For three years in a row, from 1984 to 1986, McLaren won the F1 World Championship with TAG-branded but Porsche-built power units. Forty years later, three of those very engines are being installed into a trio of TAG Championship Porsche 911s by the engineering wizards at Lanzante.

It’s not the first time such a feat has been achieved, with McLaren originally building a prototype to test the 1.5-liter V-6 turbo engine in the Eighties and Lanzante re-interpreting the idea with its TAG Turbo in 2019. Just 11 of those were built and now Lanzante reckons it’s time for a few more.

With the aid of Cosworth the wick of the TAG TTE P01 V-6 has been dialled up from 503 to 625 horsepower and the redline raised to 10,250 rpm. There’s a new exhaust system, titanium turbochargers, new pistons, conrods and valve springs, uprated cams, plus a new intake and cooling system. A 993 six-speed gearbox with revised ratios sends drive to the 18-inch Dymag magnesium and carbon rear wheels.

An Eighties’ 930 Turbo is the donor car, but the body panels, doors, front wings, roof, bumpers and rear spoiler are all made from F1-grade carbon fiber. The brakes feature carbon ceramic discs. Further weight is saved by gutting the interior and installing carbon-backed Recaro seats with six-point race harnesses and a roll cage, while electric windows and mirrors are ditched to shed a few more pounds. A lightweight air conditioning system is added, but there’s still a saving of almost 950 lbs compared to the original 930 Turbo.

The three cars will each be a tribute to one of McLaren’s winning years and drivers Niki Lauda and Alain Prost with bespoke livery. The first example, which will be revealed at July’s Goodwood Festival of Speed pays homage to Prost in 1995 with a main paint scheme based on his MP4/2B and his helmet design.

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How does a young boy living in Sicily become interested in Porsches? How does he grow up to become a master Porsche mechanic? 

The Targa Florio.

Gaspare Fasulo was born on the island of Sicily in a little town south of Palermo, Castellammare Del Golfo, population 3000. His father was an automotive machinist, and two uncles were mechanics. Fasulo’s little hometown didn’t have much in the way of exotic cars—mostly Fiats, some Lancias puttering about, and every now and then, an Alfa. 

Every year, however, the Targa Florio came to town. This was a big occasion. Fasulo’s father would put on his best suit, his mother would put on a pretty dress, they’d put young Gaspare in his finest outfit, and off they would go to witness the howling parade of race cars laying siege to their town as they lapped the island.

You might think a Sicilian would be cheering on the machines from the mainland, but it wasn’t the Ferrari Dino 206S, the 250 LM, or even the Alfa Romeo T33/2 that captured young Fasulo’s imagination. It was the Porsches. It’s not that he didn’t care for the Italian cars—in fact, he loved them—but they just didn’t inspire him like the screaming 911s, 910s, and 907s. To see a 907 back then flashing past you, inches away, was like seeing a spaceship today. There was just something about the sound and the looks that got under the boy’s skin, and it would stay with him.

Gaspare Fasulo was still young when he and his family arrived in the United States in 1974. The first picture that graced the 7-year-old’s bedroom wall was of a Porsche 911, and it stayed there for years.

His father’s uncle had come to America ahead of them and had started an Alfa Romeo shop in Brooklyn, called Autodelta. This was where the family worked. By the time Fasulo was in junior high school, he was hanging around the shop, and by high school he was working there in the afternoons, as long as he promised his mother that all his schoolwork was done. He’d tell her it was complete so that he could get over to the shop, but his schoolwork mostly got done late at night. And he was always at the shop on Saturdays, honing his mechanical chops and learning everything there was to know about Alfas. But his true love was still Porsche.

At the age of 15, before he could even drive, Fasulo bought his first Porsche, a 1966 912. A buddy of his had told him about the car. The 912 had been languishing in a body shop in Coney Island for years, the subject of a restoration gone bad. Fasulo took a peek and put down eight grand for the car—big money for a 15-year-old, but he had earned it. The car was in pieces: The fenders were off, the glass and interior were out, the engine and transmission were on the floor, and there was some missing hardware, but Fasulo knew he could take it on, and he proceeded to put the car back together mechanically.

While he was reviving the 912, a buddy told him about a shop in Elmsford, New York, called Rennwerke, that specialized in Porsche repair. Fasulo made up a detailed list of what he was missing for his build and took a drive up to Westchester.

At the shop, he met with John “Cheech” Fernandes. Fasulo handed over his list of parts. Cheech took a look at the youngster and they talked about the project as Cheech got him his parts. “If you need anything else,” Cheech said, “let me know.”

Fasulo spent the next year or so working on the 912 as time allowed, then took another ride back out to Westchester, this time with a stack of Polaroids, to show the car’s progress to Cheech. Cheech was impressed at what the kid had achieved. As he left, Cheech wished him luck, but Fasulo got the sense that Cheech didn’t think he would ever finish the build. But the next time Fasulo went up to Elmsford, he arrived in his newly restored Porsche. Cheech was impressed.

“If you want to work for me part-time or on the weekends,” Cheech told him, “I always need good help.” Fasulo  stayed at Autodelta, but he and Cheech remained friends. He kept buying parts from Rennwerke, and in the mid-1980s, at age 18, he finally jumped ship to go work there. 

He started at the bottom, worked his way up, and was a fixture of the Rennwerke shop until 2000, when he left to go work for DeMan Motorsport in Nyack, New York. There Fasulo learned a great deal about race cars, race prep, and tuning engines on a dyno, and he spent more and more time at race tracks. By now he was married, and a daughter came along, and then another. But he was hardly ever home. He would leave early in the morning and arrive home late at night, and he never had a chance to see his children. Things had to change. In 2004 he found his way back to Rennwerke and was there for the next 10 years. The family even moved from Brooklyn to Westchester in 2007 in order to shorten his commute. 

During his second stint at Rennwerke, Fasulo was introduced to car dealer Chris Turner by Turner’s long-time friend and fellow dealer Mark Starr, of Hunting Ridge Motors. Turner wanted work done on his underperforming 964 RS, so Gaspare went through it, gave it his magic touch, and gave Turner back a different car.

Turner was so thrilled he told Starr he didn’t want anyone else working on his cars. This was the start of a long line of Turner’s Porsches coming into Fasulo’s care, along with other air-cooled models that Turner and Starr bought together to sell.

Finally, however, Fasulo came to an impasse. Things were no longer working out in his second go at Rennwerke, and it was time for a change. He left in 2017, began planning for the future, and went searching for space.

In the meantime, Chris Turner showed up at Rennwerke to check on one of his cars and was told Fasulo no longer worked there. Turner immediately got in touch to see what the problem was. “I’m starting my own shop,” Fasulo told him.

Turner asked Gaspare to come to see him the next day before he did anything. He owned a number of dealerships—surely Fasulo could come work for him. So they toured Turner’s McLaren dealership, but it didn’t seem the right fit, and there really wasn’t enough space for Fasulo to work. Turner then took him to his Lamborghini dealership, where he led him into a brand-new shop: The front half was for the Italian machines, and the back half was being used for prep, but it could become Fasulo’s domain. Five lifts, LED lighting, tile floor, A/C, two garage doors, the works.

Fasulo was interested, and Turner told him, “If we’re going to do this, you must come up with a name. It’s going to be your shop. You’re going to run it, so you name it.” Turner was ready to move and make things official. Gaspare Fasulo gave it some thought and then took his name and the German word for “work”: Gaswerks. The logo is derived from a 911 crankshaft pulley; if you look closely, you can see the TDC marks and the timing marks.

And like that, Turner had his own in-house air-cooled guru to take care of his machines, but the word got out about where Fasulo had gone, and within the first week of opening, there were 911s and 356s waiting for the master’s touch.

To keep up with demand, Fasulo surrounded himself with techs who had the same mindset, passion, and drive as he did. He and his team make Porsches sing, and they’re given the freedom to create some special machines, like a 911R recreation, a 914/6 GT tribute, and the car Turner always wanted to build—a 934 clone. Turner dreams it, he and Fasulo sit down together and design it, then Fasulo and his team make it a reality.

Five years in, Gaswerks is humming right along, always busy with service work and special builds, and Turner and Fasulo take time to run their creations in rallies and on track. The eventual plan is to separate Gaswerks from the Lamborghini dealership to create a standalone facility, with a proprietary engine room, a service area, a showroom, and fewer interruptions.

Over the years, Fasulo has worked with and learned from some great people, and most of his knowledge doesn’t rely on a computer to tell him what’s wrong. He’s been able to share that personal knowledge along the way. Case in point: A rough-running 911 came into Gaswerks. One of his techs was trying to figure out how he would start the diagnoses to determine which cylinder wasn’t firing. “I showed him the simplest method possible that I learned from an old drag racer I worked with,” Fasulo says. “I filled a spray bottle full of cold, soapy water and warmed up the car. We went under the car and I had my tech start spraying the header tubes. The first one sizzled when sprayed, the second one as well, but the third didn’t, and the rest did. Bingo, we found the bad cylinder.” No electronic gizmos required.

“You have to be mentally in tune with the car,” Fasulo adds. But even with all his knowledge, he still hits the books. He goes home and does deep dives into technical manuals to learn all the ins and outs—the minutiae—of all things automotive generally and Porsche specifically.

In 1988, after Fasulo sold that 912 of his, he picked up a 1975 2.7 Targa with a Sportomatic. It was not a great car, but because he can never leave anything alone, he took out the automatic and put a five-speed in its place. He also swapped out the 2.7 for a 3.2. This was not something normally done 30 years ago, but for Fasulo, it was natural. His next car was a black-on-black ’88 Carrera cabriolet. He replaced the stock exhaust with a hideously loud muffler. “My ears would be ringing after a short drive, and my neighbors hated me!” He wishes he could go back in time and tell young Gaspare what to do sometimes.

Next came a Ruf 930, purchased because he wanted something with power and boost. Eventually he rebuilt the powertrain, and it is still in his collection. These days, to satisfy his urge to go fast, he runs a 997 GT3 Cup car in Porsche Club of America races. But when he’s looking for a change of pace on track, Fasulo gets behind the wheel of Turner’s Porsche-powered Sabel fiberglass special, or his VW Empi Crusader. And when he really wants to get back to his roots, he races a 912 in the Vintage Sports Car Club of America. He knows that going fast is cool, but going fast in a slow car is cooler.

That first 912 was the car that started Gaspare Fasulo down a lifelong path. All his friends were into muscle cars and didn’t understand his attraction to the little German machine. The engine was small. It was in the wrong place. They didn’t get it, but he did.

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Porsche has finally pulled the silk off the much-anticipated hybrid version of its iconic 911 sports car. The arrival of an electrified 911 marks perhaps the most pivotal moment in the nameplate’s 60-plus-year history. Let’s delve into the particulars.

Headlining the 911’s hybridization is the GTS model, long a one-stop-shop for bundling the most driver-centric add-ons within Porsche’s extensive options list into a single package. Porsche’s decision to debut the hybrid system on one of its most capable trims reads as a deliberate effort to reassure enthusiasts that a hybrid 911 would still be an engaging, sporting 911. The GTS will feature an all-new drivetrain, which utilizes a newly developed flat-six engine, a new eight-speed PDK automatic transmission, and new hybrid components.

Let’s start with the hybrid tech, since that’s the biggest news here. A permanently excited synchronous electric motor is integrated into the GTS’ new eight-speed PDK automatic transmission. It draws power from a 1.9-kWh battery, which also supplies juice for some other features we’ll touch on in a second. That electric motor lends an extra 110 lb-ft of torque and 54 hp to the existing twist and thrust of the engine.

GTS models will be available in rear- or all-wheel drive, and will sport a conventional driveshaft and differential setup to power the front wheels rather than a separate electric motor. This is in contrast to the AWD setups of the Corvette E-Ray and outgoing Acura NSX, both of which make use of standalone motors (one for the Corvette, two for the Acura) to motivate the front axles.

Speaking of which, the 2025 911 Carrera GTS features an all-new flat-six engine that displaces 3.6 liters, a 0.6-liter increase relative to the outgoing 911 Carrera GTS brought about by upsized bore (97 mm vs. 91 mm) and stroke (81 mm vs. 76.4 mm) dimensions. Power from the engine alone jumps 5 hp, from 473 hp to 478, though the engine’s torque output remains the same at 420 lb.-ft.

However, the new flat-six isn’t just bigger, it’s more advanced. The engine now utilizes a single, electronically driven turbocharger rather than two conventionally driven turbos like the outgoing GTS. An integrated electric motor placed between the hot and cold sides of the turbo helps build boost quicker and minimize lag. The motor can also function as a generator, lending up to 11 kW of power back to that 1.9-kWh battery from the exhaust gasses.

The sum of these updates is a drivetrain with 532 hp and 449 lb.-ft. of total system output. Perhaps more remarkably, the high-tech system only added 103 lbs to the car’s curb weight. Performance figures are commensurately improved, too. Porsche claims that the 2025 911 Carrera GTS Coupe can run 0–60 mph in just 2.9 seconds—0.3 seconds quicker than the outgoing non-hybrid GTS. Top speed is a whopping 194 mph.

Keen-eyed readers will note that we’ve not yet mentioned a manual transmission. As of now, the hybrid 911 does not offer a row-your-own option. You were able to get a seven-speed manual on the outgoing version of the 911 Carrera GTS, but alas, this tricky new drivetrain tech mandates that a computer handles the shifting duties. Porsche may choose to offer the manual transmission down the road for certain 911 models, perhaps even hybrid ones eventually, but as of now, that option is not on the table.

The 911 Carrera GTS will also feature rear-axle steering as standard—a first for this model—helping increase high-speed stability while also reducing the car’s turning circle in tight areas. Adaptive sport dampers, which lower the car’s ride height by 10 mm relative to base 911 Carreras, will again be fitted as standard.

While not as dramatic an evolution as the hybrid GTS, Porsche also unveiled the 2025 911 Carrera—the “base” 911, if such a thing exists. That model will not feature the hybrid drivetrain. Instead, it will soldier on with a 3.0-liter, twin-turbo flat-six, though the motor also gets some upgrades. A new intercooler, cribbed from the 911 Turbo, now sits between the engine and the rear decklid. New turbos donated from the outgoing 911 Carrera GTS were fitted as well. Output rings in at 388 hp—up nine ponies from the outgoing version—and 331 lb.-ft. of torque. Porsche says the 911 Carrera can rip to 60 mph from a standstill in just 3.9 seconds (3.7 if you spring for the Sport Chrono Package), down 0.1 seconds from the outgoing version. As with the outgoing model, a manual transmission is not an option; it’s PDK or nothing here, too.

Stylistically, the 2025 911 will get a host of aerodynamic enhancements, including some model-specific ones. All the light functions—brights, fog lights, turn signals, etc.—are now integrated into the standard LED Matrix headlights. Because of this, there’s no need for additional fog lights below, which allows for larger cooling openings on the front fascia. For the hybrid Carrera GTS model, the front fascia will feature vertical air flaps that can open or shut depending on airflow demands. Out back, a new rear light bar with P O R S C H E lettering helps accentuate the wide, low stance of the car. Carrera GTS models get a GTS-specific sport exhaust system as standard.

For the first time, the 2025 911 will offer a fully digital instrument cluster, replacing the part-analog and part-digital cluster that came on outgoing cars. The cluster is highly customizable, but the standard five-dial design that’s been a hallmark of 911 interiors for decades is still a mainstay. Flanking the new cluster is another 10.9-inch screen that handles infotainment and phone mirroring duties.

You can have your 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera in Coupe or Cabriolet form, both with rear-wheel drive exclusively. Order books for both are open now, with the 911 Carrera Coupe starting at $122,095 and the 911 Carrera Cabriolet starting at $135,395. Deliveries for these models are expected to begin in the fall.

If you’re ready to make the leap to the hybrid 911 Carrera GTS, the configuration tree grows substantially. You get to choose from Coupe or Cabriolet form, as well as from rear- or all-wheel drive, and there’s even a Targa version of the GTS, offered exclusively with all-wheel-drive. Prices here range from $166,895 for a 911 Carrera GTS Coupe with RWD, up to $187,995 for a 911 Targa 4 GTS. Porsche says deliveries for these hybrid models will begin at the end of the year.

We knew the hybrid 911 was an inevitability. Now that we know a lot more about the particulars of the car and its complex drivetrain, we’re cautiously optimistic that adding an electric motor won’t sully this icon’s shine. Of course, only time behind the wheel will tell us for sure; stay tuned for that story, which will come at a later date.

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What do Jaguar, Ruf, and McLaren have in common? Each, at one point in the same ten-year span, built the fastest production car in the world. All were low-volume manufacturers, but the least widely known of the trio also built the fewest, most exclusive vehicles.

Meet the Ruf CTR2, a 993-generation rocket with a think tank’s worth of proprietary Porsche-tuning know-how. One of only 30 or so examples built—only the manufacturer in Pfaffenhausen knows the true total—this CTR2 is going up for sale late this summer, at Broad Arrow’s Monterey Jet Center sale in August.

Unlike Gemballa and other Porsche customizers that rose to fame in the ’80s and ’90s, Ruf is its own manufacturer, and its cars have Ruf-specific serial numbers. Founded in 1939 by Alois Ruf, Sr, the small shop in Pfaffenhausen, Germany began as a service station. Alois Ruf, Jr began working on Porsches in his father’s shop, and took over in 1974 upon his father’s death. He had a passion for tweaking cars from the Stuttgart brand, and the shop’s focus became modifying 911s for speed. (The shop put a five-speed gearbox in a turbocharged 911 before Porsche did, for one.) In 1981, Ruf was listed as a manufacturer by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority.

