PLATICA 2025 – Porsche meet at The Quarry in Knoxville, Tennessee
In May 2024, Harper Porsche launched PLATICA, a new Porsche event in the east of the USA. Almost 3,000 visitors responded to the call to “The Quarry” – an old marble quarry south of Knoxville, Tennessee. There, the team from the family-run Porsche dealership created an exhibition with rows and rows of top-class Porsche road and racing cars. After the great response at the premiere, the second edition of Porsche PLATICA will take place in Tennessee on May 4, 2025.
Porsche enthusiasts in the second generation
Shannon Harper, son of Tom Harper, is now the second generation to run the Harper Porsche business, founded in 1981. As a great Porsche enthusiast, the classic beauties from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen are just as close to his heart as racing cars optimized by Manthey. In 2011, the family business ventured its first foray into car events with the Harper Auto Square Cars & Coffee. The event now attracts up to 6,000 cars a year.
A quarry full of Porsches – PLATICA’s location is unique
These experiences led to the first Porsche PLATICA event in 2024. Platica is Spanish and means something like conversation or chatting. “That’s exactly what the event is all about”, emphasizes Connor Hinkle, Head of Marketing at Harper Auto Square. On the first weekend in May, the event professionals want to bring together Porsche fans from all corners of the globe to chat about cars at The Quarry Venue.
This is a former marble quarry a few kilometers south of Knoxville in Tennessee. The world-famous Tennessee Pink Marble used to be quarried here. Today, the former industrial buildings and man-made “canyons” are the venue for weddings, corporate events and… well, Porsche meetings. The waterfall, which is over 100 feet high, is a particularly impressive motif there.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Carrera GT, Harper Porsche is arranging a top-class line-up for PLATICA 2025
In addition to a beautiful location, you also need exciting exhibits to stimulate conversations. And PLATICA offers plenty of them. Last year, 25 unique Porsche models lined the grounds. Like a treasure hunt, visitors were able to discover more and more gems of Porsche history along the map.
Among them were the Pikes Peak winning car from Brumos Porsche, a 991 GT2 RS Clubsport and a Penske Porsche 963 Le Mans prototype. But the area was also lined with hand-picked road car legends like the Porsche 964 Carrera RS, 992 Dakar or, for example, a 996 project with a somewhat more unusual engine in the rear… For 2025, Harper Porsche has announced that it will celebrate 20 years of the Porsche Carrera GT in collaboration with Merit Partners. A total of 45 vehicles will be presented throughout the marble quarry near Knoxville.
Tacos & Targaritas at the Cinco de Mayo weekend
As in the previous year, PLATICA will take place on the weekend of Cinco de Mayo. This is a Mexican holiday to mark the Battle of Puebla. In keeping with this, there will be Tacos and Targaritas as icebreakers on Sunday between 9 am and 7 pm. Harper Porsche is also organizing a pre-event tour, called the Saturday Drive. Around 60 Porsche will join a scenic tour around the Knoxville area.
The exclusive tickets for PLATICA 2025 will be available from April 4th, 11 am CST at www.porsche-platica.com.
© images: Riley King, Misguided Media & Robby Marrs
About Harper Porsche
Harper Porsche is a proud family owned Porsche dealer located in Knoxville, TN since 1981. A multiple time Porsche Premier award dealer, Harper Porsche prides itself on its status as an enthusiast based Porsche dealership that never charges over MSRP. Harper Porsche is a Manthey Partner, Porsche Classic Partner, and proud host of PLÁTICA.
