Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 170 i Total 911

“It was a confluence of everything coming together at the right time,” says Jeff Zwart, the legendary Pikes Peak driver, who had flown to London for the edit of his new feature film The Art of Racing in the Rain. The film wasn’t the only reason for his presence in the UK though: along with Porsche factory racer Patrick Long, Zwart had teamed up with the new classic car concern, Sports Purpose, to bring their cult Luftgekühlt show to Great Britain. This curated exhibition of air-cooled Porsche started in California in 2014. It captured the attention of a truly worldwide audience, with many asking Long and Zwart when they’d bring the show out of America’s Golden State. That duly happened this summer, the Luftgekühlt circus rocking up at Bicester Heritage,…

Is the classic market stalling? Dear Sir, In a recent sales debate in the back of the magazine, your team pondered whether the classic market was stalling. You put the question to some European-based market specialists, and the outlook as listed was rather calming. The general consensus seemed to be it had bottomed out. However, I disagree. House prices have slowed in the past year (this is always a good indicator as to what the classic car market is doing), with London in fact receding. On top of this I know some are now trying to get out of their classic cars, as they believe a recession is coming. I’ve also seen many cars are sitting around on forecourts for months, suggesting their value is too high or people just…

There’s no other car quite like Porsche’s 911 Turbo. Admired for being the only true everyday supercar, the Turbo builds on the 911’s mantra for seamlessly blending practicality and performance and takes it to a whole new level, adding explosive power, striking features and cutting-edge technology into the mix. The ultimate do-it-all 911 with style and elegance in droves, the Turbo has simply always sat at the top of the tree, right from its debut in 1975. Much like the 911 itself, the Porsche Turbo has enjoyed consistent evolution rather than all-out revolution throughout its 43-year production run, as highlighted by our ‘golden’ 930 v 991 cover feature. This is particularly so for the Turbo’s early years when it was more commonly referred to by its Typ 930 internal model…

Porsche rarely misses an opportunity to produce an anniversary model, but it is significant that the 991 Speedster Concept celebrates 70 years of the sports car rather than 30 years since the best known 911 Speedster, the impact-bumper 3.2. In fact, there was a 356 Speedster built from 1954 for the US; a specific cut-down and denuded barchetta sold for owners who wanted a competitive weekend racer. Not offered in Europe, the Speedster was the choice of the thinking American club racer who might otherwise have bought a Corvette, an Austin Healey or a Triumph TR2. The Speedster’s replacement was effectively the 1955 550/1500 RS Spyder as Porsche’s competition-build models switched to mid-engine. When the 911 was launched, its subsequent race-oriented versions – the S with its various Sportpaketed upgrades…

There’s a very nice 996.2 GT3 sitting in the RPM Technik showroom when I arrive early on a Wednesday morning. There’s a track booked, but the GT3 will be staying here. Instead RPM Technik’s commercial director Darren Anderson hands me the keys to the company’s CSR EVO. The CSR name has been around since 2010, RPM offering the CSR as a package of upgrades on 996 and 997s which can be done at once or over a period of time, depending on budget and expectations. With the EVO the focus is more on track driving, it obviously a more hardcore, adjustable car that offers the serial track day enthusiast something they can drive as a daily, yet track mercilessly. As Anderson himself says, the EVO “has the broadest remit of…

Plus Showroom Whether you’re after a coveted classic or a modern supercar, our classifieds is the first place you should start your search Servicing & tuning Get the very best from your Porsche 911 with the help of our selected performance and maintenance specialists Porsche lifestyle Helping you make the right lifestyle choices to complement you and your 911. Don’t just drive Porsche, live the brand Insurance & finance Get your Porsche covered with the best insurance deals for road and track to ensure happy, safe motoring…

We kicked off our ‘Design Icons’ series with the ducktail spoiler (or ‘bürzel’), one of the first such devices fitted to a production road car and one that grew from Porsche’s racing activities. But while very adept at improving the 911’s handling, it had one key flaw: the German authorities decreed that its sharp edges were a danger to pedestrians. Not only was greater downforce needed for the next generation of models, but a safer design too. Porsche’s answer wasn’t long in arriving, the 1974 3.0 RS offered with the rather more extravagant whaletail that featured on the racing RSR, which certainly couldn’t be accused of being understated. It was a timely introduction as the blisteringly quick Turbo was just around the corner and, paired with a deeper front air…

Porsche 992 captured without camo for the first time Clearest pictures yet of next-generation 911 revealed on the public road; full-width rear lights and Taycan-style front end spotted Total 911’s spies have captured the incoming 992-generation Porsche 911 testing sans disguise for the very first time. Seen here in a covert dark-blue hue, the lack of disguise suggests Porsche has all but completed testing of the car set to replace the outgoing 991.2-generation 911. As you can see, the 992’s silhouette, roofline and rear quarter window profile is very similar to its 991 predecessor, with obvious styling revisions to the wing mirrors which are aerodynamically refined, door handles which sit flush with the door profile for the first time, also reducing drag, as well as a new front bumper profile…

GTD class win for GT3 R as works RSRs falter Mixed results in IMSA SportsCar Championship Porsche’s 911s endured a weekend of mixed emotions at round eight of the IMSA SportsCar Championship at the storied Road America race track. The factory RSR squad of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 car just missed out on the podium with a fourth-place finish, while teammates Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet crossed the line in fifth, their #911 car leading the field with an hour of racing to go before a drive-through penalty was incurred. Despite the disappointment in Wisconsin, Porsche’s factory drivers remain in a realistic hunt for individual titles in GTLM: Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor currently occupy fifth place in the driver’s championship, their haul of 225 points…

