Inspired by the Celebrating Forty Fast Years ad campaign, the club and especially the late Mark Bouljon, the Parts Manager at Carousel Porsche, decided to put together all 40 years of 911’s in front of the then new Porsche dealership. We knew we had the cars from the 60s, so how difficult could it be to put together all 40 years of 911s? Well not so easy as it turned out. 30 or so were quickly picked off from active Club members and some of Carousel’s customers. Carousel had a 40 Jahre special addition in inventory and agreed not to deliver it until after the show. In the end cars came from 4 states to fill out the 40.
Ironically, it was the cars in the 1970’s that proved the most challenging to locate. The primary reason is a simple as there were not as many sold as there are today. Then you have the general attrition of 30 years of usage and many have been destroyed. Another factor reared it’s head was that many that are still in use have been converted into track cars and invariably no longer have the stock bodywork. It simply was not going to work to display the 1975 911S that had 993 bodywork and a turbocharged engine! Many, many, calls were made, leads followed up on, emails sent, and finally Mark had all the cars lined up.
Mark then launched into a campaign to make sure all the folks who had committed their cars to the display actually showed up. This was critical because if only one person didn’t show, the whole premise of all forty years of 911’s fails. As one who participated, I can tell you he was very persistent.
Show day started early with all owners arriving by 8:30 to get their car individually photographed by a pro photographer provided by Carmichael-Lynch. It was a huge sigh of relief when the last owner checked in and all 40 cars were on site. The cars were placed on the lot with the 2004 and 1964 placed most prominently and the photo you see above was shot. (Challenge: something big was Photoshopped out of the photo but done so well it is hard to notice. I’ll tell you at the end of this post.) At 10:00 the show opened and there was a steady stream all day of hundreds of the curious and hardcore. Every model and every type was represented from short-wheelbase targas to 911 Speedsters.
Carmicael-Lynch and Carousel Porsche created this poster featuring each of the cars in the show.
Only someone with Mark Bouljon’s passion for Porsche could have made it happen.
What’s missing from the photo? I-394!