It’s the Silverstone Classic this weekend, with added Porsche content by way of the UK 911 50th Celebrations and the FIA Masters Historic Championship, featuring the Tuthill-built 3.0 Porsche RS and RSR of EB Motorsport.
Taking place from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th of July, Silverstone Classic claims to be the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival. The spectacular three-day event features the best historic racing, covering more than eight decades of motor sport.
Tickets for this year’s Silverstone Classic have only been available to buy online in advance, with no tickets sold on the gate. We’ll see how that works over the next three days: hopefully everyone who’s hoping to come got the memo.
For those who do get in the gates, the festival has something for all race fans, including Sabine Schmitz in a 962! Classic F1, Group C heroes, sportscars like the Lola T70 and classic Chevrons and a ton of car club parking to wander through.
I’m there with Mark and James from EB Motorsport. EB’s yellow Porsche 911 RSR is currently running joint second in the 2013 championship and the boys are hoping for some rain this weekend to give EB a chance of pulling points back. The forecast is not too encouraging for rain, but you never know at Silverstone!
EB cars qualify today and race tomorrow. Sunday is the Hungarian GP – a tough one to resist on Sky F1 – but also on Sunday, the Porsche Club GB will have over 1,000 911s lapping the track, in celebration of the model’s 50th birthday. Somewhere in there will be Tuthill’s Safari-winning Porsche, fresh from Goodwood, the EB Motorsport cars and who knows what else.
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I’ve been following the US class action lawsuit brought against Porsche Cars North America, for intermediate shaft (IMS) defects in the engine of the Porsche Boxster and 911 (996/997) from the 2001 to 2005 model years. According to Internet wisdom, the defective single-row bearing at the centre of this class action lawsuit has an estimated failure rate of somewhere between 8 and 10 per cent.
After months of online back-and-forth over whether this suit had settled, the lawyers involved have put out a press release announcing that the suit has been settled in favour of the plaintiffs. From the release: “Porsche owners and lessees may be reimbursed up to 100% of their out-of-pocket costs, depending upon the mileage on the vehicle at the time of repair. The reimbursement includes all out-of-pocket engine damage and replacement costs, up to ten years from the vehicle first being placed in service, regardless of whether such damage or loss occurs before or after the notice of this settlement. The Porsche owners and lessees are also entitled up to two hundred dollars in expenses for mileage and towing.”
“This settlement represents a wonderful result on behalf of current and former Porsche owners and lessees who have had to pay out-of-pocket costs related to repairing or replacing an engine which sustained damage as a result of a defective IMS,” said Class Counsel, Stephen Harris. But is it really all that wonderful?
It’s certainly not wonderful if your car falls outside the prescribed chassis numbers but still has an IMS issue. It’s also not wonderful if your Porsche was fitted with the double-row IMS bearing, which has a much lower failure rate (estimated by the Internet to be circa 1%), but your Porsche 911 or Boxster’s residual value was tarred with the bad IMS brush. It’s definitely not wonderful if you bought an IMS-affected lemon and suffered emotional trauma and financial hardship in sorting out the problem.
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Sabine Schmitz will drive a Porsche 962 at the 2013 Silverstone Classic, which runs this Friday to Sunday at our home track here in Northamptonshire.
Since first appearing on Top Gear and thrashing Clarkson around the ‘Ring in a Transit van, Sabine Schmitz has carved an unassailable niche as totty of choice for the discerning Porsche racing fan. The 1995 and 1996 Nurburgring 24-Hour winner will share a Porsche 962 with Klaus Abbelen in the Group C showdowns at Silverstone.
“The Porsche 962 is such great car for the purists – I just love driving it,” said Sabine Schmitz. “With all the downforce in the fast sections, racing the 962 is going to be a fantastic experience, if a little painful on the poor old neck muscles!”
This year’s Group C grid includes six Porsche 962s, with ex-F2 racer Herve Regout the predicted pacesetter. Others worth watching include Japanese Katsu Kubota in his Nissan R90C – a winner at the 2011 Classic winner – plus the 1989 Mercedes C11 ‘Silver Arrow’ shared by Gareth Evans and triple FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix champion, Bob Berridge.
The Group C race through dusk on Saturday was a blast last year. Here’s hoping for more of the same! When we’re not watching the action, you’ll find us in the paddock with EB Motorsport, racing in FIA Masters this weekend. Stop by and say hello if you’re passing.
Ferdinand Porsche Magazine’s Project 924 Turbo restoration was finally covered in fresh paint yesterday. I might be slightly biased, but the finished product really floats my boat.
You remember I bought the silver 924 Turbo on eBay last year from a Porsche barn up in Norfolk. I had the car delivered to best mate Robert Campbell at Racing Restorations in Pershore, Worcestershire, where Rob’s guys started picking through the mechanical work.
