An American Car Adventure part 3

Photo and text: Christer Lundem

August 12: The legend Magnus Walker

In Downtown LA lives a peculiar character: He looks like a hippie – beard and long hair with dreadlocks wearing a knitted hat. However, looks are deceptive, he is a renowned business man and a Porsche persona. Are you just vaguely interested in Porsche you probably know the name: Walker, Magnus Walker. It just happens so that one of my American friends, Dorian Valenzuela, do mechanics for Walker. During a lunch at the trendy sausage restaurant “Wurstkuche”, filled to the brim with hipsters (and us not so much hipsters), Dorian asks us if we want to visit Walker. He pops the question randomly, as if he asked me for some more ketchup. Magnus lives only a few blocks from the restaurant, it is not even necessary to bring the car. Obviously, this is an invitation we cannot decline.

Magnus is originally from Sheffield, England. He is a former fashion designer who now has achieved guru status with his personal Porsche conversions. He has cars in large warehouses which looks like a film set. It turns out that the buildings around the garage is also used by the movie industry to recordings. The garage is a mecca for the Porsche fans. There are also exciting car builds and a big room full of old 911´s from 1964 to 1976. On the roof of the building, with a view of the LA skyline, we get to grips with some of the causes of Magnus' success. He is generous with his time, almost like we were old friends. He has an infectious English humor, a lot like John Cleese. Our kind of guy!

Tomorrow more about our road trip.