by John Glynn | Jan 26, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
The first time I visited my friend Jonas Zambakides at JZM Porsche, I had just come from Autofarm. “How’s Josh?” asked Jonas. “He’s talking about selling the business,” I said. “He’s been saying that since I met him twenty years ago,” laughed Jonas. I could not disagree.
Autofarm is not too far from Ferdinand Towers, so I get down there every so often. On my last visit, a deal to buy the business was in progress – chatting with the buyers was interesting and the contracts have now been exchanged. Porsche 911 RS Carrera guru, Josh Sadler, has sold his Autofarm business to long-time employees: Mikey Wastie and Steve Wood.
Autofarm under New Management
It’s hard to imagine Autofarm without Sadler’s extensive understanding of the 2.7 RS close at hand. Originally founded at the same time as the RS was released, Sadler’s Autofarm became synonymous with the passage of RS Carreras from old homes to new. His famous little black book has more chassis numbers than a Porsche Museum catalogue, and it seems Sadler is not finished collecting them yet.
The new owners have split the business responsibilities, with Mikey running engines, projects and restoration, while former Carrera cup pilot and keen racer Steve will manage the service and storage sides. Sadler stays on in a heritage capacity: there is no better word to describe his core skills in the business of Porsche.
“Stepping back from the day-to-day running allows me to focus on car sales and heritage. As 911 values have risen, provenance has become increasingly important and investors are seeking perfect, correct specification cars. With Autofarm’s expertise and history, we can really help customers,” says Josh.
I don’t claim to know anything about the Carrera RS, but I’ve spent a great deal of time with RS people. Some supposed experts were all smoke and mirrors, and some who I assumed would be largely nonplussed on the subject of Carrera RS and early Porsche race cars like the ST or T/R knew much more than they thought. No doubt Sadler can comfortably hold his own in any RS discussion: I’m glad he will still be around.
Despite his annoyingly youthful appearance, Mikey Wastie’s served a valuable apprenticeship under Sadler, so is not short on knowledge. The company has managed some interesting restoration projects over the last few years, and the new owners will open the doors slightly wider, to bring in a few more modern Porsches. Autofarm will have quite a different flavour with new hands on the tiller: I’m excited for the business – it might need a bigger car park.
by John Glynn | Jan 15, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Swapped some good emails with Jonny, a fellow impact bumper 911 man earlier this week regarding an agreed insurance valuation for his newly-restored Porsche 911 SC. The car is just about finished, so it’s time to make sure that this investment is properly protected in case anything should happen. The car is absolutely lovely: well worth sharing on Ferdinand.
“The brief for the car was an ‘everyday’ hot rod based largely on standard components and some period accessories – hence ‘stock rod’,” says Jonny. “The car as purchased was scruffy but largely sound. The shell needed repair to both kidneys, sills, one inner wing and the oil tank aperture.”
Porsche 911 SC Hot Rod begins
“I contacted well known body man, Barry Carter, about tackling the bodywork. He was at the right end of the country for me and has done some lovely metal restoration on 911s. Barry’s mission was ‘search and destroy’ all rust. After a lot of detailed repair work, I believe this has been accomplished.
“While Barry was working on the rust problem, he also addressed the metalwork in other areas that I was changing, to make the shell perfect. This included a mirror hole delete, side skirt delete, side repeater delete, rear fog light delete, front spoiler delete and rolling the wheel arch edges.
“When the bodywork was done, I stripped the car back to bare metal myself and the shell then went to Steve Utting at DC Coachworks. Steve carried out a complete colour change to Porsche Delphi Green – a 914 colour, similar to some 911 shades. The new paint extends to the wheelarches, engine and luggage bays.
“Former Paragon engine builder, Lee Colbran, rebuilt the engine with standard pistons and cylinders (rebored and Nikasil coated) 964 cams, and SSI heat exchangers. We also backdated the heating: taking the secondary air blower out of the engine compartment. I rebuilt the Bosch K-Jet CIS injection and had the fan and housing refurbed. Mike Bainbridge rebuilt the transmission for me, also fitting a Quaife LSD to the car.
