(The Targa California From Behind the Wheel of a 1984 Carrera)
Story by Paul Kramer and photos by Ed Kramer
Yes. Unequivocally yes! Every year, my dad (Ed Kramer), who is also my AutoKennel partner, and I do several long drives up to Monterey. Months before the drive begins, we always have the same question: which car are we going to take? When the economy was better, we would take 3,4, and even 5 cars. Our friends would share driving and we would rotate among several cars throughout the trip. This way, no one got bored and we got to enjoy everything from a Mercedes E55 AMG to a Lotus Elise. However, as gas prices climbed, we decided to be green and share only one car. Fortunately, my dad is the greatest navigator in the world (i.e. he doesn’t get car sick) and I hate sharing the driving time.
Well, our first event for 2011 was the Targa California this past April. A fellow Porsche enthusiast who owns a repair shop here in Southern California organized the Targa, which continued where the Iron Bottom Rally left off. This driving event is probably one of the best-kept secrets around. Some vintage rallies charge thousands of dollars for a few days. This event is a bit more lowbrow and really about the driving. The only qualifications are that you pay your $200 entry fee (which includes a couple of meals, jacket, t-shirt, hat, and some other goodies) and have a car that is pre-1975 (or at least in the spirit of vintage cars). Without much hesitation, we both agreed that we would take our Löwenbräu livery 911 Carrera RS tribute.
This car is truly the Swiss army knife of Porsches. We designed this car to fit our unique Porsche lifestyle of doing long tours of central California back roads.
In fact, we have built 6 of these cars in total. Each time we finish one, someone buys it. However, we have had this car completed for a couple of years now and are just not ready to part with it. It looks great with all the rally lights, race graphics and early-911 styling cues. However, we have hidden many modern comforts such as cruise control, power windows, power sunroof, heated/massaging seats, hard-wired radar detector, modern air-conditioning and invisible stereo with IPod adapter. This car does everything!
The Targa California started this year on a damp Thursday morning near Castaic Lake at 8:30 a.m. 
We were handed our driving maps for the weekend (nothing was shared online to prevent our local Highway Patrol from crashing the party) and without much fanfare, we all blazed out of the parking lot like the start of a disorganized Gumball Rally. My dad and I have learned from years of doing this to not trust the guy in front. They usually get lost. In fact, I found it isn’t a good idea to follow someone without a co-driver because you WILL get lost! Also, I just like being in front. You know what they say: “if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.”
By the end of the day, we had covered over 350 miles of some of the best driving roads in America. Plus, we spent the day driving with over 80 vintage cars. From Ferraris to Datsuns, there was a little bit of everything. Over the next three days, we logged over 1,100 blissful miles with less than 50 of them on the freeway. It was an asphalt nirvana. Flicking the Carrera around hairpin turns in all kinds of weather was effortless. On one day, we went from monsoon-like rain to hail to snow flurries to beautiful sunshine to rainbows…it was absolutely incredible. What made it so enjoyable was mostly the car we were in. It was so eager to zip through the switchbacks and blast down the open road. It was like a Labrador pup being let loose in an open field. On the open stretches, we would engage the cruise control, open the sunroof, and blast the Mama’s and Papa’s. As we approached the technical driving, we flipped on our 6 rally lights and made the car dance through the turns.
In the evening, all the event participants had drinks in the parking lot of our host hotel as we shared our adventures of the day’s drive. Everyone had beaming smiles. Yes, some cars had mechanical mishaps, but there was always someone there to lend a hand. Several participants came up to us wanting to know how we modified our car because it was so quick in all the different weather we experienced. They were usually shocked to hear that it was basically a stock 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera…we call it a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
This leads me to a point that I’ve explained to many of my clients over the years. Porsche knows how to engineer a great car. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. These cars are great in near stock form. So many people want to stiffen this, increase that and, in the end, they end up sucking the soul out of the car. Basically, all we did to our Carrera was remove about 300 pounds of weight, rebuild the stock brakes using steel brake lines, install new Bilstein HD shocks (OEM spec), replace all the rubber suspension bushing with polyurethane and remove the smog equipment… that’s it. Also, we installed some fresh high performance ALL-SEASON tires. The motor is fairly fresh and puts out maybe 10% more horsepower than new. There really is nothing exotic about the car except for the appearance. Everything mechanical has been sorted and tuned for mixed driving. The end result is pure magic. This car is so easy to just cruise or throw around on the twisties. It is effortless to drive and doesn’t have any “scary-moments” that big horsepower cars tend to have.
If you would like to join us on some of our driving jaunts, please do not hesitate to give us a call. 
My Dad and I have logged close to 20,000 miles of driving on the back roads of California and would love to have more of you join us. Also, we can help you with any questions on what car to take on the drive and how to prepare.
Happy Touring.