by John Glynn | Jul 7, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Road Trips
Today was the last day in Monaco for the 2010 R Gruppe Grand Tour. With no group plan for the day, I was up at 7.30 and out in the Orange 911 Carrera 3.0, to repeat yesterday’s drive up the Col De Turini, and the amazing road from Turini to Sospel.
Col de Turini is the heart of the Monte Carlo Rally. As Monte has been a dream event for me for many years, driving the core stage of this monumental test of man and machine was a must.
At just 1607 metres high, Turini is a relatively low mountain pass, but that does not take away from the sense of occasion one enjoys upon reaching the summit. Once at the top, there was no doubt in my mind: a life goal had been reached.
After driving up the Col, I spent the early part of the morning seeking out locations for a photo shoot planned for later that day. I came up with some places and plans, which ultimately did not work out anything like I’d intended but, regardless of the operational challenges, it was great to spend time with the five faithful Gruppers who returned to the mountains to help me with the work. Many thanks to Leonard, Jan, Guenter, Gerd and Martin.
Tomorrow we drive to Le Mans, for a weekend at the biannual Le Mans Classic. It’s my first time there with press accreditation, so I’m looking forward to the challenge of working at Classic Le Mans, rather than just being there as a Porsche fan and car guy in search of entertainment.
Not that there won’t be entertainment to hand! My fellow Bergmeisters are all coming to Le Mans, where we’ll be joined by the ImpactBumpers.com crowd, and the Dutch R Gruppe posse. The Amsterdam massive includes good buddy Arjen Bosman, who has rented a (British) caravan to camp at the event: bound to be unmerciful fun.
The exception to the attendees will be little brother Sam, who flies back to Dublin from here tomorrow. He has been to every CLM with me so far, so it’s going to be strange not having him with us this time around.
We leave Monte Carlo at 7am. After today’s drive down from the mountains through Castillo and the other lovely villages overlooking the bay, I’m missing it already.
by John Glynn | Jun 30, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
Things are absolutely flat out here, as I try to get two US features and a pair of magazine columns done, before readying my Orange 911 Carrera 3.0 for the 2010 RGruppe Bergmeister Tour, and our subsequent trip to Classic Le Mans; back to our beautiful gîte in Dissay-sous-Courcillon.
The Dutch posse leaves Amsterdam at 07:30, heading for Belgium. The original idea was for the latecoming members of UK RGruppe (i.e. me and Hamish) to hook up with the German and Dutch cars (and the US IROC car which has been shipped in especially) somewhere south of Brussels at around 09:30, but that would mean getting an 05:30 train, so my leaving home before 3am.
Little brother gets in to Brum from Dublin at 8pm the previous night so, between getting the car done all day Friday and the Saturday night arrival in Geneva, I was staring down a double-barreled all-nighter. Not impossible with two drivers, but not much fun for either.
I considered missing the convoy and going straight to Geneva from Brittany Ferries’ Portsmouth to Caen route, which is actually quite a bit shorter, but a: it was booked solid and b: it kind of felt like cheating. I also considered an 11pm Chunnel crossing, driving to a hotel south of Brussels and getting 5 hours’ sleep before the Dutchies arrived, but that didn’t feel quite right: the tunnel is quick, but it’s a romance-free zone!
Then the thought occurred: what about sailing to the Netherlands overnight? Take a leisurely drive from Birmingham Airport to Harwich, slip onto Stena Line’s midnight boat to the Hook of Holland, which would get us into Rotterdam at around 08.30 CET as close to the tour start as possible, fully relaxed and rested. I ran the idea past Chaptermeister Stolk and he liked it too.
So that’s the plan. Pick up little bro, head to Harwich, put the Orange in the safe hands of Stena Line while we head upstairs, have a bit of dinner and chill out. We’ll then squeeze in some zeds in comfortable beds, before kicking off the 2010 Bergmeister Tour with enough energy to really get the most from the drive south to Thonon-les-Bains, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Day two brings us to Briancon. Day three then takes us to Monaco, where Bergmeister Base Camp will be established at the Novotel in the old town. From there, our ten classic Porsches will spend three days running along some classic Monte Carlo routes and also the the famous Mediterranean Corniches: those unbearably photogenic roads, carved into the mountains where they meet the glistening sea. James Bond: eat your heart out! I’m looking forward to more France Porsche pictures like this:
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by John Glynn | May 17, 2010 | Market & Prices, Project Cars
Things are crazy around here at the minute. Millions of words to write since landing back in the UK post California, trying to tidy up loose ends on my day job so I can leave with a clear conscience, and also trying to get moving on clearing out some of my projects. I figure it’d be better to put some cash back into the house at the minute and get my extension going. Realistically, that leaves little time for projects.
First one advertised is my 911 T on eBay here. (edit 19/04: the Buy It Now has just been pressed after I took the price down to £10,750 – it is sold).
