by John Glynn | Dec 16, 2013 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche has taken a majority stake in Manthey Racing: Olaf Manthey’s Nürburgring-based racing team and motorsport organisation. It’s the latest step in Olaf’s move towards a retirement of sorts (hard to imagine Olaf ever entirely retiring, as he is still “working flat out in my own rev limiter”). Here’s Olaf with his works driver pairing of Marco Holzer and Nick Tandy:
Following Manthey’s initial merger with Audi racers, Nicki and Martin Raeder last year, Porsche AG has acquired a 51% share of Manthey-Racing GmbH: the organisation which has supported Porsche factory race efforts for a number of years, and counts five Nürburgring 24-Hour victories, two Le Mans wins and an amazing eight Supercup titles amongst its silverware.
Through 2013, Porsche AG Team Manthey together mounted the first works Porsche endurance campaign for over twenty years. 2014 will be a big year for Porsche and no doubt a shorter team name will please the marketing department.
But beyond business, Porsche’s involvement with Olaf Manthey is quite a personal one. Following the loss of Olaf’s son in a tragic road accident in 2007, Manthey and Porsche Motorsport boss, Hartmut Kristen, agreed that Porsche would become the ultimate inheritor of Olaf’s incredible competition portfolio, earned since the team was formed in 1996.
“Porsche’s commitment and dedication represents the best possible incentive to our employees,” Olaf is quoted as saying. “Not only can we pool our knowledge and expertise, but with Porsche at our side we can look forward to the future with great confidence”.
The Manthey name has a special place in the hearts of Porsche enthusiasts. Let’s hope it continues to be part of the landscape.
by John Glynn | Dec 11, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
A number of projects have been enforcing wee-hours Internet trawls for material from the 2013 Safari Rally. This was the first year for a while that I didn’t follow the rally as it happened, so going back through Youtube videos and enthusiast coverage unveils a more human story.
What continues to stand out about the rally is the whitespace. Whitespace on a page is space for the content to spread, unfold, stand on its own and filter into your grey cells. The Ferdinand website runs a ton of whitespace, as that is how I like to read. Whitespace on Safari is fresh air, big landscapes and beautiful light.
Whitespace on a road trip allows room for the tendrils of the experience to wind through the windscreen, into the cracks and crevices of our psyche to massage our imaginations. The greatest journeys take us on a metaphorical learning curve of self: no one comes back from a road trip less resolved than how they departed.
Essentially a competitive road trip, rallying offers similar spirituality – don’t be scared off by the word – in a more challenging context. Testing their stamina, ambition and resourcefulness, the competitors scrape another layer off their ultimate capability. Putting the body and mind under extreme duress is part of the thrill of existence: and is there a better way to have existence fully envelope a consciousness, than fighting for victory on one of the great marathon rallies?
Porsches and philosophy on a misty Wednesday morning: you’re welcome. Anyone who wants to stay up late drinking whiskey and potentially talking this stuff in a remote Alpine ski lodge next June should find a way onto the Twinspark Racing Bergmeister Tour. In the morning, the philosophically less interested take off to drive legendary mountain passes and we hang back, mentally drifting off piste and doing our own thing. The best times await us when we just let them come.
Tuthill Porsche ran an amazing sixteen 911s on this year’s Safari Rally, which must make Richard Tuthill the most philosophical of all of us: he is certainly an inspiring person to work with. Though he will vehemently deny this, his reponsibility for so many epic past projects tells a different story. If you’re looking for the ultimate Porsche Road Trip, then Safari is your thing.
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by John Glynn | Dec 4, 2013 | Race and Rally, Porsche People
“Some people call me the Space Cowboy, Some call me the Gangster of Love”
I don’t know whether anyone’s ever called Michael Christensen the “Gangster of Love”, but from next year they will be calling him a Porsche Works Racing Driver, which might be even better.
The impressive 23 year-old rookie from Denmark has spent the last two years as a Porsche Junior, racing 911 GT3s, and impressed Stuttgart enough to earn a slot in the works driver lineup. Those who’ve followed Christensen race and win will applaud with the decision. There’s real speed and intelligence in Christensen’s driving – unsurprising when you look at his CV.
