by John Glynn | May 9, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
Just back from another Porsche features trip to Northern California, with ace photographer Jamie Lipman.
As ever, the visit was a blast. Flying in to San Francisco on Wednesday, we stayed with good friends that night, before heading to Monterey for RGruppe Treffen on the Thursday. Mrs Glynn reckons she was worried about us on the first night, as I texted this: “Arrived safe. Picked up hire car. Crashed at H’s place.”, which she took to mean we had wrecked the rental. Not so.
Thursday evening was fun, with dinner at the very cool Baja Cantina, where we hooked up with Porsche buddies for all the news on what they’d been up to since last year. Our first car park search found a very nice ST rep with an ex-Seinfeld engine in it, which we shot the following day: fabulous car.
Friday was all about making new friends. We met some great guys for lunch and then spent the afternoon waiting for our ST. When that arrived, we shot it right by the sea, in windy but wonderful conditions. Friday night was a hella overpriced meal at John Pisto’s Whaling Station: the ponciest restaurant I have ever been in. The calamari starter was excellent, and great value at $9, but was not worth the rest of the seahorse-shite sales pitch that was foisted upon us by an unbearably pompous waiter. I still cringe at the memory of it. Service was goddawful and I pitied the bus boy who was a nice guy, shouldering the weight of morons. Don’t bother with it if you are ever down in Monterey! $520 later, we had learned our lesson.
Saturday was good fun. We were out the door at 5am, to shoot Alex Motola’s brand new Fraise ST, built by TRE in Los Angeles. The shoot went well, with the dawn light really playing ball. Jamie and I followed our successful early start with breakfast and pancakes at a great nearby cafe before heading out to Laguna Seca, to recce locations for another shoot that afternoon.
The shoot was on Steve McQueen’s very own 1976 930, in special order Slate Grey. The SCCA guys running Laguna that weekend couldn’t have been nicer to us, and we found some great locations in and around the track. We’ll be back for sure.
On Sunday, we shot some tracking on another 911 before leaving the coast in a friend’s incredible 3.6-engined early car. This is quite probably the greatest all-rounder of its kind anywhere, and the miles north were a real delight. Jamie has some really great pictures ready to go to print.
Monday afternoon was spent scouting San Francisco for locations on a Bullitt-style shoot we had pencilled in for the following day. Good fun being tourists: packing in some ‘Cable Car’ pizza, hitting the visitor hotspots and ending up eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at Haight Ashbury. It was a great day in the city we had both seen so much of on screen. Calling a potential feature on the way home was entertaining – never been hung up on so quickly.
Tuesday we dropped in to see Chris at the Blackhawk Collection. Chris is a great guy working in a great place, but more of that later. We were there to make arrangements for a piece we were doing a few days after. All thumbs up so we headed off to do our ’67 S shoot in the hills of San Francisco. It was fantastic.
Wednesday was a trip to Emeryville to see a 914 for sale, then a ride through Oakland before lunch at a great little cafe in Albany – The Four Corners. We then headed up to Novato, and shot a turbocharged 1975 911 S. Sweet car.
On Thursday we did the wickedest classic Porsche at Blackhawk before heading out to see a plane for sale in Brentwood. Turned out the seller was a good friend of the Hemi Cuda owner we shot on our last trip in September 2009. The piece has just appeared in Classic Cars magazine and it looks very good.
Friday was our last day. We visited our friends at Canepa to shoot their original little 911 L rally car, then came back up to say goodbye to all at WEVO, before jumping on a plane and arriving back in the UK next day. In the rain.
The pics here are from Friday. The transporter was taking a wicked Cobra away. He’d come all the way from Toronto and was originally from Walthamstow!
There you have it: 9 days in the USA and every one a winner. Where to next?!
by John Glynn | Apr 26, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog
Juggling the day job and preparations for the US trip has left little time for blogging in the last week or two. Here’s part 1 of my Essen pics – I took quite a bundle. Hopefully you’ll find them interesting.
First up is the 917K, brought from Stuttgart for the show. I must have taken 50 pictures of this over the three days I was there. But is it really Dickie Attwood’s 1970 Le Mans-winning car? Definitely the real deal? Not according to some people I spoke to. But beautiful.
Mittelmotor’s Micheal Wittke always brings amazing things to look at. This is his 914 build a la Sonauto: Le Mans 1970 all over again. Within a stone’s throw of each other, these two (above and below).
