The Outlaws have their day at Porsche Werks Reunion Amelia Island

Irwin Greenstein | March 14, 2018

A heavily modernized suspension and interior, along with a high-performance four, underlie this 1959 356 Coupe.

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King of the 911 Outlaws, Magnus Walker (center) with Mark Pribanic and Hannah Elliott in front of Mark’s patinated 1958 356 Coupe.

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.

An Outlaw vintage Porsche unleashes the performance and aesthetics many owners see veiled in the originals. Engines are typically amped up with complementary suspensions, wheels and tires. Interiors are often a mash-up of the vintage and modern.

Body work veers toward traditional, with paint jobs that pay tribute to factory hues, embrace rat-rod ashen matte or mimic the McQueen-era amateur Southern California racing scene when working stiffs innocently flogged their daily drivers during track days.

The historic 1949 Porsche Gmund SL 356/2 restored by Rod Emory.

In the realm of 356s, the term Outlaw is often ascribed to Rod Emory of Emory Motorsports in North Hollywood, California. Starting in the mid-1980s, Rod and his father Gary were modifying 356s. At car shows, organizers didn’t know how to categorize their cars and relegated them to the parking lot. Friends of the Emorys nicknamed them Outlaws, planting the seed for a new breed of classic Porsche.

When it comes to the 911, though, Brit Magnus Walker of Los Angeles is the Outlaw king. The blue-collar brinksmanship of his 911 Outlaw creations are like the Jackson Pollocks of air-cooled, flat-six, giant killers – a rowdy stab at the MBA sophistication associated with Porsche ownership.

With his dreadlocks, beard, sleeve tattoos, gritty jeans and leather biker jacket Magnus has let loose a thumped and raw 911 bravura inspired by the first tenet of his Urban Outlaw doctrine: “Drive every day like a race – if need be, against yourself.”

In the Werks Corral, approximately 500 Porsches of all vintages and models adorned the golf course of the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort. Here are some photos of the spotlighted Outlaw Porsches from that sunny and glorious Florida day.