Resourcefulness is a virtue of the most prolific junkmen, but the term junkman seems less fitting when talking about a man who probably owned more Porsches than any other in California. The man is Rudi Klein, a German emigrant who arrived in Los Angeles in the 1950s, and after a string of odd jobs, Rudi founded one of the most impressive collections of foreign cars in America.
By now it’s probably clear that Rudi’s collection is different than most, in that it consists mostly of wrecked cars—predominantly Porsches—but all manners of foreign exotics have passed through his yard. Rudi’s business was Porche Foreign Auto (Rudi omitted the ‘s’ after Porsche threatened legal action years back), which he operated from 1967 until he passed away in 2001, and his yard will go down in history as one of America’s best-kept secrets.…