by John Glynn | Feb 4, 2015 | New Models, Porsche News
Porsche has finally released official details of its brand new GT4 Cayman. The car is expected to race.
Powered by a 3.8-litre flat-six engine derived from the 911 Carrera S, the GT4’s 385 bhp is sent through a six-speed manual gearbox with dynamic gearbox mounts. Cayman GT4 goes from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, and on to just under 300 km/h.
The new Porsche Cayman GT4 shares some components with the 911 GT3. This is nothing super new, as GT3 parts are commonly used in upgrading Caymans: brake master cylinders and so on. But this car goes further, apparently using GT3 parts throughout the chassis. Some will be obvious from the photos, but more details to follow.
New Porsche Cayman GT4 Track Day/Race Mode
Outside, the GT4 majors in race mode. Three large intakes at the front and a sizeable rear wing point to downforce. The aerodynamic package is one part of a track-focused options list that includes ceramic brakes, carbon seats, custom Sport Chrono and a Club Sport package.
The Cayman GT4 premieres at Geneva in March, and can be ordered now for delivery by the end of March. Basic list price in Germany is about €86,000 (which is £65,000, or just under $100,000 according to fxtop.com).
by John Glynn | Jan 26, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
The first time I visited my friend Jonas Zambakides at JZM Porsche, I had just come from Autofarm. “How’s Josh?” asked Jonas. “He’s talking about selling the business,” I said. “He’s been saying that since I met him twenty years ago,” laughed Jonas. I could not disagree.
Autofarm is not too far from Ferdinand Towers, so I get down there every so often. On my last visit, a deal to buy the business was in progress – chatting with the buyers was interesting and the contracts have now been exchanged. Porsche 911 RS Carrera guru, Josh Sadler, has sold his Autofarm business to long-time employees: Mikey Wastie and Steve Wood.
Autofarm under New Management
It’s hard to imagine Autofarm without Sadler’s extensive understanding of the 2.7 RS close at hand. Originally founded at the same time as the RS was released, Sadler’s Autofarm became synonymous with the passage of RS Carreras from old homes to new. His famous little black book has more chassis numbers than a Porsche Museum catalogue, and it seems Sadler is not finished collecting them yet.
The new owners have split the business responsibilities, with Mikey running engines, projects and restoration, while former Carrera cup pilot and keen racer Steve will manage the service and storage sides. Sadler stays on in a heritage capacity: there is no better word to describe his core skills in the business of Porsche.
“Stepping back from the day-to-day running allows me to focus on car sales and heritage. As 911 values have risen, provenance has become increasingly important and investors are seeking perfect, correct specification cars. With Autofarm’s expertise and history, we can really help customers,” says Josh.
I don’t claim to know anything about the Carrera RS, but I’ve spent a great deal of time with RS people. Some supposed experts were all smoke and mirrors, and some who I assumed would be largely nonplussed on the subject of Carrera RS and early Porsche race cars like the ST or T/R knew much more than they thought. No doubt Sadler can comfortably hold his own in any RS discussion: I’m glad he will still be around.
Despite his annoyingly youthful appearance, Mikey Wastie’s served a valuable apprenticeship under Sadler, so is not short on knowledge. The company has managed some interesting restoration projects over the last few years, and the new owners will open the doors slightly wider, to bring in a few more modern Porsches. Autofarm will have quite a different flavour with new hands on the tiller: I’m excited for the business – it might need a bigger car park.
by John Glynn | Jan 25, 2015 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Tuthill Porsche celebrates tonight, following victory in the world-famous Monte Carlo Rally. Driving a Tuthill Porsche 911 in the R-GT category, François Delecour finished almost three minutes ahead of his rival, Romain Dumas, to win the opening round of the R-GT Cup.
“We’ve won rallies in Porsche 911s on every continent, but no rally means more to Porsche fans than Monte Carlo, site of so many classic moments in Porsche history,” said delighted team boss, Richard Tuthill. “To win on this event with the great François Delecour is extremely special: something we will always remember.
Having spent days with the Tuthill crew and most of the weekend keeping tabs on events in Monte Carlo via every available social channel, I know how hard the team worked for this win. Rallying may look like a rock-up-and-ponce-around event, but nothing could be further from the truth. The conditions were deadly: one false move from Delecour or one mechanical failure would have killed the whole effort. Victory in a heavier car with less power than the 4-litre RS of Romain Dumas, a more than worthy adversary, is an excellent achievement.
