by John Glynn | Jul 4, 2013 | Project Cars, Porsche Cayenne
I’ve just bought a 2004 Porsche Cayenne S to add to the Ferdinand fleet. In Basalt Black with black leather and 117,000 miles on the clock, it’s a nice example with plenty of life left in it.
I’ve had the Cayenne itch for a while. Part of me thinks Ferdinand Magazine and my little social media agency should run a Porsche day-to-day and, with building in full swing at home so plenty of big stuff to move around, school runs to do and my insistence on four-wheel-drive on a daily driver, it was really the only choice from the Porsche lineup.
What Cayenne to buy was pretty easy – something under £8k was the first deciding factor. Respect to my Cayenne brothers running the V6, but I didn’t want a six-pot. Kudos to Turbo owners, but Cayenne Turbos are still pricey and not my bag either. Liner problems aside, the V8 is pretty reliable once the coolant pipes are sorted. The previous owner has done the aluminium coolant pipe upgrade on this car, and it’s got new-ish tyres, recent brakes and drives a treat. No sunroof and no heated seats a minor downer, but it rides on steel springs, which I was also pretty keen on.
Of course there are a few snags on my list – most of it trim wear and tear – but that’s to be expected for the price. Having good Porsche independents as clients will make sorting out the trim and other small issues easy to do.
So far I’ve done just over a hundred miles and all good. The fourteen year-old wants to take her driving test in it and Mrs Glynn won’t give back the keys. A good start – we’ll see how long the honeymoon lasts.
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by John Glynn | Jun 20, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
My good friend Richard is selling his Porsche 944 Turbo S Silver Rose. Manufactured in 1988, only seventy Silver Rose models came to the UK, and some specialists estimate that just a third of those still exist. This car has a huge spec, so difficult to get it all across in a simple classified ad.
“The Silver Rose brings all the best bits of the previous year’s 944 Turbo Cup cars together, making a finely balanced package,” says Richard. “There’s a unique Silver Rose exterior colour, and unique Burgundy Plaid interior trim with 8-way power seats. The cars have no sunroof, but do have A/C. Although my car’s A/C is currently removed, the wiring is all there and my specialist estimates six hours to replace.
“Front brakes are from the 928 S4: 300 x 32mm discs with bigger 4-piston Brembo calipers and ABS. Wheels are the lighter, wider forged alloy wheels: 7/9 x 16” sizes in the Club Sport design (not to be confused with the much heavier, later D90 design).
“The drivetrain has a bigger k26/8 turbo (also adopted on all later 250hp cars), LSD with 40% lockup, M030 suspension option, consisting of Koni adjustable shocks front and rear, with ride height adjusting threaded collars on the front struts, stiffer springs and torsion bars, larger hollow rear anti-roll bar, harder durometer suspension bushings throughout, larger 26.8mm hollow anti-roll at the front.
“It’s got chassis stiffening brackets in the front frame rails, factory rolled front and rear fender edges to accommodate larger wheels, the 5-speed manual transmission (case code designation: AOR) with a higher friction clutch disc setup, and an external transmission cooler.
“I bought my Silver Rose from one of the mechanics at JAZ Porsche in Wembley and it has been looked after by JAZ during my approx 2 years of ownership. As a Porsche mechanic’s car, it benefitted from engine, suspension and brake rebuilds. The spec includes a rebuilt k26/8 turbo, new Lindsey Racing dual-port wastegate, stage 2 intercooler and 3-inch exhaust, Bailey dump valve, new Siemens 55lb injectors, fuel pressure regulator and pressure gauge, Greddy electronic boost controller, head studs, head gasket etc.
“Maintenance on the car in my ownership has included recovering the driver’s seat bolsters, and I now have nearly three metres of the Burgundy plaid material that will come with the car. I was lucky to find this, as people are now asking silly money for it. I have enough to just about retrim the whole car if it’s needed in the future.
