Following my Saturday trip to the EASY open house, I woke up Sunday morning ready to venture out and see some more cars. Just a few miles NorthEast of the bay is a sleepy little town called Concord. The show, one I’ve been to before, is called NorCal Treffen, and it is one of the coolest air-cooled shows you’ve never heard of. This show, like Luftgekühlt, features primarily air-cooled cars, though some wassergekühlt cars are welcome as well. The point is, this is a mostly Porsche and Volkswagen show (though a Messerschmitt did show up, too), and it’s one of the best kept secrets in the car world. It’s a laid back and entertaining day of parking up and looking at cars.
We would be absolutely remiss if we did not thank our friends at Stoddard for inviting us down to join them for the weekend. Stoddard NLA, LLC provided travel and accommodations for our trip to Los Angeles, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Their parts display at the show on Saturday and Sunday was the largest and most eye-catching. If you have a vintage 911 or 356, please consider checking out what they have to offer at Stoddard.com or NLAParts.com. Without Stoddard’s support, and others like them, this site really wouldn’t be possible.
The show is now in its 11th year, and every year it gets a little bigger. This year nearly 200 cars were in attendance. Those cars take over a large open park, and fill the thing up. There is still plenty of room for growth, but the show definitely doesn’t feel small. Because it was such a short distance from the show I attended the day before, I talked a few people into attending this show as well, as they were local. After all, if I was willing to drive 200 miles to attend this show, then surely they could make a trip across town.
This show was filled with a bunch of old friends from the Porsche community, and of course we all enjoy the company of each other, but we were also interested in visiting the Volkswagen guys and checking out what they had to show-off for this event. While maybe our stuff was a bit quicker than theirs, a lot of them had similar aesthetic goals with their cars. Being California, there were quite a few Cali-style bugs, which is really fun to see. Surf boards and whatnot, assorted accessories and rare options were showcased.
But the Porsches, oh many were there Porsches. The Volkswagen guys were almost lamenting how enthusiastic Porsche guys can be, because every year this show becomes more and more Porsche-centric. It’s really interesting to see how much this event has grown with Porsche guys in the last few years, and the level of cars that were in attendance. Sure, it’s no Luftgekühlt, and Jeff Zwart isn’t showing off his Gmünd, but it’s still really cool. Here are a few of the cars that were hanging around.
This 914 is said to be the very first ever “race intervention vehicle” used in Formula 1. If you can believe it, this is the pace car for the 1973 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada. The car is complete with caution flags, and a flashing light on the windshield header, as well as a fire extinguisher in the center console, and what is supposed to be the original handheld radio for communication with race control. I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine being a corner worker in a time before safety cars were de rigeur. Racers and corner workers of today probably owe this car a debt of gratitude, in a way.
This race-prepped 912 was one of my personal favorite Porsches at the show. The car had been done up with aftermarket parts (obviously) to look like an extension of Porsche’s 911R program from 1968. With the properly hinged decklid, the lightweight tail light assemblies, and the perspex windows where allowable, it certainly looked the part. And don’t forget about that flat grey paintwork, and the wonderful number roundels, it just looked spectacular.
My best-in-show for the event, however, was this split-window Cabriolet. This is a mighty rare Porsche, for certain, and not one often seen in the wild. Not as rare as a Gmünd by any means, but still quite rare in its own right. This particular car was stated to be a 1951, and it looked absolutely perfect. Not perfect in the concours sense, but perfect in the ‘it gets driven often’ sense. If you were to ask me, Porsches were meant to be driven, and this one is living up to that purpose quite well. The aged and worn interior leather was just perfect. Like a well worn baseball mitt.
Again, because a lot of R Gruppe members were in attendance, there were a bunch of longhood 911s showing up and showing out. This Aubergine 911 Soft Window Targa was just plain perfection.
And this race car was just plain spectacular. There is something about a car with performance tires mounted on Fuchs with extended lug studs that just makes me smile.