356: Built at the behest of US distributor Max Hoffman who said Porsche needed a cheaper model, the first Speedster was effectively a roofless 356 with a rudimentary windshield and simplified interior. A US-only road-going model of which 4,000 were assembled, it put Porsche firmly on the racing map in America. 964: Porsche reprised the 3.2 Speedster theme using the-then current 911, but despite an interior borrowed from the RS, a manual transmission and power steering, the 964 version offered no other advance over its predecessor and looked like a slightly desperate attempt to shore up flagging 964 sales in the early Nineties. 997: Two decades later, Porsche took up the Speedster idea again, but now the objective was clearer: a collector’s 911, production limited to a symbolic 356 units.…

“Customers range from people wanting a straight-forward remap and an exhaust, right up to those wanting the full-fat, race car set-up” Porsche owners can perhaps be compared to pizza lovers. Are you an authentic purist who would only consider a thin base, tomato and herb sauce and a light scattering of mozzarella? Are you a topping lover who wants more, so goes for a Hawaiian, never mind the Italians who decry pineapple for not belonging on one? Or are you an all-in pizza fan who has their own personal favourite mix of allsorts, loaded with whatever you want and as spicy as it can be? Just like pizza fans, Porsche owners follow a similar vein. Some owners only want that as-it-left-the-factory look, whereas another loves their air-cooled car, but wants…

It’s the latest generation to be billed as the last ‘proper’ 911 before its successor grew wildly in its proportions, moved the engine slightly forward and invaded the driving experience with electric-assisted steering and a host of other technological wizardry. We are, of course, talking about the 997 and the 991, specifically the 997 Gen2 and 991 Gen1. While each new generation of 911 causes some form of controversy among enthusiasts with purist intentions, the move from 997 to 991 proved substantial. Those changes highlighted above encompass the crux of it, though people have also commented on the 991’s revised interior, which has arguably pointed the 911 further down the route of luxurious grand tourer than fully focused sports car. The 997.2 is looking ever more like the sweet spot…

Second gear, just before the apex of the tightly radiused corner. Squeeze the power and wait for the 930 Turbo to spin up and deliver boost. 2,500rpm and nothing is happening. 3,000rpm and still nothing of significance. In fact, it’s feeling like a slightly flat, normally aspirated Porsche. Three-and-a-half grand and finally we’re feeling a shove between the shoulder blades, the boost gauge below the rev counter now stirring. Suddenly that softly sprung rear is squatting down and the nose is lifting, and we’re being pushed hard at the horizon. The revs rise at a disproportionate rate to what was happening a second ago and I’m readying for that long-throw 915 shift across the gate and into third gear, hoping that I can shift it briskly enough that the engine…

As you will have seen by now from this special issue, Porsche has a rich history of building very unique and exceedingly rare iterations of its 911 Turbo. However, it has long been said among enthusiasts that if you want something faster, better and even more exclusive than a Porsche, go and speak to Ruf Automobile. What started as a German tuning company specialising in Porsche, Ruf eventually became a manufacturer in its own right in 1981, which meant the cars leaving Pfaffenhausen came with a Ruf chassis number – the pinnacle of which arguably came in 1987 with the release of the Yellowbird. Subsequently crowned the fastest car of the year, putting Ferrari’s F40 and Porsche’s own 959 in to touch, Ruf had now well and truly arrived at…

Whether you like your 911 in air- or water-cooled flavours the engineering integrity and motorsport pedigree never fail to stir the soul, but there’s another aspect of development that rarely merits much in the way of consideration: safety. Although it’s probably not at the forefront of our minds when attacking a favourite ribbon of Tarmac, it shouldn’t be dismissed, the 911 long having blended driving thrills with a focus on keeping those behind the wheel in one piece. Recent years have seen sophisticated electronics play a more prominent role in the safety equation, but even the very earliest models didn’t ignore such a crucial element of car design. For example, way back in 1963 the adoption of rack and pinion steering not only provided vastly superior levels of feedback and…

911s in the data file are organised in rows according to release date, beginning with the very first model in 1964. Many models were available in Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet forms, with the option of automatic transmission. Here, data has been provided from the Coupe variants unless stated. All data here has been compiled, where possible, from Porsche’s own figures. General valuations This reflects the general market trend for a model’susedvaluecompared to the previous financial quarter. The review for 2018 Q4 will be October. The review for 2018 Q3 was July. Ratings Each model is rated out of five in our half-star system according to their performance, handling, appearance and desirability. Brought to you by Hexagon Classics 020 8348 5151…

After the technology was unveiled to the world at the 1999 IAA in Frankfurt, Porsche Carbon Ceramic Brakes (a joint project between Porsche and SGL Carbon) were launched in 2001 on the 996-generation GT2. PCCB discs are constructed of a carbon-fibre-reinforced ceramic core, covered with an additional ceramic friction layer. The result of 20 days manufacturing, carbon ceramic discs are 50 per cent lighter than cast iron discs of the same size. The reduction in unsprung and rotating mass at each corner of the car results in more responsive handling and improved acceleration. As well as the handling benefits, PCCB also benefits the braking performance itself. The ceramic coating improves the friction coefficient, improving initial ‘bite’ when the brakes are applied. This leads to greater confidence when attempting to brake…