by John Glynn | Apr 21, 2012 | Race and Rally, Road Trips
As per my Porsche Supercup in Bahrain post, I attended last year’s Nürburgring 24-hour with Falken Tyres and their Porsche 911 GT3 R. It was a great event from start to finish, so I’m delighted that Falken Tyres Europe is supporting new Ferdinand magazine by taking us out there again.
Last year was fun, resulting in a decent Total 911 article and much blog coverage. This year we’re hoping to go more in depth, and blog some unique live coverage while on site.
The 2012 Falken drivers are as last year: Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler, Le Mans hero Peter Dumbreck and Porsche Junior, Martin Ragginger. All are quick and all want to win. The car has also been developed since last year and is even more competitive. It led the field at the opening VLN round before breaking a driveshaft: that part has been uprated as the team chase after reliability.
As for how we’re getting there, Flybe properly messed me around last year so I ended up taking the orange 911 Carrera (below, on site). I’m hoping to have that in with Racing Restorations for its strip down and refresh by the N24, so it’s time to service the Subaru and get it stickered up with the new Ferdinand artwork.
Here’s some video from the Falken Tyres Youtube Channel to show the action we’re expecting. This is top man Peter Dumbreck starting VLN from the lead: love the view of the rest of the field in the rear view GoPro.
At the heart of the N24 weekend is Porsche’s passion to race. Though it trails in the American Le Mans series, Porsche always goes well in the N24, so it’s a thrill to know we’ll be back there again.
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![BBC Radio 4 interview on Ferdinand Porsche airs today]()
by John Glynn | Apr 13, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche People
The interview I recorded in London with BBC Radio 4 airs today at 16:00 hrs UK time.
The piece will appear on Last Word: Radio 4’s obituary show. I think the session went well, but you never know how these things will turn out in the edit. I’m hoping it will come across as interesting, and in honour of the third generation of Porsche car designers: we’ll have to see.
The whole thing was recorded in The Orange: my Carrera 3.0 Coupe. I drove the orange 911 down to London, picked up producer Jane Little and we took a drive around the West End. Tootling around a city centre is not where Orange is happiest, but there were a coupe of spots where it could stretch its legs a bit in second gear. Made both of us laugh.
Jane was quite surprised by the 911’s turn of speed in stripped out guise, with the reduced final drive ratio that Orange runs. The view through that big screen from the low seating position on my car, built to sprint up Swiss Alpine passes, emphasised the amount of glass Ferdinand set into the slim pillars: 60% more glass than the 356. As I say, there were some thrilling turns of speed and Jane asked some interesting questions, so I think it was a fun few hours. Hopefully that will come across on air.
However it turns out, I’m glad to have been asked to contribute by the BBC. I’m sure it will make a reasonable podcast, too. You can hear it at 4pm today and repeated at 8.30 PM on Sunday night. It’ll be on iPlayer once the Friday show has run. Here’s the link to the show again.
by John Glynn | Feb 3, 2012 | Project Cars, Classic Porsche Blog
I’ve always had a thing for estate cars – they look better than most saloons. The problem with being a Porsche fan is that there is no estate to choose from.
Recently, I’ve been looking at Cayennes to buy, but the majority of aftermarket specialists I spoke to said keep away. I was tempted to ignore them and go for it, but it’s spending £10-12k on a big car that costs thousands a year to run, plus the fuel, and whatever else goes wrong. I like my Subaru Outback and could better spend Cayenne money on my garage build and loft conversion projects. I needed a Plan B.
Ever since I saw the pictures here, I’ve had deep lust for the 924 Break/Kombi/Shooting Brake. There isn’t much about them on the Interweb – just some snippets of magazine articles, repeated ad nauseum – but I know it’s a conversion by Artz of Belgium from back in the day. Having seen the DP Motorsport ‘Cargo’ version at Essen one year, I thought the earlier 924 base was better looking, but for sure the 944 is a nicer platform. No one does these anymore, so I needed help.
Before I sold my last Mk 2 Golf GTi, my best mate and expert metalworker started talking about doing an estate conversion and I said I’d rather do an estate conversion on that Grand Prix White 944 I own. Ideas began to fire and that was it. The more I thought, the less I wanted to chop up a (quite rare) non-sunroof early 944 with relatively low miles and nice history; I’d rather restore that as-was. What I needed was a donor car to play with.
eBay has just thrown up a likely candidate: unloved but running 944 with some rust in the floors and a personal plate we can sell to cover some costs. The rusty floors are handy, as I want to size up an Impreza Turbo running gear install. Anyway, I’ve bought it.
