This was my third Rennsport Reunion and like the previous Rennsport Reunions, this was an amazing event put out by Porsche. Just the number for Rennsport are staggering: 81,550 spectators, 50+ legendary drivers, 500 historic and customer cars and over 1,600 Porsche in the Porsche Club of America corral and a lot of friends.
Rennsport is a reunion of a large number of racing cars from Porsche. Not only some belongs to the Porsche Museum, others cars belong to private museums (Petersen Museum was there with some incredible cars), some cars belong to avid collectors (Jay Leno and Jerry Sienfield sent some of their cars there) and some are owned by regular fans. The common point is everybody is making a huge effort to come here and show off their prized possession(s). On top of all these amazing vehicles, a lot of spectators are driving in with their own cars (356, 912, 505, etc..)
When you were a kid, do you remember having a car poster in your bedroom (I did, it was a 959), here at Rennsport you can see them in real life! Do you remember a driver you admired, if he was driving a Porsche, chances are that he’s going to be here and you will be able to meet him (or her)!
Day 1: Thursday
It was a relatively cool day, the fog never lifted from the track. From the entrance of the raceway where a 919 Le Mans was on display to the corral parking, I already knew it was going to be great. Then I stepped out of my car and you hear racing cars on Turn 2, you start to smell racing gas, and you can only see amazing cars parked next to each other. Like a kid, you want to rush near the track to see what is there. There was never a dull moment, I saw 959, 993, 904, 917, 505, 356, GT1 and many others Porsche models, some of them I have never seen in person.
The walk from the corral makes you go thru the PCA tent on Cayman Island or thru the vendors. It’s hard not to stop at every booth and talk with the people, learning what they do, why they do it. So many great life stories all centered around the Porsche cars.
Later on that day, Porsche showed us a concept Speedster 911 (that was just changed to be a real model in 2019) and the ultra slick new 935, in case you found the 911 GT2 RS to be too tame. That level of performance is not cheap. I spend a lot of time in the historic tent sponsored by Chopard. I can not remember all the cars on display, it was truly amazing. You can really admire any car, almost touch them. Among my favorite, the Type 64 in black, the 959 Paris Dakar, 917 Gulf.
After that it was time to go but not without a last set of images, shooting the 917s going around the track.
Day 2: Friday
The fog was low when I got to the track. As soon as I parked, I heard a lonely race car on the track. I came close to the track and saw for the first time, the 919 Evo at speed. This car is really fast and so quiet compared to older cars. As soon as the exhibition laps for the 919 were done, a bunch of RS Spyders, GT1 went on the track. I can not imagine how much fun it must be to drive one of these cars around the track.
We spent a good portion of our afternoon walking among the vendors and seeing amazing things (entire carbon fiber 911 body anyone, singer 911)
In the evening, Porsche offers us a free concert with a free, awesome concert with Seal, Alison Mosshart, Perry Farrell or Bob Weir. Surprisedly, very few people stayed for the concert so we had a great time.
Day 3: Saturday
Next day, I got there and my goal was to get more photographs of the 911 RSR in the corkscrew. I made this composite image showing the actual path of the car. This car is so low that at some point, it’s actually sliding on the underside of the car.
Then the tractor race happened! It was by far the funniest race of the weekend. Porsche made 125,000 diesel powered tractor from 1956 and 1963. There are not rare but in the US, only 1,000 were sold. To be all inclusive, this year Porsche included two Porsche tractor races. It was by far the slowest race but so much fun (see pictures).