The Ruf name catapulted into global awareness in 1987 when Ruf released a video of a bright yellow 930-chassis 911, its air-cooled flat-six strapped with two turbos, tearing—often sideways—around Germany’s infamously challenging Nürburgring. In a test published later that year, Road and Track clocked the CTR at 211 mph around the 15.5-mile oval test track in Ehra-Lessien: That was about 13 mph faster than Porsche’s contemporary 911 Turbo, and faster than any vehicle (Ferrari Testarossa and Porsche 959 included) in the star-studded test gathering. The magazine editors dubbed the CTR “Yellow Bird”—and the name stuck. Soon after, Ruf decided to build 29 more, calling the model CTR.

The CTR2 is what happened when, in 1995, Ruf got its hands on the 993-generation 911. Ruf would fit the Porsche-supplied bodies-in-white with either rear- or all-wheel drive, whichever the customer preferred. To say that the shop’s engineering changes were extensive would be an understatement: Like the CTR, the flat-six in the CTR2 was twin-turbocharged and mated to a gearbox of Ruf’s own design, with new, lightweight body panels supported by a proprietary integrated rollcage. (For the CTR2, though, those panels were carbon-kevlar composite rather than aluminum and fiberglass.)

The CTR2 demonstrated a new level of commitment to aerodynamics: The side-view mirrors were new and snuggled as close to the body as possible. For each Carrera 2 body-in-white that it received from Porsche, Ruf removed the rain gutters on the roof and welded the seams on the roof, changes that not only made the car look sleeker but also made it quieter at high speeds. The rear bumper, and the giant wing affixed to it, the rocker panels, and the front spoiler were all of Ruf design.

The CTR2 had its own moment of motorsports fame in 1997, when two specially modified examples placed second overall and fourth in class in the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. (Double-decker wing, 702 bhp, and yellow paint!)

This brings us to today’s car, a silver-over-black CTR2 (chassis no. W09BD0364WPR06010) presented for sale by the same person who commissioned it from Alois Ruf in 1998. Given the chance to order the car however they liked, this discerning customer asked for a six-speed transmission made-to-order with gear ratios that prioritized acceleration over top speed, the optional four-wheel-drive system, and the lightweight, composite body panels. While this CTR2 is not billed as the Sport model, it does have the uprated, 580-hp engine developed for that later variant, as requested by the customer, who paid an additional 65,000 Deutsche Marks for the 60 extra horses. (Rufs are frequently sent back to the shop for further modifications, so clear differentiation between variants isn’t as clearly delineated as it would be for an outfit that worked in larger volumes.) Other build-specific details include the oval exhaust tip and a sound system made by Nokia.

The car is accompanied by all its original paperwork, including order forms, options list, a photograph of the owner and the Rufs standing next to the car upon its delivery, and even the handwritten calculations for the modified gear ratios. It is offered by Broad Arrow with an estimate of $2.2M–$2.5M.

Air-cooled Porsche 911s of all stripes have seen a dramatic rise in values over the last several years. Naturally, the fast, rare, and unique examples have led the way, and it’s no surprise that the Ruf CTR2 comes in at the top of the list.

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Barrett-Jackson has been coming to Palm Beach (technically, West Palm Beach) at the South Florida Fairgrounds since the mid-2000s, making this the auction house’s most enduring auction that’s not in Arizona. B-J’s sale here consistently brings over 600 vehicles and dozens of vendors to the venue for a smaller version of the collector car fanfare we’re used to seeing in and around Scottsdale. This year, total sales were a solid $45M and average price was rather high at more than $74,000, but there were plenty of budget-friendly four-figure classics as well.

Indeed, Palm Beach usually offers a wide range of vehicles at a wide range of prices, and this year was no different, although offerings at the top end were less diverse. Five of the top 10 sales were a Ford GT of some sort, and eight of the top 10 were built after the year 2000. Only a 1966 Corvette restomod and the replica Dodge Daytona from Joe Dirt brought some American muscle into the top 10.

We examined some of the more interesting cars and significant sales in detail below.

Lot 692: 1972 DeTomaso Pantera

Sold for $176,000

Chassis no. THPNMB02424. Red over black vinyl. Visually maintained, largely original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 351/330hp, 5-speed, Campagnolo wheels, Becker Europa radio, power windows, air conditioning.

Condition: Represented with 1592 actual miles and its preservation is impressive. It shows careful ownership and only light age inside and out, although the paint does not look original.

Bottom line: An early Pantera that hasn’t been cut up or modified is already impressive, doubly so when it is as well preserved as this. The car has been to auction a few times, and bidders have always appropriately recognized its originality by paying a premium price for it. Its auction history also does a good job of tracing the market for these Italo-American sports cars over time. At Mecum Indy in 2014, it sold for $86,400. At Indy again six years later and in a hot 2020 market, it sold for $148,500. At Kissimmee 2022 and in an even hotter market, it brought $181,500, while in 2024 among softer but still high prices it took a small step back in price.

Lot 677: 1987 Buick Regal GNX

Sold for $156,200

Chassis no. 1G4GJ1174HP451735. Black over black and gray cloth. Unrestored original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 231/276hp, automatic, Goodyear Eagle tires.

Condition: Number 438 of 547 built. Showing 1309 miles and the tires are represented as original. Very well kept and preserved.

Bottom line: The GNX was one of the fastest and most desirable American cars of the 1980s. They’ve never really fallen out of favor, but it wasn’t until the last few years that they became six-figure modern collector cars. Way back in 2000, this one sold at RM’s Phoenix auction for just $30,800. Its odometer showed 534 miles and it was in essentially the same condition as it is today. It really is worth five times as much as it was 24 years ago.

Lot 745: 2005 Ford GT Twin-Turbo by Hefner Performance

Sold for $374,000

Chassis no. 1FAFP90SX5Y400061. Midnight Blue with white stripes over black.

Equipment: Twin-turbocharged, Ford Performance exhaust, shorty headers, Penske shocks, transmission oil cooler, removed rear bumper, 6-speed, painted calipers, McIntosh stereo, BBS wheels.

Condition: Paint shows some swirling and scratching but no major issues. Oddly, neither the mileage nor the horsepower numbers are represented.

Bottom line: This is an early production GT modified by an outfit in Florida, and although there are no dyno sheets, it is surely very fast. To drive, it’s probably a blast. As a collector car, though, the mods and the signs of use are knocks against it, and there are cleaner 2005-06 GTs to choose from that hit the auction block every month. Or even the same day, as the 597-mile car Barrett-Jackson sold 20 lots earlier than this brought $451,000.

Lot 440: 1990 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet by Gemballa

Sold for $110,000

Chassis no. WP0CB2965LS472097. Black over black leather. Original, #3+

Equipment: 3.6, 5-speed, whale tail, Gemballa wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport tires, white gauges, Pioneer stereo, carbon fiber dash.

Condition: Showing 75,514 miles. Some minor paint blemishes on the nose and mirrors. A few small cracks in the headlight covers. Clean wheels. Clean, straight top. Good interior with stretched upholstery on the driver’s side. Pretty understated for a Gemballa.

Bottom line: Uwe Gemballa founded a tuning company in 1981 and became a big name in modern coachbuilding, at least until he was murdered in South Africa in 2010. Gemballa-modified cars (mostly Porsches) are distinctive at best and ugly at worst, but they’ve never been boring, even if this is one of the more understated body kits they ever did. Body-kitted and tuned exotics like Gemballas, Koenigs, early AMGs, etc. were a bit passé for a while but collectors of a certain age are coming around to them. The bidders recognized this one for what it is, and that it isn’t just a 911 with a kit slapped on at the local body shop. Despite its use, the car sold for a big price. A regular 964-generation Carrera 4 cabriolet would never sell for this much, even in perfect condition.

Lot 356: 1979 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II

Sold for $27,500

Chassis no. SRK38123. Chestnut over biscuit leather. Visually maintained, largely underneath.

Equipment: Automatic, wheel covers, narrow whitewalls, power windows, air conditioning, original AM/FM.

Condition: Supposedly bought “nearly new” for talk show host Jack Paar as a gift from his wife. Represented with $30,000 worth of work over the past six months. Old repaint with a few blemishes but nothing serious. Lightly aged bumpers. Excellent interior. Tidy underneath. The recent mechanical work is very reassuring on any old Rolls-Royce, and the celebrity connection, while not super-relevant, is a nice bonus.

Bottom line: Jack Paar was a TV pioneer, but the number of people who really remember his tenure at The Tonight Show (1957-62) can’t be big. He also wasn’t known as a big car person (at least not the way later host Jay Leno is), and he owned this Rolls well past the peak of his career. The celebrity appeal here, then, is limited. The price, however, is on the high side for a Silver Shadow—one of the avenues to getting a true Spirit of Ecstasy on your hood. Credit the $30,000 worth of recent service, which isn’t usually lavished on affordable Rolls-Royces like this one.

Lot 675.1: 1999 Shelby Series 1

Sold for $165,000

Chassis no. 5CXSA1817XL000039. Silver with blue stripes over black and gray. Original, #2- condition.

Equipment: 244/320hp Oldsmobile V8, 6-speed, Nitto tires.

Condition: Some chips on the nose and dirt behind the headlight covers. Paint crack behind the left headlight. Very light wear on the driver’s seat. Showing 1360 miles and showing very light signs of age.

Bottom line: Despite its looks, the Series I wasn’t quite the Cobra successor it could have been, and people have been holding that against it ever since it came out. Original specifications called for a carbon-fiber body, Corvette transaxle, and 500 horsepower, but the reality was more modest. It got heavier, and the Olds V8 offered up less power, and the price climbed higher than anticipated. Objectively, it’s a great-looking car that’s plenty fast, but it’s always been undervalued relative to its rarity (249 built) and the famous name attached to it. Only in the past 10 years or so have prices really started to climb. In Palm Beach two years ago, this one sold for $126,500, which was on the modest side. The 2024 price is a better match for its mileage and condition.

Lot 788: 1961 Renault 4CV Jolly Beach Wagon

Sold for $36,300

Chassis no. 3607757. Cream yellow with yellow and white cloth top over wicker seats. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 747/21hp four-cylinder, 3-speed, hub caps.

Condition: Represented as one of 50 exported to the U.S. and Caribbean, and bought new by the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. With the same family for the past 40 years and restored 10 years ago. Good paint. Light pitting on the chrome, including on the edges of the exterior grab bars. The wicker is all original and in solid shape aside from a few cracks. The dash and steering wheel are mostly clean, but the ignition around the keyhole is pitted. The top is a little dirty and aged. A perfect beach car with all the charm of a Fiat Jolly but for a lower cost.

Bottom line: Most of coachbuilder Ghia’s beach car, aka “Jolly”, bodies were on Fiats. The Italian cars are better known and more highly prized. Well-restored ones have sold for well over $100,000. But this Renault has all the charm and similar performance, or lack thereof, for a much lower cost. Are there cheaper ways to hit the beach in style? Certainly, but this is still so much charm and fun per dollar.

Lot 767.1: 2020 Porsche Boxster 718 Spyder

Sold for $126,500

Chassis no. WP0CC2A8XLS240606. Chalk with red top over red and gray. Original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 4.0/414hp, 6-speed, black wheels, red calipers, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.

Condition: Showing 8086 miles and no real age or wear.

Bottom line: Six figures for a Boxster just sounds wrong, but the 718 Spyder is not your hairdresser’s Boxster. Essentially an open version of the Cayman GT4, it has aero bits on the body, suspension bits and brakes from a 911 GT3, and a much more powerful engine than the base car. It can hit nearly 190 mph. A 2020 718 Spyder started at a little over $97K, so with options this has always been a six-figure car, and the fact that a high-performance Porsche didn’t depreciate after four years and 8000 miles isn’t really surprising.

Lot 370.1: 1970 AMC Rebel Machine

Sold for $69,300

Chassis no. A0M190Y171202. White, blue and red over black vinyl. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 390/340hp, 4-speed with Hurst T-handle shifter, limited-slip and Detroit Locker, Magnum 500-style wheels, BFG Radial T/A tires, high-back bucket seats, console.

Condition: Decent paint with some scratches and touch-ups on the nose and a spot of surface rust under one of the headlights. Decent chrome, but the rest of the brightwork is original and tired. Clean wheels and tires. Upholstery looks newer while the dash and switchgear looks original, and overall the interior looks good. Inconsistent presentation, but a rare piece of AMC muscle that always makes a statement, and a patriotic one at that.

Bottom line: The Rebel was a short-lived model, only lasting from 1967 to 1970, and for its final year Hurst developed a high-performance version called the Rebel Machine. Based on a Rebel SST, it had the most powerful engine available in an AMC product and was dressed up with red, white, and blue reflective stripes. For 2326 buyers, it was an economical way to get in on the peak of the muscle car craze. They’re still economical, at least relative to their style, performance, and rarity. This result is realistic for the condition of this example.

Lot 791.1: 1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R LM Limited

Sold for $105,600

Chassis no. BCNR33023215. Championship Blue over gray cloth. Original, #2- condition.

Equipment: RHD. 2568/276hp, 5-speed with aftermarket shift knob, alloy wheels, Brembo brakes, aftermarket radio, aftermarket exhaust.

Condition: One of 188 LM Limited GT-Rs. Showing 118,190 km (73,440 miles) but recently serviced and looks quite good with a recent detailing. The paint and wheels are blemish-free. It’s clean underneath and the interior looks great as well.

Bottom line: Built briefly in the spring of 1996, the LM Limited was built to celebrate Nissan’s efforts at Le Mans with the R33-generation GT-R, even though those efforts were unsuccessful after four tries at La Sarthe. All 188 cars got Championship Blue paint, special decals, a carbon spoiler blade, different cooling ducts, and a bonnet lip. This is one of the more valuable variants of the R33 (1995-98). The price here seems a bit modest given the mileage and condition, but this auction was also very light on JDM favorites and the right bidders may just not have been in the room.

Lot 731: 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Mk I Vantage Coupe

Sold for $238,700

Chassis no. DB62805R. Fiesta Red over gray leather. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: RHD. 3995/325hp, 5-speed, wire wheels, Vredestein tires, wood rim steering wheel, radio.

Condition: Restored in the late 1990s in the UK by RS Williams. Good older paint and chrome. Tidy, visibly but lightly run engine. Lightly aged and wrinkled leather. Older paint. Grimy underbody. Lightly aged restoration on a well-equipped Aston.

Bottom line: This DB6 isn’t perfect and the RHD is a knock to its desirability, but it’s a genuine Vantage wearing a high-quality (if older) restoration by a well-known specialist. It sold for $240,00 on Bring a Trailer just a few months ago in February, with unanswered questions and a lien on the car putting off bidders there. A $240K sale price is very low, low enough that taking it straight to Barrett-Jackson for a flip probably seemed like easy money. But it wasn’t, and given the fee structure of Bring a Trailer vs. B-J, the seller actually lost quite a bit of money here.

Lot 742: 2022 Ford GT Alan Mann Heritage Edition

Sold for $1,292,500

Chassis no. 2FAGP9EW4NH200027. Alan Mann Red, gold and white over black. Original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 213/660hp V6, paddle-shift 7-speed.

Condition: 16 miles, looks new, and pretty much is.

Bottom line: Ford spun off 10 different special editions of the 2016-22 GT, many of them playing on the theme of “Heritage.” The Alan Mann version is a tribute to Alan Mann Racing, the English team that raced GT40s in the ’60s as well as other Ford products like the Falcon, Lotus Cortina, and Escort. Alan Mann also gave the Mustang its first race victory in 1964. Just 30 examples of this special edition GT were produced for 2022. There were seven different Heritage Edition GTs, and whereas base cars typically sell for just under $1M these days, somewhere around $1.2M is more the norm for the Heritage cars.

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German Porsche perfectionist RUF built just one example of its RCT (RUF Carrera Turbo) on a lightweight RS chassis and, three decades later, it could be yours.

The regular RUF RCT was made between 1992 and 1997 based on the Carrera 2 or 4, but fitted with the firm’s own 3.6-liter turbocharged and intercooled flat six boosting power to 370 hp. Also installed was RUF’s six-speed transaxle and a bespoke exhaust.

In 1994 RUF tried something even more special, building just one RCT from a 964 RS donor car. Starting with a more rigid seam-welded body, aluminum hood, rolled fenders and thinner window glass meant that this RCT was the lightest of the lot. It eschewed electric windows, air conditioning and rear seats in the quest to save weight.

The exterior was finished in Polar Silver Metallic paint, with 18-inch Speedline alloys, and whale tail spoiler, while the car’s cabin was trimmed in a mix of black leather and tartan cloth. Sporty Recaro Pole Position seats were installed, along with green VDO instruments, and a Blaupunkt Montreaux audio system.

RUF used the car as a development vehicle and press demonstrator before selling it to an enthusiast in Heinsberg, Germany who kept it until 2017. In 2021 the car was imported to the U.S. and is now being offered for sale on Bring A Trailer with 41,000 km (25,476 miles) on the clock and plenty of documentation, including its original Porsche factory books and RUF build certificate.

Although Porsche made close to 2300 964 RS models this is the only example to be re-imagined by RUF, giving it true unicorn status. That’s reflected in the bidding, which at the time of writing had reached almost $600,000 with nine days still to go.

Should your best bid fail to win the auction then you can order a ‘new’ RCT from RUF which now offers an EVO edition with more than 430 horsepower, and many more creature comforts than the original. If you’re worried about weight there’s even a carbon fiber body option.

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When Porsche unveiled the extensive updates to the Cayenne last spring, a familiar variant was absent: The GTS. Offered across all three generations of Cayenne, this model is more powerful than the base Cayenne but not as expensive as the top-tog one (Turbo S or Turbo E-Hybrid, depending on the era). After a hiatus for the 2024 model year, the GTS is back—and, yes, it still has a twin-turbo V-8.