“It’s had two scheduled services completed at JAZ Porsche, with the most recent service this week. I’ve also had a rolling road ECU remap by Wayne Schofield: Wayne knows these cars inside out, having spent days mapping them for racing in the late 1980s. The remap concentrated on drivability with the best torque curve, and resulted in over 300hp and 327lb/ft of torque (dyno graph available).
“It’s had the timing belts changed, an exhaust side engine mount replaced by JAZ in September 2012 and follow up inspection/adjustment in January 2013. I fitted a new front windscreen in 2012. It has new Bridgestone N-spec SO2s (245/225): less than 1,000 miles on the fronts and 3,000 miles on the rears.
“Body-wise, Nottingham Coachcraft in Caterham stripped, repaired and repainted the driver’s sill, all wheel arches and the rear of the driver’s front wing. It’s had new quarter window seals, new driver’s wiper control arm, new driver’s electric window motor, new temp sensor and other similar sundries. The wheels have been refurbished in Porsche Meteor Grey.
“I have a few spares like another intercooler, crossover pipe, D90 and CS wheels and two complete fog/side light units which can come with the car by negotiation. MOT and tax run to the end of August 2013. It’s HPI clear with eight previous owners. The car comes with limited service history as it was a mechanic’s car, but you can verify its bona fides with JAZ Porsche.
“There is a Momo steering wheel in the car, but the original wheel comes with it, as do the original amber indicators. The car also has the OE 10-speaker stereo with an Alpine DVD/CD/touch screen head unit with ipod connection and there is Bluetooth for phones.”
I do love a good for sale ad, and this is a nice one to share. Richard’s got it up for £11,500, which sounds like all the money, but “regular” 944 Turbos have been known to sell for more and this is a very collectible Silver Rose model. The tuning is well thought out, so this is going to be a very capable car on road or track and a pretty good investment. I’ve definitely talked myself into this one – where’s that Barclaycard?!
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by John Glynn | May 2, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
Today was a good day, spent hanging out at Tuthills watching the finishing touches going on a brand new Safari car.
This 911 is destined for Kenya in November, but the Swedish owner will run the car at in the 2013 Morocco Historic from May 13-18 as an African ice breaker.
Tuthills have three cars in this year’s Moroccan event: all three will go on to race the Safari. They have all just been prepped for North Africa at the Wardington workshops, and this is the first to depart. Driver Phil trailered this one to Calais today, where the owner will take over moving it to Morocco.
We often think of 911s as soft little flowers: those slender side pillars and sculpted door handles imbuing a sense of finesse. Tuthill Safari cars retain those classic 911 motifs, but are the hardest Porsches I know.
Eight hundred hours or more goes into every Safari shell to ensure it’s stiff and strong. The suspension is bespoke – none of your revalved Bilsteins here. Engines are built from powerful, reliable components, most run MFI and are tuned to over 300 horsepower. Transmissions are custom built, with specially calculated ratios to suit the modified gearing and tall wheel/tyre combinations.
Inside is a workspace. Nothing surplus: all is function. Under the front is the oil cooler pipework, a custom fuel tank and a pair of full-size spare wheels, each ready to be changed in under a minute if you know what you’re doing.
Now costing £160,000 plus VAT a piece to build, Safari cars are easily my favourite 911s. I never get tired of looking at, listening to or riding in them. The ultimate do-anything Porsche!
by John Glynn | Apr 16, 2013 | Porsche News, Market & Prices
Porsche achieved record sales in March 2013. More than 14,000 cars were sold in one month: a record number of deliveries in the company’s history.
In the first quarter of 2013, deliveries totalled 37,000 cars: 21% up on last year. China had increased interest in mid- and rear-engined models, where Porsche says 33% more Boxster, Cayman and 911 vehicles were delivered in the first quarter of 2013. Porsche sold 8,844 cars in China during Q1: up 25% on last year.
Porsche seems pretty bullish regarding 911 sales, which were up almost 19% on Q1 2012, with 7,230 911s sold. Stuttgart says Cayenne is also up on last year, with 20,000 vehicles sold versus an undisclosed number. No data was released on Panamera: a shame following our last post regarding Panamera sales slumps, but few of you will be that bothered and it’s just about to be replaced, in any case.
