by John Glynn | Dec 21, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
Just reading an (unpublished) draft post from a few years back on my Classic Porsche Blog, where I spotted a perfectly-preserved 1977 911S Targa in the corner of Tuthill’s yard and mused on how the 2.7 S Targa was once the runt of the 911 line – I mean the absolute worst car you could possibly aspire to – but now would be valued at £30k+ for insurance. Anyone who thinks a 2.5 Boxster Tip will never go up in value should remember the 911S. Porsche may have built thousands, but one day there won’t be so many.
Over breakfast, BBC 6 Music played a 1977 Peel session track from The Jam, introducing it with a BBC interview with the band from the same year. “Are you punks?” asked the interviewer. “This time last year, everyone under 20 who played music was a punk,” said Bruce Foxton with a very deft negative. “If you tell me what punk is, I’ll tell you if we fit,” said Weller with another. “We just want to play, to keep getting better, and not be shoved in a bracket. You can already hear music that’s going to last coming out of the movement.”
The trio’s music has certainly lasted. I’ve still got a 6-disc CD changer in my Cayenne (albeit about to go), and one of those discs is The Jam’s “In the City“. Still a visceral listening experience, it’s an electric ropeladder of escape from three guys who know their music has to reach out and be real. Reviewing the album for Record Mirror (who remembers that?!), Barry Cain wrote: “armed and extremely dangerous, The Jam stalk the decrepit grooves. If you don’t like them, hard luck: they’re going to be around for a long time. Seldom do albums actually reflect pre-20 delusions, but this one does.”
The best new music of 1977 continues to engage new listeners. I’m thinking The Jam, Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder, Sex Pistols, or Billy Joel’s The Stranger (instantly wish I was in New York every time). In such lofty aural company, flat six sounds from a 911 Targa seem to sit just right. No wonder values are rising for cars this classic.
by John Glynn | Jul 21, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Ferdinand Porsche Magazine’s Project 924 Turbo restoration was finally covered in fresh paint yesterday. I might be slightly biased, but the finished product really floats my boat.
You remember I bought the silver 924 Turbo on eBay last year from a Porsche barn up in Norfolk. I had the car delivered to best mate Robert Campbell at Racing Restorations in Pershore, Worcestershire, where Rob’s guys started picking through the mechanical work.
This included some rewiring, an alternator rebuild, steering rack overhaul and other works. I still have some bits to do before it can go to MOT, but the focus recently turned to bodywork when an unexpected slot opened up in the Racing Restorations paint schedule. While vintage sportscar specialist Rob is normally booked up six months in advance, delays on an Alfa Romeo restoration meant the 924 could claim a week and slip in.
Car guys talk lots about paint and how long it takes, but painting takes next to no time: just four hours on the 924. The preparation for paint took a full five days! Thanks to a rust-free chassis and (some) good panels, bare-metalling the 924 and getting it in primer took from Monday to Wednesday. Rob primered it on Wednesday night, and left it to bake for a day.
Flatting the primer took another day, so on Saturday this weekend, we drove it into the paint booth just vacated by a custom-painted McLaren MP12-4C, then spent a couple of hours degreasing the bodywork and wiping it off with tack rags before the painter did his thing.
The 924 Turbo now has four coats of the most expensive two-pack primer I could buy. The body has three coats of paint – Porsche code L97A – and three coats of lacquer. It looks pretty good and won’t need much polishing: a quick mop, pick out a few flecks of dust and that’s it.
I’ll start putting this back together next week – should be some fun getting it done. No doubt I’ll spend much more on new body trim bits than originally intended. Let me know if you’ve got a NOS rear bumper rubber lying around!
by John Glynn | Apr 8, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Just watched a terrific Storyville on BBC4. Entitled “From the Sea to the Land: Beyond Britain’s Coast on Film”, the programme gathered up 100 years of archive footage, to tell the story of 20th Century Britain’s relationship with the sea that surrounds it. With a thought-provoking soundtrack playing in accompaniment, it was spellbinding television.
The most impressive part for me was a shipyard section filmed in the 1960s, with amazing cinematography showing the scale of some of the vessels being built, when the UK still made the world’s greatest machinery. Deeply impressive on a multitude of levels.
