DRIVEN NOT HIDDEN | Luftgekuhlt Air & Water 2026

Words & Photos - Kyle Van Hoften
Value is in the eye—or wallet—or mind of the…owner. Or it should be.  Some place a high value on a low mileage show car.  Sure, those most often does generate more dollars at sale than their high-mileage peers. But what if you value smiles per gallon, or just…driving?  If your value is utilization?  The cars we often see—or don’t even see—tucked away in a collection with only “factory miles” are often the same cars developed to be fantastic cars—great drivers. And then aren’t driven. And on the other side of the spectrum are the cars that are driven. And often, driven a lot.

The now-annual Air|Water show held in Costa Mesa, Ca, this April had many of both types of cars. Amazing cars with fewer miles than pounds I gained last year. And fantastic cars with more miles than the odometer might have even intended. Many stories around the low mileage cars sound like this: "I really like that car that has not been driven much so that’s all I can say about it, really.”  To find out what the stories of some of the high-mileage cars sound like, we sought out a few owners with their cars on display at Air|Water. And those stories sound like this: 

Jacob King

Each year, the number of overlanding Cayennes grows. But while walking through CayenneLand, it was the tallest 911 Carrera 4S that caught people’s attention. Well the car wasn’t tall, but with the two Porsche bikes on the Porsche roof rack on top, Jacob King’s 996 sure stood out. 

This 2003 Carrera 4S 996 model stood out to King when he bought it, too. “I bought it in July of 2022 and liked it because it has that unique body with the factory widebody and it’s the only 996 with the reflector that evokes the older models,” King says.  “The sounds and the smells are great. It feels old school but has some modern comforts as well,” he adds.

King isn’t afraid of putting miles on it. “It’s at 146,828 now and I put on about two to three thousand miles a year,” he continues. “We went to RennSport Reunion in Monterey shortly after I bought it and I’ve run it up to Good Vibes at Newcomb’s Ranch a handful of times. These bikes aren’t the usual ones up there, but I’ve used this to get up to Snow Valley and Snow Summit for my mountain biking adventures.”

He's had his share of cool cars, including one of the more recognized Volvo 850r wagons in Southern California, and with his Instagram account name of @71elcamino, you can surmise his first car loves might not have been European. “With the 996, shifting through the gears is awesome. I love my muscle cars and Volvos, but this is more engaging. My son Max is almost always with me with the weekend Cars & Coffee meets wherever they might be. My wife Laura joins me sometimes and even my Dad when he’s not driving his own 2009 white Carrera 2! And Laura is learning how to drive manual because she wants to share these experiences in the other seat, too!”

That is creating more than enough value for King. “I have no concerns about what mileage will mean for this car,” he explains. “As long as I keep up the maintenance on it, I’m not worried about it. The condition of the vehicle and the records I keep will help the resale when and if that day comes.”

Jared Aguila

When you live about 65 miles from most of the “local” events you enjoy, you either stay home or you put miles on your car. When you happen to have one of the most admired Porsche 964s around, we’re all glad Jared Aguila frequently chooses the latter.

Aguila was bitten by the Porsche bug at a very early age.  “I always loved Porsches basically because my dad did,” Aguila recalls. “I was baptized into the Porsche realm when I was 11. My dad brought me to a poster art place and told me to pick one. I picked one showing a red 964 and hung that on my wall since that day until, well, until last year when my parents moved!  I’d look at that poster every morning and night hoping that I’d buy one someday. I was infatuated with that car. I really liked Porsches and that era fascinated me.”

“You have to enjoy the car.  I get out as often as possible, mostly with my wife Leslie. Driving clears my mind." - Jared Aguila

This wasn’t Aguila’s first 911. That was a 1995 993 he shared with his father. “I’d had other Porsches before this 964, but this one was solely my car,” Aguila explains. “I wasn’t looking for this particular car and I didn’t really have specifics I was targeting. I found this in Tustin and didn’t want to miss out. I was young and dumb and was scared I’d miss my chance. I said I’d take my time but instead of six months, that ended up being two weeks!”

The car is a 1989 Carrera 4—the first year of the 964—and in the ten years in his possession, the car has gone through some changes. One change is that it had 107,000 miles on it when he bought it as a 27-year-old car and it now has more than 135,000. “It might have a lot of miles for a weekend car, but I’m not restricted by a fear of adding miles,” Aguila says. “You have to enjoy the car.  I get out as often as possible, often with my wife Leslie. Driving clears my mind. I know some people don’t like to drive too far to events but an hour-long drive to All Makes Welcome at Good Time in Long Beach is a great start to a Saturday!”

It can’t hurt that Aguila has made some improvements to his 964. “When I saw the Craig’s List ad, I figure it was worth the look,” he recalls. “The owner’s energy for his project was waning after the paint.  I was a little wrecked when I soon learned the motor was hurt. One of the cylinders was bad, but it quickly snowballed into a much bigger project. The motor has since been rebuilt top to bottom and I’ve added some little bolt-ons for extra fun: headers, exhaust, etc. With the help of the awesome team at Sleepers, we dressed up the engine bay a little, too. We went at the interior, too, starting with simple improvements and then figured on a pedal kit, short shifter, Recaro Pole Position seats, CarBone interior inserts paying a little homage to the RS 964.”

