SPECIALIZING IN THE TOP 1% OF VINTAGE PORSCHE

Welcome to a very fat – well, long – September issue of Road Scholars Magazine. The post-Monterey coverage always gives us plenty to talk about and we are happy to start with our regular commentator Kevin Watts giving us his observations and opinions on the auctions.
Next we move into the feature content, going first to Sean Smith’s entertaining second installment telling of Joel Rosenblatt’s Targa tales crossing the U.S. on the way to his…

If anywhere in the car world there was a real-life Pepperland, a place of love and flower-power, a hidden place both up near the sun and beneath the waves, it would have to be the Concours on the Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, the kick-off event of the mêlée that is Monterey Car Week. Somehow, it maintains its charm despite years of fans pronouncing it the worst kept secret, as it is the most charming and fun event of the week.

California has been an important and lucrative market for Porsche ever since John von Neumann purchased a 356 in New York from Max Hoffmann in early 1951 and drove it across the country to his North Hollywood shop, Competition Motors. “I sold the first one and went back east and bought several more,” he is quoted as saying in Karl Ludvigsen’s Excellence Was Expected, “including a Le Mans racing coupe.”

Joel can’t remember if it was his idea, or if a friend jokingly said “Why don’t you drive to your gigs!” It was the start of Something Big. An early GPS was purchased along with a 60GB iPod, both for ridiculous dollars. (These days, all that is in everyday smartphones.)  A few Rand McNally’s atlases to help with directions, a 12V fridge, some cymbals, sticks, tools, camping gear and clothes, and a radar detector.

The Annual Monterey Porsche Auction Frenzy & Spectacular may have seemed a bit subdued around July 4th when we compiled the preview we published soon after that. Since then, consignees emerged from their garages and the woodwork, filling out catalogs with all variety of interesting autos.And the auction weekend has proven to be anything but sublime. Ridiculous? No evidence of that yet, but…. Perhaps you can best think of another word to describe what happened?