The age of great British fabrication was briefly revisited on Saturday, when I finally managed to strap best mate Rob Campbell at Racing Restorations to his lathe for long enough to make a bush for my 924 Turbo’s steering rack. The 924 car failed its UK MOT on steering play, ascribed to a track rod but wound up being the bush in the end of the steering rack: those bumpy Italian back roads roads taking their toll.
I was happy to go and track down the part, but Robert insisted he could easily make it. Sorting this is the penultimate job before registration: all I need now is a set of tyres fitted, a retest on the MOT and official confirmation of date of construction, and it’s off to the DVLA with some paperwork.
In true OTT John & Rob style, the plastic bush I pulled out out of the Volkswagen steering rack – worth about 50p on a good day – was replaced with something that took rather more expense to manufacture. Robert turned it out of solid brass, giving me an hour’s entertainment and something good to blog about.
If you’ve ever seen brass being machined, you know it goes everywhere in splinters. But all metal is amazing to watch in transformation. Careful measuring throughout Operation Overkill meant the rack all went back together with no big dramas. I’ll get it back in the car sometime next week.
by John Glynn | Feb 27, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Here’s an interesting read for you: the first feature Jamie Lipman and I ever did in the USA from 2008. Was a minor disaster getting there and making this happen, but the end justified the means. R Gruppe Porsche 911 SWB Hot Rods shot in California.
Interest in the short wheelbase 911 has surged in recent years. John Glynn drives a pair of American beauties that make a convincing case for less is more.
Ah, California. In stark contrast to preconceptions of a concrete jungle, California is a state with personality. Away from the major population centres, amazing light and fresh Pacific air mingles with the blissful aroma of pine trees and vines to create a technicolour environment. No wonder they built Hollywood here.
I’ve come to the Golden State to attend the R Gruppe Treffen, an annual ensemble of early 911 enthusiasts from across the US and beyond. This year, the meet is centred on Cambria, a pretty little coastal town 100 miles south of Monterey. This is the site of the very first Gruppe get-together, ten years ago.
R Gruppe’s raison d’etre is to honour the intent behind Porsche’s Sports Purpose range: factory parts for adding that extra zing to to the pre-’73 911. This is a club for road trippers, not trailer queens. Some of these guys have travelled almost 3,000 ground miles to be here. (more…)
by John Glynn | Jan 21, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
I had a good chat with Mads Jensen in Denmark last week: driver and team manager for the Scandinavian team, State of Art racing.
You’ll know State of Art from the videos I post every year, following the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix: always exciting and usually featuring Björn or Stig winning in a Porsche. This year, Mads is putting a Porsche-only race together at the Jyllandsringen GP on August 24-25th: I’m delighted to help publicise the event. Mads says:
“When Jyllandsringen is organising its annual Grand Prix Denmark 24th-25th August 2013, one of the main attractions will be a 40-minute race exclusively for historic Porsche 911 race cars. We expect 40 registered cars from across Scandinavia and possibly the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, which will compete in 3 categories divided by age groups: Up to 1965, 1966-1971 and 1972-1976.
This event started with one single idea: To create a race with only classic 911’s. I race a 911 myself and know almost all 911 drivers/race car owners here. I contacted the organisers of Grand Prix Denmark and suggested to gather all 911’s. There are about 30 of these cars here in Denmark and 21 of them have signed up so far.
There is a max of 45 cars on the track, so we decided to invite people we are connected to from abroad. In addition to the race, we are organising a Porsche gathering to celebrate the 50 years anniversary. I am an active member of the Porsche Clubs and online communities and they are all onboard for this, as is the Danish importer.
We are expecting 300 club members to exhibit their cars in the dedicated 911 paddock. Everyone gets a few laps on the track in the lunchbreak and we host a party in the hospitality area. Finally, if we can get funding, we are planning to invite former Porsche works drivers.”
Sounds cool. So is the poster for the event, created by 911 fan and online friend Paul Wilson in Copenhagen. Rather optimistically seems to show an ST in front of a RSR, like Twinspark Racing’s Viper Green Hulk 911 Porsche RSR. If that’s Waldegard with Stolk coming up behind him, I am seriously impressed!
I’m planning to be there, and fingers crossed a few of you will attend also. The website is Danish only at the minute, but it’s in the process of being translated. Check it out at www.porscheclassiccup.dk.