“There’s nothing wrong with standard SC brakes, so no upgrade was necessary. I had the calipers reconditioned by Classic Brake, and replaced every part of the braking system. All the suspension was also removed, stripped and refinished in the correct plating or powerdercoat. New suspension bushes are a mix of standard and Superpro, as this is not a track car. Rear torsion bars went to 26mm, with a 22mm front anti-roll bar. Turbo tie rods were fitted to my 911 SC, as they make a difference.”
Jonny is an electrical engineer, so there are some clever bits and pieces on the electrical system – more on that in a later post. The interior is very period, with the original brown dash, door caps and trim, some manual Porsche sports seats and very smart Mercedes “Brazil Brown” carpet, as it tones well with the Porsche palette. The door panels and rear quarter trims are covered in “Domino” Alcantara. Rear seat backs have been deleted but the handy “jump seat” cushions are still in place.
Kudos to Jonny for getting in early and snapping up an SC before prices went crazy, then working his way through a detailed “update” restoration so the car can be used every day. Undervalued for far too long, the 3-litre 911s are still my favourite and I love what Jon has done with the Delphi Green stunner. Looking forward to having a drive sometime soon.
by John Glynn | Jan 15, 2015 | Art and Books, Classic Porsche Blog
Fellow 911 owner, artist Nicolas Hunziker, has just uploaded another “can you guess what it is yet?” Porsche painting to Youtube.
The first few minutes had me waiting for something discernable, then a 356 hove into view, then I thought I saw something else: surely Nicolas can’t be painting a water-cooled car. The end result is special and was very familiar – reminded me of a press photo maybe? Something I had seen before. The final dénouement was obvious.
Porsche Unexpected with Nicolas Hunziker
The book Porsche Unexpected was released last year. Telling the story of the incredible Ingram Collection, I bought two copies: one for me and one for a friend’s birthday. I had them both shipped to his house in California and not been able to get there to read my copy yet, but I hear it is very good. I’ll let you know!
Check out Nicolas’ interesting video below. These movies are fun but can be longer than you think (this is art, not speed art), so allow some time to enjoy the experience. Ciao!
by John Glynn | Jan 11, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
Selling prices continue to climb for the best examples of air-cooled Porsche 911, and low mileage water-cooled cars. Looking at the buyers active at the top of the market, no impending disaster looms to their ability to pay the asking prices now commonplace for older Porsche cars. Add that to a burgeoning demand for one of the hottest investment spots of recent classic car sales and it’s small wonder that good cars sell quickly.
Low-mileage 997 GT3s and 996 Turbos in top class condition continue to do well. A recent 996 Turbo Tiptronic with just 21k miles (above) sold to the first person to view at £39,900: strong money for a 996 Turbo. That said, the car was exceptional and the buyer was sitting on cash, ready to go.
Sitting on cash is a situation many lucky people find themselves in at the minute, whether from bonus, downsizing a property, inheritance or just lots of hard work. Specialist UK dealers have a bundle of air-cooled rarities in their used Porsche for sale stocks, which may do the trick for investors.
My current favourite is this Porsche 993 RS Lightweight: a one-owner car just arrived from Japan with a paltry mileage on the clock. £270,000 seems about right, given where values have been in the last twelve months. Still a truckload of money, though.
I’ve never been a ’73 RS groupie, but this very nice 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Touring for sale – three owners in Light Yellow and beautifully restored many years ago – for offers around the £650k mark.
I’ve set eyes on less than pristine examples with nothing like the history of this car elsewhere in the UK, where sellers insist they have turned down bids of £700k+. Not because they don’t want to sell it: they just want more money. I could say that is pushing it, but then I’m not sitting on a proper RS with all that ownership entails.