“An overall Porsche win is no longer possible in the modern World Rally Championship, but we treasure this win just as much,” Richard told me. “Fighting equally committed competitors in capable cars right to the finish was incredible. This year’s Monte Carlo Rally showed just how exciting R-GT rallying can be with more cars taking part.
Delecour in Tuthill Porsche wins Monte Carlo
François Delecour and co-driver Dominique Savignoni set quick times from the start of the 2015 Monte Carlo Rally, building a lead of more than three minutes as they entered the fourth and last day’s rallying. Over the final three stages, including the treacherous Col de Turini, Delecour shrugged off extreme pressure before sealing a memorable victory: the first Monte Carlo Porsche win since 1978.
“This rally has been a huge challenge,” said François. “Snow and ice on the twisty mountain roads makes a great test for the driver! The final day of managing the gap to Dumas while driving quickly to keep concentration was not easy: I am just so happy now! We will celebrate tonight with family and friends, and this amazing team of Tuthill Porsche.”
The Monte Carlo win puts Tuthill Porsche and Delecour on top of the 2015 R-GT Cup: a five-round FIA championship for R-GT cars. The next R-GT round is the Geko Ypres Rally in June, which Tuthill Porsche has previously won in historics, as part of a victorious Belgian championship campaign.
“Ypres is a mega event,” says Richard Tuthill. “Starting with a Monte Carlo win in our pocket, a wonderful car that the fans absolutely adore and this incredible driver and co-driver pairing will be a dream come true. R-GT rallying is a brilliant experience: we want to see more drivers signing up for 2015, hopefully using Tuthill Porsche 911s!”
Photos by McKlein Photography
by John Glynn | Jan 24, 2015 | Race and Rally
Much-loved Porsche maniac, French rally legend François Delecour, is currently leading the R-GT category of the 2015 Monte Carlo Rally. The event reached its mid-way point this evening, at which point Delecour’s 3.8-litre ex-GT3 Cup car was two and a half minutes ahead of compatriot and Porsche works driver, Romain Dumas in a GT3 RS 4.0.
Romain is doing a superb job in the 4-litre, matching Delecour’s pace to the second in some split sections on his first-ever Monte and setting faster times in a couple of stages. But Delecour is driving like a man possessed, because he is a man possessed: by a passion for this course. His previous Monte Carlo rallies don’t count for a great deal of pace, as the stages are brand new for everyone. It’s a very careful game of power versus know-how.
The rally kicked off last night (Thursday), with two long stages over a deadly ice-into-snow-into-dry-tarmac-into-ice surface. Everyone was running studded tyres: the only option in these freezing conditions, high in the mountains around the ski resort of Gap. Making his return to the WRC was fellow Porsche fancier and nine-time world champion, Sebastien Loeb, driving a one-off event for Citröen.
Reigning world champion, Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier, went first into the snow, setting a quick time right from the off. The WRC Live service streamed perfect TV pictures of the unfolding stage from Ogier’s front bumper, which were studied very closely. I was texting info back to the Tuthill service tent and maybe Loeb (below) was watching too, as he went out and set a time half a minute quicker than Ogier on the thirteen-mile section. The online rally world went nuts – such a great start to the Monte.
Three R-GT cars are running in this year’s Monte Carlo Rally: all of them Porsches. Delecour and Dumas are racing against Belgium’s Marc Duez in a 996 GT3 built to R-GT rules. Duez set an opening time of 20:38.0 over the stage. Dumas went 20:24.6: roughly 14 seconds quicker than Duez. Delecour went out with the bit between his teeth, setting a time of 19:01.2 – a full minute and 23 seconds faster than the 4-litre.
Stage 2 was another 20 kms. Delecour 16:56. Dumas 17:06, so another ten seconds chipped. Stage three took place early this morning (Friday) in thick fog and sheet ice. Delecour was eight seconds slower than Dumas, but went 17 seconds faster on the following stage.
On it went until the day’s final trial. This stage was a killer, with three top guys (Meeke, Loeb and Kubica) coming off heavily and ripping huge chunks off their cars. Delecour took it steady, finishing ten seconds slower then Romain, but with a lead now stretched to 2m30s. He was joyous on WRC Radio.
“It’s fantastic to drive a Porsche in Monte Carlo: it’s a dream,” he enthused. “When I was a little boy, I watched Waldegård and Nicolas, winning Monte Carlo in 911s, so today it is a dream for me to drive this car on this rally.
“Things now are more complicated than in the past, because we have to run these large tread tyres, which makes it very difficult to keep the car on the road in tricky conditions. But for now we are happy and will keep pushing hard.”