This included some rewiring, an alternator rebuild, steering rack overhaul and other works. I still have some bits to do before it can go to MOT, but the focus recently turned to bodywork when an unexpected slot opened up in the Racing Restorations paint schedule. While vintage sportscar specialist Rob is normally booked up six months in advance, delays on an Alfa Romeo restoration meant the 924 could claim a week and slip in.
Car guys talk lots about paint and how long it takes, but painting takes next to no time: just four hours on the 924. The preparation for paint took a full five days! Thanks to a rust-free chassis and (some) good panels, bare-metalling the 924 and getting it in primer took from Monday to Wednesday. Rob primered it on Wednesday night, and left it to bake for a day.
Flatting the primer took another day, so on Saturday this weekend, we drove it into the paint booth just vacated by a custom-painted McLaren MP12-4C, then spent a couple of hours degreasing the bodywork and wiping it off with tack rags before the painter did his thing.
The 924 Turbo now has four coats of the most expensive two-pack primer I could buy. The body has three coats of paint – Porsche code L97A – and three coats of lacquer. It looks pretty good and won’t need much polishing: a quick mop, pick out a few flecks of dust and that’s it.
I’ll start putting this back together next week – should be some fun getting it done. No doubt I’ll spend much more on new body trim bits than originally intended. Let me know if you’ve got a NOS rear bumper rubber lying around!
The wonderful Porsche Museum is currently running a special exhibition celebrating 50 years of the 911.
More than forty exhibits chart the progression of Porsche’s most famous progeny from 1963 to date, including a 911R, 3.0 RSR, a 934 from the 1976 Le Mans race, the first 964 Cup car and a GT3 RS 4.0.
Friends of Ferdinand have been visiting the museum and sharing their pictures through Ferdinand Magazine’s Facebook page, which is now followed by more than 110,000 Porsche fans. Latest to share was Isle of Man resident Karl-Heinz, who recently took his 1981 911 SC to Sicily and Malta via Austria, with a stop-over in Stuttgart to catch the show.
“A classic 911SC is the perfect touring car for two adults, plus a 6 year-old, with luggage! We visited the “50 Jahre 911″ at Stuttgart on the second day after opening with our own 911. A priceless experience!” Good work, Karl!
The 50-Year exhibition began on June 4, so has only been going for the last six weeks, but those lovely people at the Porsche museum are delighted by the response to their one-off event. “Since the opening of the most 911-centric 911 exhibition in the history of the Porsche Museum, we have welcomed more than 35,000 visitors,” says Astrid in Stuttgart. “This is more than we expected! All appreciate that we honour the 911 in such a huge environment.
“Looking at the first six months of 2013, we have seen more than 182,000 visitors from all over the world. In comparison to the first six months of 2012, that’s an increase of 6,000 visitors. This is amazing!”
I agree it’s amazing, and richly deserved. Even better is the social nature of the show. At least one of the cars on show is privately owned by a bona fide Porsche enthusiast friend, so its great to see these cars being shared. The ImpactBumpers.com crew recently stopped at the museum on their Slovenia road trip and one of the tour’s 964 interlopers made a memorable impression out front. Forget aesthetic barriers to 911 passion!
My own visit to the museum (in my own 911) for this unmissable show will correspond with the date the 911 was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, on September 12, 1963. The plan is to take the Carrera to this year’s Frankfurt Show on the 12th and then drive back to Stuttgart, to see the 50-Jahre spread before returning home that weekend. Awesome road trip ahead! Anyone interested in coming along, just drop me an email.
The exhibition closes on September 29. All 911 drivers get free entry to the exhibition, obtained by presenting their registration papers at the museum ticket office. If you don’t have a 911 but were born in 1963, then it’s free in also! You can’t say fairer than that.
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Jersey Porsche mate Jamie sent me this pic a while back and I am well overdue in sharing it. It’s his 1972 911S, now running as an ST. Originally Viper Green, the car runs a 2.9-litre flat six built by Bob Watson, so goes well enough.
Jamie hillclimbs the car on the island: you’ve got to do something with a car like this on an island with a blanket 40 mph limit! Given that it’s 911-50 year, the most recent Bingham hillclimb as part of the Jersey Motoring Festival had a significant Porsche focus, so no doubt his beautiful car turned a few heads.
“We had 30-plus 911s from the 1970s to date, including RS 4.0, original RS and various 993RS etc all doing parade sprints. Healeys were over in force from the UK, so there were a lot of very nice, very quick cars taking part. We had our work cut out for us versus the 450bhp race-prepped Healeys, but we gave it a good go! Just nice to be out in the car, having fun with like-minded people.”
Original Viper Green 1972 911S running as ST. Is there any finer expression of the roadgoing early 911? That 76 912E shell I’ve got in the USA is heading in this direction.
Jamie’s car appears in this video from the 2012 event. His 2013 entry led to fourth in class and lots of Porsche fun. Good job mate!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QGSUjDebFQ
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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