July 2011 www.911porscheworld.com
WILDTHING! 212MPH AND COUNTING THE FASTEST 911 WE’VE
EVER TESTED
CAYMAN R ROAD AND TRACK LIGHTWEIGHT CAYMAN DESERVES R BADGE
PANAMERA BUYERS’ GUIDE FOUR UP FUN IN PORSCHE’S SUPER SALOON
HOW TO: BOXSTER/996 BUSHES SHARPEN UP YOUR HANDLING
CHEAP THRILLS: PROJECT 996
www.911porscheworld.com
PORSCHE 924: THE PEOPLE’S SPORTS CAR
No.208
FULL FRONTAL
£4.50 US$9.99 CANADA $12.95
WE BUY A £11,500 CARRERA 4
R RATED
The Cayman R wowed us on smooth Mediterranean launch roads but how does it fare on UK tarmac? We head to the Cotswolds and Prescott Hillclimb to find the R’s not so hidden talents Words: Adam Towler Photography: Antony Fraser
36
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
CAYMAN R AT PRESCOTT
T
he devil is in the detail, so the saying goes, but when you look at the new Cayman R on paper it’s hard not to feel a twinge of disappointment at the changes made to get from S to R. Losing 55kg and gaining 10hp doesn’t sound like a great deal given the promise of the R badge. Given the excellence of the S that attitude is a bit odd. After all, surely any improvement over such a wellbalanced coupe is going to make the best in its class even better, and who wouldn’t see that as a good thing? And then we drove the R on the Mediterranean launch, and I don’t think anyone present wasn’t completely bowled over by just how much sheer fun it was to drive. The press reports were glowing – mine included – and it got me thinking: perhaps the modern obsession with analysis and trying to attach numbers to everything can sometimes obscure the real picture. Perhaps, in poring over the detail we’d failed to properly consider that it might be ‘just right’, in spite of the boorish comments of those who usually haven’t driven it. When the opportunity arrived to drive the Cayman R in the UK we jumped at the chance. Would the changes still seem like such a good idea in an environment devoid of the smooth, hairpin infested roads that surely had flattered the R? Dismissing our usual Welsh road routes, we head instead for the Cotswolds and a verdant and charming confection of great roads and a motorsport venue. The former exist all over the area if you know where to find them, with rolling hills and expansive vistas containing tough, narrow, often bumpy but well-sighted B-roads that should – in theory – suit the R, or just maybe, prove too much of a challenge for the stiffer, lower suspension setup. As for our venue, we’re heading for Prescott Hillclimb. Apart from the great drive to get there, and the excellent photo opportunity once we’ve arrived, this seems like the sort of place the R should make its own: a club motor sport event where you enjoy your drive there, compete with hopefully some success in a road-going class, and then drive home again. The GT3 might still be the serious motorsport campaigner in the range, but the Cayman R
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
37
WILDTHING It may look subtle enough in restrained metallic blue but this flat-nosed 964 Turbo based weapon is possibly the fastest air-cooled 911 we’ve ever driven Words: Adam Towler Photography: Antony Fraser
200MPH 964 TURBO
B
runtingthorpe airfield and proving ground is a regular haunt of this magazine, its two-mile runway and wide-open spaces ideal for testing and photographing cars. But although it’s two and four-wheeled vehicles that pound its ageing runway these days, along with line after line of surplus vehicles awaiting auction, off to the sides sit the extensive collection of Cold War military jets. These great silent beasts are either gleaming from restoration by enthusiastic volunteers or grimily weathered long past their prime. Either way, it’s fanciful to imagine them, perched silent and not a little mournfully on their wind-whipped undercarriages, looking down with disdain as yet another feeble supercar attempts to break the 200mph barrier under their graceful noses. If so, today they’re in for a rare treat, for we have along a car with a power-to-weight ratio and an uncompromising attitude they would surely approve: a car that shares a similar no frills approach and explosive,