Those who read between the lines of the 2024 changes won’t be surprised at the engine choice, or the power figures. The Cayenne S upgraded from a V-6 to a V-8 for 2024, so anything other than an eight-cylinder in the 2025 GTS model would have caused quite a stir. The current Cayenne S makes 468 horsepower, eight more than the 2023 GTS. Naturally, the new GTS had to prove its superiority, so Porsche gave it 40 more hp and 30 more lb-ft of torque, for a total of 493 hp and 487 lb-ft of torque.

Porsche hasn’t messed with the basic recipe of the GTS. The twin-turbo V-8 is paired exclusively with the eight-speed Tiptronic S automatic. Air suspension (10 mm lower than on lower-spec Cayennes) comes standard, as do a set of black 21-inch wheels and smoked lenses for the head- and taillights. Window trim, tailpipes, logos, and air intakes are all finished in black as well.

The interior of the GTS receives the same overhaul that the rest of the Cayenne lineup did for the 2024 model year. The shifter moves to the dashboard from the center console, which now houses the A/C controls. Behind the steering wheel is a curved, 12.6-inch digital instrument cluster. To the right of it is a standard-equipment 12.3-inch touchscreen. A third display, for the passenger, is optional. (Yes, Porsche has installed a protective film that prevent the driver from watching YouTube on the passenger’s screen.) GTS badges are etched, stitched, and appliquéd throughout the cabin, and the eight-way-adjustible Sport seats feature lots of Race Tex—Porsche’s name for its suede alternative.

Also new is the number of body styles: For the first time, you can have your Cayenne GTS as a regular SUV or as the raked-back Coupe—if you’re willing to pay $5000 extra for the more sharply-angled rear glass and less interior volume.

As of this writing, the GTS is the most powerful Cayenne that isn’t a hybrid. That the top-dog model features electrical assistance is no surprise: As we’re seeing more and more frequently, upscale automakers in Europe are pressured to add hybrid assistance to their vehicles to allow customers to drive them in Ultra-Low Emissions Zones, like those in London. The association between “most powerful” and “electrified” is merely a welcome side effect, we’re guessing.

For now, if you’ve got $80,000 to $150,000 to spend on a Porsche SUV, you’re spoiled for choice.

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Perhaps more than any other car company, Porsche faced enormous change in the period from 1960 to ’70. On the road, the seminal 356 gave way to the definitive 911, and Porsche finally went mass-market with the 914. The changes on track were even bigger.

At the beginning of the ’60s, Porsche raced the pocket-sized, class-competitive, four-cylinder 718. By the end of the ’60s, it had the 12-cylinder, all-conquering 917. The years in between saw a rapid succession of newer, better, faster prototype racers. The 908 was one of them, and it wound up being among the most successful and versatile race cars Porsche ever built. Which really is saying something. Among those 908s, this 908/02 Spyder, up for auction next week, has one of the best résumés of any 908.

In 1968, with the FIA changing the displacement for its Group 6 prototype category to an F1-sized 3 liters, Porsche further developed its 907 (a 2.2-liter car) and adapted it to accept a new 3.0-liter unit. They called the new racer, naturally, the 908. Air-cooled and with two-valves per cylinder, its new flat-eight made about 350 hp for most of its career, and although this was less than the output from some of its F1-derived competition like Ferrari and Matra, the Porsche eight was meant from the get-go to last a full endurance race, not just a relatively short Grand Prix. The 908 was also a very light car, typically less than 1500 pounds.

Early 908s were streamlined longtail coupes. They were drop-dead gorgeous but also unstable at speed, terrifying to drive, and prone to numerous teething problems. Regular aerodynamic tweaks with flaps and appendages changed the 908’s appearance drastically in a short time, but the results for it in the 1968 season were mixed, although Porsche did finish second in the World Sportscar Championship.

In 1969, Porsche was forging ahead with the brand-new 917, but nevertheless further developed the 908 into the 908/02, which was not a coupe but an open short-tail spyder. As it did the year before, Porsche continually tweaked the 908’s bodywork for better aerodynamics. One of the most important trips to the Stuttgart wind tunnel resulted in the Flunder (Flounder) body, nicknamed for its flatter, fishier appearance, including the nearly enclosed passenger area. The new shape debuted at the Nürburgring 1000km and won, notching Porsche’s third straight victory at the event. Porsche also won the World Sportscar Championship in 1969, mostly thanks to the 908, although one of the longtail coupes finished just 120 meters behind the winning Gulf Ford GT40 at Le Mans.

A new version, the 908/03, debuted for 1970, with Porsche aiming to use the more nimble 908 on tracks less suited to the powerful 917. The two-car strategy worked, and Porsche won the World Sportscar Championship in both 1970 and 1971. Rule changes for 1972 left the 5.0-liter 917 effectively banned, and the 3-liter category became the fastest class, but Porsche nevertheless sold off its 908s to customers. Remarkably, a privately entered 908 finished third at Le Mans in 1972, and others were competitive into the early 1980s, by then running turbocharged engines. At the Nürburgring 1000km, a Porsche 908 took the checkered flag in three different decades—four straight wins from 1968–71, and again in 1980.

This 908, chassis 908/02.005, started out as a factory 908/02 spyder. It first raced at Sebring in 1969, then was used as a training car for the Targa Florio, which Porsche won. Later in the year, it went to the Martini International Racing team and for the 1970 season got the more enveloping Flunder bodywork. It raced at Sebring, Brands Hatch, Monza, the Targa Florio, and Spa, where it notched a class win.

For Le Mans, its shape was further revised with longtail rear bodywork better suited for Le Mans’ high average speeds. It was also fitted with a transmission oil cooler (an overheated gearbox forced another Flunder to retire from Le Mans the year before). The Martini team fielded a single 917, done up in its famous blue and green psychedelic livery, along with 908/02.005 plus another 908/02. That other 908 crashed in qualifying, though, and 005 started the race way back in 22nd place. Drivers Rudi Lins and Helmut Marko piloted the spyder quickly and consistently, however, and by midnight they were up to sixth place and leading their class. By late the next morning they were a remarkable second place overall. A wheel nut stuck during two consecutive pit stops and cost precious time, but by the end of the 24-hour slog, they crossed the finish in third overall, still first in class, and won the Index of Performance, an award for efficiency. Martini’s other car, the hippy-fied 917, finished in second. Not bad for a team that had only started racing in 1968. The overall win, of course, went to the Porsche-Salzburg team’s 917, marking Porsche’s first overall win at Le Mans. This 908 was a big part of that effort, and it is even shown in a few scenes from Steve McQueen’s 1971 movie Le Mans as well.

908/02.005’s racing career stopped after its Le Mans triumph, and the car went into several Swiss race car collections before being acquired by noted Porsche collector Julio Palmaz, who also owned the Porsche-Salzburg 1970-winning 917. After going to the current owner in the 2010s, 005 has had significant restoration work, including a complete rebuild of the engine, to get it race-ready.

Porsche built barely 30 908s of all types, and they’re coveted both for their historical significance and for being usable vintage racers, so they don’t pop up for sale often. A longtail coupe sold last June for €1,885,620 (about $2M), and another 908/02 factory car with a similar resume but no Le Mans win sold in Monterey two years ago for $4,185,000. A 908/03 also sold at Monterey in 2017 for $3,757,000, and Bonhams sold this very same 908/02.005 10 years ago for £2,185,500 ($3.4M). This time around, it’s the headline car of the all-Porsche Air|Water auction, and has a presale estimate of $4.75M–$5.75M.

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One can argue that Porsche’s modern era kicked off in 1985, with the debut of the 959. What started as a complex, tech-heavy pursuit of Group B rally glory ultimately yielded the most advanced supercar yet seen on the road. And it founded a lineage that later included the 911 GT1, Carrera GT, and 918 Spyder. Less recognized, however, is the link between it—an unprofitable ‘80s moonshot—and the brand’s 21st-century commercial success. Whether Porsche’s ardent air-cooled enthusiasts like it or not, that line traces straight through an unlikely hero car: the Cayenne SUV.

The 959 forever altered the automaker’s approach to cutting-edge technology. Its development armed the company with essential knowledge and expertise that, unbeknownst to the racing engineers working on it, would make sports-car-focused Porsche into one of the world’s most successful makers of luxury utility vehicles. The Cayenne’s success in the early 2000s, by many accounts, built the company we know today.

Rally beginnings

In the 1980s, however, Porsche’s goal for the 959 was to create a dominant Group B rally car, and, via homologation, re-establish the 911’s image after the 928 proved an unpopular successor.

Group B’s wide-open rule set encouraged bleeding-edge tech, which resulted in participants employing ever more complex systems in pursuit of victory. Most memorable in this arena was Audi’s Quattro system, which forged that company’s identity and proficiency with all-wheel drive as the brand expanded worldwide. Porsche sought the same route, choosing to lean heavily on innovation for its halo car rather than tried-and-true performance-enhancing regimes like shedding weight (Ferrari F40) or brute force (Lamborghini Countach).

Quattro let Audi rule the Group B roost after its introduction in 1980. Other competitors weren’t lacking in successful recipes, either—Lancia’s brutally quick Delta S4 used a supercharger paired with a turbocharger to reduce boost lag and pump out up to 1014 horsepower in full-wick competition spec. With these future adversaries in mind, Porsche found that its Type 930 Turbo’s engine simply wasn’t up to the task and returned to the drawing board. In order to hit performance targets reliably, Porsche fitted water-cooled four-valve heads to an air-cooled 2.8-liter flat-six block. And that complexity was just the beginning. 

Porsche had experimented with similar systems for the 956 and 962 endurance cars, but those races prioritized higher engine speeds than ideal for rallying. For the 959, which would need equal parts low-end shove and high-end horsepower, Porsche landed on a solution: twin turbochargers equipped with valving that first engaged the left bank’s blower and then cut in the right side’s around 4000-4500 rpm.

Final homologated ratings of 444 horsepower (SAE) and 369 lb-ft for the road-going 959 only tell part of the story, since 300 of those foot-pounds arrived by 3000 rpm with just the single turbo pushing boost. Competition cars reportedly ratcheted that output up to and beyond 600 horsepower. Effectively harnessing so much grunt on relatively primitive tire compounds required further innovations to Porsche’s existing drivetrains. 

The 911’s up-and-coming G50 transaxle—which would debut in road cars for 1987—provided the 959 with two more gear ratios than with the 930 Turbo’s four-speed. It also permitted fitment of a multi-plate clutch system capable of electronically locking to send power to the front differential. Under normal driving conditions, an ECU estimated the car’s weight transfer by measuring the rate of acceleration based on engine output and gear ratios, then an algorithm determined how much torque the front and rear wheels should receive. (The driver or navigator could also lock all three differentials from the cockpit with the push of a button.)

That weight transfer also depended on the 959’s advanced suspension system. The 959 employed coil springs paired with electronically adjustable shock dampers, as well as hydraulically powered adjustable ride height pistons that allowed for the selection of 4.7, 5.9, or 7.1 inches of ground clearance. The dampers themselves used tiny motors to adjust valving that regulated fluid flow and firmness. 

This drivetrain and suspension combination allowed the 959 to crawl over off-road obstacles with the chassis lifted as high as possible and while using an extremely short 3.50 “Gelande” first gear ratio. (Gelandewagen uses the same German word for “terrain.”) At the opposite end of the spectrum, with the suspension lowered and firmed up, the road-going versions of this rally racer set a new production vehicle world record of 211 miles per hour while achieving up to 0.87 g of lateral grip thanks, in part, to novel Bridgestone run-flat tires.

By the time the 959 approached anything near competition readiness, however, the FIA had already disbanded Group B due to a series of high-profile fatalities. Porsche pivoted, instead taking the new car to the Paris-Dakar Rally—quite possibly the most difficult racing challenge on Earth at the time. At this same event, in 1984, a highly modified 911 variant known as the 953 had proven quite potent. After an abysmal first year in 1985 (all three 959 entries dropped out), another 959 trio achieved a first-second-sixth finishing order in 1986. Porsche’s tech-driven supercar had proven its off-road racing cred and presented to the world a fresh take on how to build a halo vehicle.

Porsche Pivot

After investing so much into the 959’s all-around capabilities, Porsche then began sprinkling those developments into its more pedestrian offerings. The 1989-94 964-generation 911 received a similarly complex four-wheel-drive system on the base Carrera 4, while the 1994-98 993-gen 911 Turbo then mated AWD to a pair of turbos capable of wringing 450 horsepower from a 3.8-liter air-cooled flat-six. 

The ill-fated attempt to replace the 911 with the front-engine 928, along with struggling sales of the entry-level 924/944/968, left Porsche desperate to right its financial ship. The 964-generation 911, more or less a stopgap measure between the older G-body models and the eventual 993 generation, arrived in the midst of a weakened dollar-to-Deutsche Mark exchange rate. As seven years of 964 production crept by—with only 63,762 cars sold—Porsche knew it needed to pivot. As it began taking steps that would lead to folding the family firm into Volkswagen AG’s conglomerate, Porsche also began to evolve its product line.

The 959’s use of water-cooled heads was a departure from the fully air-cooled engines that helped define the marque’s top cars, and they helped pave the way in the late-1990s for fully water-cooled M96 engines that ultimately powered the 986 Boxster and 996-generation 911. Component sharing and serial production during the new water-cooled era began to turn Porsche’s financial tide, but the company still needed more than a range of niche sports cars to remain viable in the 21st century.

Despite knowing that it would send purists into a fit, Porsche moved forward with its solution: creating an SUV. The existing BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz ML-Class were already capitalizing on a new, growing segment of the American market, and Porsche was clear-eyed about the financial opportunity. Sharing a platform with Volkswagen’s Touareg and Audi Q7 would help spread the considerable development costs over a broader base and enabled Porsche to make this step into the new era, but the brand knew it’d have to spice up its offering with a more sporting identity to set it apart from its platform-mates and other competition.

To successfully imbue its personality and capability on- and off-road into the Cayenne, Porsche applied much of the same tech-heavy strategies it did with the 959. The Cayenne employed a dry-sump oiling system that mitigated oil starvation at odd angles while off-roading, a set of electronically disconnecting front and rear sway bars were available as part of the Advanced Offroad Technology Package, and the Cayenne Turbo model received an air suspension system that allowed for five positions of adjustable ride height. Sound familiar? Porsche’s predilection for, ahem, intensive engineering even resulted in water cooling for the Cayenne’s alternator.

As with the 959, Porsche didn’t forget the influence of racing success on its customers. Also, the Cayenne, which was on its face a non-traditional Porsche product, stood to gain some credibility through success in motorsport. With that, Porsche focused on the 2006 Transsyberia Rally, a 10,000-kilometer-plus event that ran from Berlin to Moscow, then across Russia and Mongolia. 

At the event, Cayennes equipped with minimal modifications—shorter final-drive ratios, intake snorkels, and safety equipment—took first and second place. Those race vehicles even used the Turbo’s adjustable air suspension system rather than steel springs, demonstrating Porsche’s faith in the durability of its solutions.

Not since the 959 did a Porsche model exhibit such a broad performance envelope. And with that win, the brand executed its objective of creating an SUV on its own terms. Period reviewers, who weren’t particularly warm to SUVs as a whole (some of us are still coming around—Ed.), acknowledged as much, though they wished for a greater degree of on-road sporting characteristics and lamented the Cayenne’s weight, which, at over 5000 lbs, was a consequence of its complex engineering. Dan Neil, writing for Car and Driver in its August 2003 issue, put it thusly: “It is the fastest production SUV on the planet, and it has more off-road chops than Sir Edmund Hillary. It’s sure to be a huge status codpiece in South Beach and Beverly Hills. It is the ‘Porsche of SUVs.’ We had hoped for a little more Porsche and a little less SUV.”

While the automotive press may have couched its praise for the Cayenne with caveats, the SUV seemed to suit the public just fine. Porsche sold 20,603 Cayennes in 2002, and 2003’s 39,913 sales equated to more than 52 percent of Porsches produced that year. The company hasn’t looked back—together, the Cayenne and its mini-me Macan sibling are the brand’s sales leaders. Their massive success, many argue, ensures continued investment in low-volume sports cars like the 918, GT4 718s, GT2/GT3 911s, and 911 S/T.

Had Porsche not gone down the Group B rabbit hole, history could have unfolded very differently. When it came time to create its first SUV, the company already possessed the experience, the technological chops, and the ingrained engineering approach to build a multi-purpose, all-wheel drive vehicle that didn’t just genuflect at the “Sport” in Sport Utility Vehicle. The 959 forged a new competency for the brand, and the Cayenne leveraged that success into a profit machine. It may not appear so on the surface, but the 959 and the Cayenne are cut from very similar cloth.

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It’s fairly well known among aficionados of automotive trivia that Studebaker was the official American distributor for Mercedes-Benz cars in the 1950s. Less well known is the fact that the independent automaker based in South Bend, Indiana, had an earlier relationship with another German automaker, Porsche. Ironically, at the same time that the automotive operations of the Studebaker Corporation were deteriorating financially, Studebaker’s tie-up with Porsche helped it get established as a serious automaker.

Long before the Panamera, Cayenne, or Macan changed Porsche’s image from that of a maker of high-performance two-door sports cars to a manufacturer of luxury executive and family cars, Porsche developed a four-door sedan for Studebaker.

The history of the Porsche company dates to the engineering consultancy founded by Prof. Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferdinand Porsche in 1931 with his son-in-law Anton Piëch and Adolf Rosenberger, a businessman and gentleman racer who had succeeded both as a privateer and as a factory driver for Mercedes-Benz. While the engineering firm was started by Dr. Porsche, the first Porsche cars were developed by his son Ferry in 1947 while the elder Porsche was still in prison for his contribution to the Nazi war effort and the use of slave labor in his Stuttgart facility.

