Volkswagen today confirmed an agreement in principle with the US Department of Justice (Environmental Division), the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), with the full involvement of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with regard to what it calls “the diesel issue”.
Most reasonable people would likely regard deliberate misrepresentation of the poisonous gas emissions output of 11 million cars sold around the world as rather more than just an “issue”. No doubt the details of the settlement reached in the USA to satisfy the DoJ, EPA and FTC will confirm this when (or if) they are made public. Any settlement will likely be measured in the billions of dollars and outstrip all previous fines for corporate malpractice.
VW US Class Action Lawsuit settlement
The San Francisco district judge overseeing the complex class action lawsuit has gagged all parties regarding the proposed terms of the settlement terms, but auto industry valuation leaders have already estimated the likely cost of buy-backs and/or compensation at something approaching $7 billion in the US, where just half a million from the 11 million cars affected were sold. Other corporate pundits have put possible federal penalties for VW in the US at somewere around $20 billion. Get your head around that one.
Other sources suggest that a proportion of owners will not avail themselves of the Volkswagen offers, with commentators noting that many US VW diesel owners “like their cars and like how they drive – they don’t want to give them up or get them fixed”. Perhaps a mooted $5k cheque per car will bring them to the dealerships.
Zero VW Emissions Compensation in UK and Europe
UK and European owners will not be so fortunate, as VW continues to insist that its customers outside of America have not been disadvantaged by choosing to buy a Volkswagen. This creates a brilliant opportunity for debate, where Volkswagen will surely have its nose rubbed in rather pungent defeat, unless the lobbyists currently pounding EU corridors of power have pulled some almighty strings.
German Economy continues to wobble
Meanwhile, today’s Times reports that German Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has dropped to its lowest since July 2015, which the paper considers to be a strong indication of unwinding eurozone growth. The continued decline in PMI will have considerable political and economic repercussions in a Germany that remains wrapt with right-wing tension.
Shares in Germany’s car manufacturers also fell sharply today, as Daimler (Benz) declared a 32% fall in first-quarter profits and admitted that, following a request from the US Justive Department, it was also conducting an investigation into its emissions testing processes. This follows Mitsubishi’s recent admission that it falsified Japanese emissions test results by overinflating the tyres of cars being tested. I still think we are at the tip of the iceberg – who will be next?
Former Autofarm front man, Josh Sadler, has made a dream come true by flying his former Porsche factory 911 development car and now 1970 Porsche 911 ST to California for this weekend’s Rennsport Reunion V at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey.
A passionate racer for decades, Sadler was uncertain whether his entry would be successful, but didn’t hang around to book his transport when the thumbs up came through. Our headline photo shows the car in transit through Heathrow en route to California, where the 911 has since been unloaded and issued with a temporary Californian registration (below at Half Moon Bay).
Rennsport Reunion: an Iconic Event
“This event is iconic in the Porsche world and I simply had to do it before I got too old,” said Josh. “I was fortunate to gain an entry and thought I’ll crate up the car and do it! I ‘ve never been to Laguna Seca and don’t have an Xbox to practice on. I’m sure we’ll work out which way it goes and have a bit of fun.”
I’ve done a track day at Laguna Seca in an early Porsche 911 and I can testify that indeed it is a bit of fun: the circuit is incredible. All 911s are somewhat similar on track and Laguna is not super complicated, so Sadler’s car will deliver plenty of racing excitment when it heads on track this Saturday. Hopefully it will survive unscathed, but I do believe Josh will give it the beans.
Autofarm Porsche 911 ST
First registered in Stuttgart in July 1969 as a 2.2-litre 911S, the car was run by Porsche for two years until 1971, when it was sold to employee, Gebhard Ruf, with a 2.2T engine fitted. It was punted around Germany for a number of years, until it came to the UK in 1977, owned by Mr Paul Flanagan.
Two years later, Josh bought the car in damaged condition (69 S with a T engine in 1979: don’t ask the price unless you’re already depressed), sold the T engine and stored what was left for almost twenty years. Known for his detailed records of 911 Carrera RS heritage, it didn’t take Sadler too long to realise the significance of the car’s early years. By then, 911 values were rising so the car was rebuilt as an FIA-papered 2.3-litre ST.
