by John Glynn | Jun 15, 2018 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
Coldplay bassist, Guy Berryman is about to start the 2018 Coupe des Alpes in his 1967 Porsche 911S, which was recently restored at Tuthill Porsche. The star is a confirmed classic car obsessive, with a serious collection of notable classics, mostly European sports cars from the 1960s. After several months on the hunt for the right car, Guy found his S in the USA a few years back and shipped the car to Tuthills for a closer look.
No one knows precisely how many S models were built for the 1967 model year but, according to Paternie and the Early S Registry, it is circa 1800 examples. “The 911S models were included in the same range of serial numbers as those listed for Coupes and Targas,” says The Little Red Book. “The ‘S’ designation will be stamped after the serial number on an S model. Early 911 records contain a number of inconsistencies, so it is difficult to present an exact production count.”
What we do know is that 911S models are rare and finding the detailed trim parts for these cars is a job in itself. Guy’s S was almost complete, but much of the metal was missing due to rust. Tuthills carried out a thorough restoration, keeping what they could and buying genuine parts to fill in the blanks. The finished car is a period Porsche tour de force and it’s great to see Guy enjoying a Porsche: we’re more used to seeing his Ferrari collection.
1967 Porsche 911S insurance values
Hagerty’s online valuation tool suggests that a 1967 Porsche 911S in concours condition is currently worth $138,000 (£103,000), while a running and driving project base is just under $50,000 (£34,000). These values are clearly too low. If you have a 1967 911S and your car is valued at market or agreed value in this sort of ballpark, then you need to fix that problem.
I value several early pre-1973 911S models at porschevaluations.com. My own feeling is that UK prices for running and driving left hand-drive SWB S models in need of attention should start north of £60k. Insurance values for concours low-mileage examples should exceed £200k for a car in the right condition matching the Porsche CoA (Certificate of Authenticity). RHD cars with known provenance carry a premium.
@RoadRatMagazine
Guy’s affinity with classic cars and the stories they tell began in adolescence, when his Channel Tunnel engineer father would work on classic sports cars at weekends and invite Guy to assist. Their shared interest encouraged a vast archive of motoring books and magazines, and that passion for period motoring reportage has now led to the creation of a brand new magazine and online media stream: Road Rat Magazine.
by John Glynn | Apr 10, 2018 | Project Cars, Classic Porsche Blog
It’s been almost five years since I took my 1981 Porsche 924 Turbo apart for a repaint and the car is still not back together. Family life and motorbike fun just keeps getting in the way of my available time to work on this beautiful old car and get it road legal in the UK.
The most recent burst of activity on the 924 Turbo stopped after I bought my 1150 GS Adventure two years ago. Last year’s addition of another boxer – the 2004 BMW R1150RT that middle daughter Ciara and I enjoyed two great European tours on last year and which I fully rebuilt bar the engine during this winter just gone – meant that the 924 was left unloved for another twelve months. However, it is now in the way of another big project, so I’ve been putting that right at weekends and it’s looking much more like a car again.
The latest work is reassembling the engine and getting it running again, so I can move it to finish the inside of my new garage build. I took the induction apart in 2015 to check gaskets and vacuum leaks, powder coat some parts and to get to the cam belt to change it, but soon realised what I really wanted to do was to pull the engine, transmission and front and rear suspension to refurb everything after my complete body repaint and full strip and rebuild of the interior. I decided to just have a good look, tidy things up and make a list of bits to start collecting for a more detailed refurb at a later date.
I really like looking at and working on this car and am excited to begin working on a complete powertrain refurb at a later date once this new garage workshop is sorted. Good-as-new mechanicals and underside parts will really make the 924 Turbo something special. My intention now is to get it running cleanly, take it for another MOT to help get it UK registered and then send it away for the summer while I sort this garage space for project use.
I took a few pics when ripping this all to bits in 2015 and am I glad I did: the brain soon forgets where stuff goes. During reassembly, I’ve found a couple of bits that could do with changing and ordered some more new parts which should hopefully get here this week. One thing that would really be nice to change is the the vacuum capsule, which has a cracked bracket, but I can’t find one in my stash at the minute. It is on the list for the future.
I have a few more bits to put back together, then the brakes need to come off: discs will be de-rusted and the calipers will be dismantled before a system flush with fresh fluid (it is absolutely black at the minute) and then we can run it and see what else needs looking at. I bought a set of tyres for the original wheels and have fixed everything thrown up by the previous MOT, so fingers crossed that it all works out.
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 | Jan 22, 2018 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche People
Confirmation of Singer Vehicle Design’s partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering became public several weeks ago, when computer mockups of the latest Singer Porsche DLS (Dynamics and Lightweighting Study), were shared on social media.
Some of my friends have been involved in the project since its earliest days, so I’ve been following progress from the sidelines for months. It is a interesting collaboration. Now that the bodyshells have entered production, Singer has started advertising for people to help assemble these cars in the UK. The jobs are here in sunny Northamptonshire and the accompanying text from the Singer website is below. You can also download the full Singer Porsche jobs PDF.
About Singer
Singer Vehicle Design was formed in 2009 to explore the creative possibilities within the vibrant world of the classic automobile. Singer is dedicated to the passionate study, preservation and optimisation of the world’s most respected high-performance vehicles. Our focus – indeed obsession – has been the pursuit of a meticulously restored and reimagined air-cooled Porsche 911. Our lofty objective is to distill, enhance and recombine the strands of greatness that have long marked the Porsche 911 as iconic. Today, the cars we restore to bespoke commission for our global clientele appear in the world’s most prestigious global automotive shows and publications.
