Saturday, March 16th started with Cars and Coffee at Laguna Seca from 7:30-9:30. Like most Cars and Coffees at Laguna Seca, there were a lot of cars there, more than 1,000. Mark McMahon, MBR president, got there around 7:30 and it was already so full he couldn’t park on the island. It took him a half hour to get to a place to park and another half hour to get out when he was ready to leave.
The next event was a tour to Scotts Valley. Mark arrived at the Chili’s parking lot in Seaside and met other MBR members who were waiting for him there. We ended up with 25 cars ready to go. Everyone got going about 10:20, first getting on the freeway, then getting off in Soquel and heading to a park for a pit stop. When we got to the park, a baseball game was going on and there was very little parking, so after a brief stop, we moved on, driving uphill and down dale through the redwoods. The weather was sunny and warm and the road through the redwoods was twisty and narrow – perfect for Porsches, as long as we watched out for bicyclists and oncoming traffic. We made it to Scotts Valley, where Mark had made a reservation two weeks before for us at Bruno’s Restaurant. It turned out that our reservation had been lost and the restaurant did not have enough staff working for a group our size, resulting in long waits for food.
Some of the group finished while others were still waiting to be served. Those who finished first left and those others followed later, going to visit Bruce Canepa’s showroom and car modification business. This was an unqualified success. Once everyone had arrived, Bruce Canepa took us (and a few other visitors) on a tour of his place. We started in the first floor showroom which has special interest cars for sale, then went upstairs to the museum. Bruce described the significance of most of the cars in the museum, along with descriptions of their drivers, which included him in many cases. He described his Sprint car, which got him started in racing, his Porsche 935, which he moved on to from the Sprint, and his Pikes Peak race car which he raced in before taking on the challenge of racing a Kenworth truck on Pikes Peak. There were many race winners there. Bruce says he puts cars that he likes in the museum.
From the museum, we went downstairs to the shop where Bruce’s workers work on customers’ cars and some of Bruce’s cars. Bruce is well known for the Porsche 959s he has been able to bring in and work on, and he described the challenges he faced in doing that. The shop has two large areas, both full of a variety of cars, including a variety of Porsches, some Ferraris and a few other makes. Customers bring their cars to Bruce to be modified in a variety of ways. There were a few race cars that were there to be modified to be street legal. Customers come from all over the world to have their cars modified. Some significant cars that have been neglected or fallen on hard times were there to be brought back to their original condition.
After the shop, we walked across the street to Bruce’s second showroom. The cars in the showrooms have been gone though, serviced and detailed so they are all in excellent shape. There are a variety of brands, models and years, and they are sold to people all over the world. Bruce also shared with us a story of an encounter with a CHP officer when he was testing some modifications to a car at triple digit speeds on Molera Road.
A wonderful visit, thanks to Bruce’s recollections and descriptions. Thanks to Mark McMahon for organizing this, and thanks again, Bruce!