I’ve seen the car up close a number of times and it is every bit as crisp as one would expect from a student of Porsche history and someone who has sold RS Carreras in volume. As ever with Josh, the car is for sale at the right price but, in the meantime, it’s great to see it being used as intended.
Just had this photo (below) from Jeff Gamroth at Rothsport Racing in Sherwood, Oregon. Jeff is the US distributor for EB Motorsport Porsche parts and the pic shows a package of EB Porsche body panels arriving at the Rothsport workshop in time for trailering to Rennsport Reunion V, which takes place next weekend at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.
Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway bills Rennsport Reunion V as “the world’s greatest gathering of Porsche race cars and the drivers who drove them to victory. Hosted by Porsche Cars North America, Rennsport assembles the widest variety of Porsche’s historic racing models from the nimble 550 Spyder of the mid-’50s through the mighty 917 and 956/962 of the ’70s and ’80s to the highly successful RS Spyder of the last decade. There are seven groups in which to enjoy the racing action as they navigate the technically demanding 2.238-mile road course and The Corkscrew.”
The previous Rennsport Reunion was held at Laguna in 2011, to coincide with the launch of the 911. I enjoyed the plentiful supply of great cars and catching up with Porsche friends from all across the USA, but the erstwhile presence of Porsche Cars North America’s marketing department and a few heavy-handed security guards was perhaps more pronounced than necessary, and there wasn’t much actual racing across the three days.
Consequently, I’m not feeling urgently in need of returning for this one, but Jeff will be there, ably assisted by EB Motorsport boss, Mark Bates, fresh from his top twelve finish in the team’s ’65 911 SWB at this weekend’s Spa 6 Hours. Make sure to say hello to Yorkshire’s finest Porsche pilot if you’re at Laguna: no doubt he’d love to say hello to classic Porsche fans from that side of the pond. 911 owner and race artist Nicolas Hunziker will also be at the festival: big boss Heather has organised a ton of merchandise to bring to Rennsport, so say hello to those guys also.
Rennsport Reunion V 2015 Schedule
Trucks will start arriving for Rennsport Reunion weekend on Thursday morning, but the event kicks off properly on Friday, with cars on track from 8am to noon as the seven race groups get their first practice sessions in. There’s a lunchbreak for track workers and plenty of VIP demo laps before practice starts again from 13:20-17:20.
Saturday starts with qualifying for all groups from 08:00-11:50. Everything on track is worth watching, but the groups most fans will aim for is Group 2 (the Gmünd Cup) for Spyders and 4-cam 904s, Group 4 (the Weissach Cup) for 906, 908 and 917 and Group 6 (the Stuttgart Cup) for 956, 962, GT1 and the hot works 911 racecars.
The first three races take place after lunch on Saturday, with Group 2 on track from 13:05. That’s followed by the classic 911s and then the first race for the GT3 Cup Challenge. Racing wraps up at 15:10, so there’s less than two hours of racing on Saturday. The day ends with a pit lane concours that goes on for two hours. This is longer than the racing, so make of that what you will.
On Sunday, the first of two races starts at 10:45 and the second is finished by 12:15. Lunch break follows, with the first afternoon race for the Weissach Cup group at 14:00-14:30. Then comes the Group 5 race from 14:45-15:15 and finally the Stuttgart Cup event from 16.05-16:35. When that final flag drops, the event is over, so it’s a long way to go for just four and a half hours of racing.
Everyone will have a great weekend and I’ll likely regret my decision not to attend this Rennsport Reunion, but such is life. Too much going on here with the builders on site and lot of work stuff happening. I note that I’m not alone in my decision, with R Gruppe friends living much closer than me also deciding not to attend. I’m heading out to Cali next spring, so I’ll catch up with all the post-event news at whatever EASY meet coincides with my visit!
A pair of Tuthill-built Porsche 911s is competing in the 2015 Trans-America Challenge: the SWB 1965 Porsche 911 of Gavin and Diana Henderson (above) and the LWB 1973 2.5-litre car of Peter and Zoe Lovett (below).
Rally news updates paint a promising picture. The Road to Mandalay Rally-winning Lovetts are in the top three, while the experienced Hendersons have already claimed their first regularity challenge win. Both cars are running reliably.
Also in the rally is a Tuthill joint project: the Porsche 912 of Mark and Colin Winkelman. The body and interior was built by Tuthills, with the drivetrain and final assembly put together by Hayden Burvill at WEVO in San Francisco.
