Allocations are how car manufacturers decide how many cars each dealership gets to sell. It's important because it affects how many of the popular cars are available at local dealerships.
Marking up over sticker means that a dealership is selling a car for more than the price suggested by the manufacturer. This usually happens when a car is very popular and hard to find.
The Porsche Macan is a smaller SUV that still has the sporty feel of a Porsche. It's great for people who want a stylish and fun vehicle that can also carry more passengers or cargo.
Car
Porsche GT3 Touring
The Porsche GT3 Touring is a special version of the Porsche 911 that focuses on performance but looks more subtle. It's for people who want a fast car without the flashy design.
ADM stands for Additional Dealer Markup, which is when a car dealership charges more than the price suggested by the manufacturer. This usually happens for popular cars that are in high demand.
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that many people recognize because of its unique shape and fast performance. It's been around for a long time and is loved by car enthusiasts for how well it drives and its stylish looks.
A restoration challenge is a competition where people fix up old cars to make them look and run like new. It's a fun way for car lovers to show off their work and skills.
A turbo is a part of some car engines that helps them go faster by pushing more air into the engine. This makes the car more powerful and can help it use fuel better.
The Porsche Carrera GT is a supercar made by Porsche, known for being very fast and having a powerful engine. It was made in the early 2000s and is considered a classic among car enthusiasts.
This is a special type of auto repair shop that is approved by Porsche to fix their cars. They follow specific guidelines to make sure the repairs are done correctly.
This is a type of car suspension system that can be adjusted to improve how the car handles on the road or track. It's popular among car enthusiasts for better performance.
The Porsche 356 Speedster is a classic car from the 1950s that is small and lightweight, making it fun to drive. Many people love collecting these cars.
Maserati is a luxury car brand from Italy that makes high-end sports cars. They have their own rules for how dealerships operate, which can be different from Porsche.
Audi is a well-known car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars. They have different rules for their dealerships compared to Porsche.
Car
Porsche tractor
The Porsche tractor is a type of farming vehicle made by the car company Porsche. It's an older model that shows how Porsche used to make tractors before focusing solely on cars.
Car
Porsche 930 Turbo
The Porsche 930 Turbo is a powerful version of the 911 that features a turbocharged engine, making it faster and more exciting to drive.
The Porsche 928 is a type of sports car that was made to be comfortable for long drives while still being very fast. It has a different engine setup compared to other Porsches, which makes it special and a bit different in how it feels to drive.
The Opel Manta is an older sports car that people remember for its cool looks and fun driving experience. It's not as common today, but many fans appreciate it for its classic design.
Car
Porsche 992 Sport Classic
The Porsche 992 Sport Classic is a special version of the 911 that looks a bit like older models but has the latest technology and performance. It's popular among collectors.
The Porsche Cayenne is a fancy SUV that offers a lot of space and comfort while still being fun to drive. It's a way for Porsche to make a vehicle that can fit families but still has the sporty feel they are known for.
Air-cooled means the engine stays cool by using air instead of water. This was how many older Porsches worked, and it makes the car lighter and simpler.
The Porsche Boxster is a two-seat convertible sports car that lets you enjoy driving with the top down. It's designed to be fun to drive and is often seen as a more affordable way to own a Porsche.
'First generation' means the first version of a car model. It's usually different from newer versions that come out later, which often have improvements and fixes.
The Porsche Taycan is a new electric car that offers fast speeds and a high-tech driving experience. It's part of Porsche's move towards electric vehicles, combining their sporty reputation with eco-friendly technology.
Porsche Platica is a way for Porsche to connect with its customers through fun events. These can include activities like yoga in showrooms or celebrations of anniversaries.
The sports car together fest was a big celebration by Porsche for its 70th birthday in 2018. It brought together fans and owners for fun activities and events at different dealerships.
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Welcome to Renthousiast Radio, the podcast where Will and Derek
navigate the winding roads of Porsche Obsession, exploring the good and the bad of Porsche ownership.
Grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair, and join us. Renthousiast Radio, because life's too
short not to talk about Porsches. Welcome to Renthousiast Radio. I'm Derek. I'm Will. And I'm Shannon.
Folks out there, I am so happy today to have Shannon Harper on with us on Renthousiast Radio.
