RM Sotheby’s has added more Porsche content to its rescheduled 2020 Essen Techno Classica auction on June 24-27. The catalogue now totals 215 lots, including twenty-nine Porsche cars: nine 356s, one 914, two 912s, seventeen 911s and a 904. There is also a Spider replica with 1600cc Beetle running gear.
The 911s include seven impact bumper models, dating from a 1974 2.7-litre Coupe to a 1988 911 Turbo. All merit closer inspection.
Finished in Light Yellow with red leather trim, chassis number 9114102746 is a 1974 911 Coupe said to be in largely original condition throughout. Described by the auctioneers as ‘immaculate’, it has had a repaint in its original colour, and is accompanied for sale by a toolkit, space-saver spare wheel, owner’s manuals, and correct period radio.
The newest G-model 911 in the current catalogue is chassis number WP0ZZZ93ZJS000080: a 1988 911 Turbo. Showing just under 117k kilometres, the late four-speed LHD 930 is finished in Marine Blue with special order light grey trim. The driver’s seat is heated and this car also has a sunroof.
Two 3-litre 911s are offered: a 1977 Carrera 3.0 Coupe previously shared on Ferdinand and a 1981 Porsche 911 SC Targa. Finished in Platinum Beige Metallic over Black Pascha trim and riding on 15″ Fuchs, the SC Targa showing 120k kms is said to be unrestored and will lay down an interesting marker. The photos show several points to a trained eye but the car is handsome nonetheless.
Finally for the impact-bumper cars, a 1984 3.2 Coupe in Grand Prix White with Burgundy trim The seats are showing the usual seam splits and the original wheel is missing, which sort of makes me wonder what else is up with it. All air-cooled 911s including early 3.2s like to wear valve guides and piston rings, so it would be good to see a mention of a previous top end rebuild to the engine.
There are ten more 911s entered in the sale. A total of eight 911s are up without reserve and I look forward to seeing their final prices. June will come up quickly after lockdown and it will be interesting to see whether any pent-up demand has accrued for cars of this era, or whether people will wait to see how the second half of the year shakes out economically.
Despite the doom and gloom one reads in the news, there is a quite bit of business going on behind the scenes during lockdown. I wouldn’t be too hasty to pronounce things dead as yet.
Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) and RM Sotheby’s have teamed up for an interesting charity auction with a money-can’t-buy delivery package appealling to Porsche enthusiasts. The auction’s only entry is the last-ever 991 generation 911 made: a unique Porsche 911 Speedster, one of 1,948 examples created to mark seventy years of Porsche sports cars.
The one-week auction will be held via RM Sotheby’s online auction platform to meet social distancing guidelines without delaying the charitable fundraiser. The winning bid (excluding taxes and fees), will be donated to United Way Worldwide’s COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund.
Porsche Design is supporting the auction with the creation of a bespoke 911 Speedster Heritage Design Chronograph. The watch incorporates the vehicle’s historic design features, including a strap made in the exact same cognac leather from the Speedster’s interior and a silver winding rotor that mirrors the car’s unique wheels. Made in Switzerland, exclusively for 911 Speedster customers, the limited-edition timepiece with flyback function will feature the chassis number of the final 991 generation 911, making it unique.
In addition, the winning bidder and a guest will be invited to take a personal, behind-the-scenes tour of the Porsche AG Weissach development headquarters – including experiencing the test track – with Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser and Andreas Preuninger, heads of the 911 and GT model lines respectively. The car will also be accompanied by a one-off book illustrating the assembly and completion of the last 991, including photographs and an original sketch by the Speedster design team. Finally, the handover of the vehicle will be hosted by Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of PCNA at a dedicated event in North America.
“Not only does this mark the end of what, for me, was a special era but it’s especially rewarding that the last car to reach the end of the line should be the ultimate,” said Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser. “The Speedster combined everything we learned and is the 991 in its purest form. I hope this unique car can make a big difference to those who need help right now, and that the fortunate buyer enjoys it and drives it as we always intended.”
“We’re proud to support Porsche with this initiative, recognising the urgent need to raise as much money as possible for those most affected by COVID-19,” said Kenneth Ahn, RM Sotheby’s President. “This is a truly unique and unheard of offering for extraordinary times – not just the car itself as the last ever seventh-generation 911 ever to roll down the line, but all auction items including the exclusive Porsche Design 911 Speedster Heritage Design Chronograph as well as the chance to experience an exclusive behind-the-scenes visit to the home of Porsche with the two engineers who lead the creation of modern era 911s.
“Finished in GT Silver Metallic paint, the 911 Speedster remains unregistered, having covered just 20 delivery miles. It’s powered by a 4-litre, 500 horsepower naturally aspirated flat six engine with a six-speed manual gearbox. The auction Speedster features the Heritage Design package and was built in Stuttgart last December.
The last remaining 911 Speedsters are now in transit to owners around the world, but there can be only one final car and this specific Speedster is the last of the 911’s seventh generation. It comes with a letter of authenticity from Porsche confirming that its chassis number is the last off the 991 production line.
