Portugal - 2025
For better or for worse it’s been a while since I last wrote one of these. There’s been a fire burning for a while to start posting on the site again. Probably since the day that I bought the 993. But life happens. One thing turns into another, into another and the next thing you notice, you’re spiraling out. Maybe that's a topic for another day.So…three weeks in Portugal. How does that happen? Another story for another day but I’ve been “funemployed” since the beginning of March and found out my passport was coming in the mail. It had been over 20 years since I last went to visit and the thorn in my side that is my father kept bugging me on when I would go. So with nothing better to do and an apartment to stay in and a car to drive, I decided to book a flight.Now that the flight was booked, what was I going to do over there? Car stuff, mostly. Experiencing the scene out there has been something I wanted to do for a while. With the 2-3 weeks leading up to the flight, I started to search for events around Portugal. Porsche Cup Brasil, Rallye Rainha Santa, Estoril Summer Party…not a bad start. Or so I thought.Porsche Cup Brasil – Portimão, Algarve
Similar to the U.S., Brasil has its own Carrera Cup. The series was returning to Portugal after a decade long hiatus and seeing how Algarve was roughly 3 hours south of where I was staying, I figured this would be a good start. One would think this event would be popular, especially with how cheap tickets were going for. And I mean cheap; it was €15 for the weekend along with paddock access.
The ticket price might have been the best thing to come from this event aside from some of the photos I took. I decided to buy the tickets online before my flight instead of buying them at the track. When I bought these tickets, it was listed as Friday through Sunday and I was given 3 QR codes. Come to find out, Friday was a private practice session. Once we started asking questions to the Algarve Track staff and the Porsche Cup staff, no one could give us a straight answer and they would just point the finger to the next person. So there went €200+ for the extra night spent at the hotel. At least they gave me a “perk” at the hotel which landed me 10 laps on their go-kart track in 100°F weather.
But what I really found surprising was the lack of promotion for the event. Unless you followed the series or did some research on events occurring that weekend, you wouldn’t have known this was happening. We spent some time Friday night around the beach area and saw nothing. No flyers, nada. It wasn’t until I visited the folks at SportClasse the following week and found out that there was a bigger group attending for the endurance race that upcoming weekend.
Over the next two days it really felt like there was more race team personnel and track staff than actual attendees. They didn’t even have much of any merch to sell. All in all, we’ll call this experience a lesson learned.
SportClasse – Lisboa
Probably the place I was most excited to visit on this trip. I first heard about them years ago through Type7 or 000, definitely one of those Porsche-centric outlets. Consider SportClasse like a Singer or Guntherwerks but for the Portuguese market, with roots in motorsports. While they offer maintenance services for modern Porsches, you could walk down an alley further down the street and discover a goldmine of air-cooled goodness (plus or minus a few rare water-cooled finds too). To my surprise, the staff greeted me with open arms and gave me a tour of the place. It’s small but the cars speak for themselves.
In true Portuguese fashion I was parked illegally and was limited on time before the cops came. Over there you can treat your car like a cat; if it fits, it sits. But dealing with the cops is a bit more difficult than Jersey so you might as well be a good law-abiding citizen.
Aside from regular service and sales, they also provide restoration and customization services. These cars are torn to shreds and rebuilt from the ground up. A room for just motors, another for suspension, the wall of wheels. There’s such a level of detail and care within the shop that most of us would die for.
And Seen Through Glass just did a video highlighting this but these 911s are transformed into some of the most beautiful backdates you’ve ever seen. They are known as the 911 SPC. They take any air-cooled 911 and will build a masterpiece with a RSR spec motor that punches well above its weight class. Luckily, I got to take a look at SPC 01 when I was there.
The great part about all of this is that these SPCs look factory built. That true OEM+ look us diehard euro fanboys foam out the mouth for. Portugal unfortunately is like California where the slightest of modifications can get you into a bunch of trouble. Even changing your wheels is some type of a violation. So what you do see mostly are cars that follow the OEM+ look or are just restored to original specs.