Shannon presides over seven different dealerships. Shannon has the inside track to Porsche corporate,
as well as the dealer level Porsche experience. And one of the things that we really hear about
from our community and our listeners is, hey, what should I expect with my experience going to a
Porsche dealership? Why do they do certain things? Why do they price things the way they do?
And what is up with this thing called allocations? And so we are so happy to have Shannon on with us
because he's going to let us know, maybe not how the sausage is made, but certainly where it is made.
And we can kind of ask him all the questions that you folks have asked us
in the comments over the last couple of weeks. So Shannon, I want to give you our most warmest
welcome. Thank you for being on Renthousiast Radio. Thank you, Derek. I'm happy to be here.
Yeah, man. So Will, we got the guy here that can clue us in to everything we want to know. And so
I don't want to waste this. And I'm going to let you jump off first. What's your burning question
for Shannon? My burning question would be, I'm just going to go here. This whole world that I
think has cooled off a little bit, but these dealers that are marking up a way over sticker
for the halo cars, for the cars that the guys are chasing, or the myth that, hey,
you got to buy five Macan EVs in order to earn your way into overpaying for a GT3 touring.
And of course, I'm saying that tongue in cheek, but I would love to get your thoughts on that
because I don't think that's how you guys do it, right? No, no. The kind of terminology that people
use is ADM, additional dealer marker. And Porsche was very Porsche cars North America,
and Porsche AG was very frustrated by this. And that's part of the reason you've seen the price
increases by PAG because they said, well, if the American consumer will pay it, we'll just raise
our prices and kind of cut the dealer out of this whole nonsense. Wow. So definitely, I mean,
it's been a very frustrated thing for a lot of customers. I personally hate to see that because
I think the cars should, Porsche buyers care about value. They're well-heeled buyers,
but they still care about value. And when there's just these obnoxious markups of $50,000 to $100,000,
it destroys the whole value of the brand. And I hate seeing cars. We'll personally,
we'll blacklist customers that we bought. We'll see the car we sold them on Tuesday,
we see it online on Thursday, and we never sell them another car again. Because our
ethos is we want to sell cars to people that drive the cars and enjoy them, that buy them for the
love of the brand. And we don't charge, we charge MSRP. We don't charge over sticker.
Don't play all those games because I think it's, I take the long view on it. I mean,
the market's going to end and flow. This will, this will change. So we don't, we don't do it. And we
have a, we'll get reached out to people that say, I don't want a GT3 Touri. I said, I got 40 people
on the list and I get five a year. And it's going to be a while. So, but the good news is you get
at a great value. And I have a lot of respect for dealers that take that
tact that you just shared with us. I mean, it just feels, and I'm aware of other dealers here,
even kind of close to me, that it just feels so opportunistic and short-sighted and, you know,
foot on your throat kind of deal. And, and, you know, I'm aware of other dealerships that are
doing what you're doing. And I think that I liked what you said, like the long game,
it just doesn't leave the bad taste in somebody's mouth. And I think it,
it speaks to a high level of, you know, frankly, integrity. So that's why I wanted to hit you with
that. And I didn't mean to open up with kind of the elephant in the room, negative tact on it.
But, you know, it's what people talk about. I mean, I look on social media, people are
complaining about it and they're, they're complaining about dealers, you know, so, yeah.
I would say the overwhelming majority of dealers still don't do it. It, it, it's been,
you know, the, the 20% of dealers do it. And I think that's where you see,
that's where you see it more prevalent. But, you know, it's, it's definitely a point of contention
and it's something we use to reward those who have been loyal to us. You know, that's, that's,
that's where we, we really have a very loyal customer base here in East Tennessee. And
we sell out all of our allocations within 10 miles of us, you know, this, we have,
we have very blessed for, for a very, very strong portion of community in, in Knoxville.
