Porsches are celebrated worldwide – from Stuttgart to Los Angeles. But if you are looking for the most vibrant and colourful tribe within the global Porsche community, we highly recommend a visit to the fast-growing vroomtown of Bangkok. In September, we spent a week in the Thai capital for the opening of Curvistan Bangkok – a new playground for Porsche lovers curated by creative mastermind Stefan Bogner and Thai entrepreneur Chanond Ruangkritya to tease the upcoming Porsche Design Tower ultra-luxury high-rise. The centerpiece of the exhibition was an amazingly elegant, pearl-white 1966 Porsche 911 SWB from the collection of Sihabutr Xoomsai or Tenn, as he is called by his friends – another leading figure of the city’s exciting car scene.
Tenn is not only a successful film director and avid Porsche collector, but also the man behind the Asian version of California’s famous Luftgekühlt events. Set every year in December and supported by Porsche Asia Pacific and Porsche Thailand, his event series ‘Das Treffen’ – the German word for “The Meeting” – attracts car enthusiasts from all over Southeast Asia. Last year, Das Treffen 8 welcomed over 500 Porsches from throughout the brand’s vibrant history at the Impact Speedpark karting circuit at Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok. On December 15, Das Treffen 9 returns to the curcuit with a ‘Limited Edition’ theme and an exciting line-up of some of the rarest and most exclusive Porsche sports cars ever made at Zuffenhausen’s iconic Sonderwunsch department. We sat down with Tenn to learn more.
First of all, we would like to know where your passion for cars come from. So, what’s your first memory of a car that excited you?
My father is a car guy. He loves Lancia, Alfa Romeo. But my dad’s also a family man, so he always looked for sports sedans. Funnily, he didn’t buy them for himself, but for my mom. He’s a photographer and is always busy working, he also needs space for his equipment. So my mom had to drive these high-performance sports saloons – and hated it. (Laughs) Still, we were always going places in these weird European cars. That’s when I learned that cars can be different.
Nowadays, you’re very much a Porsche guy. Why did you fall for the brand?
When you were young as a car guy in the 1980s, you were just like looking through magazines, collecting posters of a Porsche 930, a Lamborghini Countach or like a Ferrari, you know. And somehow Porsche just spoke to me. I liked the 911 shape. It captured my heart. The first Porsche I owned was the 964 convertible. I was actually looking for a coupé but I didn’t find one, so I just went for it. I used that car as my daily driver for two or three years.
You're the organizer of Das Treffen, the annual Porsche meet here in Bangkok. How did it start?
10 years ago, I was approached by a friend of mine who had bought the rights to publish a magazine called “GT Porsche” in Thailand – and asked me to become the Editor-in-Chief. I liked the idea to reshape it into a proper Porsche magazine. At that time, Porsche meetings started to pop up all over the world. And I thought that we can have one as well. Because as a magazine, you can bring people from different groups together. So, we came up with Das Treffen. The idea was that if you drive a Porsche, you are part of the show. No discrimination, no exclusion. Everybody's welcome as long as you drive a Porsche. So we made it happen with my friends from the Renndrive crew. After we did it three times, we were approached by Porsche Asia Pacific who offered their support. That gave us a real boost – they helped us in many ways, connected us with people all around the world, but let us keep our identity.
It seems to have worked out well: in a few days, you will celebrate the 9th edition of Das Treffen with many hundred cars.
Yeah! Last year at das Treffen 8 he had like 650 cars. They came from all over Thailand, but also from Malaysia and Singapore, even Vietnam. It has become a Southeast Asia thing, which is really cool.
You travel the world regularly – last year we met at Porsche’s 75th anniversary party in Zuffenhausen. So how’s the Thai Porsche scene compared to other communities?
Thai people are very social, we like being together. We love meeting new people and introducing them to our group or culture. We’re generally very welcoming, positive and open-minded – that’s in our nature. It does not matter if someone modifies his car in a certain way or another. We try to understand everybody’s point of view, why someone likes something. We’re also not too direct. For us, it’s easy to get along.
You’re good friends with Stefan Bogner, the publisher of Curves and curator of Curvistan Bangkok. How did you guys meet?
I think I met Stefan at Das Treffen 4. He was introduced to me through Yannick Ott from Porsche Asia Pacific – but I already knew him through Instagram. We have done quite a few road trips together since then, both in Thailand and in Europe, all across the Alps.
You also run a community called Renndrive. Is it right that you meet every Sunday?
Yeah, Renndrive is my crew, my friends. Like 12 years ago we started organizing these casual Sunday drives. We took photos and posted them on social media, so more people started joining us. We went pretty fast from five to 20 cars. And the concept works well: after a week of answering messages, you relax on Sunday morning by just going for a drive. Sunday morning is quiet; the road is empty. It’s only from 9 to 12, so you still have time for your family, you’re basically home for lunch. Nobody's going to get in trouble (laughs). But we also do three to four longer road trips per year – we explore the mountains in the North of Thailand or the Beaches in the South.
So what are the nicest driving roads in Thailand?
If you like those twisty sweeping turns, it's got to be up north. There are many of those – and they keep building new roads to connect all these villages. They keep them in pretty good condition.
Now we’re curious to learn more about the cars you own. Can you let us know what’s in your garage today?
Besides the white SWB have a classic 911 Turbo, a backdated 911 ST, a Cayman S, a Boxster Spyder, a Cayenne off-road conversion and two project cars – a 924 and a 996 Carrera 4S. I want to drive it to Stuttgart when it’s done.
You want to drive the Carrera to Stuttgart? From Bangkok?
Yeah. It’s a crash project car. Maybe we turn it into a Safari restomod. We want to drive all the way from Bangkok to Zuffenhausen. It will be a two-month drive. And a drive of a lifetime. We will go through Laos, then up to China, where we will spend a lot of time. Then to Kazakhstan, a couple of days in Russia, before we arrive in Eastern Europe: Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria. They all have fantastic driving roads. We haven’t published our plans yet, but once we do, I guess there’s no way back (laughs). First, people thought we were crazy. But now they love the idea. It’s funny how things turn within a couple of months.
You’re not only a Porsche collector and event organizer, but also a filmmaker. Does that help you with everything you do?
Yes, I am a film director, I direct TV commercials. I studied at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and graduated in the 1990s. Apart from my work, I run a YouTube channel about my Porsche passion and I document our road trips with short films.
Is there one Porsche that you would love to have in your collection?
I like Turbos, and I like cars that are fast and comfortable. So a 992 Turbo and a new Dakar would be great. But I guess they're both so fast that I wouldn’t see much of the nice roads and landscape anymore on our road trips (laughs).
Photos: Stefan Bogner
