I can’t recall a busier two weeks, ever. Porsche stuff everywhere is totally brilliant, but a bugger if you’re trying to find time to blog!
I’m in the middle of writing three Porsche features, two of which are nicely linked by the video clip at the bottom. One is the story of my recent trip to the Nürburgring 24-Hour with the Falken Tyres GT3 R, and the other is the WEVO GT3 Cup-engined 912 we call PVX.
The Carrera GT in the video was taken on a lap of the Nürburgring by games developers looking to gather data. They put the footage on a video involving some of the worst narration ever. Like “the brakes are incredible: the harder you push, the better they work”. FFS!
The link from this to WEVO is Hayden Burvill (Lord WEVO, below) engineering the closed-course speed record Porsche Carrera GT at Talladega Raceway in 2005, with driver David Donohue (DD & Jay Leno, above. Proper pic mix up, this one) and a Porsche team led by Norbert Singer. Hayden didn’t volunteer the information, I had to drag it out of him. But it’s a good story: worthy of a feature one day.
The PVX story is in next month’s 911 & Porsche World magazine. The Falken words and pictures piece will run in Total 911. Both are brilliant, but I would say that!
I spent this afternoon watching the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix. It was an absolute cracker. Every time the cars came through Massenet and into Casino Square, I was reminded of the 2010 R Gruppe Bergmeister Tour, and the three days our ten cars spent in Monte Carlo. Watching the F1 drivers blast at 120 mph or more through sections we trickled through at 30 mph was fantastic.
Bergmeister rallyistes used the city as a base for mountain raids up around the principality, to the epic Monte Carlo Rally routes we were driving. Getting in and out of town was easy enough, but getting around was a headache. Traffic along the GP track in normal running is nigh-on stationary. It’s also quite difficult to equate TV and reality, when parts of the flowing circuit are run as one way or no left/right turn during the normal working week.
We did manage a few runs along some famous stretches, and I got told off by the police once or twice for hanging out the windows of moving 911s with a camera, but it was worth it when the pictures made a cover and a big feature in 911 & Porsche World magazine.
If you’re a diehard F1 fan and have not yet made the effort to get down there and drive the circuit, put it on your bucket list. Trust your Uncle Johnny: it is WELL worth the effort. Though it can be trashy in places, Monaco is a unique environment: a shrine to speed that will undoubtedly inspire something within.
Awesome shoot with Jamie Lipman today. We took a Diablo Red (named by us) Porsche 911 RSR backdate to Bethlehem, New Hampshire on Rapture Day.
The angle I had in mind was take a cool 911 to the start of things, at the end of things. So far no end, but it was a fun morning, touring the town and unleashing some divine Porsche havoc.
Porsche 911 RSR backdate in Bethlehem, New Hampshire
The car is an ’84 3.2 Turbolook that’s been substantially revised, with steel RSR flares, classic low-fat interior, WEVO transmission and suspension set up and a 3.8 litre Rothsport engine.
We shot the car next to the Police Station and in the roads around the town. I’ll let you know what magazine it ends up in.
All the time we were working, I had this shitkicking U2/BB King track playing in my head. LOUD. It’s still playing!
Jamie and I stopped off at West Coast Metric today en route to Los Angeles International, to say hello to legendary VW parts impresario, Lorenzo Pearson.
Lorenzo has a long track record in ‘making it happen’, so meeting the man himself was the perfect sign off to our week in California. Making things happen is what all the best car guys are about out west.
Pearson is also a massive Porsche nut, with some of the most beautiful classic Porsches imaginable in his compact, eclectic, exceptional collection. The 356 and 911 seen here are two of the most impeccably detailed classic Porsche hot rods out there.
Mr Pearson and I spent so much time being rally car fans, I didn’t get the iPhone camera out once, apart from taking a picture for middle daughter Ciara, of a pirate cannonball salvaged by Lorenzo in the West Indies. She’s got the biggest pirate thing in history going on at the minute.
I wrote a few days ago about the upcoming Porsche Youtube coverage of Röhrl/Geistdörfer at Targa Tasmania. Some questions over the classic 911 rally car they’re using: is it an SC RS? Engine shots do look similar, but the chassis is quite different to the SC RS that was being restored on my last Stuttgart visit. I’ll find out when it comes home again (edit: see the SC rally video Porsche have just posted).
Here is an SC RS though, in the closest finish I can remember in Irish rallying. The Donegal International Rally is a tough three-day event that takes no prisoners. Running through the rugged terrain on Ireland’s north west Atlantic coast, it is all mixed weather and dry stone walls. There are no second chances here. One slip and you are in deep trouble – as the video shows.
1985 was a landmark year. Legend Austin McHale in his Manta 400 was chasing a win after two years of playing bridesmaid. The rest of the field was Manta 400s and hot rod Escorts: the last gasp of old-school RWD rallying before the AWD philosophy really took hold.
Tony Pond was present in the first real outing for the Group B Metro 6R4. By SS6, the car had a 1 minute 45 second advantage over P2: over two seconds a mile faster, and Pondie was not flat out. If you’ve ever seen a 6R4 apart, you know that is utterly terrifying as they are made of fresh air. Thankfully the car retired before anyone could impact the scenery.
When the event gets going, Billy Coleman (the King of Irish Rallying), is on mesmerising form in the Rothmans 911 SC RS. 911s always went well at Donegal: Cathal Curley won here three times in a row in a 911 in the early 1970s. Coleman too has tasted success on the event: winning in a Lancia Stratos in 1977, and then in a Manta 400 in 1984. He’s the natural choice for David Richards to take on Donegal in 1985.
At the end of day two and a fairly major hold up, the man from Milltown has climbed back from being over a minute and a half behind McHale, to what he thinks is 9 seconds behind. Turns out he is 39 seconds behind, with 40 miles to make it up the following day. In fact, it is less: the final stage is cancelled due to spectator problems.
Can Coleman do it? You’ll have to watch and see. Coleman came back in a 6R4 the following year and won the event.
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