Yeah. Yeah. And customers have long memories. And so, you know, post COVID in, they're calling
you up and, and you're saying, well, yeah, it's going to be 75 over sticker. And they walk and
they find an MSRP dealer like yourself and they buy it for MSRP, they're never going to go back to
that other dealer. And I can speak from that, from personal experience, because I'm like,
if you're going to take advantage of me with this artificial tax is greed tax, because of,
you know, scarcity, then when there's plenty, I'm going to go to the person that treated me like
a human being. And so, Shannon, I certainly appreciate that. And I, we talk about this a
lot too in the podcast, we talk about kind of the runaway prices, when it comes to Porsche,
both on the new and used market, and kind of this thought process that, as someone really has their
heart set on say a 2025 992 base, right? And they love that. But then all of a sudden, it gets a
$50,000 ADM put on it. And then that's out of their price range. And they can't afford that,
because when the world normalizes, they're going to be underwater on that car potentially. And so,
then they start looking at the use market, and they go, well, if I was going to spend $180,000
with options on a base Carrera, well, then I'm going to spend $130,000 on fill in the blank,
991.2 or whatever, that drags up the price of the cars under it, right? Like as far as use prices
go up. And then the poor son of a gun who's looking for the 991.2 says, well, those prices
have gone up, I can't afford that. And, you know, an infinitum. And so, the fact that you're holding
the line as MSRP, you know, kind of presents or prevents that in the Tennessee area.
Yeah. And I think that we're starting to see across the country, you know, there's a huge
wholesale month from PAG to Porsche Cars North America on the 911s. And I think that, you know,
with relative softness in China, USA has become the largest market for Porsche. And so, we've
seen our greater share of 911s being allocated to America. And as that goes on, you know, you're
able to fill that demand. And I think there's pricing, well, even though $50,000 over for a
base career, I think that's long gone. I don't see that happening much more.
Which is mainly still in the GT cars in the specialty orders.
Yeah, I mean GT cars are still so limited. I mean, we're a mid-sized dealer. We do about
300 new cars a year. And we've got three GT3s and one GT3 Touring. That's not a lot. So,
they're still very limited. Still, you know, we play every game. We can possibly play with Porsche
with all the different criteria they set out. We do all that to make sure to earn our fair share
of allocation of those.
What kind of criteria? I'm curious. Are you able to share that? I'm really curious. What
do they have? What kind of hoops do they have you jump through?
You know, a lot of it is your basic standards type stuff. I mean, how well are you doing?
How well are you representing the brand? You know, I mean, are you participating in one of the
things we've always done is the restoration challenge. We've done it every single year since
it's come out. We're very enthusiastic about doing that. And that earns you additional allocation.
So, if you win your class or you enter cars and you do a good job, you're awarded with
extra 911s, extra sports cars, extra turbos. So, we do that very well. I mean, Connor and our
marketing team, I mean, these guys are... I put them up against anybody in the country. They're
they are doing things that Porsche recognizes as
amazing stewards of the brand. And this is the type of stuff they want to see other dealers doing.
It's classy. It's very enthusiast focused. It's track days. It's great events. It's
not some of the kind of cheesy purple gorilla on the roof type of advertising you expect from
dealership. I mean, it's geared toward Porsche enthusiast. And then facility-wise, I mean,
if you have a... We should be opening up our Gen 5 facility next month. Facility is a big thing
for all the manufacturers. If you have a nice facility, you take great care of your customers.
You sell lots of cars. They generally treat you pretty well. So, facility is a big thing for
Porsche. How you represent the brand in the market. Man, you sound like a busy dude. I mean,
what does your day-to-day or week-to-week look like? Well, I don't have an office. So, I just kind
of float around. I mean, every week's different. I mean, it's really hard to pin down. I mean,
today I have this and then kind of wide open in the days that I'll have anything on my calendar.
Usually, the days where the wheels come off and we have all sorts of crazy disasters. But,
you know, dealing with everything from HR issues to legal issues to banking to
manufacturers relations, a little bit of everything. So, it sounds like basically every week is a blur.
Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny. For the listeners, I was kind of, it's too bad that we
missed recording the conversation we were having with Shannon on the front end of this episode
before we actually hit the record button because it was funny. We just started shooting a breeze
about cars and we were laughing, you know, as individual enthusiasts laughing about how we're
all on text chains. Shannon included with buddies sharing listings and all that kind of thing. And
so, you know, clearly, Shannon, you're an individual enthusiast as well as somebody who's
working in what I would say is, you know, almost like a dream job. I'm sure it has tons of challenges,
but like you were square in the world of Porsche, which is cool. But, you know, what do you like
most about being in the position you're in? That's what we were joking a little bit. I mean,
Monday morning, we had to move our career GT or we just, we're painting it right now at our body
shop. Porsche or Porsche Certified Collision Center, mind you. So, we're painting at our body shop
and we had to get it where the tax were doing all the mechanical work to the car. It had to be
driven two or three miles from the shop to the body shop and I quickly volunteered myself to do
that. And you jumped on the grenade, huh? Nice. That car with cold tires, ordinary weather, no doors,
no airbags, no seatbelts, no nothing on it, brand new KW suspension that was set on track mode. I
figured that that one out. That is a hard car to handle. And when you know, you can just go flying
out of the car. The front seat's not even attached. I mean, it's so I know I get to do fun stuff
like that periodically in market office at work. Hey, Shannon, I want to circle back on the Gen 5
dealership. So, I live in New Hampshire and my local dealership, Porsche Nashua, opened up their
Gen 5 dealership. You're familiar with it? Yeah. So, Al Heath and our buddies. Nice. Yeah. So, I don't
It's almost, it's like going to a Porsche Experience Center. It's almost like Porsche,
it's like a Porsche museum and a Porsche like a toy room and a dealership where you can buy Porsche
and like this like, it's almost like a movie theater that you can watch Porsche being worked on.
So, could you just let the audience know like what is Gen 4 to Gen 5? Like what is a Gen 5
dealership in terms of what does it mean for them? Like why is it so cool?
You know, Porsche every 10 years or so, they go through a architectural rebranding to try to
make sure their physical footprint represents kind of what they're doing in the world. So,
you'll notice any Gen 5 facility, the front has the kind of louvers that open up and show inside
the facility. So, Gen 5 is much brighter, much warmer. They really,
Gen 4 is very kind of cold and gray and white and too stark. And so, Gen 5, they opened it up,
but if you notice the lines on the Gen 5 facility mimic the red light bar of 992.
But that's meant to look like the rear end of a Porsche if you're looking at it from a distance.
But inside, it's much more about community. I mean, they want us to have the Porsche Club to
have their annual meetings at the dealership. We have a whole thousand square foot room just set
up for community events, the seating area. It's really meant to be a hub for all things Porsche.
So, we're going to start hosting customer appreciation breakfast at the store and just
doing more things to just bring people in because of all the brands we carry.
We throw out a hot dog stand at the Porsche store with some cool cars. We'll have a thousand people
there. You can't do that with any other brand. And so, Gen 5 facility is for us, it was a huge
expansion because the business has grown so much. So, it kind of meets our current needs.
But it's also a better representation of what Porsche is all about. It's an aspirational brand
that's still very inclusive. We want more people to get involved with the brand. We want younger
kids to get involved with the brand. We love sharing it. It's not meant to be Ferrari. That's
like, no, don't touch that. That's not for you. Porsche is for everybody.
Dude, Will, you have to see this. You walk into the lobby. There's a 935 there. There's a 912,
a classic car. There's a 356 speedster. You can walk up and you can just check it out,
go upstairs as a bar. There's a sitting room. There's a conference room with
Papita chairs overlooking the workshop. It's a cool place to hang, Shannon. It really is.
They have a coffee bar on the first floor. It is really the type of place that you would... Actually,
I did this when we first opened here in New Hampshire. I went down with two of my buddies and
I wanted to show them around. What's so cool is the service advisors, Dave and everyone down there,
they were like, oh, yeah, you want a tour? They leave their desk and they walk you around. They're
so proud to show you everything. It's very cool. I'm super excited for you, Shannon.
I heard a rumor that if you open a Gen 5 dealership, that actually changes your allocation
from Porsche. Is that true? Yeah. There's a lot of nitpicky details to it, but this is
supplemental facility allocation. You do a facility investment. It's a whole lot different ball game
to revamp a remodel or build a Porsche store versus a Maserati, or Audi, or Infiniti.
So with that, they help you out with increasing your allocation of cars, but there's a lot of
parameters you got to follow within that. They had it pretty well dialed down. You can't just
they reward the dealers that invest in the brand. I mean, that's they should.
So Shannon, I understand. Let's get out of the business mode for a moment and let's talk a
little bit about your enthusiasm for the cars themselves. Prior to the episode, Connor, your
marketing gentleman sent us over a list of the cars that are in your personal collection.
