I adore the illustration style of this poster from 2006 commemorating 30 years of Tamiya models. Legend holds that Tamiya started with a Porsche 911 bought from the factory. They tore it apart and recreated it at 1:10 scale – and a hobby shop legacy was born.
Their good taste continued for the next 30 years and beyond. Their current catalog offers such fine vintage racing machines as an Alpine A110 (in 1972 Monte Carlo Rally winning livery), an Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA, and a rally-ready Mini Cooper.
The poster features more of the fantastic racing models that Tamiya has produced over the years. I can spot the John Player Lotus 79, the Tyrrell P34 6-wheeler, the Rothmans Paris-Dakar Porsche 959, Minis, Fiat-Abarth 500s, Alfas… It just goes on and on.
To commemorate the anniversary in 2006, Tamiya updated and re-released their first model, the Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934; one of which would look absolutely fantastic on my shelf, don’t you think?
Speaking of early 911s, let’s hear what Sports Illustrated’s guest sportscar reviewer, Steve McQueen, thought of the 911 in 1966. This is excerpted from a larger article in which Steve drove the latest sportscars from Porsche, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Alfa, Mercedes, Jaguar, and the latest Cobra and Corvette.
“Like the 230SL, the other German car, the Porsche 911, was a six. The Mercedes straight-six is in the front. The Porsche flat-six, with horizontally opposed cylinders—an engine developed from the Grand Prix car of a few seasons ago—is in the rear. I was curious to see how much the Porsche had changed since I raced my Super, which had the four-cylinder engine. Boy, it’s changed. Road noise used to be a problem with that rear-engine location, but on the 911 I got very little noise. The old Porsches had that violent oversteer tendency, and they would get out of whack with no warning. You’d be hung out and locked in your steering with nowhere to go. We used to decamber the rear wheels 2½° to 3½°, so they kind of looked like somebody had sat on them, and toe them in half a degree to get a certain amount of stability. Now the problem has been corrected. The 911 was a very neutral-handling car, very docile, very pleasant to drive, and the five-speed gearbox sure was easy to use. The brakes were just fine. Once a gust of wind caught me on the back straight and slid me over a few feet, but the car didn’t get radical in its handling.
There is a four-cylinder Porsche—the less expensive 912—and I imagine it has a little more snap at low RPM than the 911 but not as much top speed. With that six the 911 honks right along.”
Steve McQueen
There you have it, the cooler king’s impressions reacquainting himself with Porsche, which of course worked out splendidly for the next few years. After all, like the poster says, McQueen drives Porsche. All that and a bonus handling modification tip for 356 drivers.
We pulled into Elkhart Lake for the 2009 Kohler International Challenge with Brian Redman last Friday night hoping to catch the parade of vintage cars from the track into downtown Elkhart Lake for a small concours d’elegance on the streets of my favorite small town. Parked in front of Siebkens, the crowds and the rain kept us from taking in too much of the rows of gorgeous machines lining both sides of the street. So, as is traditional, we disappeared into the Siebkens bar for a few Spotted Cows. When we finally made our way back into the streets, we caught this procession of the cars making their way back to Road America.
I’ve identified as many of the machines as I could in this video. It really says something when there’s just too many GT40s and Cobras to accurately identify which one belongs with which driver. Ah, Elkhart.
Follow along with the brave restorers at Gunnar Racing as they tackle the restoration of a mystery 917. So far it looks like it might be 917-021, but apparently Gunnar took on this project without it’s serial number plate, so they’ll be relying on additional details to help establish it’s provenance. I’m willing to give the folks at Gunnar the benefit of the doubt, they’ve restored their share of 917s in the past, as well as examples of just about every other Porsche racing model. Perhaps the mystery is the reason they’ve chosen to document the hell out of their restoration. Whatever the motivation, I’m glad to see the frequent updates. They’re 12 releases into an ongoing YouTube video series documenting the process; everything from grinding down the paint to see the history of liveries, to suspension and transmission and my-word-that’s-scary-to-take-apart removals. Coupled with reams of photos on the restoration team’s blog, this is pure Stuttgart candy. They’re hoping to debut the restored car at this year’s Monterrey Historics, I can’t wait to see how it turns out. It’s nice to not have to wait until the debut to see the car, I’ll be following along closely on their YouTube channel.
You can also follow along on the 917 discussion forum at CKnet.
I’m afraid it’s true. My car sickness extends beyond the cars themselves; beyond the posters and the slot cars and the models and books. Now I’m sick with places to keep it all. I’m sure this isn’t news to most of you. This is practically a support-group for people with automotive illness.