*Edit* The eBay car was seriously misdescribed, so I went through eBay and got my money back. Now looking at S2s and low mile 924s. In the meantime, I have bought a Porsche Cayenne.
by John Glynn | Nov 3, 2011 | Project Cars, Porsche Cayenne
Every now and then, I get a hankering to sell every car I own bar the 911 and look at buying a used Porsche Cayenne. Yes, I know hardly a classic and to some people not even a Porsche, but I like the cut of the Cayenne’s jib (edit: I now own one and here is my proper Porsche Cayenne buyers’ guide).
Admittedly there are many reasons NOT to buy a Cayenne. Maybe not enough ‘many’s there.
- It’s not the prettiest thing in the world
- Only the Space Shuttle has worse mpg
- Colours available mostly more boring than housepaint
- Eats tyres like a thirsty, boring-coloured, tyre-eating thing
- Volkswagen V6 or cylinder-scoring V8
- Manual transmission is only available with the VW engine
- Precious little space for LPG, especially in the Turbo and even on gas only 15mpg (albeit at a lower fuel price)
On the plus side:
- Huge
- Fast
- Sexy V8 noise
- Deserves its Porsche badge
- Decent 4×4 system, not joke setup
- Air suspension rocks
- Replaces everything I own except the 911
So, if it has rubbish MPG and is either slow-ish and not that great on MPG compared to the faster one (V6) or prone to chucking pistons through the cylinder walls (V8), why the desire to own one? I don’t know – it’s a regular thing with me. If I could find a nice non-silver/black colour, circa 55-plate with under 90k miles for £10K*, I think I might pull the trigger. That despite the fact that it would probably be an exceptionally bad idea turning up at home with a ten grand Cayenne, when I already have five cars and am in the middle of building a cash-sapping house extension. Not that that ever stopped me…
The plan would be to sell the other cars, though. Newly-restored E36 M3 saloon, classic Landcruiser 80 series, Subaru Outback on new LPG kit and Mk 2 Golf GTi would all go, replaced by just one Cayenne S. Alternatively, can you say “V6 diesel conversion”? Aaargh, that is full-on man maths talking: *la la la I’m not listening*
Cayenne drivers – share your experiences!
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
by John Glynn | Jun 22, 2011 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices, Project Cars
Not been out in a Porsche since I got back from the USA, so thought I’d better fix that. I grabbed some keys and got out in the fresh air.
Finally got the Tangerine 1972 Porsche 911 T I have for sale booked into Tuthills for a service and a suspension set up: ride heights and alignment. On new suspension bushes and new Dunlop tyres, this car is a delight to drive, but a little lower than is right, so worth sending it to Tuthills to be sorted.
While it’s there, they are going to check a few other bits and change the oil and filter, just to freshen it up. Should be absolutely brilliant when it comes back next week. Then it’s out for a photo shoot and we are thinking of entering it for the Goodwood auction in July. Will keep you posted. Email me if you want to know anything about this remarkable low mileage car. I would love to see it go to a good home.
The T is no slouch on its wicked TwinSpark Weber carbs, but the Carrera 3.0 is even perkier. Once back from Tuthills, I pulled the C3 out and took it for a run.
That car is – literally – a tonne of fun. The tax is up in July, so it’ll head off to Racing Restorations in Pershore for a little bit of body and paint, mainly repairing damage inflicted by moi, breaking into it in Monaco last year. Rob Campbell is also going to strip and clean the wheel arches, repaint and waxoyl the lot.
We’ll change all the window rubbers, install the carpet I’ve had sitting here for a few months, and maybe bolt in the mint 1975 Recaro sports seats. Either that or get the centres of my Recaro A8s retrimmed in some orange corduroy or similar. They are light weight, comfy seats: sweeter than the pukka early ones. But then the early ones are more ‘correct’…
While Robert is fettling the bodywork, wiring the heated screen, changing the fuel pump for an uprated modern unit etc, I’m going to send the engine off for a top end rebuild. No idea who is going to do it yet but am working on that.
Once the refreshed motor is returned, we’ll fit my SSIs and a custom exhaust that RaceResto will manufacture and then see what it goes like. I’m also thinking of redoing suspension bushes: need to get in touch with the polybush people and see who has the best deals on.
Driving it today was as much fun as it was when I first got it. This car never ever gets old.
