Rare and Preserved Porsches Shine at PCA Parade

The Porsche Club of America (PCA) occupies a deservedly exalted spot among the very best and most member-focused car clubs. Every year, chapters organize thousands of touring drivers, track days, local concours events, and other social opportunities. The ultimate example of these is the Porsche Parade,  which arrived in Birmingham, AL for 2024.

If you thought that the fiercest competition between Porsches happened on the Mulsanne Straight or on the high banks of Daytona, chances are that you’ve never been to the Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance. For more than six and a half decades, PCA members have been competing to bring the best Porsches possible to this marquee event. Just like at LeMans, there are different classes in which to compete. The Preparation Groups are basically “clean car” concours events where the victory goes to the most comprehensively prepped contenders. A repainted fender or aftermarket wheel won’t necessarily count against you in this class. Next up: Preservation Group, where “driver-grade” Porsches of 20 years’ age or more are judged based on their fidelity to their original specification and condition. Finally, we have Restoration Group, for rebuilt or restored cars. This year, 105 cars sought the top honors.

Within these classes, there are sub-classes for specific vehicle types and nameplates. For example, you might want to compete in “PP07S”, which judges exterior and interior condition for 996-generation and 997-generation Porsche 911s, or you could try “PP15T”, which extends the criteria to undercarriage condition and includes Cayenne, Macan, and Panamera models from 2012 to present.

This year’s Parade was held next to and inside Birmingham’s state-of-the-art Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, with many cars seeking early shade beneath the adjacent freeway overpass. An indoor section gave attendees a chance to look through a selection of Porsche-branded bikes from the past forty years, many of which are almost impossible to see anywhere else due to initial rarity and hard use.

Some of the most sought-after Porsches at the event included:

• An ex-Seinfeld Porsche 904, aka Carrera GTS. Serial number 904-060 scored an astounding 299.7 of 300 points to win the Restoration Group and a one-two punch of People’s Choice and Best of Show.
• Chip Perry’s 1956 356A Speedster was the undoubted superstar of Preservation. While the almost perfect originality and condition of the entire car had people talking, it was one feature that had both the guest judges and the pros ecstatic: the completely original top with a clear plastic rear window. It wasn’t common for these tops to survive even a few years in actual use, so to have a perfect example of one nearly seventy years after the fact made this more of a time machine than an actual automobile.
• Gunner Mench’s “Pink Pig” 944 Turbo, which features a livery paying tribute to a famous 917 race car of the early Seventies, has attended multiple Parades, and is always a crowd favorite for its novelty as well as the general quality of its condition and preparation.
• Grant Larson, the designer of the first-generation Porsche Boxster, brought a 1200-mile 1997-model-year example to take second place in class PP13T, which covers exterior and underbody preparation for 1997-2012 Boxsters and Caymans. It was one of just two first-generation Boxsters to place in the top nine and missed the top spot by just four-tenths of a point to the very special and rare 2011 Boxster Spyder entered by Douglas Gibbs.

A special Historical Display included such rarities as a four-speed grey-market 1985 911 Turbo in impeccable condition complete with low-hanging rear foglight, a stunning silver pre-”tea tray” Turbo Carrera with the early chrome headlight rings, and a near-perfect 1994 RS America brought by its original owner, who sourced it via European Delivery. Plenty of race cars were in attendance as well, including David Smith’s “MOMO/Penthouse” livery 935.

Perhaps the greatest illustration of the broad diversity in the Porsche concours community can be seen from looking at the overall winners of the two Preparation Groups. Prep Group 1, which is for older Porsches, was taken by the 1973 911S of John Weyrauch. This gorgeous bumperette-equipped, chrome-and-polished-aluminum-trimmed late “S” looked almost showroom new – but it was much older than the 2020 Macan of Jeff Jones, which won Preparation Group 2.

Of course, the Concours wasn’t the only competitive event at Porsche Parade. The nearby Barber Motorsports Park lent its unique and challenging autocross course for some friendly battle between Porsche owners who didn’t mind getting a few scratches and scuffs from the occasional struck traffic cone. The fastest time was set by a highly-modified 1972 914/6, while second-fastest was a 2002 911 Turbo. Not necessarily the order you’d expect, but autocross is a specialized discipline. And while you might guess in advance that the Porsche Macan would generally get the better of its larger Cayenne sibling on an autocross course, would you think that a Macan Turbo would finish comfortably ahead of about half the Cayman sports cars in the event?

Other competitive opportunities included time/speed/distance rallies, “gimmick” rallies where having fun was the primary objective, a golf tournament, and sim racing, but for plenty of Parade attendees, competition was completely beside the point. Enjoying everything from driving tours to (chauffered) whisky and brewery tours, PCA members partook in a wide variety of social and entertainment opportunities.

If you missed Porsche Parade 2024, you missed out – but the good news is that this once-in-a-lifetime-feeling event happens every year. Mark your calendars for July 6, 2025, when the Parade will arrive in Oklahoma City. Whether you want to prepare for the Concours, or just prepare to have a good time, it’s an event you won’t want to skip.