How a muddy Porsche 356 took center stage at The Amelia

As Mark clatters up to the huge ballroom doors in his bug-splattered, muddy Porsche 356–festooned with stickers and a tiny plastic surfer bouncing atop its antenna–the security guard at the Amelia Island Ritz-Carlton does a double take, steps in front and raises his hand.

“You can’t come in here. You’ll have to turn around,” he says. Mark laughs, “But I’m here to bring my car into the ballroom.”

The guard shakes his head, no doubt thinking, “This guy is totally in the wrong place–no way they want that thing in here.”

This is, after all, the annual Porsche Winemaker’s Dinner, one of The Amelia’s posh, invitation-only events attended by motorsports glitterati, and this scruffy relic looks nothing like the priceless cars inside, including a Carrera GT from Graham Rahal Performance and a 718 RS 60 Spyder.

Only after an organizer intervenes is Mark allowed to drive into the elegant venue. After he creeps in and parks on the carpet, he thanks the master of ceremonies and warns him, “Sorry, I forgot my cardboard, the transmission drips a bit.” Cardboard is provided, and soon Mark is mingling with the likes of Bobby Rahal, David Donohue and Ray Shaffer, and better yet, he’s been asked to share his travel tales with this group.

How did this battered Outlaw come to be honored in the Ritz ballroom? Well, it’s as friendly as a pup, exudes charm and spins a tale of adventure. Each dent, rock chip, road scar, mud splatter and faded sticker proclaims, “I’ve been around.”

So it has, because this old Porsche has logged enough miles to drive to the moon and partway back. It revels in its rode-hard-and-put-away-wet look–no fake patina needed here. These days, a hard-driven 356 is a curiosity; show examples invited to The Amelia arrive in a trailer.

It’s been more than five years since we featured Mark Pribanic and this car in our July 2019 issue. He had then logged 280,000 miles and visited 40 states and two Canadian provinces. He’s now added another 100,000 miles, crisscrossed the country (again), added the eight states he’d missed, explored the northern tip of Nova Scotia, and gained another 3000 Instagram followers, which now number 14,000.

When Tom Cotter, barn find hunter and concours luminary, learned of Mark’s nonstop travels, he asked him to show his 356 last spring in The Amelia’s “Cars of the Barn Find Hunters” class. “I was shocked and honored to be invited,” Mark recalls. “Tom and I met in Monterey at Rennsport 7. He looked my car over and told me not to wash it before the show. I told him I wouldn’t, but on my way back to Florida I ran into snow at 9000 feet in Yosemite, so it got a little wet.”

While this car is not technically a barn find, Tom deemed it a natural fit. “Mark’s car has never lived in a barn,” he told us. “It’s even better. From the time it rolled out of the factory, it has never stopped. Its rich patina comes naturally.”

At the show, Mark’s car looked so bad (this is good) the judges awarded it third in class and the crowd loved it. When we told Tom about Mark’s ballroom adventure, he joked, “Inviting Mark’s Porsche to the Winemaker’s Dinner is like attending a formal ceremony at Windsor Castle in shorts and a T-shirt.”

You’ll remember 2020, when the pandemic kept most of us cowering in our homes. Not Mark. He hit the road, later describing it as “self-isolating in a 356.”

“My catering business customers closed their offices, my business dried up, roads were deserted and gas was cheap,” he recalls. “It was the perfect time to travel.”

So from his home in Neptune Beach, Florida, he made half a dozen trips into the Appalachian Mountains, driving the twisties, naturally, traversing the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests and other notable destinations. On the last of these trips, he made another tour of Asheville, explored Nashville and returned to Florida on the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile scenic run to Natchez. He wound up the year winning the Porsche 356 Florida Owners Group’s long-distance award with 20,052 miles.

Mark prefers to travel alone. He says he can pack his car and be on the road in a few hours, and during hot weather he sometimes leaves at 3 a.m. to beat the heat.

Plus, there’s little room for a passenger, because the 356 is stuffed with parts, tools and luggage. He generally carries a generator, belts, pulley, distributor, points and condenser, oil and grease, battery charger and a pile of tools. On some trips he adds camping gear. “Lodging is my biggest cost. Even crappy hotels cost $80 to $100,” he says. On cross-country trips, he spends about a third of the nights in hotels and the rest with friends or pitching a tent, depending on the weather.

