Words fail me today as I have just learned of the death of Chris Drummond: a friend and Porsche enthusiast, who I first encountered back in 2008. After a long-term love affair with the Porsche marque, Chris had finally found his way to the impact-bumper 911s, ended up at my forum at impactbumpers.com and started to understand how modifying Porsche 911s brought the best out of them.
Chris Drummond – Apprentice Porsche Outlaw
Up to that point, Chris had owned two 944s, a 968, a 964, a 993, three 996s including a Turbo S, which he had at the time that we first got together. He went on to add a Cayenne S to his history, but of course it was his G50 Carrera which outlasted the rest. Once he found IB, he enjoyed a few runs in various modified impact bumper member cars and loved the loud and lightweight ethos. He soon set about dumping weight from the 3.2 coupe and making the car sharper.
Various Chris D threads began to appear on the board, including “how do I upgrade my brakes?”, “what big end shells do I need?” and “who do I talk to to refurbish my Fuchs?”. Chris embraced the modifying big-time and loved to tinker at home. We got together to talk about lots of stuff, including maybe doing some work together, and spent an afternoon discussing how to use social media to promote his HR business. All the time we were talking shop, I knew Chris just wanted to talk about Porsche and of course that never changed.
Once I went solo freelance in 2010, I went off to work flat out on other stuff and only bumped into Chris here and there. He was always smiling, always friendly and always had plenty of questions! The IB crew around Chris’s house stayed busy with him and no doubt he made some great friends with his car.
The years ticked on, we caught up every once in a while when he needed an updated insurance valuation. The last time was in May 2015, and all went quiet until the following year, when he emailed me out of the blue to tell me his news. It was absolutely shocking.
In June 2016, Chris Drummond sailed out of New York as part of a crew on the final leg of the Clipper Round the World yacht race. Five days into the voyage and 200 miles out to sea, he suddenly developed serious chest pains – they thought a heart attack. Medics on board stabilised his condition and called on the Canadian air force to airlift him to urgent medical care in Halifax. Here’s what happened next in Chris’s own words:
After two weeks hospitalisation in Halifax, Nova Scotia I was told my heart was OK, however following tests and scans they identified that I had advanced secondary cancer of the liver. The medical team in Halifax, who were absolutely brilliant, arranged for me to have further tests and biopsies when I returned to the UK to find out where the primary cancer was located.
Following scans and biopsies in mid-August (2016), my oncology consultant told me the primary cancer was in the oesophagus, that there was no cure for my condition and that any treatment would be about prolonging life. The prognosis was that I had between 12 and 18 months at best, depending on how I responded to chemotherapy treatment which I started in early September.
January 2017: I’ve now completed the six-cycle regime of chemo and will have a scan at the end of this month to find out whether the chemo has arrested the cancer or not. The mid-term review after 3 cycles of chemo was pretty positive so fingers crossed.
Chris Drummond’s Race Against Time for Stand Up to Cancer
Chris was a man who always saw opportunity, and he quickly realised his time was limited in making the most of this one. Once he had told his family what was going on, he set about launching a public campaign to bring awareness to the early diagnosis of this disease, noting that he had experienced symptoms of esophageal cancer for nine months before doing anything about it. By the time he saw a doctor, it was too late.
The story resonated heavily with me, as a similar thing happened to my brother-in-law, David, who had lived with pain for months before talking to someone. The end came swiftly for David and also for Chris. After posting his final blog in April, Chris finally passed away last week.
When Chris emailed me to share his news about cancer, he asked for ideas to help with fundraising. He had a few things going with PCGB and Cancer Research, involving using the Porsche to draw attention to the message, but all input would be greatly received. The journalist in me focused on the deadline of 18 months away, so I considered that there was some time to get this organised. Chris was not urgent, so neither was I! I had a few thoughts, but was busy on so much other stuff that I didn’t really get my first ideas going until a month or so ago.
Today I went looking for JustGiving links to finish the thing before emailing Chris, and found out he had recently passed. I am shocked at the speed of his exit and angry with myself that I didn’t move faster – he deserved a good morning’s fun with an IB crew that held him in high regard. I will miss him but that is no good to his cause, so the energy now is in how to support what he hoped to achieve.
Organisations including Porsche, PCGB, Autofarm, Driver’s Collective and more picked up on his campaign and publicised the fundraising, but the total is currently less than £8k with a target of £30k. Here’s how his supporters say that you can help to increase this total.
