Gary Koppang, HISTORIAN
After returning from three years in SouthEast Asia courtesy of Uncle Sam, my first car was a 1971 Datsun 510. I later sold that boxy sedan when offered a 1973 BMW 2002. For those of you not old enough to remember racing back then, these were two of the three hot cars in the Under 2.5 class of the Trans-Am series in the late sixties and early seventies, the other being an Alfa Romeo GTV. In 1978 I traded the Bimmer straight across for a 1964 Porsche 356 SC. Those first two cars had around 110 bhp so going to the Porsche’s 95 hp wasn’t that noticeable. More than that they were sedans not sports cars. And, by God, it was a Porsche. A Porsche sports car. Not bad for a poor college student.
As you can see it was black with a red interior. Back then I didn’t join the PCA. Instead, I became a member of the 356 Registry because I thought they would have more model specific information.
It wasn’t until 1998 that Theresa and I joined the PCA after purchasing a ten year old 911, the one with the G50 tranny. This time it was Guards Red with a black interior; just the opposite of my first Porsche. Living in the Seattle metro area I also joined the Pacific NW Region. Since then I’ve had an Ocean Blue 1999 996. Currently, Theresa and I have a 2009 997.2 Carrera S in Carrara White with a dark blue leather inside.
Upon relocating to Portland, we joined the Oregon Region in 2009. I first became involved in 2015 when Past President Joe McQueen called for volunteers for the newly formed effort to assist automotive service students. Later that year I became Chair of the Scholarship & Grants Committee.
