Organising a bank holiday Monday event in the UK always carries a risk, weather-wise. While sunshine might be what we hoped for, that’s not what we got. The traditional bank holiday downpour, which at times felt biblical, didn’t put off the hardy souls who ventured out for a rather wet drive to Goodwood Motor Circuit to join André and the Legends Drivers Club.
Forget daffodils, the scent of fresh tarmac and the rumble of a classic engine are the true harbingers of spring. The annual 356 Spring Drive route and date are locked in, and the prospect of a day spent carving through Kent and East Sussex B-roads in a pack of iconic Porsche 356s has my camera bag prepped, batteries charged, and navigation skills primed for an adventure.
It’s hard to believe that this spectacular display of bespoke tailoring and sensational cars is only in its second year. Run by the wonderful Magneto magazine and its partners, this two-day event oozes elegance and sophistication. There’s plenty of glitz and glamour to get rolled up in. Sited in the middle of Mayfair, during the week, the Concours on Saville Row offers a visual feast of automotive and tailored elegance.
Over the course of our local car night dinner, the discussion turned to the following week’s 356 Spring Drive. Not owning a 356, I felt a little envious of those who would enjoy this adventure. Desperate to not miss out, I asked the organiser, and long-time friend of mine, Richard, if he’d be happy to share the route with me. I offered to capture some images of all the cars as they traversed the quieter roads of Kent and Sussex. ‘Why don’t you jump in with me?’ was his reply—this offer took milliseconds to decide on. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to spend a day riding around the countryside in a beautiful 1965 Porsche 356C?
Unless you’ve been hiding under a bush or have zero interest in Porsches you cannot have missed the fact that year has been a notable one for the German car marque. Porsche have done a great job of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first Porsche sports car, built in 1948.
This year summer has delivered us weeks of sunshine and heat, you could be forgiven for thinking we were in California. Why then, on the day the Luftgekühlt crew put on their inaugural event outside of LA, does the weather let us down with epic rainfall?
Bank Holiday Monday and another 911UK drive down to Rye for breakfast. We knew the roads wouldn’t be quiet as the early May bank holiday is synonymous with the Mayday Run which sees 1,000’s of biker make the run down the A21 to Hastings. The sheer number of bikes is always an impressive sight, but we decided to meet up earlier than usual to get a head start on our journey down to the south coast.
Beautiful weather teased out quite a few people for the May edition of Exclusively Porsche, which meant it was going to be a busy meet-up. I arrived a little late and was greeted by a throng of stunning Porsche’s and a few other classics for added interest. From Simon Moore’s beautiful 356 coupé, Toby’s 912 and a few 718’s representing the flat 4’s and various air-cooled 911’s plus a brace of watercoolers representing the flat 6’s – there really was something for everyone. It was also nice to see some other classics joining in the summer sun, such as the wonderful Triumph Herald and Paul Campbell’s 1953 VW ‘Zwitter’.
The third Sunday of the month means it’s time for a little jaunt over to East London’s Fish Island for Porsche Club GB’s R20 ‘Out East Porsche Meet’. This time Max and I hooked up with some Ding Dong Kinky Disciples in Chislehurst for pre-breakfast coffees and to cruise on over to the north side of the river – it’s safer for us south-Londoners to travel together. As the others left our meeting point I was held up at traffic lights, so decided to take a shortcut, hoping to catch them further up the A20. My shortcut must have been a good one as I arrived over at Beachy Road, E3 2NS a good 5 minutes before them.
Heading back from the Precision Porsche cars and coffee open day the sun was shining and East Sussex did it’s best to provide entertaining roads to play on. Once again it was a solo drive, but I was smiling all the way, happy to be out in my 997. What started off with just four cars in a car park soon turned into quite a large meet-up, with Porsches of all vintages. From Simon Moore’s beautiful 356 to a brand new 991.2 Targa.
A solo, picturesque drive this morning delivered me to the first of two Porsche events. East Sussex’s Precision Porsche provided hospitality to ease into Saturday morning, while their team of experts were on hand performing pre-booked health checks and answering questions. Their spotless workshops were open for us all to freely wander around and the body shop had a few non-Porsche beauties in various states of repair.
I’d not been to the London Classic Car Show for a couple of years, so I was looking forward to an relaxed day full of great cars and great people. The Excel centre in London is a vast, featureless exhibition hall and I don’t feel it really does the cars justice. The organisers had dressed the central runway, albeit with just tyre walls, but something was lacking.
