Inside the Air-Cooled Porsche Event That Attracted Enthusiasts From Around the World
Arguably, no other automaker inspires the level of loyalty, devotion and pure zeal from its customer base as that of Porsche. And no product has been as adored as the air-cooled models produced by the German marque from its inception until 1998. This fact was driven home to anyone near the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles on October 9, as Porschephiles from around the globe made the pilgrimage to the eighth edition of Luftgekühlt, an annual one-day celebration of their shared passion.
Luftgekühlt, or “air cooled” in German, was co-founded by former Porsche factory racer and brand ambassador Patrick Long, creative director Howie Idelson and famed racer, writer and photographer Jeff Zwart. It started with Long’s desire to create an automotive event that would have more mass appeal than the meetups he had initially experienced.
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“I bought a 1986 911 and started taking it to some gatherings,” says Long. “They were very early in the morning, in the middle of a parking lot, and there wasn’t much else than just a few guys talking about cars. I wanted to create an experience where my non-automotive friends would be as excited as my automotive ones. My first event was 2014, with 40 cars and 200 people . . . it has just grown organically from there.
According to Long, for this iteration alone, “people are in attendance from 48 of 50 states and 22 countries.” Among those is North Carolina–based Rory Ingram, representing his family’s world-renowned Porsche collection that even the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart has borrowed from.
“This is much more than I expected,” says Ingram, who is at Luftgekühlt for the first time. “There’s no way you can digest it all, it’s much more than you can take in, but whatever you take in is pretty amazing.” To mark the occasion, Ingram brought four highly coveted cars to be included in the field of over 300 Porsches—each in his quartet representing a storied chapter in the brand’s legacy.
The earliest of Ingram’s presentations is a 1955 Porsche 550/1500 RS Spyder, a model infamously linked with actor James Dean’s death behind the wheel the same year. This aluminum-bodied car, chassis No. 550-073, originally belonged to Porsche Dealer Paul Sagan who raced it ten times on the East Coast and took the checkered flag at six of those contests. In 1957, Sagan had drilled numerous holes in the chassis to lighten the weight and make it a hill-climb car. Subsequently, the vehicle was given a thorough restoration by specialist Joe Cavaglieri.
“This is really the first big, big collectible car that we got,” says Ingram of the acquisition. “It’s a beautiful car aesthetically and such an important one for Porsche, having raced competitively for 10 years and really dominating the under 2-liter class. And there’s no torsional rigidity to it; there’s so much flex, you can throttle-steer it a lot—it’s so visceral, going 55 mph in this is harrowing.”
Following the 550 on the timeline is Ingram’s 1960 Carrera Abarth GTL, of which only 20 hand-built examples were constructed. The model features an aluminum body designed by Franco Scaglione and made by Zagato. Despite its limited numbers, the Carrera Abarth GTL was a juggernaut in motorsport, finishing first in 44 of the 400 races it entered and earning 100 class victories. “All 20 are still surviving,” says Ingram, “and this one was owned by a count in Sweden who campaigned it for two years, winning almost every race he entered. And he never wrecked it, so it’s pristine and very successful.”
A few feet away from the Carrera Abarth GTL sits Ingram’s 1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, a competition car that was purposed to excel across the board—from track to touring—and, importantly, meet the latest Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) motorsport requirements at the time. To remain in compliance, Porsche had to manufacture at least 100 examples for homologation, a number it exceeded by eight. The 904 also marked an important milestone for the automaker. “This is fiberglass,” says Ingram of the model. “It’s the first plastic car they [Porsche] made, eventually ending with the big-boy 917.”
Chassis No. 904-078 was originally purchased by Andrea Vianini, a young Italian racer who piloted the new ride in select World Sportscar Championship races that season. “In 1964, Vianini and his partner went to the factory, picked the car up, the factory put the lights in for them and they went out and beat the factory team,” Ingram says. After Vianini’s stewardship ended in 1978, the car remained with the same owner until 2011, when it moved into the Ingram Collection. Asked if it still gets properly “exercised,” Ingram’s answer is immediate: “In two weeks, this will be out [on track] at Laguna Seca.”
The rarest of Ingram’s collectibles on display is a 906E from 1967. With development spearheaded by Ferdinand Piëch, the 906 was intended to be a more weight-conscious replacement for the 904 and accomplished the goal largely through an even more comprehensive use of fiberglass than its predecessor. According to Ingram, only four examples of the fuel-injected E variant were created.
This particular car was entered in the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona but hit a barrier in practice and couldn’t compete. It also ran at the 12 Hours of Sebring the same year but failed to finish due to engine issues. Soon after, it was sold to Armando Capriles of Venezuela, who campaigned it extensively in South America before finishing 11th at Sebring in 1969. “The Ford GTs were the only things that were beating these overall,” says Ingram of the 906 model in general, “these actually got in front of the big Ferraris.”
Although the Ingram Collection’s important pieces of Porsche history were among the highlights of the day, notable air-cooled machines featured at every turn, including the Keen Project’s 1984 911 Carrera given safari-style form and functionality by racer Leh Keen.
“I wanted an air-cooled 911 that I could drive around the city but also take up in the woods and slide around pretending to be a rally-car driver,” says Keen, who finished second in class at Le Mans in 2010 and captured the American Le Mans Series Championship in 2012. Keen’s revisions include changing the entire suspension and integrating shocks exclusive to his team, as well as re-envisioning the interior. The Auratium Green stunner on display is his 30th build, and he’s clear on his ideal client. “I want people that are going to use the car,” says Keen. “The best thing that can happen is if a customer scratches it or dents it the first day and then has a story to tell.”
For Jeff Zwart, one of the key players keeping the air-cooled legacy alive, telling a visual tale is what Luftgekühlt is all about, and this edition allowed him to showcase one in particular, that of the 911 Carrera RS. The model, which debuted at the Paris Motor Show in 1972, eventually comprised a production run of 1,580 examples featuring the now-iconic “duck tail” rear spoiler. The Carrera RS went on to become a competitive tour de force throughout the racing scene of the 1970s.
“Porsche is so motivated by motorsport, its heart and soul, and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the RS, and having three that I tried to set on the stand like they were when they were first introduced, that sort of thing really inspires me,” says Zwart.
Certainly firing up the imagination of a new generation were the array of restomods from the likes of Emory Motorsports, Gunther Werks and Singer Vehicle Design. The latter continually gathered a crowd with its Turbo Study (opening image) and latest Dynamics and Lightweighting Study (DLS) with exposed-carbon-fiber bodywork. Both exemplify what can be done with the air-cooled Porsche as creative canvas, which can also be said for the event itself.
“Our friend Jeff Zwart and the guys at Luftgekühlt have been inspirational to us . . . and maybe we’ve been part of inspiring them over the years, so it’s a marriage made in heaven and we’re honored to be here,” says Rob Dickinson, founder of Singer Vehicle Design. “This is the perfect environment for these cars. Porsche had so much success early on in California, I think it’s Porsche’s second home,” he says. “Luftgekühlt here in Los Angeles makes so much sense because this is where the cars belong.”
Click here for more photos of the 2022 edition of Luftgekühlt.
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