Gary Barklind is a friend, fellow Porsche fanatic, and one of the many volunteers behind our region’s award-winning local PCA magazine, The Spiel. I’m biased, but I think The Spiel is the best regional Porsche magazine in the country. I look forward to it more than the official PCA magazine because it’s full of locally relevant articles and our fantastic Pacific Northwest Porsche community.
When Gary heard that Shep was deep into karting and starting to get more and more into SIM Racing, he reached out to see if Shep wanted to write an article for The Spiel. We agreed on an interview format, I submitted a few photos to accompany the story, and now Shep is a famous race car driver 🙂 Okay, Shep is on his way to becoming a famous race car driver!
It was very exciting to partner with my local Porsche Club of America chapter, PNWR, and share part 1 of this restoration journey, from discovery to finishing body and paint. The Spiel is by far the best local PCA magazine in the country, and it was exciting to get this edition in the mail!
One day, when Shep is a famous race car driver, I’ll point back to the early days of his kart racing and sim racing as the source of his inspiration! Shep continues to impress me with his dedication to kart racing and his willingness to push himself with each session. The easy summer months are gone, replaced with freezing cold mornings and wet track days, but he continues to get faster and more consistent.
When Shep isn’t on the track, you can often find him practicing his racing skills on our SIM setup at home. At least when I’m not using it that is 🙂 Thanks to Calvin at GripWerx Racing for building and maintaining our SIM!
My favorite local cars & coffee event is held every Sunday of the year, rain of shine. We had the last show of 2024 in the pouring rain! Thankfully, the rain let up enough that we could enjoy all the cars, spend time chatting, and keep warm with hot coffee.
It was genuinely dark, wet, and depressing when I first arrived…I didn’t want to get out of the car!
The rain slowed down and stopped entirely at times, so I was able to get some photos in between all of my talking:
The heavier rain caused me to put my real camera away and just grab some iPhone snaps:
Something about this view on my ride home that just felt like a perfect Seattle winter moment:
Family activities and Christmas prep take priority in December, but I always managed to sneak in some car time as well. Usually by dragging my family along!! After our traditional Christmas eve dinner at Wild Ginger, we drove down to Pike Place Market for some photos. I don’t know who owns the car in the photos, but I appreciated their holiday spirit!
A few days after Christmas, we escaped for brunch at Derby and a few hours of hanging around The Shop, a car club I belong to. Meg got me a new camera for Christmas and it was a great excuse to try it out. I’m loving it almost as much as I loved the classic Bronco The Shop put together. It was also good to check in on the Audi R8 stored at The Shop for winter hibernation.
Lastly, here was a peaceful moment, early in the morning, when everyone else was still asleep. Enjoying some hot coffee in my new Porsche coffee mug.
Thing 1 – Gabe may have caught the inability to keep a car for more than a few years from me. He traded his perfectly reliable, fast, and fun Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo for a used Jeep Wrangler! To be honest, I think the Jeep fits his style and personality better, and he seems to be absolutely loving the Jeep life. He is already planning mods, dreaming of off-road adventures, and handing out Jeep waves and ducks like crazy! Here are a few photos fresh from the dealer down in Olympia.
Thing 2 – Not wanting to be one-upped by my son, I decided to make a change as well. Not that long ago, I was excited to take delivery of a Porsche Cayenne. While it was a great SUV and handled way better than a vehicle that big has a right to, I struggled with a few things. It was expensive and unlike Porsche sports cars, their SUVs depreciate to zero. I never loved the design of the Porsche SUVs, and it didn’t grow on me. The biggest issue I had was with the braking. It wasn’t linear engagement…there was nothing when you stepped on the brake and then it would be a hard brake. Porsche claimed it was normal, but I hated the way it felt.
Since I use my car mostly for in-city driving and for a work commute, I thought it was time to give an EV a try. It helps that EVs are clogging dealer lots, and folks seem to be moving away from them, so there are great deals to be had. I test-drove the Hyundai Ionic 5N, the high-performance model with all the fake engine/transmission sounds. It felt gimmicky, and the interface was complex and challenging to use. I test-drove the Ford Mach E Rally edition (I can’t call it a Mustang), and after a few hours of testing, I loved it. Nearly 500 horsepower, 700 pound-feet of torque, 265 miles of range, a simple but high quality interior, and fun rally-inspired looks. It drives nicely but will get up to absolute hooligan behavior when you put it in rally mode. I handed over the keys to the Cayenne, and drove away with a new heavily discounted Mach E Rally and a fat check! I love the bright blue with the white wheels…cuts through the gray of Seattle winter nicely! I will say that the sticker package is coming off the first chance I get…that is a bit over the top even more me 🙂
Recently Shep and I escaped to LA for a weekend of Porsche cars at Luft 10. Well, I have two wonderful sons…how was I going to even things out between them? Thankfully the Porsche gods smiled down on me with another once-in-a-lifetime event, this time down in San Francisco.
This past Christmas my lovely wife Meghan surprised me with a subscription to 000 Magazine. To call it a magazine doesn’t do it justice. Each edition of 000 presents more like a coffee table book and is filled cover-to-cover with stunning photographs and in-depth articles on Porsche.