Singer Porsche UK Jobs
Our latest endeavour on behalf of our clients is a Dynamics and Lightweighting Study “DLS” undertaken with Williams Advanced Engineering – part of the Williams Grand Prix Engineering Group. DLS encompasses a selection of restoration and modification services strongly oriented toward lightweighting and dynamic gains.
The restoration of cars for owners who select the Dynamics and Lightweighting Study will be carried out in the UK. As a result, we are looking for talented individuals to join our UK-based operations.
Job opportunities available Singer GB, a subsidiary of Singer Vehicle Design, will commence operations in February 2018 in Northamptonshire and is currently looking for:
- Painters
- Fabricators
- Mechanics
If you are interested in finding out more about the Singer GB team and these positions please contact us: email info@singergb.co.uk
by John Glynn | Dec 11, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
I recently made the acquaintance of Nick Diggens in Victoria, Australia and his sweet 911 SC in Copper Bronze Metallic. The introduction came courtesy of fellow SC owner, Jonny Hart at Classic Retrofit. We’re all members of the period SC appreciation society, so Nick’s SC was worth sharing.
The first pic I saw was the one above, showing the newly-restored 911 on cookie cutter wheels, wrapped in 195/65 15 and 205/60 15 tyres front and rear respectively, which I thought sounded much bigger than standard. The day before, I had been swapping emails with another mate who has just bought a 911 SC Coupe at auction. He wanted to know what wheels to buy to replace the boat anchor 964 Cup replica wheels it came on, so Nick’s pic came at quite an opportune time.
The big question with wheel sizes nowadays is: what tyres can you get to fit the wheels? I have 7″ x 16″ front and 9″ x 16″ rear Fuchs on my car and finding tyres to fit can sometimes be a drag – I use Conti SportContacts – but the pain of 15″ rubber is even worse again. The ideal choice for 15s (7s and 8s) might be something like a 195/55 front and 215/55 rear, but try finding a matched set of those for sensible money.
You can get Toyo rubber, but the thin Toyo sidewall does the 911 no favours. I like the chunky side profile of the Pilot Sport Cup, but the holographic tread and short lifespan is not for everyone. Pirelli P7 Corsas are available in 15″, but they are not cheap. No one wants to put cheap-brand tyres on their old 911, but these are pretty much all the options for wider 15″ wheels.
This car shows an interesting choice of rubber for the SC. I expected the standard size rear tyre to be a 55 section at most, but going by original sales receipts, the 8″ rears had 215/60s as standard and they look pretty cool to me. Standard fronts were a 185/70 15, so quite a different look. If one was currently using a 205/55 on the rear, a 215/60 R15 tyre would be a just under one inch taller and less than 3mph faster at 70mph. So while it may seem that the rear tyres are substantially taller than a standard size, online tyre size comparators say otherwise.
I will share some more about this car later on. It is currently having Nick’s second Classic Retrofit air con kit fitted and has the full range of CR products already in place, including the fuse panels and CDI+ ignition unit. Nick’s mate, Rohan Little, runs an operation called Skunkwerks and looks after Nick’s cars: sound like they have quite a bit of fun with them. Victoria is currently enjoying ambient temperatures circa 35 degrees C, but the Electrocooler A/C is producing a steady 8 degrees at the vents. That is pretty impressive.
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 | Oct 30, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
EB Motorsport has unveiled its latest Porsche project: a beautifully detailed recreation of the legendary Porsche 911R, built to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the R’s record-breaking 20,000-kilometre endurance speed run at Monza in Italy in 1967.
In October 1967, Porsche sent its 906 race car to Monza, to break endurance speed records. When the 906 proved unable to withstand the rigours of Monza over extended distances, a prototype 911R was called for. Driven on its own wheels directly from Stuttgart and fitted with a test engine which had already logged 100 hours of flat-out running, the lightweight R claimed five world records, including covering 20,000 kilometres at an average speed of 209 km/h. It was a memorable moment in 911 history.
“Porsche motorsport history underpins all that we do,” says James Bates at EB. “Having successfully campaigned our 3.0 RS and RSR race cars for many years before adding the SWB 2.0 race car, which then finished as first 911 home in the Spa 6 Hours, we were keen to explore the edges of lightweight Porsche racing, so the R was a natural progression.
“Our new 911R showcases everything that EB Motorsport can accomplish and is fascinated by. Built on a 1967-manufactured SWB 911 chassis, which was fully restored in-house and now tops the scales at 804 kilograms in Monza trim, our 911R is loaded with meticulous hand-finished details, from bespoke brake parts and 906-style inlet manifolds, to our lightweight doors and in-house exhaust system with megaphone soundtrack.
“We’re excited to unveil the R on such a special anniversary. Our plan is to film some souvenir footage with it before offering it for sale later this year. Many of its unique components will be also added to our historic Porsche parts product range, so people can build their own interpretations of this legendary 911.”
Having seen the EB Porsche 911R up close and personal, there is no doubting its quality. Many of the closest R recreations I have seen up to now have been a bit wavy and a little bit delicate – much like the genuine R prototype my car once shared a pit lane with at Silverstone. This one is a more substantial piece of engineering that looks every inch an all-steel 911, but shows a stunningly low number on the scales.
The 911R’s passed its MOT but has yet to be registered. As soon as the Letter of Origin arrives from Porsche, the boys will get some paperwork, tax it and then we can take it up over Snake Pass. I’m looking forward to having a spin.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