Ferdinand Porsche died at the age of 75 in early 1951, soon after his family secured his release from prison by paying French authorities a fine that was essentially a ransom. Late that year Ferry Porsche came to the United States to meet with Porsche’s North American importer and distributor, Max Hoffman. He asked Ferry if he was interested in doing contract engineering for American firms. Porsche jumped at the opportunity to provide additional revenue for his fledgling company, so Hoffman put Ferry in touch with a friend, Richard Hutchinson, Studebaker’s vice president for exports.

By the early 1950s, Detroit’s Big Three automakers were using their great resources and economies of scale to put serious pressure on independents like Studebaker. Hoffman, who by then was also importing and distributing Volkswagens, suggested that Studebaker should sell something small and inexpensive, like the Beetle, as no American car company was then serving that market. Hutchinson didn’t need much convincing; he had earlier negotiated with the British occupation authorities, who had started the postwar VW company out of the ruins of the Wolfsburg KdF plant, to ship him one of the first Beetles in the United States.

(Impressed by the Type I, Hutchinson had actually negotiated a contract to be the American distributor for VW, but Harold Vance, the president of Studebaker, killed the project.)

Still, Hoffman and Hutchinson arranged for a team from Porsche to meet with Studebaker executives in the spring of 1952. Ferry Porsche was accompanied to South Bend by designers Karl Rabe and Erwin Komenda as well as chassis engineer Leopold Schmid.

They brought with them a standard 356 coupe out of Hoffman’s inventory and an experimental four-seater designated Type 530, essentially a 356 that was stretched enough to make room for a rear seat, with longer doors for rear seat access and a slightly raised roofline for headroom in back.

According to Hoffman, the initial testing of the 530 at Studebaker’s proving grounds did not go well. With Ferry Porsche in the passenger seat and Vance and Hutchinson in the back, Hoffman steered the prototype around the track. He was not impressed. “It was a terrible car,” he told automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen. Still, the Studebaker execs were impressed enough to continue the meetings, with the company’s VP of engineering, Stanwood Sparrow, and chief engineer, Harold Churchill, joining in.

Instead of having Porsche develop an American people’s car (something Henry Ford had originally accomplished with the Model T), Studebaker ended up contracting with Porsche to develop a conventional front-engine car similar to the existing ’52 Studebaker Champion sedan, only with more power and less weight. It was also designed to take advantage of modern manufacturing methods.

Despite Hutchinson and Hoffman’s enthusiasm for the idea, it’s not surprising that the Studebaker managers in general were not very interested in a small, air-cooled, rear-engine American people’s car. None other than Henry Ford II turned down the opportunity to acquire the entire Volkswagen company, when presented with that offer gratis by the British in 1948.

The design brief that Studebaker gave Porsche specified a six-cylinder, air-cooled engine, a three-speed transmission, and a maximum achievable speed of 85 mph.

Ferdinand Porsche had Austrian ethnicity and was Czech by birth, not German. Ferry Porsche built the first production Porsche cars in a sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. Later, Reutter Karosserie in Zuffenhausen, near Stuttgart, Germany where the Porsche engineering firm was located, took over body assembly. When Ferry Porsche and his crew returned to Zuffenhausen from America, they were still working in wooden sheds. The Porsche company built its first proper assembly plant across the road from Reutter in 1952. The money from Studebaker made the move to that factory possible.

The six-cylinder engine that Porsche came up with was rather novel. It was a V-6 design, a configuration which was not very common in the early 1950s. The only V-6 in production at the time was a relatively small 2.0-liter engine by Lancia. Larger displacement V-6 engines aren’t smooth because of inherently unbalanced secondary rotational couples. Today that problem is addressed by counter-rotating balancing shafts.

To address primary balancing issues, most V-6 engines are 60-degree designs. (The GM 3800 was a 90-degree design made by hacking off two cylinders from a V-8, but it ran like a 60-degree six due to trick, offset crankshaft journals.) Instead, Porsche went with a 120-degree design because the crankshaft would have only three throws, with two connecting rods on each journal, compared to the six journals needed for a 60-degree motor. It was cheaper and simpler to manufacture and the relatively compact and lightweight crankshaft meant the unbalanced forces were reduced. According to Karl Ludvigsen, it may have been the first 120-degree V-6 ever made.

The engine was further novel in that it had hybrid cooling. The cylinder heads were air-cooled, while the cylinders were water-cooled with a small radiator placed inside the ductwork for the head. The use of liquid cooling for the cylinders also provided a reliable source of heat for the passenger cabin.

Ferry Porsche and Karl Rabe returned to South Bend in the early fall of 1952, with drawings and 1:5 scale models. Studebaker approved the overall design but apparently had misgivings about the hybrid cooled engine. Studebaker commissioned Porsche to also develop fully air- and liquid-cooled versions of the V-6.

Another contract was drawn up for Porsche to build a prototype and several extra engines for testing, and Porsche gave the project the internal designation of Type 542.

In early 1953, Porsche moved into its new factory, where development of the 542 proceeded, with fabrication of the body and engines taking place in the fall of that year.

The result was a four-door sedan, with pontoon fenders, that was slightly wider and a bit shorter in length (111-inch wheelbase vs. 115) than the 1952 Champion. The design brief from South Bend specified the use of many production Studebaker parts including wheels, drum brakes, the Commander model’s transmission (a three-speed manual with overdrive), door handles, steering wheel, and a Saginaw steering box.

Those specifications were relatively easy to accommodate but another Studebaker requirement posed a greater challenge. Porsche was developing a unibody architecture but Studebaker’s assembly plants in Indiana and California were set up to build body-on-frame (BOF) vehicles. BOF car bodies typically end at the firewall, with a separate front “clip” mounted separately to the frame. A body made with unibody construction is necessarily longer than the main part of a BOF body. To accommodate such a body, not only would the assembly plants need to be reconfigured, but Studebaker would have issues shipping the bodies by rail to California. To save space, bodies were placed vertically on special railcars, but the longer unibodies would not fit in the mountain tunnels on the way to the Golden State.

The finished 542’s “unibody” was actually made in two parts, with a separate front end with its own boxed structures, essentially two unibodies bolted together. Two different front structures were designed to accommodate a radiator for the water-cooled version, and air ducts for the air-cooled edition. Reutter was responsible for fabricating the 542’s body.

Like other Studebakers, the front suspension used coil springs and tube shocks but instead of conventional A-arms as used in American cars, the 542 used dual trailing arms like you would find on a VW Beetle. Unlike other Studebakers, the 542 had independent rear suspension, not for better performance, but because fixing the differential in place allowed for a lower driveshaft and a flatter interior floor. The semi-diagonal trailing arm rear suspension presaged its use years later by Porsche and BMW.

Regarding the engines, Ferry Porsche would have rather used aluminum but Studebaker was used to casting and machining iron and steel, so the air-cooled version—designated 542L, for luft, German for air—had both iron heads and individually finned, cast-iron cylinders. The heads and cylinders were fastened to the crankcase with long bolts, a setup familiar to anyone who has rebuilt an air-cooled VW or Porsche engine. Porsche made the crankcases for both engines as short as possible, to save some weight with the ferrous parts.

Both the 542L and the 542W (W for wasser, water) were overhead valve designs with wedge combustion chambers, and had the same oversquare dimensions with 3054cc (186-cubic-inch) displacements. Both motors used aluminum pistons.

It’s clear that Porsche was using the 542 project to expand and develop its own technical abilities. While the 542W got a conventional forged steel crankshaft, the 542L had a cast one made from nodular spheroidal-graphite iron—again, a technology that would be embraced by the industry later.

Ignition systems from both Autolite and Delco-Remy were tried. Fuel was supplied by a single Stromberg carburetor through a six-armed intake manifold that stretched across the wide 120-degree vee, although at least one prototype engine had dual carbs.

The 542L used an axial-flow fan, instead of the squirrel-cage fans on air-cooled VWs and Porsches. Concentric with the cooling fan and driven by the same belt was the engine’s generator and an oil cooler, a critical component for air-cooled engines, was integrated into the air flow. To keep things compact, all the ancillaries of the 542W were mounted inside the vee. Because of the need to drive the cooling fan, the 542L had slightly less power: 98 bhp (96.7 hp) at 3700 rpm, compared to the 542W’s 106 (104.5) @ 3500 rpm.

In early 1953, Raymond Loewy, Studebaker’s outside design consultant, and Robert Bourke, who was working in South Bend for the Loewy studio, traveled to Stuttgart to see how things were going with the body. Since the finished prototype doesn’t look out of place with Studebaker’s lineup at the time, it’s clear that Loewy and Bourke had some input. While styling was not actually part of Porsche’s commission, the finished product also shows some Porsche DNA. It was nothing revolutionary, after all Studebaker was a rather staid company, but the result can well be described as handsome.

Studebaker management got its first look at the finished 542 in March, 1954 on the occasion of the Geneva auto show. While the 542 was not displayed at the show, Harold Churchill, by then VP of engineering in South Bend, and Klaus von Rucker, a German-born engineer who was second in command at Studebaker’s R&D department, were at the show. Ferry Porsche drove them back to Stuttgart in the 542.

After further shakedown tests in the Swiss mountains, the 542, with dark metallic blue paint and saddle brown upholstery, was shipped to Indiana along with the extra engines in the autumn of 1954. In an article for Special Interest Autos, Karl Ludvigsen says that the car was tested with both engines. Since only a single prototype is mentioned, presumably the engine swap was done in South Bend, likely facilitated by the bolt-on front ends. Likewise, both engines were fully dynamometer-tested.

Though the 542 missed the target weight by over 500 pounds, Studebaker personnel were still impressed with the prototype. Harold Churchill considered the Type 542 to have been “an excellent job.” Ed Reynolds, who was on the staff of Studebaker’s proving grounds, called the 542 “a solid little thing.”

Why, then, did the Type 542 never see production? The simplest explanation is a lack of money. “By the time it arrived, the interest in it had departed,” Reynolds said. That departing interest was likely due to Studebaker’s pressing financial concerns. Less than a month after the 542 arrived for testing, Studebaker’s financially struggling automotive operations were merged with Packard to form the ill-fated Studebaker-Packard Corporation.

What about the 542L and 542W engines? Studebaker could have used a modern six-cylinder engine, and didn’t introduce its own overhead valve inline six until 1961. Like the 542 project as a whole, a lack of finances probably killed the Porsche-designed bent six. Churchill said, “The problem was the capital to tool it.” To put the engine into production would likely have cost $15 million to $20 million in 1954.

To get an idea of how precarious Studebaker’s finances were, that figure works out to about $200 million in 2024 dollars. That seems like a lot of money but it is a fraction of the cost of putting a brand-new engine into production these days, which is close to a billion dollars or so.

Studebaker did have a respite from following at least some of Max Hoffman’s original advice. In 1959, the company introduced its first compact car, the Lark. The Lark sold over a quarter million units in its first two years, reviving the company, at least until the Big Three automakers introduced their own compact cars. Lark sales halved in 1962 and Studebaker ended production at South Bend just before Christmas in 1963. Studebaker car production would end for good when its plant in Hamilton, Ontario, shut down in 1966, though a few knock-down kits may have been assembled after that by Studebaker’s importer in Israel.

The prototype 542 no longer exists except in photographs. At least one 542L engine still exists in Porsche’s corporate collection and has been on display in the company’s museum in Stuttgart.

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Tom Cotter, Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter, has a helluva nose. He routinely uncovers automotive treasures in barns, warehouses, garages, and pastures across North America for enthusiastic audiences on the Hagerty YouTube channel. His latest episode, which takes viewers into the depths of the Detroit Historical Society’s fascinating backroom car collection, has more than three million views in the past week. Amazing. So, when a friend called and described a local storage locker that held potentially valuable old engines, I cleared my calendar to have a look, hoping I could experience some Barn Find Hunter magic my own self.

When we rolled up the door of a standard-issue storage locker, like the ones you see on Storage Wars, my heart made a little jump. The space was jammed with dusty shelves piled high with automotive bits. Was this how Howard Carter felt when he entered King Tut’s tomb in 1922?

Yeah, yeah, I’m stretching. But it was so much fun to pick through the collection, try to ID the parts, and listen to the owner recall when and why he gathered his personal treasures. He’d been renting three lockers for decades but had reached what he called the uncluttering stage of life. Parts accumulated long ago for future car projects were no longer needed and he hoped I could help determine what the stuff was worth. I saw some pieces for an early VW GTI that I could have used when I restored one back in 2012, plus numerous other VW components, including engine cases. The crown jewels, however, were a pair of Porsche 911 engines.

One, which he’d had rebuilt decades ago, was wrapped in plastic, the intake runners sealed with masking tape. The other engine was reportedly of the same late-sixties vintage but had not been rebuilt. We muscled the motors off the shelves onto a dolly and wheeled them outside. The first step in determining the health of any engine is to see if it spins. I put a socket on the crank bolts and both engines freely spun. You can see the owner and my lame attempt to impersonate Cotter in this Instagram video.

I fought an intense urge to take both motors home and get them running. Maybe I’d hot-rod one for my 1969 911. So much potential joy, sitting on a cart in front of me in the alleyway of a self-storage facility! These treasures, however, were hard to appraise and I feared paying too much or, worse, too little. I knew the owner wasn’t thrilled to be at the stage in life when he had to abandon the plans he’d had for the motors. A stack of greenbacks would be a nice consolation.

I called Ramsey Potts, a senior car specialist at Hagerty Marketplace who races a Porsche and is plugged into that community. We both called around and got wildly different opinions about the value of the flat-sixes. “Let the market decide,” Potts suggested. And that is why both motors are currently open for bidding on the Hagerty auction platform; here’s the rebuilt one, and here’s the other. Please help spread the word and get as many eyeballs and bids on the engines as possible.

Don’t miss the latest episodes of my Never Stop Driving podcast, in which Bill Caswell—a crazy, creative, hyperenthusiastic car savant—recounts the greatest automotive adventure of all time. We’ve split the tale into two parts to get all the details, like when Bill was caught in the crossfire of a machine-gun battle at the Mexico border. You have to hear it to believe it.

Listen on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Hagerty Drivers Club member Paul Cervantes received the latest issue of HDC Magazine, which just landed in mailboxes, and kindly wrote: “This is always a happy day for me and I’ll soon be found in my reading chair, first scanning the pages before settling into the great stories and fantastic photography.” Don’t get our award-winning magazine? You can by joining the Hagerty Drivers Club, which will also support all the content we produce.

Have a great weekend!

Larry

P.S.: Your feedback is very welcome. Comment below!

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A pair of rare two-liter Porsche flat-six engines, discovered in a storage unit by Hagerty’s editor-in-chief Larry Webster, are up for auction.

Unearthed in Michigan, the magnesium-cased motors both came from 1968 U.S.-market 911s, although the same engine was also installed in the 904 and the 914/6.

These early engines produced around 130 hp at 6200 rpm, were designed to meet tight American emissions standards and were often mated with Porsche’s Sportomatic transmission.

That was certainly the case with the first of the engines uncovered by Webster, with its serial number showing it’s a 901/17 unit. The engine is said to partially turn over and comes with its fan assembly, fan shroud, and flywheel.

The second discovery is a 901/14, which was previously a restoration project for a pair of students at Rutgers University in New Jersey, although they don’t appear to have got terribly far with it. It also turns over, but there is some corrosion to the magnesium and steel studs and the air-injection lines have been cut.

Porsche built over 5500 two-liter 911s between 1965 and 1968 (4636 coupes and 986 Targas) but they’re a pretty rare sight today.

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In the high-stakes world of classic motor racing a spare engine or two would certainly come in handy, or perhaps they could help get another couple of classic 911s back on the road? The two engines are being offered without reserve on Hagerty Marketplace now. Click here and here for details.

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The Panamera is ideal for the owner who needs a Mercedes S-Class but still wants a 911. It’s a luxurious four-door sedan that delivers the driving panache expected from Porsche—a car with exemplary agility and response through the twisty bits and cool composure at high speeds. The 2024 Panamera builds on that solid foundation while adding more speed, more sparkle, and more refinement into the mix. There’s never been a better reason to ignore the Cayenne and cast your lot with Porsche’s lower-slung liftback.

The new Panamera looks familiar, and there’s a lot of familiar hardware under the skin. But this 2024 model is much more than a mid-cycle facelift. Among other things, it marks the debut of Porsche’s first-ever active suspension system, plus new plug-in hybrid powertrains that have more power and more EV range. “From our point of view, it is a new car,” says Thomas Friemuth, the man in charge of the Panamera product line.

Indeed, Porsche redesigned every exterior panel for the new Panamera, apart from the door skins. The new front bumper fascia features larger air intakes, including a vent above the front number plate, and air blades are integrated into the outermost vents to improve aerodynamic efficiency. The hood is more sculpted, and the top of the front guards has been raised to give drivers a more 911-like view through the windshield. 

At the rear, above the new rear bumper and rear lights, is a new hatchback lid with glass that extends out to the inner edge of the pillars rather than being enclosed in a metal frame. But perhaps the most significant styling change—most noticeable on cars with bright trim around the side windows—is the slightly more formal double apex kink in the C-pillar that replaces the Nike-like swoosh of the outgoing car.

Inside, the new Panamera features the multi-screen dash layout seen in the electric-powered Taycan. The 12.6-in digital instrument panel is split into three different independently configurable sections. At the center of the dash is a 12.3-in touch screen to handle infotainment chores. An optional 10.9-in screen for front seat passengers can stream video content even while the car is moving, albeit digitally shielded from the driver’s view to avoid distraction.

