Final notes from Porsche Rennsport Reunion V [w/videos]

Wed, Sep 30 2015

Having spent three days with an intense Monterey sun above, a fleet of raucous, roaring racecars below, and a genuine library of hundreds of cars parked everywhere, Porsche Rennsport Reunion V can be summed up in one word: amazing. It's one thing to know today that Porsche is special because rich people buy them and collectors obsess over them. It's another thing to see and hear and feel and smell why Porsches are special, to experience what really makes a brand. Whenever auto writers use the word "pedigree" – usually in reference to brands that don't have it Â– this is what we mean. And we bathed in it for a weekend. Now we need to wash all of our clothes, because pedigree smells like race fuel.

Porsche used all of the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca pit garages to set up an excellent display of important Le Mans cars, from the 1958 718 RSK to the current 919 Hybrid. All but one were overall or class winners, and four consecutive pit boxes held cars that were all in the movie Le Mans: a 1969 910, a 1969 917K, a 1970 908 LH "Flunder" Spyder, and a 1971 917 LH. Outside the garage on its own plinth was a 1949 Gmund 356 SL, the first Porsche to win an international motorsports race when it took its 110cc class at Le Mans in 1951. Walking from 1958 to 1998 and having all that history in the metal behind you, you could see why Porsche wanted to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to return to Le Mans with the 919 Hybrid to protect its legacy.

Even with three full days we didn't get to see everything we wanted to see or talk to everyone we wanted to talk to. We could have spent days interviewing the Who's Who of racing drivers alone. But we did get to answer the questions you left for us in Comments after our 2017 911 Carrera ride-along:

RoninEdge: The engineers had left by the time we got your Boxster/Cayman engine question, and the only answer we could get after that was the official Porsche line: "We haven't released any information on any 2017 models other than the four already mentioned," the 911 Carrera and Carrera S in coupe and cabriolet trims.
Ferps: Posche North America decided to take the Targa off the website, but you can still buy 2016 models and there are still Targas on dealer lots. The 991.2 Targa hasn't been revealed yet.
JohnnyHedwardsJr: We couldn't review the 911 GTS Rennsport Reunion Edition, but there is a gallery of live images below. Porsche is only making 25, and every one of them is spoken for.
Ade: There are three exhaust pipe configurations on the 2017 911: the base model has the trapezoidal-like finishers at the corners, the standard Carrera S gets quad pipes (two-up at the corners), and the optional sport exhaust has two pipes pushed toward center.

When Rennsport Reunion VI comes around, there's a good chance you'll find us there. Until then, enjoy the videos below that explain the event and show off some cars, and the galleries of racing, the captioned gallery of Le Mans cars, and the 911 GTS Rennsport Reunion Edition.

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Featured Gallery Porsche Le Mans Cars

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Related Gallery Porsche Rennsport Reunion Racing

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Related Gallery 2015 Porsche 911 GTS Rennsport Reunion Edition

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By Jonathon Ramsey