As a result, I find myself from time to time wading through the projects at the Garage Journal forums. Most of the garages are the stuff of pure fantasy. Pole barns and hangars and “Garage Mahals” of endless square footage. Recently a call was put out on the forum for a return to normalcy—or at least a reduction in envy. “Let’s see your 2 car garage”, seems like a normal enough request.
Jack Olsen stepped up with a fantastic space to house his marvelous track car: a ’73 911 RSR tribute. The car is a beauty; built on a ’72 911 chassis, the engine bay hides a 993 power plant mated to a ’77 transaxle. She’s light too, with fiberglass bodywork and Lexan windows. Plus I’m just a sucker for the duck tail. He’s done a wonderful job on it. Especially after a decent smashup with the tire wall forced him to rethink things a bit (see the link above for the grisly photos).
But let’s look again at this great little 440 square foot car hole. I love the color palette and it’s a smart use of the space. These colors and cabinets remind me a lot of hanging out with my grandfather in his lawnmower repair shop. Does it seem like everything used to be that shade of Stanley Thermos meets Dickies coveralls green?
I also like John’s clever use of reclaimed cabinets, folding workspaces, and the idea of isolating the air compressor in the crawlspace probably helps conversations in the space. Mostly though, I like that this garage feels homemade and not like a swarm of garage contractors breezed in and manufactured perfection on the spot. It looks cared for and crafted.
Finally I can reset my garage fantasies to come back to reality a bit. Good job, Jack.
And apparently it has been for a week—I must be slipping.
I’ve been to more than a few automotive museums and occasionally I am struck by the exhibit ornamentation. The settings in which the cars are placed in certain sections of the Petersen, for example, are incredibly well done and have served as inspiration for the garages of many gearheads, I’m sure. The new Porsche museum, however, eschews elaborate exhibits and displays 80 Porsches in 60,250 square feet of spare white space. The net result is that this museum feels more like a modern art museum than a car collection. Which I’m sure you’ll agree in this case is appropriate.
The vast array of 356s, 550s (mmmmm), 917s, 904s, 908s, and others are, of course, the main attraction, but the building also houses the Porsche Archives: A collection of more than 1,000 hours of film and 3,000 books. Just think of what I could put on the Chicane with just a few hundred hours of research time there. Now where did I put that grant application?
Sports Car Digest has some wonderful photos (including the photo above) Flickr member tericee visited the museum and has a lovely collection of photos as well. Porsche’s official information page is here.
More home movies of classic races keep bubbling up on YouTube and I couldn’t be happier.
This time, we’ll see some 8mm film of the 1969 Nurburgring 1000km. 1969 was the 2nd of 4 straight years of Porsche 908 victories at the Ring. Brian Redman and Jo Siffert led a contingent of 908s to a 1-2-3-4-5 Porsche victory. Crazy! Ford GT40 #1081 piloted by Helmut Kelleners and Reinhold Jöst was the top non-Porsche at 3 laps behind the leader.
We so often associate the 908 with the Targa Florio that it’s easy to forget the dominant victories it had on other tracks. There’s a new book coming out on the 908, Porsche 908: The Long Distance Runner, that Amazon is taking pre-orders on, but I can’t seem to find a release date for the book. Scratch that, it looks like the book is due out on March 15, 2009.
Know anything more about it? Let’s hear it in the comments.
A Lotus Chassis. A Porsche 4-cam. Is it the best of both worlds? George Follmer probably thought so.
George spent a good bit of the early 60’s lapping Southern California tracks in a variety of Porsches before he got the itch to move into sports prototypes. Naturally, a Lotus 23 fits the bill nicely. He set about modding the chassis to accept a Porsche 550 motor, before ultimately swapping it for the newer 904 powerplant. With the help of former Shelby American team-member, Bruce Burness, George knocked together one hell of a combination.
The 1,966 cc motor just eeks under 2-liters, and soon proved to be highly competitive in the class; taking 3rd in her debut race. The real beauty of the car though, was it’s consistency. Several weeks later, after a string of podiums and after their first class-win, the team realized that their point totals put them not only at the top of the class, but in the outright points lead for the the USRRC series. After an additional string of class wins at Bridgehampton, the Glen, and others; one maneater of a race was all that remained to determine if this little scrapper of a 2-liter car would steal the outright championship away from the big-bore boys. The Road America 500 Miles race.
