books
Luftgekühlt
Born in Stuttgart, grown up on the backseat of an air-cooled Porsche 911. This actually describes my relationship to the sports cars from Zuffenhausen quite well.
My father bought his first 911 shortly after my birth. Blood orange. For him an everyday car. Driven every day until an engine failure somewhere in Morocco. After that followed another 911. I can still remember a beautiful moss-green SC, a convertible in silver metallic and a dark blue G-model. These years were hard and uncomfortable. As hard as the back seats of an 11 just are. Even though the passenger seat seemed to be free, I had to sit in the back almost without exception, because my father's cars always served as a moving office. So the file folders and architect's plans had a much more comfortable seat than I did. Somewhere and sometime between all the 911s there was also a 928 in oak-green metallic, in which I died all deaths on a trip from Stuttgart to Dubrovnik in Croatia. At that time my father wanted to hold the sole track record for the 1,300 km. Well, at least I was allowed to sit in the front ...
Such and similar stories are probably told by the drivers, visitors and fans of the Stuttgart sports cars at the almost legendary Luftgekühlt events that started at the parking lot of Deus Ex Machina in Venice Beach.
In a relatively short period of time, the event, which was brought to life by Porsche works racing driver Patrick Long and creative strategist Howie Idelson, has developed into a renowned gathering of road and racing cars from Zuffenhausen – all air-cooled of course.
Anyone who should have missed these unique events of Porsche enthusiasts can take a piece of Zuffenhausen home with the superbly designed illustrated book that retells the first three chapters of the Luftgekühlt history. Lively and impressive photographs, for example by Jeff Zwart, Rod Emory, Bruce Meyer, Rob Dickinson, and others, make these 260 pages one of the most beautiful Porsche books ever for me. It is not only the insights into the collections and workshops, which are often closed to the public, but above all the snapshots of the loyal owners and viewers who have traveled from far and wide to attend the event that make this illustrated book so unique.
Luftgekühlt 1 is already out of print. Volume number 2 is now ready to go in the garage. But you better be as fast as a GT3, because it could be out of stock just as fast ....
At Home, as long as we have eyes to be amazed. | All pictures in the book by Luftgekühlt. | All words by Darek. | All photos by The Sturgheons.