You might think you almost saw Aguila driving around, but then might have second guessed yourself. “My favorite thing with cars—besides driving—is wheels. I’m not into shoes any more…now it’s car shoes—wheels!” Aguila confesses. “I’ve probably had ten sets of wheels fitted to the car. I definitely enjoy wheels, but it’s a relatively easy change that gives the car a whole new look—that I’ll soon change again!”

Eric Friis

Aguila’s 964 was on display in the main plaza and constantly had a crowd gathered around it. He has built the car into something fantastic to drive, but certainly as one of the more bespoke cars on the scene. Perhaps on the other end of the spectrum is the 1983 928S Eric Friis and his dad drove down from their Santa Cruz home. There are a lot of reasons why cars are included in Air|Water. Friis’ 928S did not use the “show queen” pass to get in. “We got this car last year from a friend in the car community,” Friis says. “The paint is trashed, the interior is roached, it’s incredibly lowered—maybe four inches too low. The leather on the stock seats was a mess. It has a stereo but I have no idea if it works. It has a slight leak on the heater core and the power steering leaks so bad that it won’t even hold fluid.”

If you’re starting to wonder why Friis acquired this, that confusion might be compounded when you realize Friis, although inherently a fan of many marques, is more a vintage BMW champion. “I started with a 1967 BMW 2000CS mainly because it was cheaper than a ’67 911, even though both were made in the Karman factory so they both rust the same,” Friis explains. “And I have a 996. But I like to drive and I like to drive with my 84-year-old dad, and he doesn’t fit in the 996.  We just took the car on 2000 miles of rallies—one was a DWA rally and campout in Parkfield, CA and then the other was the drive from the Bay Area down to Air|Water. We hit Big Sur on Wednesday and went through Paso Robles on Thursday. If I told you the route, your mind would be blown. We did maybe 1250 rally miles over the course of two weekends and 700 transit miles over the two weekends.”

All with no power steering. But this 928 is not a compromise. “In 1983, this car was actually the fastest production car for sale in America,” Friis says. “It has a V8 generating around 300 horsepower with 50/50 weight distribution and actual rear wheel steering—in 1983! The body on this one is remarkably straight. And I want to do a quick shout out to Bailey Clayton who did the hand-painted Pegasus on it!

“The word that kept coming to mind along these drives was ‘visceral.’ I’m in the AI industry so analog cars are a wonderful disconnect from normal life. We weren’t necessarily looking for a 928, and while I have a proclivity of rescuing the really ugly ones, this is great!” - Eric Friis

Air|Water was essentially a destination or excuse for Friis and his dad to take the “new” car out on another rally. But unlike a campground, which can be a great destination in itself, Air|Water provided Friis much more. “I enjoy the event a lot,” he says. “When you have a car on display, it can be bit of a long day, especially for my 84 year-old-dad. But we really enjoy seeing people that we might only see once or twice a year. We love it for that. It’s the greatest all day Cars and Coffee on earth…which happens to have awesome parking coordination.  The diversity of the cars is incredible. You can see a really old 356 with some surfboards on top and then yards away, Guntherwerks and Singer cars…and every generation and configuration in between.”

When asked how many miles the 928S has on it now, Friis replied, “No idea, the odometer is broken and then speedo doesn’t work. But I’m going to go with ‘a lot.’”

Mark Paz

Friis certainly wasn’t the only one bringing a new-to-him Porsche to Air|Water. Mark Paz had about a five-mile commute to the Porsche celebration in his 1996 Polaris silver metallic 993 Carrera 4S, but when he bought it in January, he drove it from Arizona back to his Corona del Mar home, via Las Vegas of course! He’s added more than another 500 over the past few months, too. This might be his first Carrera 4S, but Paz is a serial Porsche owner. 

“I purchased this one because I had sold my last 1997 993 Carrera Cabriolet in 2022 to pay for one of my daughter’s SMU college tuition,” Paz says. “And that one had been an insurance replacement for a 1995 993 Carrera Cabriolet that had surprisingly been stolen from in front of our house in 2011. I’ve always wanted a Carrera S but couldn’t quite manage to get one.  Now that my daughter is graduating, I started my search with a little more focus.”

“I basically don’t plan on selling this gem,” Paz confesses. “I plan on driving it as much as possible now and then. Hopefully one day, my cars will be handed down and enjoyed by one of my several children." - Mark Paz

As many of us know, once the search starts, it can escalate quickly. “I started my search in December when she officially graduated,” he continues. “I came close to purchasing a 1998 993 C2S but that went to Japan with its returning owner. My search continued into January and then while at a trade conference in Palm Desert, I found it online. It was a bonus that the motor had been completely rebuilt just 1700 miles prior by Palm Springs Porsche. I purchased it that same day—on my 60th birthday!

It's safe to assume that someone who lives on the California coast and finds a car inland in the desert and then drives it back after having it shipped to his Arizona house is not afraid of putting miles on the car. He’s already thought through his exit strategy from this car, too. “I basically don’t plan on selling this gem,” Paz confesses. “I plan on driving it as much as possible now and then hopefully one day, my cars will be handed down and enjoyed by one of my several children. From a reliability standpoint, I’m also not concerned with the miles piling up. The recent rebuild has given it new life. I’m looking forward to many short and long drives as well as weekend Cars and Coffee events. It’s such an awesome all-around comfortable driver with some zip, too. I’m definitely not concerned about the resale value, besides these cars were made to be driven and this particular model should hold its value for some time.”

So if you were looking to get in line for this 993 Carrera 4S, he’ll have to adopt you.