With an impending Nor’easter ready to hit the East Coast, there was no better Porsche place to be but in Southern California. The 2018 L.A. Lit & Toy Show took place the first weekend of March and eight diehard Porsche fans from Metro New York journeyed out west to experience the Porsche restoration open houses, swap meets, cars shows and the 35th anniversary of the L.A. Lit & Toy Show at the LAX Hilton Hotel.
Stoddard Authentic Porsche Parts, the event organizer, did a terrific job in putting together a packed schedule that ran from Thursday to Sunday of that weekend. Stoddard also ran shop tour buses that took you from point A to point B without you needing to rent-a-car. More than 1,500 people from all over the world attended this meet -which had over 300 tables of posters, models, toys, reproduction parts, accessories, technical literature and sightings of Porsche celebrities.
The Open Houses
Many of the open houses are north, east and south of the heart of Los Angeles and you definitely spend Friday, Saturday and half of Sunday running around like a kid in the Porsche candy store. Porsche 356’s and early 911’s were the focus of this weekend’s visit as they are truly the last Porsches that can be fully restored to their factory finish glory. Compared to my 997, they are beautiful in their simplicity and the mechanical noises they emit are music to how they function.
The Porsche Effect
The highlight of the trip was stopping by at the Petersen Automotive Museum to visit the “The Porsche Effect’ automobile exhibit. This exhibit highlighted the birth of Porsche, its style and engineering, its racing heritage and of course, the Porsches, loaned out by various Porsche collectors.
So Cal All-Porsche Swap and Car Show
Our Porsche weekend ended on Sunday with the So Cal All-Porsche Swap and Car Show at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim, California. California Porsche owners drive their classic Porsches basically all the time, while back in New York we have to wait for the salt to wash away, potholes to be filled and temperatures to rise to meet summer tire gripping conditions.
Our next escape will be to Rennsport at Laguna Seca Raceway this upcoming September. I advise that you put one Porsche road-trip or another on your bucket list and you should do it before electrification takes the gas out of your Porsche fun.