The auction opens for bidding via RM Sotheby’s Online Only platform at 11:00 am EDT on Wednesday 15 April, closing at 1:00 pm EDT on Wednesday 22 April. The 911 Speedster is offered without reserve, selling to the highest bidder. Potential bidders can find more information on the unique package being offered and the registration process at https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/0020.
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
Happy Easter to all! I hope this is a good weekend for everyone. I’m busier than ever with valuations and client work during lockdown, but losing the long daily school run has freed up some time for personal projects, including improvements to my Porsche 911 forum at impactbumpers.com.
About ImpactBumpers.com
I started the impactbumpers Porsche 911 forum after a conversation with a friend who despaired of the lack of support from established Porsche Clubs for the lowly impact bumper cars, which were then regarded as throwaway ‘starter’ 911s. I like all of Ferry’s creations but, as a child of the ’70s, my passion has always been focused on impact-bumpered 911s from 1974 to 1989. After a decade in various marque ownership clubs, I was over the system’s lacklustre parochialism and am not much of a club-type at the best of times. As Groucho put it, I wouldn’t want to be in any club that would have me as a member. The online space offered the chance to construct a completely different member experience.
After playing around with various types of discussion forum software, the forum launched on February 14th, 2006. My aim was to get maybe twenty like-minded people on board to start working on their own cars and sharing their experiences and give us some buying power for better deals on track days. Fourteen years later (and despite a fairly hardcore early routine of deleting accounts that had not been used in the previous twelve months), the board has over 7,000 members.
Some are less active than others, but all are welcome as long as they behave! Pointless arguments (hello religion and politics) are not permitted – save them for Facebook. Those who throw stones and hide behind keyboards get a holiday. There is no adult content anywhere: the board is son-and-daughter safe, so the kids can keep using your laptop or iPad.
The board sets out to support an upbeat experience of Impact Bumper ownership and has managed to do that pretty well over the years. The forum for those who have had an IB (forumspeak for a car from ’74 to ’89) and moved on to other classics, but would like to keep enjoying the IB camaraderie, is one of the busiest boards on the site.
Impact Bumper upgrades
Easter Sunday has ushered in several upgrades to the board to make things better and brighter. First and most obvious is a new design. It’s a work in progress, although this is the bones of it. Driving my 1976 911 Carrera 3.0 (a.k.a. The Orange) on the Col de Turini for two days just after going full-time freelance in May 2010 was a defining moment for me in connecting to the soul of these cars, so that is the main header pic.
Second is the addition of a feedback system. In the bottom right corner of every post, members now see a heart icon. Hovering over that opens three options: like, thanks and a laugh. Liking or saying thanks for a post earns a ‘reputation point’ for the poster. Total points earned going forward are displayed in the member’s profile. There are no points for a laugh as we should all be bringing good humour!
Members get a set number of points to give out per day and daily points do not carry over. The idea is that a post to say cool or great or whatever can be more than some want to give, but clicking thanks or like gives the poster a feel-good moment. One can also go back in time to say thanks to a post that has helped you. Making one another feel good in times of stress and bringing common sense to Porsche ownership is at the heart of the forum, so we will see how this goes and tweak it as appropriate.
The third upgrade is a raft of other small tweaks including links to associated social profiles, a number of new forums to break content into more digestible indexes, and a few improvements under the engine cover. I think it is all a step forward.
IB Membership and Trade Ads
More new modules will be added as testing progresses, so more new features are coming. I have always resisted offering membership packages and trade advertising, preferring to bankroll the forum myself to keep it indepedent, but it is now becoming more work not to offer these features, so the options will launch over the next few weeks. I hope this may also support independent Porsche specialists, some of whom could find things tricky as the lockdown shakes out.
For now, I hope anyone who has not been on IB in a while will revisit the impactbumpers.com forum and see what they think. Feel free to contact me with any notes or enquiries, or if you can no longer access your original account.
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
Independent filmmaker, Gary Hustwit, is sharing some of his work online for free during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Gary’s excellent documentary on legendary designer, Dieter Rams, is available from tomorrow for one week only. I will be watching it again and recommend it to everyone.
I'll be streaming my film about Dieter Rams (with Eno score) free this week, starting Tuesday. During this COVID-induced isolation I'm streaming my design films free for viewers staying indoors worldwide.
“You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people,” says Rams, who is often described as the father of modern product design. Dieter’s core principles will chime with any classic Porsche aficionado, as they had an undeniable influence on Ferry Porsche’s design team. Rams’ famous ten principles state that good design:
is innovative
makes a product useful
is aesthetic
makes a product understandable
is unobtrusive
is honest
is long lasting
is unobtrusive
is thorough down to the last detail
is environmentally friendly
is as little design as possible
The philosophy is summed up as “less, but better” and that is just how this documentary is shot. Everything is considered and measured. The addition of a soundtrack by the great Brian Eno is perfect simpatico.
About Gary Hustwit
I can’t remember how I found Gary Hustwit: it might have been credits in the “Abstract” series on Netflix. However it happened, it was a good day. Gary’s journey into creating unforgettable design documentaries wended its way through an early career releasing punk music for SST Records, running an independent book publishers, founding a media website and eventually opening an independent DVD label: Plexifilm. Work released through Plexifilm included films by Andy Warhol and David Byrne and encouraged Hustwit to create his own content.
