November 2010 is 911 & Porsche World magazine’s 200th edition, so Editor Bennett has pulled out as many stops as possible to make it entertaining. The centrepiece is a conglomerative effort from all editorial contributors, in a feature called ‘Ultimate Porsche’. The idea was we had to pick our ultimate factory Porsche, and bring it to Bruntingthorpe to run them all back to back.
My ultimate Porsche is a 917: nothing touches that car for drama and all-round Porsche cleverness. Entered via loophole and raced hard by our favourite heros, the 917 demanded king-size balls to drive quickly. Just looking at it makes me feel a bit funny, so what it must feel like to drive one at 250 mph down the Mulsanne Straight, with the lightweight body flexing and pinning your foot to the throttle pedal, I have no idea.
I tried everywhere I could think of to get a 917, but to no avail. Once I was used to the idea of not being able to bring my Ultimate Porsche, the next best thing was probably an easier solution than most people would believe.
My take was that the Ultimate Porsche beyond the 917 should be something you can get into right now and take to the Bergmeister Monte Carlo route: surely the most incredible driving ever done in a car. So it had to be something within easy reach.
Looking in my garage, I had two 911s to choose from: my Carrera 3.0 and the 964RS I was advertising for sale on behalf of a friend. Both are quick, in nice condition, both sound and smell like a proper Porsche and both are wonderful to drive. So which one to take?
964RS v 3.2 Club Sport v 2.7 RS
Picking your own car for one of these things is dodgy ground. Much as I love my C3, there is barely an as-factory part on it. I also make no secret of the fact that it could one day go to a new home, so by definition it is not the last word in Porsche for me. If I had the asking price for a decent 964RS sitting in my bank account I would buy one, no question and with absolutely no hesitation. So, red one it is then.
This choice may seem tough to reconcile with my well-known love of the early and impact-bumper style cars, but it’s not that tricky really. The 964 Carrera RS looks like them, sounds like them, smells like them but goes faster than any of them in factory guise. The one in my garage was set up by Water Röhrl and rides beautifully. It’s built like the brick proverbial. Every time I get in it, I soon find myself driving like an eighteen year-old.
3.0 RSR v 997 Turbo v 964 RS v rest
It’s a time machine, plain and simple. If you want to make yourself twenty years younger buy a 964 RS. It comes from a time when Porsche built sports cars: the world’s best sports cars. And they all looked like classics, straight out of the box.
My Top Ten from the Ultimate Porsche line-up:
964RS. Uncompromising in every positive sense of the word. A Stuttgart V-sign to all Porsche-hating motoring journos, it says: “Don’t like me? F**k you, get me a proper driver.”
2.7 RS. Think of it like Scarlett Johansson lying on a bed, summoning you with her finger. There is no saying no.
997 Turbo. Faster than a shooting star strapped to a 4wd comet. There comes a point where outright ability matters: this car is past that point.
3.0 RSR. Won’t run under 4k rpm and is too noisy to take anywhere but I’d live in it.
911 2.4S. Every inch a classic.
356 Cabriolet. The original. The one that started it all.
Cayenne Turbo. A Porsche for every day. As Fraser says: if you could only have one Porsche for the rest of your life, then….
996 GT3. I’m never going to get past those headlamps. Sorry GT3 boys.
Carrera Club Sport. Gas-filled exhaust valves do not an RS make. If they’d gone further it’d be the Ultimate, but they sold us short.
I’ve spent the last few days thinking about my great California Porsche feature trips. The times I’ve spent out there have been absolutely magic: great weather, great drives, great cars and, above all, great friends.
Friends are key to what classic Porsche, and the Classic Porsche Blog is all about. Sharing proper Porsches with friends – and I include blog followers and magazine readers in that category – is the whole point of what I do. It’s about the mission: not the money.
I was led to this train of thought by a recent video discovery. This is two Porsche friends enjoying their 914s in sunny Southern California. The sun is gorgeous and the soundtrack perfect. Good times, no doubt about it.
Behind the joyous visual lies a tinge of sadness. The driver of the camera car, and man who posted the video, is no longer with us. His name was Howard Dranow and, if the tribute thread here and the amazing Howard Dranow forum here are anything to go by, he was an inspirational character and a good Porsche buddy to many, many Porsche people. Anyone who leaves this sort of positivity behind has spent their time on Earth well.
RIP Howard. I’ll be thinking of your video next time I’m out shooting Porsches in your glorious home state.
If you’re not freelance, bank holiday weekend Sundays are all about taking it easy. If you are freelance, then the only difference between Sunday and any other day is that the post office and some petrol stations are shut. If there’s a job to do, you do it!
Supercharged Porsche 968 magazine feature
I got a call the other day, asking if I wanted to write a feature on a supercharged Porsche 968. The owner was coming up from the far end of Britain and would be at Castle Combe for the PCGB gathering. Could I get there? Yes. If there was no photographer could I cover the pictures too? Errr – a trepidatious yes. Sooner or later, you have to affirm aloud: ‘this is where I want to go!’ and start heading in that direction.
I left home early to go scouting locations west of Bath. Rain en route wasn’t the best news ever, but there were a few hours before our shoot meet: I kept driving and bode my time. The run down through the Cotswolds was excellent and set me up for the afternoon. I told Sean the sat nav to take me the short way, so he sent me down every back road from Banbury to Bath via Burford. Very cool!
