by John Glynn | Oct 17, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
Out looking at Porsche cars for sale with a mate last Sunday, we found ourselves close to Mercedes-Benz World in Weybridge, Surrey and decided to drop in for a coffee. The coffee shop is great and worth a visit on its own.
I used to work around the corner from Mercedes World and the huge facility alongside Brooklands was usually deserted: I could never understand how it paid for itself. On this particular Sunday, the place was absolutely packed. With the queue for coffee more than twenty people deep, we opted for a quick scoot around the exhibits before getting back on the road.
MB world used to house many classic models in its beautiful interior, but there are fewer classics now and plenty of new cars. We had a good look at the SLs on show – of course I thought my SL was nicer than their R129 – and then whipped through the technology part on the top floor. Inside was the 1996 Mercedes F200 concept from 1996 (above). This spellbinding car with double-joystick technology and cutting edge ideas for the time is still a handsome machine: recognisably Mercedes.
Porsche Prototype Exhibition
Seeing the cool Mercedes concept reminded me of an exhibition currently running at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. Featuring a number of Porsche development mules and work-in-progress prototypes, the “Project: Top Secret” show running until January 11, 2015 opens a door into the workings of Porsche engineering development.
Sixteen Porsche cars form the core of the exhibition, including concept cars, camouflaged test beds and one-off experimental vehicles. Notably, these are development survivors, as most test cars and working prototypes get scrapped when their work is complete: common practice amongst manufacturers.
Cars I would most like to explore in detail include the 964 Targa, chopped up to disguise the mid-engined chassis layout of the original development Boxster, and the 984 Roadster development car. The display also includes a rear-engined Porsche 965 project, and the four-door 989 family sports car, which set the design tone for later models. The 918 rolling chassis seen in many Youtube videos is also on show.
The Porsche Museum is open from 9am-6pm Tuesday to Sunday. Admission is €8 for adults. More information at www.porsche.de/museum.
by John Glynn | Oct 15, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche News
Stuttgart recently released its latest list of Porsche approved ‘N-rated’ tyres. The approved list won’t surprise too many people, but the pic below of a Porsche 356 Coupe close to vertical on the Continental ContiDrom banking in testing might raise a smile.
Porsche’s N rating is regularly updated to keep abreast of progress made in tyre development, including tread design and compound changes. Tyre fitter legend has it that, once a tyre is granted an N rating, it cannot be altered without losing approval. The budget brands don’t feature in the Porsche lists, but is that due to money and marketing? Who believes these N-rated lists?
Porsche’s N rated approval lists don’t mention tyre price premiums or brand discounting on tyres supplied with new cars. Instead, the lists are said to come from extensive tests carried out by “Porsche tyre experts” over several weeks. This year, the test team used the aforementioned 356, an impact-bumper 911 2.7 Carrera, a 911 Turbo (930) and a first-gen Porsche 986 Boxster. No mention of front-engined cars or the 964/993 series with 17″ and 18″ wheels, but they do feature on the N rated lists.
The forum jury is well and truly out as to whether Porsche-approved tyres are that much better than non N-rated tyres. I have used both N-rated and unrated tyres on my own classic Porsche cars and been happy with examples from each camp. That said, my 911 is currently on non N-rated tyres that do have a version on the Porsche approved list and they have proved excellent. I am not saying that the N rated list is fallacy, just that there are other tyres out there that seem to work well on older Porsches.
N rated Porsche Tyre Prices
A set of new N-rated tyres for my 911 costs around £400, so it’s not saving a huge amount of money over five years (or however long you expect tyres to last on a car doing 2k miles a year) to pick a set of tyres costing a hundred quid less. Not that I ever buy new tyres for my own cars, and the argument changes if you use your Porsche daily: Ferdinand’s 10 year-old Cayenne S will happily demolish two sets of part-worn Continental tyres in ten thousand miles.
I started my classic Porsche career on Kumho tyres, and have also used Falken, Goodyear Eagle F1, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup and Continental ContiSportContact to name a few I recall. Friends use Bridgestone S-02 (approved), S-03 and Toyo R888 on track cars. I like driving on the Bridgestone S-02s but find the 888s to be very noisy and hard work in heavy rain. I’ve driven too many 911s on Michelin TB5 and TB15 to list: not my favourite tyres but they do look good on wide wheels.
