FAMILY RESEMBLANCE
“We need some music. It’s too quiet in here.”
Andreas Preuninger, head of GT development for Porsche, is sitting shotgun in an Amethyst Metallic Porsche 911 Cabriolet (964 edition) somewhere south of San Francisco. He connects his iPhone to the cabrio’s retro navigation system and scrolls through his music library.
“What sounds good to you?” he asks. “I have Green Day. Kid Rock. Metallica?”
And that’s how I found myself blasting “American Idiot” while slicing through coastal California’s winding roads en route to Monterey. But it does raise the question: Why on earth am I driving a purple Porsche with Andreas Preuninger in the first place?
It all begins—and ends—with the Porsche 911. Since the 911’s introduction in 1963, Porsche has built more than 1 million of them. To commemorate this milestone, seven models spanning all generations have traveled from the Porsche museum in Zuffenhausen to California.
The ultimate destination is Monterey Car Week, where the 911s will be featured at the Werks Reunion then taken to the track at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for some parade laps at the Historics.
The plan seems simple and straightforward: A collection of automotive journalists and Porsche executives will caravan from our hotel in St. Helena to Monterey along a route that winds through some of the most scenic roadways along the coast before plunging inland. Along the way we’ll swap cars at designated points so that we can experience every
