001+02+12R = Supernatural: 3 McLaren F1’s, One Car Show.

Seeing one McLaren F1 is considered a pretty serious happening. However, on some days, an insane sequence of events occurs that can only be described as supernatural. Something so rare, it can’t be calculated, so shocking and unforeseen that it can only be considered a miracle. That’s what happens when three McLaren F1’s, all different trim levels appear to a car show/toy drive in a Chicago suburb. Let’s rewind to the start of the day to understand how this all occured.

We knew this Mclaren P1 would be in attendance. Fun fact: formerly owned by EDM musician Deadmau5.

Early To Rise.

Chicago car shows are historically awesome. The scene there is the best in the country outside of California (the car scene mega state, can’t be beat) and South Florida, weird how that works. The problem with Chicago is that I don’t necessarily live close. My drive to a car show in that general area is anywhere from two to three hours. Not really convenient, which means there are some shows where I am up very early to get on the road. In this case, I was up at 5:15 to get on the road at 6 to meet up with some friends for breakfast at their local diner which has chocolate chip pancakes I had been looking forward to eat since the plan was hatched to come down for one final show. So, at 6am, I was on the road, racing the sunrise to Chicago. The drive was uneventful, which is good, because I was not going to miss out on pancakes and a car show. We got to the restaurant, and were seated at the very back table in the corner of the restaurant. We enjoyed an amazing breakfast and theorized about the cars we hoped to see later that morning.

My Holy Grail Cars.

I have three holy grail cars that are what I consider a step above the rest, The Porsche Carrera GT, I am thankful to say I have seen a few different ones in my travels, the Pagani Zonda Tricolore, 3 ever made, one in the US, that’s gonna be a tough one to find. But the final car is my money no object, absolute dream car, no questions asked. What is it? The McLaren F1 LM. 5 were built and there are only two in the United States, Ralph Lauren owns one and there’s one in a certain midwestern city… Chicago to be specific. I have had pictures of the prototype F1 LM from Autoevolution.com for years, growing up with that car as my end all be all car so I thought in the back of my head on the way down to the show, what if? The collection that has it posted they were attending, and they’ve brought out cars in the past, but never the LM or their newly acquired, road legalized F1 GTR, chassis 12R (you can learn about 12R from Supercarnostalgia here). It could happen, but I was trying not to get my hopes up.

A Fayence Yellow Porsche Carrera GT. Photographed at CheckedItOut 2022, you can read my blog on that event here.

Timing Is Everything.

We ended up finishing our breakfast early, and with nothing else to do, we headed over to the show before it technically started. This was a great idea. We arrived, parked just across the railroad tracks that run right in front of the show, and could see a variety of Porsche’s and Ferrari’s from our parking spot. There were cop cars blocking the road outside the building where the show was held, and the cops were cool. We were able to walk right in, no issues so we could get shooting the cars that were already there before the rush of the actual show. This also meant we were first on the scene for any cars that showed up as the event was setting up and arranging cars. This started with the shock of a Koeningsegg Regera, owned by the same guy who owns the blue P1, rolling in. Then followed by a Porsche 918 formerly owned by Salomondrin, and a Pagani Huayra Roadster, both part of the same collection. Seeing these hypercars moving was already an amazing thing, but we didn’t know it was about to get better.

The McLaren P1 (center), Porsche 918 Spider (left middle), and Koeningsegg Regera (far left).

The Royalty Arrives

As the cars get parked, and the event time draws near, in the distance I could hear a bizarre noise. A noise fit for a race car. I wasn’t wrong. A small group of people run to the road. I, of course, follow them to see what the racket is.

The previously described “racket”. A McLaren F1 GTR, F1 LM, and F1.

At first, I only saw the race car as I was frantically filming with my phone and shooting with my camera at the same time. I then looked up from my camera and realized that I was not in the presence of just one McLaren F1, I was in the presence of three. Including my dream machine, an F1 LM. The roadblock was cleared for the F1 GTR and the other two took off down the street to loop around the block and park up.

