On the Pulse of Time

Yang: The Porsche 911 GT3 Touring forms the harmonizing contrast to the nostalgic G series. Wu also uses it for track days. A rrival at the Great Star Theater in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Daniel Wu parks the Porsche 911 Carrera – a G series built in 1988 – in front of the theater he once went to with his grandfather. The building’s Chinese temple–inspired roof blends harmoniously with the surrounding architecture. At the age of seven, Wu saw his first-ever martial arts movie here in 1982. The classic film Shaolin Temple featuring action star Jet Li opened up a whole new world for Wu. “The actor’s first motion picture was absolutely unbelievable. The action scenes are still legendary to this day.” Growing up as a Chinese American, the Hollywood star remembers not having any role models that looked like him on the silver screen. “Seeing someone that looked like me on-screen was a real turning point for me.” He and his grandfather left the theater feeling exhilarated, but Daniel would have to wait another five years to finally be able to learn kung fu himself. “My Mom was worried I’d get into fights at school. So she wouldn’t let me start until I was twelve years old and had found the right master.”

“The car immediately brings back good memories for my father.”

Daniel WU

Memories: When the movie star takes the 33-year-old car out for a spin, he can’t help but think of his father.

Duality for balance.

Wu did eventually find him – and is still inspired by him to this day: “Master Chiang was a fascinating man who not only had mastered kung fu, tai chi, and qigong, but was also accomplished in Chinese brush painting and traditional Chinese medicine and was even a lawyer. In addition to martial arts, he also taught me how to rediscover my Asian roots as an American by understanding ancient concepts like yin and yang,” says Wu, who’s well acquainted with the Asian philosophy of dualism. “Yin and yang represent the elemental forces of all being and are actually older than Chinese characters. If you accept the two contrary characters – the feminine yin and masculine yang – they form a balance of harmony. That’s an area of focus in my life,” says Wu. He learned this lesson early on as he studied different martial arts. He later taught kung fu himself as head trainer at the University of Oregon. “The art of tai chi is all about achieving a kind of balance. According to a proverb, too much of a good thing can be bad. So I try to maintain a good balance in everything I do,” explains the 47-year-old.

The Great Star Theater he’s standing in front of now not only represents an important memory for the actor, but also recently hosted a podium talk about Daniel Wu’s roots in the Bay Area, how he ended up in the Hong Kong film industry, and about his new movie Reminiscence. Wu plays the role of villain Saint Joe next to Hugh Jackman in the blockbuster. There are, of course, some fight scenes, but Wu refuses to be reduced to martial arts. “I went to Hong Kong in 1997 and got involved in the film industry there. Out of the nearly 70 films I did there over a period of twenty years, only three involved martial arts. And in the US, I did the TV show Into the Badlands.” The martial arts series employs artistic exaggeration. “It’s hard to leave this stereotype behind. Kung fu has given me a lot, but I think that reducing my entire acting career to just that is too one-dimensional.”

In addition to acting and martial arts, motorsport is another component of Daniel Wu’s three-dimensionality. He has a racing license issued by the IMSA and Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), which has allowed him to compete in various races. It’s a passion that Wu shares with movie legend Jackie Chan, whom he calls a friend and mentor. “We just happened to meet at a party in Hong Kong and immediately exchanged phone numbers. A week later he became my manager, which lasted for eleven years.” The two have since filmed several movies together and have gotten very close over the years. “He has always treated me like a son,” says Wu fondly. Due to his unbelievable work ethic and passion, Jackie Chan has also had a huge impact on Wu’s outlook on life. “Jackie’s love, care, and generosity for the people around him are truly extraordinary. I try to live my life just like him,” says Wu. “And he’s just as crazy about cars as I am!”

Wu’s favorite racecourse is the Laguna Seca raceway near San Francisco Bay, just two hours from Oakland, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He has suitable sports equipment in his garage at home, including two Porsche 911 models. He drove his Cassis Red Carrera G series into Chinatown today, with the 2018 Carmine Red 911 GT3 (991) Touring waiting patiently at home. “The two of them are my yin and yang, old and new, on four wheels – for the road and the racecourse.”

His father acquired the Carrera when he retired. “Dad had never owned a sports car and wasn’t all that interested in cars,” says Wu. “I can remember the evening he showed up in my room all excited and told me that he was going to buy a Porsche and that I could choose the color.” Even though it was more than 30 years ago, he can vividly remember seeing it for the first time. “I was at school and couldn’t sit still because I knew that my dad would be picking me up in the Porsche for the first time. I told all of my classmates. When they saw the car, they all made fun of me, saying ‘Your dad bought a pink Porsche!’” Wu remembers being really upset. But he was still proud of the fact that he had chosen such a rare color. “And Cassis Red is now more in style than ever before.”

