EVOLUTION OF PORSCHE

A 60th Anniversary Premier Event

By Steve Kidd, GCR Historian

Many of you know me as the past president of the Gold Coast Region (GCR) of the Porsche Club of America. You might not know that I am also the GCR Club Historian. As GCR celebrates sixty years in 2023, as Club Historian, I felt it necessary to do an event representing some of the major evolutionary changes in our cars over the past 60 years. The social team Initially considered holding a three-event activity. We thought of having each event separate and spreading them over the year at various locations. While we all loved this idea, practicality kicked in.

We revised our initial plans and decided to hold one major event at one premier location. As Hagerty has always been an avid supporter of the PCA Gold Coast Region, it seemed natural that we chose Hagerty Garage & Social in Delray Beach as the premier location. Fortunately, we secured the date and location and partnered with the incredible staff at Hagerty. They not only provided the facility but so much more.

In addition to Hagerty as our event host, we secured three additional sponsors who assisted and presented their products and services to our members. Our fantastic sponsors for Evolution of Porsches were:

• Hagerty Garage & Social, Delray Beach location – https://www.garageandsocial.com/

• KMW Motorsports – https://www.KMWmotorsport.com

• Dr. Color Chip – https://drcolorchip.com/

• Prekom USA Inc. – https://www.prekom-usa.com/

Many members may not realize how much time and effort goes into some of our great GCR events. For the Evolution of Porsches, planning began in November 2022 and continued until the day our event was live – Saturday, May 20, 2023. We ultimately had twelve cars, divided into three distinct time periods, along with moderators and car owners offering a series of presentations. Divided into time periods of approximately 20 years each, the groups explained how Porsches evolved over the sixty years of GCR’s existence.

First, a huge THANK YOU to everyone involved in creating and running this amazing event. From the planners to the moderators to the car owners to the sponsors and to all who volunteered in any capacity, we know it would not have been such a great event without each and every one of you.

In future issues of the Kazzette, we will share additional articles related to the Evolution of Porches. We will feature one group in each of the following three editions of the Kassette. August will feature Group 1, September will feature Group 2, and we’ll wrap up the write-ups and photos in October with Group 3. Here is an overview of which cars were in each of these groups, with all of these produced between 1963 and 2023:

GROUP 1

Moderated by Fred Kohly, who presented the following Porsches: Carlos Singer and his 1963 356

Joe Solomito and his 1967 912

Dan Simonson and his 1970 914-6

Jeff Lewis and his 1988 911 slant-nose

GROUP 2

Moderated by Steve Kidd, who presented the following Porsches: Joe Rodi and his 1997 993 (the last of the air-cooled Porsches)

Dottie Kidd and her 1991 944 S2

Lee Wood and his 2003 Boxster

Mark Kuehl and his 2004 40th Anniversary 911

GROUP 3

Moderated by Kevin Wheeler and Luis Milone (KMW Motorsports), who presented the following Porsches:

Mike Weiner and his 2012 Cayman R

Paul Laya and his 2014 Cayenne

Raul Gonzalez and his 2018 Panamera

Dony Medina and his 2023 911 GT3

We also wish extend an additional thank you to the owners and moderators who volunteered their time and expertise. In addition to sharing their history and love of these Porsche’s, there were various pre-event activities that they partook in. These pre-event activities included five visits to Hagerty, as we needed to ensure every detail was worked out. There were also early morning-day-of tasks, including staging display cars, setting up breakfast, organizing door prizes, and finalizing the processes for checking registrations and check-in details, such as filling in paperwork, promoting PCA Juniors, and handing out name badges.

When the doors finally opened at 8:00 am, Dottie and her team of front-end volunteers were ready to go. I was equally busy on the “back end” with my group of volunteers who helped with front gate greeting, parking, vehicle logistics, sponsor placement, and assistance with the tech quiz. The event was structured with introductions and announcements at the very beginning, followed by all guests separating into one of the three groups they were assigned at check-in. Using a preset schedule, each group rotated between each of the three stations where the cars were situated. Additionally, Hagerty helped arrange breakfast pastries, fruits, coffee and other beverages, and other goodies for participants to snack on throughout the day.

Each session started at the top of the hour and lasted about 40 minutes. After each session, there was a break for snacks, questions and answers, visiting the sponsor tables, socializing, and whatever other business a guest needed to take care of. As mentioned previously, there will be more detailed write-ups and pictures about each of the sessions in future issues.

This event could not have been possible without a huge number of volunteers that helped with every aspect of the event. Once again, I must extend a huge thanks to our volunteers, sponsors, presenters, moderators, and our hosts. The Hagerty Delray site staff, were at the event to answer any questions about Hagerty and to assist in any way they could. Anton and Gabriel from Hagerty provided facility tours. During these tours, members were shown some incredible cars stored at their facility, including the 1958/1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder.

Toward the end of the event, participants and volunteers could answer a tech quiz. In this quiz were questions based on the twelve Porsches that were displayed. We had two tech quiz winners. There was Terry Cohen, who came in first and selected a pair of 60th Anniversary wine glasses as his prize. Second place went to Joe Rodi, who was awarded a painting done by Victor Peppi, CEO of Robohood Robotic Painting. Look for a copy of the tech quiz in future Kassette issues.

In addition to our tech quiz, we had over twenty phenomenal door prizes. Thanks to the individuals and organizations that donated these prizes, including but not limited to:

• Willie Ho – GCR member

• Staff from 48 Hours at Sebring Club Race

• Dr. ColorChip – https://drcolorchip.com/

• David Schnorr Art Studio – https://www.schnorrart .com/

Dottie and I also were able to contribute some of the prizes. All prizes were well received. It helped that folks were given two tickets per person to indicate their interest in a prize. This method ensured they ended up with an item they were hoping to win rather than wind up with something they didn’t want or couldn’t use.

As the event concluded, everybody enjoyed a delicious cake and a grand farewell to a spectacular day. I almost forgot to mention that everyone that signed up early received a limited edition, event-specific Evolution of Porsche T-shirt. When you are at some of our other great GCR events, look for these light-blue shirts that display, among other things, GCR’s 60thanniversary logo.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GCR!!!!! Until our next event, Steve & Dottie

Gold Coast Region

60th Anniversary Celebration