⊹ . ˖ . ō͡≡o

It’s near blistering on an April afternoon in Charlotte, North Carolina, as cars drive in, line up, and try not to pile up at the 2026 Smith Hendrick Heritage Invitational.

This fourth annual event is hosted by the Ten Tenths Motor Club, adjacent to the famed Charlotte Motor Speedway. If you had only seen cars in magazines, these would look better still. Fast cars, new cars, red cars, blue cars, slow cars, not go-karts, old cars, show cars. Cars for sport, cars for leisure. If you live, breathe, and dream of automobiles, then you should be at the Smith Hendrick Heritage Invitational.

Cars are sectioned and judged in all sorts of ways. Early Racers and Rods, Racing Renaissance, The Grand Classics, Autobahn Legends, European Thoroughbreds, The Prancing Horses (all Ferrari), American Icons, Brutes in Suits (all British), RADWOOD (all 80s and 90s), Heroes of Japan, Tale Lights, and more.

Near the end of the line of cars in the Tale Lights category, aka “Cars with Stories,” next to a deep fuchsia 2026 “Super Hyper” with 1002 horsepower and a white and red 1981 Lamborghini used as a safety car in the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix, there is an unsuspecting silver car covered in a thin layer of yellow pollen.

The car is not blindingly shiny and has no chromatic effect that so many of the other cars have been wiped and re-wiped to achieve. A small sign in front identifies the vehicle: 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo. The headlights are unlike that of most Porsches, colloquially “fried egg”-like, visually melting down the front bumper.

Next to the car is the owner of this full German breakfast. Tom Thalmann, 59, wears a gray shirt, glasses, and a tan sunhat with a wide brim that goes down the back of the neck.

“This guy is like the master of mileage,” an onlooker says, with reverence.

The onlooker introduces himself as Seth Diamond, informal title Food Biker, host and executive producer of the culinary/motorcycle series Food Biker. Diamond has a Porsche, too, a 2010 987.2 Porsche Boxster 2.9L, with 267,000+ miles on it.

“So many people in the P-car world intentionally keep their mileage low for car collectability, so you just happened to bump into two major high-mileage P-car outliers,” says Diamond.

Two outliers? Thalmann laughs.

The odometer in his 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo reads 755,600 miles.

Joyfully, Thalmann says he has driven them all. But he’s not done.

. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ ⊹ . ˖ . ō͡≡o

When Thalmann was seven or eight, his parents’ tax attorney would park outside of their house in a ‘70s Porsche 911. The car, with a chocolate brown exterior and tan interior, captivated him. Since then, the car lived in his mind.

“I was that kid,” he says.

In the summer of 2003, Thalmann needed a car for his commute from South Kingstown, RI, to Boston. He worked as a biotech consultant but loved the beach too much to leave the town he called home.

His Porsche dealer offered him a 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo.

Twenty-three years later, the car is Thalmann’s daily commuter. His average daily drive is around 130 miles, and the longest his commute has ever been 230 miles. He has driven it for all but five winters and now takes it off the road around November each year. Liquid salt does nasty things to the metal undercarriage. In the depths of the winter months, Thalmann drives a Jeep.

Thalmann’s daughter Erica Thalmann, 28, can barely remember a time when cars weren’t a part of her life. Her mother jokes that she adjusts the seat exactly like her father does. She’s inherited his love of driving, too.

“When I drive my car enough, it literally becomes like an extension of me,” she says. “If you walk through a doorway, you usually don’t hit your arm on the doorway, because you know where your arm is.”

. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ō͡≡o

The 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo has its own team. Glam team, if you will. It’s regularly taken for checkups and hiccups to an autobody guy, a tire guy, and a mechanic. Each of the three are small business owners, and none of them have met, to Thalmann’s knowledge.

“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be driving it,” says Thalmann. “That's the truth.”

Thalmann chose his autobody guy, tire guy, and mechanic based upon their commitment to their craft. He doesn’t care for speed, and he doesn’t cut corners. The mechanic works specifically on Porsches and other European imports, but the tire shop and autobody shop do anything and everything that walks through the door.

“I’m certainly – probably an oddball in their customer base, for sure,” says Thalmann.

