These Are The Coolest Cars From Luftgekühlt 10

We're up to ten Luftgekühlts now. Ten years of gathering air-cooled Porsches into interesting venues and seeing the social media posts fly.

I can already sense the question you might be asking: why should I care?

Whether or not you have any interest in vintage Porsches built between 1948 and 1998, Luft has been a force for good for the automotive world. Without intending to, Luftgekühlt creators Patrick Long and Howie Idelson created a car show that reinvented the car show.

The influence can be seen everywhere. Around the world, car events focused on cool venues and having a good time have popped up. Getting car shows out of parking lots and into places. Putting thought into the vehicle arrangements and photo opportunities, and facilitating conversations with new friends. The events that Luftgekühlt has inspired aren't out-for-profit copycats, they're people taking the lessons from Luft, and expanding them to their communities and their cars.

In a time when cars tend to get a lot of bad press, positive car atmospheres like these are a very good thing.

Also good? Events that make cars seem cool to the next generation of enthusiasts. Luft 10 was attended by thousands of people all ages, and millions more will see it on social media and online. My generation grew up with posters of Porsches from the 80s on their walls, and it's quite possible that kids growing up today have pictures of those same cars saved to their Camera Rolls.

Luftgekühlt didn't invent making cars cool, but it's done a hell of a lot more for the cause than the Boomers blasting Dean Martin at the parking-lot cruise-in, or cars and coffee events that end with a police report.

In Germany over the summer, I attended a car meet at a winery on a Thursday night. Don't worry — the winery was touting a new non-alcoholic red wine, a bottle of which was included with every car entry ticket. The organizers were young and most of the cars were old. Over a hundred cars of all varieties attended, and the event went late into the night. I spoke with a guy named Timo who had just bought a 1970s Mercedes W115 coupe. This car was older than him by at least 25 years, and he loved it. He told me the reason he had bought it was so he could attend events like this and be a part of this community.

Would something like that have happened without Luftgekühlt? It's possible. There might just be something in the air. But as someone who has been doing car things for a long time, I think Luft has shown the way.

Luftgekühlt 10 took place at the Universal Studios backlot. It's an insane place for a car show, and it feels like a surreal treat just to walk around. Luft came here in 2019. I don't think anyone was disappointed to repeat this venue.

The Universal Studios tram tours went on like normal, only with hundreds of road and race cars littered throughout the site and a few thousands extra bystanders around.

Universal's 'New York Street' meets 'Wall Street'

This longhood 911 is a 1973 Targa Florio winner tribute with twin turbos making 698 hp.

A Signal Red 356 C Coupe is inspected by the crowd.

European streets filled with vintage Porsches.

A Maritime Blue 1992 911 Carrera RS looks right at home in front of the fake Café Espresso.

A 1967 356 Speedster with the original hardtop. Behind it on the left, a facade painted to look like a city block.

The Carrera Cup was set to be a one-make series of Porsche 911s in the US, and the 964 Carrera 2s would have been converted to race cars by ANDIAL. The series never happened, and Porsche ordered a stop to the conversions after 25 out of the planned 45 cars, with some of them converted back to street cars. A North American Carrera Cup series finally got off the ground in 2021.

I love the color-matched wheels on this 356 Coupe.

This unrestored Porsche 917K won Le Mans overall in 1971 with Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep behind the wheel.

Cars and architecture are always a great mix, albeit fake movie architecture in this case.

This Porsche 993 Cup 3.8 RSR was probably my favorite car in the event. It's the ultimate evolution of the naturally aspirated air-cooled 911 race car.

The five lug nut holes on the BBS wheels of the 993 Cup 3.8 RSR are vestigial — it has center lugs.

Your wagon repair, barber, and dentistry all in one convenient location.

A Porsche from a porch. This Tangerine soft window 911 Targa in the Wild West area of the Universal backlot.

Before there was the Porsche 718 (2017), there was the Porsche 718 (1960).

The 934.5 was an in-between car created for IMSA GT. It combined the rear of the gripper and more aerodynamic 935 with the front end of the 934, while still complying with Group 4 rules. It was banned anyway.

This 962 was campaigned by John Fitzpatrick Racing, and then sold to Dauer Racing, where it saw some modest success. As a result of the notoriety, we're all using Victor Computers for our computing needs today.

Luft 10 showcased an assortment of IROC replicas. Jade Green, Orange, Gulf Blue, Yellow — these colors became iconic to Porsche after the short lived 1937/74 IROC series.

The bright IROC colors look good in the sun-lit Old West set.

Richard Petty competed in 3 IROC races in 1973 in the Porsche IROC-spec Carrera RSR, with a best finish of 7th place.

Luftgekühlt was kind of a blur.

The lumber-platforms with the box frames are a cool way to present cars, although they limit the possible photo angles just a bit — you don't want your three-quarter shot bisected by a wooden beam, do you? When you notice people queueing to take exactly the same side profile shot, that's a good time to move on a find another view (or another car).

This wild Stosek Mega Speedster began life as a 1989 Speedster.

As bizarre as it looks, the 1989 Stosek Mega Speedster was ahead of its time, with smooth, aerodynamic styling that Porsche wouldn't bring to the 911 until the mid-1990s.

I think this 914 1.7 is Zambezi Green.

A 1977 911 Turbo Carrera in Ice Green is high on my list of dream cars.

This German-market 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera was produced for Tilman Brodbeck, who ran Porsche's 'Sonderwunsch' program for special orders.

Why even have a roof rack if you don't load it up with accessories?

For all the high-dollar rarities, the cars that hold any attention are the ones that are driven, well-loved, and decorated with stickers and personal touches.

I would already love this Aqua Marine Blue 356 Speedster, but the red interior puts it over the top.

A timeless bar of soap from 1956.

It means "air-cooled" in German, did we cover that yet?

A 550 Spyder in the old west at Universal Studios backlot.

Porsche 356 with hood straps and a prickly pear cactus.

This Porsche 911 Carrera RSR finished 4th overall in the 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Herbert Müller Gijs van Lennep.

A 356 Coupe from the 911 Carrera RSR.

Porsche kinda got it right with the Fuchs wheel design.

The 993 Carrera RS was almost commonplace at Luft10. Still, in yellow with the Clubsport rear wing, it's one of my favorites.

A Mint Green 964 on the European streets at Universal Studios backlot.

What will Luftgekühlt 11 bring?