Luftgekuhlt Copenhagen

September 9, 2024

I had the great opportunity to see the Porsche aircooled car/art show “Luftgekuhlt” in Copenhagen this Saturday. To the best of my knowledge it is a show that started in California and has since expanded to include a few satellite shows around the World each year. And this Saturday it was held at the Wilhelm Lauritzen terminal in Copenhagen right next to Copenhagen Airport.

When we first arrived, we actually managed to walk into what appeared to be the parking lot for trailors etc. But in true spirit of the event, this parking lot was also filled with a lot of special vehicles. This perfectly specced red 964 being one of them.

Walking back and in through the right gate we were met with an astonishing view. Hundreds of old aircooled Porsches parked around the old Vilhelm Lauritzen terminal and nearby hangars.

The first car that caught my eye was this very beautiful Porsche 356 Speedster.

Porsche 356’s has always been close to my heart as my first job as a teenager was making sheet metal parts for these. Unfortunately this was also the day that I learned that my old boss from back them had passed away a few years ago. But his company was continued in the same spirit by someone new. Hearing about him passing away started a lot of reflections on my part. But maybe that is for another time.

Next to the 356 Speedster and with one end of the Vilhelm Lauritzen terminal as the background was this black Porsche 993

And yes, I know. I should have watched the edges of my frame and walked back a step or two to include both the rear of the car as well as the wall on the left.

The next image turned out a little different than what I had in mind. I actually wanted to show the details of the interior, but it ended up being much more about the reflection than the interior. Which I like!

There is an image later in this piece where my subject was the reflection in the window, but in this case it accidentally happened and perhaps even ended up being better than the one I created on purpose. But as I shoot all my images with the rear screen closed I do not really pick up on these things until I transfer the images to the computer.

If I had picked up on it, then it would have been better to take a step back and not have either of the yellow cars cut off.

The next image was much more “successful” in capturing the interior. Whether the former is a better image is up for debate though.

This next image I am a bit unsure about. Seeing it here and writing a story where it is included I think that it should be accompanied by a full image of the car. Meaning that when I in retrospect look at a detail shot I imagine that a reader would want to see how the full car looks like. But I did not capture such an image unfortunately.

But that is a note to myself for next time.

The following image does work by itself without having a full view of the car as the subject here is the gloves and not the car itself.

What makes this image stand out for me is the light framing of the open window as well as the contrast of brown color.

Walking around all these cars at a show filled with people you have to get creative to get some images that does not contain too many people. One of my attempts at being creative is this shot where the chrome hub cap reflects the 964 Turbo that is next to it.

There are two issues with this image for me. One is minor and that is the reflection of the other people taking a picture of this car. The other issue is that the car in itself is too bright red and takes away focus from the reflection. I have another shot at a later point where I try to do the same trick but with a brown car. This makes the reflection stand out more, but the issue with that image is that the reflection is not a very distinct shape. You cannot clearly see that it is a Porsche in the reflection as you can with the red one.

The next car has a special story as it was the first Porsche 964 Turbo 3.6 liter sold in Denmark. It was found in Norway and brought back to Denmark very recently. The guy who brought it back had an image from Porsche in Copenhagen where the guy who had prepared it for delivery in the 90’s sits in it a few days before this show and could clearly remember it from back in the 90’s.

Apart from the history it is just such a beautiful car. One of the best shapes of 911 in my opinion.

Inside the hangar there was these to almost identical cars parked with the rears towards each other. It just invited for a picture like this.

If only they would have placed them with the vertical line on the wall exactly between them…

Then we come to the image I mentioned earlier where I tried to be clever with the reflection in a window of a 356. I was not able to pull it off completely as the space between the pillars in the windows did not allow for the full view of the 964 Turbo I had as the subject. But I still think it ended up being okay.

And then we are at the last photo I wanted to share. Here I very clearly wanted to frame the car inside the space between the upper part of the “t” and the “b” in Turbo. I think it worked but I would have loved to have the image without any people in it.

But then I probably need to write a lot more of these pieces, get noticed and somehow gain access before the general public. Working with the access I have I am quite content with what I got out of it.