The 7 Best Air-Cooled Porsches We Saw at Luftgekühlt
It’s been 10 years since Patrick Long, a multiple winner at Le Mans who spent nearly two decades as a Porsche factory racer, teamed up with creative director Howie Idelson to build what has become an automotive exhibition like no other. Not only are entrants limited to one manufacturer, but they are confined to a subset of that automaker’s legacy. Welcome to Luftgeku?hlt, a loving tribute to air-cooled Porsches.
For the 10th edition, which took place on October 5 at the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood, a vast assemblage of the German marque’s automobiles was staged across various movie-set backdrops, giving each car added gravitas.
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“This was by far the best spirit and energy I have felt from any show we have produced,” says Long, “Universal’s backlot is a special place, and we worked hard to curate the right storylines and visuals to create some movie magic.” As for what motivated him to launch such an endeavor in the first place, Long says it was about sharing. “This was just an idea I had after purchasing my first vintage 911; how to tell the entire story of “Aircooled” [“Luftgeku?hlt” in German] to my friends and family who weren’t part of the enthusiasm.” Long says that the attendance this time was the greatest to date, citing “people from 29 countries” viewing “400 cars from five decades of racing and street cars.”
Among those on hand was Porsche cognoscente Rory Ingram. “It’s such an esprit de corps of what the brand is,” says Ingram, who brought two rarified examples from his family’s renowned Ingram Collection. “I would have loved to come to the very first one.”
Racer and actor Patrick Dempsey, who was at the initial gathering in 2014, notes how Porsche has always had a “strong community,” but is quick to credit Long and current creative director—and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Champion—Jeff Zwart for this event’s exponential growth and success. “I think Patrick, his effort and his passion, mixed in with Jeff’s artistry and vision, I mean it’s a perfect combination,” says Dempsey, “and we all just want to get together because we have this shared passion . . . it’s a family, it really is.” Here, our favorite cars from the latest Luftgeku?hlt reunion.
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1986 Porsche 911 Targa Hybrid
Half a century before the likes of Singer Vehicle Design and Gunther Werks were using the Porsche 911 as their muse for creative automotive expression, Frankfurt-based B+B Auto Exklusive Service was offering stunning customizations in the mid-1970s. One of these was an example of the 911 Targa presented in collaboration with Polaroid and featuring the latter brand’s rainbow logo as bands accenting the car, which was displayed at a photography exhibition in 1976.
This 1986 Porsche 911 Targa Hybrid is a tribute to both that original Polaroid-inspired Porsche and B+B Auto as well. Carrying on the tradition is Beau Boeckmann, who has resurrected the custom house as bb Auto, now based in California. Beau and his team partnered with Galpin Motors for this 550 hp hybrid propelled by a 400 hp, 4.0-liter flat-six from the specialists at ED Pink. The mill is paired with a 150 hp electric motor provided by Vonnen Performance. The interior features an electric-blue color scheme for the upholstery and trim, a 9.2-inch infotainment screen on the passenger side, and a 660-watt Focal audio system. The vibrant handling characteristics are owed to what’s touted by bb Auto as “997 GT3–style suspension” working in complement with 18-inch Titan 7 wheels—dressed in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires—and six-piston Brembo brakes. The brilliance of the aesthetic approach is further illuminated with a glass panel serving as the targa roof. This rainbow is its own pot of gold.
1985 Porsche 962C
Successor to Porsche’s 956 sports prototype, the 962 was developed to be the next-gen endurance racer in the Group C class of the World Sportscar Championship and premiered in time for the 1985 season. The aluminum-monocoque racer featured a wheelbase that was 4.72 inches longer than the 956, and the new 962 was also equipped with the nascent PDK transmission. The 1,874-pound car was fit with a 3.0-liter, six-cylinder Boxer biturbo engine making about 690 hp.
The example on display, 962-112, was first campaigned by John Fitzpatrick Racing, starting its motorsport provenance at the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans, where, according to the records at racingsportscars.com, it didn’t qualify, although it returned to take tenth place overall at Le Mans the next year. It subsequently moved on to Dauer Racing followed by Dahmen Racing. The 962, in general, numbered 77 examples in total, with 15 being for Porsche’s own racing efforts.
1973 Porsche Carrera RSR R7
For the 1973 race season, Porsche had used its Carrera RS 2.7 as the inspiration for a track-only competitor that would, for the first time, be given the descriptor “RennSport RennWagen,” abbreviated to RSR. As an auspicious start, the race car finished first at its debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona, with Hurley Haywood and Peter Gregg taking turns behind the wheel.
