The Same and The New

The Amelia Concours returned to its normal early March date in 2022, but this year’s version had some new, significant changes.

Like the Greenwich Concours, Amelia was acquired by the newly, publicly-traded Hagerty Inc. The event is now part of the Hagerty Event Group. The usual events included: the Guardians of Porsche Wine Maker’s Dinner on Thursday night, the Friday Eight Flags Tour and the Porsche Driving Experience, the Saturday Cars and Coffee on the Concours fairway, and the Saturday night Honoree Dinner honoring Chip Ganassi and the Sunday Concours.

The usual auction by Bonhams, RM Sotheby’s and Gooding were held and full details will be in many publications.

There were several new Saturday events this year, such as the Greenwich Concours and Radwood, featuring the best of the ’80s and ’90s. A new addition, the Concours d’Lemons celebrated the oddball, the mundane and the truly awful of the automotive world.

The Guardians Porsche Dinner featured a panel of 3 “unofficial” Porsche Ambassadors. Ray Shaffer, Market Development Manager, Porsche Classic at PCNA, was the panel moderator.

• Christina Brinkerhoff (of Valkyrie Racing): Team Manager and Photographer/filmmaker
• Brock Keen (@996roadtrip on Instagram): The adventurer who camps with his wife and Labradoodle on the roof of his 996 C4S Coupe
• Lara (@thatporschegirl on Instagram) – ‘the’ precision driver for Hollywood with her 1969 911 T and              1982 930.

You will all recognize Christina and mother Renée from the cover and Back Story of their exploits in the current edition of Pano as well as the 356 Registry Magazine.

PCA held its annual Werks event on Friday, with the judged field and the car corrals sold out well in advance of the event. At the Werks events, exploring the Porsche corrals is as exciting as the judged field given the 100’s of cars (700?).

As expected, the Saturday Cars and Coffee drew a Porsche group of all models in front of the Porsche display that featured the “1 of 1” Classic Club Coupe which was unveiled at the Werks the day before.

Porsche Club of America and Porsche Classic created the 911 Classic Club Coupe, a 996-generation 911 Carrera that received a nut-and-bolt restoration, which included one-of-a-kind modifications to enhance the sports car’s appearance and performance.

You have seen specifics if you subscribe to PCA E-Brake News blast, March 8 issue. It is a stunning car we would all love to own!

The auctions included a number of great Porsches which will be detailed by the experts, including CVR’s own Prescott Kelly, in other publications. The most exciting to me was the beautifully restored 1959 718 RSK with a wonderful racing history auctioned at Gooding. The bidding was slow to $1,950,000 and seemed to stop. Given a value range of $2,500,000 to $3,500,00 it appeared it would not sell. But after the next bid, 2 active bidders emerged, jumping the price in $100,000 increments. The final winning bid, to an unknown buyer, was $2,700,000 plus a buyer’s premium of $275,000.

The Sunday Concours featured a Porsche Rare Aluminum class in front of the Porsche display. There were 8 rare cars all with great provenance.

The class was judged by CVR’s Prescott Kelly, Dale Miller and Alwin Springer, former head of PCNA Motorsports and co-founder of Andial.

Dale Miller, Alwin Springer & Prescott Kelly judging the 1959 718 RSK from the Miles Collier collection

Judges presented the Class Award to Suzy Snow and Cameron Healy for their 1949 356 / 2 SL

As usual, the weather was perfect and ‘The Amelia’ was a great break from the March CT weather.