by John Glynn | Oct 25, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I just got back from California: my third trip in two years. Before my last visit, I bought a sweet little 1980 Porsche 911 SC Coupe on Craiglist. The car had been owned by the same guy since 1989 and was an honest, rust-free 911.
Sure, the paint had weathered a few storms and the trim had seen better days. But, riding on Fuchs, with an engine rebuilt to Euro specs – new pistons and cylinders and SSIs too – it pulled like a train with a Tornado strapped on top.
I used the SC (christened The Varmint) for ten days and over 2,000 miles. Let me tell you: there is nothing like ripping around sunny California in your very own 911. I went everywhere: across the Golden Gate, along Mulholland Drive and down the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu, at sunrise and sunset.
When the trip was finished, I shipped The Varmint home. A friend made me an offer I could have refused, but chose not to. I put the money away for next time.
A few weeks before we were due to leave this time around, I started looking for Varmint Mk 2: something that wouldn’t break the bank, but could transport us in SC comfort for a week, before we sold it on or shipped it home. Shergar would have been easier to find.
In the year or so since buying Varmint, the exchange rate had shifted, the economy had lifted and the number of affordable 911s on offer had drifted away. Between the breakers and the other European speculators, California had been drained of sub-$10k 911s.
My regular trip to Essen earlier in the year had showed there was no letup in the number of 911s finding their way back to Germany from the USA, but California is Porsche nirvana: these cars are everywhere! I couldn’t believe how fast the tap had dried up.
Markets shift and money follows. Economies ebb and flow, and cars like the 911 move around the world. My first 911 lived in 5 countries before I bought it. Of the three I have now, one has been registered in three European countries, another has been though four states and three countries and the third has just left its fifth state/country, en route to the sixth. Pretty busy stuff.
When I first got into 911s, left hand-drive was the cheap option. UK dealers were buying in Stuttgart and selling in Stoke on Trent. I prefer left hand-drive, so it suited me fine, but it wasn’t long before Germany woke up to the UK bargains and took the left-hookers home. The same thing has happened in west coast USA.
Now however, the Euro has slumped to a four-year low against the Dollar, so might the USA begin buying cars back? Ebb and flow is how it goes. In the middle of it all are the shippers: making a living, whichever way the cars sail.
by John Glynn | Sep 26, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
November 2010 is 911 & Porsche World magazine’s 200th edition, so Editor Bennett has pulled out as many stops as possible to make it entertaining. The centrepiece is a conglomerative effort from all editorial contributors, in a feature called ‘Ultimate Porsche’. The idea was we had to pick our ultimate factory Porsche, and bring it to Bruntingthorpe to run them all back to back.
My ultimate Porsche is a 917: nothing touches that car for drama and all-round Porsche cleverness. Entered via loophole and raced hard by our favourite heros, the 917 demanded king-size balls to drive quickly. Just looking at it makes me feel a bit funny, so what it must feel like to drive one at 250 mph down the Mulsanne Straight, with the lightweight body flexing and pinning your foot to the throttle pedal, I have no idea.
I tried everywhere I could think of to get a 917, but to no avail. Once I was used to the idea of not being able to bring my Ultimate Porsche, the next best thing was probably an easier solution than most people would believe.
My take was that the Ultimate Porsche beyond the 917 should be something you can get into right now and take to the Bergmeister Monte Carlo route: surely the most incredible driving ever done in a car. So it had to be something within easy reach.
Looking in my garage, I had two 911s to choose from: my Carrera 3.0 and the 964RS I was advertising for sale on behalf of a friend. Both are quick, in nice condition, both sound and smell like a proper Porsche and both are wonderful to drive. So which one to take?
964RS v 3.2 Club Sport v 2.7 RS
Picking your own car for one of these things is dodgy ground. Much as I love my C3, there is barely an as-factory part on it. I also make no secret of the fact that it could one day go to a new home, so by definition it is not the last word in Porsche for me. If I had the asking price for a decent 964RS sitting in my bank account I would buy one, no question and with absolutely no hesitation. So, red one it is then.
This choice may seem tough to reconcile with my well-known love of the early and impact-bumper style cars, but it’s not that tricky really. The 964 Carrera RS looks like them, sounds like them, smells like them but goes faster than any of them in factory guise. The one in my garage was set up by Water Röhrl and rides beautifully. It’s built like the brick proverbial. Every time I get in it, I soon find myself driving like an eighteen year-old.
3.0 RSR v 997 Turbo v 964 RS v rest
It’s a time machine, plain and simple. If you want to make yourself twenty years younger buy a 964 RS. It comes from a time when Porsche built sports cars: the world’s best sports cars. And they all looked like classics, straight out of the box.
My Top Ten from the Ultimate Porsche line-up:
- 964RS. Uncompromising in every positive sense of the word. A Stuttgart V-sign to all Porsche-hating motoring journos, it says: “Don’t like me? F**k you, get me a proper driver.”
- 2.7 RS. Think of it like Scarlett Johansson lying on a bed, summoning you with her finger. There is no saying no.
- 997 Turbo. Faster than a shooting star strapped to a 4wd comet. There comes a point where outright ability matters: this car is past that point.
- 3.0 RSR. Won’t run under 4k rpm and is too noisy to take anywhere but I’d live in it.
- 911 2.4S. Every inch a classic.
- 356 Cabriolet. The original. The one that started it all.
- Cayenne Turbo. A Porsche for every day. As Fraser says: if you could only have one Porsche for the rest of your life, then….