12R getting parked up after being let in by the local constabulary.

F1 LM 002 and F1 01 taking off down the street.

The shock that went through my body from seeing these three cars and knowing they’d be at the show gave me such sensory overload there are periods of time that I cannot recall. Almost like I blacked out. It was unreal. Once all three cars parked up, myself and the other photographers that were already at the event scrambled to get photos before the internet got set on fire, causing all kinds of folk to come see the cars. It felt like a scene out of a Need For Speed game, people calling their friends telling them to drop what they’re doing and get to the event ASAP. People on facetime with their friends or family to show the cars, there was a lady on the phone walking through the commotion who said “there’s these cars here, and tons of people that have… cameras?”. She clearly is not familiar with the number of photographers at car events and how it has boomed since the popularity of social media.

But the F1’s were not all that appeared from the team at Mouse Motors/McLaren Chicago. This P1 LM also joined the ensemble of amazing cars.

Making A Plan

So… faced with my dream car, and not knowing when I’d see it again, I had an idea. What if I followed the cars when they left to get rolling shots. That would be a truly once in a lifetime opportunity. So I pulled my friends aside early in the event and pitched the idea. Once the boys agreed to ride along, we shot the cars at the event, caught up with old friends we haven’t seen in awhile and got ready to follow them.

The Hamilton Collection also showed up to the event with their Pagani Huayra pictured here as well as their Porsche 918, Ferrari Laferrari, and Mclaren 765LT spider.

Go Time

With the McLaren F1 being a 90’s supercar and it being December, the cars had a hard time starting after sitting for a few hours and needed some time to warm up. This gave my friends and I time to get my car positioned to follow them. Based on how they entered, that’s how I guessed they would leave. So, it was time to wait. We waited across the street from where they came in, hoping to be able to turn out behind them after they would get in front of us. We heard the cars revving and slowly, a herd of people began to run our direction. It was time. First, was 12R, then 001, then the LM. The herd of people were all over the street, so I was worried they’d block me in so I couldn’t get out quickly. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and with a sizeable gap between the F1 LM and the P1 LM due to the P1 slowly crossing the railroad tracks, I slid in behind the F1 LM. Now I just had to keep up.

Behind the F1 LM at a stop sign, not necessarily regular traffic.

(Almost) One Expensive Insurance Payout…

A few blocks from the event, there were a mix of stop signs that were all way and two way stops. After two all way stops, the F1’s arrive to a two way stop, stopping their direction, but not the perpendicular road. The GTR and silver F1 made it through no problem. The LM was not so observant. The LM rolls to a near stop, keeping momentum since launching a car with a triple-carbon disk clutch on a hill isn’t a walk in the park. The car creeps out of the stop. An Audi Q7 heading down the perpendicular road doesn’t have a stop sign so they don’t yield to the F1 who left the stop sign at a poor time. The Q7 lays on the horn and slows down, the F1 stops in it’s tracks, avoiding a near t-bone and historically expensive auto accident insurance payout. The best part, I got it all on video. My friend Patrick who rode with me to capture footage of the cars, uploaded his video to Tiktok, you can view it here, which has over a quarter million views (let me know in the comments who you think was at fault for the near accident, I vote F1). We were officially paparazzi for these cars. The cars then turned onto Ogden, which lead them to I-294. It was about to go down.

My POV following the F1 trio down Ogden Avenue. I watched a guy get arrested at that Shell once, but that’s for another blog.

Channeling My Inner Senna

Keeping up with a McLaren F1 in any car is a challenge, but add the fact that we were on a Chicago highway and there were three other people in my car, I had to work for it. This meant I unfortunately didn’t shoot very many photos of them rolling but I remember the experience vividly. The straight cut gear whine of the F1 LM’s gearbox and the growl of the race exhaust on 12R will forever be engrained in my memory. We got maybe 5-10 minutes in and then traffic got intense, we slowly got pushed back from the pack of F1’s, coupled with the fact that I almost got sideswiped by another car following them who made an incorrect lane change and then tried to correct it not knowing of my existence, I was out of the zone and didn’t want to risk anything, especially because I had a return drive to Madison I had to make. One of my passengers didn’t appreciate my hesitation, but it isn’t his car… sorry, not sorry.

