by John Glynn | Aug 22, 2014 | Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Porsche News
The Mexico Blue Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0 has just sold at JZM Porsche. Finished in what might be the ultimate paint-to-sample shade, the lack of decals is what most people I spoke to seemed to bring up – that and the price, of course.
For sale at a heady £350,000, people were always going to talk about the advertised price. “That’s not us driving the market,” say the sellers, “that is what the owner decided would convince him to part with it. The last RHD 4.0 RS to sell was a more common white car, which sold at £320k. The market has jumped since then and our customer was happy to keep this low-mileage one-off if his return wasn’t worthwhile.”
Such is life as a dealer: balancing customer sentiment with market activity. And it’s not always positive. Agressive dealers keen to push the market up for other 911s have dragged others with them, hurting everyone’s prospects as a consequence. One particular specialist known for scary prices has been listing 911 Turbos – mainly 993s – at huge money this year, forcing other sellers to list cars beyond their comfort zone, to prevent more realistic prices from inferring poor condition. I’m not saying dealers are scared of pushing prices, but there’s a fine line between market top and madness.
JZM has since re-priced its low-mileage Porsche 993 Turbo to what it believes is a more realistic level. Further down the price scale, I’ve spoken to a number of other dealer friends this week who, fed up with silly prices for projects, have been bidding much lower then the asking price and not coming home empty-handed.
One dealer who recently inspected a 1970 911 for a customer valued the car at just 60% of asking. “It was up for one price but with non-matching numbers, rust to repair and no shortage of issues to point at, I offered much less than the advertised price and told him to try and do better. A few days later, the phone rang to say come pick it up.”
What would a potentially slowing project market prove? Not much we don’t know. Prices for good cars are one place, prices for projects are somewhere else entirely. Few people want to buy huge amounts of work as most specialist repairers are pretty booked up, and restoration prices are climbing as parts get harder to source. At some stage there may be a tipping point: if it comes, I’m assuming it will be interest rate related.
There’s no harm in sellers making hay while they can if that what the market is willing to pay. Hurts that genuine enthusiasts are being blown out by investors, but let’s see how it all plays out.
by John Glynn | Aug 16, 2014 | Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Porsche News
Enjoyed a run in this sweet used Porsche 997 GT2 for sale earlier this week: a 2008 registered/2009 model year car with the full Manthey M600 power upgrade and some other fun bits. The car arrived for sale and was sold soon after to a keen driver and regular customer. Small wonder when it is such a special machine.
JZM is the UK Manthey agent and built this car from new for the original owner. The factory spec is comprehensive enough, but this GT2 also runs: M600 engine upgrade, Manthey MM1 magnesium wheels, KW HLS2 nose lift system and Nürburgring-approved Manthey carbon bits including front spoiler, front arch Gurneys, sill trims and rear wing extension.
Inside it has even more carbon with PCM3, black leather sports seats and Schroth harnesses as well as the normal seatbelts. Upgrades to the six-speed manual transmission include a Manthey short shift and gearbox overhaul with a few tweaks at Frikadelli Racing. Manthey replaced the upgraded 890 Nm clutch in April of this year. It shifts like a dream, and needs that upgraded clutch pack.
Standard power in a GT2 is 530 bhp, but only a stone cold example holds on to those horses. As heat increases so power is lost, with the plastic-capped intercoolers soaking up heat and frying intake temps. Manthey solves the problem with bigger all-aluminium intercoolers, also adding adding 200-cell cats and an all-new Akrapovic silencer.
As intake temperatures are now much lower, and the gases can exit the car freely, Olaf’s boys remap the better-breathing GT2 on their 850 bhp Maha dyno, taking power to a dependable 600 horsepower (hence the M600).
On the road, the car is a pussycat. JZM’s Steve McHale took us up the nearby A41 for a few miles, exploiting gaps in the traffic to best advantage. An older Porsche with this much power on a wet greasy road would be a proper handful, but even when the traction light flashed at 5,000 revs in fourth gear, the car never deviated from the straightest of lines.
Noise is my only complaint about modern 911s. They all make a stunning amount of noise through those massive rear tyres, and the M600 GT2 is no exception. Trying to make a hands-free phone call on a grainy road surface like this English dual carriageway would be somewhat frustrating, but talking on the move is no problem.
All too soon, our twenty mile spin is over. The car gets a clean bill of health and I tick another 911 off the bucket list. A police car out front on the return leg kept our speeds fairly sensible, but the Manthey Porsche 997 GT2 M600 will top 203 mph where limits allow: 200 reasons to open your wallet.
by John Glynn | Aug 16, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
Either I am following most of the Californian Porsche population on Instagram, or everyone else is at the first Werks Reunion at Carmel on the Monterey Historics weekend. My feed has been a parade of 356s, early 911s and latest Magnus Walker video exploits for the last few days.
Not seen many pics of this little beauty, though. It’s Joey B’s 1977 Porsche 911 S in Minerva Blue, which I shared a few weeks ago. Joey has now applied his meticulous attention to detail to what was already quite a nice car, and created something quite remarkable.
“Hey Johnny, hope you are well,” says his email. “Just wanted let you know this middie (what we call a ‘mid-year’ Porsche: post-1973 and pre-SC) is all buttoned up & ready for the prom this Friday at the 1st Werks Reunion in Carmel. Hope you approve of the changes, some more subtle than others.”
Changes obviously include a coat of wax! I spy 15″ Fuchs (of course), some period sounds and a retrimmed steering wheel. That Cork & Pascha interior is just right – makes me think I’d love to see some tan suede or Alcantara centres on early impact bumper Recaro sports seats.
