Instagram: @drola964

About the driver

Pedro Trongé is an Argentinian-born motor-head who grew up in the U.S. Raised in Miami, Trongé considers the city home and is part of the first graduating class of G. Holmes Braddock High School in 1992. As a child, Trongé was always intrigued by mechanics and the makeup of an engine, especially those of cars. This interest of his developed into a passion of buying and dealing cars, which consumes most of his spare time. When not tinkering away on his cars, Trongé works in the real estate industry and with his wife, works in making land development deals. By his fellow riders and friends, Trongé is known to always bring along his coffee set to rides, providing an extra boost of energy for the drives. 

Q & A

Q: How many years have you've been driving/riding?

A: I can't tell you the exact year but as soon as I could get behind the wheel, I did. I remember that when I was a teenager, I had a friend that had an older brother who was really into cars and I would follow him around to learn anything I could on driving. I began to get exposed to the world of cars and since I was a teen, I remember rebelling in ways like trying out cars and swapping tags. I was doing anything it took to get behind a wheel.

Q: How many years have you've been driving Porsche? 

A: My love for Porsche started at a very young age. When I was little, my dad had a friend who owned a 928 and I fell completely in love with its speed. That same friend would also come over in his 911 convertible red Carrera, and I will never forget the feeling I got the time he let me ride in the back. That feeling of being pushed back to your seat mixed with the purr of the car's engine exhilarated me and ultimately led me into buying my very own Porsche in 2004. I bought a 1984/911 with 200,000 miles on it and for a while that was my sole Porsche. It was not until 2011 or 2012 that I really got into buying and flipping them. I would buy one to two cars a month and flip them. It became my little side hustle. I actually just recently got my dealer license, allowing me to buy cars from manufacturers and auctions at wholesale dealer prices.

Q: From all the years you've flipped and sold Porsches, did you ever end up keeping one of your projects?

A: Actually yes. In 2013 I found this black 1990 Porsche 964 Carrera up in Indianapolis. The whole buy was a little iffy because the guy who I was buying the car off of was pretty vague on the phone. 

Q: What did he tell you?

A: He just said that the car was a little busted and needed some work. He wasn't clear as to what work exactly needed to be done on the car, but my mind had already been made up, and so I bought a plane ticket to Indianapolis. My plan was to make the trip up by plane and drive back down with the car. It wasn't until I was making my way back down that I realized what bad condition the car was in. I remember the car blowing a lot of smoke, the shift being completely messed up and there was no first gear or reverse. The car was also leaking like crazy and there was three different times I had to stop and get out of the car to the clean plate because there was so much crude. 

Q: What did you do with car when you finally brought it down?

A: I took it apart. I took me six months to do it all, and from then on, I would collect different parts from cars from my other flipping projects and add them onto the 964. I felt so attached to the car and made it so my own that I had to keep it.

Red Rocket (L) and Creampuff (R).

Q: Do you go out to the track often?

A: Yeah, I go whenever I get the chance. I love going to Sebring International Raceway up in central Florida. It was actually the first place I ever rode a car on a track, with my 911 back in 2004. The feeling of driving on the track and hearing the revving of the engine just makes my hairs go up. It's like an escape, a sort of therapy. You could say the track is my favorite place to drive because I can go as fast as I can without being afraid to get stopped by the cops. I am also protected in case of any incident and I personally feel that on the track I am more equipped for an injury rather than on the street because on the track there is less to be aware of while on the street anything can happen. 

Q: Which of your cars do you take to the track?

A: I usually take Creampuff with me. I love the feeling I get when I'm doing a night spin out on the track. It doesn't get much better than that. Actually, my last time at Sebring, I did the best time I've ever done, doing three laps in 2:29 seconds.  

Q: Asides from time spent on the track, what has been one of your favorite memories driving?

A: I wouldn't say it is my favorite memory but one of my most memorable ones was about two years ago, a group of friends of mine and I, who all owned Porsche GT3s, drove up to the mountains of North Carolina. One of the days, we were driving by the side of the mountain and there was this left-hand turn, and as I was trying to make the turn, my brakes gave out and I drove right off the side of the road. I would have died if a tree hadn't broken my fall. My friend actually got it all on camera. 

Watch the last ten seconds of the video to see the fall: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLkTGwdJeh8/?igshid=9iv4u1d1ta71

You can catch Trongé on the weekends out on the track at Sebring or on a drive down to the winery. You might just be lucky enough to catch him with his coffee set.