It is forty years since the introduction of Porsche’s first RS, the mighty Carrera RS 2.7, back in 1973. For Porsche, the letters RS, which stand for Rennsport, inspire images of sporting achievement and excellence earned the hard way through countless racing victories. At the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1993, Porsche unveiled its all-new 3.6-litre Type 993 model, the first 911 to … [Read more...]
Porsche 70 Years – There Is No Substitute
It’s a heavyweight book, landscape in shape, with a cover picture to (almost) beat all other cover shots. Randy Leffingwell needs little introduction to Porsche enthusiasts, and with a publisher such as Quarto Publishing, you know you can expect a quality product. Another book covering the Porsche 70 Years anniversary I hear you say, well there is no substitute as the book’s … [Read more...]
959 Paris-Dakar outstrips pre-sale estimate at RM Sotheby’s Porsche Sale
Lot #196, the 1985 Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar, outstripped its pre-sale estimate at RM Sotheby’s Porsche 70th Anniversary Auction at the Porsche Experience Centre Atlanta. With a pre-sale estimate of between $3.0m-3.4m, the 959 sold for a final $5,945,000, almost doubling its estimate. This was just one of the vehicles at the sale that handsomely exceeded expectations, helping RM … [Read more...]
Sports cars – it’s horses for courses
Owning a sports car is a compromise: on the one hand, it doesn’t have the space of a family estate, and for some it is slightly less practical as a daily run around. On the other hand, it has superior performance and in most cases, better looks, so, it is horses for courses. If you can live with the lack of space and the impractical nature of a sports car, then you have a … [Read more...]
Porsches and wall-to-wall sunshine
I received the email inviting me to join the judges panel for the 2018 Concours Masters Celebration of 70 Years of Porsche on Saturday, 1st September. It didn’t take long for me to accept as this would be an opportunity to get up close to some stunning machinery, and to be involved in a very special anniversary event. As it happened, we had glorious weather with wall-to-wall … [Read more...]
Dr Ulrich Bez – father of the 993
Hailing from the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart, Ulrich Bez, who as Porsche Technical supremo hatched the 993, had two significant stints at Porsche. During the 1970s he worked in research and was responsible for establishing Porsche’s crash test programme; in the 1980s, he followed Porsche’s head of research to BMW and set up BMW Technik, the department which designed the … [Read more...]
Peter Falk – Porsche’s enduring engineer
In a 34-year career at Porsche, the influence of Peter Falk - Porsche's enduring engineer, can be found throughout the air-cooled and transaxle model ranges, and extends even to the 986/996 generation. He was also team manager for many of Porsche’s Le Mans efforts and oversaw the company’s rise from class winner to crushing overall victory in 1970/71, repeating this performance … [Read more...]
Celebrating the Porsche Carrera heritage
The origin of the model name, Porsche Carrera, is not only interesting but also somewhat hazy. It all started in a dusty town called Tuxtla Gutiérrez near the southern border of Mexico. The year was 1950, and an epic road race was about to get underway, La Carrera Panamericana, in celebration of the completion of the Mexican section of the Panamerican highway which stretched … [Read more...]
Where What When of Porsche milestones
We spend increasing chunks of our daily activities surfing the World Wide Web, or ‘www,’ as it known. Well, we have put our own spin on the ‘www’ and come up with the Where What When of Porsche milestones. This is a brief look at some of the significant milestones in Porsche’s history, because if we had to get really serious about it, we could fill a book. You may have … [Read more...]
