Irwin Greenstein

Irwin Greenstein is a sports-car enthusiast who lives in the Tampa Bay area. He publishes the online magazine Shotgun Life.

Articles by Irwin Greenstein

• The Outlaws have their day at Porsche Werks Reunion Amelia Island

  Wednesday, March 14, 2018

  Porsche Club of America’s second annual Porsche Werks Reunion, held March 9 at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort on Amelia Island, Florida, celebrated the hot rod 356 Outlaws. With the 356 generation of Porsches now riding high on six-figure valuations, the suggestion of modifying one into a customized Outlaw can brand you as a bona fide nut job. But Outlaws, both 356s and 911s, have gained a cult status for their extracurricular high-performance and home-brewed engineering that thumb their nose at the Concours garage queens pushed across the auction blocks of Gooding, Bonhams and Mecum.

• Porsche 356 aromatherapy

  Tuesday, September 19, 2017

  On the Porschephile calendar, the third Sunday of September marks "Drive Your 356 Day," which celebrates Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche's birthday of Sept. 19, 1909. This year, our holiday fell on Sept. 17. With the top down on my 1994 968, under a bluebird sky, I cruised along the lovely roads from Thomasville, Georgia, to our starting point, Cascade Park in Tallahassee, Florida.

• A celebration of Porsches in Apalachicola

  Tuesday, November 08, 2016

  ​The North Florida Region of the Porsche Club of America participated in the Main Street Autos & Oysters Classic Car Show held Oct. 29 in Apalachicola, Florida. More than 100 hot rods, trucks, motorcycles, sports cars, muscle cars and restored classics were showcased in the historic downtown's Riverfront Park. The North Florida Region secured an entire block on E Street devoted to Porsches in a spectacular 22-car display under brilliant sun charged with river light.

• The amazing Porsches of the Petersen Automotive Museum

  Monday, October 24, 2016

  Having lived in California for 15 years before moving back to the East Coast, I've always harbored a love-hate relationship with a state that's beautiful, exciting and demanding. For Porsche fans, California must rank as the hands-down favorite for coastal cruises, amazing Porsche sightings, specialty shops and a deep-rooted Porsche history and culture that has helped the brand succeed in the U.S. The downside to California, of course, is the horrendous traffic that traps your beloved Porsche in perpetual gridlock when it really wants to rev up and play.

• Waiting for an outlaw

  Monday, August 22, 2016

  For most of us working stiffs, the American outlaw possesses the heart-pounding cache of roads not taken. Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel and other "bad boys" have created personas that spun gold for them and exhilaration for their audiences. After a day at the office, we felt empowered watching them reshape our world through their own brand of mayhem, compassion and courage.

• My Porsche existential crisis

  Monday, April 18, 2016

  Downtown Thomasville, Georgia, is a dreamy historic village with brick streets and family-owned businesses operating from storefronts circa early 20th century. A recent Saturday monthly sidewalk sale on Broad Street had attracted a pleasant society strolling under lush trees and eating ice cream cones as temperatures hovered in the mid-70s beneath a satin blue sky.

• Which is the better deal? 1992 Porsche 968 vs. 2016 Porsche Boxster

  Friday, February 12, 2016

  Value is always a relative concept. But when it comes to the 2016 Porsche Boxster, I ran through a pricing exercise to discover if the mid-engine, two-seat roadster is good deal from a historical perspective. With a starting MSRP of $52,000 for the 2016 Boxster, skeptics will argue it's nearly impossible to find one divested of options to warrant that skinny sticker price. That's because the Porsche option list can have a hockey-stick curve that can easily escalate the advertised base price of a car to a premium of 50 percent or more.

• The secret to a great 911 test drive

  Friday, October 02, 2015

  You're thinking about buying a new Porsche, so you head to the dealership and talk to the salesperson. You're soon behind the wheel of that new 911, taking it out for a test drive. But before you've even taken the training wheels off to find out how it really purrs, the test drive is over.

• Is now the best time to buy your vintage Porsche 968?

  Friday, August 14, 2015

  When Panorama hits your mailbox, if you're like me, you immediately tear off the wrapper, scan the table of contents and then jump back to The Mart — enthralled by all the gorgeous Porsches for sale. As the owner of a 1994 968 Cabriolet, 968s are my first stop in The Mart. And in the past three issues I've noticed rising prices. Of course there's always the statistical "black swan" — the anomaly such as a 1994 "one-of-a-kind" 968 Cabriolet for $53,000 in the June 2015 issue.

• Why I bought a 968 cabriolet over a vintage Boxster

  Friday, July 17, 2015

  It's Miami in 1972 and as "Playboy of the Western World," I owned a white 1959 Austin Healy 100-6 — a low-slung phallic projectile whose straight six sounded like an offshore racer. My wife-to-be naturally fell crazy in love with me, and the Healy dispensed its British aphrodisiac all the way to the altar.

• Porsches and Polo in Florida

  Monday, March 02, 2015

  ​A jaw-dropping collection of Porsches gathered at the Sarasota Polo Club at Lakewood Ranch for a sun-kissed get-together called Porsches and Polo that was organized by Florida's Suncoast Region of the PCA. Held Feb. 22, the Porsches had assembled beneath the palm trees whose fronds whispered in the breeze from the partly cloudy sky as temperatures lingered in the low 80s.