Classic Motorsport’s supertasty RSR shell. The fit and finish of the panels was exceptional. But, as Aaron said, not quite sure what the story was with the rear suspension and swaybar mounts. Nice though – very nice.
Beautiful little Carrera 2 from Steenbuck Automobiles. Always a selection of incredible 356s from these guys at Essen.
I am swooning over loads of 914s at the minute: got a real thing for them. I’ll have to get myself one soon (a hot rod, obviously). This 914/6 would be a perfect base for a hot rod build if it wasn’t so MINT! Loved this immaculate example.
Porsche 356 Carreras are one thing, but a nice little 1600 Super motor is pretty sexy too. Not sure about the shiny coil but the rest sure looked good. You can’t beat teastrainers for retro intake kudos!
Here’s a Speedster conversion on a 356 B; very nicely done. What about the €55k price tag? Any thoughts from the 356 crowd?
Never seen this colour trim in such good condition on a 911 before and I’ve seen a few 911s. Rich Brown leather with leather dash, leather armpulls: the lot. Absolutely superb at GT Classics (local boys).
Was wandering through the parts hall on my way to another schnitzel when I spotted this tray under yellowing plastic. The stallholder let me play around a bit with my little Leica, so I bought a nice old Matchbox 930 from him: Emerald Green with Tan/Cork interior. My perfect 930 spec ‘in true life’, as the kids say.
I call this one ‘Blonde with Viper Green Targa’.
You’d think Chocolate Brown on an SC would be kinda wrong. Instead, it is so right. If I owned this, I’d be sponsored by Lindt.
Finally for Part 1: a Kiln Red 911 SC Targa, fresh off the boat from America and wearing nice soft paint. €28k euros to you! But a great colour nonetheless.
by John Glynn | Apr 13, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars, Road Trips
Since our first visit to the Essen Techno Classica back in 2006, I have always wanted to drive my own car over. The sight of all those great old classics on show and for sale made me miss my 911, and Dusseldorf city centre seemed an ideal place for a cruise around amidst ancient German money. For 2010, I vowed to get to Essen using classic Porsche power.
With Eurotunnel booked and the Barclaycard ready to take the brunt of the fuel bill, at 3.30 last Wednesday morning, I set off for Essen.
First stop was Banbury, for a fill up for car and driver (iPhone pic above). 24 hour latte on tap is a lovely idea, especially when you’ve only had two hours sleep! Costa’s Raspberry and Almond bakes are the perfect accompaniment. My car runs the billet Airflow cupholders, which have paid for themselves in satisfying my 911+caffeine addiction many times over. With coffee and cake on board, and iPod shuffle piping through the Autocom intercom headphones, we headed for Folkestone.
Just before Junction 9, the sign said ‘M40 Closed; Junction 4 to 3’. Pain in the bum as there is no real alternative after J9 unless you want to go miles around via the A34/M4. I had also just passed the logical link from M40 to M1.
I came off at J9 and ran the A41 all the way through Aylesbury and out the other side, eventually hitting the M25 (above). The detour was a nuisance, but it was a great drive. The M25 southern section was soon dispatched, and I headed onto the M26/M20 (below), stopping for fuel at the last-chance services and arriving at Eurotunnel just as dawn was breaking.
I was sitting on a kerb taking this picture of the pink dawn sky over the terminal building, when a guy got out of a car on the other side of the hedge behind me. He called to his son: “Look, look! Look at this old Porsche! Oh WOW!” Then he must have seen the back of me sitting there being a camera geek, and British reserve kicked in just as his son came bundling out of their car and wowing excitedly, just the same. “Shush,” he said, “it’s only a car.” Made me smile.
After my first proper run in the Orange for almost 21 months (since July 08), caning along an empty A41 and then a good old blast around the M25, I thought to myself “Yes, it’s only a car. But what a car!”
The tunnel crossing was a chance to rest. Loved their note about opening sunroofs and vents seeing as I don’t have either. We rolled out the other side into beautiful sunshine and I put pedal to metal again, knocking on 160 km/h all the way to Antwerp. I stopped there to grab a bite:
Two hours later, I was checking in to Essen’s Hotel Petul. Once upon a time, I’d have downed a double espresso and shot straight on down to the show. With days of sleep deprivation catching up with me, I decided to grab a nap instead. There’s only so long a candle can be burnt at both ends!
by John Glynn | Apr 2, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I picked up my orange 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Coupe from its latest visit to Tuthill Porsche today. The boys dropped the worn steering rack out and swapped my Turbo tie rods over to a good used rack I supplied, fitting their re-machined rack spacers/lock stops at the same time. These allow a decent sized spanner to be used on the tie rods, rather than the teaspoons the original pieces leave room for.