This Buick was also following the cars. I salute the drivers abilities after my encounter with a certain Camry.

Absolutely insane seeing 12R on the move.

Do you think the F1’s have I-Passes?

So that was one hell of an event, and to think it happened in December is shocking to say the least. What a great day, even if I couldn’t get some rollers of my own after the photo above, it was still an insane, once in a lifetime experience. I hope the team at Mclaren Chicago will decide to bring these cars out again sometime in 2023. Which F1 was your favorite? Let me know in the comments below and enjoy these additional photos.

SEMA 2022: Day 1 Recap

Flight From Hell

While one may think because SEMA is in Vegas, day 1 starts in Vegas. In my case, this was not true. My day 1 started in Milwaukee at the airport, waiting for my flight that had been delayed two hours. We finally boarded the plane, and took off at 12:15 Milwaukee time. Vegas has a two hour subtraction, thank goodness. I attempted to get some sleep during the plane ride and with no occupant in the middle seat, I thought I’d be comfortable enough to get some. That didn’t happen either. Instead, the older woman next to me was doing crossword puzzles with her overhead light beaming down the whole time, making sleep impossible. After a nightmare-like plane ride, with a 22 hour day under my belt, I landed in Vegas and got off the plane at 2:00am. I somehow was able to get myself to the pickup line outside the airport where a dozen taxis were waiting. Since it was 2:00am, it was a ghost town and I just hopped in one. I told the driver where I was headed. He asked me where I’m from, I said Wisconsin and the first question was “Packer Fan?”... yes, but no. I don’t watch football but I know enough to make small talk until I arrive at my hotel. I got into my hotel, much to my roommates' frustration, at 2:30 Vegas time, which is 4:30am Milwaukee time. Thankfully the time change was two hours back, otherwise I don’t think I would’ve even gone to the show that day.

@thehoonigans 2JZ swapped Ford F-150 dubbed “Lord Frightning”.

Wake Up Call

I woke up at 8:00am to the impact of one of the hotel pillows being thrown at my legs. That was my alarm. I got up and got ready for the day, I couldn’t have been prepared for what it had in store.

Day 1 was the only day we walked from our hotel to the convention center. It took us about 45 minutes. We got to the convention center and were immediately greeted to a variety of epic cars including a one of one widebody 8 series BMW, the Batmobile from the newest Batman film and a hayabusa swapped, lifted SmartCar. We wandered around the outside of the convention center for about an hour as none of the halls were open yet. We got to check out Travis Pastrana’s Gymkhana Subaru WRX STI and a number of the Hoonigan crew’s cars including Hert’s RX-7, my personal favorite.

Travis Pastrana’s Gymkhana cars and Hert’s RX-7.

Toyo Treadpass

Once the show halls opened, we went down to the wheel and tire hall to just make sure we went through it at least once during this trip. Then came the Toyo Treadpass, which is an outdoor area by Toyo Tires that showcases cars sponsored by them. There were some seriously cool cars here. A full carbon fiber RB30 R32 GT-R, a non-running V12 swapped RX-7, and a gorgeous golden RWB 993. There were some uncool cars too. Mainly the non-running RX-7, a rushed and poorly executed 935 EV, and a new Ford Maverick truck, with a body kit.

Gooichi Motors says it will run… eventually.

A targa 993, with a twist, by Riko (@rikos_way).

Carbon Fiber everywhere on this R32 GT-R built by Garage-Active4488.

Main Hall

After some time in the Treadpass, we made it to the main hall, where all the insane cars were. The Hoonicorn, Hoonipigasus, the new Dodge Charger, Rob Dahm’s 4 rotor RX-7 (that runs) and many, many more. We spent a majority of our time here. I personally found myself eyeing up every little thing about the Hoonipigasus I could, since my work with Porsche race cars made me curious as to what made the Hoonipigasus so different. I ended up taking tons of videos and photos so I could analyze the car later. Then we got lunch at a Quiznos in the main hall. It was worth it. 