When I found out that 000 was holding a special event, limited to 350 guests, in honor of the 50th anniversary for the 911 Turbo, I was already sold. I’m restoring a first year, 1975 Turbo (930) that was born in Germany only days ahead of me. We are both coming up on our 50th birthdays! When I heard the event was being hosted at Skywalker Ranch, I told Gabe to cancel his plans and join me for a weekend of Porsches and Stars Wars geekdom!
Early morning flight from Seattle to San Francisco
We stayed at the Cavallo Point Lodge which was a great hotel located in a National Park right under the Golden Gate Bridge. Beautiful views of the bridge (when it wasn’t foggy) and the dulcet tones of the fog horn blowing all night (they provide ear plugs). The on-site restaurant was incredible. We had enough time to relax a little, freshen up and get dressed in our suits for the event.
After a lovely drive in the Northern California mountains, we made our way to Skywalker Ranch. Driving up to the security gate, we couldn’t believe they opened it up for us. What a setting! 000 had done an incredible job of curating a rare collection of cars. They had every generation of Porsche 911 Turbo on display plus a huge collection of some of the most rare and beautiful cars I’ve ever seen.
The highlight of the show was the original 1973 Concept car that started it all. This concept car was displayed at the 1973 Frankfurt Motor Show when the idea of putting a Turbo in a road car was unheard of. The concept below was three Porsche prototypes in one. Originally constructed in 1972, it was used to develop the Porsche G body and then to develop the RS/RST 3.0 body before finally being turned into the Turbo concept car. The really funny part is that this car has never actually had a turbo in it! When it was on display at the motor show, it had wooden parts to mock up the turbo. When it was sold to a private owner, it had a 3.0 liter naturally aspirated RSR drivetrain, which is what it still has today.
There were so many other incredible cars. From an early Turbo Safari built, to a Singer Turbo study, to the RUF Anniversary, a RUF Yellowbird, incredibly rare race cars, and every flavor of 911 Turbo you could imagine.
It was awesome to have Pete Stout, the creator of the 000 Magazine, walk us through the detail, differences and back stories to every generation of Porsche Turbo.
Gabe and I also had the chance to meet one of my automotive photography heroes, Larry Chen. Larry was working the event, but was still very gracious, chatted with us briefly and gave us a few stickers!
As a fan of the Bad Boys movie franchise, it was really cool to see the two cars showcased in the most recent movie. Even cooler was meeting Owen, who brought these cars to the show. Owen runs his own business where he connects major Hollywood productions with Porsche cars, including all kinds of crazy customizations to make them work as movie cars. Bad Boys, Top Gun Maverick, Transformers…yup, all him. Great guy and very cool stories.
I was excited to see this stunning, all original 1975 Turbo on display. It gave me hope that my car may one day be on the road again!
Of course the most exciting part of this whole weekend, was getting to share it with Gabe. He was blown away by the location, the cars, and the free-flowing champagne!
Here’s a quick walk-around video
On Sunday we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, packed up, and drove around the National Park and San Francisco…a quick driving tour of the city before heading home. We even checked out Lombard Street, the most crooked street in the world apparently.
I’ve shared about our past experiences with Luftgekuhlt and how I’ve just fallen in love with the events, the brand and everything it represents. A highly curated selection of Porsche cars, artfully laid out in interesting back drops to create a perfect photo op around every corner. If you are a Porsche lover and a car photographer, there is no better event in the world.
This year, Luft 10 was being hosted in the Back Lot of Universal Studios in LA. Using all of the frequent flier miles that I’ve been earning with constant business travel, I secured me and Shep flights to LA and a few nights in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. I was just returning from a work trip to Bentonville. Landed home at 4, and Shep and I were back at the airport by 6. No rest for the wicked! We arrived late Friday evening, rented our stupid loud Shelby Mustang convertible, and made our way to the Roosevelt to get some sleep.
Alarms went off early the next morning. I had paid extra for early morning entry tickets to Luft, and we didn’t want to miss a second. We arrived to the Back Lot entrance by 8:30, and took a short shuttle ride to the event. We spent the next three hours exploring every inch of Universal Studios Back Lot where stunning car after car presented itself. Vintage race cars worth $10M+, early 911s, 912s, 914s and every variety in between. We had all the coffee and great food we needed onsite, and with early access, we avoided the crowds.
We took all the photos, we talked to friends from Seattle, we met Jeff Zwart who co-created Luft and we even saw a few celebrities. As we left Luft, we walked by what seemed like a mile long line of folks trying to get into the event at the regular opening time…I’m so glad we had early entry!
We doubled-down on the fun and decided to spend a few hours at Universal Studios theme park since we were already there. We rode all the rides, ate some junk but tapped out after about 3 hours. It was close to 90 degrees and Shep and I are cold weather Northwest boys, so after a full day in the sun, we headed back to the hotel for some pool time, rest and a great dinner.
The next morning, we woke up earlier than expected, so we decide to go out of our way for a huge Porsche cars and coffee being hosted by Porsche Santa Clarita. The drive out there was beautiful, the breakfast burritos were on point, there were tons of amazing cars and even a few more famous folks.
After a full weekend of Porsches, we enjoyed a nice top down drive back to the airport and I started looking for houses in LA…the car culture down there is world class!
Here are my favorite photos from the Luft event. All iPhotos because I’ve become a lazy photographer 😂
The only proof we made it to Universal Studios:
A few photos from the Cars & Coffee at Porsche Santa Clarity the next morning:
911 Maniac 