Of all the events on the exhausting schedule of Monterey Car Week, the Porsche Club of America’s Werks Reunion at Rancho Canada Golf Club is unfettered, unadulterated, unlimited Porsche, Porsche, Porsche. While many of the exotic, rare, or ultra-restored cherries are reserved for Pebble Beach or Concours on the Avenue and most of the hard-core racers are hanging out at the Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Werks Reunion is more of a family get together for PCA members from around the country who love to show and drive their cars just for the fun of it. Make no mistake, there are plenty of automotive treasures to be found there. As significant, many friendships are reaffirmed or made anew. As the PCA motto goes, “it’s not just the cars, but the people.”
Chair Tom Provasi is no stranger to organizing large events, having hosted historic displays at the last two Rennsport Reunions. He had a dizzying number of volunteers on hand to help park cars and get people judged in a timely fashion. The PCA executive council was on hand too. President Caren Cooper was in the trenches, helping fit members with event t-shirts while former president Manny Alban and PCA executive director Vu Nguyen kept the banter going on the PA system throughout the day talking about Porsche history, news, and interviewing a number of guests.
Several Porsche world celebrities were seen strolling the grounds, not the least was endurance sports car legend Hurley Haywood, who spent time greeting people at the Porsche Cars North America display checking out members’ cars. Magnus Walker was spotted holding court near the vendors tents, and PCNA CEO Klaus Zellmer visited with enthusiasts throughout the day.
While not all of the 600-something cars were entered in the concours, you wouldn’t know it by their sparkling appearances or the numbers of people zealously cleaning and polishing their cars in the early hours. Putting money in Griot’s and Meguiar’s stock the week previous would have been a solid investment.
This year the featured cars were the water-cooled front engine cars: the 924, 944, 928, and the 968. They had an entire section near the Michelin archway at the entry with several interesting iterations of each. While the die-hard concours enthusiasts have their own standards for “originality” many of the Porsche fans have something else in mind. Nowhere is that notion more diverse than at Werks. Among the absolute, spot-on preservation and restoration cars were a few that really stood out as “originals” of another kind.
One was a tribute car to a Brumos Porsche 928 that had raced at the 1984 Daytona 24 Hour in the hands of Vic Elford, Richard Attwood, Howard Meister, and Bob Hagestad. Though the original was white, the tribute car was wrapped in a lustrous chrome finish.
Another of the tribute cars was a 928 Cabriolet in Gulf blue and orange. In this case, the car was not mimicking any of the historic cars, but paid tribute to the design trends of several decades in amazing detail, right down to the custom bodywork and interior panels. Though it had many of the more traditional originalists looking sideways, it was an easy attention-getter all day long.
As with everything good, all things come to a close. Around 3pm, the trophies were handed out to rounds of applause from friends and fellow enthusiasts, the cleaning supplies were packed up and everyone set out for further adventures in Carmel and Monterey. Though the day had started shrouded in mist, the warm glow of a California sunset welcomed all the Werks Reunion friends off to another adventure.
