Carrera Region – Porsche Club of America was born on Wednesday, June 29th, 1966 when then PCA president, Burt Propp, presented the Region Charter scroll, emblazoned with the golden PCA seal, to Carrera Region’s charter president, Claud Gilmore, as members of the Porsche family looked on in approval.
The name of our Region, “Carrera“, which means “race” in both Italian and Spanish languages, comes from the legendary Mexican North to South, border-to-border road race “La Carrera Panamericana“. The race was very similar to the legendary Mille Miglia and Targa Florio races held in Italy. The grueling automotive spectacle originally occurred as an annual event from 1950 to 1954 beginning in El Paso’s sister city, Juarez, Mexico, just across the international border. The finish line was reached six days and 3,373 kilometers later after driving through dense forests and jungles at the southern-most city of Cuauhtemoc, Chiapas at the border of Mexico and Guatemala. The race was so incredibly challenging, it instantly became synonymous with the title, “The world’s most dangerous race”. This was due to its formidable and unforgiving course plan and because the spectacle was cloaked in tragedy when three drivers and one spectator lost their lives during the inaugural race in 1950.
With legendary German race car driver Hans Hermann at the wheel of a stock four-cam, 110 horsepower, 550 Spyder, Porsche won its first off-road rally race in the 1500cc class at the running of the 1954 La Carrera Panamericana. In fact, two factory-stock Porsche 550 Spyders finished in third and fourth places behind two purpose-built 12-cylinder Ferrari’s that same year. This amazing feat prodded the tiny little Porsche race car into the worldwide limelight. Soon thereafter, and with its chest still rightfully bursting with pride, Porsche began naming some of its sports cars after the infamous cross-country race. The success of the Porsche 550 Spyders at the 1954 La Carrera Panamericana directly influenced the success of race driver Humberto Maglioli’s commanding 15-minute overall victory at the 1956 Targa Florio in Italy. It was Porsche’s first overall victory in an international race with the 550 Spyder. Today, you can still purchase a new Porsche 911 Carrera with our Region’s name proudly emblazoned across its engine cover!
Carrera Region is very proud of our racing heritage and we are extremely grateful to Porsche A.G. for allowing us to keep our PCA Region name. Our region members are quick to confess that of the 145 Regions in Porsche Club of America, we are the only Region to have a Porsche-branded name as our club moniker!
Lying within the expansive area that is PCA’s Zone 9 footprint, the boundaries of Carrera Region span seven counties in far west Texas and it encompasses all seven of New Mexico’s southern-most counties. Our sprawling footprint stretches from the Midland/Odessa area on our eastern border, all the way out west to the Arizona border, and from the US/Mexico border in the south, up to Roadrunner Region’s border, just to our north in Albuquerque, NM.
Our region membership is currently at around 100 registered members of which about 75 to 80 active members regularly participate in various club events. We are very proud to say that we still have a few charter members, from the original club in 1966, in our ranks!
Carrera Region is active in community and charity events, many of which receive national visibility. A couple of the more notable charity events we participate in are “The Susan G. Komen Walk For The Cure” and “Walk To End Alzheimer’s”. The club has many members who participate regularly in Sports Car Club of America sanctioned events and we continue to foster a close relationship with the Pan American Region of the SCCA. We offer sanctioned car clubs the opportunity to participate in many Carrera Region social and track events throughout the year.
Carrera Region has earned many PCA National accolades over the last several years including a 4th place and two 2nd place awards in the rigorous Region t-shirt competition. Finally in 2012, some of the hard work paid off when we won a first-place trophy in the t-shirt design competition at Porsche Parade. In 2013, Carrera Region proudly teamed-up with SVT Mustang Elite, a premier Ford Shelby car club in El Paso, to raise money in support of a local fledgling no-kill animal shelter, here in our hometown. A big-time win for El Paso!
Years of dedicated spirit and back-breaking determination culminated in a very hard earned National first place trophy in the Level-1 Region Website Competition. The honor was awarded to Carrera Region during Porsche Parade in 2014 at Jay Peak, Vermont. In 2016, Carrera Region earned another National award coming in second place for factored membership growth in a Region over the previous year. That’s a HUGE accomplishment for any Region, but especially for a small region such as our own! Another amazing pinnacle of exceptional dedication occurred during Porsche Parade 2017 at Spokane, Washington when Carrera Region was, once again, awarded the prestigious PCA National first place trophy in the Level-1 Region Website Competition.
We are very proud of our accomplishments and our racing heritage. We look forward to taking our Region into the next chapters of its success in the years ahead! We hope you will join us to be a part of the excitement!
Contact Carrera Region, at carreraregionpca@hotmail.com, for more information.
Carrera Region - Porsche Club of America 