by John Glynn | Apr 21, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
Back from a week in Ireland, I’ve had a chance to reset and look through a few stories that got missed in the rush through Q1 2014.
I haven’t said much about Essen Techno Classica. This year’s fair was as fun as ever: some great finds dotted around and not all Porsche. Being up close to a works Lancia Delta Group A rally car was quite a treat, as was seeing some of the very high-end handcrafted machinery.
One Porsche stood out in the ‘for sale’ car parks: a 1983 Porsche 930/911 Turbo with Per Eklund as first owner. Very clean in Silver, I couldn’t find much to mark it down on: over-glossy wheel centres maybe if I’m OTT nitpicking. It had recently enjoyed some restorative attention, but everything was super pukka.
Just 57,000 kilometres and up for €67,000, it made my pick of best 911 buy on Day 1. We had currywurst for lunch, sitting on beer crates alongside the Turbo: definitely a high point of 2014 so far.
As all 930s start to climb in value, and early 3.0 Turbos and later blingy 5-speeds get tarted up and sold for silly money, the early ’80s models with low mileage and good provenance seem the ones to go for. Not much advance in an ’87 930: their purple period feels early ’80s to me, unless we’re talking Turbo SE…
by John Glynn | Apr 11, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Media accreditation for the 2014 FIA 6 Hours of Silverstone dropped through the virtual letterbox this morning. The 6 Hours will be our first opportunity to see Porsche’s 919 Hybrid LMP1 technology put to the test in its maiden race on Sunday, April 20.
“It’s completely different, totally new,” says Romain Dumas (below). “We have to be focused, motivated, as it’s very difficult for a driver to adjust and understand all these things. For sure it is the most intelligent driver and team who will win the race.”
“For us as drivers in the cockpit, it’s quite busy,” adds Mark Webber. “Still we have to brake as late as possible and keep the rhythm up to a very high level: that’s our job. The good guys will still find a way to be very, very quick.”
Engine Sound Porsche 919
Running a combination of 2-litre V4 turbo petrol engine and two separate energy recovery systems, the 919 has a sound all of its own. I like this video capturing the 919 Hybrid on track at Paul Ricard alongside the 991 RSR for comparison. What do you think on LMP1 noise versus 911?
by John Glynn | Apr 8, 2014 | Art and Books, Classic Porsche Blog
I’m about to jump in the Cayenne and head for Earls Court and the 2014 London Book Fair with our latest project. Cayenne is running well, the first Cult of Porsche book looks great, sun is out. The perfect Tuesday!
Edit: Creative Review has just reviewed the Cult of Porsche book. Read the full review below!
Silk Pearce has designed a stunning book for Ricoh Europe celebrating the enjoyment of classic Porsche cars and demonstrating the exceptional print quality and impact that publishers can achieve using the latest advances in digital print technology, paper and finishing.
“The Cult of Porsche: In the Beginning” showcases original Porsches, as well as owner-modified classics and is the first book in a planned trilogy to be written by long-time Porsche journalist and blogger John Glynn. The text has been richly illustrated with lavish photography by James Lipman, the internationally-renowned automotive photographer.
“Silk Pearce’s in-depth experience of design for print and knowledge of paper has enabled Ricoh to produce a beautiful digitally-printed book with a quality that rivals traditional offset printing. ‘In the Beginning’ demonstrates Ricoh’s advanced digital printing technologies, combined with traditional finishing techniques and we believe the exceptional end product will impress and delight publishers looking to create unique, short-run books for niche specialist markets, as well readers interested in creative design, photography and Porsche’s unique engineering vision,” said Andy Campbell, printing innovation manager at Ricoh Europe.
For further information on ‘The Cult of Porsche’ trilogy, please contact John Glynn: mail@ferdinandmagazine.com
by John Glynn | Apr 7, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
EB Motorsport has opened its 2014 FIA Masters Historic challenge at the Espiritu de Montjuic Barcelona event. The RSR took a pair of wins in both Trofeo Javier del Arco races amongst a field of historic touring cars, and a class win in the Masters Historic Sports Car race.
Qualifying second on the grid behind a De Tomaso for the first Javier del Arco race on Saturday, EB’s Mark Bates in his Porsche 911 RSR quickly found a rhythm around the Circuit de Catalunya, snatched first place from the pole-sitting Pantera and claimed his first win of 2014 at the chequered flag, twelve seconds ahead of Manuel Hermida’s BMW M3 touring car.
Starting from pole in Sunday’s race two, Bates’ RSR swapped fastest sector times with the M3 to the flag, but while Hermida chalked up two out of three fastest sector times, the win went to Bates’ Light Yellow Porsche, just two seconds ahead of the M3 after twenty five minutes of racing. Close contest!
In Masters Historic, Mark came home first in class (Pescarolo), behind the sole GT40 running. The Formula 1 layout at Barcelona favours the historic sports cars’ higher gearing, top speeds and aerodynamic bodywork, but the 911 gave it a good run, with a fastest lap a little over a second slower than the sleek Le Mans-winning Ford.
Barcelona was EB’s bogey track last year, when a gearbox issue put paid to a defence of their back-to-back titles. Finishing three tough races in two days reliably and on the top step throughout will inspire some confidence. Roll on the next round at Donington Historic Festival from May 3-5!
Here’s some great video of Mark Bates racing the EB Motorsport Porsche 911 RSR in action versus the modern-day BMW E30 M3 Touring car of Manuel Hermida. Super close racing through the backmarkers!
by John Glynn | Apr 6, 2014 | Art and Books, Classic Porsche Blog
I spent a good morning with our friends from Ricoh Production & Print on Friday, trimming the first bound copies of our Cult of Porsche book down to size. The work was done at Morgana print finishers in Milton Keynes. If you thought producing books was all about printing then think again: Morgana’s range of print finishing equipment is huge, and it was interesting to learn what the machines all do.
Our work was on the Morgana Digibook 150 Perfect Binding Machine and the EBA 5560 Guillotine. As this first book also showcases Ricoh’s digital print output on a series of boutique papers, care was essential in getting the book through the systems.
Morgana is led by a bona fide Porsche enthusiast (just bought a 911-50), with a few more Porsche owners on the shop floor, so I needn’t have worried. The pre-production prototypes came out perfectly and the beautiful design has been proven. We now have a great example of this project to take to this week’s London Book Fair and share with the industry.
How and Where to Buy
I appreciate the questions on how & where to buy the book! Short answer is I don’t know yet. If we end up with a publisher, standard channels will apply. If we publish ourselves, then you’ll buy it from here. Our finish for this version is high end, so the production costs are steep, but a publisher may do something simpler. Should that occur, any high end finish will be sold via Ferdinand. Jamie & I will autograph & authenticate each copy sold via this website.
My plan is for this first “The Cult of Porsche” series as a trilogy. Readers have the option of eventually collecting all three and housing them in a bespoke box. I’m working on that idea with Ricoh and we’ll see how it develops. It is a very exciting project: not your standard Porsche book and we have plans to add a few tricks in the future. I’m keeping the Book 1 look a bit secret for now.
I followed this little brown impact-bumper Porsche 911 for a short while as as I left Morgana. Good omen!
