#Dastreffen – Part 1

Knotty Nawadhinsukh Words by Knotty Nawadhinsukh

What’s In A Name?

Back in December when I received an invitation to an event called #Dastreffen, I wondered what it meant. While my German vocabulary is relatively restrictive at best, I was still perplexed as the wording looked unfamiliar. That is until I realised that it was “das” and “treffen” put together which meant simply in English as “The Meeting”. So now I get it. #Dastreffen was the brainchild of GT Porsche Thailand, that well respected publication who came up with the event to create a formal launch pad for their first entry into the country. It was held at Impact Speed Park, an all-new electric go-kart track which opened here recently on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Nothing Cool Like Air-Cooled

In recent years, we have seen that there has been quite a resurgence in the culture of vintage Porsches and Thailand is no exception either. Of course there are talks and mumblings on the state of the prices that air-cooled Porsches are commanding nowadays. But make no mistake though that for many petrolheads, seeing more and more classic Porsches getting re-tuned or restored back to their glorious selves for road use is far more pleasing to the eyes and ears than watching them rotting away in a dilapidated state in someone’s garage. Such popularity for Porsches was evident at #Dastreffen, with several hundreds of enthusiasts and fans turning up during the afternoon and into the night, with a friendly and easy atmosphere to boot. While there were probably around a hundred or so variants of 911s and a few 356s within the confine of this Porsche party, there were several hundreds more of both air-cooled and water-cooled Porsches outside in the car park area. After tallying it up, it is safe to say that it was probably one of the biggest gatherings in the country for the German marque. So all in all, The Meeting turned out quite productive.