Luftgekühlt 4 was this Sunday morning, and like many readers, I missed it. As you can gather, I’ve been on my 3-week road trip over the last few days, and on Sunday I was in Birmingham, Alabama rather than Los Angeles, California checking out some of the coolest Porsches around. There were a handful of new project car builds presented, there were a few awesome cars hauled out of storage for the show, and even a few museum-worthy items that were shown off. Without further ado, here are the awesome things you missed from the show.
Jeff Zwart has always been the king of framing. This photo is tops in our book. Featured in the middle is the Le Mans class-winning 1951 356SL that was recently restored by Rod Emory. Behind you can see significant 934, 993, and 917 variants.
Speaking of Rod Emory, here’s his newest creation. He’s been working on this one for ages, and it looks so much better than we could have expected. This 356 features a full 964 Carrera 4 all-wheel-drive drivetrain. Yes, it’s that awesome.
It’s never a bad car show when the 1979 overall Le Mans victor shows up.
Last year marked the first “Luft Auto”, which was auctioned off for charity. Meet Luftauto 2.
This 959 is a special project created by Canepa Design. It’s been upgraded to their Stage III powerkit with over 700 horsepower, for starters. With 959S spec coil-on-spring suspension and a complete repaint in emerald green, this car is a modern re-interpretation of the 80s supercar done in factory fashion. Something the factory never would have built at the time, but near enough to be awesome.
As 959s go, it’s hard to beat one that actually raced in Africa.
As mentioned here before a few times, the NORRA Mexican 1000 racers entered by Rothsport Racing were both in attendance.
When off-road Porsches are mentioned, it’s hard not to immediately think of Matt Hummel’s dirty 356.
This is a car that we need to know more about. It’s one of the wildest looking creations we’ve ever seen. Another Gunnar Racing creation, the “693” has 996 tail lights, a 968 front end, and apparently a twin-turbocharged 3.2-liter aircooled engine under the back deck, all wrapped up in some variety of 911 chassis.
They also brought along this seriously cool beach-comber 914. What’s cooler than going surfing in your 1970s Porsche?
And possibly our favorite part of this show was the amazing Pirelli art exhibition inside. Vintage cool personified.
Of course, not everything was sunshine and rainbows. One Porsche driver was dedicated to the drive and after a miscalculation with a guardrail he showed up anyway. Porsche passion knows no bounds.