After the longest flight of my life over a Saturday night, I arrived in Kirkland Washington for the 8th annual Concours de Elegance. This event is growing rapidly in popularity because of the quality of the cars and the people.  The Kirkland has become a “must do” on my calendar for those reasons plus perfect weather (again), a splendid turnout of Porsche Club cars, and the other iconic iron on display.

On my way-too-early 8:00 am cab ride over to the event, the sun was shining and there was a bracing chill in the air.  My large cup of Starbucks helped put an edge on after the red-eye overnight flight.  I arrived at the Kirkland in the worst looking, most beat-up yellow cab this side of Hollywood.  An attempt by the cab driver to let me out discretely failed.

Embarrassingly dumped right at ground zero, the entrance to the Kirkland nonetheless warmed my heart for there was “Pea Pod.”   Pea Pod is the 1959 Convertible D that we restored for Seattle’s Bob McDowell; it won Division honors and a Zuffenhausen Medal (295.1 points out a possible 300) at the 2009 Porsche Parade in Keystone CO, and I had not seen her since.  Here she was, featured right at the entrance along with a new 997 Turbo.

The PCA Porsche corral was my next stop and what an excellent sight: over 100 Porsches arrayed chronologically.  The variety of cars in the corral was impressive, ranging  from 356’s to some terrific early 911s to some lovely later Porsches to outlaws and modifieds.  If it came from Zuffenhausen, there was one of them here.  Dennis Rude rallied the troops to pull off another great display of special Porsches.

My bottom line is that if you love Porsches, I highly recommend you put this event on your to-attend list.

Oh yes!  Bob McDowell took top honors in the show with his 1959 Convertible D “Pea Pod.”  Two concours, two big victories.  Life is good.