The list is very long, so I don't know that we just want to read it off for the listeners,
but I mean, I would love to hear you just talk a little bit about it, maybe what
a couple of your favorites are. I don't know. Talk to us.
You almost have to break it up into like air-cooled and water-cooled.
Miss, let's start with the Porsche tractor, Shannon.
We had to buy that. We bought that car. We bought that tractor of Peacart Market.
I'm they made them. They made them in green, so all the cars in our collection are green.
And to me, that makes it much more difficult to build a collection if it's constrained, right?
So if you're constrained to a certain colorway, that makes it much more difficult. You can't just,
I mean, we could go and build a world-class collection overnight,
but when it's a certain color, it makes it more exciting, more fun.
So we have our 61 tractor, and they did make them in green, so I'm considering repainting
it, signal green, which I think would be fun. But we have a tractor. We have a 1970, 911, this
been, that was actually my grandfather's car unrelated to the dealership. He was a medical
doctor. He was a surgeon, and he had 3911s, and my grandmother said, this is ridiculous.
You don't need these 3911s. You need to get rid of these cars. So he had a red, a white, and a blue.
He sold the blue and the white, and then he took the red one, and he took it to my dad and said,
look, you're to hide this at the dealership. And Porsche in 1981 was a totally different company.
He said, you're to take this at the dealership and make no mistake, this is still my car,
but I need you to hide it from your mother-in-law. We've had about 1979, 911 since 81.
Then we got the 78 Turbo that we're remodding, doing a full restoration on. That's a paint to
sample 1978 paint to sample 930 Turbo that a guy, 1978 did paint to sample Buick medium green.
So he went to Porsche in 1978 and said, paint this to match my Buick, which is pretty wild.
Classy. White, white with like velour insert, seeds, somebody that's so 1978.
Then we have our 89 four-screen speedster that we bought from a collector in France.
Then we have our 92 Met RS that I bought from a buddy mine. I love that Met car.
We're going to preserve that next year's challenge. Then we have our 92, 964 RS that I bought
from Gooding a few years ago, and we totally remodded that car to a 38. It's doing like 400
horsepower of the wheels. It's a monster. We did a chroma flare paint on it. We're shipping that
at Ice Race next month. And we got one in Colorado and big sky. Yeah.
We got our buddy Lee Keane, a factory race driver. He's going to be
driving it for us out there. So that'll be a lot of fun. Let me get our green 928,
GTS. Well, then we have the 993 Turbo four-screen over Nephrite green interior.
Then we have a 01 GT2 that's in Europe right now. It's not 25 years old, so we kept it in Europe.
I've got to drive that car on the Urbark Range a couple of times, and that's GT2.
Manta, we shipped it to Manta too and now to do tires and suspension.
Is it as much of a monster as they say, the GT2?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, pre-suspension work from Manta, you're pushing that thing on the
Autobahn. I took that thing up to the Autobahn when I was there in October.
I didn't get 300 kilometers an hour, but we got 175 miles an hour, which is pretty fast in that car.
Oh. But if a lot more confident in that car, pre-manta suspension at the front end would get
a little light at 150, and that could get kind of nerve-wracking.
Then we have a Berster Green 997 GT2 that was originally a Porsche family car,
it's a Ferdinand P.X. Junior car. Then we have the 992 Oration Green Sport Classic
and the Berster Green GT2 RS. I bought from a fellow dealer of mine, buddy of mine who
called and said, I know you like green Porsches. You'll buy this. All right, fine.
Well, we're on 0.16R. That was a cool car. It came from a collector on a Puerto Rico. He had two.
He had one he drove and one he stored. I'm trying to think about it.
You're forgetting about the Safari Cayenne, dude. 2013. Come on.
This is a car at Bussmer, traded in, hit 350,000 miles on it. He traded in and it was worth like
$5,000. We just usually tricked it out. The 958 diesel runs unbelievable off-road. It is an absolute
beast off-roading. Torque for days. The joke on this podcast. I'm a huge Safari guy. I just love
everything. I like taking cars where they shouldn't go. I actually have a 958. It's an
it's not a diesel, but I often toy with the idea of putting on bigger tires and doing some fun
shit with it. Did Lee Keane, he didn't even consult with you on that because that came to you as a
trade-in? Yeah, that was a local trade-in. I mean, I'm sure we probably talked to Lee. I mean,
Lee's on one of the group texts and I get all random hours of the day like, what about this?