The car is a non-sunroof ’71, originally from California. A few years back, it sold to a guy up in Canada who wanted to build an RS replica. He spent a lot of money on the body: new sills, RS arches, hours spent on prep for paint and a decent enough job on the finish, in lovely Gemini Blue.
The engine is a 2.2E motor which we were told was recently rebuilt with S pistons and cams. It runs MFI. It came on a pallet and was just bolted in for transport so I have never fired it up: lack of time really. My plan was to buy a past-it SC targa in less than pristine condition out in California and drop all the running gear into this. I hasd planned a rally interior with a cage and all nicely trimmed. I seriously am never going to have time to get stuck into this so it has to go.
I’ve put it on at €12500, which is £11,000. It would cost more to buy an average LHD T, sort a non-sunroof roof out and then do the body and paint it all. I think it’s priced right but we’ll see. The pics are a bit crap (dusty dash and loose headlining) as I didn’t even clean it after I picked it up, just put it straight into storage. If it doesn’t arouse some interest, I’ll bring it home, give it a clean, do some reassembly and put it back on a bit higher.
Failing that I’ll advertise the Orange. £30K would see my 1976 Carrera 3.0 Coupe off to pastures new: Australia maybe. They love 911 Carrera 3.0 coupes down there and mine has some nice light bits following a full bare metal resto. I think it’s old enough now that the LHD doesn’t matter. I have lots to move on, lots and lots. Busy busy busy!
by John Glynn | Apr 2, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I picked up my orange 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Coupe from its latest visit to Tuthill Porsche today. The boys dropped the worn steering rack out and swapped my Turbo tie rods over to a good used rack I supplied, fitting their re-machined rack spacers/lock stops at the same time. These allow a decent sized spanner to be used on the tie rods, rather than the teaspoons the original pieces leave room for.
The front anti-roll bar bushes were perished, so those were changed for polyurethane ones. Then the rack assembly was refitted and the tracking was set. Total cost: 4 hours labour, plus parts, plus VAT: £275.
Tuthills couldn’t road test Orange, as the front tyres are below the legal tread depth (it’s on temporary Michelin Pilot Sport Cup track tyres and the fronts are almost slick). So I got to road test it first. The road was wet, and the worn Michies do pull down on the front a bit, but how nice to have a car that went where it was pointed! Baby’s-bum Michelin R-Compound rubber is not a huge problem in the wet: these are amazing tyres. I’ll put my road wheels on over the weekend – Kumho rubber on 8×16 and 9×16 inch Fuchs as in the pic below – and see what it feels like. Pretty sure it’s gonna be good.
It’s booked for an MOT on Tuesday. Hopefully we can pass that, ready for the annual trip to the Essen Techno Classica on Wednesday. I was going to take advantage of a free crossing with Norfolk Line Ferries, but the outbound weather looks a bit grim, so I’ve just booked the Chunnel instead. Cost was £104, which I didn’t think was bad for a short notice ticket over Easter.
An early start is required to get to Essen for the afternoon preview, meaning the 400 km drive on the other side should be pretty pacey. I can hear the engine’s characteristic 4500rpm buzz already.
by John Glynn | Mar 22, 2010 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Spring has finally sprung in the UK. The weather here was a balmy 12 degrees this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to get stuck back into the jobs on my Varmint Porsche 911 SC after two months with no activity.
The last thing I touched on this car was the fusebox. The fuel pump relay wiring looked a little scary, as well as some very corroded main terminals on the battery, and some melted insulation in the ECU loom (the US cars run a little ECU). Today was all about repairing and digging a little deeper.
First job was to repair the fuel pump loom. I chopped out the solder blobs and installed DuraSeal connectors, with a few soldered joints here and there. Rough-looking wiring was replaced with matching genuine Porsche cable. The beauty of breaking a 924 and a 944 (and stripping out all the wiring) is I now have a lifetime’s supply of proper copper. I also took the fuel pump relay apart and found the contacts pitted and slightly bent. I cleaned and realigned all that and then resealed the cover.
Fusebox refitted, I got to sorting out the ignition switch feeds from the positive battery terminal – they were in a right state. To do it properly, I pulled the (huge) battery out completely and was relieved to see the tray and surrounding metal work absolutely rot free. This car is so tidy! I cut these out and replaced the lot.
Finally for today, I boiled up the battery earth lead to rid it of verdigris, dried it with heat and drowned it in switch cleaner. I tidied up the battery posts and terminals with my cool new battery tool, fitted a Dis-car-nect for safety’s sake and stripped all the earth points back to bare metal. Everything went back together a treat.
There was nothing much wrong with the way the SC worked before I took it apart but, as the pics show, it has a bit of classic old Porsche wiring syndrome going on, so it all needed doing. Hopefully I am adding reliability: if I can get it registered this week, then I am considering taking it to Germany for the Techno Classica in Essen in ten days’ time. Fingers crossed!