Away from high-end Porsche metal, some interesting impact-bumper 911 projects sold over Christmas for mid-£20k: about the right price as far as I’m concerned. No shortage of armchair experts around to shout the prices down, but low-priced IBs are becoming harder to find.
by John Glynn | Jan 9, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
Below Zero Ice Driving is about to unveil a fleet of eight Porsche 911s for its busiest season yet. The cars shipped out to Sweden last week, with three mechanics, two support staff and a flurry of support vehicles packed with Porsche parts and a geodesic dome.
I’ve been promised a trip to the ice many times before, but this year it looks highly likely. The geodesic dome will serve as the hospitality unit on the lake, where new hostess Marine will ensure that Below Zero clients are well looked after. No press trip is scheduled for this year’s event, so a photographer will be needed to shoot the new features, making the trip in exchange for a session or two on the lakes. Look no further than yours truly to step up and fill that gap.
The courses have been just been cut into the frozen lake at Below Zero HQ near the Swedish ski resort of Åre. This year, the team will have ten miles of ice tracks at its disposal, and it is likely to need them Just four days are left open in the six-week season, and they look likely to disappear also.
Below Zero hosts everything from corporate events to driver training and special birthday experiences. The cars are bona-fide rally cars: three of this year’s eight car fleet have won rallies in recent times, hosting drivers including Travis Pastrana, Björn Waldegård, Carlos Sainz and Stig Blomqvist.
There’s some filming going on this year and talk of the Tuthill Porsche 997 R-GT car heading to Sweden for a bit of ice testing, but we’ll have to see how that pans out. If I had a bit more time, I wouldn’t mind driving the Cayenne up to Sweden and trying it out on full studs. Temperatures are hovering close to freezing here in the UK, but Sweden offers anywhere between -5 and -12 Celsius, a frozen lake and a dome full of beer. Tempting.
by John Glynn | Dec 12, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Spent a morning this week at Tuthill Porsche, watching a proper 3.0 911 RSR engine go together. The most interesting thing about this engine is it was built using rare factory sand-cast engine cases: something apart from the norm and a nice link to RSR heritage.
Richard Tuthill has always promised to help with a top end rebuild on my Carrera 3.0 engine, currently resting with tired valve guides and a cracked head stud. The C3 engine has much in common with the RSR motor, so there was plenty on this build that would also apply to my own. I’d seen these cases when they first arrived in the parts washer, so looked forward to watching them come back to life: it was going to be educational.
Engine builder Anthony served as Francis’ apprentice and has since built countless Porsche engines and transmissions, using a mix of Fran’s teachings and knowledge gleaned from other engine gurus. It will be a few years before he has the wrinkles to countenance his impressive store of knowledge, but no doubt he’s en route to the top of his field.
As you’d expect, this was not the first time the race engine had been stripped, and some bits needed a rethink. When the original crank was found to need oversize bearings at three grand a set from our German friend, it made more sense to keep the ancient crank safe, and prepare a new crankshaft to RSR spec.
The 6-bolt crankshaft was knife-edged, polished and nitrided (hardened in a 72-hour process) before being fitted with the original connecting rods. These were original and I thought quite lovely. Edges had been ground and polished before the rods were shot peened: nothing overly dressy. These engines are all about go, not show.
One illuminating job on the crankshaft assembly was stretching the rod bolts using a rod bolt stretch gauge. The bolts are at max clamp load when stretched by 10 thousandths of an inch, so Anthony’s junior held the ARP gauge while the bolts were stretched up to spec.
With the crankshaft assembled, the builder spent a long time cleaning and lubricating the first case half, installing oil seals, oil pump, timing chains and intermediate shaft before dropping the crank in, adding more seals, using a variety of sealants to prep the case further, then turning his attention to the other case half.
This was given the same close attention: lots of cleaning, lubrication and then a different sealant. When everything was ready, the case halves were joined together and Anthony worked quickly to get it all buttoned up while the sealant was curing. Next job was to install pistons and cylinders and measure the heights and CCs, so they could be sent off for finishing. More on that next time (it’s good).