Outside, that no-sunroof narrow body looks sharp with the black H4 headlamp trim rings and single door mirror. “I decided to stay with the 2.7-litre CIS engine with 10k miles on the rebuild,” says Joey and looks like a great decision to me. I see some yellow fog lamp bulbs, too. What a superstar classic!
Who has more pics to share from the Monterey Porsche Werks Reunion? Owner driver Porsche pics like this suit me perfect – we’re not about the garage queens. Drop me an email via the contact page.
by John Glynn | Aug 8, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Been a very busy boy lately with a bunch of new website builds and a lot of new products and projects to look after. It’s left little time for Ferdinand, but I should start catching up after this weekend.
Undoubtedly the biggest Porsche story of the past two weeks has been the launch of Tuthill Porsche’s 911 WRC car. Built to comply with complex FIA R-GT/RGT regulations, the project was led by Graham Moore, who also managed the original Aston Martin V8 Vantage Rally GT project. Graham is super interesting to talk to, and following Team Tuthill’s work in getting the car through the various levels of FIA approval has been highly illuminating.
Graham Moore – Chief Engineer Tuthill Porsche 911 Rally Car
Like many of the engineers and technicians who work with Tuthill Porsche, Graham started with Prodrive in the early 1990s and gained experience across all of the projects of the time, including BMW and Alfa Romeo touring cars. He then switched to Subaru’s Group A and WRC teams, where his work as head of powertrain helped Colin McRae secure Subaru’s first World Rally Championship.
Moving to the race track, Graham worked on the Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 program in Le Mans, American Le Mans and the 24 Hours. The team then built the first bio-fueled, Judd-powered Lola LMP1 to race in Le Mans Series. The car snatched pole in Japan ahead of a full season of Le Mans Series, ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2010.
Since then, Graham has been focused on developing high power electric drivetrains for electric racing championships like FIA Formula E, and served as Chief Engineer on converting the LMP1 Lola chassis to race with pure electric power. Graham’s lead role in the Tuthill Porsche RGT project has been a real dream come true for all at Tuthill Porsche in Wardington.
Porsche 911 FIA WRC Rally Car: Restrictions
It will come as no surprise to learn that the FIA’s RGT category is power restricted. The 911 has to run an inlet air restrictor, which limits outright performance on FIA events. This creates an interesting challenge to get the best performance, but Richard and Peter Lythell enjoyed their first outing at Harry Flatters, where the Tuthill 997 RGT car ran as course closing car with an official dispensation from the MSA.
“We had an amazing first day in the car,” said Richard Tuthill, who drove the car on the event. “The main aim of the day was to get miles under our belts. We tried a variety of setups and tyre combinations. Our target for the 911 WRC car was create a Porsche that is easy and fun to drive, and which will appeal to all levels of drivers.
“We’re delighted to report that the car lands beautifully from jumps, is incredibly nimble through the narrow tight twisty stuff and hugely competent in the fast sections. It was born to rally: there is also no doubt that it will be extremely competitive in the overall standings.”
Porsche 911 FIA RGT car at Ulster Rally and WRC Germany
Next outing for the Tuthill Porsche 911 WRC car is next weekend’s Ulster Rally. From Ulster it goes straight to Germany for testing for WRC Germany, and then possibly on to Scandinavia. We are waiting to hear! There may even be a video crew following the Tuthill Porsche in Deutschland, so we look forward to great content after that event.
The plan is to race this car to iron out any bugs and then open the order book for customer versions. Anyone interested in the Porsche 997 GT3 FIA WRC car should email Richard Tuthill and get talking, as build slots will fill up quickly. It takes very little work to switch the car from track day use to rally spec, so it is a true all-rounder.
Rally Pics by JMS Photographic
by John Glynn | Jul 21, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Some great pics and video have just arrived from Mark at EB Motorsport, who supplied many of the replica Porsche parts used on this Rennsport Porsche 907 recreation build by RMS Porsche in Theix, near Vannes, France.
As a big fan of Brittany, I’ve been to Vannes a few times: wish I’d known RMS were based there. A quick look at the RMS Porsche Facebook page shows some very interesting projects, including running Tom Dillmann at Le Mans in Porsche Carrera Cup France. Anyone into GP2 will know Dillmann: no slouch in a single seater.
Suffice to say that RMS know their stuff on Porsche racing, although this 907 build has me scratching my head a bit. Introduced in 1967, the 907 initially ran a Rennsport 2-litre flat six. Far from being underpowered, it could hit 190mph in a straight line. Porsche then added a 2.2-litre flat eight engine, which took the 907 to Porsche’s first-ever 24-hours win at Daytona in 1968.
Superceded by the 908 later that same year, the 907 was quite a rare build and is not too common in historic racing. One giveaway of the 907 body was the nose, which had a rectangular centre grill with oval slots either side. The 908 went to an oval centre intake with an oval to the left and a mousehole-shaped slot to the right.
This recreation has that mousehole slot in the nose, but obviously does not run a 908 3-litre flat eight engine. The naming may just be as simple as that: 907 can show with a flat six. The replica bodywork looks modelled on Porsche 908K – like Cameron Healy’s 1968 908K (below), which I enjoyed photographing at Rennsport Reunion in 2011.
The RMS guys have also made this video of the first start of their replica. Initially reluctant to fire, it soon gets going and sounds great through the megaphones. I am intrigued to see the car running: no doubt that flat six engine will be making great power and the chassis will weigh next to nothing. Nice job, RMS.
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