Beautiful weather, good food, great events, more than 120 Porsches, and nearly 200 interesting Porsche people…
If that isn’t a recipe for success, I don’t know what is. The 2014 Richmond Porsche Meet sponsored by the Shenandoah Region of the Porsche Club of America was all of that.
Early arrivals on Friday prepped their cars at Dave’s Auto Spa, caravanned over to RPM sponsor Euroclassics Porsche to ogle new models and kick tires, and then dined at Stonehenge Country Club.
The most popular event of the annual three-day weekend was the Concours de Elegance and picnic buffet lunch at the home of Tred Spratley and Janine Collins on the picturesque banks of the James River. RPM Organizer Alex Smith and our gracious hosts deserve many thanks for providing unrivalled ambience.
Our registration team of PCA Shenandoah Board members and enthusiastic volunteers were kept busy from 7:30 to 10:30 AM as the cars trundled over the wooden Kanawha Canal bridge and eased onto the tree-shaded show field. We had a record-breaking 127 Porsches!
At RPM every Porsche is on display. A select few were entered into the Concours, and Dave Lasch and his team of judges had some tough choices. Awards were given in six classes, covering 60 years of Porsches from 356, early 911, and 912 through 914, 916, 924, 928, 944, 968, and on to the many iterations of the more modern 911, Boxster, Cayman, Cayenne, Macan, and Panamera.
Between the judged and for-show-only cars there were some excellent examples of German engineering and styling.
PCA Shenandoah stalwart Dick Pitman’s exquisite 1961 356B Cabriolet repeated as the Gay Jewett Memorial People’s Choice award winner, although it could have gone to any number of fine cars.
Among the more historically significant Porsches on display were the two cars brought up from North Carolina by Bob and Jeanie Ingram and their two sons Cam and Rory.
The 3-liter 1974 RS was raced and rallied in Europe, placing 6th in class and 12th overall in the 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans. It then had a second life in vintage racing and rallying in the capable hands of former factory drivers Edgar Barth and Gerard Larrousse and others. The Ingrams bought it from the car’s second owner.
The rally-equipped 1984 911 SCRS is a true time capsule, with just over 700 miles on the odometer and still wearing its original wheels and Pirelli P7 tires. This rare model was the precursor to Porsche’s Dakar Rally cars, Cam Ingram explained. It was sold by the factory for $250,000 in 1983 and spent most of its life in the Matsuda Collection in Japan. The Ingram Collection in Durham, NC now includes every model of 911 RS made.
After enjoying another wonderful lunch at “Cafe Carrera” prepared by caterer Chick Jordan and his CaterCorp staff, many of us set off on the challenging gimmick rally prepared by Region Prez Sherry Westfall and Randy Bell.
When the headlights on my usually trusty 944 failed to pop up, I got out to crank them up manually and caused the last five cars to miss the green light cycle at Huguenot Road. Thus promoted to leader of the pack, we still managed to find the designated rest stop at The Foundry Golf Club, though this was much in doubt until I spotted Bugs Bunny on a motorcycle, one of the clues. (Steering, shifting, and holding up route instructions really requires three hands!)
Following light refreshments we saddled up and were off to Euroclassics for more Porsche viewing and an informative tech session on the new Macan.
The Saturday evening Awards Banquet was again held at the comfy Martin’s Grant Clubhouse.
After wining and dining in style, President Sherry made the introductions, noting, “I don’t think we could have had a better day. Some people thought RPM had run its course. I don’t think it has run its course.”
This remark was greeted by unanimous approval and applause from the sellout crowd of 60 Porsche enthusiasts.
Sherry thanked Concours Chief Judge Dave Lasch and his crew, the many volunteers, the Ingram and Spratley families, and last, but certainly not least, RPM originator and impresario Alex Smith.
“Alex is like a ringmaster, he kept the people swirling and the cars swirling.” Amen, Alex.
The banquet speaker was Cam Ingram who also runs Road Scholars in Raleigh, NC, a well-established restoration shop that has many very discerning Porsche collectors among its clientele.
Ingram outlined some past experiences and discussed the current trend in restorations that values authenticity over the sort of chrome-plated over-the-top restorations of the past.
“The goal is capturing what Porsche was doing on the assembly line in each era,” Cam said. “The biggest mistake is that we over-restore the car. Through research we have found that it wasn’t the 3-millimeter panel gap that we all strive for.”
“Clients now want what it looked like when it came from the factory, not an idealized Porsche.”
RPM concluded with Sunday’s Autocross on the one-third mile banked oval at Southside Speedway, where maestros Rick Ebinger and Erik Boody staged another great event.
