Sideshows...

...that made the days a bit more interesting.

I have long known that many car people are fanatical about their favorite makes. With the possible exception of Ferrari fans, Porsche owners are perhaps the most, well, devoted to every detail, every trinket and item that carries the Magic Name.

Those of us who were there at the company's invitation were given passes and enameled pins to allow us into various restricted places and events. These were combined on a pass-holder attached to a lanyard with "Porsche" printed on it...



...and I was accosted (as were several others) repeatedly over the weekend by fans who oohed and aahed and offered money for these items. It is whispered that these and similar goodies eventually will appear on eBay. Not mine. I save them, along with similar goodies from many of the events I've attended over the years. Or I simply hand them out as gifts at appropriate times.

Likewise, we were given these nifty caps...



...which made us targets identified us as judges in the Saturday-evening concours d'elegance, which is a fancy French way of saying "car show." Most of you know I've done that before, but never in an exclusively-Porsche environment...



What put me off at first was being assigned to judge a group consisting solely of Type 956 and 962 race cars. I know little about these machines, which were considered Porsche's most successful racers of all time (the 962 was a modified 956), being consistent winners from 1982 through the early 1990s...



...but I need not have worried. Each class had a "Class Judge" who was in charge of our search for the most original* example, which then received a beautiful trophy. Ours was an affable German who, I guessed, was one of those people who has devoted far too much time to studying these cars out of sheer passion.

Wrong. My first question about something out-of-the-ordinary brought a response that began with "when we were assembling these at the factory..." So it became a case of "ask the man who worked on design, development and the final build process." By the time we were through, I felt I could write a book about 956s and 962s....

Next: more interesting cars...what else?



* Few, if any, racers are "original" after their first race. Some are modified almost beyond recognition during their on-track careers.