Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 20201 i GT Porsche

Roof up or down?’ I ask photographer Jordan Butters before we take a trip down memory lane in the 986-generation Boxster. It’s a dry if wintry two-degree morning and the correct answer is most definitely ‘up’. ‘Down,’ comes Jordan’s inevitable reply. The Boxster’s fabric roof is easy enough to raise and lower – you just manually unclip a latch above the rear-view mirror, then press a button and it disappears beneath the rear bodywork. I timed this electric portion of the operation on my phone at a little over ten seconds. It’s easy (even if you can’t lower it on the go like you can with the secondgeneration 987). But I’m fresh off a Zoom call with Horst Marchant, the R&D boss who oversaw the project (page 28), and one…

I had an amazing opportunity when I uncovered an original numbersmatching 1957 Porsche 1600 Speedster that had been tucked away in a garage for decades: that classic shape, archetypal, almost art deco in its curving design. I heard about it through the grapevine, always the best way to find out about such gems. The vehicle wasn’t too far from me in Los Angeles - well, so long as you don’t think 500 miles is too great a stretch. So I went up there to view it, in the liberal city of Albany on San Francisco Bay, right next to the university town of Berkeley. Always chilly up there for a guy like me from southern California as the breeze billows in off the waterfront. Although the interior was in pure…

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Mark Sumpter and his then business partner Adrian Mole were employed at a local Ford dealership in the early 1990s. Both owned 911s, and they decided to open Paragon Porsche in 1993. The reason? None other than a yearning to be part of the Porsche scene. A move that was a real leap of faith as established outfits were going bust due to the recession of the time. Adrian left after six years to pursue another career, while Mark started to develop the site by losing the fuel pumps (it started life as a village fuel station) and adding a showroom extension. ‘It has just evolved really,’ added Mark. ‘Three years ago we completely refitted the premises, which has enabled us to house 16 cars in the showroom and massively…

CONTACT Paragon Porsche 01825 830 424 www.paragongb.com The 997 Carrera is a generation of 911 that has aged very well indeed, but the oldest examples have been on the road for nearly 17 years now. However, it takes a keen pair of eyes, and an innate feel for how a good example drives, to know what could either fail or mar the 997 experience. Extended service intervals maybe appealing at first glance, but 20,000 miles is too long in the eyes of Paragon Porsche Service Manager Pete Twyman. ‘In my view, any 997 covering more than 5,000 miles per year should definitely have an oil change, even though the official guide is two years or 20,000 miles.’ Take rear wishbone bushes as one example. These would not necessarily be picked…

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The final models of the classic-era Porsche 911 fit into the stereotypical image of the go-go 1980s as perfectly as red braces, Filofaxes and Babycham. It’s an enduring image of the greed-is-good age, the lipstick-red or midnight-black widowmaker with the tea-tray on the decklid, prowling through London’s financial district, racing through the Limehouse Link and obliterating the office juniors’ GTIs as if they were mere plankton to the Stuttgart sharks. And it wasn’t all synth-pop and bubblegum beats of course, the late-’80s had a razor-sharp metallic edge. Cast your mind back to December 1988, if you’re so able. Over in Los Angeles, Guns N’ Roses were riding the hedonistic wave of the release of Lies, their multi-faceted bitesize follow-up to the smash hit Appetite for Destruction LP, while back in…

To celebrate 25 years of the Boxster, Porsche has released this anniversary model: the Boxster 25 years. Limited to a production run of 1250 vehicles, it is based on the GTS 4.0-litre (400 PS). Homage is paid to some of the design features of the original Boxster concept car (see page 28), such as the copper-like paint known as Neodyme. A colour which contrasted the GT Silver Metallic found on the 1993 Detroit Motor Show car. On the new model Neodyme can be found on the front bumper, side air intakes, mono bar and 20-inch wheels. The Boxster 25 years will be available in GT Silver Metallic, Deep Black Metallic and Carrara White Metallic. Another nod to the original car is the Bordeaux leather interior and fabric roof, embossed with…