over-powered, and potentially lethal performance appetite. A rare foreign exhibit here is the notorious F104 Starfighter, erstwhile dubbed ‘the missile with a man in it’: you could say the same about this car, for it really is something truly extraordinary even by Porsche Turbo standards. This ‘project’ began when our owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, purchased the striking, pale blue metallic 964 Turbo some seven years ago. As a late 1991 3.3-litre model, it represented the first major development of the type since the progression of the previous 930 from 3.0-litre to 3.3-litres in 1978. These first 964 Turbos arrived not long after the final 5-speed 930 had gone out of production, causing Porsche a few headaches after the firm had sold the last of the old model with the assurance that this would be the last of its kind. Certain speculators were not best pleased. In fact, the 964 Turbo arrived at a very difficult time for the company, and Porsche had been forced to create the new car on a very limited budget. As such, power was only slightly increased to 320hp, produced by a lightly modified version of the old engine, instead of a turbocharged development of the 3.6-litre flat six already in the 964 Carrera 2 and 4. The 3.6-litre Turbo did eventually follow in small numbers for 1993, but it wasn’t until the sensational 993 Turbo of 1995 – very much the son of the 959 – that Porsche were able to put the 911 Turbo back at the forefront of contemporary technology. This car was bought with 40,000 miles already showing on the clock, and over the next 20,000 miles of motoring was steadily tuned for more performance. First, the boost was increased to 1 bar, with new exhaust headers and a cat bypass fitted giving
UP FRONT WITH THE 924 The 924 is invariably touted as ‘your first Porsche’, but plenty of owners testify that it can hold its own as a Zuffenhausen fun car Words: Johnny Tipler Photography: Antony Fraser
924 GROUP TEST
I
’ve had a revelation in the front engined department.... the 924 is, I’ve discovered, a really good car. It’s well-built, reliable, a coherent, if flawed, design (that upper rear three-quarters where the rear window meets the side window...), unpretentious, and in its most extreme incarnation is easily as enthralling as a 968 Club Sport or a hot 911. This front-engine eye-opener is based on a couple of recent forays. First up was an absolutely stonking 924 Carrera GTS Club Sport (see 911&PW, issue 204, March 2011). What with turbocharged 245bhp and race-tuned suspension, its power delivery, turn-in, ride and cornering prowess was superb – but that’s the outer limits of the 924 experience, and you can have a perfectly fun-filled outing at the wheel of a 924 that’s cost a fraction of the GTS. Sure, there are some very cheap ones out there on eBay, and also for sure is that hoary old maxim... you get what you pay for. Which is where the 924 Owners’ Club comes in. It’s a network of ardent 924 fans with a website (www.Porsche924.co.uk) that provides classifieds and a buying guide, opportunities to take part in rallies and tours, trips to national classic events, and crucially, an active forum where members field questions and answers, identifying spare parts and restoration specialists and tweaks. There’s plenty of technical support and a few members break cars to provide smaller parts that aren’t available any more. Registration’s free, though there’s an annual membership fee of £20 which enables the 300 + members to participate fully in club activities – according to club secretary James Costello, ‘it’s gathering momentum all the time.’ But back to the eye-opening. Number two on the conversion trail was a day out at Bruntingthorpe proving ground, where I joined half-a-dozen club members for a play in their trusty steeds; two N/As, that’s the basic 924 model, two 924 Ss which had the 944’s 2.5-litre unit, and two 924 Turbos. As we bantered on the Bruntingthorpe runway apron what looked like a hunky 924 Carrera GT rolls up, it’s the wild card, a pastiche created by indy Porsche specialists and parts purveyors, Porscheshop. So this is the tale of Tipler’s revelation... A glance at this sample of 924-dom suggests that the look they achieve is slightly retro with period and updating mods, reminiscent of the air-cooled VW scene and the R-Gruppe brigade. There are a couple of standard cars here though.
