- Couple in their 90s mark platinum anniversary with first Porsche.
- Derek and Audrey Evans chose a Macan, eyeing Taycan next soon.
- Their daughter says Derek loves toggling the SUV drive modes.
Most of us will be thankful to still have a pulse in our 90s, never mind being able to crank it up by stepping on the loud pedal in a freshly purchased Porsche. But that’s exactly what one nonagenarian UK couple is doing after treating themselves on their 70th wedding anniversary.
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Derek Evans is 92, and his wife Audrey is 94, which means they started their driving careers with carburettors and rod brakes and are still going strong now that one in every 10 cars sold in Britain is an EV. But their first Porsche only arrived this year, a Crayon colored ICE-powered Macan collected from Bournemouth on England’s south coast.
“We’d always fancied one, and then we thought, why not now?” said Evans. “There’s also a great atmosphere when you own a Porsche. It feels like you’re part of an amazing club.”
Old-boy Racer
Their first car as newlyweds was an Austin 7 with around 7 hp (7 PS), so this is some upgrade, even if the base Macan’s 262 hp (265 PS) looks mild compared to the outputs of some modern Porsches. They insist they are not gray-haired boy racers and simply “enjoy the feeling of power and comfort,” though Derek’s daughter reckons he loves to fiddle with the drive mode selector on the steering wheel.
“There isn’t a 19-year-old left in Dorset that dad hasn’t left behind at the traffic lights,” she says, laughing. “But honestly, they’ve never lived a conventional life, so when they told us they were getting a Porsche, we just smiled.”
Gym-Honed
Old photographs show Derek was big into hang-gliding in his middle age, so he’s obviously always been a thrill seeker. And he still hits the gym twice a week at the point where many of his contemporaries struggle to get out of a chair.
He even borrowed a 911 from his local dealership recently and is already looking forward to what might replace the Macan. It’s another Porsche, “a Taycan,” Evans says. “A wonderful car. It took me a little while to get out of it – but wow, what a thing!”
