Driving a Porsche 356 is a bit like walking a puppy. Passersby smile and want to talk to you, but it's slow going because they want to play but they pull you in every direction at the same time, and of course, you have to mind the leaks. It's also a whole lot of fun.



Keeping a group of 30 such cars together on a 40 mile drive can be extremely difficult. Throw in a route that includes approximately 493 turns, other motorists who could care less about your convoy, an insane number of cyclists, and narrow, winding mountainous roads with grades that strain the plausibility of mounting them in a conveyance that had barely enough horsepower to attempt the feat when it was new some 40 years ago, and it all adds up to a memorable day.



The route took the group up through the streets of Palos Verdes, California, one of the wealthiest towns in the world. Looking at some of the houses along the way, it becomes pretty obvious what all those statisticians are talking about. "Mansion" is an overused term, but these houses wear the title well. A wonderful mix of old and new, modern and classic, we could easily imagine ourselves commandeering one to act as AB's new western headquarters. And did we mention the view? That clinched the deal.

We were lucky enough to land a seat in a 1960 T5 356B Cabriolet, but one of the newer cars also caught our eye. It was a 928 S4. Not that it isn't a handsome car, but what had us drooling over it was the wonderful sound booming out of its headers. Sounding all the world like a Trans-Am racer, we suspect that it was hiding a few horsepower secrets under its long bonnet. The cars, roads and people were all incredible and in the end it was a great way to toast Ferry, without whom none of this would have been possible.