My own preference thus far is for Pilot Sport Cups, but ignore what I am telling you. They are super expensive, will scare you a bit in torrential downpours and won’t last more than 2,000 miles if you’re lucky. That said they look drop-dead gorgeous and the grip is amazing. My last set of Pilot Sport Cup rubber expired about four years ago and I’ve been on ContiSportContact ever since: grip is great, long tyre life (as I don’t go anywhere) and superb in the wet.
N-Rated Tyres on Classic Porsche Cars
ContiSportContact and SportContact 2 are N rated tyres. The SportContact is also an F-rated tyre: Ferdinand recommends them 100% based on the fact that we’ve used SportContacts for more than 5k miles and didn’t die in a blazing inferno due to skidding off-piste. ContiSport Contact 3 is not N rated but they are also great: been using them on my E36 BMW M3 for a couple of years and they are superb, but not N rated and not available in 245/45 16 to fit 9″ Fuchs. Both sets of SportContact rubber replaced GoodYear Eagle F1s, which must be the worst tyres I have ever driven on: Kumhos included.
The Porsche N rated tyre lists include approval for:
- Porsche 356: Pirelli P6000 (would not look great IMO)
- Porsche 924: P6000, Continental ContisportContact and Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2 (I have P6000s on my 924 Turbo)
- Porsche 928: Pirelli P Zero Asimmetrico, ContiSportContact, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2
- Porsche 959: Bridgestone RE71
- Porsche 964: Pirelli P Zero Rosso, Bridgestone S-01, Bridgestone S-02A
- Porsche 986 and 996 add ContiSportContact 2 and Pirelli P Zero Direzionale.
I’d be interested to know who is using non N rated and how they have been doing – add thoughts in the comments. Anyone who believes Porsche cars should only run on N-rated rubber can rest assured that we understand the arguments in favour but are happy to deviate from that advice.
by John Glynn | Oct 13, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
More bad news via email recently, when I received these pics of a crash involving the ex-Sam Gassel 1973 Penske Sunoco Porsche 911 RSR recreation at the 2014 Coronado Speed Festival. Sam bought the project unfinished from Gib Bosworth of Kremer ST replica fame, and built it into a very fine replica of the Penske car. It’s distressing to see it take such a heavy impact, but these things happen in racing.
The Coronado Speed Festival is part of San Diego’s annual Fleet Week, which is held at the US North Island naval base in San Diego to open the base to the public and recognise the contributions of San Diego’s military community. It is the US Navy’s only open-house event on the US West Coast.
Not too much information about the crash online, but it looks like it all kicked off in the first five minutes of qualifying. The pics suggest a wide mix of cars on track, and it certainly looks that way to me, having seen some video of the session shot from good mate Mike Gagen’s ’88 IMSA GTO Camaro, which was on track amongst a bunch of prototypes and a few 914s too.
If you’re thinking that a spread of cars from the 1960s to late ’80s on track at once is asking for trouble, you might be right. Regardless of fault in the incident, this is not a fun way to go racing. I can’t imagine that the car escaped lightly, which is very sad given how much work Sam put into this labour of love. Hopefully any damage caused to car and driver is entirely fixable (pic here from Flickr):
It was recently announced that America’s SVRA had been awarded stewardship of the Coronado Speed Festival from 2015. SVRA already organises some of America’s biggest historic motor racing events, so hopefully affairs like the RSR crash will become a thing of the past. Gagen reminds us of a famous saying amongst vintage racers: “your car already has race history, so the only history you can add is bad history.” ”
SVRA also oversees the popular Monterey Historics, so picking up Coronado and its sister events at Sonoma and Portland means that SVRA now runs all the major West Coast vintage racing events. Given some of the feedback on the cliquey-ness of certain race meetings, I’m not sure that is such a hot idea, but it is what it is. Hopefully my info is behind the curve and there will be room for everyone to take part. There is nothing quite like racing, California-style.
by John Glynn | Oct 13, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
A Porsche friend has entered this matching numbers 1979 Porsche 930 (911 Turbo) for the classic car auctions at the NEC Classic Motor Show next month. Normally my advice is to take care when buying at auction (i.e. what most auction buyers fail to do) but I have seen this car more than once, and it has always struck me as a decent example, so am happy to share it on Ferdinand. That said, buyers should still do their homework.
