Porsche passion lives on in Australia

With Porsche celebrating its 70th anniversary in Australia this year and with the 50th anniversary of the Porsche Club of Victoria looming, the passion for Porsche cars in Australia is clearly thriving.

A history of passion

Motorsport is where the passion for Porsches is most tangible. It all started 69 years ago on Australia Day in January 1952, at the unsealed Hurstbridge Hillclimb in outer Melbourne. Just one year after the marque arrived on our shores, experienced hillclimb competitor Ken Wylie completed two runs in a maroon Coupé. In 1968, a young Alan Hamilton entered a unique 911T/R in a field of 30 cars, up against the heavy hitters of the day – the V8s in the hands of people like Bob Jane and Norm Beechey. Alan’s nimble orange 2.0 litre finished third, a win that surprised many. By the end of the 1969 season, he had finished second in the Australian Touring Car Championship. ‘Yep, it was the battle of David and Goliath and a hell of a lot of fun,’ Alan recalls.

‘My car was very little removed from a standard road car. It had standard 911 S brakes, wheels, gearbox, and basically a standard engine.’ By the end of 1969, the Porsche 911 had attracted attention from private concerns eager to take advantage of the sports car’s speed and reliability. What followed was a string of titles with a total of eight Sports Car and GT Championships with 911 derivatives during the 1960s through to the 1980s, plus a record number of Targa-style tarmac rally victories.

Today the Porsche Australian Carrera Cup, which started in 2003, has established itself as the essential one-make event in which to compete, with the race serving as the major support category of the V8 Supercars and the Australian F1 Grand Prix.

Porsche has gained a host of podium places – but more importantly, the attention of an Australian public keen to enjoy a true sports car on and off the track.

Now, as Porsche celebrates 70 years in Australia, the Porsche Club of Victoria is nearing its 50th anniversary. g

Porsche Club feels the need, the need for speed

On 26 August 1975 a group of Porsche owners came together for the first time at the Light Car Club of Australia clubrooms opposite Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. ‘Approximately 60 people attended that night,’ says Russell Sturzaker, who was there with his father and has been an active club member ever since. ‘The guest speaker that night was Norman Hamilton. A year after that, we were up to 107 members.’

The club now has just under 2000 members, one of Victoria’s largest car clubs, with membership increasing from 300 to more than 1800 members in 15 years.

Although Russell wasn’t old enough to own a Porsche when he attended the first meeting, there was already one in the family – his father’s. When he grew old enough, Russell purchased a new 924 Carrera GT in 1981, one of only 15 that came to Australia. Like many Porsche owners he sold it, regretted it, chased it down, and bought it back. Now, he says, it’s staying. Barb and Will Darvall also attended the very first meeting of the PCV and are still members.

‘It was really exciting to have the idea of a club, because before that you drove around looking for other people who had them and flashed your lights at each other,’ Barb remembers. ‘It was a tiny little club full of families. We’d go up to Winton and take the kids in the back of the Porsche, then race the car that day and take out all the picnic stuff.’

Will and Barb have two Porsches, one a 550 Spyder replica. ‘This car was designed by Graham McCrae … Will ordered the body,’ Barb explains. ‘It has as many Porsche parts as it can, including a 2.7 litre 911 engine. And we’ve also got a 2006 Cayman S.’ Barb reminisced about the early terrific annual interstate gettogethers of the 1980s, held at Easter where club members would spend three to four days together competing in Motorkhanas on the track and in the Concours. These events grew bigger in the 1980s, but then died out in the 1990s.

Will and Barb competed in club track events from the earliest days, but have since moved into the administration of track events which they enjoy just as much. Russell, like many others in the early days of the PCV, was keen to get onto the track to test the limits of his car. His passion hasn’t waned, and nowadays there is a group of around 160 people who compete regularly. ‘There’s a lot of guys in the club, all they want to do is race the car among other guys doing it, but they don’t want to go out in full all-out circuit work,’ says Russell. To enable first-timers to safely negotiate track days, the club has put together a novice section where only beginners are on the circuit during a morning and an afternoon session. The class has its own name, the Entrée Class. Competitors initially race with an instructor, then strike out on their own after a certain number of events. It’s a great way to learn the circuits, your limits, and the capacities of your car in a safe, controlled environment.

Alan Hamilton at Warwick Farm, Sydney 1968, in his new 911T-R

Barb and Will Darvall – Cayman S

Will Darvall – Spyder

Mixing it up

Where once the club relied heavily on motorsport involvement (still a major drawcard), it now also serves a growing number of members wishing to attend social events. According to Russell, the events calendar has an even spread between motorsport and social events.

There’s also a very good spread of ages in the car club, so there's friends to be made in any age group and doing whatever suits – whether that's on the track or on the open road. ‘The age spread in both the social and competition would be virtually identical,’ Russell says. Barb and Will still keep in touch with many past members. There are Concours held in non-Covid times, with the one for the 356 Register held at Como Park.

‘Como Concours days are just so much fun, because you see so many people that you have known for 50 years and it’s squeals of recognition with these gorgeous little cars around you,’ Barb says. ‘The 356s are exquisite little machines.

‘Basically, it’s been a lot of fun being in the club all that time, just mixing with a cross-section of people who you wouldn’t have met in your normal life. ‘There’s a whole social side to the club now. They’re a terrific bunch of people, and an incredibly successful club. A lot of people have been members a long time. In lockdown, a whole lot of people have been making a great effort to keep in contact.’

Because of the early connections with Mike Stillwell and Bob Jane, initially the club met at the LCCV and then at various other locations until the late 1970s or early 1980s, when there was a directive from Porsche AG that Porsche dealerships worldwide should offer their premises for club meetings. They felt that the dealerships were not connecting closely enough with clubs, and this was an opportunity. When Porsche Centre Brighton opened, it was obvious that PCV should be holding club nights there.

Over the past couple of years, the number of people keen to attend these has grown hugely as the club has attracted excellent speakers, including the likes of Mark Webber and Jim Richards. Turnout has been in the vicinity of 400 people, a big gathering when the meeting includes drinks and a sit-down dinner. The club has grown steadily, and has started Registers to cater for specific models. As well as the 911s Register, there’s a Turbo Register, a GT3 Register, a Torque Tube Register (covering 924, 944, 968, and 928), and a Cayenne and Macan Register. The club is now looking at one for Taycan. Registers hold their own social events on top of the normal social outings, with only that corresponding category of cars welcome. One thing that has remained unchanged throughout the Porsche Club of Victoria’s history is its soul, which is the same now as it was when it started nearly 50 years ago. If the passion is strong, so too is the future of the Porsche Club of Victoria. •