Porsche Classic Partner

Recently, I attended the “Porsche Classic Partner 1st Anniversary Event” held at Porsche Center Sakai. A Porsche Classic Partner is a dealer certified by Porsche AG as having expert knowledge about classic Porsches and capable of providing proper service and advice. There are only four such dealers in Japan so far.

The goal is to help classic Porsche owners enjoy their beloved cars for even longer. They supply about 52,000 types of original spare parts, perform repairs and maintenance, and even carry out full restorations.

I had received an invitation beforehand, but since my husband was away on a business trip to the U.S., he said, “Since it’s a special occasion, why don’t you go?” However, taking the kids alone would have been too difficult, so I left them with my parents and went by myself.

Instead of our usual nearby dealer, I headed to Porsche Center Sakai, which I had never visited before, feeling a bit nervous. I arrived just before noon. The sky was unfortunately rainy, but quite a few customers were already there.

Porsche Center Sakai is spacious. With plenty of room, the cars were displayed comfortably, and the merchandise corner was impressively stocked.

Of course, the highlight was the latest new 911. I saw this body color for the first time — Aventurine Green Metallic — and it gave a refined sports car vibe, looking very beautiful.

Outside the store, air-cooled Porsches like the 993 and 964 were lined up. They must have looked stunning in the sunshine — a pity it was raining. There was also a rare Crayon Panamera on display, which looked incredibly cool, but I forgot to take a photo…

Classic Corner

Inside, there were photos showing the restoration work on classic cars.

It’s amazing… I thought how wonderful it is to lovingly keep driving your cherished car like this. The reason this is possible is surely because Porsche cars are outstanding as industrial products. It’s a well-known fact that over 70% of all Porsches ever produced are still on the road today, but thinking about it again, it really is incredible.

Looking around, most visitors were families or couples, but since I was alone with nothing particular to do, I thought, “Maybe I’ll just take a quick look around and head home.” Then a woman at reception spoke to me, and we ended up chatting about cars over coffee.

She told me her father is a big car enthusiast, and after watching races together, she also grew to love cars and now works at a Porsche dealer.

I wonder if my kids will become car lovers like that someday — though for now, they don’t seem very interested (-_-).

The receptionist also told me that there were kitchen cars serving ramen and sweets, and that everything was free. So I said, “Well, then I absolutely have to eat my fill!” and went outside with my full Kansai auntie spirit…

I’m not very knowledgeable about gourmet food, but there were kitchen cars from two famous local Sakai shops: “Menya Usagi” and “Rikyu Matcha Honpo.” I wanted to try the matcha sweets too, but since it was lunchtime, I ordered the maze-soba. It was piping hot, the noodles were chewy, and it was very delicious.

Still, who would have thought you’d eat ramen at a Porsche Center? And there I was, slurping ramen alone among all the families — quite a surreal sight (-_-).

With my stomach full, I took the novelty goods and left Porsche Center. By the way, the paper bag for this event’s novelty goods had a special classic design featuring the 914. It’s really nice.

It was refreshing and fun to visit a different Porsche Center once in a while. Thank you very much to everyone at Porsche Center Sakai.