The redesigned center console has no shifter. Instead, a small toggle-like gear selector, similar to that used in the 911, is located on the dash, next to the steering wheel. New door trims feature elements that can be configured in a mix and match of colors and materials. Ambient lighting bounces off surfaces in the doors and under the dash to produce gentle washes of color around the cabin.

The entry-level, $101,550 rear-drive Panamera and the $108,550 all-wheel-drive Panamera 4 are powered by the same 2.9-liter turbocharged V-6 used in the outgoing car, driving through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. However, changes to turbo boost pressure, fuel injection flow rate, and ignition timing have boosted power to 348 hp and torque to 368 lb-ft, increases of 22 hp and 36 lb-ft.

Specs: 2024 Porsche Panamera

• Price: $101,500 Panamera/$108,500 Panamera 4 (Base); others TBA
• Powertrain: 2.9-liter twin-turbo mild-hybrid V-6; 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 with co-axial PSM electric motor; 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 with co-axial electric motor; 8-speed dual-clutch transmission
• Horsepower/Torque: 348 hp, 368 lb-ft (Panamera and Panamera 4); 464 hp, 479 lb-ft (Panamera 4 E-Hybrid); 536 hp, 553 lb-ft (Panamera 4S E-Hybrid); 670 hp, 686 lb-ft (Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid)
• Layout: Rear- and all-wheel drive, four-door, five-passenger sedan
• Curb Weight: 4295-5202 lb
• EPA-rated fuel economy: N/A
• 0–60 mph: 5.0 sec (Panamera); 4.7 sec (Panamera 4); 4.1 sec (Panamera 4 E-Hybrid); 3.5 sec (Panamera 4S E-Hybrid); 3.0 sec (Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid)
• Competitors: Mercedes-Benz S-Class; BMW 7 Series; Audi A8

Porsche claims the rear-drive Panamera will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and reach a top speed of 169 mph. All-wheel-drive traction gets the Panamera 4 to 60 mph three-tenths of a second quicker, but drivetrain losses knock the top speed back to 168 mph. Even on an autobahn, few would notice.

Three more Panamera variants are set to join the U.S. lineup in the next few months, all of them plug-in hybrids. The Panamera 4 E-Hybrid and Panamera 4S E-Hybrid combine the V-6 engine with a new, co-axially mounted, 187-hp, 332-lb-ft e-motor located within the housing of the redesigned eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.

In the Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, the V-6’s output has been dialed back to 300 hp and 309 lb-ft, reductions of 14 and 16 percent, respectively, compared with its tune in the base car, but the heft of the e-motor still delivers a system output of 464 hp and 479 lb-ft. That’s enough to get the car to 60 mph six-tenths of a second quicker than the non-hybrid Panamera 4 and on to a top speed of 174 mph. 

With all 348 horses and 368 lb-ft pumping from the V-6 under its hood, the Panamera 4S E-Hybrid packs a total system output punch of 536 hp and 553 lb-ft. It will dispatch the 0-to-60-mph sprint in about 3.5 seconds, says Porsche, and reach a top speed of 180mph.

Top of the range—for now—is the Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid, whose plug-in hybrid powertrain is anchored by Porsche’s versatile 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 and produces a total system output of 670 hp and a thumping 686 lb-ft of torque. That’s just 20 hp fewer than the outgoing Turbo S E-Hybrid, but with 45 lb-ft more torque it’s enough to make the Turbo E-Hybrid just as quick, with a claimed 0-to-60 mph acceleration time of 3.0 seconds and a top speed of 196 mph.

A new Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid is coming, confirms Thomas Friemuth. And though he won’t talk numbers, it’s logical to assume it will have at least 700 hp and probably 700 lb-ft of torque.

Key to the new PHEV Panameras is the eight-speed PDK transmission, which has been redesigned not just to accommodate the e-motor, but also to handle much more torque than the old unit. The compact e-motor’s design is unusual, the inner spinning inside a fixed outer element, which Friemuth says reduces inertia by half, improving response. 

The design also allows for the e-motor to be oil-cooled using the transmission oil, which reduces weight by 11 lb and enables it to produce a higher continuous output. Additionally, the internal combustion engine can be decoupled from e-motor and transmission, enabling the new Panamera to coast with the engine shut down when you lift off the accelerator pedal.

Powering the e-motor is a 25.9-kWh battery that has 45 percent more capacity than the battery in the outgoing PHEV Panameras and has almost doubled the pure EV driving range to a claimed 56 miles. Why 56 miles, rather than the 62-mile range that now seems to be the benchmark for German premium PHEVs? Friemuth says Porsche’s research showed that, on average, most PHEV owners rarely traveled more than 50 miles in a day. Opting for a 56-mile range meant the size of the battery could be made slightly smaller, saving weight. 

That said, the Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid is no feather, tipping the scales at 5202 pounds—a hefty 907 pounds more than the V-6-powered rear-drive Panamera.

Air suspension is standard on the new Panamera, but the outgoing car’s three-chamber air springs have been replaced with simpler, lighter two-chamber units. The key enabling technology here is supplier ZF’s two-valve damper, which, according to vertical dynamics engineer Jochen Liebold, allows independent tuning of compression and rebound damping. In essence, the tech makes three-chamber springs redundant. The dampers are also central to the new Panamera’s headline technology—Porsche Active Ride (PAR).

In simple terms, PAR uses four fast, ultra-precise pumps to actively control the force at each wheel in both compression and rebound by pumping fluid through the dampers to push or pull the wheel. Pump control units—one for each axle—can detect what is happening at each wheel every millisecond, and the pumps can independently vary the compression and rebound damping force acting on each wheel by plus or minus 10,000 newtons in 30 milliseconds.

PAR allows Porsche dynamics engineers to create forces that control the acceleration, velocity, and travel of each wheel—and the motion of the body in relation to the wheel—in nearly real-time. 

Electronic complexity (the new Panamera has a four-core CPU, and one core alone is needed to control PAR) has enabled mechanical simplicity. There are no physical anti-roll bars, and the car rides on single-chamber air springs. Overall, the PAR system weighs the same as the 48V anti-roll setup used in the outgoing Panamera. It will only be available as an option on PHEV versions of the new Panamera because it needs the car’s 400V electrical architecture to make it work.

And how does it work? In a word, brilliantly.

In addition to the Panamera and Panamera 4 models we sampled in Spain, we drove a PAR-equipped Turbo E-Hybrid, which comes standard with rear-wheel steering and Porsche’s Torque Vectoring Plus, on the track and on nearby roads. While the 21-in wheels shod with aggressively sporty Michelin Pilot Sport S5 tires (275/35 up front and 325/30 at the rear) mean there’s some noise and impact harshness (which is heard more than felt), PAR made the Panamera otherwise feel as calm and composed as a Mercedes-Benz S-Class without compromising its sporty dynamics.

The primary ride is outstanding, the body barely moving as the suspension shrugs off humps and heaves that would leave other cars crashing down on their bump stops. Body roll through corners, along with dive and squat under braking and acceleration, are virtually eliminated. The system also actively changes the ride height, lowering the car mid-corner to lower its center of gravity. 

Despite the furious flow of electrons making all this happen, the feedback through the steering and through the seat of your pants is concise and granular. (Jochen Liebold says Porsche Active Ride could have been tuned to eliminate all body motions, but test drivers complained of a lack of feel.) Even when the car is stationary PAR is alert and ready to react, instantly raising the car 2.2 inches when you open the door to make entry and egress easier.

The Turbo E-Hybrid’s default drive mode, Hybrid Auto, allows drivers of PAR-equipped models to select additional functions that will tilt the car into corners or raise the nose under braking and the tail under acceleration. These counter-intuitive motions are designed to reduce the sensation of g-loads for passengers, but experienced drivers will prefer the greater connection with the road surface afforded by the standard PAR settings.

Porsche Active Ride won’t be cheap; in Germany, it’s the equivalent of an $8900 option. But given that amounts to barely a four percent bump over the car’s base price, and about what Porsche charges for the PCCB carbon-ceramic brake package that you’ll only ever (doubtfully) fully employ on a track day, it’s worth every penny. You’ll feel the money well spent every time you get behind the wheel.

The Panamera and Panamera 4 models confirmed the myriad of detail engineering and design changes have indeed added more speed, more sparkle, and more refinement to the basic Panamera package. The upgraded 2.9-liter V-6 delivers noticeably more punch, particularly in the mid-range, and snarls smoothly to its 6750-rpm redline. There’s a precision in the steering and in the braking that’s impressive for a car 198.9 in long and 76.3 in wide, rolling on a 116.2-in wheelbase, and the revised suspension delivers a calmer primary ride, and better wheel control.

Consider that 2024 Porsche Panamera exists at the same company in which an army of talented engineers in Weissach are spending millions of man-hours trying to make the tall, clunky, hot-selling Cayenne SUV drive as well as it does. The truth is, if you want a roomy, versatile four-door Porsche that, well, drives like a Porsche, don’t buy a Cayenne. Buy a Panamera.

2024 Porsche Panamera

Highs: Complex PHEV powertrain and Porsche Active Ride are not just Porsche engineers showing off. The benefits are the real deal.

Lows: Exterior redesign might be a little too subtle for those who want to show off at the country club.

Takeaway: More performance, more refinement, more panache—together it makes this 2024 Panamera feel a lot more than “refreshed.”

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Earlier this year, we told you about a skunkworks Porsche Taycan that charged around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7:07.55, a new lap record for a series production electric car and a lap record for four-door models of any powertrain type. That car had a few special features—including a rather large rear wing—that we hadn’t yet seen on any production Taycan, and it was rumored that a new top-dog variant might be in the works.

Behold, the 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and its no-holds-barred Weissach Package. The Turbo GT becomes the new king of electric Porsches, offering up to 1093 hp of peak system output. Weissach versions arrive without a rear seat and with that big ol’ wing—both elements that are exclusive to the package.

Let’s start with the spiciest version first: Spring for the Weissach Package on your Taycan Turbo GT, and you’ll get a massive fixed rear wing, a new front diffuser, and additional underbody air deflectors that add up to 485 pounds of total downforce to the car. The package also sheds 157 pounds of heft relative to the Taycan Turbo S by ditching the rear seats, the analog clock from the Sport Chrono package, floor and trunk mats, some of the sound insulation, and even the electric motor that soft-closes the trunk lid. We’re still talking about a sizable electric car with a hefty battery, so it’s not a light car so much as it is lighter.

The result is a car that can knock off 0–60 mph in just 2.1 seconds and reach a top speed of 190 mph—up 10 mph from the non-Weissach Taycan Turbo GT. Perhaps more importantly, at least in certain social circles, you’ll be able to say a car built like yours currently holds currently holds production EV records at the Nürburgring (7:07.55) and Laguna Seca (1:27.87). That ‘Ring record, by the way, is 26 seconds faster than Porsche’s previous Taycan lap record, set in a Taycan Turbo S in August of 2022. The Taycan Turbo GT’s record does have a ways to go before it sniffs the fastest lap set by a gas-powered Porsche; a 2022 911 GT3 RS lapped the circuit in 6:49.328. Then again, the latter is basically a race car made legal for the road, while the former is an electric sports sedan stretched to hunt apexes, so an 18-ish second gap is reasonable.

Even without the Weissach package, what’s on tap here is remarkable. All 2025 Taycan Turbo GTs offer 777 hp with a launch control mode that temporarily jolts peak output to 1019 hp. Separate from the launch control mode, there’s something called “attack mode,” which serves up 160 extra ponies for up to 10 seconds. Attack mode also adjusts the Turbo GT’s model-specific suspension system by stiffening the two-valve, active hydraulic dampers to keep the body as flat as possible through corners, aiding chassis control. Think of attack mode as a one-stop shop button to really rocket away from a corner—or scare your co-pilot.

Peak system output—there’s a lot going on here and stacking the right calibrations and modes is complicated to articulate—is rated at 1092 hp. (Read: You can’t call up launch control and then think you can also cue up attack mode for 160 additional ponies on top of the 1019 already raring to go.)

Non-Weissach cars can still click off 60 mph from a standstill in just 2.2 seconds. Even more impressive is the romp from 0–124 mph, which Porsche says takes 6.6 or 6.4 seconds, depending on whether or not you have the Weissach package. Those sprints are up to 1.3 seconds quicker than the previous high-water mark, set by the Taycan Turbo S.

Special 21-inch lightweight wheels with performance rubber are standard on the Taycan Turbo GT with or without the Weissach Package, as are lightweight carbon-ceramic brakes with new disc and caliper housing designs that shave off an additional four pounds of weight.

Even without the Weissach Package’s fixed rear wing, there’s quite a bit of aero trickery present in the form of a model-specific front spoiler with special endplates, a similar treatment out back, and side skirts between the wheels.

This handsome, high-performance model comes with an appropriately hefty price tag. When it arrives at U.S. dealerships this summer, the 2025 Taycan Turbo GT will start at $231,995 including a $1995 destination fee. Expect the Weissach package to command a large chunk of change atop that. Records don’t come cheap, ya know.

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If you’re looking for some off-road action with a touch of Stuttgart style then North Carolina’s TLC4x4 has the answer.

The company, which specializes in resto-modding Toyota FJ40, 60 and 80 Series Land Cruisers, has just finished a build for a customer that owes its look to a vintage Porsche.

“Often, our Land Cruiser builds have fantastic stories behind them, and our newest FJ62 custom is no exception,” says TLC4x4 boss Daniel Valjevac. “The truck was commissioned by a longtime Porsche enthusiast, so that was influential throughout our design process.”

Specifically that means the 1988 FJ62 was painted in a Porsche gray, while the interior is trimmed in a mix of leather and classic houndstooth fabric. Even the door panels have been redesigned to “recall the doors of the classic 911.” The gauge cluster has been replaced and a modern high-end audio system with a sizeable touchscreen installed.

Under the hood you won’t find a flat-six, or indeed the Land Cruiser’s original in-line six. Instead there’s a 6.2-liter GM LS3 V-8 crate motor delivering over 430 horsepower. The transmission is a six-speed GM auto and TLC4x4 claims this combo offers “incredible performance and sublime levels of speed.”

Wisely the car has uprated suspension with OME springs and Fox Racing dampers, along with bigger brakes. 17-inch alloys wear all-terrain tires and there are new arch vents front and rear for cooling, along with rock sliders.

“Another very cool aspect was that the Land Cruiser had to be from 1988 in tribute to the client’s wedding anniversary,” adds Valjevac.

TLC4x4 hasn’t revealed the cost of the car but its website states that prices start at $250,000, making this rather more generous—and unique—than an eternity ring.

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The 914 debuted in 1970, and for too much of its existence, the mid-engine Porsche lived a life of ignominy in the eyes of casual car enthusiasts, and even among some Porschephiles. “Not a real Porsche” went the refrain for the car jointly developed with Volkswagen. Priced as such, said the value trends.

Well, the refrain and the trends have changed in the last decade or so, as people have woken up to the fact that, actually, these things are terrific. With their VW-derived 1.7-liter (and later 2.0-liter) four-cylinder engines making roughly 80–90 horsepower, 914s were never blistering performers, but their mid-engine layout and light weight always made them nimble.

Porsche addressed the power issue to some extent with a run of 914s powered by the 125-hp carbureted 2.0-liter flat-six from the 911 T, but the 914/6 makes up just a fraction of the nearly 100,000 914s built through 1976. Still, from the very beginning, Porsche knew what it wanted to do with the 914/6: take it racing.

In 1970 and ’71, the factory built a dozen 914/6 GT race cars to be used as works (or werks) entries for various endurance races and rallies, plus another 47 examples for privateers. The race-prepped cars differed in numerous ways from production 914/6s, of course, including their Type 901/25 engine, which was tweaked with polished intake and exhaust ports, dual ignition, Carrera 6 cams, Weber 46 IDA carbs, and more to deliver significantly more power—around 220 hp at 8000 rpm. The body was widened with steel fender flares, a roll cage was fitted inside, and four large Cibie lights were mounted on the nose. Suspension was courtesy Bilstein rally shocks at all four corners, and vented discs from the 911S provided the stopping power. These purpose-built 914s were quick, too; one of the customer cars won its class and finished sixth overall at Le Mans in 1970.

The 914/6 GT shown here, Project No. 914/58, was the final of the 12 factory cars built, completed in December 1970—just in time for the Monte Carlo Rally the following month. Porsche fielded a trio of 914/6 GTs there, all of them finished in Signal Orange, and all piloted by true hot shoes. In an effort to earn extra points in the rally, competitors were able to begin in far-off locales, and the French duo of driver Gérard Larrousse and co-driver Jean-Claude Perramond strapped into 914/58 in Warsaw, then headed southwest across the continent to the French Riviera.

It proved to be a particularly attritional event, with nearly 90 percent of the 248 competitors failing to finish, including all the factory 914s. This car succumbed to a broken clutch lever, and that was that; no glory for Porsche after three successive Monte victories with 911s.

Vic Elford next made use of 914/58, when he drove it to Sicily in the spring as reconnaissance car for May’s Targa Florio, in which he shared a 908/03 with Larrousse. The trip was not without incident, however, and “Quick Vic” had something of a shunt. In a letter to a Mr. Fiegl in the Experimental Department, Elford wrote: During the Targa Florio pre-practice I had a slight accident with another car. The car involved was an Opel Olympia… [Fellow Porsche racer] Mr. Herbert Muller arrived shortly after the accident and explained to [the Opel’s owner] that the Porsche insurance would cover everything, although it was obviously 50/50 since both cars were in the middle of the road. The Opel had damage to all the body panels on the left side and some mechanical damage to the steering. The damage to the Porsche you are aware of.

Whatever the damage, it was minor, and after two years spent as something of a test mule in the engineering department, the car was then sold to Porsche engineer Walther Näher, with whom it stayed for 30 years. Näher began a restoration on the car in 2002, making liberal use of rare parts and expertise from Porsche to correctly return 914/58 to its “as raced” Monte Carlo spec. As one of its Monte stablemates had long ago been scrapped by the factory, and the other converted in period by racing safety pioneer Herbert Linge into a safety car, Näher’s efforts to preserve his 914/6’s history were admirable.

