In 1977 the region sponsored a rally to Toronto, and then a tour of that city. In 1980, two traditional events at the family picnic were a bake-off and a Porsche Dog Show. There was an annual tech session held at the, then, Sewickley Porsche-Audi-Alfa where Bob Nikel would instruct, and a dinner would be served, elegantly, in the garage!

The eighties brought new enthusiasm into the region with more diversification of events and more participation by new members but with the continuation, although somewhat modified, of the traditional events: The IRAC Autocross Weekend, the Family Picnic and the Christmas Party continued to be some of the years most popular events, the Mason's wine and cheese party for a while became the Dale and Holly Miller wine and cheese party and is now the February wine dinner at any one of Pittsburgh's finer wine restaurants. While the highlight of the winter in the early 80's was the Maurer's Ski Rally to their condo at Seven Springs, the next winter tradition, the "I Wish I Were Driving My Porsche In July Instead of Freezing My Tail Off In January" Party, recently finished its tenth year at the home of Wade and Jane Anna Miller. Now the "Mid-Winter Party", held at a local shop keeps the Porsche spirit high during the winter doldrums.

A event new to Allegheny Region was started in 1987, the high speed Drivers Education held at nearby race tracks. What started timidly as a one day school and time trials at Nelson Ledges with a lot of work by Ed Boozel and Russ Morse, has blossomed into one of our most popular activities. Since that humble beginning, the club has developed a level of expertise that has made ARPCA second to none in running this type of event. In 1995, the region expanded its range with its first Drivers Ed at the legendary Watkins Glen International Raceway. Our event at the Glen is now over the Memorial Day weekend, providing a great opportunity for a relaxing weekend visit to the Finger Lakes area. In 2002, we added another track to our local list, BeaveRun. BeaveRun is right in our own backyard, just off the Beaver Falls exit of the PA turnpike. Most of us can attend a two day track event and still sleep in our own beds each night!

A new tradition started in the nineties and that is the ARPCA association with the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. The weekend features reserved parking, catered lunches, and a concour. In 1994, Porsche was featured as the Marque of the Year. The great work of Event Chairs Hank and Donna Kessler and the Concours efforts of Vince and Kathy Golik helped raise over $10,000 for the PVGP charities, the largest ever from the featured marque. This effort was recognized at the PCA National level with the region receiving third place awards in the Pirelli Community Service Awards contest.

However, records are made to be broken. In 2002, Porsche was once again the Marque of the Year. Again with the help of Hank and Donna, with support from Clark Hamerly, our president at the time, we got Porsche Cars North America involved (with the help of a letter from Ted Dixon, long time friend of the Porsche family) with the event. With PCNA's help along with getting a lot of other sponsors on board, the donations grew to $56,100.

Allegheny Region continued its close ties to the National PCA organization through the eighties and into the nineties. Dale Miller served as the PCA National Historian, storing and sharing a wealth of information on the history of Porsche cars as well as the Porsche Club of America. In 1989, Dale passed that responsibility on to another person of Allegheny Region heritage, Ted Zombek, who still holds that office today.

Another new event for Allegheny region is starting in 2003. We will be hosting our first ever PCA Club Race at the new BeaveRun track. Steve Scholze has put together a large group of volunteers to ensure that our first attempt at this type of event lives up to our tradition of excellence. Let's hope that this is another new tradition for ARPCA that continues our efforts to provide events of interest to our members.

In spite of differences in both car and driver over Allegheny Region's long history, with new models and new faces, the key interest has remained the marque, Porsche.