Text, photos and video by Derek Meluzio –
I say it all the time. “It’s not about the cars, it’s about the people”. Each year the Carlisle Import & Performance Nationals proves that statement. The people that attend are all wonderful and they all have a common bond and love for import vehicles.
The show is not just about quantity, even though they had a record 2,195 registrations for the show field this year. It is most known for variety and also quality. The entire grounds are divided up by country of origin. Italy, Sweden, France, Japan, South Korea… they are all represented but for the purpose of this article we will focus on the German section.
For the last 5 years the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Porsche Club of America and the Raise the RUF Porsche Group have been gathering a large amount of Porsche and RUF owners and enthusiasts in the German section next to Opel, Audi, and BMW. This year the group had a wonderful turnout of almost 40 different Porsche and RUF vehicles. Both clubs had tents positioned next to each other and displayed a wide variety of Porsche models.
Everything made it to the show field from 911s (air cooled and water cooled), to Boxsters and Caymans even a 914. On top of all of that, the highlighted models by the PCA this year were the transaxle cars: 944s, 928s, and even a few 968s were all on display. Owners came from all over including Drew who drove his Porsche 944 all the way from Ohio!
As for the RUF related vehicles, Kevin’s RUF 3400K was a real treat to see and hear. The 3.4 liter engine and Kompressor/supercharger puts out some serious horsepower especially for such a light car. This exact car is a factory RUF conversion that was completed at RUF in Pfaffenhausen. It made its way to this country and was eventually bought by the current owner at RUF Auto Centre in Texas years ago.
Derek had his silver factory RUF RTurbo modified Porsche 996 back again for the 5th year in a row. The car is the very same one that is featured on RUF Automobiles Canada under the modifications tab. Back for the 4th year in a row was Peter’s green Porsche 968 with RUF wheels. The car fit the display perfectly being a transaxle Porsche and having RUF wheels.
A very impressive yellow Porsche 930 with RUF wheels attended as well and drew a crowd while putting out major Yellowbird vibes. Poor weather on Friday kept a few RUF vehicles away (fingers crossed for next year). Despite that fact, we had a few special guests that did attend even without their vehicles. A special treat for everyone was getting to meet Ricardo who worked at RUF in Pfaffenhausen back in 2006. He attended the gathering Saturday and hung out talking with the owners and enthusiasts. On top of that, we were lucky enough to have Tom, the owner of the 1987 RUF BTR slant nose Road & Track cover car also attend on Saturday. RUF Automobile GmbH once again supplied gifts and goodie bags for each attendee and for that the group would like to thank them.
Multiple cars that attended also won awards. On Friday, Michael received one of the very coveted “Carlisle Elite” awards for his Porsche 911 RSR Al Holbert tribute. To put things into perspective, the event only hands out ten Carlisle Elite awards per show and they had nearly 2,200 cars register. Michael’s car sounded just as good as it looked. Speaking of sounding good, Jackson’s Porsche Cayman not only competed in but also took 1st place in the rolling exhaust competition.
Tough to deal with weather on Friday yielded to near perfect conditions on Saturday and it is safe to say a good time was had by all. Here are a few photos and video from the event. We look forward to next year and hopefully we can once again break our attendance record.
Below is a video of some of the Porsches at this event:
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Derek Meluzio grew up in a car loving family in Central, PA. He still lives there with his wife, daughter, and car loving sons. Derek is an amateur autocrosser who attends track events, Concours/shows, and Cars and Coffee events all over. He has an appreciation for all cars but especially anything Porsche.
While not a huge Porsche fan this was clearly an impressive showing of cars… and having attended Carlisle many times for the import show, I am sure it was a terrific time….
It was a great group of cars and a fun group of people. If you have been to Carlisle before then you know how diverse it can be. Tough weather Friday but great weather Saturday made for an overall great weekend.
Love the yellow turbo, just a beautiful car!