The Michelin Choice Award At WERKS Reunion: Why We Picked This RSR Replica

A couple of weeks ago we got a message from Michelin asking if we’d like to judge on their behalf during the PCA’s WERKS Reunion Porsche concours, a pretty big part of Monterey Car Week. Ready for any challenge, of course we said we’d be honored to do so. Michelin Tires is one of the main sponsors of WERKS [and here at FLATSIXES.com], and as such the event organizers have a trophy every year called the Michelin Choice Award. Rather than award the trophy themselves, Michelin prefers to bring someone in to act as a “celebrity judge” on their behalf. Having recently gone to Le Mans with Michelin, they knew how Porsche crazy we are, and that we’d do a good job of selecting the proper car for the award. Our only guideline was to select a Porsche that ‘embodies passion and driving enjoyment‘ and it must be wearing Michelin tires.

So we set about our task, looking at every single Porsche on the show field bent double at the waist checking for a Bibendum logo on the sidewalls of each car. After much consternation, a whole day of it, mind you, we find the one we like more than all others. It has a look about it that just needs to be fawned over. This RSR Replica was finished just a week prior to the show, and everything about it is perfect. The details of this build are spectacular. The paint is deeper than the ocean. The engine compartment is clean enough to lick. And to think, this car, just a few years prior, had been an abandoned half-disassembled mid-1980s M471 Turbo Look Coupe. Dave, the owner of the car, not only rebuilt this 911 himself with lots of TLC, he made the Porsche much better than it ever had been.

The gentleman behind the wheel is the owner of the car, Mr. Dave Kealoha. He’s originally of Hawaii, but now resides in So Cal. He is one of the nicest and most excitable people we’ve ever met, and he’s certainly a Porsche fanatic at heart. His dream took time, effort, money, and tenacity to finish, but it is finally visualized in sheetmetal, rubber, glass, and paint.

Every inch of this car has been massaged and gone over, no single part left untouched. The suspension is modified with shiny performance bits, and the engine is punched out to 3.4 liters with a pair of PMO-built carburetors. The exhaust note is sublime, even at just above idle.

So there you have it, Dave won our Michelin Choice Award for building the coolest RSR replica we’ve ever seen. And not only that, but his Porsche also won the outlaw category in the Concours. Not only was his 911 amazing to look at, it wowed the judges with how clean it was.

The Runner Ups

As I walked around, I noted a pair of other cars that really deserve some recognition, but weren’t quite as eye-catching and dynamic as the brilliant orange machine above.

Fresh from an 8-year restoration by European Collectibles, this 356 Cabriolet features an original Fuhrmann 4-cam engine and gorgeous chrome Rudge knock-on wheels. When I inform them that their car was my first runner-up, they ask what car I picked as better, and they said “Oh yeah, I would have picked that car, too!”. I don’t feel too bad, however, as this Cabriolet is eventually awarded the Open 356 class win, as well as the Hollywood Wheels Sponsors Choice Award.

Another Runner-Up is William Anast’s 1978 Porsche 928, a gorgeous sight in factory blue with a gorgeously appointed tan leather interior. I never did get an opportunity to talk to Mr. Anast about his car, but it is certainly as worthy of adoration as a 928 can get. This Porsche is millimeter perfect, likely better than it was when it left the factory in the 1970s. This is another car that we can’t feel too bad about not giving our award to, William’s 928 won its class trophy as well as the HRE Wheels Sponsors Choice Award. To see William’s car, and all of the other happenings from WERKS, watch the video above.