JAMES COSTELLO AND LORENZO LOPEZSANTANA, 924 2-LITRE James and Lorenzo have brought along the standard 2.0-litre 924 that they won top ten Best-In-Show with at the 911 & Porsche World Picnic at Windsor Racecourse last year, much to their shock, in James’s words: ‘We thought they were winding us up but it was totally true – our little old 924 had beaten some very rare and fine machinery. Now we tell everyone we’ve got an award-winning Porsche! It’s a 1984 car and it’s got every option going, everything works perfectly – electric windows, boot, sunroof, mirrors, headlight washers, and it’s done 151k miles.’ Lorenzo’s take is the usual 924 story: ‘If you find one that’s been looked
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
41
CANAL DREAMS Armed with a sizeable legacy and a repressed passion for Porsches, Dutch media heiress Manon Borrius Broek has accumulated a lifetime’s worth of Zuffenhausen’s finest in the last four years Words: Johnny Tipler Photography: Antony Fraser
M
ost of us buy a Porsche and hang onto it for keeps. Or we fancy another and trade up. But what happens when you can afford to hold onto the old ones as well? You end up, like Manon, with 23, and counting. That’s a hard core of early ‘90s cars, (seven 964s and seven 993s), tempered by a handful of earlier models and a growing number of modern 997 exotics. ‘I’ve always loved fast cars,’ is the straightforward explanation – there’s no side to Manon, though attention to detail is acute. The collection has developed with the help of a coterie of Porsche specialists: Hette Mollema from Targa Florio garage in Hilversum advises on potential acquisitions and goes to view the car; it’ll probably be collected by Danny Beekvelt after purchase, and Robert Visser services and renovates as required at his Hilversum garage. Though there are some standout colours like the Raspberry pink 964 narrow body Speedster, Rubystone Red 964 Turbo and Riviera blue 993 Carrera RS, the majority of the collection projects discrete dark blue, silver and grey – including her latest top-end acquisitions, 997 Turbo, 997 GT2 and GT3. Manon is keeping a close eye on a ravishing Jade green 2.7 RS currently in the throes of restoration by Robert Visser. ‘It’s number 158 first series, and it’s going to be called Ducky,’ she tells me, ‘I always wanted a Ducktail 911!’ Her earlier acquisitions all have names – Ferdie, Ruby, Kobus 1 and Kobus 2, The Beast – and though that practice tailed off around number 13, you know these cars are in good hands. They’re fired up regularly and she’s diligent about giving each one a run. Periodically they’re buffed by ex-pat Englishman John Watson, an IT project manager who retired early and set up a mobile car valeting service.
42
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
MANON’S COLLECTION
356 SC Cabriolet - 1964 911 2.4 E - 1973 911 2.7 Carrera RS - 1973 (restoration nearing completion) 911 3.2 Carrera Anniversary Targa - 1988 (13,000 km) 911 3.2 Carrera Speedster - 1989 (37,000 km) 964 Carrera 2 - 1991 964 Turbo 3.3 - 1991 (52,000 km) 964 Carrera RS - 1992 (34,000 km) 964 Carrera 2 - 1993 (54,000 km) 964 Carrera 4 - 1993 (78,000 km) 964 Turbo 3.6 - 1993 (115,000 km) 964 Speedster - 1993 (41,000 km) 993 GT2 ‘Becker art car’ - 1995 (34,000 km) 993 Carrera 2 - 1995 993 Targa - 1995 (100,000 km) 993 Targa - 1996 (44,000 km) 993 Carrera RS - 1996 (12,000 km) 993 Turbo - 1996 (28,000 km) 993 Carrera S - 1997 (110,000 km) 997 GT3 RS - 2007 (10,000 km) 997 Turbo - 2007 (25,000 km) 997 GT2 RS - 2011 (60 km) 997 Speedster - 2011 (delivery mileage) Audi RS2 - 1994 (430 km)
ONE WOMAN AND 23 PORSCHES
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
43