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Hurricane warnings delayed the start of Luftgekühlt 12 by several hours, but Porsche says about 8,000 fans still filled the Town at Trilith, south of Atlanta, to see roughly 300 air-cooled cars once the weather held off. It was the event's Atlanta debut, and the storm light made for some of the best photos of the weekend.
The headline theme was the Porsche 935 at 50. Three yellow cars raced by the Whittington brothers sat beside a Brumos 935, and the centerpiece was the 1979 Le Mans-winning 935-K3, driven by Don and Bill Whittington with Klaus Ludwig. It was the first rear-engined car to win Le Mans outright, and the Whittingtons bought Road Atlanta around the same time, which makes it a very Georgia kind of trophy.
Luft also marked 120 years of the Targa Florio and 70 years since Porsche's first overall win there in 1956. Four cars told that story: a 1959 718 RSK, the 1960 RS 60, a 1964 904 Carrera GTS and a 1971 908/3. Porsche has 11 wins in the race, and it inspired the 1965 911 Targa.
Two story cars stole the lawn. A Gulf-liveried 917K, rented for the filming of Le Mans with Steve McQueen and later shown by the Brumos Collection, brought the Hollywood. A 1957 356 A Outlaw brought the redemption arc: it was rebuilt from a rusted 356 found in a North Carolina store basement, sold unfinished in 2004, and resurfaced about 20 years later less than 4 km from its former owner's home.
Keen Project 911s, a 914, G-series and 993 911s, a 962 C and a Dauer 962 rounded out the field. Luftgekühlt began in 2014 as a Los Angeles parking-lot meet-up organized by Le Mans class winner Patrick Long and creative director Howie Idelson, and changes cities every year. Creative director Jeff Zwart's pitch is simple: "There are no barricades at the event."