Rob Dahm’s 4 rotor RX-7.

West Hall

Next, the west hall, which is the hall for detailing and vinyl wrap products. This hall usually has the most expensive cars of the whole show, as many of the vinyl companies or detailing companies pick a rare, expensive blue chip exotic to showcase their product. This year, there were three big heavy hitters. A Lamborghini Sian Roadster, one of the rarest Lamborghinis ever made. This one featured a light to dark blue fade with the carbon fiber weave being visible in the dark blue section of the fade. The second hypercar in attendance was a Pagani Huayra BC Roadster, owned by a local collector. Finally, my favorite of the three, a Ferrari F40 wrapped pink with a custom titanium exhaust, KW 2 way adjustable coilovers, and some beautiful BBS wheels. 

A paint fade to exposed carbon fiber is worth the multi-million dollar price tag.

I’ve only seen one other Pagani Huayra BC Roadster before this one.

Shoutout to @adventuresofgregorio for doing something so crazy to a classic Ferrari.

Starstruck

The west hall also had the best part of day 1. I got to meet Brian Scotto & Ron Zaras from Hoonigan, as well as Jimmy Oakes. We walked by Ken Block signing autographs by his Audi Quattro, already a starstruck moment, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw them. With SEMA being as massive as it is, I knew this could be my only chance, but they were conversing so I didn’t interrupt. Nick motioned me to keep walking around the hall since they could be there awhile but I kept a watchful eye. We went around the corner and the three of them were walking perpendicular to us. I had to say something. I was wearing one of my oldest Hoonigan shirts on purpose that day, hoping I’d run into Scotto, Ron or another member of the Hoonigan crew. I got so lucky. I said “Yo Scotto, Ron, Jimmy can we all grab a pic real quick?” I gave them each a fist bump and they noticed my shirt. Ron said “That’s an OG shirt, is that real or a fake?”. I quickly replied with “No this is 100 percent real! I’ve been watching since I was in middle school and now I’m in college.”. We all stood next to each other, and Nick got a photo of us. I accidentally stepped on Jimmy’s foot since we were all standing so close together, he thought it was his fault and said “Sorry fellow tall boy”, I said it was all good and told him “The VVL S15 is sick! Keep up the amazing work!”. He said “thanks” and they walked away. I was silent for the next five minutes just staring at the photos. I could not believe it. 

Jimmy Oakes (far left), me, Brian Scotto (middle right), Ron Zaras (far right)

Post SEMA Exhaustion

We spent the rest of the day drifting around the halls after a failed attempt at going to a Hoonigan Burnyard show, there were too many people so we couldn’t get close enough to see the action. Once the show had closed, we walked back to our hotel at sunset, chilled at the hotel for a few hours and then went out for dinner. Regretfully, we didn’t go out to the strip for dinner. If we did, we would’ve seen a Red Bull V8 blown diffuser F1 car run up and down the strip, filming a commercial. Safe to say we were a little sad we missed out when we saw videos of it the next morning on social media. 

SEMA day 1 was amazing. The cars, the atmosphere, all of it was top notch. After watching SEMA coverage for years over the internet, to finally be there with two of my best friends was such a great experience. The best part is, that was only day 1. Did you have a favorite car from this post? Let me know down below!

Summer Nights: Shooting The Bosses 930 Turbo.

The 911 Turbo, coined “The Windowmaker” by many journalists and drivers alike, for it’s high risk of snap-oversteering and killing the rich businessmen that drove them, it was a car feared by the casual driver. But, it was highly revered as one of the best driving experiences of it’s time by professional drivers and those more seasoned.

“turbo lag as long as a coffee break. Mash the throttle at 3000 rpm, and the boost gauge plays dead until the tach reaches 4000. Then you enjoy a chiropractic neck adjustment until the wham peters out at 6000 rpm.”

