Toptobo�omdetailcleaningofallareasofyourhouse

ScheduledWeekly/Bi-WeeklyCleaning

Ongoingmaintenancecleaningcustomizedtoyour specificneeds

HomeOrganization

Kitchens,Pantries,Bathrooms,Closets,Storages, Basements

Board Meeting Minutes

Schonesland PCA 2025 Planning Meeting –December 14, 2024

Cars & Coffee

All at 8AM

It was agreed to leave C&C at Cozy Café but we may move it to the new dealership depending on the situation with the dealership to open in June.

Drive & Dine

All at 6:30PM, various locations

Belinda is working on the locations but has a few penciled in. Jeff mentioned adding the Handlebar. There was a brief discussion of restaurants and if and how they could accommodate the group.

Tours

The Tour schedule below is proposed. The John Smith Tour is a day drive that Garry would work on. The SAC and Museum drive is a tour and overnight. It is located between Omaha and Lincoln. There was a discussion on dates which compete with holidays, etc. Bryan suggested changing the date on the Lake Superior dates to the 9th and 16th. Will McFarland suggested having an evening event at the In Confidence Speakeasy at the Hotel Fort Des Moines with the Porsche group and Vintage Watch group combined event. The event is intriguing, and Will said he would do more research on it.

Other Events

Jen suggested having a SIM racing event on February 22nd. Drew Hillman volunteered to aid

Jen. Jen said that PCA National might be able to help.

John brought up what we wanted to do for the 50th Anniversary Celebration. Other clubs have done quite elaborate events. There was some discussion on bringing in a speaker. There was a suggestion to combine the 50th with another event. PCA does not want another event occurring on the 70th Anniversary. Jen volunteered to take the 70th Anniversary event. It was agreed to have the 50th Anniversary combined with the Holiday Party. A couple of people suggested having a series of articles in Spinner regarding the history of the Schonesland Club. Jeff David suggested getting 4 or 5 of the original members together and discussing the Club history and hopefully get some photos and other material. Ben Nordman and Bob Eddy volunteered to work together on this.

Belinda indicated that the Timmerman’s would be willing to host again but would also be willing to give it up. Dustin offered up his mother’s property and others suggested other ideas (Cherry Glen Campsite) and hosts. Belinda said she will approach Angie Nowsyz and will use Sept 20th or 27th as available dates.

National PCA Events

John solicited if anyone was interested in organizing a drive for PCA Parade. Bryan asked what PCA Parade entails. Will said it is a 7-day series of events. Skip suggested waiting until registration is completed and see who going. His experience is that coordinating dinners and such

would be difficult. It might only entail the drive down as some people may not stay on the same dates as others.

Someone suggested that registration starts in January or February. Dustin volunteered to work on this, monitor member interest, and report back to the Board.

Non-Club Events

There isn’t any information available regarding the Valley Classic Car Show. John said he would check with Jeff Hammond on the event. The Concours event date was changed from the 5th to the 6th and is reflected below. John indicted we would have a club tent.

Future Board meetings: The next meetings will be in January (Zoom), February and March (Zoom), April will be at District 36 (In Person).