Whenever Daniel Wu drives the car, he always thinks about his father, who has Alzheimer’s. “A terrible disease. I visit him as often as possible. Unfortunately, his dementia is pretty far advanced, but he always remembers his 3.2-liter Carrera. The car immediately brings back good memories for him whenever he sees it.” His son took over the car ten years ago. “My dad was almost 80 years old. It was noticeably harder for him to work the steering wheel and sporty clutch. The Coupé had more than 60,000 miles on it – and still had that new-car smell.”

Wu uses the GT3 Touring, his yang, on more spacious highways and for track days on racecourses. “Without yin, it wouldn’t be as important for me as it is.” The GT3 is a real eye-catcher on the streets of San Francisco. Unfortunately, exclusive sports cars tend to stay hidden in garages here, says Wu. “When people wave at me enthusiastically, it’s not because they recognize me. It’s because of the Porsche!”

According to Wu, people in Los Angeles tend to flaunt what they have. He and fellow actor Sung Kang, who’s known for his role in the Fast and Furious series and is his partner in Student Driver, an automotive lifestyle and fashion brand, recently organized a special car event there in response to the increasing hostility against Asians in the US. “We weren’t expecting all that many people, but more than a thousand showed up,” explains Wu enthusiastically. “When we combine a good cause with our passion for cars, that’s a good thing.” The proceeds went to victims of violence.

You have to wonder how Daniel Wu finds the time for all of his commitments. The answer requires an understanding of spiritual energy: “Everything that makes me who I am originates in martial arts. My drive and my ambition to overcome challenges of all kinds are rooted in the lessons I learned from Master Chiang. I use these abilities professionally, socially, and on every inch of the racecourse.” ●

Shipshape: For Wu, old and new create a harmonious balance, just like the balance between traditional wisdom and a modern lifestyle.

Martial Arts on the Silver Screen

Wu became world-famous as Sunny in Into the Badlands. The martial arts of the Far East conquered Western movie theaters in the 1970s. Bruce Lee movies were popular the world over, and Jackie Chan has kept the genre alive with fearless stunts and slapstick.

The Unfinished Race

24 Hours of Le Mans

France

Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell

8.466-mile circuit length Porsche 956

By

Markus STIER

Photo by

PORSCHE company archives

In 1982, Jacky Ickx led a Porsche one-two-three victory. Only one person was disappointed.

By the end, they weren’t in any hurry. The three Porsche 956 cars up front had such a comfortable lead that they were able to line up for the perfect finish line photo a number of laps before the end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That’s not to say the classic endurance race was a walk in the park for the Porsche factory team in 1982 – the number 2 car’s speed limiter had to be replaced, while the number 3 car, which was in the lead for a long time, suffered wheel bearing and shaft seal failures and the driver’s door flew off. Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell in the number 1 car made it through the day and night without any notable mishaps and led the trio.

Overall, the reliability and performance of the 956 were more than impressive for a race car which saw the Motorsport department entering completely unknown territory. Team Coordinator Jürgen Barth had performed the first laps in it at the proving ground in Weissach less than three months before the season highlight. Project Manager Norbert Singer took the tried-and-true type 935/76 six-cylinder, four-stroke boxer engine with two KKK turbochargers from the 1981 Porsche 936, but everything else had been changed. It was the first time the chassis of a Porsche race car was based not on a space frame, but on an aluminum monocoque. For the first time, Porsche had constructed what’s known as a wing car with a curved underbody that works like an inverted wing. On corners, the 956 applies itself to the asphalt with up to 3 g – without any increase in drag.

The turbo era marked the beginning of a new age. The performance figures increased sharply. Ickx and Bell had already achieved average speeds of above 124 mph in Le Mans with the Porsche 936 in 1981. The officials then responded for safety reasons, and tank size, fueling processes, and fuel volumes were strictly limited in the Group C category that applied from 1982. For the first time in 1982, the Porsche pit in Le Mans featured a computer used to monitor consumption and optimize the fueling strategy. Engine performance, which was reduced in favor of range, was around 620 hp with a compression ratio of 7.2:1. Even so, Ickx and Bell beat their previous year’s speed record!

As the neatly aligned Porsche trio edged toward victory, things began to happen very fast. Thousands of fans stormed onto the finishing straight and couldn’t be contained. The organizer then abruptly declared the race over on the Mulsanne hairpin and the cars were guided to the parc fermé after the Ford chicane.

