THE CYCLO-PORSCHIST

The Cyclo-Porschist

Anthony Richelot proving definitively why you don’t need an SUV to live an adventurous lifestyle.

“Before I bought it, I had a precise idea of what I wanted”, Anthony Richelot explains. “An SC or a 3.2L in its original colour, with a sunroof, the factory aero kit, a good interior and a factory radio. We found ‘Denise’ at the Porsche Classic Centre. They sent us a video, we flew to see her and we immediately fell in love.”

When Anthony moved to Switzerland earlier this year, a lack of space forced him to sell two beloved classics. The first a Porsche 944, the second a VW T3 Camper. As you might imagine, replacing both cars with a single vehicle that could fulfil the best attributes of both was never going to be an easy task, but it might explain how he and his family found themselves sleeping atop a 1983 G body 911 this summer.

“We picked up the roof tent on the way back from a wedding in the south of France, taking only secondary roads along the trip. Since we bought her, everything is an excuse to go on a road trip in Denise, even just to buy a baguette. After the wedding, we joined some friends who were bikepacking from Dijon to Lyon.

It was an extraordinary experience to sleep on the roof of our Porsche, our Bivouac tent left an impression on everyone. To end our trip we made a visit to the Grossglockner in Austria for the Giro di Mankei, an event that mixes the cycling and Porsche worlds into one. I’ll call it the Cyclo-Porschist world.

"Since we bought her, everything is an excuse to go on a road trip in Denise, even just to buy a baguette."

My passion for Porsche started when I was young, I lived in Guadeloupe with my mother but my father was in France. Every year I went to see him, we’d play video games with my cousins, especially Need for Speed or Gran Turismo. Even back then I always picked a 911 to race with. I’d watch entire films or TV series that would feature Porsches in them, all because I was just naturally attracted to the design of the car.”