192 Porsche 356 at the "end of the earth"
06/03/2014
In 1976, the first international Porsche 356 meeting took place in Lüneburg, Germany. The meetings, often with more than 200 vehicles and participants from all over the world, are held on the Ascension weekend in different European countries. The 356s have visited Switzerland three times, in Interlaken in 1989, in Bern in 1999 and in Montreux in 2009.
This year, from May 29 to June 1, 2014, 356 owners were invited to Portugal for the 39th International Porsche 356 Meeting for the first time. The host and organizer, the "Porsche 356 Clube Portugal", organized the meeting in Estoril. This was an excellent choice. The picturesque coastline around Estoril has been one of Portugal's tourist attractions since the early 20th century. The owners of the 356 also accepted longer journeys.
More than 380 guests from many European countries (Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain) came to Portugal, and guests from translation, e.g. from the USA (Florida, California, Missouri...), Canada, Australia and South Africa also brought their vehicles to Estoril.
South African Clive Winterstein, for example, had his Porsche 356 Cabriolet transported from Johannesburg to Bilbao especially for the Portuguese meeting. Around 190 Porsche 356s built between 1951 and 1964 were therefore present at this year's event, including 31 from Germany and 11 from Switzerland.
It was no easy task for the organizers to coordinate so many guests and vehicles. The two selected hotels - the James Bonds Hotel Palacio and the Hotel Inglaterra - were located right next to each other and a large, constantly monitored garden was also available.
The combination of perfect organization and the infrastructure on offer guaranteed an all-round successful event. In addition, Estoril's surrounding area offers some fantastic roads and great scenery, which made for wonderful rides over the three days.
The tours were meticulously prepared and offered a variety of routes that allowed for a sportier pace as well as stunning views. Stops were made in Belem, Sintra and Cabo da Roca, for example. Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of the European continent's mainland. The Portuguese national poet Luis de Camoes described the place in the following words: "Here... where the earth ends and the sea begins. (Aqui... onde a terra se acaba e o mar começa.)"
The local tourist office issued each Porsche 356 driver with an artistically designed certificate. On my certificate you could read the following lines: "It is hereby certified that Laurent Missbauer was at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe, where the land ends and the sea begins, and where faith and enterprise led the Portuguese cara waves to discover new worlds for the world."
From the New World, Australian actor George Lazenby, known for his role as James Bond in the 1969 film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", visited Cabo da Roca. Sean Connery's successor filmed the opening sequence for the sixth James Bond not very far from Cabo da Roca in the last week of April 1969.
The beach, Praia do Guincho, where this opening sequence was filmed, is located on the road between Cascais and Sintra. In the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", James Bond drives his Aston Martin DBS on this country road and is overtaken by a car at speed. Bond pursues this car and discovers the empty vehicle on a beach. James Bond just manages to stop the driver from drowning herself in the sea and then introduces himself in his typical manner: "My name is Bond, James Bond"...
Portgaul offered many filming locations for the sixth James Bond film, including the Palacio Hotel with Bond's wedding and the Casino Estoril where Contessa Teresa di Vincenzo loses to James Bond at cards and where the gala evening of the Porsche 356 meeting took place.
