News from my Impact Bumpers Porsche forum says that Lidl is offering Revell’s 1:24 scale models of the Martini Porsche 934 and 911 3.2 Carrera Coupe for just under £20 in-store – nice Christmas presents for kids of all ages.
The Carrera kit in particular looks quite detailed. Some of the IB kids are currently remaking their own cars in 1:24th scale.
I drink mostly 0% alcohol these days other than a drop of Irish whiskey and the occasional bottle of wine with my daughters. As you’d expect, there isn’t much 0% in the Jägermeister catalogue, but I note that it now makes Jägermeister Cold Brew Coffee.
I tried Guinness Cold Brew Coffee last Christmas and my nervous system is still recovering – it is absolutely savage. Definitely drink cold brew responsibly. I might order the Orange 934. That looks like a no brainer, even stone cold sober.
Porsche has shared pictures of its new 911 Hybrid (992.2) being tested in the sands of Dubai and at the Nürburgring, where it took almost 9 seconds off the lap time of what I guess may be the 992.1 Carrera. That sounds pretty impressive – I wonder what the cost per second will work out to when the list price is revealed.
Porsche Hybrid Nürburgring Test
Over the course of performance testing, Porsche brand ambassador Jörg Bergmeister completed a lap of the circuit in 7:16.934 minutes – 8.7 seconds faster than the corresponding version of the predecessor model. The test car was equipped with standard road tyres, plus the aero kit with a fixed rear wing that has been available as an option for several model generations now, and which provides increased downforce at high speeds.
“The new 911 has become considerably faster on the track,” says Bergmeister. “We have more grip, significantly more power, and the spontaneous response of the performance hybrid is a great advantage.”
Porsche 911 Hybrid Techical Specification
The obvious question is what sort of system is Porsche using in the 911 Hybrid but there is little detail about this in Porsche press land. Writing for Car and Driver this year, the well connected journalist Georg Kacher said that the lightweight c.27-kilo system would likely be Rimac designed (the EV company that Porsche has a 45% stake in) and feature a 400v electrical system with an integrated starter-generator, an 80-90hp electric motor driving the front wheels and a 2kWh battery recharged by the engine and regenerative braking. We will have to wait and see what the system actually looks like in practice.
When is a Hybrid not a Hybrid
A recent trip to Brescia in Italy to inspect an old 911 race car saw me renting my third Fiat Panda/500 hybrid in Italy in under 12 months (see above). Badged as a Hybrid, the car basically has a bigger alternator and a miniscule battery that cannot drive the car but helps the stop-start work recharge quicker. It makes the cars eligible for low emission/ZTL zones in the old towns, and the Panda’s economy was good over 200kms but it is hardly what one would seriously call a hybrid drivetrain. I’m looking forward to seing what Porsche’s first part-electric 911 looks like.
Five Million Kilometres of Testing
“We left nothing to chance during development and tested the new 911 under all sorts of conditions all over the world,” said Frank Moser, Vice President Model Line 911 and 718. “From the freezing cold to scorching heat, as was the case during the final stages of testing in Dubai. Whether at a high drivetrain load in the demanding conditions of mountain passes or in the stop-and-go traffic of an urban environment, the new 911 has mastered even the most difficult challenges with aplomb. All in all, our engineers and test drivers clocked up more than five million kilometres of development driving.”
Hybrid drivetrains are leading the way in the transition from oil to electric. Auto Trader recently announced that one in five used cars next year would be an EV and the market is taking its time to adopt them for various reasons including higher purchase price, perceived safety concerns, practicality of longer range driving and long term reliability and maintenance costs. Leading with the 911 hybrid drivetrain rather an introducing a full EV version obviously makes the most sense, but the idea of a full EV 911 with lightweight batteries and what that might do for Nurburgring lap times is also an enticing prospect. We might expect that in the 2030 998, says Kacher.
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Ferdinand Magazine is the personal blog of John Glynn, a writer, classic car and motorcycle valuations expert and court expert witness. To explore and enjoy more of my work, and to support the Ferdinand Porsche blog, you can:
Inimitable graphic artist and illustrator Guy Allen has just released another great series of classic car prints. Titled Kinetic, Part 1 is a four-car series featuring the 1973 911 Carrera RS, Jaguar E-Type, Lamborghini Miura and BMW CSL.
I have been captivated by Guy’s work for over 15 years, ever since seeing his first Felix Petrol cartoon. Our freelance paths have intersected many times over the years and he was the obvious choice of collaborator on two series of t-shirts and prints we produced for my Impact Bumpers Porsche forum in the late 2000s.
