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).
by John Glynn | Nov 30, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
Congratulations to Carlos Sainz Junior for securing a Formula 1 drive next year with Scuderia Toro Rosso. The well-deserved drive comes following a championship-winning season in World Series by Renault, and a few days sliding the Tuthill Porsche Below Zero Ice Driving cars, which Junior’s dad and two-time World Rally Champion, Carlos Senior, decided would boost his son’s speed in tricky conditions.
“Carlos Jr. is fully focused on his racing career, so of course we are here mostly for fun,” said Carlos Sr. (below) at the Below Zero Ice Driving campus, “but the experience should still help him understand the feel of a car a bit when grip is reduced, such as when it is raining.”
Carlos Sainz Jr Porsche Ice Driving
Arriving straight from Rally Sweden, the Sainz family enjoyed Tuthill’s Below Zero Ice Driving on the frozen lakes around Åre, one of Scandinavia’s premier winter sports resorts. Carlos and his brother Antonio are popular faces in the Tuthill Porsche camp. Antonio runs rally Porsches in Spain which Carlos employs to great effect, and the cars feature many Tuthill Porsche rally parts.
While discussing the impending engine rebuild on my 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 with Tuthill’s engine guru last Friday, another engine arrived from Spain with Antonio’s name on it. A great relationship exists between the rally families, and Tuthills are also gearing up for some WRC R-GT filming with Carlos Junior’s Red Bull sponsors this winter. Hopefully we’ll see some of that before Rallye Monte Carlo, where the 997 R-GT will be back to rallying action.
Following the warmer temperatures Sweden has experienced in the last few winters, Below Zero has a shortened season on the frozen lakes next year. The team has set just six weeks aside for ice driving in 2015, from the 14th of January to the start of March.
Almost 150 car days have already sold out, so the team is looking forward to its most successful season yet. Those interested in joining an increasingly prestigious list of participants (including Mr Adrian Newey!) should email Belo Zero. Tell them we sent you, of course.
by John Glynn | Nov 30, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
The Porsche 911 RSR used an external gearbox oil cooler on its modified 915 transmission for better heat dissipation and increased reliability. The external housing for the additional oil pump gears required by an external cooler has been unavailable for decades, but EB Motorsport has now recreated the RSR oil pump housing using the latest production technology.
The EB oil pump housing is recreated in cast aluminium, using an original RSR assembly including the transmission end case to ensure an accurate fit in reproduction. A series of complex engineering procedures is required to achieve the high quality associated with all EB parts.
EB Motorsport’s reproduction 915 transmission oil pump housing is supplied assembled with bushes for pump gears. EB’s part also includes the correct metric/fine adaptors and crush washers. The price is £296 plus carriage and VAT.
As an additional service, EB can supply the complete system including transmission spray bars, pick-up drive gears and pressure relief valve. Prices for additional services are available on application via the website at www.eb-motorsport.com.
