The long-talked about multi-club event with the Arizona Outlaws, Rocky Mountain 356 Club and New Mexico Zia’s came together in spectacular fashion in the beautiful Durango area.

A ten-car group started early Thursday morning from Morrison and crossed paths with another eight or so club members in Del Norte around lunch time. We arrived at the hotel in Durango around 5pm, where a reception, by the Arizona Outlaws, was in full swing with a nice spread of snacks and drinks waiting for us. Throughout the evening cars and people trickled in as the lobby and parking lot buzzed with the activity of meeting new and catching up with friends and of course checking out their cars.

The weather had been looking threatening but most of 356ers were game to do the drive to Telluride. So off we went just as torrential rain started to come down. Luckily the weather lifted slightly by the time we got to Dolores. The drive up to Telluride was spectacular with several stops for photos among the high mountains and lifting clouds.

The City of Telluride gratefully allowed us to park our cars in the middle of the road, on the main street of downtown Telluride. From there we spread out, shopped, ate, took Gondola rides and generally did our own thing. Some even decided to do the entire loop drive back over Dallas Divide, through Ouray, Red Mountain pass and Silverton. I heard they got rained on pretty hard. We had a bit of rain ourselves on our way back to Durango. Our cars were truly tested that day.

The next day was bright and sunny for our morning drive up to Silverton. The drive gets a bit airy at times, with a lot of vertical relief and white-knuckle curves. A fun drive, in perfect weather, to an interesting location. From there our afternoon was ours to do as we pleased and prepare for the evening gala and car show.

And what a spectacular location and evening Gary Wolf and the Arizona Outlaws put together. A local Durango Porsche racer & collector generously let us use his home for the barbecue and his large backyard (field) to stage our 30+, 356’s and some local classic sports cars. It was a great way to wrap up the event, with hopes it can become an annual thing, at perhaps, a different 4 Corners local.

The event however is still not over until you are safe at home. Which unfortunately was not the case for one of our members. At a rural intersection just before Del Norte, Aaron Sanchez had to make a heroic maneuver to avoid t-boning a large Mercedes SUV, filled with a family from Texas, that pulled right out in front of Aaron’s 911. Aaron had no choice but to slide the car behind the Mercedes, which launched him into a ditch and through a barbed wire fence, just short of a large tree. Aaron and his wife Anne were banged and bruised, but no ambulance was required. The driver of the Mercedes did come back to apologize; however, he was eventually taken away in handcuffs by the local Sheriffs. Once extracted from the ditch the car did not look too bad, but was determined to be unsafe to drive and ultimately was totaled by the Insurance Co. Anne and Aaron are healing and Aaron is looking to replace his beautiful 1986 red SC coupe.

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