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.
I’ve spent the last few days thinking about my great California Porsche feature trips. The times I’ve spent out there have been absolutely magic: great weather, great drives, great cars and, above all, great friends.
Friends are key to what classic Porsche, and the Classic Porsche Blog is all about. Sharing proper Porsches with friends – and I include blog followers and magazine readers in that category – is the whole point of what I do. It’s about the mission: not the money.
I was led to this train of thought by a recent video discovery. This is two Porsche friends enjoying their 914s in sunny Southern California. The sun is gorgeous and the soundtrack perfect. Good times, no doubt about it.
Behind the joyous visual lies a tinge of sadness. The driver of the camera car, and man who posted the video, is no longer with us. His name was Howard Dranow and, if the tribute thread here and the amazing Howard Dranow forum here are anything to go by, he was an inspirational character and a good Porsche buddy to many, many Porsche people. Anyone who leaves this sort of positivity behind has spent their time on Earth well.
RIP Howard. I’ll be thinking of your video next time I’m out shooting Porsches in your glorious home state.
911 & Porsche World magazine have put the R Gruppe Grand Tour on the front cover of this month’s issue. This is the news stand version and not the subscriber copies.
To say I’m pleased would be an understatement: the Grand Tour was one of the best events yet, so to document it in my first words-and-pictures feature, and then have it make the cover is a dream come true.
The feature is spread across eight pages and looks good. For me, there were other pictures that better relate to the in-betweens of the piece – most of the shots in the feature came from the two on-the-move shoots we managed to grab. So, knowing what went on behind the scenes, I think it looks me look a little repetitive on style, but I don’t envy the guy who has to choose the pics! It has come out well and a number of people have complimented me on it, which I really appreciate.
All in all then, I’m over the moon: a Porsche World cover on your first attempt is a killer endorsement of a great story. I have to pay tribute to my editor: Steve Bennett hails from the heyday of Cars and Car Conversions and is the easiest guy in the world to work for. He just lets me gt on with it and runs the pieces as they leave my Mac. Apart from one bit, when I was looking for a way to describe how fast the temperature fell when we left the 40-degree Autoroute and headed up into the Swiss Alps on day one. I said it fell ‘like a log off a waterfall’ which I then changed to ‘dog off a waterfall’, but ran in the magazine as ‘quite suddenly’! LOL – gotta love stuff like that.
My next words and pics is a supercharged Porsche 968 coming through Porsche World next month. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
James Redman recently whizzed me a mail about the Gathering of Legends Racers Symposium being organised by Brian Redman’s Targa Sixty Six, the team behind Rennsport Reunion.
Brian Redman, third from left with Ferry Porsche & team, 1968 Targa Florio
The idea is to gather a bunch of old racing drivers and race fans for five days in the sun with golf, surfing, sunbathing and whatever else you can do at the Hilton Cancun Golf and Spa Resport down in Mexico. It runs from February 2nd to 7th, 2011 and costs $3450 per couple, or $3200 for a single, with a $500 discount for anyone booked and deposit paid by September 10th. Not bad value if you are into historic racing and a bit of golf. The first 25 bookings get a room upgrade!
Drivers already confirmed are Richard Attwood, Derek Bell, Vic Elford, Hurley Haywood, David Hobbs, Brian Redman & Bobby Unser. That is a top lineup, each with their own mega stories to tell. Planned events include three theme banquets:
Racers’ Tales
917s and the making of Le Mans
The American Scene
Redman and Donhue chat over the Sunoco Porsche 917 in Mid-Ohio, 1974
Golfers will know what a ‘Best Ball Golf Tourney’ means and there is also the chance to take a trip to the Mayan Pyramids. The accommodation is bound to be good and I can’t image there’ll be any limits to the hospitality, so it should be a fun get-together.
Of more interest to me is the three-day track event being held at Palm Beach Raceway later that month. This looks like a gathering to consider flying out for: it is key to the purpose of Targa Sixty Six, and the race driver brotherhood that revolves around Brian’s Florida weekends. Last year’s Saturday night speaker was David Hobbs, a friend of my in-laws (all the kids grew up together). David brought Derek Bell and Vic Elford along with him for the evening: a nice little surprise for the attendees. At $1500 for the three days in 2009, it sounds like a good craic-to-cash ratio.
Brian Redman in the 908 during the 1970 Targa Florio
Brian started Targa Sixty Six in 1991. The idea was to open up racetracks to owners of high modern and classic cars who don’t necessarily want to race them, but who like to drive at speed under controlled conditions, in the company of like-minded others. A big boys’ toys track day club, quite ahead of its time when you think about it.
Targa Sixty-Six’s website gives the programme for each track event like this:
Three days of track use. Normal schedule is 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. (Members can expect to have 6-8 hours of track time each weekend-more if they feel up to it!)
Lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the track. Saturday semi-formal (jacket and tie) evening dinner. Driving instruction, if desired, is available from Brian or one of the other “pro’s” in attendance.
There is often a guest speaker/instructor. Past masters include: Bob Akin, Mr Hobbs, Hurley Haywood, Juan Manuel Fangio II, David Piper, Bill Adam, David E.Davis and Sir Stirling Moss.
Cars on track (split over three categories by speed) have included Ferrari Daytonas and 275 GTCs, Porsche 962s and 917s, D-Type Jags, name a Chevron or a Lola and it’s been there, as well as Indy cars and every half decent classic and modern sportscar you can think of. Sounds like a party to me, right when the UK is at its winter gloomiest!
Brian Redman with Steve McQueen, sharing racing film visions
You can grab more details at gorace.com, or see the blog at www.gorace.blogspot.com/. The pics for this post come from Brian’s site – I have used them to remind you all that this is a HARDCORE Porsche racing fraternity! One day all the oil will be gone, all the tracks will be closed thanks to noise limits and NIMBY neighbours, so get out there and go have fun, while you still can!
Thanks to James for the heads up, and here’s to two great events for Porsche enthusiasts in February 2011. Cheers!
Just sorting through the pics of the recent R Gruppe Grand Tour for a Porsche World magazine feature. Here’s one that brings back happy memories: the time the front runners came around a corner at a rate of knots, to find one mountain collapsed in a landslide and a road full of Volvo earthmovers shifting the debris. Everywhere we went, workmen were repairing landslide damage.
Sam and I actually came back down this road about twenty minutes later. There was a ten-ton rock in the middle of the road, right where my car is parked out of shot. It fell off the top of the cliff just a few minutes after we left to head back up the Col as part of a second, smaller landslide. Two lucky R Gruppe escapes in one day! We were on our best behaviour after that.
Don’t suppose I need to say that a bit of Porsche tyre smoke needed to clear before I could take this picture.
About Alpine Landslides
Landslides are apparently pretty common around these parts. According to this New Zealand geology website, “in the terrain made up of hard rock and steep, high slopes, landslides range from huge rock avalanches that can shape mountain peaks and travel several kilometres in minutes, to massive rock slides, rock falls and debris flows.
“It can be difficult to distinguish between rock avalanches, and ice or snow avalanches. Most avalanches originate as falling snow or ice, which can include rock and other debris. Avalanches of rock can also pick up ice and snow.” The landslide seen here originated as falling rock, which are “typically characterised by rapid, turbulent movement.
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