PORSCHE PRODUCTS Each month, we present exciting parts and services designed to benefit you and your four-wheeled friend. From audio to engine upgrades, we’ve got you covered. MY RACING LIFE WITH PORSCHE 1970–2004 Norbert Singer - My Racing Life with Porsche 1970–2004 by Wilfried Müller is a must have for any Porsche motorsport fan. With forewords from Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, Norbert Singer looks back on his four decades of Porsche motorsport. Between the aforementioned years, Norbert, an aerospace and automotive engineer, was instrumental in the race cars that came out of Zuffenhausen and Weissach. He explains what it was like to tread that line between innovation and bending the rulebook. Publisher Sportfahrer also collaborated with the Porsche Museum and released the ‘Edition Porsche Museum’ which has its own…

The Boxster was to prove a brilliant idea of which the first public inkling was at the 1993 Detroit motor show: Porsche stylists exhibited a striking, mid-engine concept two-seater for which acclaim, not just in Porsche’s largest market, was immediate. It suggested strongly that Porsche was on the right path for as well as clues to future 911 direction. As it was almost a case of one template for two cars, at least their forward aspect, the styling models for the Boxster and the 996 were built alongside each other. This allowed the stylists, to go as far as they could in differentiating their frontal aesthetics. The Boxster was shod with its own 16inch wheels rather than the 17inch variety of the 911and its front valance would have different air…

You generally buy a Porsche for one of two reasons; as an investment or out of a sheer passion for the marque. 33 year-old Kirill Vladimirovich, who is the CEO of a large development group in Charlotte, North Carolina, had no real interest in the making money aspect when buying this 1996 993. He was more interested in saving the 153k-mile, sun-baked Carrera 4S and putting his own spin on it in the process. “My good friend Mike Ngo at Eurowise, who has modified my cars in the past, sourced the 993 for me. It previously belonged to a couple in Florida who had owned it for over ten years and it looked like it had spent much of its life outside baking in the blazing Florida sunshine,” Krill admitted.…

Can you remember the dominating force of the Rothmans liveried 953 and 959s? Skimming their way across the baron Saharan backdrop of 1980’s Paris Dakar events. Instantly distinguished from their ‘regular’ stage rally prepared counterparts by a loftier ride height. Well, this iconic sight from yesteryear inspired one of Singer’s clients to request a modern-day equivalent. The result was the All-terrain Competition Study (ACS) undertaken as a collaboration between Singer and Tuthill Porsche. With all-wheel drive and a 450bhp turbocharged 3.6-litre flat-six, its built to travel very quickly over very poor surfaces as felt on the Baja 1000 and Dakar Rally. As with other Singer restorations, it’s hard to think this one in particular started life as a 1990 964. Using Tuthill Porsche’s rally preparation expertise (including period Rothmans involvement)…

Four-wheel drive and Porsche are now as holy a combination as the 911 and its rear engine location. The Cayenne and Macan may be the most obvious signs of Porsche’s extra traction intent, but the firm’s history is littered with four-wheel drive machines. It may not have worn the Stuttgart prancing horse crest, but Ferdinand Porsche’s first car which employed four driven wheels was produced by the Vienesse Lohner-Werke in 1900. The hybrid Lohner-Porsche featured electric hub motors powered by batteries on each of the wheels that were charged by a gasoline-engine generator. Nearly half a century later in 1947, after creating fourwheel drive Volkswagens for the German war effort, Porsche designed the Type 360 ‘Cisitalia’ racing car. A technological tour de force due to its supercharged 12-cylinder engine, lightweight…

SUBSCRIBE TO GT PORSCHE SEE PAGE 72 FOR DETAILS 1997 993 CARRERA 4 The 993 represented a turning point in the 911’s very essence: this generation, built from 1994-98, was the last to feature an air-cooled engine. It was all-change when the water-cooled 996 arrived to replace it, and for many enthusiasts the 993 is the most desirable of the lot – not just for the end-of-an-era definition, but for the fact that it was a magnificent evolution of the formula in its own right. Whereas its predecessor, the 964, carried over much of the classic 911s in its architecture, the 993 was largely a clean-sheet design. An all-new multi-link suspension setup mated to a light-alloy subframe meant that the car was more civilised and the handling more predictable, while…

In 1970 Porsche won the 1000-kilometre endurance race held at Brands Hatch, in a 917 driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen. More recently Porsche returned to set 13 new British endurance records in its new Taycan models. A 4S and Turbo S lapped 1000-kilometres around the Indy circuit, as a series of 90-minute stints were handled by Le Mans legend Richard Attwood, ex-Formula One and Porsche racer Jonathan Palmer, 2020 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Harry King and 2020 Cayman Islands Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion James Dorlin. Verified by Motorsport UK, the record attempts were underway by 07:00 and ended at 20:00. In a category for ‘electric cars over 1000 kilograms’, the 4S took records for time taken from a standing start to cover 50 km, 50 miles,…

