by John Glynn | Jul 9, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Project Cars
Love these new Porsche 911 anti-roll bars (sway bars) from our friends at EB Motorsport. Sold in matched pairs for front and rear, the front ARB runs through the body, while the rear is suspended across the chassis using the original mounts.
“The EB Motorsport anti-roll bar set has been developed on our own cars in racing,” says EB’s Mark Bates. “Front and rear bars are available in various sizes: 22mm is the most popular size for 3.0 RS and RSRs like our race cars. We use hollow bars as we prefer the characteristics. The ARB stiffness is fully adjustable.
“The EB Motorsport anti-roll bars feature elegantly simple engineering. The bushed mounting system on both front and rear installations is less likely to distort in extreme conditions. Consequently, it resists “grounding out” as many other ARB types are prone to when under high load, such as at the bottom of Paddock Hill, at Brands Hatch.
The original design of this product is multi-piece aluminium, TIG welded. The bushes used by these EB Motorsport Porsche 911 anti-roll bars are a modern polymer equivalent to the original Delrin Acetal resin. Drop links are beautifully machined from aluminium and anodised. Cross drilled moment arms allow for easy adjustment. All connections feature rose joints with machined spacers, to allow free movement.
Some friends of mine use the Smart Racing rear ARB on their classic Porsche 911 for track days, and I have definitely seen those ground out at Paddock. In fact, I have even seen the rear tyre rub against the inside of the wheelarch through that compression zone and burn the paint off the outside of the arch on a 3.2 Carrera. It’s a pretty intense Porsche workout around Brands Hatch! Impressive if EB has found a way around the issue.
The EB Motorsport anti-roll bar kits retail at £1215 ex-works. They are suitable for most early cars, and all 911s up to 1989 with some modification to front fitment: impact bumper 911s are not through-the-body as standard. Contact EB Motorsport via their website to find out more.
by John Glynn | Jul 6, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Project Cars
Many of you will probably wish there were different wheels on this Porsche 356 Outlaw, recently spotted at an EASY Porsche meet in San Francisco. I reckon they are covering a brake upgrade – especially given the drivetrain changes – but no doubt this is an interesting car.
Super smooth bodywork with some urban stealth touches: grey primer with wiper delete, and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup rubber wrapped around those twist rims, the pics came from my buddy John G up in northern California. JG recently picked up a dune buggy body, and the emails have been flying on plans for chassis and drivetrain.
Air-cooled is obviously the only way to go for power, and JG likes the flat-four seen here. “I think I found what I want for a dune buggy motor this morning. Type 4 VW with Webers and Porsche shroud and vertical fan. This one was a bus motor, taken out to 2.7-litres. But super clean, no wires showing, nothing but the good stuff. Very cool: me likey.”
Me likey too. Dune buggies have been a bit of a thread around here lately, with a big buggy rebuild project in progress alongside my Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 at Racing Restorations. Rob Campbell has built a complete safety roll cage with seat belts for the owners and his kids, and sorted a lot of original fabrication issues.
I had a chance to drive the dune buggy around the estate before it was picked up, and that was a tick on the bucket list. I’ve always had a thing for dune buggies. Now that the mid-life is in full swing, I’d sort of enjoy having one for the odd days of good weather we see in the UK, although I prefer the shorter wheelbase models.
Looking forward to having JG’s buggy sorted in California. No doubt it will be a project for many years yet, but that will be a laugh when it’s finished!
by John Glynn | Jul 4, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Project Cars
Happy 4th of July to all my friends in the USA! Hope you all have a great day. My last post was on Lewis Hauser’s Porsche 356 Sportolet. Lewis sent me a nice story afterwards of meeting Doctor Wolfgang Porsche with the 356, which is well worth sharing.
“I can’t believe I forgot to mention meeting Wolfgang Porsche! It was at the 50th Porsche Parade in Hershey, PA. We ran into some of the Porsche family members looking at the car. One of them was Wolfgang Porsche, who said he thought it was one of their original prototypes and that it was beautiful.
“Dr Porsche was a very nice man. He also talked with me about my ’55 coupe that was at the first Parade in 1956 and on display with the other historic Porsches that weekend. He liked it because he could tell that the car was driven regularly. He said that his father intended for Porsches to be driven, not scrubbed with Q-Tips.”
One man who is definitely not a Q-Tip scrubber is the Sportolet’s current owner: Rob Abbott in Maryland. Rob has a number of vintage Porsches, including the superb ST rep seen here. It was built by another pair of non-Q-Tippers, Dave B at TRE in Los Angeles and our hot rod hero, Hans Lapine at Kundensport.
“This project started with a very nice, original Signal Orange 1971 911T,” says Rob. “Having spent entire project budgets just sorting out previous rust-ridden 911s, we decided to start with a good car. The idea was not to build a perfect ST replica – no two were alike, in any case – but something that could have been ordered from the factory by someone with connections.
“All the bodywork was done at Kundensport. The car is mostly steel bodied including fenders (wings) and bumpers, which were cut and formed to the fenders, and slotted for the Carrera oil cooler. It has an aluminum rear deck lid and a factory-style balsa-reinforced fiberglass hood.”
