I had the opportunity to take a mini vacation recently and the highlight of my trip (aside from seeing a fully restored VW Samba) was spending an entire day with one of my dearest friends meandering around Miller Motorsports Park outside of Salt Lake City, Utah during the local PCA track day. While there were many Porsches of all shapes, sizes and years, a few rather interesting cars also showed up to represent on the track. As the resident VW/Porsche fan, you can imagine my delight when upon pulling up to the iron gate all I could see were Porsches from all walks of life. The best part was getting in for free because we had just missed ticketing; and being ushered into the pits to park, well icing, meet cake. I guess it pays to show up late to the party sometimes! After pulling past the Cobb Tuned GTR and a few GT2’s and GT3 RS’s we parked comfortably next to an MS3 and a Lotus Elise. Stepping out of the car brought a euphony of sound to our ears. The buzz of the superbikes on the West Course, the growl of the Viper passing the grandstand on the East Course, the zing of the little gas powered R/C cars, all of it was music. Across the lot the karts were a constant hum in the background. Simply put, we were in sensory overload. And then we wandered into the PCA club area along pit lane.

From the second tier of the main stands, the view of the track was amazing. We could see all the action, every turn, with a breathtaking backdrop of snow-capped mountains on a sunny 75 degree day. We were able to get up close and personal to the cars on the main level at the pit wall. We were close enough to smell the exhaust as the cars powered into turn one.

When we wanted a front end view we walked to the other end of the track where we were able to watch them roar through the final turn and shoot down the straight back into turn one, or take it wide and slowly roll into the pits for the next go ground to try their skills against a different group of cars and drivers.

Heading back over to the center of the pit wall brought us almost face to face with the most beautiful (and only) Lotus Se7en I’ve ever seen in person.  A Panamera, 914, Dodge Viper, Mini Cooper S, Audi A4, multiple GT2’s, a few Lotus Elise’s  – the list goes on…and on…and on…but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. [view photostream here]