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.