As attendees of Luft 10 entered the backlot of Universal Studios, among the first cars to catch their eye and command their attention was the 1973 Porsche Carrera RSR designated “R7.” Fit with a 3.0-liter flat-six, it finished fourth at that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with Herbie Müller and Gijs van Lennep as its drivers. One of eight original Porsche works examples built, the car is among four extant, according to its lot description from Bonhams. It sold through the auction house for approximately $4 million in September of last year.
Porsche 930 Turbo as Reimagined by Singer Vehicle Design
Singer Vehicle Design has been innovatively reinterpreting the air-cooled 911 since 2009, continually raising the restomod bar for the countless other restoration houses attempting to replicate it success. In 2022, Singer introduced its Classic Turbo services, which transforms a donor example into what Singer’s founder Rob Dickinson calls “our interpretation of a perfect 930 Turbo . . . for many folks, this is the classic Porsche 911.”
Holding court in a courtyard devoted to Singer projects was an example of a reimagined 930 Turbo bodied in carbon fiber and presented in a mesmerizing Viola Metallic color scheme. The interior features Onyx Black leather and Ruby Alcantara. The rear-wheel-drive restomod makes 550 hp from its twin-turbo flat-six, output that’s managed by a six-speed manual transmission. As for the approach that Dickinson and his team take on a Classic Turbo treatment like this, he explains, “we try to understand what the essence of the car is, then edit out the things that aren’t so good and optimize the things that are great.”
1971 Porsche 917 K
The most iconic of all Porsche motorsport models, the 917 comprised 65 race cars configured as either a Kurzheck (K) or Langheck (LH), translated from German as “short tail” and “long tail,” respectively. The 917 K is responsible for garnering the marque its initial outright win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which it did in 1970. Of course, that was the year and race where filming for the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans fittingly took place, further immortalizing the model.
Wearing Martini Racing’s livery, chassis No. 019 was the star car inside Stage 34 at Universal Studios, where it was on loan from the Miles Collier Collections at Florida’s Revs Institute. In period, the 1,760-pound car, equipped with a 5.0-liter flat-12 that makes 600 hp, was in the thick of the fight for what was then called the International Championship for Makes. Yet although Porsche took that title in back-to-back years (1970 and ’71), chassis No. 019 never crossed the finish line at the 1970 season’s 24 Hours of Daytona, the 1000 km of Monza, and the 1000 km of Spa—all with Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep at the wheel. Those disappointing results in no way detracted from its winning presence at Luft.
1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS
Designed in 1963 by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, grandson to the marque’s founder, the 904 Carrera was the first Porsche to be given the Gran Turismo Sport (GTS) addition to its moniker, a testament to the model’s acumen as both a racer and tourer, as was its victory at the 1964 Targa Florio endurance race. “The 904 is [Porsche’s] first fiberglass-bodied car and really the pinnacle of the 356’s evolution in racing,” says Rory Ingram, who brought a stunning example from his family’s world-renowned Ingram Collection of Porsche cars.
As for this particular 904’s muscle, Ingram mentions that the car “is powered by the biggest displacement of the four-cam, four-cylinder engine” that was fit in the model. According to Porsche, there were 106 four-cylinder 904s built. When asked about the drive experience it offers, Ingram points out: “That fiberglass clamshell with the motor is right behind you, and again, that’s the most aggressive four-cam they made for the 904—driving at 60 mph is visceral.”
1963 Porsche 356B Cabriolet
The first model from Porsche, the 356 continued to be fine-tuned from the time it was introduced in 1948 until its fruition in 1965, with A, B, and C variants rolled out through that timeline. And while Luft had numerous examples of the progenitor for Porsche displayed throughout the sprawling exhibition space, a 356B Cabriolet drew some of the biggest crowds, not only for its distinctive styling but for its A-list owner.
“My car I bought when I was 18 or 19 years old,” says actor Patrick Dempsey about his first Porsche, which was part of watchmaker Tag Heuer‘s exclusive display. “I just finished Can’t Buy Me Love and put all my money in that [car]—I got it for $9,000 and I thought I was paying too much for it.” As for work he’s done on it, Dempsey says he has had to respray it once, and he has rebuilt the motor and redone the interior. “I used it as a daily driver for 20 years,” says Dempsey. “It still makes me happy every time I get in it.”
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