If you’re not freelance, bank holiday weekend Sundays are all about taking it easy. If you are freelance, then the only difference between Sunday and any other day is that the post office and some petrol stations are shut. If there’s a job to do, you do it!
Supercharged Porsche 968 magazine feature
I got a call the other day, asking if I wanted to write a feature on a supercharged Porsche 968. The owner was coming up from the far end of Britain and would be at Castle Combe for the PCGB gathering. Could I get there? Yes. If there was no photographer could I cover the pictures too? Errr – a trepidatious yes. Sooner or later, you have to affirm aloud: ‘this is where I want to go!’ and start heading in that direction.
I left home early to go scouting locations west of Bath. Rain en route wasn’t the best news ever, but there were a few hours before our shoot meet: I kept driving and bode my time. The run down through the Cotswolds was excellent and set me up for the afternoon. I told Sean the sat nav to take me the short way, so he sent me down every back road from Banbury to Bath via Burford. Very cool!
Once in Wiltshire, I found some locations fast enough, then went and grabbed a bite in a local pub while waiting for the 968 owners. They arrived soon after and we got cracking.
I’m not going to claim it was a pro job from start to finish, but we ticked enough boxes to do the feature justice. These two are a couple of outtakes. I’ve made notes on my performance and will work on improving, but I am slowly climbing that learning curve.
The run home took me back across the Cotswolds through a beautiful sunset, and I didn’t spare the Subaru’s horses. All in all, I’d call it a good day!
911 & Porsche World magazine have put the R Gruppe Grand Tour on the front cover of this month’s issue. This is the news stand version and not the subscriber copies.
To say I’m pleased would be an understatement: the Grand Tour was one of the best events yet, so to document it in my first words-and-pictures feature, and then have it make the cover is a dream come true.
The feature is spread across eight pages and looks good. For me, there were other pictures that better relate to the in-betweens of the piece – most of the shots in the feature came from the two on-the-move shoots we managed to grab. So, knowing what went on behind the scenes, I think it looks me look a little repetitive on style, but I don’t envy the guy who has to choose the pics! It has come out well and a number of people have complimented me on it, which I really appreciate.
All in all then, I’m over the moon: a Porsche World cover on your first attempt is a killer endorsement of a great story. I have to pay tribute to my editor: Steve Bennett hails from the heyday of Cars and Car Conversions and is the easiest guy in the world to work for. He just lets me gt on with it and runs the pieces as they leave my Mac. Apart from one bit, when I was looking for a way to describe how fast the temperature fell when we left the 40-degree Autoroute and headed up into the Swiss Alps on day one. I said it fell ‘like a log off a waterfall’ which I then changed to ‘dog off a waterfall’, but ran in the magazine as ‘quite suddenly’! LOL – gotta love stuff like that.
My next words and pics is a supercharged Porsche 968 coming through Porsche World next month. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
James Redman recently whizzed me a mail about the Gathering of Legends Racers Symposium being organised by Brian Redman’s Targa Sixty Six, the team behind Rennsport Reunion.
Brian Redman, third from left with Ferry Porsche & team, 1968 Targa Florio
The idea is to gather a bunch of old racing drivers and race fans for five days in the sun with golf, surfing, sunbathing and whatever else you can do at the Hilton Cancun Golf and Spa Resport down in Mexico. It runs from February 2nd to 7th, 2011 and costs $3450 per couple, or $3200 for a single, with a $500 discount for anyone booked and deposit paid by September 10th. Not bad value if you are into historic racing and a bit of golf. The first 25 bookings get a room upgrade!
Drivers already confirmed are Richard Attwood, Derek Bell, Vic Elford, Hurley Haywood, David Hobbs, Brian Redman & Bobby Unser. That is a top lineup, each with their own mega stories to tell. Planned events include three theme banquets:
Racers’ Tales
917s and the making of Le Mans
The American Scene
Redman and Donhue chat over the Sunoco Porsche 917 in Mid-Ohio, 1974
Golfers will know what a ‘Best Ball Golf Tourney’ means and there is also the chance to take a trip to the Mayan Pyramids. The accommodation is bound to be good and I can’t image there’ll be any limits to the hospitality, so it should be a fun get-together.
Of more interest to me is the three-day track event being held at Palm Beach Raceway later that month. This looks like a gathering to consider flying out for: it is key to the purpose of Targa Sixty Six, and the race driver brotherhood that revolves around Brian’s Florida weekends. Last year’s Saturday night speaker was David Hobbs, a friend of my in-laws (all the kids grew up together). David brought Derek Bell and Vic Elford along with him for the evening: a nice little surprise for the attendees. At $1500 for the three days in 2009, it sounds like a good craic-to-cash ratio.
Brian Redman in the 908 during the 1970 Targa Florio
Brian started Targa Sixty Six in 1991. The idea was to open up racetracks to owners of high modern and classic cars who don’t necessarily want to race them, but who like to drive at speed under controlled conditions, in the company of like-minded others. A big boys’ toys track day club, quite ahead of its time when you think about it.
Targa Sixty-Six’s website gives the programme for each track event like this:
Three days of track use. Normal schedule is 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. (Members can expect to have 6-8 hours of track time each weekend-more if they feel up to it!)
Lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the track. Saturday semi-formal (jacket and tie) evening dinner. Driving instruction, if desired, is available from Brian or one of the other “pro’s” in attendance.
There is often a guest speaker/instructor. Past masters include: Bob Akin, Mr Hobbs, Hurley Haywood, Juan Manuel Fangio II, David Piper, Bill Adam, David E.Davis and Sir Stirling Moss.