We can’t stress enough how much it would mean to the family and everyone who’s supported Chris’s campaign, if we could reach his charity target of £30k. If you haven’t donated already, then please text RATP88 £10 to 70070 and together we could achieve Chris’s wish. Please continue to share and show your support.
Chris’s car will be auctioned for Stand Up to Cancer later this year, we will crack on with some fundraising events and find more ways to contribute towards his target. The Race Against Time JustGiving page is here: please give whatever you feel is appropriate to express solidarity. He was a good guy and any one of us could be there but for the roll of a dice in an incredibly random universe.
More thoughts on this in due course – RIP Chris and all my love to his wonderful family. My heart goes out to anyone also experiencing this pain: I know there are a few people suffering. Do not waste time in going to help ❤️
The narrow body SC RS front bumper from our friends at EB Motorsport (as seen on the latest Tuthill project above) has proved very popular with hot rod/outlaw 911 builders on both sides of the pond. Now EB has launched a new front bumper in the centre oil cooler 3.0 RS style, to suit narrow body impact bumper Porsche 911s (SCs, Carreras etc). Here are a few pics:
EB Motorsport’s proper wide-body 3.0 RS kit is a long-time favourite with RSR builders. The brothers had received a few enquiries for a standard body version, but the high tooling costs for big parts are never easy to justify. Once sufficient interest had been confirmed to support the narrow front bumper production, it took EB a while to tool up for the new part. The first products are now out of the mould and already heading off to satisfy advance orders.
I mentioned that the EB Motorsport Porsche 911 SC RS bumpers have proved very popular amongst 911 builders and there are two smart 911s currently featured online using the EB part. First is Bring A Trailer’s 911 Targa seen below. A 2.7-litre ’77 Targa in Ice Green Metallic, the car’s short-hood front end and long-hood rear is creating some noise in the comments.
Knee-jerk remarks are easy to throw around but I think the car looks sharp enough. A few Pelicanites went for this SH/LH mix back in the good old days of cheap 911s and I always liked it. Bit too much tartan in the back for my tastes but easy to fold the seats down. That EB front bumper sits well in context, regardless.
The second SC RS-bumpered 911 is the Mexico Blue project now on Petrolicious (below). Strong colour outside, strong colour inside and seems nicely finished by Workshop 5001 (a place I have got to drop into when next in LA). Loving the slick sophistication of this one and the matching rear bumper is so smooth and simple.
These things save a huge chunk of weight and lose the corrosion-prone aluminium blades, which is another plus point for some people. Unsurprisingly for the bloke who started a website called impactbumpers.com, I like the originals, but I see why some people like the change.
No sign of the 3.0 RS bumper on the EB Motorsport shop yet, but I am reliably informed that it will be online tomorrow, along with the all-new aluminium RSR MFI pump base plate that the guys have just finished designing and machining. Work never stops up in Barnsley!
BringaTrailer and Petrolicious images are copyright of their respective owners. Shared for info.
My good friend RB has decided to sell his modified 911 hot rod, based on a very late 1989/G-reg G50 3.2 Coupe. He’s owned the car for as long as I have owned Porsches, so it’s a big decision to part with the car, but as there’s a new mega-balls 964 Turbo in the garage (amongst other things), he’s not going to be left short of flat-six thrills.
I’ve driven the Guards Red 911 on road and track and it goes along nicely. I’ve lost count of the road trips I’ve followed this car through the UK and Europe on: my second-ever track day was a trip to Spa with this one, just the two of us. It’s a good, solid, fun 911 that can easily be further tweaked to suit a new owner’s tastes. Even better, the owner is not an idiot, so dealing with him will be easy on the brain.
Here is how RB explains it – (note: this car is now sold! Many thanks for reading)
Porsche 911 Hot Rod Explained
There’s much more to tell than I can fit in an advert. The history and development of this car is transparent – it’s all online. I truly hope someone like-minded can buy this special car and have as much fun as I have had. On the right road, on the right day, with the right people, there are not many better experiences.
Unlike many “recreations”, this is not a 1- or 2- year project produced with a view to resale. In contrast to that, I have owned this car for nearly 16 years, slowly evolving it to what it is now. Everything has been done on my watch, at my expense and by my design. If you fancy a walk down internet lane, you can trace much of the car’s history on impactbumpers.com where I have posted under my own name for many years. And what you can’t find there, I have documented in a comprehensive history file.
