Ellen Beck, co-founder of the Porsche Boardwalk Reunion car show, said that the relatively young event is so successful that it extends the life of Ocean City’s tourist season by a whole week. 400 Porsches line the boardwalk, and they would welcome more if only there were more space.
Porsches, even if folks can’t pronounce the name properly, draw a lot of attention. Some models, like the iconic Porsche 911, are rivaled in renown only by vehicles like the Ford Mustang and the Volkswagen Beetle. But the devil hides in the details. Ellen still hasn’t decided which car to bring this year. Will she bring her 1976 912E in Talbot Yellow, or her 2011 Boxster Spyder? Every number, every adjective, before a Porsche’s name has great significance. What’s the difference, for example, between a 997 and a 987? Everything: the engine, the body panels, and about $100,000.
The car show, a mile long, takes place the weekend after Columbus Day, the traditional ‘end’ of the tourism season. It’s a final hurrah. Just a week later, most businesses are closed. Amber Door, an organizer and Porsche fanatic who comes all the way from Michigan, said the sight of Porches all over town is a fun way to show Ocean City locals just how big the event has become.
Most Reunion participants are members of the Porsche Club of America. It’s the largest car club in North America, with roughly 150,000 members across 14 zones in the U.S. and Canada. These zones are further split into 149 local regions. Ocean City is a convenient meeting point for members in zones 1 and 2 and is part of the Jersey Shore region.
It’s a big social group, and the price of admission is Porsche ownership. People meet their spouses here and raise their kids in the club. Ellen, for example, met her husband Bob Gutjahr at a Porsche Club event. Now, they plan the Reunion together each year.
Amber found the club early in life. She volunteered at Porsche Club events – charity days, meetups, track runs – with her parents even as a young child. She said she was “volun-told” by her parents that she had to help. Clearly, she didn’t mind the work: she bought her own Porsche and joined the club in 2005.
“Nothing happens if people don’t step up,” she said.
Amber disagrees with common stereotypes about Porsche owners, that they’re snobby or out of touch with the common man. “That’s not what the Porsche Club is about. They’re down-to-earth, run-of-the-mill people, and they’re friendly.”
She also pointed out how deceptive appearances can be. “Lots of people have just one Porsche, but you might be talking to somebody who has 20. You can’t tell, you can’t ping that by looking at somebody.”
The cost of entry for a Porsche can be relatively low. $10,000 can buy a Porsche Boxster in fantastic condition. Just last week, a 2003 Porsche Boxster S, withw the desirable manual transmission, sold for just $6,900 on Car & Bids, one of the most popular vehicle auction sites on the internet.
Amber, and many Porsche owners, only drive manual transmission Porsches.
Miguel Cortes, from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, helped his son learn how to drive stick shift on his Porsche, a 2005 987.1 Boxster in Basalt Black Metallic (phew!)
Miguel is a member of the Porsche Club of America, where he met some of his best friends. He loves taking his son, Cristian, to events. Cristian is obsessed with cars and wants to enter the professional motorsports industry when he is older. He helped his father hunt for an affordable, well-maintained Boxster.
“Since my son was 4 years old, I’ve taken him to events. That’s the crux of our relationship, it’s around cars,” Miguel said. “And the way the manual on the Boxster feels, the engine is right next to you. It’s the car of my dreams.”
This kind of enthusiasm is what motivates folks to drive many hours for a single day in Ocean City. It’s a great setting for a show like this, but there’s a surprising lack of local presence in the car show itself. When asked about local participation, organizer Ellen Beck could only think of one couple.
But that couple does much to make the event run smoothly. Jessica Bechtold isn’t a Porsche girl herself; she drives a Ford Bronco. Her husband, Andrew Bechtold, is a local architect whose firm is responsible for iconic buildings like the Yacht Club of Sea Isle City. He is the proud owner of a 2018 911-991 Carrera 4S, in Chalk paint.
Jessica works to coordinate merchandising and vendor relations. Her home, she said, is where much of the free event swag is shipped. She never thought she would be part of a Porsche family, but has really come to appreciate the community that comes with it.
Not everybody knows a Cayman from a Carrera. Still, Amber said that seeing hundreds of Porsches, in every color of the rainbow, is something that makes everybody smile.
The Porsche Boardwalk Reunion takes place on Saturday, October 18.
Contact the author, Collin Hall, at 609-886-8600 ext. 156 or by email at chall@cmcherald.com
