Honolulu Touring, with David Bui

Oahu’s Porsche enthusiasts are just how you’d imagine them to be; it’s one of the few places you’ll see a GT3RS driver step out in flip-flops. 

The lifestyle is often interpreted as tropical comfort, but there’s much more depth to it than that.

In David Bui @honolulutimeco’s case it’s emblematic of a conscious approach to life, what he believes is the Hawaii way. David doesn’t try to force a narrative; he operates peacefully, and with respect, making the most of what comes.

16 years ago, having walked into his local Porsche dealer, David was offered a drive in a silver 911 with big brakes and a wing. His reaction was to politely decline as he certainly couldn’t afford it. 
The salesman told him “You should drive it, it’ll change your life”. 

And it did, he immediately started saving for a Cayman, which he got and loved. 
Years later David returned, ready for a GT3 of his own. As fate would have it there was not only a GT3 on the market, but the very car that he’d driven and fallen in love with years before. This being the GT Silver 997.1 that he cherishes to this day.

Through Porsche, David has met friends and clients, many of whom are both. He thinks his car choices reflect his broader sensibilities, with taste and attention to detail central to his work in the watch business.

Today our attention is focused on his PTS British Racing Green 992 GT3 Touring. It’s a spec assembled through thought and consideration, with a conscious decision behind every detail.
 

David loved BRG for 20 years, but his younger self had found it too mature. By this point it was an easy pick. The cool green tone is reminiscent of Oahu’s lush forests, he wanted its interior to evoke the landscape similarly.

Despite liking Cognac, he felt it too rich and deep, Hawaii’s bright sunny beaches were better captured by the creamy warmth of Mojave. His cherry on top being the Singer-inspired red, yellow, and grey tartan seat inserts that match the GT3 tachometer.

In daylight, the grey in the tartan even reads green!

David comes from three generations of watchmakers. He worked with his father at Honolulutimeco from a young age, but got serious about the watch business after graduating university. 

At 20 years old he travelled as an exchange student to Japan from the University of Hawaii. He immediately fell in love and went searching for any way to return. Circa 2000, buying Hyperrev magazines and JDM parts to sell in the US helped fund his trips. It was also his first foray into arbitrage. 

He later started frequenting watch shows in the US, Europe and then Hong Kong. While travelling, he built friendships over dinners with other traders. His knowledge and appreciation of the Japanese language, business, and culture helped him connect with Japan’s major watch dealers and move in their circles in a way most foreign traders could not.

He continues to visit Japan regularly, stopping by museums, restaurants, and car destinations like Daikoku PA and the Magarigawa Club. During Covid-19, he even made Yokohama his second home. His Summer Yellow 964 that lives in Japan has become a local mascot. It’s perfect for drives with the Porsche friends he looks forward to seeing.

In his spare time back home, David organises drives around the island. 
Early Sunday mornings, the group gathers at this pier which, on any other day, is home to the only large-scale Pacific tuna auction west of Tokyo. 
The pier handles between 30,000 and 40,000 kilograms of fish daily, so a lineup of thirty colourful Porsches isn’t much trouble.

The pier’s exit drops you right on the highway, where the group has time to form up before heading out along Hawaii’s famous H-3. The road takes them through the Tetsuo Harano tunnel, a tall, monolithic entrance that could easily have been lifted from a Star Wars film. 

The 1.5 km you spend in its dim, rhythmic corridor feels compressed and almost liminal. You can’t quite grasp the results of your travel until you’re released high into the windward mountains, and soar around the steep ridgeline above a breathtaking view of Kāne‘ohe Bay.

From there, the two-hour loop follows a smooth, flowing road around the eastern corner of the island. Past the famous Koko, Diamond Head, and Mānana Island, It takes drivers through lava rock berms, along white sand beaches, and around steep serrated cliffs where a light dusting of salt from the Pacific Ocean’s turquoise water might collect on the windshield. 

The group rarely encounters much traffic at this hour, giving them plenty of space to enjoy the drive before returning to a still sleeping Honolulu.

This is an experience I hope to enjoy when I return to Honolulu. But for now I’ll have to settle for a new friend, and an image set I’m very proud of.