The Snetterton 200 circuit in Norfolk hosted the fourth Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB weekend on Sunday 31 January. The third Porsche Motorsport GB championship is aimed at professional sim racers and sits alongside Porsche Visit Cayman Islands Sprint Challenge GB and Porsche Carrera Cup GB. 2020 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup champion Sebastian Job took pole position and two wins in a perfect weekend – broadcast live online via the Porsche Twitch channel. Snetterton’s shorter 200 layout delivered two close and incident-packed races that saw Job followed home on both occasions by chief championship rival Kevin Ellis Jr, though a post-race penalty for Ellis Jr relegated him to fourth in race two. As a result 29 points now separate Job and Ellis Jr at the midpoint of the championship…

The Boxster now feels almost as integral to the Porsche model range as the 911, and it’s certainly not short of reference points in Stuttgart’s back catalogue, but when the mid-engined roadster was launched 25 years ago, it was still pretty radical. It switched Porsche’s affordable sports car strategy from a front- to mid-engined layout, influenced the upcoming watercooled 911 and, oh yes, helped save the entire company too. The Boxster’s silver anniversary is a chance to rediscover what made the 986 first-generation cars so fantastic to drive (page 34), and learn more about the 986’s development first-hand from both Grant Larson, who designed the concept and production car under the guidance of his boss Harm Lagaay, and from period R&D boss Horst Marchant who pitched the idea of an…

We return to our detailed history of Porsche’s flat-six engine in 1970, when the designation officially changed from ‘901’ to ‘911’. Just seven years after Porsche first showed its flat-six engine and the 911 to the world, its development took a sharp upwards trajectory. It signified the start of a period of serious development for the boxer unit. As we covered in the first article, covering the conception of the flat-six, the engine was designed from the start to allow for significant bore increases without changing the cylinder spacing – a bore enlargement from 80- to 100 millimetres was foreseen. The first increase in capacity took place for the 1970 model year, when the bore was increased from 80- to 84mm. With an unchanged stroke (of 66mm), the resulting swept…

Just over fifty years ago on 14 June 1970, Porsche achieved the first of its recordbreaking 19 wins at Le Mans, when Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann crossed the finish line in the Porsche 917 – arguably the most iconic racecar of all time. Now, like some surreal dream, 80-year-old Attwood is watching me climb in to the driver’s seat of a 917 on a sodden Sonoma racetrack north of San Francisco, California, calmly offering a few tips ahead of my first ever drive of this legendary machine. Unbelievably privileged barely covers it. Nor does unbelievably nervous. The 917’s feathery fibreglass dihedral door hinges up and forward (taking a chunk of roof with it) and I slot down into the driver’s seat, with an improbably small second seat alongside to…

Trends are a curious thing to watch. For years, in the wide world of the modified Porsche there seemed to be one train of thought – faster and lower was the way to go. But the past few years have seen the rise of an alternative school of thought. Literally. For in this era of Instagram, raising the suspension and embracing the ‘safari’ look has become a new vogue. Rally-style modifications have attained a new acceptance and through sheer gravitas have gone mainstream, with creations now being produced by such respected players as Singer and, if we’re to believe the leaked photos, even by Porsche themselves. And this can only be a good thing because let’s face it, there are few situations which can’t be improved by the addition of…

The 953 drew the line in the sand for the four-wheel drive Porsche as we know it today. Winning the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally, it previewed the 959’s rally success, but there was more to come, in an unexpected arena. In 1986, Porsche took four-wheel drive tech to Le Mans. Up until then, the company’s sensational appearances at La Sarthe had been with two-wheel drive machinery, but configured for the IMSA/GTX class, the 959 became the track-focused 961. Running the same twin-turbocharged 2.8-litre six-pot, but with more power sent to the rear wheels, the oneoff 640bhp four-wheel drive monster featured an adjustable suspension system only modifiable by the pit crew. It only ever competed in a trio of races. In 1986, Dakar Rally winner René Metge and Claude Ballot-Léna qualified in…