— Don Sherman, Car And Driver

There’s just something so charming about a car that has what I’ve deemed “ketchup method” boost delivery. When a ketchup bottle is squeezed, as pressue is added at the low end, nothing seems to happen, but as pressure is applied faster and faster, a sudden release of the tomato condiment is ejected. That’s what cracking the throttle in a 930 Turbo feels like.

This is the Andy Kilcoyne, CEO of Kelly-Moss’s Porsche 930 Turbo, decorated with a nod to the “widowmaker” nickname.

After months of deconstruction, modification and then reconstruction, Andy Kilcoyne, the CEO of Kelly-Moss’s personal 911 Turbo was ready to hit the streets. The car received a mechanical refresh, modifications to the audio system and a reupholstered interior to add modern comfort to this well maintained classic. As the car neared completion, Andy requested my co-worker Dan, @a.solid.state on Instagram, to shoot photos of the newly rebuilt car for him, personally. To do this, Dan was given the keys to the car for an evening to shoot at a location Dan had coordinated a few days prior. Thankfully, with Dan knowing I’m into photography, he invited me along.

Andy’s 911 Turbo, codenamed “Doc” sitting in Kelly-Moss’s project department.

“Best car ever”

— Dan, after sending me a picture of Doc in his garage

Once the work day had settled down and Dan disappeared with the car, I recieved a text with the quote above. I was so jealous he got to drive it. I went home, ate dinner and did some homework. I then received a text that read “So are you coming down, or staying home?”

I replied with “When and where? I’m ready whenever.”

I got a text with a google maps pin. I grabbed my camera gear, bolted out my front door and headed to the pin.

Not to give Dan too much credit, but he somehow landed an amazing spot. A beautiful countryside mansion with a long driveway and a barn to the right as I headed up the driveway. We started shooting around seven o’clock which was perfect. We had some nice orange/gold lighting for about an hour and forty-five minutes. Dan moved the car around the driveway and eventually down to the barn for various photo angles. I met the owner of the house, who has a car collection of his own various muscle cars. He loved the Porsche and was enthusiastic to learn about its story.

A beautiful summer sunset with almost no clouds in the sky created some amazing gold hour photos.

I think the photos I shot that night are to this day my favorite when it comes to really showcasing the car. With no other people, cars or buildings around, the setting really allowed me to focus on the car and all its little details. The time of day, setting and car make this a hard shoot for me to beat. There may never be a private shoot I do that beats this one.

As the sun set, “blue hour” set in, giving our setting a new hue.

After the sun set, the sky changed from orange to blue, and then to black as the night set in. Dan had kept the car on the long driveway the rest of the shoot, which is where the photos I like the most from this shoot, were shot.

A long driveway on a hill, with trees and lanterns on both sides, perfect parking for a Porsche of this caliber.

When the sun had finally set far enough that natural light wasn’t an option, I begged and pleaded to go for a loop around in “Doc”. This ended up being my first experience in a turbocharged 911, and it was a good one. The 934 style exhaust accentuates the turbo spinning up to create boost, the four speed gearbox makes the buildup of power more dramatic and the 15 inch wheels mean you feel everything in the road. As Dan and I rounded the first of the four right handers we would take on this ride-along, he gradually revs the car up in second gear, when suddenly as predicted, the boost kicks, hard. Right as the turbo begins to ferociously spin up, Dan frantically shifts into third gear to mitigate the unrelenting wheelspin, thank goodness. The shift knob, held in with a suction cup type of pressure to the shift lever, pops off. Dan asks rhetorically “Is it still in gear?”, I was hoping so. Thankfully, it was. And for all that action, the car had only revved to 4500RPM. Not bad for a car from 1983. Not to mention, this car is rumored to have a hopped up motor from some hole in the wall tuning shop that made 550whp back in the 80’s that has not had the case split since then. That’s get you in trouble horsepower now, I can’t imagine the number of cars dusted by this thing back then.

“I don’t know. There’s just something about engines that calms me down, you know?”

