by John Glynn | Jun 30, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
Things are absolutely flat out here, as I try to get two US features and a pair of magazine columns done, before readying my Orange 911 Carrera 3.0 for the 2010 RGruppe Bergmeister Tour, and our subsequent trip to Classic Le Mans; back to our beautiful gîte in Dissay-sous-Courcillon.
The Dutch posse leaves Amsterdam at 07:30, heading for Belgium. The original idea was for the latecoming members of UK RGruppe (i.e. me and Hamish) to hook up with the German and Dutch cars (and the US IROC car which has been shipped in especially) somewhere south of Brussels at around 09:30, but that would mean getting an 05:30 train, so my leaving home before 3am.
Little brother gets in to Brum from Dublin at 8pm the previous night so, between getting the car done all day Friday and the Saturday night arrival in Geneva, I was staring down a double-barreled all-nighter. Not impossible with two drivers, but not much fun for either.
I considered missing the convoy and going straight to Geneva from Brittany Ferries’ Portsmouth to Caen route, which is actually quite a bit shorter, but a: it was booked solid and b: it kind of felt like cheating. I also considered an 11pm Chunnel crossing, driving to a hotel south of Brussels and getting 5 hours’ sleep before the Dutchies arrived, but that didn’t feel quite right: the tunnel is quick, but it’s a romance-free zone!
Then the thought occurred: what about sailing to the Netherlands overnight? Take a leisurely drive from Birmingham Airport to Harwich, slip onto Stena Line’s midnight boat to the Hook of Holland, which would get us into Rotterdam at around 08.30 CET as close to the tour start as possible, fully relaxed and rested. I ran the idea past Chaptermeister Stolk and he liked it too.
So that’s the plan. Pick up little bro, head to Harwich, put the Orange in the safe hands of Stena Line while we head upstairs, have a bit of dinner and chill out. We’ll then squeeze in some zeds in comfortable beds, before kicking off the 2010 Bergmeister Tour with enough energy to really get the most from the drive south to Thonon-les-Bains, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Day two brings us to Briancon. Day three then takes us to Monaco, where Bergmeister Base Camp will be established at the Novotel in the old town. From there, our ten classic Porsches will spend three days running along some classic Monte Carlo routes and also the the famous Mediterranean Corniches: those unbearably photogenic roads, carved into the mountains where they meet the glistening sea. James Bond: eat your heart out! I’m looking forward to more France Porsche pictures like this:
Don’t miss the story of this sure-to-be magnificent event. Follow it here on The Classic Porsche Blog and on The Classic Porsche Blog Twitter feed.
by John Glynn | Jun 2, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
911 & Porsche World magazine have used our Steve McQueen 930 shoot at Laguna Seca on both their subscriber cover and UK news stand cover this month: we’ll wait to see if it makes the news stand cover in the US also. You can see the retail cover here, as well as reading our article (also in this month’s Porsche World) about the two almost-identical 911SC coupes, ten grand and 100,000 miles apart: a piece called “Project versus Perfect”.
It’s always a buzz to get a Porsche World cover, and a special buzz to get both retail and subscriber editions. Great photography as always by the marvellous Jamie Lipman, but a very special car too. The 930 was McQueen’s last 911 and now belongs to Mike Regalia, who bought and restored Steve’s famous Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, which sold at auction for a cool $2.31 million a few years back.
We shot the McQueen car during an SCCA meet at Laguna Seca. Organising the shoot is a long story – one for a book more than a blog – but it ended up with smiles all around. The moral is: if you ever go looking for Laguna Seca, you won’t find it unless you know the secret. Quite a shock how well hidden it is if you have been a lifelong fan of the place and just want to get in to have a look! There were some lovely people organising that event too: go SCCA!
I gotta give a special mention to my great buddy John Gray for keeping my positivity going on the last US trip. When three cars cancelled the week before we flew, we were all set to pull the plug until Gray gave me the news that the 930 had surfaced. Big thumbs up JG as, without your encouragement, we might have stayed home.
Sometimes I can’t believe we find such great cars to shoot – I dunno how it happens but that’s all part of the fun! Roll on the next trip.
by John Glynn | May 19, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
My upcoming track day at Spa on June 7th still has a few spaces available. The event is in association with RSR Nurburg: we currently have 33 early 911s set to come on track, in a field of 55 cars. We are aiming to run 65 cars, which compares very favourably to the normal 90-100 cars other companies book in.
Spa is the greatest racetrack in Europe and perhaps even the world. Who knows how much longer it will be available to us? Now is the time to experience it for yourself. Don’t wait until next year: next year never comes!
The day costs €300 and is an open pit lane event. This means you can come and go as you please, and completely at your own pace.
Porsches are made for tracks and track days: after all, the track is where the factory developed them. These superb cars are well capable of driving down to Belgium, doing the day and coming back home again.The road trip will be a large part of the fun.
Even if you’ve never done a track day before, Spa is the perfect debut track. It’s a modern GP circuit, with all the safety and space (run-off provisions etc) needed to make that grade. As long as you keep your head, you really are in no danger at this wonderful sports car amphitheatre.
Get in touch ASAP if you want to take part in this event. You won’t regret it!
by John Glynn | May 17, 2010 | Market & Prices, Project Cars
Things are crazy around here at the minute. Millions of words to write since landing back in the UK post California, trying to tidy up loose ends on my day job so I can leave with a clear conscience, and also trying to get moving on clearing out some of my projects. I figure it’d be better to put some cash back into the house at the minute and get my extension going. Realistically, that leaves little time for projects.
