A trio of die-hard Porsche 356 custodians began a 1000 km road trip to honour the birthday of Ferry Porsche, the founding father of the marque.
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Porsche 356 owners the world over take part in the annual Drive Your Porsche Day to celebrate. In addition, 2018 heralds a milestone in the marque’s long and successful history – 70 years of Porsche sports cars.
The three 356 road trippers, Howard Mitchell, Grant George and Barry Ditchburn, need no excuse to enjoy what they call ‘driving in its purest form’ along roads tailor-made for their iconic cars.
Grant, who drives a 1961 ivory Porsche, said the rarely seen vehicles attract broad interest from locals along the way, particularly when parked for the occasional cuppa stop.
“It is easy to forget that weighing under 1000 kilograms, and with 75 horsepower on tap, these cars provided scintillating performance in the early Sixties,” he said.
“The road trip is all about camaraderie with people who have a common interest and are passionate about these cars.”
Howard Mitchell from Yarras bought his Bali blue Porsche for $2000 in 1977 when it was a wreck, and has spent decades lovingly restoring it to glory. It’s now worth $100,000.
Barry Ditchburn from Chan Valley Bay on Lake Macquarie drives a red 1961 Porsche, which took him five years to do up.
He says the road trip is just three old codgers having a bit of fun.
They will travel from Walcha to Tamworth and have their photo taken in front of the Big Guitar in their red, white and blue Porsches, and on to Gunnedah, Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, Dubbo, Dunedoo, Merriwa and Singleton.