I would have liked to get a ride in this morning, but 5:15AM was my call time for this morning’s shoot, urghhh…As it turned out, it was well worth getting up early because I had one of those wonderful days where you realize that there are some many awesome people out there that are into the same sorts of things you are… I should probably mention that we’re in the middle of shooting more elements for the classic car restoration show and as an aside, one of these days I’ll get the Pebble Beach Picts up!

Once on the road we high tailed it up to the Paramount Ranch on Cornell Road, just off of Kanan Road in Augura, so that we could met up with Freeman Thomas, head of DiamlerChrysler’s Pacifica Design Studio, and a group of 911 owners that he hangs out with called the R Gruppe… They’re a spirited bunch of Porsche enthusiasts that are seriously into owning, building driving, and restoring sport purpose 911’s. So while it wasn’t on a bike, I did get to enjoy a wonderful sunrise over the Malibu Canyons on our way to met up with the group…

Here’s a couple of picts of the sunrise - I was pretty excited to get a few shots from the car since normally I’d be riding this early in the morning…

After meeting up with the ‘R Gruppe’ we set out to follow them to German Autofest in Ventura County, the largest gathering of Porsches in North America. But as it turns out trying to follow thirty odd 911’s through the canyons in a camera truck isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. The ‘R Groupe’ is one seriously spirited bunch of drivers! And also one of the most human and down to earth groups of car enthusiasts that I’ve ever been around. Just a great group of folks…

After what I can only describe as a rally race up the 101, we arrived at German Autofest in Ventura. It turned out to be an absolutely awesome event. Since I was shooting I really didn’t get a chance to check it all out, but there must have been three or four hundred different Porsches, maybe even more if you count all the different hangers that had all sorts of models inside of them. Just an amazing display of German sportscars. I kept wondering what average daily drivers heading up the 101 must have thought as Porsche after Porsche passed them by… What really made the event and the folks special in my eyes is that no one seemed to take themselves to seriously. This was for fun and it was, there was no sense of competition or ego. Just an unusually large group of fans of the marque. How fantastic is that?

Here are a couple of more picts from the morning & if you’re interested I’ve posted more in the Photo Gallery.