[By Goran Freske]

More or less the same 60 plus people were there for the Porsche Club of America's third Wednesday (April 16) tech session as attended in March. The topic was supposed to be Yokohama performance tires only, but a bonus was added in the form of Gene A. Howald, president of HRE Performance Wheels. This Vista based company supplies built-to-customers' specs split rim wheels, from road cars all the way up to Indy, and other race, cars. I thought that some of our club members might be interested in a set, until Mr. Howald was asked the price. Even the Porsche owners with lots of mola invested in their rear engined wonders were noticeably put off by the minimum price tag of $2500 for a set. These were no doubt well engineered and light wheels, but not esthetically very attractive, to me at least.

After too long, Keith, chairman of PCA Tech Sessions, introduced the tire guy, George Lugo. According to him, Yokohama has been an innovator of radical tire design for two decades, introducing the directional tire technology. In essence, they put more rubber on the outside edge to make the tire stiffer when cornering, and shaped the grooves to eject the water more efficiently to the side and back on wet roads. Mr. Lugo showed us five high performance tires, starting out with a more or less standard high performer, eventually evolving to a crazy looking racing, and road, tire with a tread wear index of 60! Yokohama's prices are very competitive with other well known manufacturers of performance tires.

All SDVSA member owners of Porsche cars (Ulf ?) should enjoy the next PCA Tech. Session to be held at Black Forest (mainly Porsche repairs), 7954 Dagger St., on May 21, dealing with oil leaks!