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FEATURE STORY 32 Spiel – August 2021 AVANTSFEST 2021 "D rive everything!" That is the motto and calling card of AVANTS car club. Haven't heard of it? Well, chances are one or more of your Porsche pals has. AVANTS is the brainchild of Adam Cramer, Founder and "Chief Enthusiast." Adam created AVANTS with the mission to "make it easier for gearheads to connect, learn, and drive." Founded in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle chapter), the club has expanded to Portland and Denver in recent years and built up a membership and community of thousands of gearheads from all backgrounds and interests with one thing in common… cars! As the club motto states: "drive everything!" This is a club made up of enthusiast of all marques and types of transportation, from Alfa Romeo to Zagato. There is even an AVANTS Off Road group within the club, so you are just as likely to see a Lamborghini Aventador at an AVANTS event as a Land Rover Defender Series 1. A good way to look at it is to take your passion for Porsche and expand that enthusiasm out to anything with four wheels. Being that AVANTS is all about cars and community, one of their big events is the annual AVANTSFEST. I attended the 2021 AVANTSFEST for the first time on Sunday, August 1 at Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA. I motored down in my 2006 Porsche Cayman S, arriving a few minutes after the 10 a.m. opening of the gates to find a line of cars a quarter mile long. Volunteers were busily checking folks in and directing drivers and their cars to selected areas of the paddock for the event and "car show" that doubled as the parking lot. I was directed to "Porsche row" where I found myself parked next to a brand new black GT3 to my left and a beautiful white 928S to my right. After exiting from my car, I could feel the enthusiasm and electricity in the air. Stepping back for a moment to gaze at the spectacle around me, I quickly counted 30-40 Porsches immediately in my vicinity and scattered throughout the paddock. Porsche certainly made quite a statement at the event with their representation. Walking through the sea of cars and people, I quickly ran across several familiar faces from our Porsche PNWR family and conversation quickly turned to the fascinating variety of automobiles on site and the various activities going on about Story and Photographs by Martin Wild