He delights in spontaneous, off-the-beaten-path side trips and seeks out whimsical old places. “Normally I kind of pick a destination, like when I’m driving to Rennsport Reunion [he’s driven this 356 to five of the last seven], but I always watch for historical markers. I stop and investigate old buildings, faded signs, motor lodges and covered bridges, stuff like that,” he explains. “I love two-lane or dirt roads because you never know what’s around the next turn, over the next hill,” he says. “That’s what keeps me going.”

He shares photos and descriptions with his Instagram followers and checks in frequently with friends all over the country. “They often tell me about cool places to visit,” he says. “They know I like to explore.”

“On my latest trip north, I wanted to drive as far as I could up the East Coast,” Mark says. Against his better judgement, he found himself on several freeways, including the Long Island Expressway, punishing the low-slung 356 over potholes and broken pavement. “That road is a nightmare,” he notes. “It ought to be blown up.”

On friendlier roads, he took the Cross Sound Ferry from Orient Point, Long Island, to New London, Connecticut, and visited Mystic Seaport. On a whim, he drove to Cape Cod’s Provincetown, where he used to vacation as a kid.

From Maine, he crossed into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There, a friend advised him not to miss the Cabot Trail, a winding 185-mile loop across the northern tip of Cape Breton Island that offers scenic views of coastal waters and harbors and picturesque villages. “It’s spectacular,” Mark recalls. “Its bluffs and cliffs remind me of Big Sur country. I brought a great Indian summer with me. Exploring Cabot Trail was a highlight of my trip.” The locals felt the same when they spotted an old Florida-based Porsche in such an unlikely place. It draws a crowd.

On the way home, he drove the Taconic Parkway through the Hudson River Valley. “Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is one of my favorite books, so of course I had to stop in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow,” he recalls.

Farther south, he ran into the remnants of Hurricane Nicole, and his trusty 356 sloshed through heavy rain and winds. It’s far from watertight, so along with mopping leaks, Mark struggled to clear fogged-up windows. “Rain-X and paper towels are my friends,” he says. On this jaunt, he visited 14 states and two Canadian provinces and covered 5300 miles. “I had zero mechanical trouble on this trip,” he reports.

He’s been known to drive an Ironman-like 20 hours, and he swears the 356 is “comfortable,” a term, he says, not shared by all of his passengers. After all, this is your basic 68-year-old cramped coupe with limited suspension travel, no a/c and ear-numbing exhaust, so “comfortable” is relative.

But his 25 years of traveling in this 356 does have its advantages. He hears every squeak, rattle and groan and feels every beat of the boxer engine. “I can feel when something’s not right,” he tells us. “Spark, fuel, soft brakes–whatever it is, I’ve experienced it in this car.” He’s now on his fourth engine and second transmission and has touched nearly every part on the car.

He says he doesn’t sleep much when he’s on the road. Or make stops for food. He snacks when he stops for gas, generally every 280 miles; the 356 delivers up to 32 mpg on the highway. He also updates his Instagram followers, tagging his location and sharing photos.

His snacks? Mountain Dew and Cool Ranch chips along with “beef jerky if I want something healthier. I might lose 5 or 10 pounds on a long trip.”

In 2023, he made the cross-country haul to Rennsport 7 in Monterey. On the way out, he meandered through 17 states over a leisurely two weeks. Eastbound, he spent a week on a more direct route through 10 states. In all, he covered 8610 miles, and his faithful 356 performed without a hiccup.

Could he see himself making these trips in any other car? “Probably a 1955-or-earlier VW bus,” he figures. “Maybe a camper.” While he’s without one now, he’s owned 25 buses and knows them inside out.

Everywhere he goes, Mark encourages other vintage car owners to hit the road: “Drive ’em, folks. Do your prep work, go over your car top to bottom. Make sure you have a good towing service. If you’re a planner, do your homework. Once underway, stay in touch with friends. If you know your car and carry the right spares, you’ll be fine. Choose a pace that suits you and enjoy the ride.”

What’s next? Deferred maintenance. Mark says the 356 has started to wander a bit (no pun intended), so the front end needs a rebuild, and the longitudinal members also need welding repairs. No big deal, Mark enjoys spending time with his faithful companion, even when he’s covered with grease.

While he’s under it, when the going gets tough, he can lighten the mood by reflecting on his time at The Amelia. Maybe hum a couple bars of “Puttin’ On the Ritz.”

Comments

Colin Wood Associate Editor
4/16/25 10:47 a.m.

Good on Mark. I hope I can be as cool as Mark some day.

enderby New Reader
4/16/25 2:34 p.m.

Can't match Mark's mileage from a single car. But I do have a Ferrari 308 with 241,000 miles. My F355 and F430 sit at 207,000 each currently. So nice to hear about people driving their fun cars.