Once in Wiltshire, I found some locations fast enough, then went and grabbed a bite in a local pub while waiting for the 968 owners. They arrived soon after and we got cracking.
I’m not going to claim it was a pro job from start to finish, but we ticked enough boxes to do the feature justice. These two are a couple of outtakes. I’ve made notes on my performance and will work on improving, but I am slowly climbing that learning curve.
The run home took me back across the Cotswolds through a beautiful sunset, and I didn’t spare the Subaru’s horses. All in all, I’d call it a good day!
911 & Porsche World magazine have put the R Gruppe Grand Tour on the front cover of this month’s issue. This is the news stand version and not the subscriber copies.
To say I’m pleased would be an understatement: the Grand Tour was one of the best events yet, so to document it in my first words-and-pictures feature, and then have it make the cover is a dream come true.
The feature is spread across eight pages and looks good. For me, there were other pictures that better relate to the in-betweens of the piece – most of the shots in the feature came from the two on-the-move shoots we managed to grab. So, knowing what went on behind the scenes, I think it looks me look a little repetitive on style, but I don’t envy the guy who has to choose the pics! It has come out well and a number of people have complimented me on it, which I really appreciate.
All in all then, I’m over the moon: a Porsche World cover on your first attempt is a killer endorsement of a great story. I have to pay tribute to my editor: Steve Bennett hails from the heyday of Cars and Car Conversions and is the easiest guy in the world to work for. He just lets me gt on with it and runs the pieces as they leave my Mac. Apart from one bit, when I was looking for a way to describe how fast the temperature fell when we left the 40-degree Autoroute and headed up into the Swiss Alps on day one. I said it fell ‘like a log off a waterfall’ which I then changed to ‘dog off a waterfall’, but ran in the magazine as ‘quite suddenly’! LOL – gotta love stuff like that.
My next words and pics is a supercharged Porsche 968 coming through Porsche World next month. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
James Redman recently whizzed me a mail about the Gathering of Legends Racers Symposium being organised by Brian Redman’s Targa Sixty Six, the team behind Rennsport Reunion.
Brian Redman, third from left with Ferry Porsche & team, 1968 Targa Florio
The idea is to gather a bunch of old racing drivers and race fans for five days in the sun with golf, surfing, sunbathing and whatever else you can do at the Hilton Cancun Golf and Spa Resport down in Mexico. It runs from February 2nd to 7th, 2011 and costs $3450 per couple, or $3200 for a single, with a $500 discount for anyone booked and deposit paid by September 10th. Not bad value if you are into historic racing and a bit of golf. The first 25 bookings get a room upgrade!
Drivers already confirmed are Richard Attwood, Derek Bell, Vic Elford, Hurley Haywood, David Hobbs, Brian Redman & Bobby Unser. That is a top lineup, each with their own mega stories to tell. Planned events include three theme banquets:
Racers’ Tales
917s and the making of Le Mans
The American Scene
Redman and Donhue chat over the Sunoco Porsche 917 in Mid-Ohio, 1974
Golfers will know what a ‘Best Ball Golf Tourney’ means and there is also the chance to take a trip to the Mayan Pyramids. The accommodation is bound to be good and I can’t image there’ll be any limits to the hospitality, so it should be a fun get-together.
Of more interest to me is the three-day track event being held at Palm Beach Raceway later that month. This looks like a gathering to consider flying out for: it is key to the purpose of Targa Sixty Six, and the race driver brotherhood that revolves around Brian’s Florida weekends. Last year’s Saturday night speaker was David Hobbs, a friend of my in-laws (all the kids grew up together). David brought Derek Bell and Vic Elford along with him for the evening: a nice little surprise for the attendees. At $1500 for the three days in 2009, it sounds like a good craic-to-cash ratio.
Brian Redman in the 908 during the 1970 Targa Florio
Brian started Targa Sixty Six in 1991. The idea was to open up racetracks to owners of high modern and classic cars who don’t necessarily want to race them, but who like to drive at speed under controlled conditions, in the company of like-minded others. A big boys’ toys track day club, quite ahead of its time when you think about it.
Targa Sixty-Six’s website gives the programme for each track event like this:
Three days of track use. Normal schedule is 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. (Members can expect to have 6-8 hours of track time each weekend-more if they feel up to it!)
Lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the track. Saturday semi-formal (jacket and tie) evening dinner. Driving instruction, if desired, is available from Brian or one of the other “pro’s” in attendance.
There is often a guest speaker/instructor. Past masters include: Bob Akin, Mr Hobbs, Hurley Haywood, Juan Manuel Fangio II, David Piper, Bill Adam, David E.Davis and Sir Stirling Moss.
Cars on track (split over three categories by speed) have included Ferrari Daytonas and 275 GTCs, Porsche 962s and 917s, D-Type Jags, name a Chevron or a Lola and it’s been there, as well as Indy cars and every half decent classic and modern sportscar you can think of. Sounds like a party to me, right when the UK is at its winter gloomiest!
Brian Redman with Steve McQueen, sharing racing film visions
You can grab more details at gorace.com, or see the blog at www.gorace.blogspot.com/. The pics for this post come from Brian’s site – I have used them to remind you all that this is a HARDCORE Porsche racing fraternity! One day all the oil will be gone, all the tracks will be closed thanks to noise limits and NIMBY neighbours, so get out there and go have fun, while you still can!
Thanks to James for the heads up, and here’s to two great events for Porsche enthusiasts in February 2011. Cheers!
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