The Autopian’s sister-company, Galpin, is over the moon to finally show you what its talented media team has been working on. It’s called My Porsche Story, and in this premiere episode we dive deep into the journey of Magnus Walker, a collector whose passion redefined what it meant to be a Porsche enthusiast, especially after his iconic film, Urban Outlaw.
It is no secret in today’s car collecting world that the idea of a “numbers matching” car holds greater value than one that doesn’t. Numbers matching typically refers to the engine, transmission, axles, and major components being original, true to their authentic engineering. There’s something about retaining the delicacy that the factory put into some of our favorite cars. In many collectors’ eyes, nothing is more perfect than factory-original, even if it’s not as powerful or not as tech-forward.
This may mean nothing to you, or this may mean the world in deciding whether or not a car is worth pursuing. In the first episode of My Porsche Story, Magnus Walker tells the story of how a numbers matching engine case for his 1975 930 Turbo — his “Dream Car” — actually found him. Magnus is a different kind of collector, unique in his overall approach towards life, and it was a pleasure filming him and hearing his story, so without further ado:
[Editor’s Note: I’d like to introduce David Osorio. He’s a real car nut who runs marketing for Porsche Santa Clarita, a member of The Autopian’s sister company, Galpin. He was a huge part of the My Porsche Story series, so he’ll be writing these up as they come out, first once a week for the first three episodes, and then biweekly. Next up is Matt Farah and after that is J Ryan; their stories — and especially the latter — will move you. Anyway, here’s a bit more from David O. -DT].
What makes a Porsche more than just a car? For many enthusiasts, it’s the stories behind the wheel. My name is David Osorio, I run the marketing at Porsche Santa Clarita, a member of the Galpin Motors family. Over a decade ago my passion for cars came from the driver’s seat of my 1983 Datsun 280zx. For years I religiously chased my brother on the canyon roads of the San Fernando Valley. On the mountain I naturally learned how to heel-toe, how to shift the weight of my car, and how to stay on the right side of the car’s limits. Driving was quite literally the start of my career in the automotive world of content-creation; one random night I met a now longtime friend who asked me if I would be interested in shooting professional drifting at Irwindale. The rest, from there, is history, and I wouldn’t change those adrenaline filled nights for anything in the world.
Fast forward to about 7 years ago, Porsche found me at a dark time in life through my buddy Drew who runs Cooled Collective. He was just starting this Porsche lifestyle brand venturing out from the JDM scene we had all grown to love, and I joined him for the ride. Quite literally, I was saved by the church of flat-six. Since then, it’s been nothing but a fueled passion for all things Porsche. Now with my position at Porsche Santa Clarita we’ve done some fun projects. Whether it’s the building of cars in the Porsche Restoration Challenge, or our monthly Cars and Coffee events that have become a staple in LA car culture. Our new major project I’m thrilled to introduce to you is “My Porsche Story,” a docu-series showcasing the tales of some of the most influential and iconic figures in the Porsche world.
My Porsche Story stemmed from the Porsche passion that has been such a major part of my professional life now. In my automotive career I had been around so many subcultures within the car world. Whether it was the drift scene in Japan, off-roaders, or gentlemen open wheel racers in the U.S. I realized very quickly that there are few things like the diversity of the Porsche community. This sparked the idea to want to tell the stories that made up this scene. Together with Galpin Media and Creative Director Chris De La Garza, our collective efforts have brought to life a series that I feel anyone can enjoy. With My Porsche Story join us as we explore the essence of Porsche culture and the journeys of those who live it.
Living in an unorthodox Porsche world, Magnus Walker a true rockstar of the flat-six. In episode one, we sat down with him at his downtown LA warehouse for this interview and relived the days of the forums, diving into threads for answers and information that Chat GPT could never give us. It was awesome to hear about his pursuit for the perfect 1975 930 Turbo and how his purchase of a rolling chassis eventually landed him the engine case belonging to the car — all thanks to car forums.
The Porsche classic world has changed, with aircooled cars making their way back to Porsche showrooms and easily fetching six figures. Magnus has been collecting these classic 911’s before the hype — way before the hype, back when a classic 911 would run you a few thousand dollars at most. So when it came to numbers matching, did Magnus pursue it for the added value, or did it just feel like something he had to have?
On behalf of Porsche Santa Clarita we look forward to sharing more of this series with you. Check out our first episode of My Porsche Story and make sure to tune into the full season only on the Galpin Motors YouTube. And if you know of someone with a Porsche story, drop me a line at galpinmedia@galpin.com. Thank you!
Sorry to pile on the negativity, but here it comes :
Can we stop romanticizing car ownership/owners? I’ve seen a bunch of youtube videos lately about dudes with cool cars shown as heroes of some sort.
I mean, some stories are awesome, like a dude fixing up a classic in a tiny garage while living in Brooklyn, but the whole thing is starting to look masturbatory to me.
Making videos about a car’s history, engineering or restoration is awesome. Making it about a dude who wants to look badass on youtube is another thing.
I feel the same. Maybe it’s the zeitgeist, maybe I’m just jealous, maybe I’ve got an indigestion of all of these talentless influencer nitwits, but I’m getting really tired and desensitivised by all of this cult of personality content. Somehow I find people like my homely mailman or the woman behind the cash register of the grocery store to be more interesting. It’s probably the influencer nitwits though. Yeah, it’s them.
Same here. Agree with everything you’ve said . Hero’s are not auto mechanics with money and reach. No doubt Magnus is great with his chosen art, but he’s no hero. Monet was a painter, Magnus a mechanic, neither heroic.
Rub it in, eh?