Rallye Rainha Santa – Coimbra
This one was egg on my face. I should have done more research here or opt for another event. Maybe that endur…nope, not doing that again.
When you think about rallyes, one thing to remember is that it could be a wide range of possibilities. Especially with how loose the term has been used in recent years. Thanks to social media and video games like the Dirt series, our expectations could be vastly different from what actually goes on. This rallye, if you really could call it that, felt more like leisurely stroll for the entire day rather than the batshit dirt road rallyes we crave for. There were variety of cars though; true old school rallye cars like a MK1 Escort all the way to a economy car like a EK9 Civic.
On the bright side, Coimbra was only an hour away so not much time was lost that day. Since the route itself wasn’t available and we didn’t know the area, I sat Indian style on the side of a hill and took panning shots as they drove up the street. 
Clássicos Portugal – Cabra Figa, Sintra
Since the rallye was a dud, I went back to my place and tried looking for something else to do that weekend. I came across what looked to be some spin on a cars and coffee event in Sintra. Come to find out, it’s the group’s clubhouse.
It started rather slow. Supposedly there was another event and a race not too far away for the locals. A bit of variety did end up showing. Again, nothing really modified but some decent stuff. They tried to park some cars in some places, but that didn’t really help them much in terms of appearance. The one car getting a good amount of attention was this replica 250GT. Yes, it was a replica. I had a feeling when I saw it pull in initially. Not your typical Ferrari color scheme and the GB plaque on the rear should have been a dead giveaway. When talking to the organizer, I found out that it was indeed a replica, built in the UK and fitted with a BMW engine under the hood. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea but definitely a nice little weekend cruiser.
Detour – Caldas/Nazaré/Óbidos
Not everything on this trip was cars. Spent some time in the city and made my way over to Nazaré and Óbidos and some other places too (not photographed). Some places I didn’t bother to pull out the camera and look like a tourist. Sometimes you just need to live in the moment.
The food was good, pretty much farm (or ocean) to table. You didn’t feel bloated after eating. Day to day interactions and night life was obviously different. Been a long time since I stayed up that late to party. Spent most of my afternoons at a local café where meals didn’t cost more than €10.
Estoril Summer Party - Estoril
Last event of the trip was the “summer party” at the Estoril Circuit. This one looked to be a bit more promising on paper than the other events I had been to. Upon arrival, I was not disappointed. Modern, open wheel, classics, it had it all. If I had to compare to an event in the states, I’d say GridLife but with a touch of boujeeness.
The venue itself, much like others in Portugal, looks to have seen better days. It was worn down, but it added to the appeal and atmosphere of it and felt fitting given the cars present. It almost felt like you were in a time capsule. Most teams were welcoming and would let you in their garage space. Also, if you act clueless enough, you could make your way down pit lane and not have security kick you out.
One thing you’ll notice in this set is a lot of black and white photos. The new Clipse album dropped the day before and played its part in influencing my edits. Photography isn’t just the study of light; it’s also a form of expression. Not trying to sound artsy fartsy here but it is. Some people forget that the point of this whole photography thing is to convey an emotion to the viewer. They should feel immersed in the scene rather than aimlessly scrolling through photos someone took. The barrier to entry today for photography is low but the skills needed to execute it properly are missing in many. To each their own, and if whatever you do makes you happy, then go ahead and do it.
Summary
Overall, it was a nice impromptu trip. Got to see some things, eat good and finally not worry about my phone going off during a vacation. I would say if you do go, go in a group and try to experience as much as you can. If you want to surf/bodyboard I do recommend going at the end of September.
And to those of you curious, I only brought one camera with me on the trip. Aside from the track days, I used my 24-70mm the entire time. My A7iii served its purpose for most of the trip but I would’ve preferred to have something smaller like my XT-50. Or something even smaller with a pancake lens. While most people don’t mind, you want to blend in with the locals rather than looking like a tourist.