What about that? He has forced me to ask all week long. But now we used one of Lee's
Safari providers for some of the body work and some of the work on that car was sourced,
not directly through Lee, but through some of his vendors, I guess you said.
So for those of you that don't know, Lee Keane, in addition to being a race car driver,
has his own company where he outfits air-cooled 911s for Safari work and they are renowned for
being incredibly sound, well-built machines that far exceed what you think they could do in the
dirt. And so he's quite the name. Shannon, I have a question for you. This might make you
think for a minute. But again, thinking about the audience out there listening and your dealer,
so take off your dealer hat and just put on your Porsche owner hat. For the everyday guy out there,
what's one of the most reliable Porsche that they can buy? We get that a lot, whether it's a
generation that came in, generation of Boxster, generation of 911. Every little generation has
its little foibles here and there that you have to look out for. But if someone came to you and
said like, Hey, I just want to buy a car that works. I understand there's maintenance, but I
don't want to jump down a hole. What would you say for them to go out and try? I mean,
2024, McConn, two liter turbo. I'm kidding. I mean, but this...
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vary, not available in all states or situations. That two liter turbo.com, I mean, like Volkswagen,
Volkswagen and Audi and Pond, everything like that. That is probably the most rock solid.
I mean, you know, people hate on the Macan, but I mean, the Macan is... I'm not a Macan guy,
but the Macan really has a really nice driving position if you want a small SUV. Reliable...
My local guy who I'm close with, he runs the shop at the dealership. He said, if I had to pick
one car, if someone said, give me one Porsche, that's the most reliable Porsche you can give me,
it would be a Boxster four cylinder base motor. He goes, we never see those in the shop ever,
except for anything for oil changes. That's it. I mean, I would say, you know, the more base,
the better. So, you know, the longer... And this is any car question, right? The longer the car is
out, the more that the manufacturer is able to work through any of the little grim ones in there.
So, you know, I would say first generation 718 is going to be totally different than the end of
the life that are just now coming out in 2025. Like those cars had all the bugs worked out.
They've really had millions of miles of real world testing done, and they knew all the technical
bulletins, all the stuff. So, I would say the more base cars are going to be a lot more simplistic,
and the longer they are in the life cycle, the more that they're most likely... Most of the time,
you're going to see major stuff is going to be electrical grim ones nowadays. And that's just
with all the software they're putting into these cars. I mean, you know, a 2025 Taycan is going to
be so much more reliable than a 2020 Taycan. Because, I mean, we're doing battery replacements in
the 2020s, and then they totally shift... They saw the writing on the wall and shift the entire
battery technology in 2022. But it takes a couple years to figure that out. So, to try and true
technology cars, let's say, you're pretty spot on with a base Cayman. I mean, I've always loved a
straight manual ship base Cayman. I think those are some of the best cars on the market.
So, the tried and true recommendation from... That we've heard our whole lives,
if don't buy the first year of any new generation, does hold up. So, that's good to hear.
Well, it's not... Most of the time, it's fixable stuff. It's just...
It's going to be annoying, you know, to work through that.
There's a higher likelihood of... We saw what Panamera is this year, or this time last year.
Brand new model came out and has some little things that needed updates. And you're going to
have to go into the shop to get this stuff updated. There's nothing wrong with the car,
it just... There's stuff they didn't see in the manufacturing process that need to be addressed.
So, it's more of an annoyance than leave you on the side of the road in the engine blew up type
of situation. Sure. Yeah. I mean, well, Porsche has a reputation for being one of the most reliable
brands when you look at all the brands. So, there's a reason for that for sure.
Will, unless you have any other questions, I'd love to start talking about Platica a little bit.
