It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time for another The Autopian Podcast. This time we’ve got the irrepressible Magnus Walker. The Urban Outlaw. The guy with the rope long dreads and a poet’s deep understanding of the soul of a car enthusiast. He’s got an exhibit at the Petersen Museum and took some time out of his day to talk to Jason, Beau, and David about what makes him tick.
If you had access to the Internet and thought anything about cars a few years ago you saw Tamir Moscovici’s excellent encapsulation of Magnus’s ethos in short doc form. Here it is if you didn’t see it:
This is as good as an introduction to the man as you’ll need and so it’s great that, in honor of that film’s tenth anniversary, Magnus teamed up with the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles to display some of his collection. Obviously, 277 is the big draw here, but don’t sleep on the 914 Art Car either. There are ten cars in total and the exhibit is going on now and will be up through the end of January.
Magnus and I worked together for a bit on a show called ‘The Next Big Thing” for Hagerty and it was an exciting challenge to try and take his car-buying philosophy and fit it on a show you’re probably watching on your phone.
As he mentions in the podcast, “Smiles-per-mile” is more important to Magnus than pure dollars and his philosophy is “buy what you love, not what you think is valuable.”
Of course, Magnus bought a bunch of old air-cooled Porsches before prices shot through the roof, so he’s clearly skilled at doing both. You’ll have to check out the podcast to hear about Magnus’s favorite place to buy cars and car parts.
To listen to the podcasts episodes you can go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or you can use the RSS feed and point your favorite Podcast player at it.
I’m embedding the three most recent episodes below if you want to listen to it from your browser. Please like, subscribe, rate, et cetera.
Neat that he is into other stuff outside of Porsches. I loved that he’s had two 1969 Superbees (my absolute dream car) and has a tattoo of the Bee. What a legend.
Nice episode.
Peak nerddom.
Shared it with our local Porsche facebook group, which is actually called Urban Porsche Freaks, probably also named after Magnus.
Also watched the old film, which I had forgotten all about. Thanks.
Urban Outlaw is such an enjoyable short film. After I listened to the podcast I went and rewatched it. I want to be like Magnus when I grow up.
Also, you accidentally wrote 377 instead of 277.