Back when I started Seen.Today, one of the events I felt would be a perfect fit to cover on the site is Luftgekühlt. Meaning air-cooled in English, the annual vintage Porsche gathering was far more than a cruise in to some indistinct parking lot. Luft creators, former Porsche factory racer Patrick Long and creative director/designer Howie Idelson paired up to move the car show format towards an art installation experience.
2024 marks the 10 year anniversary since the first Luft comprised of a few dozen cars at LA’s Deus Ex Machina. Since then the event has grown more elaborate in scale and location, including several European dates. What makes Luft unique are the locations, staging and execution.
Previous Lufts have happened at the Port of Los Angeles, a lumber yard and an airfield. All atypical places to host a car show but very photogenic. Even more so for this anniversary edition as it was a return to Universal Studio’s Backlot in Burbank, the outdoor stage set for dozens of Hollywood movies and TV shows.
I mentioned staging earlier for good reason. Each of the hundreds of vintage Porsches seemed to be carefully considered as to their placement and relation to the background. Sometimes a lone car was parked in an alley or composed against a building with a complimentary color scheme. Everywhere you look, creative photo opportunities abound. It all could have devolved into some formulaic made-for-Instagram sameness, but it was easy to see the high degree of thought and consideration that went into arranging each car. I recalled a quote from artist Jason Rhoades while visiting his Drive II show where he likened parking his car to placing a piece of sculpture. This is at the core of the Luft experience, a celebrated appreciation of the beauty of Porsche design.
There were so many top quality Porsches to see, from early speedsters, wild restomods and a collection of candy-colored IROCs. Wandering around the backlot was itself a special experience. It was strange starting the day in fake NYC after arriving from authentic Manhattan a few days earlier. Some buildings had pretty elaborate details while others were painted on enormous flat panels. The scenes abruptly jumped from an old cowboy-era western town, to a Mexican village, followed by a historic European town with winding cobblestone streets. Along the way were mini showcases from specialty Porsche creators Singer and Gunther Werks.
The day was visually overwhelming and really a full weekend was probably needed to thoroughly see and process everything. The following photo tour aims to captures the essence of Luft 10 from our point of view. Being there was incredible and hopefully we’ll attend again sometime in the future.
Text: Dave Pinter
Photos: Hee Jin Kim, Dave Pinter