Jeff Zwart acquired the car in 2010. Anyone whose Instagram algorithm has ever served them classic car content has likely seen Zwart’s photo and video work. The commercial film director, photographer, racer, and Porsche collector showed his Monte Carlo 914/6 GT at events like Rennsport Reunion IV and at the 2015 Amelia Island Concours, where it won best in class.

A spot on the lawn at Pebble Beach last year as part of the Porsche 75th Anniversary class is the final feather in the cap of this otherwise unremarkable race and road car’s rather remarkable journey. “A real Porsche indeed,” goes the new refrain. When it crosses the block this week, it is estimated to sell for $1.2M–$1.5M. And if it sells, what might the value trends say then? Priced accordingly, we suspect.

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The creative team responsible for the annual Porsche event, Luftgekühlt, led by former Porsche factory sports car racer Patrick Long, has announced the 2024 venue for its new annual event, called Air|Water. It will be held April 27 in Costa Mesa, California, at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Luftgekühlt, which is Porsche vernacular for “air-cooled,” is limited to the air-cooled Porsches produced up through 1998. But Long and his team saw a need for an event that was open to all Porsches, hence Air|Water. The concept was tested last year in a smaller way, scheduled near San Francisco adjacent to Luftgekühlt. It was a success, hence this first dedicated Air|Water show.

“We quickly noted that there was a desire from attendees to expand this to some of the newer water-cooled cars, as well as the entirety of the model line,” Long said last month. “What we found is that there is an audience out there who might be newer to the brand than the existing Porschefiles.” Unlike Luftgekühlt, which changes venues each year, Long said Air|Water is expected to make its home in Costa Mesa.

Air|Water 2024 will also feature a Broad Arrow Auction of collector Porsche models. Front and center will be the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner, a 1969 Porsche 908/02 Langheck Flunder Spyder, currently valued at an estimated $4.75 to $5.57 million. Its drivers included Vic Elford, Richard Attwood, Dr. Helmut Marko, Gérard Larrousse and Rudy Lins. It also appeared in actor Steve McQueen’s epic 1971 film, Le Mans.

Enthusiast car entries are now sold out but general admission tickets are still available at air-water.com.

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If you think that size or cylinder count are deciding factors in what makes a race car successful, you probably aren’t familiar with Porsche’s 718 RSK.

Under its softly curving aluminum body is a four-cam, four-cylinder engine, a design that established Porsche as a dominating force in international racing in the 1950s. That domination began with the 550 A, which the marque calls its first “thoroughbred” race car, and was cemented with this model, the 718. From 1953 to the early ’60s, versions of the 718 racked up over 1000 victories in the hands of both Porsche factory drivers and privateers, and few have survived competition as successfully as this 1959 718 RSK Spyder, known as Lucybelle III, offered by Broad Arrow at its Amelia Island auction.

Porsche only made 34 RSK Spyders. Chassis numbers 718-001 through 718-010 were reserved for factory werks drivers. Only 24 were built and sold to customers, beginning with chassis #710-011—Lucybelle III is chassis 718-024. Delivered to Ed Hugus at Le Mans in 1959 wearing Silver Metallic with a beige interior, the model was powered by the engine for which Porsches had become famous: A four-cam four-cylinder designed by Ernst Fuhrmann.

Born in Pennsylvania, Ed Hugus was a WWII paratrooper who, shortly after returning from Japan in 1946, started an MG dealership in Pittsburgh. Five years later, in 1951, he joined the SCCA and ran his first race. He had quite the hand for it, though his friends remember him as someone who “never beat his own drum,” and over the next 20 years raced many times at premier sports car events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring. The “III” in the name of this car harkens back to the original Lucybelle, a 550 Spyder with which Hugus won the 1500cc class at Le Mans in 1957. (The second Lucybelle was a Ferrari.)

Since Hugus was a proud American, he had his 718 RSK repainted (overnight while trackside at Le Mans!) in the appropriate American racing livery: two blue stripes over a white base. 20 hours into the race, it looked like he had his second class victory at Le Mans in the bag: after 240 laps, he was first in class and in fourth place overall. Then the engine dropped a valve: Hugus, his co-driver Ray “Ernie” Erickson, and Lucybelle III were out of the race. In hindsight, they were an agonizing 30 laps short of the class winner, a Lotus Elite. Le Mans in the ’50s was a cruel mistress: Of the 11 cars in Lucybelle’s class, only two finished the race; four others did not finish, and four failed to start.

According to the book, Porsche Carrera, the engine was repaired and put into a 356 1600 GS/GT Coupe; Lucybelle III was shipped back to the U.S. with a fresh engine.

After her foray on the international stage, Lucybelle III continued to race in the U.S. thanks to her second owner, an avid SCCA racer named Don Ives. Phoenix, El Paso, Road America—she crisscrossed the continent, even notching a fourth-place finish at the 1962 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, then sanctioned by USAC, in the under 2.0-liter class. She finished her in-period racing career at Aspen Raceways in 1963 and disappeared from the track for over a decade, until she was bought by William Franklin, who ushered her into an appropriate retirement. She raced at the Monterey Historics in ’77 and ’78 and again in ’84 and ’86.

From there, Lucybelle III entered what one today might call her hermit era: Once entering a private collection in 1994, she was seen in public only once for the next 25 years, when she emerged in 1998 at the Amelia Island Concours to claim the Road & Track Trophy. Then, it was back into the shadows until her first public sale in 2018.

After that, it was time for a restoration. As they began their efforts on Lucybelle III’s bodywork, the restorers at Rare Drive Inc. fully expected to find period repairs that are so typical with race cars of any vintage. They were shocked to find the body in surprisingly original shape, and elected to leave the aluminum body on the frame. They did, however, source a proper engine: An unstamped 547/3 Carrera four-cam. Once it was rebuilt by Peter Hofmann and Karl Hloch, along with fresh suspension components, she needed a new tan top, a new rearview mirror and driving lights, a set of date-coded alloys, and a painstaking repaint—and here she is, looking just as she did when Ed Hugus first named her Lucybelle III at Le Mans in 1959. The 30-month restoration has already earned her entry into one of the world’s most prestigious concours: At Pebble Beach in 2021, she won third place in the Postwar Racing Class.

As a Le Mans veteran, she’s eligible to return there, before the modern running, to compete against other vintage race cars in the Le Mans Classic. She’s also, of course, eligible for other vintage events of that prestigious caliber, but we can think of no more fitting tribute to Porsche’s racing legacy than to hear that four-cam engine singing down the Mulsanne Straight. She may wear a remarkably pretty face, but make no mistake: this Porsche represents the legacy of a little Goliath.

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Michael writes:

My 1997 Porsche Boxster steering wheel gets very sticky on hot sunny days; it can even leave a black residue on the hands. It is not a leather-covered steering wheel, though. The stock wheel is some kind of synthetic material, almost a super dense foam rubber. It is somewhat springy to pressure. I was hoping some chemical would transform the outer surface to its original.

A cover feels too thick, and I don’t really want to buy another wheel. Cures?

Sajeev answers:

This should be an easy one, unless the comments section tells us otherwise! I’ve addressed the same issue on the airbag cover of the C5 Corvette. So before we proceed, can we all enjoy the irony of the Porsche with premium materials having the same off-gassing issue as the Corvette with an inferior interior? (The Porsche indeed has nicer guts, but age conquers all opinions of plastics and vinyls.)

Back to my experience with successfully cleaning off-gassed “goo” from the airbag cover of a C5 Corvette. Long story short, my experimentations ended after just a few minutes, thanks to a can of carburetor cleaner (yes, really) and a plastic scraping tool (like the ones used for drywall) to shed off that gooey mess. After I was done, the airbag cover looked perfect. Even the detailing in the embossed Corvette logo looked like new.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and treating your wheel won’t require such an aggressive chemical. To avoid overkill, I would start by slapping on some latex gloves, getting some shop towels, and trying these chemicals in an inconspicuous area first.

1. WD-40 (least aggressive)
2. Brake cleaner
3. Carburetor cleaner (most aggressive)

Once you’ve ascertained how aggressive your chemical needs to be, then you can turn your attention to the steering wheel. To start, I’d turn it upside down (rotate it 180 degrees) and work on the bottom of the rim, just to validate the investigation you did on the inconspicuous area first.

Follow up your work with a dab of abrasive hand cleaner to get any residue off the wheel, then rinse with water to finish it off. I have done this exact procedure three times now and #3 has always done the trick. Be conservative on how much cleaning agent you use, and work in small areas to keep the residue from making a bigger mess in your Boxster’s interior. Good luck!

Have a question you’d like answered on Piston Slap? Send your queries to pistonslap@hagerty.com—give us as much detail as possible so we can help! Keep in mind this is a weekly column, so if you need an expedited answer, please tell me in your email.

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Porsche’s Panamera portfolio is growing with the introduction of two new E-Hybrid models. The 4 E-Hybrid and 4S E-Hybrid join the previously updated entry-level, 4, and Turbo E-Hybrid versions introduced at the end of 2023.

For the Panamera 4 E-Hybrid the 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 engine has been fettled to deliver 300 hp, but an all-new, 45 percent bigger 25.9 kWh battery pack and a more powerful electric motor boost that to a total output of 463 hp. There’s a meaty 479 lb-ft of torque on tap as well, enabling the all-wheel-drive sedan to shoot to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds before topping out at 174 mph. Step up to the 4S E-Hybrid and you get 348 hp from ICE and an extra 188 hp from electricity, making 536 hp in all, alongside 553 lb-ft of twisting force. That cuts the car’s 0-to-60-mph sprint down to 3.5 seconds and raises top speed to 180 mph.

Ingeniously the motor is placed in the housing of the Panamera’s PDK transmission to save weight. Inside the motor itself the rotor spins within the stator which, Porsche, says reduces mass inertia by half and results in a massively improved throttle response. Other electrifying innovations include an on-board 11-kW AC charging system that can fully charge in 2.5 hours and technology to optimize the car’s powertrain depending on driver demand and even location.

In Hybrid Auto mode the Panamera’s navigation system feeds information to the drivetrain, which means, for example, that electric drive will be prioritized on city streets. For more spirited driving there are Sport and Sport Plus modes, both of which use a combination of full combustion power and all the electric oomph available until the battery capacity drops to 20 or 30 percent, respectively. An additional E-Hold mode uses the engine to charge the battery up to 80 percent at speeds above 34 mph.

All Panameras now get adaptive two-chamber air suspension with Porsche Active Suspension Management, but there’s a roll-reducing Active Ride system also offered. Further standard equipment includes Lane Change Assist with rear cross-traffic alert, soft-close doors, and 14-way electric seats. The 4 E-Hybrid rides on 19-inch alloy wheels, while the 4S Hybrid sits on 20s. The higher spec model also gains 10-piston brake calipers (which can be ordered in silver, red, black, or even acid green) with ceramic composite rotors and 21-inch alloys on the options list.

The Panamera 4 E-Hybrid is priced at $115,500 and the 4S E-Hybrid at $126,800 plus $1995 delivery. Order one now and you can expect it to arrive in the Fall.

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The Volkswagen Thing played many roles during its relatively brief lifespan: proto-SUV, funky runabout, oddball off-roader. But with a Beetle Type 1 driveline and a Transporter Type 2 suspension, VW’s so-called “Thing”—Type 181, internally—was nobody’s idea of a high-performance vehicle. That might have changed this past weekend when a car known as “Lunatic Fringe” debuted in unfinished form at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California.

Built at Ron Jones Garage, a premier hot-rod and restoration shop (and authorized Hagerty repair facility) in Windsor, Colorado, Lunatic Fringe is a VW Type 181 crossed with a Porsche 911. “Our vision was, this was what Porsche would have done it if had built the Thing,” says Gunnison Jones, the 24-year-old son of shop owner Ron Jones.

Instead of the asthmatic four-banger in a stock Thing, Lunatic Fringe gets an air-cooled Porsche 3.0-liter flat-six punched out to 3.2 liters and sprinkled with hot-rod fairy dust: lightweight rods and rockers, titanium valve hats, a custom-ground cam, even a full-on MoTeC wiring harness and ECU. The Porsche 911 bits include the front diff, sourced from a 996-generation 911 Turbo, and the transaxle, out of a 997-generation 911 Turbo.

To be honest, there’s not much original Thing in this beast. It looks less like a spunky, slab-sided VW than something you’d see crawling over boulders in King of the Hammers. “Every single panel on it except the windshield frame has been hand-built,” Jones says.

The truck rides on a stout chromoly tube frame fabricated by Colorado Sand Cars. The long-travel suspension incorporates Fox shocks and coilovers. The build features a host of billet pieces machined on a CNC mill and other components designed with Solidworks software. Inside a custom housing, eagle-eyed observers might recognize headlights out of a Polaris RZR.

Ironically, Lunatic Fringe doesn’t display evidence of Ron Jones’s main specialty—paint. The truck was displayed at Pomona in bare metal, sans doors, roof, spare tire, or even a finished interior. Its pair of old-school bucket seats were upholstered in a throwback three-tone fabric. When Lunatic Fringe officially debuts at the SEMA Show in November, it will be painted Robin’s Egg blue and fitted with custom wheels.

The project seems like an odd fit for a restoration shop that focuses on rods and customs; the builds showcased on the company website include a pair of pugnacious 1950 pickups, a vibrant 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air race car, and a stanced 1967 Chevy Nova SS packing a blown LS3. The Thing was parked at the Roadster Show next to another outlier that the Ron Jones Garage brought to Pomona: a stunning 1937 Type 57S Bugatti drophead coupe with a supercharged straight-eight and the sinuous, elegant coachwork emblematic of French coachbuilders of the era.

“They only made 12 of them, and this is one of two with Corsica bodies, and it’s the only one with a nickel finish,” Jones says. “This was the first pre-war car we’d ever done. It was also the first Pebble Beach [Concours d’Elegance] car.” No problem. In 2021, the Bugatti won its class at Pebble Beach and was the runner-up for Best of Show.

Still, Lunatic Fringe scratches a different itch—the hot rodder’s perennial quest for something totally different and unmistakably personal. “We tried to talk the customer out of the Porsche engine,” Jones admits. “I wanted to do something crazy like a turbo LS. But he had to have the air-cooled motor. So we ended up with something that’s super unique.”

There are plenty of Bugattis out there, even Type 57s. But there’s only one Porsche-powered Thing out on the “lunatic fringe.”

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When the 2024 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion celebrates the history of racing August 14–17 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, 12 of the 13 classes of competition will now be associated with legendary drivers.

“This year’s 50th-anniversary salute to historic racing will be a grand celebration unlike any we’ve done in the past,” believes Barry Toepke, director of heritage events for WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. “Every aspect of the 2024 Rolex Reunion is being examined and elevated in a sense. The entire team is abuzz with new ideas and ways to honor the significance of historic racing and the addition of these gentlemen has only fueled that engine.”

They are as follows:

Mario Andretti Trophy (1966–85 Formula 1): Andretti is the only person to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967), and the Formula 1 World Championship (1978). The Turn 2 hairpin at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is named in his honor.

Scott Pruett Legends of Endurance Cup (1991–2011 IMSA ALMS, Grand Am, FIA): California native Pruett began his career in karting at the age of eight. He broke the record for the most IMSA wins in 2016 when he won his 60th race (since eclipsed in 2020 by another Californian, Bill Auberlen). Pruett won at the Rolex 24 at Daytona five times. He has five Grand-Am championships, two IMSA GTO Championships, and a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He continues to win awards with wine produced at Pruett Vineyards.

Parnelli Jones Trans-Am Trophy (1966–72 Trans-Am): Parnelli Jones’ story weaves in significant accomplishments in IndyCar, Trans-Am, off-road racing, and in the history of Laguna Seca. At 90, the oldest living winner of the Indianapolis 500 had one of his most acclaimed wins in 1970 when, at Laguna, he almost lapped the entire Trans-Am field in his Ford Mustang Boss 302. He went on to win the season championship.

Dan Gurney Saloon Car Enduro (1955–69 saloon cars): Dan Gurney was a Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am, and Trans-Am race winner, becoming the first of three drivers to win in each series. He also started the champagne-spraying celebration in 1967 after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, now an integral post-race ritual. In 1961, in the thick of his F1 career, Gurney rebuilt a Chevrolet Impala and entered it in saloon races in Europe where he made history outrunning the dominant Jaguars.

Ken Miles ’60s GT Trophy (1955–67 SCCA large-displacement production cars): Miles, now widely known from the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari, is a 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring race winner. Along with Carroll Shelby, Miles was deeply involved in the development of the Ford GT40 that he raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He often raced at Laguna Seca in Shelby Cobras, and he also drove Porsches for car dealer Otto Zipper.

Jim Hall USRRC Cup (1963–68 sports racing cars): Hall, 88, is one of the most successful USRRC drivers, including winning back-to-back USRRC championships and the 12 Hours of Sebring. As a race car builder, his products have won in ‘most every series they’ve competed in, which includes USRRC, Can-Am, Trans-Am, Formula 5000, World Sportscar Championship, and the Indianapolis 500. He was a leader in the innovation and design of aerodynamics and ground effects, as seen through his Chaparral cars.

Peter Gregg Trophy (1973–81 IMSA GT, GTX, AAGT, GTU, FIA): Gregg had many important race wins and championships across multiple series. He was the Trans-Am champion in 1971 and 1973, and he had wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1973, ’75, ‘76, and ’78. Gregg also took four IMSA GTO championships and a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hurley Haywood Trophy (1981–91 IMSA GTP, GTO, FIA, Group C, Trans-Am): Arguably America’s greatest road-racing endurance driver, Haywood is a five-time winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, and a two-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner. Haywood’s record also includes a 1988 Trans-Am Series title with Audi and two IMSA GT championships.