Based on a 1989 3.2 Carrera, I have taken everything I know about 911s and used that to develop what I think is a fantastic, sports purpose, lightweight 911 with much of the character of Porsche’s own RS cars. Initially built for fast road and track days, but more recently focussed on European road trips, this is one of the most developed G-series 911s you will find anywhere.
For disclosure, I need to start by pointing out that the car was Cat D recorded almost twenty years ago. Like many other 911s in that era, a small accident plus low values conspired to create an insurance write-off. I had the car stripped and jigged immediately after purchase, and then condition inspected. It’s now straight and has had a full body resto since then. Cutting to the chase:
Bodywork
A rust free car subject to a full body restoration when converted to wide body approx 7 years ago
The rear flares are steel 930 and most everything else is plastic for low weight
The sunroof was deleted and the fuel tank is centre fill under the bonnet
Bumpers are 3.0 RS/IROC pattern and the rear tail is IROC – being the most efficient “non-wing” tail you can get, front bumper just repainted
Headlights were new during the rebuild and the wiring is all through a modern blade fuse style board greatly enhancing reliability
Engine
Engine rebuilt by Steve Winter at JAZ (part of about 15 years of JAZ history) with standard 3.2 pistons and cylinders, 993 Supercup cams and a 964 plastic intake
Built for 7000+rpm but limited to 7000rpm making 283hp via Wayne Schofield tuning
Lots of other good bits in the engine build sheet
Turbo Thomas custom exhaust (just repacked)
Not a (normal) lazy 3.2, but an engine inspired by the MFI RS engines, one that loves to rev and has throttle response that non-MFI 911 engines dream of
With a kerb weight under 1050kg, the power-to-weight ratio is more early GT3 than 3.2 Carrera
Transmission
Being an ’89 car, the gearbox is G50 meaning a 240mm hydraulic clutch, modern shift feel and a largely fail safe shift action
The clutch is a spring-centred 930S clutch, the pressure plate is light aluminium and the diff is a Powerhaus II assymetric plate type LSD – like 993RS
Gearbox mounts are poly as are engine mounts. The shift action is precise and falls naturally to hand with a slightly extended shifter
Suspension/Wheels/Brakes
Carefully and thoughtfully upgraded suspension. Torsion bars are 22/29mm Sander Engineering hollow bars and the rear anti-roll bar is an adjustable 22mm bar
Dampers are custom valved Bilsteins to the JAZ Porsche recipe
Bushes are Neatrix rear and polybronze front
Offset monoball top mounts to remove stiction and add precision
Brakes are 964 front calipers over 944 Turbo discs and C12 rear calipers over 3.2 discs
Wheels are 8 & 9 x 16″ Fuchs with spacers/adapters and good Bridgestone tyres
Interior
A mix of light weight and just enough comfort
Recaro Pole Positions with custom leather covers and alcantara cushions provide the comfort and lightweight sound deadening, closed cell foam and OE carpets keep just enough noise at bay
The cage is an FIA spec OMP 6 point with welded in mounts
The steering wheel is a 996 Cup Car item and the doorcards are 964RS style with alcantara covers
Heat is 3-season with small heat exchangers providing enough to clear the screen and take the chill off
Six-point harnesses and a fire extinguisher complete the mix
The honest truth is that most of this car has been tested and replaced. The fuel pump quit in the Swiss Alps and is now a Bosch motorsport 044 pump. The steering rack was replaced at one point: the list goes on. But what this car is really about, is a platform developed and optimised for great road trips.
Over the last few years, I have been as far as Slovenia, though the Alps twice, the Route Napolean and through the Pyrenees. Track days at Spa, Le Mans and the Ring plus the usual UK tracks are all notches in the belt. I have tested most everything you can test and the car stands ready for it’s next big trip. Ready to create new memories with someone else.
At times, it has felt like I have poured my heart and soul into this car and when the roads and the company are just right, the highs I have experienced are about as much as anyone can hope for in a car. I cannot emphasise just what an amazing package this car is. The handling balance is just perfect, the diff gives amazing drive and the engine sings its little heart out time and again as it reaches for the rev limiter.
I am not selling a concours car or a replica of anything, but I am selling a car that you will build memories with. If you want a car that lets you joins Euro R-Gruppe events, the Bergmeister or my own “Porsche Peleton” trips then this is it.
