OLE BLUE

Ole Blue

Aaron Ashton introduces us to his workhorse Porsche 912.

“I think if I had to equate Ole Blue to a California band, the Grateful Dead are the ones that pop out to me. They’ve got that easy going California classic style, everyone in this state loves them. That’s what the car is to me.”

A Golden State local, Ole Blue is how Aaron Ashton refers to his workhorse. It’s a 1967 Aga Blue Porsche 912, main character of his Instagram page @california.912. Both car and owner reside in Dana Point, a small Orange County town and historic surfer’s paradise. Full of early-to-mid century architecture, it’s the unequivocal California dreamscape and the perfect environment for an air cooled Porsche that’s knocking on 60 years old.

“The engine in the 912 is the same 1.6 litre flat four used in the 356, it was really something Porsche built to last and be used daily, so that’s exactly what I do. When I bought the car, it had 38k miles on the clock, though I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually meant 338,000!”

Aaron purchased Ole Blue from a private seller in Santa Barbara in 2023, though it wasn’t his first foray into the 912 world. Before this car, he and his wife Audrey restored a brown 912E together before they decided to sell it.

“That first car was really cool, we did plenty with it. It was our date night car and we took it up to Luftgekühlt in San Fransisco. It was our introduction to the community and we loved it, though it never really felt like ‘our’ car. When I travelled up to Santa Barbara to take a look at Ole Blue, I immediately fell in love.

The car was a bit rough and ready, but through the scratches and rock chips I could see that it had a real character. While it needed a bit of TLC, the engine ran perfectly despite having sat stationary for 30 years! I meant to trailer it but after a couple of runs around the block, the oil was good and nothing was overheating. I immediately made the decision to drive it the 4 hour journey home. On that drive I really got to feel like this was ‘my’ car.”

Aaron’s introduction to his car was a baptism by fire. It isn’t an easy thing on the nerves to wake a car up from decades of disuse and immediately drive it over 150 miles home. To his pleasant surprise, the long dormant four cylinder took it like it was nothing.

“The engine in the 912 is the same 1.6 litre flat four used in the 356, it was really something Porsche built to last and be used daily, so that’s exactly what I do."

"While it needed a bit of TLC, the engine ran perfectly despite having sat stationary for 30 years! I meant to trailer it but after a couple of runs around the block, the oil was good and nothing was overheating. I immediately made the decision to drive it the 4 hour journey home."

“On that drive, the engine didn’t skip a beat, never once showing signs of overheating. I was shocked to be honest. When I took the car to my friend Glenn’s Porsche shop, we fired it up and he told me ‘man, this car is really happy!’ It was one of those moments that really made me feel like cars pick their people, not the other way around.”

From then on, the car has never lacked for work. “People forget that Porsche made these cars to be used. We take Ole Blue to the beach to go surfing, we don’t mind if the kids leave sand in the footwells or get fingerprints on the windows. Once you start giving yourself sleepless nights over these things, then you stop enjoying the car.”

Tied to this is Aaron’s role as the founder of Fast Saturdays, a biannual car meet that serves to “demystify” the stuffy atmosphere that comes with some car events.

“Fast Saturdays is all about the people, that’s the focus. Growing up I’d go to car meets with my uncle. I heard a lot of ‘hey kid! Don’t touch that!’ or ‘don’t sit in my car!’ We want to encourage the opposite. At the end of the day, cars are just cars, but the people behind them make them interesting. We want to foster a space where people can bring their families, bring their dogs, bring their cameras and just enjoy the day.

Like I said, cars pick their people and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve connected with someone and they turn out to be their cars in living, breathing form. When I started this journey with Ole Blue, I very much wanted to enjoy life with the car. People with the lowest mileage on cars, they lose. I’m truly lucky to be able to drive this awesome, air cooled Porsche every day around California!”