Yeah. I mean, what got me... I wanted to kind of circle back to this idea of the Gen 5 facility
and supporting an idea of community. And that does bring us to Platica, which is an event that
Harper puts on, Porsche event. And so, Shannon, I'd like to hear you talk to us about this event
and maybe let our viewers know, listeners know, where they can learn more because it sounds freaking
amazing based on what I've heard about it. So, Porsche Platica is something that was really
pushed by PC&A initially. So, Porsche wants all their dealers to do these place events. And it's
kind of lifestyle community events that they want you to do. And they have all sorts of different
examples. Did y'all ever go to a sports car together fest? Remember that in 2018? Porsche had
their 70th anniversary and it was a sports car together fest. And every dealer hosted an event
in like June of 2018, I think. And whenever we've done the sports car together fest on their
Porsche's 70th anniversary, 75th anniversary, people love that. They love to come out. They'd
love to get the t-shirt, the sticker. They bring the kids. They really have fun. And
Porsche kind of had a loose idea and they said, you can do yoga in the showroom or you can do this.
And I said, you know, all customers don't, they don't want to do yoga in their showroom. They
go to their yoga studio, do yoga. That's not really what I get the point. So, let's do a
different spin on that. And there really is no great curated Porsche enthusiast-based event
on the East Coast. I mean, Lee Keen did one River Works a couple years ago,
and that was fantastic. But, you know, you have DRT in Miami. This is happening next week. And then
you have, I mean, Al and Sunil and those guys do a great job. But all across the Eastern Seaboard,
there's really no great Porsche events. And the West Coast has all these really well done,
really fun events. We've been to four or five Luke to cult events, and they're fantastic. It is
so much fun. You get to hang out with people like mine and see old friends. So we said, let's do
something more unique that is more of a curated Porsche enthusiast show. And that's when Connor
went deep and used the connections he has to absolutely, I mean, we brought out some amazing
cars, race cars, air-cooled, water-cooled, specialty cars, I mean, from all over the place,
and people really wanted to bring their cars out. So the first event in 24 was a massive success.
And so we said, this thing is, this is something that has legs to kind of live on its own. So we
didn't want it to be like a dealership event, right? So we kind of put it off on its own.
And it's one of some of the independent that stands on some two feet. So Porsche Platica really is
something we invite other independent retailers in, like Merritt Partners out of Atlanta,
Graham Ray Hall out of Indy, the Roof Guys out of Miami, see Ryan Friedman from New York. We
brought all these guys that are just really passionate Porsche guys and brought them all
together and made the event more about just the brand itself and not about promoting,
nothing's for sale, right? It's not, it's very organic. And so last year, or yeah, 2025,
we started having all these career GTs coming and we ended up having 18 career GTs in Knoxville.
And it was like, holy smokes, this is a world record career GT gathering. And it just kind
of happened organically. This is something that makes it fun is to have a kind of a themed vehicle.
So in 2026, we're highlighting the 10th anniversary of the 911 R991 edition.
And so we have just a crazy lineup of, we were, Mosshog wanted to get 67 911 Rs at the event
just February the 1967, but that's aggressive. They made 20 of the 1967 Rs. And we got over
five of them committed already. I mean, out of that's crazy. We had five coming already. Wow.
We had a team number of white Rs and then over 10 of the paint sample Rs coming.
So the events, it's very well curated, really quality or quantity. We limit ourselves to 60
or 75 cars, very artfully placed. And then, you know, it's about a 3,500, 3,500 person event.
It's a full day. We're going to use the food and booze and it's really just
come and appreciate the cars. There's a lot of photographers, a lot of enjoyment around that.
And it's in a quarry, right? Yeah. So we...
We really went out, we went big the first year and it was like, oh my God, this blew up.
So each year we up the amount of time. It's a wedding venue typically, but it's an old
Marvel quarry. So the backdrops are absolutely amazing and come in and we have a guy who,
he rebuilds, he'll build sets for like the masters. So he'll come in and he'll build these
kind of sets, right? And so though the backdrops say the same, but all the different features
at the event are featured around the car. So it still changes. The cars change every year.
I wanted to have some car come back year over year and car goes, no repeats, no repeats. So
it really is very organic, not commercial. There's no selling of anything. You know,
it's about the cars. It's about community. It's about hanging out and
learning a little bit and inviting more people into the brand. So I saw some of the photography,
I guess, from last year on the website. It's the website. It's PorschePlatica.com, right?
Porsche-Platica.com. I mean, you can Google it. It's the only one that'll show up.
Got it. And we'll put a link in the description under the video version of this podcast as well.
So it's taking place on May 3rd. Is that right?
