by John Glynn | Nov 12, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I’m currently shipping my third Porsche 911 to the UK from the USA (West Coast/California). The first leg of the Porsche’s voyage is aboard the container ship Valencia Express, which is taking it from LA to Caucedo in the Dominican Republic. After unloading the Porsche 911’s shipping container and who knows what else, Valencia Express will then head across the Atlantic and down towards Spain, while another ship, the Sormiou, currently en route from Valparaiso, will pick up the UK shipping freight, including my classic Porsche 911 SC. Once loaded, it will set sail for London, via Rotterdam.
Shipping a Porsche 911 from California to UK: Vessel Tracking
Knowing the ships that are bringing Varmint home is pretty cool. You can track them using Hapag Lloyd’s site, which I had been doing in the evenings since it left LA.
According to the Hapag site, Valencia Express was due in Manzanillo, Panama yesterday, which Google Maps told me was on the Pacific, like Manzanillo in Mexico. Finding out that the ship was late, I had a little search and learned that Manzanillo port is actually on the Atlantic: it is the port just by the mouth of the canal. Google Maps is properly sketchy about Panama but this seems a bit of an obvious mistake.
Anyway, as it hadn’t arrived, I surmised that it might still be in the canal. I googled for some real-time Panama Canal update sites and found the live webcams at the Canal Authority’s website late this afternoon.
There are two cameras at Gatun Locks: the locks where the canal meets the Atlantic. I couldn’t see much from the seaward one, as it was covered in rainwater, which eventually knocked it off line. Judging by the other camera, facing back up towards the lakes, there didn’t seem to be much going on in any case, so I gave up and got back to work. After dinner, I logged in again and immediately spotted a Hapag Lloyd vessel queuing up to get into the locks behind something else. Turns out it was the Valencia Express – what a fluke!
If I need to tell you how toe-curlingly geekish and outrageously brilliant this is, then you’re not one of us! Very cool to be watching the ship carrying your little sweetheart 911 back from the USA live via the Internet – especially as it was so totally random.
Keeping my inner nerd in motion, I’m considering getting in touch with Hapag and Tilbury docks, to see if I can blag my way in to the harbour and watch the thing arrive in London. I’ve taken all that week off, so I have the time. You never know, they might just let me do it.
As for those who wonder “where is she now?”, the Valencia got to Manzanillo at 6.30 their time on Wednesday: a day late!
by John Glynn | Oct 14, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
I had been talking to Phil Bell at Classic Cars about doing something for the magazine, and making suggestions regarding feature cars. A mate of ours over there is big into MoPar (short for Motor Parts, and all to do with big old Chrysler-built muscle cars) so I had flown some pics past Phil’s window. He was looking for a needle in a haystack: a rare groove muscle machine. Eventually my buddy Alex found it: a low mile, 2-owner Hemi ‘Cuda.
The Hemi is a legendary engine, and that motor in a Barracuda was seriously hard core. Phil loved the pitch, so we set up a shoot and met the owner one Sunday morning in the hills above San Ramon. I heard the V8s rumble while they were still a couple of hundred feet below. Suddenly the Hemi was here and it had brought a friend: another Hemi, but a Road Runner. They were absolutely jaw-dropping; Alex had struck gold!
I love Road Runners. They are plain and simple bits of kit that make a huge noise and an even bigger statement. “You don’t like big cars? Too bad!” says a Road Runner. One flick of the gas pedal is a big injection of space between it and whoever is behind. The ‘Cuda however is a whole ‘nuther thing. It is mean and takes no prisoners. It is grand theft auto, gun-in-the-glovebox stuff. The Hemi ‘Cuda is is the archetypal automotive villain.
Our Hemi owner was the nicest guy in history. I was so pleased about the story that went with this car. He had put heart and soul into achieving a factory restoration rather than a candy-assed, chrome-splurged show job. This car retained all of its manufacturing ‘defects’ for authenticity. All the nitty-gritty details had been meticulously photographed before disassembly and put back exactly as they had come off: paint splashes on the distributor base, unpainted screws under the hood, tiny differences in the door gaps side to side. Guys like this operate in a different stratosphere to the rest of us.
After the shoot, we all went out for lunch at some Mexican place that wasn’t up to much. Even though I am fairly new to Mexican I know bad stuff, and this was very boring food. Beware of Danville Mexicans that flatter to deceive! We went our separate ways afterwards, but vowed to hook up again next time we are over. It was an honour to spend time with the owner and his cars, especially in slightly cooler weather, but still with oodles of Cali sunshine to make the Plum Crazy colour really fly.
Can you believe that this is a regular working guy and yet he has 4 fully-restored Mopars in his garage and one more on the way? The Hemi is probably a half-million dollar car and none of the rest are that much cheaper. I know it’s not about the money – we didn’t even mention it on the shoot – but still, it goes to show what one guy can do when he really puts his mind to it. As we say in California: awesome!
by John Glynn | Oct 12, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars, Road Trips
It was Saturday. We were headed back to Sears Point for the CSRG races and perhaps a feature shoot if we found the right car. First things first: coffee. We followed John Gray up 680 to Peets in Pleasant Hill, and met up with Mr Bob Tilton.