Hustwit’s directorial debut came in 2007, with the release of ‘Helvetica’: a feature-length documentary about graphic design and typography. The first in a trilogy of work on design, it was followed by 2009’s ‘Objectified’ (covering industrial and product design) and ‘Urbanized’: a 2011 documentary about the design of cities.
Gary’s feature-length 2018 documentary on Dieter Rams is a superb introduction to this exceptional design mind. Produced and directed by Hustwit, the director describes ‘Rams’ as “a documentary portrait of one of the most influential designers alive, and a rumination on consumerism, sustainability, and the future of design.”
About Dieter Rams
Dieter Rams was born in 1932 in Wiesbaden, Germany. While training as an architect at the Wiesbaden School of Art, Rams also completed a carpentry apprenticeship. He began his architectural career with a practice in Frankfurt, but his work soon caught the eye of the Braun brothers, Artur and Erwin. The brothers had taken control of the family firm after the sudden death of their father, Max, in 1951. They liked Rams’ design ideas and brought him to their company in 1955.
Rams served as Head of Design from 1961 to 1995, championing the relationship between form and function. Rams unified the identity of all Braun products, whatever their purpose. The success of this groundbreaking approach was no accident. Artur and Erwin Braun’s vision and the new design attitude personified by Rams were perfectly attuned.
Sadly, the Braun brothers passed away before Hustwit could interview them for his documentary, but there was no shortage of contemporary designers willing to testify to Rams’ influence on the German design renaissance though the 1950s and 1960s. Watching the documentary, I found I had unknowingly owned and enjoyed quite a bit of Dieter’s work, including a much-loved Braun travel clock, which I got as a present before leaving Ireland for London in the late 1980s. To top it all, we find that, of course, Dieter Rams drives a Porsche 911.
I urge you to watch this excellent documentary and to check out Gary’s other work. It will make you think differently, and perhaps make you act a little differently, too. Also check out the Oh You Pretty Things webshop: after watching the Rams documentary, I bought a signed poster from the South Korean launch of the Rams’ documentary. It will go on the wall of my office, whenever I finish that!
A few months ago, in what now seems like a privileged previous existence, I spent my regular December fortnight in Lanzarote working on a few projects and wandering the streets of the island’s capital, Arrecife. I did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. As a man of simple tastes, that involved coffee and tapas, the occasional pizza, talking to new people in basic Spanish and sitting on the balcony watching Wheeler Dealers.
My February column for BMW Car magazine zoomed in on this idea of Wheeler Dealers as a highlight of the day. I never watch it while at home but, out in the Canaries, it quickly became a lynchpin of daily routine. It was usually broadcast in English with Spanish subtitles, giving me a bit of a car fix while also improving my language skills. (‘Control de las Fronteras’, with dark-haired Spanish ladies in uniform catching Ukrainian tobacco smugglers et al ran Mike a close second, but that’s another story.)
The new season of Wheeler Dealers kicked off on Discovery Channel last month and the first episode seems to have been a show I saw while in Lanzarote: an SMG to manual conversion on an E46 M3. Subsequent episodes include more favourite four-wheelers:
1972 Fiat 124 Spider
1973 Toyota Celica
2002 Mercedes Benz E55 AMG
Volvo Amazon 122
Toyota Land Cruiser
1982 Porsche 911 SC
Now, I like all of these cars and still own my 1993 Land Cruiser 80-series 4.2 diesel manual. If this pandemic really was some sort of apocalypse, I would be dragging the Land Cruiser back into service right about now, so I’ll definitely be watching that episode, which converts a 60-series Cruiser from auto to manual. Another one for the diary is the 1982 911 SC, which I think has been Herr Brewer’s daily driver for a few years.
Mike is a bona fide Porsche nut. Based in Huntington Beach, California when shooting in America, he is friends with another friend of mine, the artist Nicolas Hunziker, so I often see pics of the craic they enjoy on social media. Nicolas also spends a fair bit of time driving with Chad McQueen: I can definitely see how this lot get on. On a side note, Nicolas has a great offer on his classic Porsche driving shoes at the minute: all shoes are just $50 a pair in the Stay at Home Sale! Check that out and keep him busy.
I don’t know which spanners will be waving in the SC episode, but I see a big old exhaust in the preview photos, so a bit of that at least. In time-honoured Wheeler Dealers tradition, Mike’s SC was sold after the episode was finished and still lives in the USA. Going by his Twitter feed, Mike now runs a 1976 Porsche 912E and has been fettling it while the lockdown continues.
He’s been told that it’s Enamel Blue (it was described as such when sold by Silverstone Auctions) but it looks pretty much the same as my old 912E, which was painted Arrow Blue at the factory in 1976. Maybe it’s had a repaint somewhere down the line. You can follow Mike’s progress with the car on his Twitter feed, @mikebrewer. Worth a follow just to see how he bats off the trolls, not to mention his projects.
The SC episode will be broadcast on Monday April 27th, so stick it in your diary. The Land Cruiser one is the week before!
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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