Anyone following the R Gruppe Europe Blog will have read last week’s post about the Carrera PanEuropeana, a quick blast the R Gruppe Europe boys took down to Germany last weekend. Just had a few more pics through from Daan, so I thought I would share on here.
The basic plan was leave Amsterdam and meet on the border early Friday morning. Drive through Belgium into Germany, then do a few laps of the Nurburgring and stay somewhere close for a couple of nights.
Saturday was all about B-road driving in the mountains around the circuit, with some spectating in the afternoon. Turns out the 911 R hybrid was racing and winning that day.
Sunday was a quick blast to Spa to watch the tail end of the racing there, before heading home to the Netherlands, or Portugal and the USA in the case of Vasco Ricardo and Steven Harris.
Looks like everyone had a good time. The stories I have heard so far suggest the pace was as hot as ever, but only one car casualty emerged and the damage was superficial.
Next R Gruppe Europe event I am likely to attend is the TwinSpark trackday at Spa in October: £249 for a day on track with friends in early 911s. More details on TwinSpark Racing here.
Lots of us booked to come down from the UK already and I’m sure we’ll find more guys from Europe who are keen to be there. The date is October 10th but you can extend to do the 11th also if you fancy it. I’ll be on a plane to California on the 11th, so just the Monday for me!
I spent this afternoon watching the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix. It was an absolute cracker. Every time the cars came through Massenet and into Casino Square, I was reminded of the 2010 R Gruppe Bergmeister Tour, and the three days our ten cars spent in Monte Carlo. Watching the F1 drivers blast at 120 mph or more through sections we trickled through at 30 mph was fantastic.
Bergmeister rallyistes used the city as a base for mountain raids up around the principality, to the epic Monte Carlo Rally routes we were driving. Getting in and out of town was easy enough, but getting around was a headache. Traffic along the GP track in normal running is nigh-on stationary. It’s also quite difficult to equate TV and reality, when parts of the flowing circuit are run as one way or no left/right turn during the normal working week.
We did manage a few runs along some famous stretches, and I got told off by the police once or twice for hanging out the windows of moving 911s with a camera, but it was worth it when the pictures made a cover and a big feature in 911 & Porsche World magazine.
If you’re a diehard F1 fan and have not yet made the effort to get down there and drive the circuit, put it on your bucket list. Trust your Uncle Johnny: it is WELL worth the effort. Though it can be trashy in places, Monaco is a unique environment: a shrine to speed that will undoubtedly inspire something within.
The July issue of 911 & Porsche World magazine just landed on the mat. It’s an interesting edition, with a 924 group test, Cayman R UK drive and the story of Manon Borrius Broek: a Dutch heiress who has accumulated a beautiful collection of Porsche machinery.
I’ve had a flick, but not read any feaures yet. In all honesty, there’s a good chance I won’t. Like most journos, reading magazines is looking back in time. We finish a piece, send it, and look forward to the next one. I usually speed read my own articles, to see what the mag has done with layout and check for any typos, but otherwise I point myself ahead.
That is not to say I ignore the magazines – I definitely do not. My first port of call in any magazine or newspaper is always the letters page. Here we get a golden opportunity to gauge ambient temperature amongst the readership: what they think is hot and not.
Custom Porsche 911s & Porsche World Magazine
This month’s Porsche World carries a great letter (Rise of the Replicas) from John Hammond Jr in the US. John gives the thumbs up to Porsche World’s ‘hot rod’ group test last month, but cautions against the rise of what he calls ‘cookie cutter’ hot rods: the margarine creations of a backdated 3.2 with a center filler cap, recipe repro seats and vacuous roll hoops. “If we’re not careful,”says John, “it will be like the kit car world, where every man and his hound wants to build a Cobra kit car, to the extent that owners of genuine Cobras become tired of being asked what kit they used.”
Not surprisingly, I agree with John. Nothing irks more than a lack of imagination. We’re living in a time where unlimited online inspiration, vinyl wraps and energetic new paints make creating something different a little bit easier, so where are those cars? The scene is certainly starving for them.
Jamie and I have just shot some very unique, proper hot rods in the US, and I’m tracking some European builds that look right on the money, so they are out there to be found. Help is on the way for John Hammond Jr, and all those looking for down-home hot rod spirit from their Porsche periodicals.
God bless the boys and girls who want to stray from the herd: they’re the ones keeping things interesting!
Awesome shoot with Jamie Lipman today. We took a Diablo Red (named by us) Porsche 911 RSR backdate to Bethlehem, New Hampshire on Rapture Day.
The angle I had in mind was take a cool 911 to the start of things, at the end of things. So far no end, but it was a fun morning, touring the town and unleashing some divine Porsche havoc.
Porsche 911 RSR backdate in Bethlehem, New Hampshire
The car is an ’84 3.2 Turbolook that’s been substantially revised, with steel RSR flares, classic low-fat interior, WEVO transmission and suspension set up and a 3.8 litre Rothsport engine.
We shot the car next to the Police Station and in the roads around the town. I’ll let you know what magazine it ends up in.
All the time we were working, I had this shitkicking U2/BB King track playing in my head. LOUD. It’s still playing!
Jamie and I stopped off at West Coast Metric today en route to Los Angeles International, to say hello to legendary VW parts impresario, Lorenzo Pearson.
Lorenzo has a long track record in ‘making it happen’, so meeting the man himself was the perfect sign off to our week in California. Making things happen is what all the best car guys are about out west.
Pearson is also a massive Porsche nut, with some of the most beautiful classic Porsches imaginable in his compact, eclectic, exceptional collection. The 356 and 911 seen here are two of the most impeccably detailed classic Porsche hot rods out there.
Mr Pearson and I spent so much time being rally car fans, I didn’t get the iPhone camera out once, apart from taking a picture for middle daughter Ciara, of a pirate cannonball salvaged by Lorenzo in the West Indies. She’s got the biggest pirate thing in history going on at the minute.
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