— Jesse, The Fast And The Furious

With the ride-along over, I got in my car and headed home, with an everlasting grin attached to my face. What a night. Big thanks to Dan for inviting me along, it really means the world. Full shoot photos below, and check out Dan’s photos from that night here.

Checked It Out 2022: Porsche Heaven

The biggest midwestern Porsche gathering that seems to grow exponentially year after year.

Mark The Calendar!

One of the most memorable trips by far this year, Checked It Out Chicago 2022, has the biggest place in my heart out of any show I attended for one reason and one reason only, I got to bring my car. For those who don’t know, I own a 1988 Porsche 944 Turbo, one of the lesser appreciated Porsche models and one that has quickly garnered appreciation from those who can’t afford a higher end, mid or rear engined P-car (like myself). The story of how I ended up with the car is a blog post in and of itself but to keep it short, I had my eye on my exact car for three years before eventually having the cash together on my 20th birthday (April 19th 2022) to buy the car.

I learned how to drive stick in that car, I got to bring my own personal car to the local cars & coffee for the first time, and I got to finally own one of my dream cars. Checked It Out was in August, so I knew I had time to really get familiar with my new money pit before the trip. The trip was on my calendar immediately after the success that was Check21, a show that really put my photography on people in the Midwest’s radar. Since I had already been to Checked It Out in 2021, I thought I knew what to expect, I was wrong.

Photo of Mouse Motors Singer 911 from Check21 that they reshared.

Road Trip?

When I had first got the 944, it had been sitting for about 8 months, meaning it had some mechanical gremlins that needed to be sorted out before the drive to Chicago. The first order of business was doing a new battery since the old one held very little voltage. So little that it would die after two starts of the car. Not the best battery life, especially for a new manual driver (me) who stalled constantly during the learning process. One of the perks of working at Kelly-Moss in the parts department is the ease of ordering parts for my personal cars. I ordered a battery, brought it home and did my first ever wrenching on my own ride. The swap took longer than anticipated but even for work as simple as swapping a battery, I was really proud to have completed the task. Once the battery was installed, it was time to get it over to Kelly-Moss for a full fluid flush to make the car not smell like old burnt up oil every time I drove it. Once the fluids were flushed, it was a (knock on wood) low maintenance summer of cruising, driving the car to work and the occasional cars & Coffee appearance. Then the day finally came, the day to drive it down to Chicago.

As mentioned in my About Me page, my parents were never car enthusiasts. They didn’t trust that the 944 would make the trip but allowed me to take it since they knew how much it meant to me. I had a different mindset. My car is no winter beater. It has been painstakingly rebuild in many ways including all new brake calipers, rotors, seals, lines, the whole nine yards. It also has an improved clutch disc over the abysmal stock design. The car has had excellent preventative maintenance done by the two previous owners who are Porsche technicians, so I trusted it completely. It did not let me down.

The car made it to Chicago flawlessly, even in the middle of August with humid Midwest heat and over 45 minutes of stop and go traffic outside of Chicago, my left foot aching in pain after that whole mess, I made it to the venue in time for the pre-party festivities.

My 944 parked up outside the venue, doing some light painting at the pre-party the night before the show.

Party Time!

The pre-party was nothing short of awesome. I just barely missed the cutoff to have my car in the venue, but that ended up being for the better. I parked just outside of the south garage door, grabbed my camera gear and headed inside to begin shooting photos and catch up with some friends. Not one, not two, but three Kelly-Moss 911’s were present at Check22 this year. The most recent safari build, Norman, an incredibly rare 964 Carrera 4S and one of our 911 Cup cars. You can some of the photos I shot of those cars here. Once the party winded down, it was time to head to the hotel, catch some sleep and come back the next morning for set up.

Not only did I get to photograph some awesome Porsches from all over the Midwest, I also got to try light painting for the first time, which proved to be challenging but I think I did alright for my first time. I also got to do a tech talk on the 992 Cup car with some awesome Porsche enthusiasts from the Milwaukee area that I greatly admire and have followed for quite sometime as I moved from Accumoto to Kelly-Moss. Tony, If you’re reading this, I haven’t forgotten about our little key swap deal with Pablo, here’s hoping it can happen at vintage weekend this year.

