The best possible weather that anyone could ask for made this year’s All German Car Show one to remember! The Sunday morning, October 2nd event had a record turnout of cars and spectators. By the time the show started at 9:00 am, 74 Porsches belonging to KCRPCA members were on display on the open-air top deck of The Underground – which is the Kansas City Automotive Museum’s classic and exotic car storage facility at 31st & Broadway in Kansas City, Missouri. Being the “All German” car show, our colleagues from the Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen clubs joined us, and they appeared to have record turnouts as well. For some participants, their beautiful vehicles were just two or three levels down in storage and it was great to see these cars fired up. This was the third year of using The Underground as the event venue, and it did not disappoint, with beautiful views of downtown Kansas City to the north and a wonderful shady, grass lot to the south where the BMW Club and KCRPCA both set up their headquarters’ tents.
This year, Chicane Motorsports sponsored a pancake breakfast by Chris Cakes that was free for all show attendees, especially those volunteers who started early setting up the show positions. KCRPCA event organizers Mike LeMoine and Stan Stanton did a masterful job of keeping everything running smoothly with all the registrations. They also had water and coffee on hand for the Porsche faithful. For those interested, The Underground was open for visitors to tour its collection of over 240 classic and exotic vehicles in storage and on display. With all of the car clubs’ tents set up and flags flying, and the beautiful cars and the fantastic weather, it was a sight to behold. This year everyone turned out in a spectacular manner. Smiles and laughter were abundant as old friends toured the grounds together, and new friendships were made among many of the newcomers to KCRPCA.
Cindy Quintana handled the registrations and the “people’s choice” style voting, which for the second year was done by using the voters’ cell phones rather than paper ballots. Voting classes were done by both model and color, with the field of entrants divided into 15 different classes. This approach was a continuation of the last two years with car color as a part of the class divisions. First and second place winners were chosen for each class, plus awards were given for Youngest Porsche Owner, President’s Choice and Best of Show. In the more crowded classes (hint – we have an abundance of Guards Red Porsches in KCRPCA), a third place winner was awarded. In all, KCRPCA handed out 37 different awards. Gerald Potter’s stunning and recently refreshed 1996 Carrera 4S in Guards Red (what else?!) received the President’s Choice award from KCRPCA President Fred Quintana. David Nichols’ superb silver 1959 Porsche 356 took home “Best of Show” honors.
Sadly, the BMW club forgot the Pig trophy for the highest number of entries that they won last year. However, a quick perusal of the show easily determined that our Porsche club had turned out in force to reclaim the prize. Notwithstanding their omission, many of us took time to declare the Porsche club as winner this year.
But even those cars that didn’t receive an award were recipients of compliments and envious stares galore. After all, any Porsche all cleaned and polished up for a show is a glorious sight to behold and one that its owner can be extremely proud of. At the end of the day, we all should realize how truly lucky we are to own these beautiful machines. More importantly, to have and sustain the friendships and great memories that are spawned from the shared enthusiasm of the Porsche brand. Next year, let’s do it all again!
Jeff Wagoner