The interior is super trick, and the engine is a hot rod 3.2 running PMOs. I’ve got some more build pics and detail shots from Rob to share later. For now, enjoy July 4th and the pics of this pair together on a Pacific coast drive during R Gruppe Treffen. Looking great!
by John Glynn | Jun 23, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Road Trips
Nice email thread this weekend, as my buddy Craig from San Francisco picked up his latest Porsche purchase: a 1976 Porsche 911 Turbo Carrera. Bought in Denver, Colorado, Craig and wife Lori picked it up in person, then drove it home to California in a two-day road trip.
On my last trip to northern California, inveterate Porsche chopper Craig had the most amazing early 3-litre 930, in special order Albert Blue. He’d found that one on the other side of America, bought it and attempted to register it under the state’s smog laws. However, the work required to get it CA legal put him off. Being a muppet, he sold it.
Now, I can’t say too much here. I’ve sold cars I should have kept: no doubt you have too. But a SPECIAL ORDER ALBERT BLUE 930 is not the same as a common or garden SC, so I’ve booked a nipple tweak for Craig next visit.
Our friend then attempts to soothe his troubled soul by snapping up a 930 advertised on one of the US boards, within hours of it going online. Silver with Lobster interior is a nicely period combination, but the new owner has some work ahead to find the missing 15″ Fuchs, Recaro sports seats and who knows what else is no longer present. If anyone can do it, Craig can. That’s why they call US classifieds “Craig’s List”.
“It’s official,” said Craig. “I’m now the owner of a ’76 Turbo Carrera…again. Last year (for reasons that still escape me) I sold my Albert Blue Turbo Carrera. I’ve regretted that decision ever since. These cars have really gone ballistic since: mine sold for $155k shortly after I sold it. Just as I was thinking that I would never be able to afford one again, this one popped up in CO for a not-so-crazy price. I still can’t afford it but I bought it anyway! Not pretty, but all mine.
“With the keys in hand, it’s time for an epic road trip. I took the top shot from our hotel room while waiting for the wife to get ready, best angle of a 930 in my opinion. The first mod is already complete: R Gruppe license plate frame! WerkCrew sticker coming soon.”
The drive home offered a number of options. Ironically, Craig chose to ignore the opportunity to visit Craig, CO, and instead headed north from Denver into Wyoming. Cutting through Laramie and over the Medicine Bow National Forest, husband and wife entered Utah at Salt Lake City, skirting south of the Great Salt Lake before stopping briefly at Bonneville Salt Flats.
“I have to say, as bumped and bruised as the body is with 167k miles on the clock, she drives like it’s 1976 again,” says our hero. “This Porsche 930 is a good thirty-footer, but tracks perfectly straight and feels as solid as the day it was screwed together: a testament to Porsche engineering. No funny noises or smells or anything but, yes, those wheels must go!”
From Bonneville, it was over the border into Nevada for a monumental thrash through nowhere.com. I offered $50 towards a full-bore speeding ticket, quickly supported by fellow upsetters. When Arjen then shared a copy of his $1300 fine for doing 70 in a 55 and Craig said the tyres were 12 years old, we let him continue in peace.
The car eventually reached the safety of its new home late on Sunday night. Will he find the bits and pieces? How long will he keep it? What dramas are waiting to befall the Porsche fan when he goes to register it? All this and more in future updates. As the licence plate frame Craig took off the car on purchase said: “it’s cheaper than being married.” Aha!
by John Glynn | Jun 20, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Just added another article to our series on Porsche people. This piece introduces Cary, an R Gruppe friend in California who runs a beautiful Porsche 911 Carrera RS replica.
In rare Silver with Mexico Blue accents, the RS recreation was purchased via eBay a few years ago. Cary bought it from a seller based in North Carolina and had it inspected by nearby Porsche specialist, Chuck Miller, before committing to the bidding process. Cary scooped the RS recreation for $30k: right at the top of his original budget, but it certainly looks like a mega bargain now.
Californian Carrera RS
The car started life as a 1969 Porsche 912. It was driven for a few years before being parked in a garage, where it sat for over 25 years until the RS project was born. The bodyshell was stripped down to the bare essentials, then media blasted and repainted silver. Silver is a quite a nice choice, as there was never an original Carrera RS in silver. I didn’t know this until Cary told me – quite a surprise.
Featuring RS bumpers front and rear, the classic RS ducktail and de rigeur Carrera rear arches, the newly painted shell was fitted with good bits including a 2,000-mile 2.7-litre flat six, with PMO carbs. Inside the cases were JE 9.5:1 pistons and GE40-profile camshafts. Electromotive electronic ignition gets it all fired up.
A short ratio 901 transmission puts the power on the road. The interior is simple classic RS ingredients and attractive OMP seats. “I wasn’t a fan of these at the start,” says Cary, “until someone told me they were rare carbon/kevlar mix seats so they were definitely staying at that stage.
Cary’s RS was great to meet and great to shoot. Shot in an evening session on a back road just outside San Francisco, we ran the RS up and down a country road and a guy came out of the stables alongside. Cary’s car is pretty quiet really and we weren’t being hooligans, but I still expected to get a mouthful from the stable master.
“Looks like a good one,” came the holler. “Is it a real one?” Turns out the horseman was a big Porsche fan. He had an original Speedster in a barn out back and drove an early 911 himself. This is how small our Porsche world is. Love the Porsche life in California!
Read about Cary’s Porsche 911 Carerra RS recreation and share your Porsche experiences over email. Send me some pics and text: I will feature the best ones in the Ferdinand Porsche blog.