Yeah. It's coming up May 3rd, which is Sunday. We have a private event for exhibitors, people
that bring their cars in on Saturday and then we'll have like a mountain drive. We'll do a drive
on Saturday and then events all day Sunday, take us to go live in April, March or April.
Pretty sure of March. We have Corral. We have a special Porsche-only Corral in them,
just like Lufka Colton. I mean, the Corral is where you see a lot of amazing stuff there as well.
So that's where Will and I parked. We were in the Corral and honestly,
as much as I love Lufka Colton, we talked about this at this most recent one on the East Coast.
You walked around that parking garage. You saw some funky stuff that really blew your mind and
that was as fun in a lot of ways. Yeah. Yeah. So we have Corral parking,
a lot of different amenities for everybody. So May 3rd, Knoxville, Tennessee, right?
Yep. Yep. Cool. Love you there. Of course. And right now we're releasing a series of
owner stories about their 911 R. So Rory Angrum, Ryan Hardwick, who just won the GT3,
Le Mans winner. He's bringing his R. Graham Rahall talking about his Tag Oiler R. I don't know if
y'all have seen that car, but it's a lookup Tag Oiler 911 R. It's one of the wildest specs
ever. I mean, it's insane. So on Instagram, as we can find most of our most recent content,
but we videoed a series of 911 R owner stories about what their viewpoint is of the car,
why they're coming to Platica, et cetera. And so that's kind of a little quick preview about
what we have coming up. Shannon, I must say, man, you're in many ways living the dream.
It's not bad. I drive a Taycan every day, but I have a 992 Sport Classic and a Ration
Green in my garage. And whenever I'm taking the kids to school, I always ask, I said,
you want to take the 911? They said, yes. Perfect. Don't tell your mother.
You're doing something right, man. I love that.
Yeah. Well, I have enjoyed everything we've discussed, man. It is absolutely fascinating
to me. And so I, for one, definitely appreciate you spending some time with us on this thing.
Yeah, no problem at all. I appreciate y'all having me on. I always love listening to y'all's videos
and getting into the minutiae of 986s versus 981s. I mean, these guys know so much more about this
stuff than I'll do. We're making up half of it, Shannon. Just know that.
Yeah. Well, I'll have to go on Google to find out what y'all have in your head.
You know what they say, Shannon. If you say anything with confidence, half of people believe
you. So that's how we do it. But it really has been such a pleasure. We'll look forward to
having you back on again. And I think as far as Porsche Platica goes, it's something that
everyone is probably going to be on your website checking out. I think it would be really,
really cool to see it in person. So thank you for sharing that with us, my friend. And
thanks for being on Renthousias Radio. Thanks for having me, guys. Awesome, man. Thanks.
You look forward to catch you on the next episode of Renthousias Radio.
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About this episode
Shannon Harper, a top Porsche dealer, shares insider insights on dealership practices, pricing strategies, and the importance of customer loyalty in the Porsche community. He discusses the controversial additional dealer markup (ADM) and how his dealership prioritizes selling at MSRP to maintain brand integrity. The conversation also touches on the unique Gen 5 dealership experience, community events like Porsche Platica, and Shannon's impressive personal car collection, showcasing his passion for the brand. This episode is packed with valuable information for anyone interested in the Porsche ownership experience.
Shannon Harper of Harper Porsche, Knoxville, Tennessee runs a Porsche store the way most of us wish every dealer did: No games and no nonsense. We talk pricing, ADMs, and the stuff you ask us about all the time, especially allocations and why some cars feel impossible to get.
What we cover
Why some dealers add big markups, and why Shannon refuses to do it
What really happens when someone flips a new GT car
How allocation works, and why GT cars stay tight
How Porsche rewards dealers, and what the “hoops” actually look like
What a Gen 5 Porsche dealership is, and why it feels like a Porsche clubhouse
Shannon’s personal collection, and why he is obsessed with green cars
The most reliable Porsche pick for a normal owner who just wants a car that works
PLATICA, how it started, and how it turned into a serious event
Porsche PLATICA info
Knoxville, Tennessee
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Follow @porsche_platica on Instagram for ticket announcements and updates
Website: porsche-platica dot com
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If you have a dealer experience that made you swear off a store forever, tell us in the comments!
