About this event
Saturday, November 7, 2026
PCA-SDR Off-road Tour
sponsored by
Join the Porsche Club of America San Diego Region to enjoy a half day of off-road driving just outside of Ramona, CA, followed by a no-host lunch in Ramona following the drive. This event lets you learn and experience the capable off-road abilities of your Porsche while enjoying the beautiful back country scenery of San Diego.
This event is for Porsches only.
The event will have about 2 hours of off-road driving, and required equipment includes a mechanically reliable Cayenne or Macan or Safari-style 911 or 911 Dakar that has no deferred maintenance, with all-season tires at a minimum. The purpose of this event is to permit any well maintained unmodified Cayenne or Macan to participate without needing any special off-road equipment or preparation. If you have a safari 911, or a 911 Dakar and want to see if it can handle the trail without leaving parts along the way, come join the fun! Off-road driving experience is not necessary. And in case you missed it above; you must have Porsche - no "other" vehicles!
The plan is to enjoy a route that results in a dusty and possibly muddy Porsche. This is not an event designed to beat up and/or break your beloved Porsche but we will be driving where there are rocks, ruts, and sticks on bushes that your vehicle may run into. Overall, this drive's purpose is to safely let you explore your Porsche's off-pavement capabilities without harming its daily driver and family hauler dependability.
***Note, rains have preceded this event, making the trails less predictable, meaning less Macan-friendly or 911-friendly due to clearance and traction issues that may occur.***
The event is rain or shine. The morning meeting time will be at8AM on Saturday November 7 in the vicinity of downtown Ramona, CA, with the drive beginning around 9AM. The specific meet point, and the driving route specifics will be provided the evening before the event due to trail condition changes and trail closures that need to be accounted for last minute. Please register for the event as soon as possible, since attendance will be limited. During the week prior to the event date - which means possibly the day before - you'll receive further information via email about the exact event starting point for the driver's meeting, the exact meeting time, and other helpful information. So register, confirm the proper functionality and maintenance of your vehicle ahead of time, and check your email frequently in the days leading up to the event for specific event info. If you have any concerns about the event and/or your Porsche (yes, this event is only for Porsches!), please contact the event organizer to discuss.
Event requirements
WHO is this event for?
This event is limited to Porsche Cayennes and Porsche Macans and Safari-style 911s and 911 Dakars with no mechanical issues, and up to date maintenance. SUVs should be equipped with at least all-season tires, and a careful driver at the helm. If you don't have a Cayenne, you will need to be a lot more careful in order to keep from scuffing your bumpers, hitting your rockers on the ground, losing an exhaust pipe, etc.! 😬
It is a requirement to download and go through the PCA's Self-Inspection Safety Checklist. If you have any questions about completing the tasks outlined in the checklist, please reach out to the event organizer.
Old tires, with little to no tread depth may get you stuck or result in a flat tire if you hit a big rock, so check your tires, and regardless of the tires you have, plan to drive carefully. Low-profile summer street type tires and wheels 21" or larger in diameter have a higher risk of punctures, and/or expensive wheel damage so if you are showing up with 21" wheels wearing street focused tires, recognize you will need to be a lot more careful to avoid getting a flat tire, and/or hurting your fancy wheels.
Off-road driving experience is not necessary as the purpose of this event is to give new drivers the chance to learn the off-road features of their Porsche SUVs and actually use those features. On-the-fly tips will be given during the drive making this a great venue to familiarize yourself with your Porsche SUV as well as its traction control capabilities that the Porsche engineers have proudly implemented. Overall, the trails should be handled by any version of Cayenne, as well as a Macan that is more carefully driven due to its less off-road design capabilities vs. the Cayennes. Tires should have decent tread remaining, minimally set to partial load pressures. Airing down your tires, or other vehicle changes should not be necessary! Now if you're showing up with a 911... you will need a lot more ground clearance over stock, and even then you'll likely be scraping your way along the trail for an hour or so. These trails are pre-driven with Cayennes which can perform the drive and obstacles with no damage; this means in the technical stages of the trails it is not known whether even an off-road prepared 911 can make it. If you are itching to come with your off-road 911, arrangements can be made to bypass the technical sections - contact the organizer to discuss.
The driver should have a working knowledge of the Off-road programming features specified on their vehicle. For the SUVs, the owner's manual is the best place to familiarize yourself on the suspension settings, Off-road programming settings, turning PSM off, and other features like Porsche Hill Control/Hill Descent - please read up before the event so you have a basic understanding of these functions and how to activate them, especially if you have a newer Cayenne where these features are hidden several menus deep. And, please reach out to the event organizer and ask any questions you might have. During the morning meeting before departing, any questions about the systems operations can be clarified.
Communicating during the drive is a very helpful part of the driving experience: FRS Radios will be used during the drive to give recommendations regarding which driving modes to try and when to try them, so you can experience the exciting functions these machines possess. Any "Long Range FRS radio" that Amazon sells that has 22 channels and has CTCSS privacy code functionality will work - please bring your own radio and make sure it's fully charged so it lasts for a couple hours.
So you are not sitting on a distant dirt road wondering how to get home, a well-maintained vehicle is essential. These are complicated machines so do not show up with a vehicle with known systems issues, or deferred maintenance. PCA National requires performing a self-inspection of your vehicle prior to the event to help assure its readiness: please download the Self-Inspection Checklist here. Note regarding the form, since this event is NOT considered a CAT 3 event, you do not need to turn in the form, but you must use it as a guide to check your vehicle prior to showing up.
If you are wondering about whether you, or your vehicle is up to the adventure, attend one of our Club's SUVs-n-Donuts events to ask questions as well.
This is a special kind of PCA SDR event since the whole family can come along for the drive. All adults in a vehicle will need to sign the paper waiver at the drivers meeting held at the start of the event. Please note, only the main registrant needs to register for the event, but everyone in the car needs to sign the waiver the morning of the event.
If minors will be attending the event, which they are absolutely encouraged to do, a Waiver for Minors must be signed by both parents at the event. This is not optional, but required. If only one parent will be actually attending the event, download the waiver PDF, print it IN COLOR, and have both parents sign the waiver, and bring it to be turned in at the morning tour briefing. If you do not exactly follow that requirement, and you bring a minor along without a properly executed form, unfortunately you will not be able to participate in the event, as PCA requires that both parents sign the waiver for any minors in attendance.