The team was nevertheless delighted. A beaming Jacky Ickx was crowned Le Mans winner for the sixth time, while Derek Bell scored his third win. The one-two-three win was the first milestone in the history of the most successful sport prototype ever. Only one person was not so happy that Sunday in June – the Porsche photographer, who never got his finish line photo. ●

Welcome to the Club

By Frieder PFEIFFER Photos by Victor Jon GOICO

The most recent project of the largest Porsche Club in the world was the result of intercontinental exchange: it is a one-off composition of choice ingredients from different generations of the Porsche 911.

Team Stuttgart: Alexander Fabig (left) and Grant Larson at the photo session. The grand idea was born in a similar setting in 2019.

It is the lamentable condition of this Porsche 911 Carrera that made it a non-seller for a dealer in Virginia. A wheel is sticking out, the locking system doesn’t work, and it won’t even start. But it is a type 996 built in 1998. And it is therefore precisely what the Porsche Club of America (PCA) is looking for. Because the club has a plan.

This plan – code name: Project Grey – was hatched in August 2019 in California. The club directors are sitting in a diner with Alexander Fabig, Vice President of Individualization and Classic at Porsche. Over burgers and fries, they come up with an idea that Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) plays a part in, too. “We wanted to create something unique together that would be received enthusiastically,” remembers PCA President Tom Gorsuch. Founded in 1955, the club is one of the oldest of its kind and, with 145,000 members, is also the world’s biggest.

Porsche previously produced special series exclusively for PCA members to mark both the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the club. These 911 Club Coupe series were limited to 50 and 60 vehicles respectively. Under the motto Revive the Passion, Porsche Classic additionally restored a 911 T Coupé together with the PCA in 2011 and raffled it off among club members. Project Grey is designed to extend this tradition while simultaneously sweetening a bitter pill – in 2009, the 911 Sport Classic based on the type 997 and in a limited edition of 250 caused quite a stir, but could not be sold in the USA. The special model lacked US approval for its roof with the lowered center area – the so-called double-bubble roof. “That hurt,” admits Fabig. “We therefore came up with the idea of continuing the story of that model with its predecessor. And it was to be a one-off.” And so the 911 (996) Classic Club Coupe was born.

For the purposes of explanation, what was discussed in the diner three years previously was an extremely unconventional aficionados’ menu featuring various 911 generations – a composition of choice ingredients that don’t, technically speaking, go together. And it was the 996 of all things, which was built from 1997 to 2006, that was the most controversially discussed, with what was then a new water cooling system and an unconventional front headlamp design. “We could have made things easier for ourselves, for example had we done without the GT3 powertrain,” says Vu Nguyen, PCA Executive Director. “But we were striving for excellence.” The Classic Factory Restoration facility in Stuttgart therefore reinforced the body in line with the GT3 (996). It was also given the GT3’s exhaust system, nose, rear, and sills. Talking of the rear, the chefs decided on a ducktail, too – as a homage to the rear wing of the 911 Carrera RS 2.7 of 1972. The body part between the rear window and tail was handmade.

“We obviously didn’t want to do without the double bubble again,” says Fabig, commenting on the roof construction, which is likewise nothing like the original 996. “It was tricky. But we ultimately won the authorities round – that was a project milestone.” The 911 Classic Club Coupe also sports newly developed and hand-forged 18-inch Fuchsfelge® wheels. The PCA’s wishes and the ideas of Porsche Classic added up to some serious challenges. “This incredible car nevertheless looks seamless,” says a delighted Tom Gorsuch. The absolutely one-of-a-kind 911 was developed in collaboration with Porsche designer Grant Larson, who was also responsible for the look of the 997 Sport Classic. It is in Sport Grey Metallic with subtle, light-grey decorative strips bordered in the familiar Club Blue.

“This is such an outstanding project for many reasons, including the many

Bathed in grey: The Porsche 911 (996) undergoing cathodic dip coating.

“We were striving for excellence.”

Vu NGUYEN

Team USA: Vu Nguyen (left) and Tom Gorsuch discussing the project digitally. A challenging combination: The marriage of the 996 body and the GT3 engine.

Retro: 18-inch wheels in the legendary Fuchsfelge® wheel design were created for the 911 (996) Classic Club Coupe. hurdles it had to overcome,” says Larson. “The passion of everyone involved endorses me in what I do at Porsche: we want to make dreams come true.” Fabig states: “With the right team, huge motivation, and a great deal of ambition, we jointly achieved something that seemed impossible.” Vu Nguyen will soon be able to tell the car dealer in Virginia and the club members that Porsche can turn what others can only dream of into a reality. ●