Look again at the data chart above. While Asia is up over 3,000 cars, with America close behind, Europe is showing a mere 400-car increase. Germany on its own is up more than twice that. Take Germany out, and Euro sales are down.
March is an important month for UK new car registrations, with the new-year registration plate on March 1, and end of the tax year for most companies. March 2013 registration data shows a healthy UK car market, with registrations up almost 6% for the month to just under 400,000 and Q1 up 7.5% year-on-year at just over 600,000 units.
In a rising market, Porsche registered fewer cars in March this year versus last, and Q1 sales are also down, at 1,660 units. The drop is only 4% (roughly 70 cars), but Mercedes was up 13%, Land Rover was up 19% and Jaguar saw sales increase by almost 25% in the first three months of 2013.
Fingers will point at new Porsches coming, but the rest of the world awaits the same new models, and sales are through the roof. Small wonder that New Porsche is putting so much effort into grabbing that business.
The UK, and Europe beyond Germany is now a minor territory, and increasingly less relevant to whatever this is moving towards. Product planners usually pay little attention to 4% of worldwide sales, however important that market might have been, once upon a time.
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by John Glynn | Apr 15, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Note: this car has now sold via the Ferdinand Magazine Blog and lives in New Zealand.
Fellow European R Gruppe member, Christian, has just sent details of his 911 RS recreation, which he has put up for sale. I followed this car in build for a couple of years and am surprised he is letting it go.
It made slightly more sense when Christian told me how a top secret barn find with a 360 chassis number was behind the decision, although part of me thinks I’d prefer to own this one.
This car is just so right. “This is the only Carrera 2.7L RS replica which was invited to the official 40th anniversary Porsche Carrera RS World Meeting in Stuttgart in September 2012”, says Christian. “It appears in the official participant book as number 36. The car is in overall perfect shape, always very well maintained and handles perfectly. It has a nice driving position as the driver’s seat, the special seat railings and the hub extension were built for a person around 175-190cm (5’7″-6’2″).”
Based on a late 1972 911T (’73 MY), this 911 is what Christian calls a “contemporary 2,7L RS M471 lightweight build”.
The colour is Grand Prix White over Viper Green. Four layers of paint protect a detailed restoration by Hans Patutschnick in 2010, with full photo documentation. Except for DP Motorsport bumpers & ducktail, the body is all steel and was fully wax protected.
Suspension is classic 911 19/26mm torsion bars with Bilstein Nurburgring suspension and raised front spindles. Adjustable 18mm bars front and rear, 7 and 8×15 wheels in proper anodised-with-bright-rim finish and Avon CR6ZZ tyres.
Inside is a DP Lollipop seat, with RS co-drivers seat: love the houndstooth. VDO gauges restored by North Hollywood, original 1973 Momo Prototipo, 85l plastic tank, magnesium transmission with correct gearset and a Quaife LSD. Full transmission cooling and Webasto cabin heating.
The engine is a true work of art, built by Oliver Bienert of Boxer-Motoren, Manching, Germany in 2011. It’s a 2.8-litre MFI, making 281 hp at around 7,200k RPM. The 7R case was modified with shuffle pins, oil bypass and boat tailing, before the bottom end was built around a knife edged 70.4mm crankshaft, with 964 oil pump, Carrillo rods and 92mm Mahle barrels and pistons.
The engine list really is too much, including custom Bosch throttles, MFI pump and twin plug distributor. An RSR flywheel and lightweight clutch finish it off.
Fuelled up with 30 litres and ready to go, the RS rebuild weighs 980 kilograms. It’s done 5,000 miles with no track use since completion. Everything is detailed in the German registration papers, it carries a H (historic) registration plate and is fully TUV approved.
Having just seen what traders were asking at Techno Classica for ordinary early cars, this seems well priced at €94,000. Though he is based near Frankfurt, I hear Christian has had contact from France and the US on this car, so get your skates on if you want to discuss it.
