PH in LA: Liveblog

An early morning blast up the canyons, cars and coffee and classic Mercs

If life on four wheels looks better under Californian sun this is where you can get a taste, editor Dan out with Porsche to catch up on the LA Auto Show and witness unveilings for the Macan and others from Jaguar, Mercedes and more. After that he's nicking a 991 press car and off in search of further 911-shaped adventures with Magnus Walker, Singer and others.

Keep checking by for regular updates here and follow Dan's Twitter feed on @Trent_Dan (#PHLA2013) for on-the-spot reports. In a new format links to archived previous posts can be found below.

Saturday, 2030h, LAX airport
So my last day in California started early; really early. But for once I didn't begrudge the misaligned body clock waking me at 5am on a Saturday, deciding to capitalise on it by picking a promising looking squiggle on the map and going for an early morning blast in the 991. And it was fabulous, a twisting roller coaster road not dissimilar to the ones driven on the recent Aston Martin launch nearby. You schlep through a lot of boring Interstate and stoplight suburbia in LA but when you do escape and get into the mountains, boy, it gets good.

And I was back in time to attend Cars and Coffee too, a Sunday Service style fixture of the LA motoring scene. And as diverse too - any meet that can have a Saleen Mustang parked next to an old Fiat 500 and E-type Jaguar is alright in my book. And I'm not sure anyone's ever brought a Porsche tractor to a PH meet yet.

From there I went to catch up with the guys at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center (I'll demure to use their spelling as it's the official name) who I'd seen briefly the night before as the search to solve a mystery mechanical noise on a customer's 300SL Roadster got a bit tasty. The car was due to be picked up today and as we left spannerman genius Nate at 8pm on a Friday he'd just returned from a test drive looking frustrated. "Right," he shrugged. "We'll change the prop shaft and see if that does it. And if that doesn't we'll replace the clutch. And if that doesn't work we'll have to swap out the transmission..." And that's what he did, working until gone 3am. Such are the pressures of handing over a car and presenting the owner with a $250,000 restoration bill... Still, even with the half million purchase price with 300SLs making over a million these days he was still going to be quids (or rather dollars) in. Welcome to the crazy world of Californian car collectoring.

Sensing that Nate, Mike and the guys probably weren't in the mood to chat I went out in a couple of cars, including a delightful burgundy on tan 230SL 'Pagoda' that rasped its way up another twisty canyon road. A world away from the 991 but still huge fun. This followed by a quick run in one of the rarest AMGs ever - an R63 no less, one of apparently just 80 ever made. A big old brute and no beauty but rarity gifts it curiousity value.

And now here I am, ready to board my flight home and reflect on a cracking few days of car geekery. California is never anything less than full-on but the car is king out here and whether Porsche shaped or not there's a ton of four-wheeled fun to be enjoyed. Shame you can't fit a rust-free 911 SC in your hold baggage too. Ho hum.

Dan