No doubt you’ve all seen plenty of cut-and-paste Porsche press releases on various websites about the 991. The new 911 is currently being driven by journalists and is bound to be well received. Pic tweeted by Chas Hallett from the Porsche museum media launch:
My main interest is the seven-speed manual transmission. Being a child of the four speed era, I struggle with six speeds, so seven should be suitably hilarious. Another Chas pic: no, he’s not a photographer, he’s the big boss editor of What Car.
New Porsche 911 991 Launched
Manufacturers fit multi-speed transmissions to lower emissions. The better matched each gear is to road speed, the less fuel you burn. Combine that with the stop-start technology fitted to the 991, and you get the lowest emissions yet seen on a Porsche sports car: 194 g/km. Panamera Hybrid makes 159 g/km, so the Porsche 911 emissions still have a way to go, but it’s reasonable progress.
194 g/km is the same as the Lexus IS 250 and the Saab 93 2.0T. From a 3.4-litre 911. That’s lower than a BMW 335 and is easily lower than my ancient 911 or any of my other cars: factory numbers for both the ’02 Subaru Legacy Outback and my ’96 E36 M3 are both knocking on the door of 230 g/km. Legacy a little lower as I run it on LPG. Landcruiser is diesel, so a different kettle of fish, but God only knows what an early ’90s 4.2-litre turbo diesel manual throws out.
Fuel economy is unlikely to be a focal point in new 911 road tests, but it fascinates me. I managed almost 38 mpg from the Carrera 4S I took to Essen in May of this year, so if the new Carrera can top 40 mpg in sensible use, that’ll be quite a thing. Perhaps I could have seen 40 in a C2 to Essen: I’m sure colleagues have reported mid-40s on C2 economy drives in the past. Who knows – maybe I could wring the new one out to 50.
Fantasy land and not the point of the car I agree, but efficiency brings benefits across the platform. Lighter weight with lower emissions mean you can carry less fuel to go the same distance. Less energy is wasted controlling more mass through tyres and suspension, which makes the car more dynamic. No future 911 will ever leap back to the 1100-kilogram air-cooled benchmark, but the 45 kilos saved by the aluminium body versus the old one will make a difference to how it performs, and how much energy it needs to make you feel alive.
Here’s some nice 911 video in German. I like German videos: no understandable marketing speak.
A great orange RSR hillclimbing video has been doing the rounds of the ad-packed ‘German Car Scene’ blogs lately. It shows the Porsche 911 of Swiss hillclimb driver, Willi Jenni, competing on a number of national championship rounds. This is it:
My orange 911 Carrera 3.0 came from Switzerland, and was maintained out there by former Swiss hillclimb champion, Alain Pfefferle, who won the title in a Porsche 935. Here’s Alain driving Bergrennen Oberhallau 2010 in the car: note this is a real one!
Also note just how tidy these boys are on track: there’s very little opposite lock. Sideways might look fun, but tyres hooked up and pushing the car forwards is the fastest way to go.
Oberhallau 2011 will be held at the end of this month: 27/28 August. You can follow live web timings on the Bergrennen Oberhallau website here. I’m going to have to get myself to one of these events one day: they look absolutely superb.
No matter how many horror stories you hear about the Swiss speed camera obsession, Switzerland is a great place to go mountain climbing in a 911. The drive that little brother Sammy and I enjoyed at the start of the 2010 Bergmeister Tour was absolutely unforgettable. The fact that it was totally illegal might have had something to do with it, but who can tell with hindsight?!
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!
Porsche’s coverage of Walter Rohrl Rally Porsche on Targa Tasmania has started with two videos: a quick report from the start line, and a stage-by-stage account of how the contenders are playing themselves in.
Targa regulars Rex Broadbent and Jim Richards, both multiple winners in Porsche cars, finished the first day 7th and 8th in their respective categories. Former World Champion, Walter Röhrl and co-driver Christian Geistdorfer finished joint 4th in their 911 SC. The videos show two old friends on a proper road trip in a wicked 911 – just too cool.
Walter Rohrl Rally Porsche on Targa Tasmania
It’s great to see Walter rekindling his relationship with this classic 911 on a rally event, and not on some half-arsed marketing exercise to the end of the road in Austria. Targa Taz is worthy of such a huge effort from everyone at Porsche and the guys at the Porsche Museum. I hope it stays this positive for the best part of the next week.
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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