Karting from an early age, Christensen rose to become one the of the best by winning Nordic and European Junior titles, finishing second in the World Formula A series and taking back to back German kart titles. He won the Formula BMW Europe Rookies Cup in 2008, and notched up a pile of wins in 2009, only to lose them in a battle over tech regs. Two years in GP3 followed, before he took a shot at the Porsche young drivers selection process, winning a comprehensive support package as a Porsche Junior in the Carrera Cup Deutschland.
Christensen crowned his maiden season with a win at Hockenheim in front of all the right names. In 2013 Supercup, he took a win at the Nurburgring, and made the best rookie award his own. Time will tell what Christensen can do with the works drive, but having him on the team is no bad thing. Graduating to the works team from Supercup at least gives the series some good news this year, following the loss of Sean Edwards.
Congratulations, Michael! Here’s to a great 2014.
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by John Glynn | Dec 2, 2013 | Race and Rally, Porsche People
I spotted Mark Webber in the rugby crowd yesterday, while working with the TV on. Now a former Formula driver, Webber put Porsche on the F1 podium in his final two appearances. Name-checking his future employer in front of the viewing millions, Webber reminded F1 fans that racing is not all about Bernie’s 22-seat circus.
Webber will race Porsche’s LMP prototype in next year’s World Endurance Championship, and escape to a better life-work balance. Mark’s final race in Brazil last weekend was the perfect send-off for the paddock’s favourite fighter.
“It was a very good finish to my career,” Mark told reporters afterwards. “A good fight with all the guys I’ve enjoyed fighting with for most of my career: Seb, Fernando, Lewis, Nico – all the guys who’ve been in the window for the last five or six years.”
F1’s media entourage (and us fans) will miss Webber’s forthright camera face next year. I don’t know who else will step up to the “tell it like it is” role. Jenson Button, maybe – could be his last year, too. Mark’s final F1 weekend was loaded with self-effacing Aussie style.
“Maybe I didn’t have absolute natural talent, but I knew that if I grafted and worked hard, I’d get the results,” said Webber, before his final race. “I smashed a lot of guys who had more talent than me, because they didn’t work as hard as me. I learned that about myself: how important it was to graft and just get my head down. I’ve been doing that for most of my career.” I totally get what he’s saying, and how good it feels to work hard for results.
WEC with Stuttgart won’t be a walk in the park, but there’ll be more space to breathe, time to walk the dogs, and opportunities to help and encourage younger sportsmen and women. I’m sure Mark will be top man at keeping his positive influence going. As we all know, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and hard-grafting Webber has energy to spare.
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by John Glynn | Nov 11, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Better known as Le Corbusier, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris was a pioneer of modern architecture. While Le Corbusier’s designs for urban living may no longer be attuned to 21st century inner city pressures, his ideas continue to influence designers and artists, almost fifty years after his death.
Le Corbusier had much to say on colour. “If the house is white all over, the shapes of things stand out without any possible ambiguity; the volume of things will appear clear cut; the colour of things is categorical. The white of whitewash is absolute. Everything stands out against it and is displayed absolutely: black against white, frank and truthful. Put in objects that are unsuitable or in bad taste, and you can’t miss them. You might call it the X-ray of beauty, a permanent court of judgement, the eye of truth.”
Le Corbusier’s eye of truth is currently being cast upon Thomas Flohr’s Safari car, awaiting fresh paint in the Tuthill Porsche bodyshop. Last seen on Safari 2011, the silver 911 had a rough start to the event, being abandoned at the mid-way point when the crew decided to call it a day. Tuthills carried the car along on the event – Francis’ experience suggesting this would be prudent – and it eventually donated the front section of its roll cage to the Waldegård car, allowing it to complete the rally after a fairly big off as the rally reached its final days.
Now fully repaired with a brand new and latest-version roll cage installed by the fabrication team at Wardington, Thomas’ superb 911 has been rubbed down by hand, ahead of a full respray in the same silver colour. The off-white shade may not tally with the master, but Le Corbusier’s musings on using a single monochromatic colour to highlight pure shapes and bad taste rings true.
The finished Safari cage in a simple, bare 911 shell is a structure of enduring fascination and beauty. Don’t you think? Maybe just me.
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