One of my favorite cars from the night, a 993 C4S with original Speedline wheels from 1994.

Built by Porsche Exchange

The Big Day!

After a decent nights sleep, I woke up at 6am, hungry to get to the venue since I had stored my car there the night before and needed to be there in the morning in case the car needed to be moved around. As I approached the venue, a line of Porsche’s was visible in the distance. Multiple blocks of various Porsche’s getting ready for the show. Thankfully my car was already parked in the venue lot so I walked up with my keys, got the car warmed up and began wiping off the morning dew to get it show ready. The night before, during my tech talk on the 992, Tony, the owner of the Targa 911 and a Porsche 968, said we should have our cars parked next to each other in the show, you know, being transaxle Porsche’s and all, so the goal Saturday morning was to get the cars together before set up really got hectic. I moved my car around to the other side of the building, Tony brought over his 968 and we got the cars parked up. Parked right outside the venue, we had one of the best spots in the house, which did make it difficult to get out but I didn’t mind.

Once the car was parked, the focus could purely be on photographing the event. I was pretty proud of how things went. The cars that appeared this year were a mix of old and new. Some classic aircooled cars which is more up my street but there were also many modern GT series cars and some of the greatest Porsche’s ever built. Myself and a few of my friends spent the day rotating between shooting photos outside, inside and cooling off by my car. I also got the chance to meet and compare notes with Michael, who owns an identical year and color 944 Turbo of his own. It was so cool to compare setups and see the differences between two cars that left the factory almost exactly the same. The show just had a never ending variety of Porsche’s.

My 944 parked up with Tony’s 968 just outside the venue.

Post Check22 Travels.

Once I decided to leave the event, attempting to beat the rush before everyone tried to leave at once, I ventured out to La Grange, just west of the city to meet up with my good friend Patrick, who I met during the pandemic through Forza of all things. After a hot day of running around shooting photos and getting stuck in my air condition less car (yes, my car does not have A/C) on the way out of town, I was super hungry and knew it would be best to get food before setting off back to Madison. I went over to Patrick’s house, where he finally got to see the 944 for the first time. He suggested a local pizza spot and I obliged. We cruised about ten minutes down the road to a pizza joint off of La Grange’s main street. It was quite possibly the messiest Chicago style pizza I’ve ever had, but the laughs and stories shared around it will be something I’ll always remember.

My 1988 944 Turbo with Patrick’s 1987 Camaro IROC-Z

We then went to the affluent neighborhood of Hinsdale for some car spotting. I was not disappointed, we stumbled upon a 911R, one of the best versions of the 911 and a 992 GT3 touring a few blocks from there. Foolishly I did not bring my camera, but I do have some phone photos. After this, myself and my co-pilot Matt, made our way back to Madison with a drama-free, gorgeous sunset drive. I do retroactively wish I would’ve hit some back roads but I’m slightly tall for my car so my legs were killing me after the two and a half hour drive.

GT3 Touring (left) and 911R (right) spotted in Hinsdale, IL.

Check22 truly was the best show I went to because it was so personal. My love for the Porsche brand and the people that make it so special runs deep. While the 944 is awesome, it is not the peak Porsche I’d like to own in my lifetime, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of my favorite cars and I feel so blessed to own it at my age. I look forward to future Checked It Out events and other Porsche events all over the country (and the world?). The road trip down, the night before experimenting with lightpainting, the sketchy hotel, frantically running around the morning of the show to capture a Fayence Yellow Carrera GT on the move, sweating a tenth of my body weight off sitting in traffic, meeting people and eating messy pizza were all a part of the experience. This show and the journey around it, really made me realize how much I love the hustle of this whole car photography thing. The hustle is what makes it fun, so… let’s keep hustling in 2023. Were you at CheckedItOut this year? Will I see you next year? Comment below or DM on Instagram here.