First one advertised is my 911 T on eBay here. (edit 19/04: the Buy It Now has just been pressed after I took the price down to £10,750 – it is sold).
The car is a non-sunroof ’71, originally from California. A few years back, it sold to a guy up in Canada who wanted to build an RS replica. He spent a lot of money on the body: new sills, RS arches, hours spent on prep for paint and a decent enough job on the finish, in lovely Gemini Blue.
The engine is a 2.2E motor which we were told was recently rebuilt with S pistons and cams. It runs MFI. It came on a pallet and was just bolted in for transport so I have never fired it up: lack of time really. My plan was to buy a past-it SC targa in less than pristine condition out in California and drop all the running gear into this. I hasd planned a rally interior with a cage and all nicely trimmed. I seriously am never going to have time to get stuck into this so it has to go.
I’ve put it on at €12500, which is £11,000. It would cost more to buy an average LHD T, sort a non-sunroof roof out and then do the body and paint it all. I think it’s priced right but we’ll see. The pics are a bit crap (dusty dash and loose headlining) as I didn’t even clean it after I picked it up, just put it straight into storage. If it doesn’t arouse some interest, I’ll bring it home, give it a clean, do some reassembly and put it back on a bit higher.
Failing that I’ll advertise the Orange. £30K would see my 1976 Carrera 3.0 Coupe off to pastures new: Australia maybe. They love 911 Carrera 3.0 coupes down there and mine has some nice light bits following a full bare metal resto. I think it’s old enough now that the LHD doesn’t matter. I have lots to move on, lots and lots. Busy busy busy!
by John Glynn | May 9, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
Just back from another Porsche features trip to Northern California, with ace photographer Jamie Lipman.
As ever, the visit was a blast. Flying in to San Francisco on Wednesday, we stayed with good friends that night, before heading to Monterey for RGruppe Treffen on the Thursday. Mrs Glynn reckons she was worried about us on the first night, as I texted this: “Arrived safe. Picked up hire car. Crashed at H’s place.”, which she took to mean we had wrecked the rental. Not so.
Thursday evening was fun, with dinner at the very cool Baja Cantina, where we hooked up with Porsche buddies for all the news on what they’d been up to since last year. Our first car park search found a very nice ST rep with an ex-Seinfeld engine in it, which we shot the following day: fabulous car.
Friday was all about making new friends. We met some great guys for lunch and then spent the afternoon waiting for our ST. When that arrived, we shot it right by the sea, in windy but wonderful conditions. Friday night was a hella overpriced meal at John Pisto’s Whaling Station: the ponciest restaurant I have ever been in. The calamari starter was excellent, and great value at $9, but was not worth the rest of the seahorse-shite sales pitch that was foisted upon us by an unbearably pompous waiter. I still cringe at the memory of it. Service was goddawful and I pitied the bus boy who was a nice guy, shouldering the weight of morons. Don’t bother with it if you are ever down in Monterey! $520 later, we had learned our lesson.
Saturday was good fun. We were out the door at 5am, to shoot Alex Motola’s brand new Fraise ST, built by TRE in Los Angeles. The shoot went well, with the dawn light really playing ball. Jamie and I followed our successful early start with breakfast and pancakes at a great nearby cafe before heading out to Laguna Seca, to recce locations for another shoot that afternoon.
The shoot was on Steve McQueen’s very own 1976 930, in special order Slate Grey. The SCCA guys running Laguna that weekend couldn’t have been nicer to us, and we found some great locations in and around the track. We’ll be back for sure.
On Sunday, we shot some tracking on another 911 before leaving the coast in a friend’s incredible 3.6-engined early car. This is quite probably the greatest all-rounder of its kind anywhere, and the miles north were a real delight. Jamie has some really great pictures ready to go to print.
Monday afternoon was spent scouting San Francisco for locations on a Bullitt-style shoot we had pencilled in for the following day. Good fun being tourists: packing in some ‘Cable Car’ pizza, hitting the visitor hotspots and ending up eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at Haight Ashbury. It was a great day in the city we had both seen so much of on screen. Calling a potential feature on the way home was entertaining – never been hung up on so quickly.
Tuesday we dropped in to see Chris at the Blackhawk Collection. Chris is a great guy working in a great place, but more of that later. We were there to make arrangements for a piece we were doing a few days after. All thumbs up so we headed off to do our ’67 S shoot in the hills of San Francisco. It was fantastic.
Wednesday was a trip to Emeryville to see a 914 for sale, then a ride through Oakland before lunch at a great little cafe in Albany – The Four Corners. We then headed up to Novato, and shot a turbocharged 1975 911 S. Sweet car.
On Thursday we did the wickedest classic Porsche at Blackhawk before heading out to see a plane for sale in Brentwood. Turned out the seller was a good friend of the Hemi Cuda owner we shot on our last trip in September 2009. The piece has just appeared in Classic Cars magazine and it looks very good.
Friday was our last day. We visited our friends at Canepa to shoot their original little 911 L rally car, then came back up to say goodbye to all at WEVO, before jumping on a plane and arriving back in the UK next day. In the rain.
The pics here are from Friday. The transporter was taking a wicked Cobra away. He’d come all the way from Toronto and was originally from Walthamstow!
There you have it: 9 days in the USA and every one a winner. Where to next?!