How can we shift the hype to something else so I can finally buy an aircooled 911? Hype, meet Nissan Altima. Nissan Altima, meet hype. Now kiss.
Ironic you mention this, because Magnus himself (and others like him) are a significant part of the reason air-cooled 911s have become so expensive
I won’t start debating the meaning of the word “significant” (I think you need a PhD in statistics for that) but I do think you’re giving the guy a bit too much credit here. 10 years of quantitative easing without many options in the “real economy” have quite a bit more to do with the rise/explosion in price of just about any asset class (oldtimers, rolexes, wine, art and stocks) to name but a few) that we saw since 2008.
Coupled with that, Porsche was smart enough to start ramping up PR for the upcoming 50th birthday of their ‘legend’ well before 2013. While Magnus, Singer and others like ’em surely had their part in the air-cooled 911 bubble, they were merely piggybacking onto the biggest inflatory injection of money supply ever witnessed in the history of man combined with an intense smart marketing campaign of one of the world’s most famous sports car brands.
Not too into the trainman from the Matrix. Had no idea he was into anything but trains….
I’ve seen less judgement in a court room. Be better, commentariat.
You’re right. I think my reaction says more about me than about the video or the guy. It’s time for me to go touch some grass.
It was an interesting enough story, and a well done video.
The irony of your post is strong.
This got me to thinking.
As a corollary discussion:
Why (or why not) does Magnus Walker come across as “rich guy hoards rich things”, and I genuinely don’t care.Whereas,
Why (or why not) does Jay Leno comes across as a genuinely nice guy that has an amazing collection that I think we are all jealous of, but the car-world is a better place because of his collection.
Ultimately I think it boils down to the fact that Jay has a much more public persona. He has probably made you laugh at least once in your life, which shows that he can be charming, disarming, and relatable.
There’s also a kind of off-putting aura that comes with building an identity or association with expensive German sports cars of a specific marque. Jay seems like he’d be as comfortable in Mercedes’ old doorless Festiva as he would be in a gullwing 300, and he wouldn’t care if you pronounced “Porsche” with one syllable or three. Whether it is fair or not, the brand carries the baggage of snobbery with it.
This is huge and you’re totally right. Jay has a whole episode talking about how much he loves his early 00s pignose trans-am, which is a pretty normal car that is not a high-status thing at all (or even well-liked by many people). The dude just genuinely loves cars of all kinds and likes sharing that passion with other people, as is evidenced by the episodes where someone else brings a car and they talk about it together.
Also, having one piece of several interesting cars feels a lot less conspicuous-consumptiony than having 50 of the “same one”, just because you can. It’s a bit like the difference between a woman (or a man!) having a wardrobe full of shoes, dresses, skirts, jackets, purses etc… or a lady having 40 pieces of the same Birkin bag, all in a different color of leather: the former you can sort of relate to and think “she must really enjoy clothing”; the latter just makes you go “but why?”
Who is Magnus Walker, and who makes him come across as rich guy hoards rich things ?
Poor man, I just heard about him and he’s already in trouble.
First, David, thank you for the introduction to yourself. The production value of the tiny bit I watched is great. Good job.
Edited, deleted. I’m trying not to be so negative, so I’ll summarize my prior comment:
Meh.
I like this site over some others because the content is pretty relatable and is clearly written by passionate people who really love their cars. This series just doesn’t fit in with that at all – why would I care about some rich hoarder buying another car he doesn’t drive? Chances are this is just playing up the market so a bunch of his buddies can sell off their 930s at even more of a profit.
Myeah.. Seems like I’m not the only one in the comments that would rather see something/someone relatable and admirable in their pursuit out of true passion, as opposed to “rich guy hoarding umpteen more of something that he needs, thus destroying the passion of a community because he – who already has so much – wants more.”
I had the same feeling about the Rüf collection here lately: congrats hoarder, you’ve snatched up more than your share. Nice for you, but don’t pretend you’re passionate about your hobby when you’ve crossed over to greed. The true passionista’s I’ve met in my life (and those include plenty of wealthy air-cooled 911 owners) actually wanted to make sure their passion would live on, even if that meant sticking to one or maybe two vintage P-cars, and letting go for not-necessarily-top-dollar if it meant the car went to someone with a true love for it.
So… colour me unimpressed. This feels more ‘rich celebrity satisfies materialistic urge’ than ‘great guy/girl finds holy grail’.
Ain’t that the truth.
Personally I don’t find white guy dreads to be a personality.
I feel like “holy grail hunting” is a lot less interesting when it’s somebody with a ton of money and connections that does it. I prefer David Tracy’s approach with slapping together various cars to make one quarter-decent car out of it.
Like Jim Glickenhaus, who has enough money to cobble some bullshit together to build a bitsa car, call it something it ain’t, and everyone swoons.
Call me sour grapes and all but I’m not really connecting with story about Magunus spending dump truck of money to buy a motor to make a car complete only to have it sit on a shelf. Video production is great though!
No one is soliciting my input but how about the story of an average dad spending nights and weekends working with the teenager to build an awesome 944 because the kid wanted one since he was a kid.
I’d rather see a regular person building a 944, that’s a lot more relatable. That’s why I loved being in the 944 community when I had one, it was really down to earth.
Nope, no thanks.
Enough with the holy grails.
Choosing Holy Grails is important. For while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.
But this one was kinda chosen … poorly 😉
(Yes I also love Indiana Jones)
-And what a sad story really, hunting for the right stuff only to never use it 🙁
A lot of my Porsche friends met MW recently at a big event here, and all say he seems like a nice guy. I wish it shone through more in the videos he appears in.
That’s pretty dang cool