Walking the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Centre, Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show, attendees are offered an amazing amount of feedback not available via social media. The SEMA crowd could see, touch and sometimes smell any numbers of automotive delights on display during the four-day event. Filled with such like-minded persons, another perk of SEMA is the chance meeting of various automotive icons, in this case Magus Walker, Porsche aficionado, collector and tuner.

“It’s my seventh SEMA,” he said.

Walker, a fashion designer, shot to automotive fame in 2012 in the documentary Urban Outlaw, which gave him his nickname. The film highlighted his love for the Porsche brand, his collection, and his penchant for modifying them in a non-traditional manner that would eventually become the outlaw style copied by many. “I don’t know, it just kind of happened, my love for Porsche, when I was young. It’s my drug of choice,” he explained.

Walker’s story is well known, falling in love with the German sports car brand at 10 years old, having been taken to the 1977 Earl’s Court Motorshow by his father. He would reunite with Porsche in 1992 due to the success of his multi-million dollar company Serious Clothing. The first purchase of a 1974 Porsche 911 eventually led to a collection now worth a reported US$7.5 million. However, unlike other car collectors, Walker buys less than perfect models and applies his creative juices turning them into unique machines to be driven and enjoyed.

“Forty years later, I’m still passionate about Porsche. Ultimately what’s great about them is, for the most part, they’re affordable. I just bought a 996 for five grand, which was a running driving car. So performance-wise, reliable, affordable, built to be driven, fast, handle great, look good, feel good, smell good, that’s the answer to why Porsche,” he said.

While Walker is very much aware of the other Porsche-tuning styles like that of Japan’s RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF, and the high-end resto-modding of California firm Singer, he holds a very different place in the Porsche community, more of a stylistic guide rather than a producer as he doesn’t produce or sell parts. In true outlaw fashion, he builds his cars for himself and he was in full effect at the Mobil 1 booth where his latest project a 914, one of the most un-loved Porsche models, was on display.

“I did a last-minute build of this 914 that was put together in four days, so when it comes to SEMA, that’s really no time because a lot of people spend a lot of time and money to show cars here SEMA. This was put together literally on a shoe-string budget,” he said.

When pressed on his favourite Porsche he added: “Porsche is always evolving, same but different, always one step better. So the next generation is always better, the future is going to be interesting to see how electrification is. Obviously, it’s going to be fast and you have to adapt to the environment, but the newest Porsche I own is a 2004 GT3 and it’s one of my favourites. I drove to SEMA in a 1978 928, so I like variety.”

— Article written by Nichole Beckford