Pedro Rodriguez Trophy (1961–75 FIA Manufacturers Championship): Rodriguez was a popular Formula 1 driver between 1963 and 1971, winning the 1967 South African Grand Prix and the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix. With his brother, he won the 1961 Paris 1000km and the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans. According to the Laguna Seca track, driving for Ferrari between 1957 and 1970, he stood on the podium steps an impressive 40 of 94 races.

Briggs S. Cunningham Trophy (1947–60 front-engine GT, Sports Racers, and American specials): American sportsman Briggs S. Cunningham owned and raced Jaguars, Ferraris, Corvettes, Listers, OSCAs, and Abarths, but he is mostly known for constructing and fielding teams in the ‘50s with Cadillac- and Chrysler Hemi–powered Cunninghams. Third-place finishes at the 1953 and 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans were his highest, but Cunninghams captured impressive wins at Sebring, Elkhart Lake, and Bridgehampton. Adding to his legacy, Briggs successfully skippered America’s entry in the 1958 America’s Cup.

Skip Barber Cup (1967–81 Formula Fords): Barber is a back-to-back-to-back SCCA National Champion and back-to-back Formula Ford National Champion. He also raced in Formula 1 at the Monaco, Dutch, U.S., and Canadian Grands Prix. Upon retiring from racing, he founded the Skip Barber Racing School, the largest racing school in the world that holds programs at 10 different tracks in the U.S., including Laguna Seca. He is often credited by pro racers as laying the foundation for successful careers.

John Morton Trophy (1955–67 SCCA small-displacement production cars): After successfully competing in the SCCA National Championships, Morton’s talent and versatility caught the eye of Carroll Shelby, who teamed John with Ken Miles to drive for Shelby American Racing at Sebring. He catapulted into prominence with Peter Brock’s BRE team. He raced in IndyCar, F5000, Can-Am, and nine times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he won in class twice. Morton’s expertise and involvement in racing had an impact on the development and performance of many iconic automotive brands.

Ragtime Racers Exhibition (1920-and-earlier vehicles): It can be argued that this group, known as The Ragtime Racers, celebrates the start of motor racing. Sporting long-ago brands such as Chalmers-Detroit, National, Packard, and Franklin, the owners of these vehicles bring the history of motor racing to life for fans of all ages.

For more information on the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion visit WeatherTechRaceway.com and click on the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion event page.

***

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I keep a few of my cars outside under covers. As winter approaches, this invites critters, as we say in the South, to find shelter in the relatively warm confines of various nooks and crannies throughout the undercarriages and interiors of these cars. I’m not alone, of course. Hobbyists who store cars, including in unheated buildings, have an annual battle with mice and certain reptiles as the weather turns cold.

My own campaign of death and deterrence for mice has come down to baits, traps, and sticky paper (my least favorite—some things you can’t unsee). Mice seem to get used to my strategies, and recently I even noticed mouse excrement on top of my slappy trap—the critter had literally pooped on my idea of a viable lethal bait system for him. So now I use baits placed strategically around the trunk, the interior, and the engine bay, plus a spring trap in the interior, plus a sticky trap for good measure. I am adding odds in my favor in lieu of truly knowing my enemy.

One night in early December, I realized that it had been a month since I’d exercised one of my air-cooled Porsches, so I went out after dinner to take a short drive. The routine is simple: Pull off the car cover, reconnect the battery, check the slappy-slap mousetrap on the passenger floor for a dead tenant, then proceed with starting the car and the subsequent driving fun. This one particular evening, the mouse trap was empty so all went as planned on my getting off to a good start. Being a visual guy, I did not really want to drive while seeing a mouse trap on the floorboard, but it was dark outside and my dash lights are 1970s dim. As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind. So I left the trap where it lay.

The engine started relatively willingly, I backed out of the driveway through the usual cloud of heavy fumes and oil vapors, and I was off. Everything was warming up nicely on this cold December evening, and soon I had heat wafting from the floor vents (“wafting” is the maximum setting on vintage Porsche heaters). I was falling in love again with this special vintage machine, just a simple engine and four wheels, with minimum gadgets and doodads to distract from a pure driving experience.

About three miles into the drive, however, things started to go a bit wrong. I smelled a distinct burning odor, definitely organic, not oil- or gasoline-based (or plastic-based, as wiring harnesses give off when thermally excited). I surmised that a varmint had started a nest in one of the car’s exhaust heat exchangers and that the fumes were coming into the cabin. Here is where I made a critical but unknown error.

The air vent and heating controls on early Porsches are purposely confusing, a means to humble owners who have not memorized their user manuals. On this model, there are three unlabeled levers that have a particularly satisfying feel as you slide them from left to right, even if their purpose is impossible to remember. The top lever does something related to the fan speed, the bottom lever has some temperature-related function, and the middle lever’s purpose is unclear, but I always associate it with fresh air.

My error, unbeknownst to me, was to move the top lever over to the right position to let some cool outside air into my stinky cockpit, rather than the correct middle lever. I will blame the darkness for me using the wrong lever. It turns out that a mouse had indeed already been in the car, and had started a nest in the blower motor located in the front trunk, which served to jam the fan’s blower wheel into a fixed position. Engaging the “high” setting on the top lever fan switch sent the desired 14 volts or so to the motor, which promptly became an amperage dead end, the motor being unable to rotate due to the various newspaper and paper towel tatters carefully placed there by said mouse. This soon overloaded the circuit leading to the blower motor, and concurrently, began to overheat the fuse for this shared circuit.

In a normal vehicle, this would simply result in a blown fuse. What I was driving is not a normal vehicle but a 50-year-old German car that has, what was at the time, a well-engineered electrical system. That system was pumping its little heart out trying to carry the extra amps to the motor in an attempt to make it turn. If this had been 1972 (the year this car was made) all would be well, and the circuit might even handle the extra load without failure. Enter the modern world, however, and we have to consider the weak link that had been introduced to this circuit when I, the owner, lazily Amazon-ed some off-shore, off-brand fuses for the car. The original German fuses were wonderfully simple assemblies consisting of a ceramic carrier wrapped with the appropriate-gauge metal fusing element. Each color of fuse matches its particular rating, and you can visibly see thicker mid-sections on the higher-rated fuses. So elegant, so simple.

The modern off-shore copies of these robust German designs, however, do not use heat-resistant ceramic cores but rather plastic material which looks and fits just the same, but has a much lower heat capacity. This is not generally a problem, until you try to pass a lot of amperage through the fusing element and the high current slowly starts to heat up the fuse, approaching the melting temperature of the plastic in question. As the cheap plastic core softens, it loses its dimensional integrity. The clever Porsche/Bosch clips in the fuse box compress the fuse core into a banana shape, and the clips can no longer hold the fuse in place.

The first warning that all was not well just a few minutes after I’d slid the fan lever to “high” was that the alternator warning light came on. This alerted the DEFCON 1 status in my automotive lizard brain because a) my battery was no longer being charged; and b) it was pitch-dark outside and I had to keep my headlights on to get home; and c) I was 10 miles from home, and my battery is a four-year-old Mazda unit that I got from Mazda racing guru Glenn Long when he was making Spec Racers out of ND Miatas, so it had questionable depth due to its age.

In someone else’s world, all of this might have not been a catastrophic situation. An overheated and melting off-shore fuse, even without blowing, might just shorten/relax its length enough to lose contact with the terminals, and the circuit would simply go dead in a moment of self-diagnosing failure. However, as clever as Porsche’s German engineers were, one error might have been installing the fuse box directly above the driver’s feet. If an owner were, say, to use a cheap fuse with a plastic core, and if that fuse were to melt and fall out, and if the previous owner had removed the fuse box cover and lost it years ago, there just might be a direct trajectory from the melting fuse to the driver’s ankle. Welcome to my world, December 7, 2023 at 9:16 p.m. Good thing this was not the 1980s and I was no longer wearing cuffed pants.

The human brain is a wonderful storage device, and while I didn’t anticipate the burning sensation in my left ankle, I did immediately recognize it for what it was—jetsam from my electrical failure giving me empirical evidence of the burned-out fuse. I grew up on British cars, so this was not the first time this has happened.

I saw a neighborhood entrance 30 feet ahead so jammed everything I had on the brake pedal (this car has early ABS: “About to Brake Sometime”) and pulled a hard righthand turn into it. This 0.8 g maneuver, inelegantly executed, served up a new problem as the accompanying centripetal forces launched the armed-and-ready mouse trap in the direction of my right ankle, which it proceeded to impact with great enthusiasm, triggering its release mechanism.

For this I had no such past memory data point to pull up. What I did have is the recollection of once being on a drive in this very car and finding a medium-sized black snake below the brake pedal as I was cruising down a country road. My mind connected the long-past snake incident with the biting sensation in my exposed right ankle. My actual lizard brain then took over and I essentially leapt from my seat into the roof of the car, an involuntary convulsion of self-preservation all while rolling into the neighborhood at about 30 mph.

A 60-some-odd human brain takes a bit longer to recover from trauma than a younger one does, and it took me a good 50 yards of coasting past this neighborhood’s Christmas lights to regain at least a portion of my senses. Regrouping, I pulled to the side of the road, yanked out my phone and turned on the flashlight feature. Looking down I saw, not an enraged snake, but only an empty floorboard. Then I noticed the sprung mouse trap hanging from my pants leg. It was at that moment that my folly came into full focus. I left the trap in place, dangling as a badge of shame and stupidity, and quickly jumped back in to start home. I chose not to install a new fuse, since they all were of the same poor quality as the one that had tattooed my left ankle. And so, my electrical death march started. At the one stoplight of my route, I cut the headlights off, cringing when I turned them back on, anticipating the engine to stutter and stall from a lack of juice to the ignition coil.

As I drove I did some quick mental math and worked backward on my amperage budget:

• A used spark plug will fire (in a compressed-air environment) with as little as 5000 volts.
• My Bosch ignition coil on this car has about a 100:1 lift ratio as an inductive transformer, amplifying the alternator’s 14 volts into 100 primary field volts when the circuit voltage is cut (thanks to the magic of a magnetic field collapsing), and then inducing 100 times that voltage in the secondary field coil (the one that zaps you—always the best cure for hiccups in my family).
• So, I’m probably okay until I get down to 5 volts in the battery.
• My headlights and taillights combined pull around 20 amps and the ignition coil pulls about 5 amps.
• My old battery probably has a 15 amp-hour capacity left in it.
• I maybe have a safe half-hour of driving before life goes dark.

This is why engineers are generally optimists: We make up pedantic equations, often on the fly, to make ourselves feel better.

Fuzzy logic aside, I sweated the last eight miles to my house. I am happy to say that we both made it, the voltage in the battery inversely proportional to my adrenaline as every quarter-mile passed beneath me.

They say your brain permanently records strong emotions, maybe as a survival mechanism to prevent future trauma. In the classic-car world, events such as those I had experienced are chalked up as “character building” and are, in some crazy way, considered to be the charm of these old machines. Hmm.

In any case, thanks, old Porsche, for a memorable ride.

***

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After nine annual events, Luftgekühlt (Luft)—that’s Porsche speak for air-cooled engines—has become a major auto show in California. But it excludes a lot of Porsche owners, because the air-cooled era ended 26 years ago, with the Porsche 993 model.

So what about an event that includes all Porsches? It’s about to happen, and it’s called AirWater.

“Luft has been around for a decade and focuses on air-cooled Porsches up to 1998, and the history of the legends and the cars they drove, both on the street and on the track,” said Patrick Long, former factory Porsche racer and two-time class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “It’s grown into a pretty big event with people from 22 countries and 48 states in attendance.” Luft is centered around a tightly curated list of historically significant or interesting cars, both race and street.

Long, one of the creators of Luft, was looking to grow the concept. “We quickly noted that there was a desire from attendees to expand this to some of the newer water-cooled cars, as well as the entirety of the model line. What we found is that there is an audience out there who might be newer to the brand than the existing Porschefiles. We’re looking to really expand this format and this show into its own living, breathing machine, and we have what we think is a perfect venue to create a festival atmosphere.”

Last year, after Luftgekühlt 9 took place near San Francisco, Long and his crew tried out the idea. They “soft launched” AirWater and the turnout was more than promising. In attendance was everything from the latest 911 GT3 RS to the current IMSA Porsche Penske 963 race car, as well as vintage 356s, survivor 914s, transaxle 944s, overland Cayennes, and much more.

Now, the AirWater show will become a standalone event. It will be held in Costa Mesa, California, on April 27. Luft 10 will be held later in the year; the date and venue haven’t been announced. It will continue to cater to select air-cooled Porsches as it always has.

Long says that AirWater, as the name suggests, is open to any Porsche, from brand-new models to the Porsche-built diesel tractors that were produced from 1956 to 1963. “It’s really a Porsche supershow,” Long says. While Luft changes its venue every year, AirWater will have a permanent home in Costa Mesa.

It’s a popular area for Porsche lovers. “The southern California demographic needs no introduction to the brand—Porsche is a religion around here. We’re excited to expand with our creative and production team that has been together for a decade, and introduce our second act,” Long says.

“To make an analogy, imagine that Luft is a Friday night club where some big stars come and play music acoustically in a vintage atmosphere. Now we’re looking to expand that into an outdoor festival where there’s a little bit for everybody.” Long believes AirWater “can grow into the largest single-brand automotive show anywhere.”

There’s one way AirWater is like the more exclusive Luft: Expect surprises. “We’re just getting started,” Long says. “We have a lot of exciting tricks up our sleeve.”

Tickets go on sale today at air-water.com.

***

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The first night I tucked my new-to-me 1967 Porsche 912 into my garage (read part one of Lyn’s story here), two things happened. First, I pinched myself. It had always seemed that the odds of my getting a car like this settled on the “outlook not so good” answer from a Magic 8-Ball. Second, a wave of anxiety washed over me. This is my first project car, and I had no clue where to start—I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I took a breath, recalling the joys found in my dad’s 356 Speedster. If I was going to make some fresh memories of my own, there was nothing to do but get cracking.

This effort should have been kicked off with a trip to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, but that doesn’t exactly inspire the romance of classic car ownership—it’s more like a grade school visit to the principal’s office, especially given the implications of my 912’s non-operational status. I knew it’d be a while before the 912 would be on the road, so I did what any self-respecting scaredy-cat would do: I procrastinated.

In my defense, the first step in my delay-the-inevitable strategy was critical to the process: I sought out reference material.

I was desperate to know more about my car’s story. The person I’d purchased the 912 from had meant to get it running but never did, and ultimately never put the title in his name. So, I tracked down the guy whose name was on the title. As I left a message on his machine, he picked up. He—I’ll call him Sam—was thrilled to talk with me about the car. He’d bought it from a corrections officer in Santa Rosa who’d started the restoration—that’s where the brand-new floor pan and dashboard, among other things, made their way onto the car, but the project was eventually abandoned. Sam bought the car and a mountain of parts from the officer, but soon realized he wanted something further along in the restoration process. He sold the car and all the parts to a dealer, who then sold just the car to the owner before me. Then, the car languished.

This was a car that everyone, and then no one, wanted. As a result, it had been sitting outside for the better part of five years before making its way to me. It was as if all these previous owners were shepherding it along until I was ready. Serendipity, baby.

Now that I had a bit of my 912’s history, I set about understanding what resources there were within the 912 community. For the first time ever, I joined a discussion forum and even posted. For someone who traditionally doesn’t like asking questions for fear of looking stupid, I put myself out there. I was happy to embarrass myself and admit I had no clue what I was doing and would likely get lots of things wrong, but was excited to learn. I received a lovely welcoming response and even got some great advice about transmission rod boots among the encouragement.

I also picked up a couple of books to have with me in the garage. The 911 & 912 Porsche: A Restorer’s Guide to Authenticity by Dr. B. Johnson came highly recommended, as did the Porsche 912 Workshop Manual and Owner’s Manual. The latter includes some helpful mechanical advice but also imparts the wisdom of taking your car to a well-trained mechanic for detailed jobs.

With literature in hand, I started taking stock of the 912 and what it needed. The more I looked things over, the more I grew confident in my purchase, but there was still plenty of work ahead of me. With each turn of the page, I could see what was correct on my car and what wasn’t.

Somewhere along the line, a previous owner removed the correct 1967 sealed, glass H4 headlights that Ralph Nader deemed unsafe and replaced them with “sugar scoop” units from 1968. I prefer the original look, so I bought a refinished set off eBay before I’d even turned the 912’s key. Even a newbie like me knows that cosmetic fixes aren’t top priority, but I rationalized straightforward projects as a means of getting comfortable with wielding tools and bringing my 912 back to life.

Though it had a new dashboard, the rest of the interior was rough. Fortunately, I’d gotten the car around Thanksgiving and online Black Friday sales were in high gear. I went on a spree, purchasing an entire new interior, including carpets, an upholstery kit, and dash trim plate at a massive discount. I’m a sucker for oxblood, and it’s going to look great with the current patinated exterior, not to mention my future paint plans.

Was I getting ahead of myself? Maybe a little, but I wasn’t ignoring the steps to get this little 912 running. I knew the engine turned over manually, but before checking to see if it could run on its own, I needed to do something about the incredibly rusty gas tank. I ordered a new one as well as the requisite plugs, fitments, and sleeves that go with it. The old sending unit was virtually falling apart so I decided to replace that, too.

The new battery went in next, and to my delight every light except for one of the turn signals worked. Even the clock ran properly! No classic car I’ve ever owned had a clock that was accurate more than twice a day. This was the biggest win yet—the prospect of electrical work was not something I was looking forward to.