Suitably re-caffeined, we fuelled up around the corner (my first time sticking fuel in the SC) and headed north. Our three-car convoy to the track was good fun. There we said hello to Cary Noel, a fellow Grupper who owns a super Silver and Blue Carrera RS rep. The weather was glorious but that is one unmercifully hot sun, so sunscreen was the order of the day. I use factor 50+: translucent-skinned Irish people are always better off playing it very safe! 40 degree heat certainly takes it out of a body.
We had our wristband press photo passes so could go wherever. We did some paddock shots just in case we decided to sell an events piece to Classic Cars magazine (decided not to bother in the end) and I ended up at the pit lane exit, about 6 feet away from Can Am cars doing 150mph+ on the entry to turn 1. Never been so dumbstruck by fear and excitement in my life; I couldn’t quite believe they had let me take pics from there. But then the camera couldn’t cope and I was only slightly better! Here’s a pic (imagine insane amounts of noise and speed):
Back in the paddock, things were really hotting up, with temps soaring way past 40 degrees. We took a load off at John Thornton’s racebox, chatted with John, Fuchs-meister Harvey Weidman and Gray for a while before he and Tilton could stand it no more and shot off for lunch at an air-conditioned pizza shack.
Sears Point Porsche
We stayed for the wicked BBQ, before deciding to try and nail some pics of John T’s very groovy Emory-built 912 racer. We gave it our best, but had left some gear in the Martimobile from the day before, and John had to go get ready to race, so we left it for another day. It’s a great car though, and was worth the effort to get the few shots Jamie did.
Lesson learnt number three: Empty all gear into the works van once back at base camp.
While Jamie went to get some tracking shots up at the top of the circuit, I headed for the grandstand to watched some racing. I came down after the Jags had finished – just before I started to melt. Sadly, one of J’s lenses had not been so lucky.
Expanded by the unmerciful heat, it had taken a minor bump while mounted to the camera body and pulled the screws out of the mount, breaking its electrical contact ring. Hard to believe, but there we were: down one lens and fading fast. We decide to say our goodbyes, head for the ranch and try a few things to re-equip ourselves for our Mopar shoot the following day. Varmint had been sitting in the sun all day so was nicely warmed up…
by John Glynn | Oct 8, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I’ve now been back from the USA for 36 hours. Our trip took us to lots of really great locations, so there are some fascinating features to write up over the next few weeks. Not everything will make it into a magazine though, so I thought I’d tell the story of the trip via a few blog installments.
My flight over on Virgin Atlantic was great. Arriving at my buddy John Gray’s house late at night meant I didn’t get to see much of my new 911 until the next day. In daylight, there was a bit more sun damage to the paint than I had been expecting, but I wasn’t that bothered: it still looked like good value for money. Driving it was initially a little weird, as the clutch had a slight on/off action that I think has since calmed down. We soon got the hang of it, and it was an entertaining daily driver while out there.
Buying a ride rather than renting is definitely something I will do again. There were a few minor jobs we had to do to the SC while in CA, but I’ll detail that stuff in a later post.
Our first full day was a mix of settling-in stuff. After picking up some coffee at Peets, we took a spin out to Sears Point raceway, where the CSRG race weekend was taking place. Jamie and I got some press wristbands and bought our tickets (it’s a charity do, after all). The weather was properly hot – about 110 degrees – so we came back in the early afternoon and played with the Lipmobile: a Honda Cub which had just been ridden 3,800 miles from Chicago to California, by my erstwhile photographer friend and colleague. Here’s a pic:
Later on, we took a trip to the unit our host rents with a couple of other petrolhead buddies. They have some very impressive stuff there! Roommate Alex is restoring a pair of Road Runners, and was working on a ’63 Dodge Polara owned by a drummer with a successful local rockabilly band. The Polara was originally a 440, but it now had the 426 Hemi motor fitted. Talk about sweet! I could just imagine the shoot, so I pitched it via email to a UK magazine who never came back to me, which was a bit disappointing.
Here’s a pic of the Polara in the workshop. It is inch-perfect sixties drag nostalgia, with slicks on the back and a Hemi in front, all wrapped up in black with hot red trim – pretty cool! An evening in the company of big block hot rods could only be followed by dinner at Max’s Diner, with a pint of Coke float, curly fries and a world-class burger. Heaven!
That was day one, and there’s plenty more to share. I’m keeping clear of jet lag so, as it’s 1 am here, I’m hitting the sack – will continue this tomorrow.
by John Glynn | Sep 17, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Sheena Easton had the look back in the day, but this R Gruppe Hot Rod Porsche 911 T has it now. The owner has asked me to keep him out of the limelight, but I can’t resist sharing some pics. This car looks amazing: almost exactly how I want my own longhood, which arrives in the UK in just over 24 hours.
You just can’t beat the look of these custom Minilite equivalents – available through secret channels only heroes know about. I also love the centre filler, the track rubber, the wider front arches, the simple bumper etc. Race numbers are the icing on the cake, and are not for show: the car competes at the hands of both husband and wife.
The power in this one comes from a custom Euro-spec 2.7 built into a ’66 2.0 case. It runs 46mm PMOs, custom cams, a strengthened 901 transmission with 915 LSD and some sweet internals. The front end is Carrera (classic early-car mod) and the exhaust is SSIs with a Monty muffler. The owner did everything himself, including the 8″ flares and the paint. The inside is wicked also but I’ll save those pics for another day.
I’ve put a hat on now, just so I can take it off to the man who built this car. Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing some details. The car is perfect – hope to see it in the metal one day!
