Finding Gold

ALBERT SALVADOR

Plays with Cars — Especially Porsche

Member Feature by Mark Johnson

This monthly gold nugget is about a fellow Porsche jockey who simply loves cars, owns a few, and plays well with others. Albert Salvador is his name, and he drives as many cars as he can get his hands on, but Porsche is his preferred marque.

Included in the current stable of Albert’s “collection” are three PCars. The first is a 2018 991.2 GT3 in Graphite Blue. This one was ordered new in April 2017 with an arrival of October 2017 (just a bit faster than today’s Order To Delivery/OTD timing). It is trimmed with PCCB Racing Yellow brake calipers, yellow seatbelts, and custom Thompson Blue Tartan inserts for the factory-optioned lightweight carbon fiber bucket seats. As a beautiful GT3, it is a bit understated in color, which makes it all the more attractive. The second is a 1977 911S Carrera RS/R Tribute in Slate Grey (Schiefergrau #6801) that was acquired in March 2020. This RS/R Tribute is distinctive with its Carrera script along the rocker panels, and a very cool and period correct, custombuilt roof rack with Macacauba wood. The third is a 1989.5 Carrera 4 964 in Guards Red. It arrived at the end of 2020 with a mere 50K miles on the odometer and included every service and maintenance record since new. If you are counting, that is one modern water pumper, and two aircooled beasts. Each is impeccably maintained and driven often.

“Driven” is the key verb here. Albert can be found at many of the regional and national Porsche events. He is a huge fan of high-performance driving, and as a PCA member he has been participating at the 48 Hours at Sebring Advanced Solo event for the past three years (2020 through 2022). He sees the great value offered by the 48 Hours event, driving at Sebring multiple times per day over the fourday weekend.

Involved with track days, Albert is also certified as a HDPE (high performance driver education) instructor for PCA. He’ll be teaching a few friends at Sebring and during the Suncoast Region PCA events throughout 2023. We expect he will also be supporting the budding Gold Coast Region DE events as they are announced and run during the coming year.

Beyond the track, Albert (AKA: @ bbossingg is his Instagram handle) can be located at one of the many regional drive events organized by various folks in the Southeast. There are quite a few non-PCA regional “drives,” often by invitation only, for air-cooled Porsches that he has also driven. These include the Fahren Rally hosted by PCar Talk, the Gator Crawl Rally in north Florida as organized by Keith Ennis, and the Rennsport Dragon Rally in western North Carolina with Josh Vandergriff. He has also driven in the Targa Carolina (TC) and the Blue Ridge Ruckus established by Charles Stanley, and the Deliverance Rally by Autohaus Social. Many of these events Albert has driven in multiple times since getting involved with his Porsche vehicles.

As for static display shows, he has participated in the Porsche Parade held in 2019 in Boca Raton, Luftgekühlt since 2019, WERKS Reunion in Amelia, and the Rennsport

Reunion (RR6 in 2018). He has already purchased his passes for the Rennsport Reunion “7,” the 2023 event. During WERKS, the ’77 RS/R Tribute hit the judged field, and while not winning a ribbon it was a fan favorite for its handsome looks.

Knowing Albert, it is always a guess as to which Porsche he will bring to an event. Over the past three DRT events in Miami, each individual Porsche was spotted at one point or another. Basically, here is a guy who truly believes that Porsches should be driven. Each vehicle offers its own style and driving pleasure. The aircooled models will hold their own on the many twisty road events, while the GT3 will do the same, and can hustle around a racetrack with speed, style, and grace. We watched Albert blow by us at the Homestead Miami Speedway over the Thanksgiving break. The 500+ HP in the GT3 gives him the ability to move quickly over the ground and encourage the slower drivers to offer point-by on a regular basis.

Albert is a single father with two children. His daughter, Arriana, is 23 and lives in Boston. She is a thirdyear law student at New England Law, Boston. His son Sebastian is 18 and attends Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and is majoring in Aeronautical Science.

Sebastian aspires to become an Airline Transport Pilot. He already has his private pilot’s license, and over 100 hours of logged flight time. When not at school Sebastian can be seen on a few of the rallies with his dad in any of the three PCars. As a pilot, he enjoys the handling and maneuvering of Porsche autos on the track and on the many twisting roads they encounter. With the seat time, he will soon take his Instrument Flight Rating (IFR) tests. If they could figure out how to transport a Porsche or two via air, it would make it easier to get around the country for the many events they attend.

Albert was born in the Philippines, grew up in Philadelphia, and currently lives in Pembroke Pines. When asked what inspired him to get into automobiles, like many of us, Albert shares that was educated in the way of the performance vehicles by his father. Salvador Senior is a Porsche man himself.