The car was found in California by Tuthill’s US buyer around the same time I bought my 912E. At the time, Tuthills were rallying that white 930 on Midnight Sun and I did think this might end up as a rally car. As quite a unique colour and spec – Bamboo Beige with dark brown Recaro sports trim – it was one of the first impact bumper 911s I was hoping would not be modified! Not my usual approach, but this was low mileage and really quite nice. Happily, it found a fine home as a road car.
On arrival in the UK, it was given a thorough inspection and much work was done to recommission the Bosch CIS K-Jet fuel injection system, including fitting a brand new fuel tank. Earlier this year, Paragon Porsche fitted new suspension, before it came back to Tuthills for a diff rebuild and new clutch. The car has only done 46,000 miles or so, but the owner has never shied away from spending money on it. He tells me he is selling to buy a horsebox for his daughter: how the other half lives!
The estimate for this car is £40-46k. As a left-hand drive, low mileage 930 in a rare colour, it may find the interested parties it needs to get some competition going on bidding. My only real bugbear is the polished Fuchs, but it would be easy to repaint the centres in proper satin black, as above. Then the car would look like quite a special impact-bumper 911, in my opinion.
by John Glynn | Oct 10, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
Porsche Cars North America has announced that Rennsport Reunion V (RR5) will be held at Laguna Seca from September 25-27, 2015, four years after Rennsport Reunion was first hosted on west coast USA. Note that this is an amended date from the original 9-11 Oct 2015, as that clashed with 919s running in WEC at Fuji.
Previous Rennsports were run out east: once at Lime Rock and twice at Daytona. The feedback from my trusted sources was that Daytona topped Laguna for spectacle, and of course Daytona has heavy links with Porsche history, so was perhaps a more appropriate location for a Porsche racing heritage event.
However, with the heaviest concentration of Porsche collections anywhere in the USA, a high proportion of American Porsche owners living within reach of the circuit and the corporate side of Rennsport requiring the dry and sunny Monterey climate, California was deemed to be a better location.
There’s little doubt that Rennsport Reunion V will outsell previous events, and this will satisfy US sales and marketing. I don’t keep up with new Porsche cars so not sure where it fits with model releases, but no doubt a new car will slot in somewhere. Meanwhile, many European enthusiasts will be asking if Rennsport is worth the effort. The faithful will journey to Monterey, but would the average UK or European enthusiast gain enough from a trip to California to justify the considerable expense?
September 25-27 does not tally with any half-term private or public school dates that I can see in the UK, so taking the kids away for a couple of weeks is unlikely to work. European holidays are not much different, so it looks like a grown-up deal only. This is probably no bad idea, as only the most Porsche-obsessed wife and kids would enjoy it for more than an hour or two.
Flights and Accommodation: Rennsport Reunion V
Flying to Monterey is best done direct into San Francisco, but Los Angeles often offers better prices, and then you have the PCH rent-a-car drive to enjoy. Hotels around Laguna are good, and the R Gruppe Porsche crowd normally stay at the Hyatt Resort on the outskirts of town: there will be a block booking going on there. However, there is a PGA tournament going on during the same weekend, and room rates are now sky high.
Having previously stayed all around the region, Pacific Grove is my choice of overnight halts: great prices and the sound of the ocean within earshot. If standing beer-in-hand with Porsche freaks in the car park late into the night is your choice of bedtime, then grab a room at the Hyatt. I will do the standing around of course, just without many beers in hand and with a short drive back to my digs.
If your visit is only going to be about hardcore track action featuring rare and historic Porsche racing machinery, remember that this is largely an exhibition event with rare cars coming out of collections. Do not forget all the real Porsche racing we enjoy here in Europe. Whether it’s the 917 in the hands of Gary Pearson at Silverstone Classic, 962s racing at the Spa Classic, or 935s and RSRs at Oldtimer GP or Classic Le Mans, there is great historic racing on this side of the pond. Don’t feel bad if you can’t make it to Rennsport.
