Harpers Porsche in Knoxville hosted a curated car show yesterday at a fancy new venue called The Quarry. This kind of thing seems to be getting a little more common among Porsche people, mostly because of Luft and its offshoots, and I suppose the dealer group decided to make its own mini version and called it Porsche Platica. Though mini isn't quite the right word to describe it. The event was huge.
General parking was about a mile away, and they shuttled you to the event in a variety of Porsches - mostly Macans, Cayennes, and Taycans, though there was also this gem here:
They dropped you off at the main entrance, which also was the location of the Porsche-only parking section. If you had a Porsche, and they had any space (apparently the Porsche lot filled up in 13 minutes when the gates opened), then you could park at the main entrance and skip the shuttles. As a result, the parking lot was as good as any one-make car show I've ever seen.
Porsche is very good at this sort of thing.
Indeed. Fantastic presentation. Expect more on Classic Motorsports. One of us might have been there. ;-)
When you got out of the shuttle they gave you a map, which also served as your free margarita ticket at the other end of the show. You then walked through a small building with the dealership's Porsche Restoration Challenge project and went up a path to the first set of cars.
The path then took you to the quarry section itself:
The venue was amazing.
As you approached the end, the path opened up into a beautiful barn and patio with a lovely gorge off to the side, and some of the most important cars of the brand ahead.
I had never seen a Carrera GT in person before. It's amazing how current the styling looks 20 years later.
The 918 was stunning too.
And finally, I thought this one fit in well with GRM's sensibilities:
In reply to J.A. Ackley :
I was expecting at least one person from this group to be there :)
I ended up spending about 2 hours there, thoroughly enjoying myself the whole time. After I got to the end, I got my free margarita and walked the whole thing again. It was by far the coolest car show I have attended, even though there were only about 25 cars total.
Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing the pictures.
I'm not a Porsche guy. But that looks like a great way to spend the afternoon.
In reply to Appleseed :
It really was, and as a bonus it was all completely free.
Thats beautiful. What city/town is this? two thumbs up for the k-swapped 911. I'm surprised they let that in!
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
About 30 minutes outside of Knoxville, TN.
Let us know if this become an anual event -- sounds like it would be worth the drive.
I used to be a Concourse judge for plastic Porsches but, now, I just can't stand that croud. Still love the cars, just not the people. PCA people used to be really cool and the majority down to earth. Now it's just wannabes, mostly.
In reply to nderwater :
I briefly spoke to the wife of the dealership's general manager and she was unsure what exactly the future of the event would be, whether it would be biannual or something else. It was very popular though, so hopefully that bodes well for the future.
That looks very cool, the venue def takes it up a notch.
Docwemple said:
I used to be a Concourse judge for plastic Porsches but, now, I just can't stand that croud. Still love the cars, just not the people. PCA people used to be really cool and the majority down to earth. Now it's just wannabes, mostly.
To each his own I guess, but I've definitely observed this change too. The PCA swap meet in Hershey used to be a real swap meet - ppl searching for some obscure wiring loom or light bezel or whatever they needed to get their car running again, with a few vendors selling shiny bits to keep the wives and kiddos interested. Now the number of "hunt through bins of used parts" vendors goes down every year, and the t-shirt and model vendor numbers keep going up.
