Just sorting out the cars we have lined up in California and starting to knock some kind of schedule together.
I am so excited about this trip. I keep telling people it could be a life changing experience – not sure anyone is paying attention but really, this is a big deal. Our first incursion early this year went ballistically wrong (logistically speaking) from start to finish, but our one day of work was still one of the best days in my history, so two weeks could actually cause some sort of organ failure from excess emotional highs. If I go while out there, you know I went happy. Not sure what I mean? Just look at this shot of Jamie’s from earlier in the year:
The current list of cars is great and this is without massive R Gruppe content – think we are only shooting one early car (albeit an epic one). There’ll be plenty of time for more trips and more cars; I have already started outlining the next US visit (in 2010) and some of our other excursions for next year.
This time around, we are not just shooting Porsches. One assignment is for one of the big UK classic mags and features proper mesospheric US muscle: low miles, mint and an owner who knows every nut and bolt of what he has. That should be a very special day. There is also the chance of shooting for a US-iron enthusiast mag here, which I am pretty thrilled about.
We are also hooking up with one or two California hybrids. No, not Prius or Lexus, but Porsches with V8s, something I have always liked the sound of. The cars are not for Porsche mags either which is doubly exciting. Some classic Japanese street machines in the mix somewhere – all good stuff as I have always been an old-school Datsun and Toyota kid.
But of course, the main focus of the trip is the stuff we all love, and that is classic Porsche. I’ll be bringing back some really crazy articles on Porsche old and not so old, guaranteed. I’m also taking delivery of my new SC, the Varmint – which has just come back from John Holleran’s Porsche shop – and rounding up some of my latest Pelican used parts purchases, then shipping the lot home. Another first and potentially the start of something else entirely.
Looking forward to meeting a few of our favourite US Porsche ‘names’ as well, which promises to be another really interesting angle to the trip. I’ll be blogging all this stuff as it happens, so make sure to keep watching this space.