Pushing hard included losing his rear window and a brake line on Stage 5 (above), where he still went thirty-five seconds quicker over the course, with much-diminished rear brakes. The team changed the brake line and the rear discs and pads, and sent their young charger on his way.
“Our aim for this rally was a strong start to our R-GT Cup campaign,” says team boss, Richard Tuthill. “Everyone in the Tuthill Porsche workshop has worked tirelessly since the car’s last WRC outing on Rallye de France-Alsace, making changes required by the FIA and a few more based on driver feedback.
“François has also worked hard. His commercial efforts brought in a major new sponsor, and he’s maintained a high level of personal fitness through the winter. What we’ve seen in the last two days of rallying is a product of all that commitment.”
The 2015 Monte Carlo continues with four tricky stages on Saturday – including the two longest stages in the rally at 51 km and 36 km respectively – before finishing in the mountains above Monaco on Sunday afternoon. Follow the latest news and stage times on www.wrc.com or via @Tuthill_Porsche on Twitter.
Featured Photo Credit: Colin McMaster for McKlein Image Database
by John Glynn | Jan 21, 2015 | Porsche Cayenne, Porsche News
Missing my Cayenne at the minute. Long story involving many support vehicles sent ice driving in Sweden, but it is down in Monte Carlo with Tuthill Porsche, towing the Porsche 997 R-GT car into places for testing that the big Tuthill rally truck won’t reach easily.
The 955 Porsche Cayenne V8 is a big old girl and it sucks up plenty of fuel, but you do get attached to its sublime waftability. “I had a trouble-free eighteen months with a Cayenne Turbo,” agreed Porsche professional Cris in a daily driver thread on ImpactBumpers.com. “They are nonsense quick for a fat bird, quicker than the contemporary supercharged Range Rover and better on fuel. Although better than very bad is still awful.
“Downside of selling it is now all other cars seem rubbish, including the other half’s newish Golf 1.4 TSi. I’m ruined and am now saving for a Cayenne again: a GTS this time or maybe a diesel V6.”
After a holiday romance in the Canaries last Christmas with a cute little Citröen Berlingo rental, I crunched the numbers and buying a new Berlingo diesel was cheaper than running the Cayenne over the next three years. I looked at maybe changing for a Citröen, but I worried I might miss the Cayenne too much. Then I corrected an omission in my original workings and the man-maths more or less balanced out, as the Big Pig continues to manage the equivalent of 35 mpg while driven hard and running on propane gas. So I forgot my holiday romance.
Cayenne pining reached a peak as I flicked through some unopened mail this evening and found last month’s copy of Panorama. The magazine of the Porsche Club of America ran some great features through 2014, and this latest edition carried another cracker titled Real Genius: an excerpt from Randy Leffingwell’s Illustrated Porsche Buyers Guide, covering the genesis of the original Cayenne.
Butzi Porsche helped design the Cayenne
The story confirms our blog from a few months back on how the Porsche Cayenne was originally planned as a Mercedes joint venture, but Randy also learned from Cayenne designer, Steve Murkett, how Ferdinand Alexander ‘Butzi’ Porsche helped shape the 955 Cayenne.
“Butzi had always been an SUV enthusiast,” said Steve. “He said if we were going to design an SUV, he wanted to be directly involved.”
Steve tells how Butzi started coming very month, looking at the models. Eventually, F.A. came straight out and said he would design Porsche’s new vehicle. This did not go down so well with the design department, who had been working for years on the E1 SUV project. A Land Rover Defender would act as peacemaker: a Land Rover that Burkett ended up buying from the extensive fleet of SUVs and 4x4s purchased by Weissach for competitor evaluation.
“The Land Rover has absolutely nothing to do with what a Cayenne is, but for me it is an icon,” says Burkett. “It has character. I developed a pretty good relationship with Butzi, probably because he had a Defender as well. Anytime we got into a stalemate where we couldn’t agree about anything, we started talking about tyres on our Defenders.”
Butzi did work on a Cayenne design and the two concepts eventually went to the management for a final decision. Burkett’s design won, but he is honest about F.A.’s hand in the styling. “There is no doubt about Butzi’s contribution to the simplicity of the Cayenne. It doesn’t have all the little muscles and edges seen on BMW X5 or Mercedes ML, but that was Butzi’s thing: keep it simple.”
The complete feature could transform your opinion of the Cayenne: there is so much Porsche engineering in these cars. It makes me want mine back even more! For less than £10 new and delivered on Amazon UK, the Illustrated Porsche Buyers Guide is worth a read: it’s not the dry buyers’ guide you might expect.
