Werks Reunion Monterey 2023
Monterey Car Week

August 18, 2023

  • Werks Reunion Monterey 2023 unfolded on Friday, August 18, at Monterey Pines Golf Course, during Monterey Car Week—fairways by the airport turned into a Porsche city. From dawn, 701 Porsches—pre-A 356s to latest GT cars—rolled into corrals and judged classes. The atmosphere was more reunion than concours: owners trading stories, kids shadowing judges, sponsors setting up along the cart paths. I moved between color blocks and model rows, reading each car against the coastal light and fog: sun on Guards Red hoods, whale tails over the rough, patina beside factory-fresh paint. It’s Porsche culture compressed into eight hours and eighteen holes.

    I opened with the show marker on the grass—WERKS REUNION spelled in white, flanked by a Guards Red 964 and a livery-wrapped 911. From there, a long seam of GT cars—997 and 991 noses nearly touching—became a study in intakes, splitters, and brake ducts. My favorite detour landed on a jade-green 356 Cabriolet with a tan top and 976,500 miles on its windshield: nearly a million, written in patina. A black 356 Speedster held court nearby—blue headlight grilles, California black plate nodding “JAMES DEAN,” stance still stopping time. The morning’s coda was silver and low: a 550-style Spyder beside deep-blue 356s, louvers tracing Porsche’s earliest racing impulse.

    I think of Werks as PCA’s big-tent Porsche gathering: started in 2014 as a stand-alone Friday show during Car Week, designed to celebrate cars and community rather than concours nitpicking. PCA’s format blends judged classes with vast model corrals, inviting non-members to wander, talk, and join. Over the years, the venue shifted to Monterey Pines Golf Course, but the heartbeat stayed the same—camaraderie first, score sheets simplified, stories over trophies. That ethos is why I keep coming back: it’s where rare metal meets friendly parking-lot conversation, and where Porsche culture feels most accessible, inclusive, and unmistakably alive for everyone today.

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