I haven’t shared the cars here as yet, as my ear gets bent if I put all the good workshop stories on Ferdinand, but all three are perfect examples of the ox-strong resto-rally 911s with creature comforts that Tuthill Porsche puts together so well. I’ll sort some pictures out and share them here later.
2015 Trans-America Rally
Organised by the Endurance Rally Association, the Trans-America Challenge takes place from June 7-28, 2015. It is the second running of the Trans America enduro, following the inaugural rally in 2012. Today was a rest day after three days of driving that has taken the entrants as far as Quebec.
The route for the three-week event runs across North America. Starting from Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast, forty five entrants from all over the world travel through Eastern Canada before crossing the US border and driving through Vermont, New Hampshire and upstate New York.
Once in NY, they approach the Great Lakes, briefly returning to Canada just south of Toronto before hitting Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The vast Dakotas are next (North and South), then the teams take in Wyoming, Idaho and sunny Nevada before landing in California, en route to the finish in San Francisco.
Porsche Trans-America Road Trip
I’ve done a Porsche road trip through New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. Our Rolling Stone Targa feature on Karl Donoghue’s cool R Gruppe Porsche 911 Targa and the Bethlehem Porsche 911 ST backdate story both came from that trip. The roads in this part of America are good fun to drive on, especially with mates alongside, and there is great character in the landscape. I’m interested to hear what the competitors say at the end, as it seems an interesting route across the continent: a journey I hope to make myself in a Porsche 911 on my half-century (not long now).
Game Girls Galore in Trans-Am
One other friend on this event is former McLaren team boss, Alastair Caldwell, of Porsche 912 on London-Cape Town rally fame. I recently bumped into Alastair at the Tuthill Porsche workshop with his SWB 912 rally car, but he decided against shipping the 912 to Canada. Instead, he’s running a beautiful 1963 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II across America, with mum Dorothy as navigator.
Now a spritely 97 years old, Dorothy has competed in a number of previous rallies and thoroughly enjoys the experience: no doubt the craic is good in Canada tonight. AC reckons she has the best room at the palatial hotel they’re staying in for the rest day. Rightly so: she deserves it!
Pictures courtesy of Gerard Brown/Endurance Rally Association
Porsche Racing had a disappointing run at yesterday’s Long Beach Grand Prix in California. Racing in the Tudor IMSA series ‘showcase’ at Long Beach, the 100-minute street race left little time to fight back from a low starting position.
While Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet initially went well in qualifying, running P2 and P3 early on and driving the wheels off their Porsche 911 RSRs (see the video below), the cars started the race further down the field. The tight and twisty street circuit is tough for overtaking, so when Lietz put a move on Oliver Gavin’s Corvette at the start, there was no room for error. Sod’s Law, that is what happened.
“An accident at the start is something you can really do without, particularly on a street circuit like Long Beach,” said Lietz. “You know that the race is short and that overtaking is difficult, so you try everything to make up positions at the start. That didn’t work this time. I didn’t expect the Corvette to swerve towards me. I couldn’t avoid him and ended up in the wall.”
Looks more like he ended up in the Corvette (above), but Pilet made the most of his team mate’s misfortune, to come home in fourth place. “I was lucky in the first corner after the start. While Richard’s car was forced into the wall, I just managed to scrape through. Our car wasn’t easy to drive in the first laps, but it improved over the course of the race and the balance got better. In fact, we weren’t far off the top with our times. Still, on this narrow circuit it was impossible to overtake.”
IMSA Porsche Racing California
The number 911 RSR eventually finished eighth overall, with local driver and polesitter Bill Auberlene on the top step in the BMW Z4. No surprise to see a win from pole on this super short race. If you’re wondering why teams put all that time and money into racing an almost nonexistent event, look at where Long Beach is situated, just south of Los Angeles central. It’s the easiest place to market to those who won’t come to a circuit.
Not done the maths yet, but I think this keeps Porsche at the bottom of the championship table in the GT Le Mans class of the Tudor IMSA series. Next round is Laguna Seca at the start of May: another short race of just 2 hours 40 minutes, but with more room to get past the rest. We’ll have to see how things pan out with Michael Christensen in the number 911 RSR, while some of the boys come home for Spa WEC.
Watch the IMSA Tudor Sportscar Showcase Long Beach qualifying on video here:
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