by John Glynn | Apr 28, 2012 | Porsche News
Spotted this 991 Carrera with a duck tail on the Porsche stand at Essen. I was not entirely mesmerised by Porsche’s stand at this year’s Essen Techno Classica. Previous stands felt better as the heart of the action in Hall 3 with the rest of the Porsche World, rather than in amongst the VW-Audi Group offerings.
There were some nice Porsche cars on the stand, but all felt lonely surrounded by unrelated product. Maybe that’s just me. One thing I did like was this 991 Coupe with the duck tail spoiler: seemed to work well on the new shape 911.
The Porsche sales guys present couldn’t tell me much about the ducktail, apart from it would form part of an options pack. There was no information on said options pack, though they thought it might cost around €4,000 for the front and rear bumpers and this ducktail.
Fit and finish was perfect so I presume this was not a prototype – the plastic looked very productionised. The Porsche folks couldn’t tell me if it was factory fit, so maybe your dealer will have to paint it for a cost on top of that. You can see from the pics that it is static: the flap above opens up to check oil and – yes – water. Not much else to see, really.
The front end looks good and I like those wheels, but wonder how it would look with 19″ or 20″ Fuchs instead. Those wheels are coming: keep in touch with UK Fuchs dealers for more info on the bigger Fuchs.
by John Glynn | Apr 24, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
My growing car collection just went up a notch, as new Ferdinand Magazine bought its first Porsche project.
The new addition is a 924 Turbo: a Series One car from the late 1970s, in Silver. It’s LHD (of course) and has a non-sunroof shell. Condition is reportedly very solid, but I’ve not seen it yet so will advise when it arrives with me, later today. The seller knows his Turbos and says this is the fastest one he’s ever had. Count on some test drive video! I’ve been looking for a good 924 Turbo for ages, so I really hope this is as sweet as it sounds.
The odometer is showing very low kilometres, which may or may not be genuine. There is absolutely no paperwork with the car, so a detective hunt lies ahead. It still carries its Italian registration: tracing that back should be interesting. Completely unconnected, I just started Italian lessons but have enough Italian Porsche friends to help me with the digging.
Plans for the car: it is seriously tempting to make this a Carrera GT replica. I’ve always loved 924 Carrera GTs and a silver one would sit well in the garage with the Orange 911 and my M3 saloon. I’m having the car delivered to Racing Restorations UK in Pershore, where Rob Campbell will give it a good going over. Rob has just finished tidying up the M3 – chopping out some rot in the sills and overhauling the suspension and underside – so the 924 will drop into that space.
Whatever about the Carrera GT plan, I know I have a gearbox fault to fix on this 924 first, so the spare transmission I bought with the car will be stripped later this week to check it out before swapping it into the newbie. Once the car is MOT’d, we’ll decide what to do for the future.
I know you will now ask me: what’s happening with the 944 Kombi/Estate project? The donor car we bought and paid for turned into a bit of a nightmare, with the seller initially agreeing to store it for a while, but then moving it and refusing to tell us where we could pick it up! Buying through eBay with Amex was a sensible move. We are back on the hunt for a donor: I still have my 86k-mile 1983 944 Lux stashed away, but I think that’s a bit too nice to chop up.
More updates later: follow Ferdinand Magazine on Facebook to get the news first.
by John Glynn | Apr 21, 2012 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Reading Porsche’s press release from the first round of the 2012 Supercup, it’s tempting to think “procession”: a race led from start to finish, with a follow-me-home podium. In-car shots of winner René Rast en route to victory might help that impression, but footage screened on Eurosport from the on-car cameras tells a different story.
Starting from the clean side of the track, pole man Norbert Siedler lost out to Rast when the lights went out: the canny two-time champion held the line from his dusty grid slot to the first corner turn-in, sticking his 911’s nose ahead of Norbert (below).
Siedler stayed close, punting Rast up the rear at one stage, but René was inch-perfect with track position, leaving no open doors. As Siedler’s tyres howled protest as early as lap two, Britain’s Sean Edwards stuck it up Siedler’s inside and kept his tyres together, eventually finishing P2: two and a half seconds behind René.
Tyre management was the story of this ten-lap torture. Track temps for the Formula 1 qualifying were in the mid-40s, so the Supercup Michelins were worked hard from the start. The F1 teams are all complaining of heavy tyre degradation here, and TV pictures show chunks of rubber being flung from front tyres at various parts of the track. Five laps in, the Porsches were sliding all over the shop, clearly demonstrated by the rear-facing cameras of cars out in front.
The differing fall-off in tyre performance led to some great battles down the field. Christian Engelhart and Michael Ammermüller (above) had a terrific scrap over fourth: Ammermüller’s rookie energy urging him on. Michael’s eventual move on Christian into tricky turn ten took some balls. Up front, Edwards showed style to stick with the winner. It’s early doors yet, but a smart man into his 911s might stick a few quid on Sean for the title.
Race two is tomorrow, with plenty mixed-up grid positions. The race will be shown on Eurosport and Sky around 11 AM. If I find race one online, I’ll share the link.
by John Glynn | Apr 21, 2012 | Race and Rally, Road Trips
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.
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![BBC Radio 4 interview on Ferdinand Porsche airs today]()
by John Glynn | Apr 13, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche People
The interview I recorded in London with BBC Radio 4 airs today at 16:00 hrs UK time.
The piece will appear on Last Word: Radio 4’s obituary show. I think the session went well, but you never know how these things will turn out in the edit. I’m hoping it will come across as interesting, and in honour of the third generation of Porsche car designers: we’ll have to see.
The whole thing was recorded in The Orange: my Carrera 3.0 Coupe. I drove the orange 911 down to London, picked up producer Jane Little and we took a drive around the West End. Tootling around a city centre is not where Orange is happiest, but there were a coupe of spots where it could stretch its legs a bit in second gear. Made both of us laugh.
Jane was quite surprised by the 911’s turn of speed in stripped out guise, with the reduced final drive ratio that Orange runs. The view through that big screen from the low seating position on my car, built to sprint up Swiss Alpine passes, emphasised the amount of glass Ferdinand set into the slim pillars: 60% more glass than the 356. As I say, there were some thrilling turns of speed and Jane asked some interesting questions, so I think it was a fun few hours. Hopefully that will come across on air.
However it turns out, I’m glad to have been asked to contribute by the BBC. I’m sure it will make a reasonable podcast, too. You can hear it at 4pm today and repeated at 8.30 PM on Sunday night. It’ll be on iPlayer once the Friday show has run. Here’s the link to the show again.
