Posts

One night in Stressa this cute little Fiat was parked among the normal curbside riff raff and looked very classy.

Strolling through the streets of Verona there was this nice looking C4S soft top that someone had maneuvered along the very tight laneways and left parked in the middle of the flood of tourists.

Today in Milan I just had to capture this “outstanding” Panamera. I thought for sure the little dog was going make his mark for a great snap, in the end he just moved on as if it wasn’t worth his attention.

In the museum at Sant’Agata there were lots of remarkable cars, this SUV  show car from a couple of years back makes my Macan look incredibly plain. The wheels were huge, surely 24″ or more.

While being shown around the factory and looking over the Huracan and Aventador production lines our guide advised that the work space will be changing shortly, the Urus is being delivered after Xmas. These cars will be on the street for less than 200,000 Euro + taxes.

By Gordon Johnstone

No doubt a quick Google search can uncover some fun facts about Porsche. Here are some interesting ones that you can throw into a conversation with other enthusiasts. Everyone knows about the Porsche tractors but do they know…

1. The Porsche Crest – As the story goes, it was Porsche’s US importer Max Hoffman who suggested to Porsche that a crest would be a way to help sell the Porsche brand in the US. Apparently, he sketched the design on a napkin at a lunch meeting and handed it over. The crest first appeared on the 356 in 1952.

2. Most early 356 bodies were actually made by Recaro known as Reutter Carrosserie Werke (RCW) back then. RCW manufactured car bodies and interiors and were contracted by Porsche to make the 356 bodies. Porsche bought the body division in 1960 and the rest of the company changed its name to Recaro.

3. In 1899, Porsche designed and built the first hybrid internal combustion/electric vehicle. The motor was actually the generator for the electric motor. The car was also the first to feature brakes on all 4 wheels. The aftermarket exhaust apparently did nothing to improve the exhaust note.

4. Porsche’s R&D facility in Weissach design forklifts. Porsche have a close association with Linde forklifts and have designed lots of the manual handling equipment. This could explain the forklift races when the warehouse foreman isn’t watching.

5. Along the way Porsche have designed the odd aeroplane cockpit. For those pilots among us, the A300 cockpit was designed by Porsche.

6. Harley Davidson have engaged Porsche Weissach to design engines. Harley’s racing division engaged Porsche to design the V-Rod double overhead cam engine… (the Hog/Porker ‘tie in’ kinda makes sense!)

7. The 1986 944 was the first car sold with a steering wheel airbag as standard equipment (and subsequently removed by Stuart in race car conversions?)

8. Over a number of decades Porshes have been used by the German Police.

Everyone loves a story about a “barn find”. Someone hears a tale about a long lost sports car that a local farmer may have stored in his shed. The owner has since departed this world, and the immediate family lost interest years ago. Then that someone goes searching the local farms and finds the lost treasure under a tarp covered in dirt and hay… possibly doubling up as a chicken coop.

While travelling around the UK on a recent work and holiday trip, I had my own barn find experience…well, sort of…! Through an acquaintance, I met a guy named Tony (named changed to protect his identity). “Tony” was a well to do banker in a former life, and since retiring, he has discreetly indulged in his passion for 911’s, especially some rare racing ones. After a few phone calls, Tony agreed to show me his collection. Due to the rarity of some of the cars and his desire for discretion, Tony gave me directions to a country pub where we would meet up the following day, and he would drive me to his cars.

At the appointed time, I met Tony at the “Fox and Hounds” in a remote country village. (Remote for the UK). I jumped in Tony’s car and he took me a on the scenic route to his collection. After sufficient disorientation around county lanes, we turned off down a dirt track and slowly navigated our way across a field crest until we came to a series of refurbished barns. Tony jumped out and preceded to the security panel next to one of the barn door to disarm the high security system. The barns were cavernous old army barracks used by British troops and American GI’s during the war, they have since been restored to house Tony’s 40 plus 911’s!

We wandered through aisle after aisle and Tony lifted car covers to unveil gem after gem. Graciously, Tony allowed me to take snaps of some of his favourites. Among the more notable cars:

• A couple of 996 RSR’s. The first one was campaigned at LeMans and the other had been campaigned across the US at Sebring etc. Tony’s plan was for he and a friend to re-commission and race them.
• 964 Cup Car – Restored to race ready
• 73 RS – Fully restored
• A couple of 964 RS in the process of being restored
• 993 RSR – Race ready.

After an hour of ogling his beautiful collection, (not nearly long enough) it was time to go.  With me still somewhat awe-struck by the incredible collection of Porsches I’d just seen, Tony secured the property and we took the winding scenic tour back to the pub.

By Tim Rout

Recently, I was driving up through Austria on my way to Salzburg and noticed a sign to a Porsche Museum in the country town of Gmund. I knew that Gmund was the birthplace of the first cars bearing Porsche branding, so was intrigued as to what I might find.

It was during the mid to late 1940’s, Ferry Porsche (jnr) designed and began production of the 356 in an old sawmill in Gmund. This site was chosen in 1944 as a safe location away from the WWII bombing raids on Stuttgart. Early in the 1950’s, Porsche moved production from Gmund back to the production facilities in Zuffenhausen, an industrial suburb of Stuttgart, Germany.

Surprisingly the old wooden Gmund factory still stands, and is only marked by a small sign on the side door… an easy place to miss if you weren’t looking for it. It is as small as it looks, and it is amazing to think that up to 300 people worked there in it’s heyday!

Approximately 2km down the road from the factory is a private Porsche Museum housing the prized collection of a local Porsche enthusiast Helmut Pfeifhofer. The museum provides a detailed overview of the history and production within the Gmund factory, as well as showing a collection of both early and modern cars, tractors and other equipment Porsche produced during this era. Unfortunately, I had to skip the detailed history lesson as it’s all in German and one semester of Year 7 German 30 years ago didn’t quite cut it.

Both the old factory and the Porsche Museum are worth a look if you’re in the vicinity and a Porsche buff… It’s something a little different to the standard Stuttgart Porsche experience, plus Gmund itself is a very picturesque town.

By Tim Rout