I have rambled on in my description, but I have 16+ years of story to tell. I know I have left out a load of stuff, but if my 3.2 sounds like you, then let’s talk. Far be it for me to suggest what a new owner may use this car for, but if they want to join me (and my fellow road trippers) in new Euro adventures, then I sincerely hope that is something that I can look forward to.
Boring stuff – the car will come with a new MOT in May and a service from JAZ. I am happy to deliver the car to JAZ Porsche in St Albans for Inspections. See contact details in the for sale ad here.
Three Tuthill Porsche 911 rally cars are taking part in the Baltic Classic Rally at the end of this month. All three are special 911s but, as I had this one to hand last week for a few pics and it was the cleanest it’s been for several years, I thought it would be cool to share a few details.
It used to be that when a 911 got too tired or scruffy for road use, it was broken for parts or sold to a motorsport firm and converted into some sort of race or rally car. These days, the story is different. Few people turn up to rallies in air-cooled Porsche 911s nowadays, as the cars are just so expensive. When someone does decide to compete in a Porsche 911, the cars have generally been built pretty carefully.
Tuthill Safari cars are a good example of this. Built to a tried-and-tested recipe, the first step with a bare metal shell is to fix any rust and add all of the strengthening carefully detailed in Tuthill’s in-house manual. This used to be a closely guarded secret, and some details are still kept under wraps, but the team is often happy to share information and help with other engineering, as it did with Jeff Gamroth’s Rothsport Racing 964s which recently took part in the Baja 1000 event.
Rally Car Shell Preparation
The bodyshell preparation is perhaps the most important part of the process. Having seen many cars built elsewhere eventually turning up at Tuthills to be sorted, the big problem is usually rust. So many 911 competition cars are not stripped properly or rustproofed to a very high level after restoration, so they have started (or continued) to rust before they are even finished being built. By the time they turn up for fettling, the rot has really taken hold and the major expense of rust repair is inevitable. This renders all other work done on top of the rusty shell as useless. So sorting the rust is the most important thing to start with.
The car seen here has been around Tuthills since I started going there in 2003. As with most Tuthill rally builds, it was originally imported from the west coast of America, so there was little or no rust to worry about. I’ve driven it a few times over the years and it has clocked up thousands of miles of rallying since being built, including wins on the Costa Brava and Isle of Man historic events. It has also taken part in both Morocco Historic and Safari Classic rallies, as well as a few runs on Below Zero Ice Driving.
Porsche legend, Björn Waldegård, drove this car on the first Colin McRae Memorial Rally and I think Colin’s dad (and former British rally champion), Jimmy, used it on the same event the following year. Now the car has passed to new owner and experienced competitor, David Danglard, a fresh book begins in its history. The first chapter of that is the Baltic Classic Rally, which starts on May 28th and runs all around Northern Europe, loosely following the Baltic Sea coastline.
FIA HTP Homologation Requirements
FIA rally homologations set out most of the specs for a competition rally car carrying an Historic Technical Passport (HTP): essential to rally on international events. If it wasn’t on the original homologation back in the day, then you can’t use it now. Some exceptions include fuel tanks and modern damper systems, which are often exempt from regulations or waivered on the grounds of reliability. But it all starts with the original FIA paperwork.
This car was built for FIA and later upgraded to run on Safari, but the process of creation is basically the same. With the shell mods and a full roll cage in place, the chassis was fitted with a mix of homologated parts and other equipment developed for rally use. Dampers are key to performance, and historic compliant EXE-TC dampers without remote reservoirs are used on most Tuthill Porsche 911s. For a proper Safari effort, the team brings damper technicians to the event to strip and rebuild dampers in accordance with service plans, but these high-end dampers can take a number of historic endurance events like the Baltic before needing rebuild.
Brake calipers may be free on some events, but FIA cars use standard Porsche brakes, which are good enough for historic endurance when running proper pads and discs. Tuthill’s dash-controlled twin-master cylinder pedal box is fitted to all 911 rally builds. Some events do not permit adjustable brake bias, so the system is disabled for those. Small details include a spare throttle cable run from engine to pedal, so if a throttle cable breaks on event, you simply clip in the new one front and rear.
