JUST IN TIME
Stephan Szantai rushes round the busy All Porsche Weekend
It all started back in the 1980s, when a group of friends decided to launch a Porsche and VW event with a twist. Rather than being dedicated to the cars themselves, its original purpose was to gather the fans of literature and toys – and so was born the aptly called LA Literature & Toy Show. Fast forward to 2020, when the 37th annual gettogether welcomed over 300 vendors, selling books, brochures, magazines and toys. Folks also bring items small enough to fit on a table, from high-performance parts to vintage accessories, typically Porsche related, but with a few air-cooled Volkswagen goodies thrown in for good measure.
As the meet grew through the decades, it inspired other enthusiasts to bring their own Porsche-oriented event to the mix, during the same weekend. Some might remember the
Dunkel Brothers Show in particular, a memorable affair held for a few years until being sadly terminated in 2004. Other gatherings came and went over time; yet, the whole weekend has now reached new heights with the 2020 festivities involving over 20 stops!
Considering the size of Los Angeles and its surrounding area, visiting each and every get-together proves impossible, but Classic Porsche still managed to squeeze in a dozen of them over three days. Incidentally, out-of-towners can join daily tours covering many destinations from Thursday until Sunday, a great idea if you don’t want to lose your temper in LA’S hectic traffic.
Our own journey began on Friday morning, with three stops in the city of Torrance, near LAX (LA’S international airport). They included the studio/shop of Nicolas Hunziker, a talented artist we presented in issue #63, along with Klasse 356, Nicolas’s neighbour specialising in 356s as you probably gathered. A few miles away resides Callas Rennsport, which regularly maintains rare racing Porsches and 959s in particular, as explained in our profile in issue #44.
More visits followed after noon. Porsche South Bay, one
of the nine US dealerships elected as a Porsche Classic Partner, had a fantastic display of vintage Porsches in its spotless showroom. Next came Willhoit Auto Restoration in Long Beach, a large shop founded in 1976 specialising in aircooled Porsches (see issue #36). Another 30-minute drive led us to Pelican Parts (issue #46), which gave us the opportunity to see the back room housing the collection of Wayne Dempsey, co-founder of the company with Tom
Gould. Fun times, great people, awesome cars…and tasty food, as the hosts of the six above-mentioned Open Houses each had catered meals and/or snacks for the crowd.
Presented by the renowned Stoddard NLA LLC, the LA Literature & Toy Show held on Saturday morning obviously remains one of the weekend’s pièce-de-résistance. Two large ballrooms at the LAX Hilton Hotel gathered together every conceivable collectible items, from 1950s issues of
Panorama magazine to a selection of restored steering wheels offered by Ritchie King at Karmann Konnection. Among the most fascinating pieces, we should mention the new Carrera-style engine brought by Classic Parts Gmbh
from Germany. It could be yours for just $225,000.
After a few hours perusing the contents of hundreds of tables, we zoomed towards Orange County to visit more shops, located almost walking distances from each other: Carparc USA (issue #59), European Collectibles (issue #53), followed by Liberty Motorsports. Timing didn’t allow us to swing by other shops such as Emory Motorsports in North Hollywood, though Rod Emory confirmed that he welcomed a staggering 3000 visitors during the day.
Sunday’s All Porsche Swap & Car Display was another very well attended event, though threat of rain led some enthusiasts to keep their classic cars dry in the garage. They missed out on a great happening, hosted by the 356 Club – 2020 marked the ninth consecutive year the club has produced this annual meet. As a side note, ownership of a 356 is not required to join the group (dues are just $35 per year – see 356club.org).
The show takes place at the Phoenix Club, a cultural centre dedicated to the German community, featuring a restaurant, bar and the Festhalle, a tent covering over 11,000 square-feet. It houses professional exhibitors such as Stoddard, although participants are welcome to buy, sell or display Porsche-related parts in the swap meet/auto jumble – a total of 137 swappers joined in this year.
Numerous well-known figures from the Porsche scene, such as Patrick Long and Magnus Walker, came to enjoy the
day. The large grassy field gathered an excellent mix of vehicles, mostly vintage, although 356s totalling about 50 had their own corner; so did the 912s, thanks in part to the 912 Registry’s involvement. It was great to see John Benton and his stout 912 in particular. Benton Performance (see issue #56) suffered a fire, which destroyed tons of rare parts and several cars back in October. But with help from the Porsche community, John and his crew were able to open a new building in February.
Michael Puldy, the President of the 356 Club, adds: ‘There are a lot of moving parts that all have to come together to pull together this event. The Phoenix Club in Anaheim is what everyone sees, but we also work with the City of Anaheim to secure adjacent parking, fire permits, and police coverage.’ Note that the 356 Club is planning to organise its annual concours in Orange, California, on 19 July this summer – over 135 Porsche 356s participated in 2019.
As far as the All Porsche Weekend is concerned, entertainments will spread from Thursday 4 March until Sunday 7 March in 2021. Don’t miss them if you’re in town! Log on to lalitandtoyshow.com for further information.