The front anti-roll bar bushes were perished, so those were changed for polyurethane ones. Then the rack assembly was refitted and the tracking was set. Total cost: 4 hours labour, plus parts, plus VAT: £275.
Tuthills couldn’t road test Orange, as the front tyres are below the legal tread depth (it’s on temporary Michelin Pilot Sport Cup track tyres and the fronts are almost slick). So I got to road test it first. The road was wet, and the worn Michies do pull down on the front a bit, but how nice to have a car that went where it was pointed! Baby’s-bum Michelin R-Compound rubber is not a huge problem in the wet: these are amazing tyres. I’ll put my road wheels on over the weekend – Kumho rubber on 8×16 and 9×16 inch Fuchs as in the pic below – and see what it feels like. Pretty sure it’s gonna be good.
It’s booked for an MOT on Tuesday. Hopefully we can pass that, ready for the annual trip to the Essen Techno Classica on Wednesday. I was going to take advantage of a free crossing with Norfolk Line Ferries, but the outbound weather looks a bit grim, so I’ve just booked the Chunnel instead. Cost was £104, which I didn’t think was bad for a short notice ticket over Easter.
An early start is required to get to Essen for the afternoon preview, meaning the 400 km drive on the other side should be pretty pacey. I can hear the engine’s characteristic 4500rpm buzz already.
by John Glynn | Mar 26, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
My orange 1976 911 Carrera 3.0 is due for an MOT, but there’s been play in the steering rack for a while now. As I am exceedingly time poor at the minute, I dropped the car down to Tuthills at lunchtime to get them to do it.
I hadn’t run the car since August 14th last year, so would the Odyssey 680 battery still have enough juice on board to start it? I needn’t have worried. Knock on the battery master switch, turn the key and into life at the first crank.
Arriving at Tuthill in Wardington was pretty hectic. The guys were getting ready for the Bulldog Rally this weekend, fabrication was busy, paint shop was busy, engine workshop flat out tuning a Belgian rally car. All sorts of stuff going on.
I had my D700 and the 50mm prime with me so I shot a few pics.
Oli Wheeler’s 3.2 Carrera with the Jenvey throttle bodies (covered by Jamie Lipman and me for 911 & Porsche World magazine) was in for servicing. Here’s Oli’s and mine with the new service van behind.
This is a very faithful ST replica that’s about to start racing:
Steve Troman’s perfect little Martini SC, just back from the East African Safari Classic Rally:
Here’s a build the guys have just finished. Nothing revolutionary, just a rust-free US import 911, rebuilt and repainted in Jaguar Green in a 3.0 RS-style. The finish is excellent: I love Minilites on a Porsche. The motor is a 3.2 with 964 cams , SSIs and a Dansk two out. Sounds great and I don’t usually go a bundle on 3.2s or the 2-out Dansk boxes.
Also grabbed a nice pic of Mark and Martin putting the driveshaft back into a Boxster S in for a service:
Inspired by all the activity and some very beautiful cars, I asked Paul to get the boys to do the rack and then drop the engine and gearbox out, as I have some long-overdue jobs to get through on the Carrera 3.0 motor and I feel like taking a day or two off to get these parts on the car. I’m going to get a list together and see what we can make happen while it’s all on the floor.
Came home in my Audi 80 Avant, which has been sitting there waiting to be picked up for weeks. Tuthills do Volkswagen and Audi servicing also, so I had left the 80 (a 2.6 manual with 150k on but in generally tidy condition) in with them for scary wear in the front suspension. They changed all the front end bushes, including new wishbones and strut top mounts, then retracked the car. It drove really well, albeit with a little bit of a knock up front still, due to wear in the struts themselves. Got my eye on eBay for some bargain replacements.
I’ve not had the Audi bill yet, but it’s bound to be chunky. No idea what the 911 will cost either, but the stuff needs doing and no sign of my being able to get to it in the next 8 weeks. Better to have these things ready to use or sell, than sitting in a garage gathering dust!
