2019 Porsche Parade National Concours at Boca Raton – A Phoenix Story Win

[Zedone]

We have been celebrating our first early Porsche 911 experience as a family since 2005 as a daily driver then when it became more valuable as a tourer and rally driver. Our competitive nature then emerged and we eventually learned to show the car in a national Concours setting. Our journey began in 2013 at the Porsche Parade in Traverse City, Michigan, a short 4-hour drive from our home. We had no idea what we were doing and were woefully unprepared to compete at the national level, even arriving without a vacuum. But we still managed to place 2nd in Preparation Street Class. Humbled and encouraged, the following year we had the privilege of entering the beautiful custom blue 1971 911 coupe in the 2015 Porsche Parade Concours at French Lick, Indiana and were asked to represent the year 1971 in the 60 years of Porsche display. We were better this time out and succeeded in taking the 1st place award in Preparation Street Class. Experience and failure are helpful. But so is teamwork. God bless my millennial Porsche fanatics, Steve and Mariah.

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...ghlight=Zedone

However, our love and enjoyment of that car was short lived as fate took the car away in a devastating house fire 8 months later. I can honestly say it is possible to experience post-Porsche PTSD. I hope you never contract this condition. But we never quit and constantly dream Porsche. And dreams do come true.

[Zedone]

Fast forward 1 ½ years and after much searching while rebuilding a house we found another blue car, a July 1971 build 911T coupe, this time in metallic blue advertised by CPR. We purchased it sight unseen with the intent of proving that we could come back from tragedy and work as a family toward another national award. The car was a very good substrate restored some years back but required much work to come up to a competitive Concours presentation as our desire was to move up a class in difficulty by presenting show quality trunk and engine compartments.

And that is what we did for the next 2 years, sourcing many original parts from around the world and sending parts for restoration to some of you on this Registry. Our thanks go to Brian Doherty and Bob Lee of CPR, Frank Beck of Beck’s European, Rick Harbrodt of Fuchs Restoration, John Audette of the Audette Collection, Rod Klingelhofer of Hof Designs and my good friend and master mechanic, Tim Pott and his circle of master painter, plater, and new part creators. This was an intense and focused labor of love but it also was the prescription that satisfied our longstanding underlying OCD condition.

Fast forward to July 2019. Fortunately, youth envisions 1300 miles of trailering as adventure and the millennial males of the team, Steve and Matt, arrived in Boca Raton, all upbeat and ready to rock and roll. Females are truly smarter than men so this mature male flew down with Mariah, the intelligent team member.

YouTube Video- https://youtu.be/KAe3r8cnL1o

[Zedone]

Although the name Boca Raton translates from the Spanish to Rat’s Mouth, the experience in July was more like God’s Humid Hell especially after 2 ½ days of deep car preparation in a dimly lit garage structure. But with a ratio of 4 humans to 1 car, we prevailed by early Sunday to enjoy some spare time before the tension-filled thought of staging for the final exam on the golf course of The Boca Raton Waldorf Resort at 7am the next morning.

[Zedone]

But not before we ran out to purchase a gas can to put 2 more gallons of fuel in the car as this skipped our minds back home with our preoccupation with “clean and presentable”. The analogous high school nightmare of failing to show up for the final exam seems to be a common one.

[Zedone]

Monday could not arrive soon enough as we were up by 4am to be prepared to stage by 7am joining a line of 10 early 911s and some 100 more Porsches, some of whom began at 5:30am as we drove along the golf course’s paved pathways to be strung equidistant along the wet grass of the 18th and 10th fairways.

[Zedone]

Three cars would be in our competition class, one of which we saw for the first time on the grass. This struck us with terror as it appeared to be a very fine recently restored 1967 911S. So, like most irrational fears we ignored it and took to the final wipe down and cleaning of newly dirty pedals, exhaust tip, air intake, etc. Note the white gloves. What can I say except OCD is either a dominant trait or a contagion.

[Zedone]

By 8:30am it was all rags down, the field announcer declared the Concours to begin and asked the judges to start the inspection process. We were the 1st car to be judged in our class by a team of 4 judges expert in the nuances of early 911 cars and that includes the proper color of the fuel tank. After a brief introduction around our car of all by the chief judge we related our story with this car, then opened access to all compartments and stood back while they did their careful inspections of everything but the undercarriage. This consumed the longest 5 minutes you will ever experience. This is some of what they saw.

[Zedone]

By 1pm the announcer declared that the judges’ decisions were posted for our early 911 Preparation Touring Class and we left the shade we had sought in refuge from the stifling heat to scamper across the grass to anxiously view the board.

Amazingly we gazed at victory by judge’s tie-breaker! And not with the white 1967 911S we had feared but a modified sepia brown 1973 Targa. But wait, like all good students we obtained our score sheets so we could learn from all this hard work and try to improve next time.


Remember I just told you that females are smart. A brief review of the individual pages indicated that the interior score, the personal mission of our gal, had a mere 0.1-point deduction. Yet that superb interior score that was transposed to the top summary sheet was inaccurate and our actual score was higher by 0.9 points. So, we actually took 1st place outright and we had the distinction of the highest Preparation Touring score of all cars on the green that day. Now that’s presentable and clean!

[Zedone]

The process for awards was a tad prolonged in the very hot Boca sun as they lined up 1st place winners by classes. This is especially uncomfortable in a car without air conditioning and with carburetors that might experience vapor-lock on repeated re-start. Fortunately, the latter did not occur and we had sufficient fuel as we waited over 40 minutes on line in the blazing sun. It was like a Turkish sauna in the early 911 but being blessed with a loving son, I did experience some umbrella shade on the path to the award circle.

[Zedone]

PCA President Tom Gorsuch graciously gave me the opportunity to speak and acknowledge our awesome team of 3 fine millennial Porschephiles in this win. Like most significant endeavors in life, this success was derived from a team effort and no matter the outcome we are all richer for having competed together and with many good new friendships. For the 4 of us, we are changed and even closer as a family. We thank the Porsche Club of America for giving us this opportunity through a shared passion for the marque.

YouTube video https://youtu.be/xpDQDSkZ7Z4