I need this in my life. It’s a Porsche 917 Laser kit car, currently for sale on Los Angeles Craigslist.
Not sure I agree about ownership, but it is an intriguing piece of Porsche-derived kitsch. This one looks pretty straight, with the right wheels, apparently good fit and finish and an engine that’s clearly had some money spent. Plus that silver metalflake. The owner says:
The body is all original and free of cracks or damage,original paint. Interior has new carpet, newly upholstered seats and new racing harness. Italian suede quick release steering wheel. It has a custom tubular subframe that makes the car very solid.
Besides the fiberglass shell everything is new. New suspension with KYB shocks, bigger torsion bars, new bushings, new axles and control arms.
The engine is a 2 liter turbocharged VW flat 4 producing close to 300hp. Garrett turbo charger. It has 2 dual barrel weber carbs, new fuel pump, starter, alternator. Engine has 60 miles on it, everything is new, from mahle pistons to heads and empi valve covers. Custom headers, new oil cooler with electrical fan etc.
The transmission is a brand new 4 speed heavy duty unit with a new stage 3 hydraulic clutch and lightened flywheel. New brakes, new rotors, brakemaster cylinder. Wheels professionally powder coated flat black, brand new Mickey Thompson high performance tires.
This car was built to perform. Well over 20k was spent to create the car. Fully street legal with all the lights and horn working properly. Car runs and drives perfect its a blast to drive. Asking 16500$ for this truly unique car.
If you wanted to have a bit of fun, this could be the thing. Just as traffic light folks start pointing jolly fingers, you drop the clutch and obliterate them. Only downside for some people might be getting out of it in public. It’s not entirely Cult of Porsche – a beach buggy version would definitely be – but what a perfect car for a Friday blog.
There’s some great video on Youtube that’s perfect for office lunchbreaks. I know many work servers block the Youtube domain in a browser address bar, so hopefully you’ll be able to watch it as embedded on here, or maybe watch it on your iPhone. My blogs all have an iPhone-friendly mobile theme that should works well on every mobile device.
The 2012 Le Mans 24-Hour race is less than a month away (16-17 June). There will of course be Porsches racing, but let’s look back 31 years, to the 1981 Le Mans as seen in this entertaining, if slightly over-narrated video.
For 1981, four-time Le Mans winner, Jacky Ickx, came out of retirement to drive the 936 with Derek Bell (follow DB on Twitter here). Fitted with the new 2650cc endurance engine derived from Porsche’s Indianapolis design, chassis number 003 used the same air- and water-cooled 930-derived motor as its predecessors, with two turbos. The slippery 936 could hit 225 miles per hour, giving it proper speed.
In the race, number 11 took the lead from the start and won with a 14-lap advantage. Considering its pole lap was just under three and a half minutes long, that’s almost an hour ahead of the rest (okay, that’s man maths but let’s round the numbers up). The race ran for just short of 5,000 kilometres.
Also in the field was the 924 Carrera of the Almeras brothers, and Jurgen Barth/Walter Röhrl in the 944 LM. Some fascinating Porsches racing that year!
Don’t forget to follow Ferdinand Magazine to keep up with old and new Porsche news. I am now splitting stories between both sites, so not all Ferdinand stuff will be shared here and some of it will certainly be of interest to Classic Porsche Blog fans.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
As per my Porsche Supercup in Bahrain post, I attended last year’s Nürburgring 24-hour with Falken Tyres and their Porsche 911 GT3 R. It was a great event from start to finish, so I’m delighted that Falken Tyres Europe is supporting new Ferdinand magazine by taking us out there again.
Last year was fun, resulting in a decent Total 911 article and much blog coverage. This year we’re hoping to go more in depth, and blog some unique live coverage while on site.
The 2012 Falken drivers are as last year: Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler, Le Mans hero Peter Dumbreck and Porsche Junior, Martin Ragginger. All are quick and all want to win. The car has also been developed since last year and is even more competitive. It led the field at the opening VLN round before breaking a driveshaft: that part has been uprated as the team chase after reliability.
As for how we’re getting there, Flybe properly messed me around last year so I ended up taking the orange 911 Carrera (below, on site). I’m hoping to have that in with Racing Restorations for its strip down and refresh by the N24, so it’s time to service the Subaru and get it stickered up with the new Ferdinand artwork.
Here’s some video from the Falken Tyres Youtube Channel to show the action we’re expecting. This is top man Peter Dumbreck starting VLN from the lead: love the view of the rest of the field in the rear view GoPro.
At the heart of the N24 weekend is Porsche’s passion to race. Though it trails in the American Le Mans series, Porsche always goes well in the N24, so it’s a thrill to know we’ll be back there again.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
Flicking through the latest on Porsche’s Newscast app in bed this morning, I found this 911 video. It features a 991 Cabriolet in white with red top: I would find the right names for both these things but the Porsche car configurator is crashed at the minute on both sides of the pond. Blame me.
As ever, the copywriter seems to have taken inspiration from an ’80s actualize-your-ultimate-potential self-help manual (“and naturally, it’s about dreams: immensely precious dreams”), but the car and the photography are just beautiful. I don’t think I’d change a thing before ordering this.
You can’t beat a nicely shot Porsche 911 video!
edit March 6, 2012: Had an email last night from a video mate. “That 911 cab vid on your blog is terrible pretentious clinical fluff. Don’t condone it!” I guess I am sentimentally attached to 911 Cabriolets – can I help my bad taste?!
Porsche shared a link to nice little video today, featuring Klaus Bischof and the cars of the Rolling Museum at the Philip Island Classic. Bischof talks about 935/78 “Moby Dick”: the longtail 935 that won the 1978 Silverstone 6 Hours by a masterful seven laps, and went on to reach 235 mph on the straight at Le Mans.
“Moby Dick was just to show the technique of turbocharging,” says Klaus. “You need a lot of fuel in this car: I was a mechanic with Moby Dick and we had to refuel every 35 minutes, so for preparing and running at Le Mans you can’t sit down! But it’s a fantastic car and shows what you can do with a 911.”
Porsche celebrated 60 years in Australia by bringing some very special vehicles from the company’s museum in Stuttgart, Germany: a 1987 962, Moby Dick and the Carrera GT you see in the background here. Moby was also at Rennsport later in the year.
Eight-time Bathurst winner and all-round legend Jim Richards was patron of the Queensland meeting. As well as treating competition winners to rides in his new GT2 RS, Jim was given permission for takeoff in Moby Dick for a few laps around the track. “I won’t give it a hard time,” says Jim to Klaus, the old mechanic replying to take it out and give it the beans: i.e. 820 horsepower (some 935s had 845 hp on tap!).
The final edit doesn’t show the pace seen in some period footage, but you can’t blame Jim for taking it steady. As Klaus says: “there is only one real Moby Dick: all the others are replicas.” Wouldn’t look good on the CV to be remembered as the guy that harpooned Moby.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