Oil lines are usually run in the car for obvious reasons, wrapped in tight-fitting heat wrap. A central oil tank is fitted to the rear firewall, with a level check tube easily viewed and keeping things simple. The oil system on a proper 911 rally car is a joy to behold, as is the fuel setup with twin Messerschmitt fuel pumps up front on proper Safari cars: again double-headed for reliability. Some rally cars use twin tanks in case of poor fuel, but the Tuthill spec is usually one large – 100l or more – foam-filled fuel tank, sited high up between the front towers and a reworked floor in the front compartment, which then allows two spare wheels to be carried (de-rigeur on historic endurance).
Electrics are kept to a minimum, though many competitors ask for additional spurs to power cameras, GPS systems and so on. The entire wiring system is replaced with a modern competition loom, designed to run fire extinguisher systems, bonnet lamps, Halda rally timers and the like. Bull bars front and rear are there to help recovery and allow towing as much as prevent damage from wildlife or other contact and they are very handy things! They do not add a great deal of weight to the chassis and also allow the bumpers to be lightweight GRP.
Substantial body guards are fitted under the car, to help the 911 survive high-speed running on rough terrain and also survive impacts from hard landings. These are aluminium, but still weigh a fair bit. The good thing about the guards is that all the weight is carried low down. Even with Safari-spec ground clearance, the cars handle beautifully on road (with road tyres).
My last solo drive of a Tuthill Safari car was a return loop from HQ in Wardington to Derry in Northern Ireland using Gilberto Sandretto’s Safari 911 (above). The car was supremely comfortable to drive and that 3-litre engine did not miss a beat. I am sure the new owners of this storied 911 rally car will enjoy their debut event with it and hope to share some road trip photos upon their return.
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This Porsche 911 HLS Design Study was one of the more memorable encounters on our recent visit to Techno Classica Essen. These days, it seems any Fred-in-a-shed can stick big wheels, tartan seats and throttle bodies on an old Porsche and market it as reimagined, but, if one really wants to get ‘reimaginative’ with an old 911, then this quirky machine laid down the entry requirements, half a century ago.
Occupying pride of place on the Early 911S stand, amongst the meticulously curated 911 collectables brought to Essen every year by the Dutch specialists, the HLS Designstudie seemed rather ungainly compared to the car its designer destroyed to create it. That said, judging a fifty year-old bespoke GT with hindsight and a modern aesthetic is never going to go well. Car culture has an ingrained affection for better known prototypes of a similar vintage, many of which are nowadays accepted as the most beautiful cars ever made.
Even forgetting that Gandini’s 1965 Miura and early LP400 Countach or the 250 GT Lusso ever existed, this car’s looks are a challenge. While the styling curves of the great GTs flow serenely from one to the next, the awkward shapes of the HLS trip over one another like lumpy shopping. It is vaguely reminiscent of one of those Matchbox fantasy cars which I never wanted to receive as a kid and, in some ways, that’s just what it is.
Taking styling models created by the University of Aachen’s automotive design programme, coachbuilder Hans-Leo Senden (hence HLS) built full-size versions. The work explored the organic and commutable nature of sports cars and created something unique from what, at the time, was regarded as a rather plain-jane production machine. It is not sweet and sexy like a Lambo GT or a Jaguar E-Type, but we can probably all get with the motives behind its creation.
As a Porsche valuations person, I can’t look at any old Porsche without thinking of price, so what is the value of this? Well, it’s rare, built on 1965 Porsche 911 underpinnings and is a proper period piece. Only a handful of these things were ever created. There are better-looking ones on Google images, but what really matters for valuation purposes is whether it was commissioned by Stuttgart or not – and I do not know the answer. Either way it has value, but, if the wheels were set in motion by Stuttgart, then the desirability is greatly increased.
Assuming it was not a Porsche-commissioned creation (and perhaps it was not, as surely it would have gone back to Stuttgart by now), then I guess if you were serious, already had a good 911 collection and were keen to pick up one or two curve balls for interest, one might pay more for this HLS Studie than the price of a nice ’65 911, assuming there was some competition to own it, but that depends on lots of factors including what the rest of it looks like underneath and how much history it has. Or maybe I am greatly underestimating its desirability.
Perhaps what matters is that this spyder-style study on an early 911 still exists, to offer a window into how design students and coachbuilders approached their work fifty years ago. It would make an interesting talking point in an already substantial Porsche 911 collection, but, as a strictly small-scale collector and someone who drives their cars, I’d rather own a standard 911 of the era. Or an LP400.
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