Road America remains a giant of a track by American standards. For a low-powered (comparatively) car, 500 miles of it would be quite a task. But George finished 3rd behind Jim Hall’s mighty Chaparrals, clinching both the class and overall championships. George Follmer, of course, went on to a very successful career through the 70’s; racing everything from Formula 1 and Can-Am, to Nascar and Trans-Am. I’m guessing this little Lotus-Porsche remained a favorite of his despite the impressive array of machinery he would later compete in.
Today, Gooding & Co. offers the ex-George Follmer Lotus 23 through their private sales department. Wearing it’s original Trans Ocean Motors team livery, she’s a remarkably beautiful car. I particularly like the hand painted team logo and engine-turned gold leaf number 16. Gorgeous!
In May of 1959 Steve McQueen drove his little ’58 Porsche Speedster 1600 Super up to Santa Barbara to compete in his first race. Now we tend to merge the legend of McQueen as an actor with his racing exploits. But that had to start somewhere; and it started in the E-Group Production Class at the airport. Starting from the middle of the pack, he leapt up several positions on the first lap, and by the fourth was in the lead. Amazingly, he won the first race he competed in; cementing the reputation that would define him among racing fans long after his death.
This weekend, Bonhams will offer lot 177 at their annual Petersen Auction. The pewter goblet that served as his trophy for that first race. I’m sure this little tankard was filled and refilled as it was passed around many times the table at wherever Steve celebrated that night.
Steve sold the Speedster that he won that event with, returning to Santa Barbara later that year in a Lotus XI. He finally bought back the Speedster in 1974. Chad McQueen still owns it.
There’s a brief writeup of the race on this McQueen site, and here’s a photo of the Porsche Speedster from the “Friends of McQueen” car show held earlier this year.
Update:
This lovely piece of McQueen history SOLD for $6,600. Sounds like a lot of loot for a pewter goblet. “Well bought”, I say.
The Porsche 904 once owned by renowned collector/museum curator/tycoon/lucky bastard Yoshibo Matsuda is currently among the cars for sale by German dealer Jan Lühn. Ordinarily the non-racing owner of a car doesn’t improve it’s provenance terribly, but Mr. Matsuda is no ordinary car collector. In the 1970s and 80s, Matsuda started pickup up exotic Porsches: the first Porsche to win outright at LeMans (a 917), a 910 Spyder, a 550 Spyder, an RSK Spyder, a 906, 908. The guy’s collection was no joke. So fantastic was it, that he opened a historic Porsche museum in Tokyo. After several years, Mr. Matsuda decided to shake things up and sold off the bulk of his collection and replaced them with historically significant Ferraris and hung a new sign on the door of his museum. I understand that he’s now sold off the Ferraris as well.
But getting back to Porsche 904-092. The car was originally delivered in 1964 to gentleman F1 driver, Count Carel de Beaufort. This 904 was his third—he also owned 904-019 (which he raced at Sebring), and 904-072 (which was crashed by his friend Gerard van Lennep).
The Count only owned 904-092 for a short time before selling it to England, where it was raced by Patrick Godfrey and Alain DeCadenet. After a short time in the states, Matsuda picked up the car in the late 70’s.
Such was Mr. Matsuda’s love for the 904, that he wrote an absolutely marvelous book on the history, development, and current whereabouts of the remaining 904s. I spent several years trying to track down a copy of “Porsche 904 GTS Great Cars of Great Collections Volume 3”, with little luck. I finally tracked down a copy at online bookseller T.E. Warth Autobooks, but $180 seemed a bit steep. Ultimately I was able to order a copy from the publisher at cover price. Go order a copy right now, it’s an amazing book – and the price is fantastic when compared to the odd prices it’s fetching in the secondary market.
Mr. Matsuda sold the car at RM’s Monterrey Auction in 2000—for the now astonishingly low price of $264,000. (Is it wrong for me to hope that the current financial market causes classic car prices to tank and once again become attainable?). After that sale, however, the story becomes even more interesting. The Floridian buyer repainted the car to its original Silver color and shortly thereafter sold the car to a man in Germany. Incredibly, the German tracked down the car’s original twin-cam 4 cylinder Koenigswellen engine, which had been spending some time as a decorative piece in a retired Porsche engineer’s home. Now that is an art piece I’d love to have in my living room.
So now, impeccably maintained and newly reunited with her original engine after 25 years apart, Porsche 904-092 is available. Jan Lühn doesn’t list a price, but I’m sure they’ll be receptive to an offer of the $264,000 that this car fetched in 2000. Sure they will.
