Porsche’s era of dominance at Le Mans was over, that innovative period in motor sport during the mid-70s, which saw Porsche cars occupying half the grid at Le Mans (in 1975, of the 55 entrants 27 were Porsche with 24 of those 911s). The winning years of the 956 and 962 race cars were also a distant memory, the 962’s last Le Mans win was in 1987 followed by a second place the … [Read more...]
Road Cars
How do you like your coffee?
What do Porsche 911s, surfboards, bicycles and coffee have in common? A lot, it would seem. South African entrepreneur, Gavin Rooke, hit on a common thread that runs through all of these products above…that is as brilliant as it is simple. Sometimes, things or events that we are exposed to in our youth, often helps to shape our future. Perhaps we don’t realise it at the … [Read more...]
Riviera Blue Porsche 993 Carrera RS
If any two letters have encapsulated Porsche’s sporting prowess over the years, it is these – RS. It is now forty-seven years since the introduction of Porsche’s first RS, the iconic 911 Carrera RS 2.7, back in 1973. For Porsche, the letters RS, which stand for Rennsport, brings to mind today rich images of sporting achievement and excellence, and of impressive roadgoing … [Read more...]
The Porsche Transaxle Family
It is a fact that most of us with an interest in roadgoing or race cars, will have a favourite model that holds a special place in our memory for some reason. That reason might be something significant that happened in your life where a certain car left an indelible mark in your memory, or might just be slow warming to a certain model that has built up over the years. In the … [Read more...]
White Lightning!
The origins of the 1998 Porsche 911 GT1 Le Mans winner can be traced back to a roadgoing version of the Group C 962 launched five years earlier. In order to homologate the 911 GT1/98, the FIA required a single street legal version of the race car to be made. You could call it ‘White Lightning’ because this road legal version of the race car had a top speed of 193 mph (310 … [Read more...]
911 Carrera Club Sport – rolling back the years
The 911 Carrera Club Sport was Porsche’s attempt at rolling back the years and once again, stoking the fires of high performance, lightweight motoring. Porsche Road & Race pulls back the covers to reveal the origins of the 911 Carrera CS. Originally created on the core building blocks of lightweight, high performance and superb engineering quality, the early 356 model … [Read more...]
Turbocharging the 911
In 1973, the Porsche 911, by now a decade old, was ready for a make-over. The 3-litre engine had reached its development ceiling, and it was thought that lessons learned from turbocharging the 917 Can-Am racers in the early ‘70s could be put to good use in a production environment. Turbocharging the 911 would open a world of new opportunities for the model, and today Porsche … [Read more...]
The 911 Carrera Type 964
From a technical perspective, the 911 Carrera Type 964 represented one of the most significant steps forward for Porsche, for many years. The new Type 964 looked like a 911 that had just undergone an annual face-lift, but this was because the only real external changes were to the wheels and details below the bumper line, which were designed to improve aerodynamics. Even the … [Read more...]
Déjà vu
The dictionary defines the term Déjà vu as ‘already seen,’ or the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced, has been experienced in the past. This was certainly true for Porsche enthusiast Dave Whelan, as he returned to the scene of the West Cork Rally where, in March 2000, he almost wrote off his 1972 Porsche 911 2.4 … [Read more...]
On Auction: Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.8
Every so often, Porsche creates a short production run of cars that celebrates the attributes of one of their special models. In 1993, the Stuttgart engineers decided to develop a race version of their 911 Type 964 Carrera RS, aptly named the Carrera RSR 3.8, and aimed it squarely at the race track. With the 1993 Carrera 2 as the starting point, Porsche had to make at … [Read more...]
