LOCAL PORSCHE DISTRIBUTOR, Stuttgart Auto, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in association with the famed sportscar manufacturer, and a charity rally and gala dinner were organised to commemorate the event.

The rally, held last weekend, attracted over 40 Porsche cars and featured valuable prizes such as a Parmigiani Fleurier wristwatch, valued at over $30,000, a membership to the One° 15 Marina Club at Sentosa Cove, as well as two business class return tickets to Stuttgart, Germany.

The attractiveness of the prizes meant that the rally was no picnic. Organised by the local chapter of the Porsche Club, the rally sorely tested participants’ navigational skills as well as their ability to identify seemingly obscure local landmarks. The organisers designed proper rally-style ‘tulips’, or symbolic route markers that had to be read in strict conjunction with the accurate use of the trip meters in the cars.

Needless to say, a considerable number of teams ended up lost. Thankfully, however, each team was equipped with a sealed distress envelope that contained instructions on how to get to the next checkpoint stage.

In addition, there were two gymkhana stages that tested both the skills of the driver and even the dexterity of the navigator. And as if that wasn’t enough, a couple of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) questions were thrown in to mix things up even further.

Yesterday’s celebrations also included the first local airing of the eagerly-anticipated Porsche Cayman S coupe, specially flown in for the event.

In addition, last night’s gala dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel was also graced by the Minister of Transport and Communication, BG (NS) Yeo Cheow Tong, and Dr Wendelin Wiedeking, the president and chief executive officer of Porsche AG.