Cars on track (split over three categories by speed) have included Ferrari Daytonas and 275 GTCs, Porsche 962s and 917s, D-Type Jags, name a Chevron or a Lola and it’s been there, as well as Indy cars and every half decent classic and modern sportscar you can think of. Sounds like a party to me, right when the UK is at its winter gloomiest!
Brian Redman with Steve McQueen, sharing racing film visions
You can grab more details at gorace.com, or see the blog at www.gorace.blogspot.com/. The pics for this post come from Brian’s site – I have used them to remind you all that this is a HARDCORE Porsche racing fraternity! One day all the oil will be gone, all the tracks will be closed thanks to noise limits and NIMBY neighbours, so get out there and go have fun, while you still can!
Thanks to James for the heads up, and here’s to two great events for Porsche enthusiasts in February 2011. Cheers!
Life is pretty good at the minute. Freelance has got off to a great start: my online promotion and social media/PR company Mighty Motor Media Ltd is doing a good job for a growing band of clients, and earning this blogger a bit more than I was making as a salaried employee. It’s also giving me a life back! As spare time is on the increase, so the spanners are flying on some long overdue projects.
Orange 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0
One of them is reworking my Carrera 3.0 into lightweight touring guise. It’s a look I’ve had in mind for a while, as the bare paint interior is not quite classy enough for the outside of the car, and a period-trimmed interior would probably widen the Orange’s appeal should I advertise it for sale, as I’ve been considering. I’m not using it as much as I’d like, and the proceeds of a sale would come in handy to finish the studio and garage I’ve been waiting to get started on for over a year. Carrera 3.0s are making good money in Europe and mine has been gone through from a bare-metal shell to be a really great driver’s car. It might be just what someone (besides me) is looking for.
I’d still have my Carrera-arched 911T, a likely candidate for that spare 3 litre motor I’ve got, and the low-mile 944 Lux I have which is waiting to come back to life – that’ll be a great car when it is up and together. Plus I can buy another Porsche in the USA and potentially take it coast to coast. That’s a box I’ve got to tick one day.
The parts for the interior refit are starting to come together. I bought these seats from London-based Porsche mate back in October last year, but have only just got ’round to picking them up. They’re Impact Bumper Carrera Recaro sports seats from 1977, in what looks like black and grey in these pics, but is actually a charcoal with a lighter centre. They are stop-the-traffic gorgeous.
I’ve got a set of plush carpet that I bought from my buddy Scott at Pelican Parts over a year ago, and some new genuine Porsche window seals that came from Jeremy at MBS Car Parts to install, plus a top tint front screen to go in, replacing the plain heated front glass I put in a while back. I’m not sure quite what to do about the cage, as I might have the T caged in steel. I’m considering adding some lightweight central door locking just for convenience, and some rear pop out windows to refurb and fit, as well a bunch of other bits and pieces – can’t remember some of them. A passenger door mirror for one.
I’m ploughing through some of my other project stuff at the mo, but the C3 will soon be up on stands in the back garden getting the full treatment. Looking forward to starting this job as, whether it goes or stays, it’s going to give me another flavour to try.
The classic Porsche road trip I took to France earlier in the month yielded some great results. I got to take a lot of pictures I liked, lots I didn’t like but that taught me a few things, and also made a pair of great articles out of it.
One of them is a piece for Total 911 magazine on our road trip to Classic Le Mans: the driving, the drinking and the atmosphere. I met Jamie down there to shoot the pics and he did a cracking job.
Le Mans atmosphere research is straightforward enough: wander about, see the big guns, find out who’s up to what and make copious notes on everything. As the journo is responsible for setting the tone on a piece like this, it was my challenge to decide on the opener: that full-spread start picture that sets the tone and lures the reader in.
After a few days’ thought, I decided on a gaggle of 911s on classic two-lane blacktop: one of those tree-lined Frenchie boulevards, with stone farmhouses dotted either side of the road and peasants on bikes wobbling up the middle. Onion strings would be a plus.
Just up the road from my rented gite was the perfect location, spotted as I arrived in the Orange from Monaco on Thursday afternoon. One sunny morning, we took 4 of my housemates’ cars down to the perfect spot, briefed them on what was required and Jamie got the shot on the second run. As the car world’s number one snapper said immediately afterward: “if there’s one thing we do to the max, it’s nail a tracking shot!” Here’s a little video of lining the cars up before turning around and doing the business.
The mag may decide to go another way on how to lay it out, but this is how I saw it on location. Check the finished product in an upcoming edition of Total 911 magazine.
Just sorting through the pics of the recent R Gruppe Grand Tour for a Porsche World magazine feature. Here’s one that brings back happy memories: the time the front runners came around a corner at a rate of knots, to find one mountain collapsed in a landslide and a road full of Volvo earthmovers shifting the debris. Everywhere we went, workmen were repairing landslide damage.
Sam and I actually came back down this road about twenty minutes later. There was a ten-ton rock in the middle of the road, right where my car is parked out of shot. It fell off the top of the cliff just a few minutes after we left to head back up the Col as part of a second, smaller landslide. Two lucky R Gruppe escapes in one day! We were on our best behaviour after that.
Don’t suppose I need to say that a bit of Porsche tyre smoke needed to clear before I could take this picture.
About Alpine Landslides
Landslides are apparently pretty common around these parts. According to this New Zealand geology website, “in the terrain made up of hard rock and steep, high slopes, landslides range from huge rock avalanches that can shape mountain peaks and travel several kilometres in minutes, to massive rock slides, rock falls and debris flows.
“It can be difficult to distinguish between rock avalanches, and ice or snow avalanches. Most avalanches originate as falling snow or ice, which can include rock and other debris. Avalanches of rock can also pick up ice and snow.” The landslide seen here originated as falling rock, which are “typically characterised by rapid, turbulent movement.
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