One day at a time...

It’s been a while since our last update, but a lot has happened. If you’ve been around Porsche enthusiasts lately however, you’ve probably heard the news. Regardless, let’s start from the beginning.

In the early hours of October 31st, 2019, a truck in our neighbor’s yard erupted into flames, quickly engulfing the vehicles next to it. Fanned by the strong Santa Ana winds that night, the flames then spread to our premises and the secondary building caught fire. By the time the flames had been doused, an entire building, stocked with numerous racks of “no-longer-available” and “new old stock” Porsche parts, the “Beater from La Mirada 912,” a pristine 912E and an old 911 race car shell had gone up in smoke. 1950s transmission cases, fully-built engines, seatbelts, radios, headlights, exhaust components and crucial metalwork equipment had been lost in a matter of hours.

The damage was, simply put, insurmountable.

Road and Track covered the fire here.

John and the team quickly banded together to figure out the next step, while working with the insurance adjusters to assess a value to the lost items. The first week was arguably the worst seven days that the Benton Performance team has seen. Days turned into weeks and the uphill battle continued, made easier by the remarkable generosity of Porsche enthusiasts, friends, donors and strangers who had heard about the whole ordeal. Through all this, John put on a brave face, rallied his team and the shop continued onward.

All the damaged items were slowly and carefully removed, the building was eventually torn down and a new space has been created for multipurpose usage. After months of cleanup, reorganization and working with the insurance companies, Benton Performance officially reopened for business on February 17th, 2020. While we can never return to what the shop was, we can only move forward, so that’s the plan. #BentonStrong

Furthermore, we couldn’t have done it without you all. So, please join us in celebrating the reopening of Benton Performance on February 28th! All the details are in the poster below and we hope to see you there!