Luftgekühlt 9 - Air | Water
911 Whale Tails & Other Spoilers

Luftgekühlt 9 and Air | Water unfolded over April 29–30, 2023, at Mare Island, the historic naval base in Vallejo, just north of San Francisco. The location holds a particular significance for me, as my grandfather worked in this shipyard during World War II. The setting's brick, cranes, and dry docks framed a rare cross-section of Porsche history: more than 1,000 cars and 12,000 guests across the weekend. Saturday centered on the air-cooled 911 legacy—especially the G-model in its 60th year—while Sunday expanded into Air | Water, connecting eras and build styles in one narrative space. The curation was cinematic, turning an industrial shipyard into a gallery where patina, provenance, and personality shared the same passion.

This photo gallery pays homage to all rear spoilers, from iconic whale tails to ducktails, and everything in between and beyond. I traced the lineage from classic ducktail tributes to broad tea-tray Turbo profiles, noting how each contour balances cooling and downforce. Narrow-bodied hot rods wore subtle lips; period-correct 930s parked their hardware proudly under towering lids. Water-cooled GT cars added swan-neck wings, proof that function still shapes Porsche's silhouette. In Mare Island's wind and rusted steel, these spoilers read like punctuation—each one altering the 911's stance and intent.

Luftgekühlt originated in 2014, when racer Patrick Long and creative director Howie Idelson hosted a small gathering of air-cooled Porsches in the parking lot at Deus Ex Machina in Venice, California. The name means "air-cooled", but the idea was bigger: curate cars like art, stage them in character-rich spaces, and invite a community to mingle stories with machinery. From that intimate start, the event scaled into a roving exhibition with hyper-considered placement, distinctive branding, and an inclusive spirit that welcomes purists and outliers alike. It is really something special, everyone across the spectrum coming together to celebrate a shared love for Porsche's heritage, old and new.