Guy has the knack of picking up on an idea and quickly understanding the basic dynamic concept, but then taking it further in exciting and engaging ways that one has not imagined. Some of his finest work involves the 911 and I have many of his prints in my small collection.
The latest print in my collection features the Carrera RS. This classic design blending so much Porsche iconography – including the Carerra side stripe, ducktail spoiler and Fuchs alloy wheel – must be one of the most illustrated 911s ever, but Guy again manages to bring something new to the legend. A hat tip also for resisting the urge to widen the wheels and tyres and lose the knife-edge nature of those early ’70s 911s, balletically balanced on the tiptoe of the tyres as they chase driving nirvana. It is no surprise that his artistry is often commissioned by Porsche itself.
Guy Allen development sketches for Kinetic
If you have not got some of Guy’s work, I encourage you to start with the Kinetic Carrera RS. The print is limited to 100 signed and numbered examples and his Porsche works tend to sell out pretty quickly. Printed on archive quality paper using pigment inks, the large A3 work ships unframed and worldwide shipping is free.
Jonny Hart at Classic Retrofit picked up a pre-Varioram Porsche 993 Carrera 2 Tiptronic Coupe through some trade friends last August. I’ve often thought about using a 993 as a daily driver and I know many of you actually have. it’s been fun to see what Jonny has made of the 993, and how much he has used it when there is also a nicely restored 911 SC, an electric 914 and an electric works van in the fleet.
“Work on the 993 has included an overdue service, a front end strip and rebuild and of course we’re using the 993 as a development vehicle and test mule for our next-generation Porsche electric air conditioning systems,” he says.
“As this car was never fitted with air conditioning, we’ve fitted our full system including our upgraded alternator. This is a harder installation on a Tiptronic as it has an additional transmission oil cooler up front so a second condenser is not possible. Instead, we’re trialling a new-tech version of our single condenser setup.
“Made by a Dutch company, the new condenser is 50% more efficient than the original 964/993 condenser, which is a big improvement. While we have been using twin condenser systems which give massive headroom over the original, a 50% improvement on the original part is more than enough for most users, especially when combined with our new CCU, which is also in testing in our 993.
“Other improvements seen on the test mule include the development of a tightly-packaged combined battery and A/C Compressor mount to minimise the space required by our electric A/C system: watch out for this as a new product. One more product developed for the car is a replacement tweeter mount to fit Focal FN43 tweeters into standard Porsche 993 door cards. This is a great little upgrade for audiophiles and is available to buy now.”
Jonny says that recent road trips to Retromobile in Paris and visits to several UK consultancy clients have shown that, some 30 years after its introduction, the 993 remains a highly capable and comfortable daily driver. While the Tiptronic is relaxing most of the time, the car can still get a shift on when needed. I might need to borrow this one of the days.
The key to an enjoyable freelance career is realising one’s most exciting ideas. Saving ideas – good or bad – for future reference is crucial, and a solid notebook habit soon becomes one of the most important practices in a freelancer’s life.
A notebook is not just a writing space: it is also a thinking space. My pile of colourful A5 moleskine notebooks dates back to the mid-2000s, when I first starting writing about Porsche. Their contents are interwoven with several thousand voice memos and tens of thousands of iPhone images shot over the last twenty years.
I therefore regard my notebooks with great affection and appropriate respect and so I was delighted to get an email from my friend Guy Allen last week about a new range of notebooks he has designed in collaboration with German publisher, Dingwort Verlag.
The A5 notebooks contain 176 pages of sustainably sourced 120gsm Munken paper, with a subtle dot grid printed on each page. The recycled leather covers are screenprinted with some of Guy’s most iconic print designs. The covers have a soft-touch coating and a smooth textural finish. Solid thread stitching and a round spine allow the books to lie flat when open. Rounded corners and black edges help to protect against wear and tear.
Guy sent me a notebook to experience the quality. He chose to send his 911 print – one of my favourites and in my Guy Allen collection. It arrived just in time, as I was on the last two pages of my most recent notebook, so today is my first day using this one. My Lamy Al-Star workpens seem to agree with the very beautiful paper and I have several big classic car valuation reports to get through this week, so I will enjoy filling this with thoughts, ideas and conversation notes and whatever else sparks my awareness.
The Guy Allen Art notebooks are available to buy direct from Dingwort Verlag and no doubt they can ship in time for Christmas. I am tempted to add the Col de Turini and Salzburg 917 designs to an order. Guy’s work is beautiful, so I am delighted by the prospect of having it in my hands and on my desk every day.
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