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Luftgekuhlt is an incredible car show for air-cooled Porsches

Air-cooled Porsches: Three lousy words and four lousy syllables. String them together and you get an expensive, emotive cocktail. If you've always wanted to own one, you know that truth, as prices of vintage 356s, 911s, and even 914s have risen steadily and then recently, skyrocketed. That change in the economics of cars once considered workhorses has altered the zeitgeist around what Porsche means to different generations of fans. Back in the day, Porsche didn't strive to be as expensive or as untouchable as Ferrari's metal. As a result, you typically find Porsche owners able — and willing — to twist wrenches on their machines. For one thing, air-cooled cars from Zuffenhausen were relatively easy to maintain and drive in all four seasons. They weren't show ponies. But when cars become collectibles, the scene around them changes, and Porsche FIA World Endurance Championship racer Patrick Long and his longtime pal, designer Howie Idelson, were, as Long put it, sick of meets "at golf courses where you have to worry if your shoes match your pants." Long mixes fine in that world. He's the only American on Porsche's factory team and he's won in everything from ALMS to GT to Baja. That tends to put your loafers at plenty of tony cocktail parties. But Long and Idelson, both SoCal natives who met as kids racing karts, wanted to make something of the air-cooled Porsche car culture, not of the collecting culture. Hence the birth, less than three years ago, of Luftgeku hlt. "It's literally 'air-cooled' in German but has that nerdish, Instagram picture-trading offshoot of a kind of Porsche cult," Long says, noting he's less interested in defining the brand that now sells t-shirts and posters and more interested in keeping things loose. View 63 Photos "We had cars with original paint from guys who work their hands 'til they're bloody and we had 200 of the most collectible cars." As such, he was still floored by the recently convened Luftgekuhlt 3, the third party he and Idelson have put on and by far the largest. It was held in the shadow of the L.A. skyline at the headquarters of Modernica furniture. More than 400 air-cooled Porsches and their owners convened. The location was no afterthought. "We wanted people to come for the cars and then be blown away by the venue: It has to be interesting. It has to attract different kinds of people." To spur that, Long doesn't adhere to the strict fealty of precision that's a default at most collector rallies.

Magnus Walker drives 911 Turbos old and new

It's been forty years now since Porsche released the original 911 Turbo. And as many things that have remained a constant, a lot has changed, too: the engine has gone from air-cooled to liquid, moved up to nearly a midships layout, and drives almost exactly double the original's output to all four wheels instead of just the back set through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission instead of a five-speed manual. It'll also reach highway speeds about twice as fast as the original. That's progress for you, and who better to compare Porsche Turbos old and new than Magnus Walker. The outlaw of the 911 scene may not look the part, but to those in the know, he's got the last word when it comes to Porsches. After searching for some time, Walker recently got his hands on a cherry of an original 930 Turbo from 1975 – the first year it was made – and had it shipped from Australia to California to add to his collection. eGarage caught up with Walker and brought along a new 991 Turbo for juxtaposition. Fortunately it also brought along a video camera or two to document the experience, so check it out in the latest video above.

Automakers paying Chinese dealers for lower-than-expected sales

The Chinese dealers vs. foreign manufacturers story won't quit. It began with a story on the struggles faced by FAW-Toyota joint venture dealers, with supposedly 95 percent of the showrooms losing money, and 10 percent of them doing so poorly that they'd have to exit the business. The problem is mandated sales targets, most set when the country's economy was racing. Now that things have slowed, China's dealers are swimming in unsold cars and the costs to keep them. In the case of FAW-Toyota, dealers asked Toyota to hand over 2.2 billion yuan ($355 million) to help address the situation. That was followed by a report noting the issues that Honda, BMW, and Nissan dealers are having with the same issue, revealing that the Chinese Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) had taken the highly unusual step of writing to the Chinese government to complain. Now Reuters reports that CADA is not only pressing its case even harder, it's being open about it: it announced that BMW agreed to pay dealers 5.1 billion yuan ($820 million) to alleviate poor profits last year. Unnamed sources said Audi has thrown 2 billion yuan into the kitty for subsidies, and Daimler has contributed "about 1 billion yuan" to its dealers. The battle isn't just about 2014, but how business will be run in 2015 as well: Chinese Porsche dealers have requested the automaker lower its 2015 target of 64,000 cars, which would be a 40-percent increase on its 2014 sales of 46,931 vehicles. One analyst called it "shocking" that the CADA has taken its fight public, while CADA comments continue to imply that dealers have been railroaded to the cliff's edge without recourse. "Due to the difference in status," it's deputy secretary said, "individual dealers are not willing to, or don't dare to, talk frankly with the carmakers...." Both parties need one another, so they'll figure out a way to make it work – but that could mean acknowledging the Chinese market is behaving more like a mature one, not an emerging one. News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Earnings/Financials Audi BMW Porsche Toyota Car Dealers Luxury