Albert’s dad first acquired a new 1984 Porsche 944 in Guards Red. He traded that in for another new 1986 Black 944 Turbo, all as Albert was in his midteens. Eventually, the 944 Turbo was replaced with a customer pre-owned 1985 928S, also Black, in 1987. Each of these vehicle transactions occurred at Moore Motors Porsche & Audi in Philadelphia. The dealership no longer exists, but the memories remain. And talk about memories!

While growing up as a teenager, and upon receiving his driver’s license at 16 in 1985, Albert was able to drive the 944 Turbo with dad along in the right seat. He was allowed to pilot the 928S later, without pops as chaperone. But there is more to the story of Albert’s teen driving exploits. As Albert tells it, “Up to this day, my dad was unaware that I used to occasionally sneak out with the 944 Turbo from the family garage. The garage was unattached, so a buddy of mine and I would quietly open the door, lifting it versus using the power door opener. We would push the Turbo out of the garage, down the driveway, and into the street for a short distance from the house. I’d jump in, fire it up. My friend would climb in, and we’d pull away for a teenage joyride!” Being teenagers, they would cruise the nearest arcade, the local mall, and the usual high school hangouts. Albert claims to have never been caught by his father. One can only imagine the repercussions if he did get caught, or what pop has to say when he reads his son’s story in the Kassette. “Fun, memorable times,” recalls Albert.

Albert Salvador is a car enthusiast. There are a total of eleven vehicles in the Salvador stable. Besides the three Porsches, there are four Fords,

a Pontiac, and three Mercedes. The Pontiac is a 1969 GTO hardtop with manual transmission. The Fords are a ’22 Bronco Sasquatch, Area 51 (2dr manual), a ’20 Shelby GT500 in Race Red, a ’17 Shelby GT350R also in Race Red, and a ’17 Raptor in Avalanche Grey. The Mercedes acquired are a 1983 300TD Turbodiesel W123 wagon, a ’85 280CE Euro coupe, and a ’87 190E 2.3L-16V. Hitting south Florida’s longest running monthly Cars & Coffee event, Fuel Fed, Albert has the ability to bring a different vehicle for almost every (last) Sunday of each month.

He keeps four of his vehicles in the collection at the house so to have them readily available for drives and events that occur weekly. The balance of his vehicle collection is kept at a nearby storage facility. pharmaceutical company. The job is daunting, demanding, and rewarding. It also allows Albert to play with cars. Work hard and play hard. Playing hard at track days, getting to rallies, plenty of road trips, car shows and meets, and a few Thursday Night Options for dinner and drinks are the fun side of the “work hard” days. day) to add to the collection with the 3RS should the opportunity present itself.

If you want to consider Albert a “Porschtang” guy like our other friend Ruben Fuentes (Porsche RS America and two ‘60’s vintage Mustang convertibles), you could. But this bbossingg guy could also be known as a “Porschtangbenzboy.” Is that even a word? (Author note; claiming literary license to add a new and unique moniker to this lad.) Albert has been a member of GCR PCA since 2015. He is a director for the clinical R&D division of a major Albert’s partner in his car passion is his girlfriend, Denise Schroedle. Denise is a whiz kid in finding vehicles for either of them to acquire. Pick a year, make, and model of a collector car of your desire and Ms. Denise will probably have one pulled up in 10-15 minutes for you to review. Well beyond her skills as a car finder, she is also a budding collector in her own right. As a Porschtang girl she owns two 2004 Ford Mustang SVT Cobras in Competition Orange, one a cabriolet and the other, a coupe. Albert notes that the Shelby GT500 and the 964 were acquisitions he made for Denise, so technically he suggests they are also “hers.” If you are great with garage math, that is a full baker’s dozen (13) vehicles in the garage.

The favorite Porsche is the GT3/ GT3RS. He feels fortunate to have his but believes that there is room (one Keeping abreast of Porsche news, he attends as many major Porsche events as possible, is a frequent listener to PCA PCar talk shows, and many of the other Porsche related materials available via YouTube. Devouring PCar information is a fun habit. Perhaps almost as fun as driving them? In a word, NO!

Look for @bbossingg, Albert Salvador, at Sebring for the 48 Hours, at Homestead Miami, at a future GCR DE (he will instruct), and just about anywhere. He’ll be chatting up a few of the competitors at the 48 Hours this February to gain insight into Club Racing. Racing is the next logical step for Albert Salvador, and a bit of wheel-to-wheel, gentlemanly competition makes sense. Should the reader be an Instagram person, check out Albert’s IG page. He’s quite an avid storyteller.

The man is driven, and he has more than a few fun vehicles from which to choose, especially the Porsches. It’s a great combination.