- 996 GT3. I’m never going to get past those headlamps. Sorry GT3 boys.
- Carrera Club Sport. Gas-filled exhaust valves do not an RS make. If they’d gone further it’d be the Ultimate, but they sold us short.
- Panamera Turbo. Big executive saloon. Nuff said.
by John Glynn | Aug 29, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
If you’re not freelance, bank holiday weekend Sundays are all about taking it easy. If you are freelance, then the only difference between Sunday and any other day is that the post office and some petrol stations are shut. If there’s a job to do, you do it!
Supercharged Porsche 968 magazine feature
I got a call the other day, asking if I wanted to write a feature on a supercharged Porsche 968. The owner was coming up from the far end of Britain and would be at Castle Combe for the PCGB gathering. Could I get there? Yes. If there was no photographer could I cover the pictures too? Errr – a trepidatious yes. Sooner or later, you have to affirm aloud: ‘this is where I want to go!’ and start heading in that direction.
I left home early to go scouting locations west of Bath. Rain en route wasn’t the best news ever, but there were a few hours before our shoot meet: I kept driving and bode my time. The run down through the Cotswolds was excellent and set me up for the afternoon. I told Sean the sat nav to take me the short way, so he sent me down every back road from Banbury to Bath via Burford. Very cool!
Once in Wiltshire, I found some locations fast enough, then went and grabbed a bite in a local pub while waiting for the 968 owners. They arrived soon after and we got cracking.
I’m not going to claim it was a pro job from start to finish, but we ticked enough boxes to do the feature justice. These two are a couple of outtakes. I’ve made notes on my performance and will work on improving, but I am slowly climbing that learning curve.
The run home took me back across the Cotswolds through a beautiful sunset, and I didn’t spare the Subaru’s horses. All in all, I’d call it a good day!
by John Glynn | Aug 22, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Life is pretty good at the minute. Freelance has got off to a great start: my online promotion and social media/PR company Mighty Motor Media Ltd is doing a good job for a growing band of clients, and earning this blogger a bit more than I was making as a salaried employee. It’s also giving me a life back! As spare time is on the increase, so the spanners are flying on some long overdue projects.
Orange 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0
One of them is reworking my Carrera 3.0 into lightweight touring guise. It’s a look I’ve had in mind for a while, as the bare paint interior is not quite classy enough for the outside of the car, and a period-trimmed interior would probably widen the Orange’s appeal should I advertise it for sale, as I’ve been considering. I’m not using it as much as I’d like, and the proceeds of a sale would come in handy to finish the studio and garage I’ve been waiting to get started on for over a year. Carrera 3.0s are making good money in Europe and mine has been gone through from a bare-metal shell to be a really great driver’s car. It might be just what someone (besides me) is looking for.
I’d still have my Carrera-arched 911T, a likely candidate for that spare 3 litre motor I’ve got, and the low-mile 944 Lux I have which is waiting to come back to life – that’ll be a great car when it is up and together. Plus I can buy another Porsche in the USA and potentially take it coast to coast. That’s a box I’ve got to tick one day.
The parts for the interior refit are starting to come together. I bought these seats from London-based Porsche mate back in October last year, but have only just got ’round to picking them up. They’re Impact Bumper Carrera Recaro sports seats from 1977, in what looks like black and grey in these pics, but is actually a charcoal with a lighter centre. They are stop-the-traffic gorgeous.
I’ve got a set of plush carpet that I bought from my buddy Scott at Pelican Parts over a year ago, and some new genuine Porsche window seals that came from Jeremy at MBS Car Parts to install, plus a top tint front screen to go in, replacing the plain heated front glass I put in a while back. I’m not sure quite what to do about the cage, as I might have the T caged in steel. I’m considering adding some lightweight central door locking just for convenience, and some rear pop out windows to refurb and fit, as well a bunch of other bits and pieces – can’t remember some of them. A passenger door mirror for one.
I’m ploughing through some of my other project stuff at the mo, but the C3 will soon be up on stands in the back garden getting the full treatment. Looking forward to starting this job as, whether it goes or stays, it’s going to give me another flavour to try.
by John Glynn | Jul 17, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Classic Le Mans was HOT. Too hot! As we were so busy with shooting a Total 911 piece and sorting bits for Jamie’s uber-cool Renault 8S, I didn’t get much time to wander around the car park to see anything resembling a Porsche hot rod either.
Thankfully, I can count on some stalwart Porsche pals to help me out with keeping an eye on the public parking. My buddy Chris Tarling took a couple of shots of an interesting early 911 (since discovered to be an SC backdate).
The colour on this hybrid Porsche hot rod looks like Irish Green. I love the front flares and curved rear quarters. Black-rimmed rear lenses do the business. Contrasting bumpers and engine grille are groovy, and loud pipes save lives!
Banded steels and sticky tyres are a look – no idea what it must drive like with all that dish.
The front end is love or hate, with grilled-out markers and indicators and the black-rimmed lights. The flip up centre filer is sweet, and I love the wiper-off look. Like being back in California. I think the whole thing is old-school cool.
I’ve been giving serious thought to selling my Carrera 3.0 and building something irreverent on that early T shell I have. I’m sort of on the fence over whether to sell the T as a potential rally car project or just do something with it and buy another Varmint-type SC from the US. I’m not dead set on owning an all-original early 911, but this car gives me the hots for the early 911 outlaw look. Tough to decide which way to go sometimes.
If this car rings a bell with anyone, get in touch!