Manny Alban, Technical Director of the Porsche Club of America, says that maintenance plays a significant role in reaching such high mileage numbers.

“Porsche enthusiasts should not be surprised by the mileage of Tom’s car,” said Alban.“ Porsche owners love to drive their cars, and high mileage is quite common. Frequent oil changes, sticking to maintenance schedules and using quality fuel are all keys to keep your Porsche running dependably for a long time.”

. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ .. ₊ ⊹ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ˖ ˖ . ō͡≡o

The car has a personality, Thalmann says. It loves the adventure. It loves the exploration. It loves the creativity of going on roads that it was meant to be driven on.

“It has something that I can’t put my finger on right now,” he says. “The connection between the asphalt to the car, the car to the human, and the human to the steering wheel, there’s something magical about it.”

“It’s connection, really,” he says. “It’s connection.”

In 2013, at an event at his local Porsche dealership, Thalmann met Jochen Biemann. Biemann works at the original Porsche factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany, and has been working there for 30 years. He began on the factory floor as a mechanic, worked up to the marketing department, and now, Thalmann says, he’s part of the “Sonderwunsch special wishes group,” where you can custom-order a Porsche with the exact options you’d like.

Thalmann and Biemann connected over their shared love for the 911 Porsche and the fact that they both had daughters of a similar age. Biemann asked Thalmann what he drove and asked to see the car. He asked if he could sit in the car. He looked at the odometer, looked at Tom, looked back at the odometer, pointed at it, and asked if it was real.

“Can I take a picture of this?” Thalmann recalls Biemann asking.

A week later, Thalmann received an email from Biemann. In that email, former Vice President of Engineering Erhard Moessle was copied. Moessle offered Thalmann a tour of the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen Factory, with an open-door policy for Thalmann to visit anytime he’d like.

“So, I was there in 2019, and I got to spend the day with Jochen and Erhard,” says Thalmann.

“I got to hear their story of the development of the car and all the cool stuff that went with it,” he says.

“And then they got to hear my story of enjoying the car that they were so intimately involved in. So, it was a really, really, really strong and powerful connection.”

Thalmann has estimated that he will be in his late sixties when he gets to the 1-million-mile mark. When he reaches that millionth mile, he’s sending the car back to the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen Factory to be put in the Porsche Museum.

“The gentleman’s agreement would be that they can do whatever restoration they want on it, put it in the museum, give me something to use while it’s in the museum … then go back to the factory after it’s done in the museum.”

After the factory and restoration stint, Thalmann says he will take a victory lap by driving through Switzerland, Germany, and Austria for three months with his car. Afterwards, he’ll ship it back to the States and keep driving it, just like he’s always done.

If his health stays with him for another fifteen to twenty years, he says, and he is still able to drive the car well into his eighties, then the car could reach a million and a half miles.

“Then it could potentially become the highest mileage Porsche in Porsche’s history, which then becomes something else to think about,” Thalmann says.

Thalmann’s serendipitous story is not singular in the Porsche world. Victoria Eskew understands this. Founder of TuneUp Social, a branding and social media consulting business, she purchased a 911 Porsche just two years ago and has already driven 30,000 miles.

“I feel like my life changed for the better since I got this car,” she says. “I've met so many great people. I’ve had amazing experiences.”

It’s the people and the conversations that motivate her to continue driving and attending events.

“The conversation keeps perpetuating, and I feel like that’s what drives, no pun intended, the continuation of the journey,” she said. “The story writes itself.”

. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ .. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ ˖ ō͡≡o

Back in Charlotte, at the 2026 Smith Hendrick Heritage Invitational, judges announce the winners of each category. The Top Honors, Chairman’s Choice Sport and Chairman’s Choice d’Elegance, were given to a 1966 Ford GT40 and a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Coupé Ellen, respectively. Icons of racing history were honored. The cars glimmered so much, they might as well have been sweating in the sun. Rare cars, exclusive cars, beautiful cars.

The next category was up: Tale Lights: “Cars with fascinating stories.”

Thalmann’s car wins the category.

He doesn’t need to load his car back onto a trailer. He takes his award and plans for the 800-mile drive

back home to South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Eight hundred miles closer to 1,000,000.

. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ .. ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ ˖ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ⊹ . ˖ . ₊ ō͡≡o