As my bank balance shrank, I knew I needed to tap the brakes on the purchases, but I’d do that after I bought new rotors (the pads were actually in good shape). And shocks. Okay, now I was done. Almost. There was a spot up front on the driver’s side directly under the battery that was notorious for rusting out. Mine was no different. I’d need a new front suspension pan and someone to do the welding work before it was safe to drive. If indeed the car actually started.

Once again, I took a breath.

I considered the progress I’d made in mere weeks. There’s now a mile-long to-do list, but having that list and crossing things off it meant I was headed in the right direction. Emboldened, I decided it was time to sort the title.

I headed to the Auto Association of America, which in California can perform some DMV functions, including vehicle registration. Good fortune rained down. It turns out that Sam, the previous-titled owner, was wise enough to register it as non-operational, too—so there’d be no inspections or convoluted processes to worry about. The lovely woman asked for my $292, and there, without fuss or friction, I’d taken care of the legal paperwork. I was in and out in 15 minutes.

The momentum was building. My priority was to get this thing on the road. I had debated prepping the car for paint work, but a couple things stopped me. Almost every other 912 owner I’d come across suggested I just get out there and enjoy the car as-is. Closer to home, my friend and co-conspirator, Hagerty Driver’s Club editor-at-large Aaron Robinson, recently penned an argument for embracing imperfection in our cars, and that sealed it for me. I decided to press on with the mechanical improvements and enjoy the patina. I’d complete the interior because I wanted the cockpit to be a pleasant experience, but for now, it was time to focus on what was under all the sun-damaged sheet metal.

Not long after, with the new gas tank in and fresh gas coursing through its veins, the moment of truth for my 912 came. Robinson, ever helpful, stood by the engine with his can of starter fluid at the ready as I turned the key.

“More gas…More. Again. It’s starving—more,” he said between cranks. I pumped the throttle and the engine coughed. The exhaust blew out a cartoonish cloud of soot.

“More gas. Again.” Robinson sprayed starter fluid into the carbs and it shuddered to life. That simple four-cylinder settled into rhythm, making the same high-humming and happy sound of my father’s long-gone-but-not-forgotten 356 Speedster.

Let the adventures continue.

***

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The most powerful example of Porsche’s Taycan electric sports sedan has lapped Germany’s daunting Nürburgring circuit a full 28 seconds faster than the Tesla Model S Plaid.

The time of 7 minutes 7.55 seconds eclipses Porsche’s previous best by 26 seconds or “half an eternity in motorsport,” according to Taycan model line boss Kevin Giek. It’s been achieved thanks to as-yet-unannounced updates to the Taycan believed to be included in a new Turbo GT model. From the images captured at the Green Hell you can see a massive rear wing, reprofiled front and rear bumpers and revised headlamps, but the key to this extraordinary lap time is a hefty power increase, believed to up the ante to almost 1000 hp.

For context the fastest production car ever to lap the 13-mile, 156-corner race track is the Mercedes-AMG One, which achieved the feat in 6:35.18. The fastest Porsche isn’t too far behind with a Manthey Performance Kit-equipped 911 GT2 RS managing 6:43.30, while the 918 Spyder lapped in 6:57.00. However when it comes to all-electric lap times the Taycan is perilously close to record taken by the 1900-hp Rimac Nevera, which turned in a time of 7:05.28.

The Taycan was driven by Porsche test driver Lars Kern who “pushed as hard as he could” over repeated laps on the empty circuit. “The impressive thing about it is that over several laps, Lars clocked almost exactly the same time,” adds Giek. Over to you Elon.

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Anyone who’s ever read a comment section online knows that there’s no shortage of “expert” opinion out there extolling the virtues and vices of our favorite rides. Much of it is based on second- and third-hand experience, or even outright hearsay. That doesn’t stop the momentum from building, though, and before long a car gains a reputation that may or may not accurately represent the actual ownership experience. After having 40+ cars pass through my often-undeserving hands, I’ve developed a few opinions of my own, often running contrary to conventional wisdom.

1963 Buick Riviera

I’ll concede I’m probably not the target market for a first-gen Riv. Floating down a perfectly paved freeway for hours on end isn’t what I’d choose to do behind the wheel, even if I knew of a such a road anywhere near me. But that’s what the Riviera excelled at, sort of. Its undulating ride was more disconcerting than cruise-worthy. It had the turning radius of a city bus, and its puny brakes may have set a postwar record for largest inverse relationship between horsepower and stopping ability. And don’t get me started on the numb power steering. While the Riviera was certainly attractive, as a driver, it fell miles short of Bill Mitchell’s aspiration to build an American Ferrari. I sorely wish that Mr. Mitchell had been able to pry some brake, steering and suspension mojo from the excellent C2 Corvette. Sleek styling wasn’t enough to forgive its ills, so I’m forced to say the Riviera is overrated.

1965 Jaguar E-type

The Series I E-type is undoubtedly a good-looking car, regardless of whether or not you believe the story of Enzo Ferrari calling it the most beautiful car he’d ever seen.  What is rarely talked about is how well the car drives, even by modern standards. It’s the opposite of the Riviera in that its chassis dynamics were commensurate with its good looks.

The Jag’s rack and pinion steering is delightful, communicative, and precise. Power assist isn’t even needed. The post-1964 all-synchro four-speed is a joy to shift, and its 4.2-liter dual-overhead cam straight six, while not rev-happy, makes good torque and more than adequate power. That said, I suspect its advertised 265 hp may have been a touch ambitious. No matter, at just under 2,900 lbs., it was good for 0-60 in about seven seconds. D-Type-inspired four-wheel disc brakes were good for the time, and while the car was set up more for GT-style driving than track-ready handling, if you could deal with the body roll, you could have fun exploiting the car’s power and near 50/50 weight distribution.

The car isn’t without its peccadilloes, particularly with regard to its electrical system. But ultimately, when you look at values of its more exotic competition relative to their performance and livability, The E-Type begins to shine. For that reason, I find this cat a bit underrated.

1971 Datsun 240Z

I’ve owned four first-generation Z cars, though I’ve never kept one for a long time. There’s a reason for that: of any car I’ve owned, the corner-cutting to achieve a bargain base price is most evident in a Z. There’s almost no sound deadening to be found anywhere in the car, from the floors to the lightly padded, vinyl headliner, and as a result the freeway drone is maddening. In addition to the gratuitous noise (I will admit that the actual exhaust note is pleasing), in any significant crosswind, the early Z’s freeway wander is downright scary. The BRE front spoiler helps, if only a little. Inside, the plastic quality is backyard kiddie-pool spec.

I suppose it’s not really the car’s fault—it’s so pretty, and it handles and performs so much above its class that you expect the details to be as nice as a Porsche 911. They’re not, so I’ve always considered the Z to be a bit overrated.

1979 Porsche 924

If ever there was a car for which I had low expectations, this was it. I’m a multiple 911 owner, and before this car, I’d never owned any flavor of transaxle Porsche—certainly not the one deemed to be the worst of them, the original Audi-powered 924. I bought the car for $2,000 to do a “2,000 miles in a $2,000 Porsche” story for the magazine that I edit, Porsche Panorama. It was a middling road trip story at best, mostly because the car gave me zero material to work with. Nothing broke, though if it had, I think I could have solved most of it on the roadside because of the car’s inherent simplicity. Was it a little buzzy and underpowered? Yes, but the car’s beautiful balance, solid build, and sturdy honesty made up for that. As did its attention to aerodynamics, which gifted the 924 a lack of wind noise and near 30-mpg thrift on 87 octane fuel. Subjectively, I also found it quite pretty. The 924 surprised me in the best ways, and since then, I’ve considered it the essence of an underrated car.

1975 BMW 2002

My 2002 was the exact opposite of the 924. The little Bimmer was a car for which I had huge expectations, most of which went unfulfilled, particularly in light of David E. Davis Jr.’s assessment that the BMW 2002 was the best way to get somewhere sitting down. It’s not that there weren’t any positives. The 2002’s driving position and outward visibility were top notch, but I found the car to be buzzy and underpowered in a far more egregious way than I found the 924. The lack of fuel injection combined with crude emission controls made for annoying flat-spots in the power curve. The car’s ventilation is largely theoretical—no face level dash vents at all, just ancient vent and quarter windows, and a sunroof if you’re lucky. The fake wood applique on the dash reminded me of a VW Scirocco. The steering that I expected to be super-quick was somewhat heavy and a little dead on center. Truth be told, by the time my 2002 was built, it was a fairly ancient design, and the injected 2002 tii was the spec that you really wanted. That said, I found the 2002 to be a generally overrated car.

1968 MGC GT

I actually had the experience of owning an MGC and a Datsun 240Z at the same time. Odd, because the C is the car that the Z wiped off the face of the earth. The MGC is the rare, six-cylinder version of the MGB that was deemed in-period to be an utterly inferior car to the Japanese upstart. I didn’t find that to be the case. In spite of their wildly differing reputations for quality, the MG felt more expensive in every way—the seats were covered in good-smelling leather, the chrome-ringed Smiths gauges looked nicer, and the whole car just felt more solid. As a freeway cruiser, there was no contest—the MG was somehow nearly impervious to crosswinds, something I discovered when I got caught in 65 mph gale-force winds on I-5 in between Seattle and Portland. With the overdrive engaged in fourth gear, it was also much more relaxed at speed than the Z. With its independent rear suspension, the Z was a better handler, but with the proper tire pressures (this is critical for the slightly nose-heavy MG), the C was no slouch either. On the whole, I found the MGC GT to be vastly underrated.

What about you—did your time in one of these cars dissuade you from the mythology that surrounds it, or confirm its greatness? Which car have you owned that provided the biggest contrast to how it’s perceived?

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Car people dream of winter wonderland conditions for a couple of reasons. Some look forward to holing up in the garage and working on their project car, drinking a warm cup of coffee while reading a great book about road trips, or maybe even planning their next drive when the salt finally washes away. If you are faithful to a brand and not the car itself though, the winter season holds plenty of interesting options that encourage you to make the most of the fluffy power while we have it. Here are four examples of car makers embracing the winter season.

BMW Bobsled

Audi might have climbed the ski jump, but BMW took sliding back down the hill to a new extreme when it partnered with the U.S.A. bobsled team to crate its racing sled. While there might not be an engine, the heavy use of lightweight materials and complex aerodynamics is where the automaker’s knowledge came into play. The Bavarian-designed sleds first went dashing through the snow during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and replaced a 20-year-old platform that Team U.S.A. had previously been using. The top speed was just shy of 80mph at the bottom of the run.

Chrysler Sno-Runner

For those who prefer a more adventurous route down the mountainside rather than a perfectly smooth one, Chrysler has you covered. Well, not technically covered, but at least an option for getting around out in the fluffy snow. The Sno-Runner was born in the late 1970s out of Chrysler’s desperation to make a profit. In 1979, this wild cross-breed between a snowmobile and a minibike was unleashed into the wild.

The narrow rear track is powered by a West Bend two-stroke engine originally produced for chainsaw use. The frame is sealed and holds fuel that is pumped into the cylinder by a type of carburetor rarely found on motor vehicles. A single ski up front makes for interesting handling and the whole operation does not do great with loose, fluffy snow but it stands as an interesting attempt at something different.

Ford’s snowblower

The Sno-Runner was Chrysler trying new things, but Ford has typically been more risk-averse and keen on partnerships. That’s why you could be forgiven if you forgot about the Ford Snowblowers. Some people love to work, or at least love to get out of their driveway in the winter months, and that can often mean clearing your own escape route. Ford was still in the tractor and implement market in the 1970s, but rather than produce everything itself, it decided to re-brand machines built by outfits known for various products. These two-stage snowblowers were produced by Gilson or Jacobson and then painted Ford Blue and branded. They can still be found in the secondhand market today if you are looking for just the right snowblower to match your vintage pickup.

Porsche snow bike

Porsche was a brand born on the Austrian ski slopes as Ferry motored up and down the mountainsides in what would become the 356. The brand evolved over the years and has put the Porsche name on a good number of non-Porsche-built items, but the Avora-Porsche 212 Skibob is one we learned about recently and still has us a little perplexed. The first bicycle with skis instead of wheels was patented before 1900 but it took until the mid-1950s to have an international race of skibobs or snowbikes.

From there it only got weirder. This Porsche-branded skibob is from the 1970s. It’s constructed of molded polyfoam and folds up neatly for transport to and from the slopes. With no brakes, limited suspension, and small skis that attach to your feet to help aid in balance, it sure seems like skibob riding is only for the brave. The handling characteristics of the rear-engined 911 might be interesting, but this is another level entirely.

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It’s rare, it’s bare and, if you bid high enough, you could become the owner of Porsche 935 number 13.

The naked carbon fiber track tool is one of just 77 built in 2019 as a 70th anniversary celebration and an homage to the 935/78 race car, complete with massive ‘Moby Dick’ rear spoiler. With its exposed carbon weave the car’s wildly accentuated bodywork is somehow even more exaggerated. The fender flares are huge, the aerodynamic long tail and flat nose all the more obvious without the paint and liveries that adorned most 935s.

Beneath the bold bodywork sits the bones of a 991-generation 911 GT2 RS, which means power comes from a 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six motor, with 700 hp and 535 lbft of torque. A seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmissions connects the motor to the rear wheels via an adjustable limited-slip differential. Brembo racing disc brakes are fitted with six-piston calipers at the front and four-piston units at the rear. Matte black 18-inch BBS alloy wheels are shod with Michelin Pilot Sport GT track-ready tires.

The cabin is gutted to reduce weight and a pair of carbon Recaro race seats are installed along with six-point harnesses. You’ll find a full roll cage, red fabric door pulls, and a driver’s side window net adding to the circuit-spec safety equipment. The only touches of luxury come in the form of a smattering of Alcantara trim and the wooden gear knob that sits atop a titanium shift lever. Paddles behind the detachable steering wheel take care of shifting at speed.

The 935 was owned and run by 2021-22 IMSA champions Pfaff Motorsport and has covered less than 600 miles since new. It also comes with a spares package worth $44,000. It’s homed, for now, in Ontario, Canada and up for auction on Bring A Trailer.

At the time of writing bidding had already reached $1.6 million, suggesting it could outpace the last example known to be sold in November.

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This year’s Rennsport Reunion was the largest Porsche gathering in history, but one car on display at Laguna Seca has never been officially recognized as a Porsche at all—the Schuppan 962 CR, a street-legal supercar based on Porsche’s dominant 962 Le Mans racer. It now stands as one of the rarest and most beautiful supercars of all time.

Sadly, the 962 CR was also a car that financially ruined the man who put his name to it—former Porsche works driver Vern Schuppan. With Schuppan also in attendance at the California event, it was the perfect opportunity to get the story first-hand.

Born in 1943, Schuppan was raised in Australia, where he got his first taste for motorsport in junior karting, and by the early 1970s had moved to the U.K. and broken into the top single-seater classes—Formula 1 and European F5000, and, in the States, IndyCar racing.

He was also fast becoming recognized as a talented endurance racing driver. In fact, Schuppan’s endurance career would long outlive his single-seater days and provide foundations for the 962 CR project, not least when Porsche came knocking with a works drive for 1981.

Aged 40 in 1983, Schuppan achieved his greatest success, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 956 with Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert. That same year he also won the inaugural All Japan Endurance Championship with Porsche customer team Trust Racing.

Flush with success, Schuppan set up his own team in 1987: Team Schuppan. Based out of High Wycombe to the northwest of London, the outfit campaigned Porsche 962s (successor to and close relative of the 956) in World Sports Prototypes, All Japan Sports Prototypes, and IMSA through to 1992.

“That led to Rothmans asking if I could run a team in Japan for them [from 1987], so I was racing for the Japanese against my own car,” recalls Schuppan. “I was astonished they agreed to that. Then Omron came to me about running a car, then Takefuji.”

By this time, teams including Kremer Racing, Team Joest, and designer John Thompson were developing bespoke components and even entire chassis for the 962, in a bid to improve on the original aluminum monocoque. It was a logical step for Team Schuppan to explore opportunities of its own.

“I went to an aerospace company in the U.K. [Advanced Composite Technology Limited, or ACT] about building a carbon 962 chassis,” recalls Schuppan. “Mr Singer [Norbert, Porsche engineer and Le Mans mastermind] liked the idea and provided the blueprints, so I started running a carbon chassis on the Omron car and the Takefuji car. We also started doing some of our own components manufacture.”

The leap to a road-legal 962 came not from Team Schuppan, but from a racing enthusiast who worked at Kosho, one of the Nomura Group [Japanese investment bank and brokerage firm] of companies, which Schuppan describes as invested in building hotels and golf courses. One employee would come to races and chat about a road-legal Le Mans car during the 1989 season, and soon things were happening through Vern Schuppan Ltd, another eponymous venture set up alongside Team Schuppan.

“We turned one of our Le Mans cars into a mule for that project and got it through all the type-approval process—emissions standards, things like that—but it didn’t have to be changed massively, so that was the start of it,” Schuppan recalls.

Known as the 962 LM, all these cars used the ACT carbon-fiber chassis and the 962’s 2.65-liter turbocharged flat-six engine, with four valves per cylinder and quad cams. They were produced at the one-time Tiga Cars factory, founded by former F1 drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley—the latter involved in the Schuppan project.

“The first LM was built in early 1991, but by then the financial crisis was coming into play and building hotels and golf courses didn’t look so clever, so Kosho only took three cars. Then I was approached by one of our sponsors in Japan saying he could put a deal together with Art Sports Corporation [AS]. They wanted 25 cars, and at first it was supposed to be a Le Mans–bodied car. Then they changed their mind about that and wanted more of a GT look.”

With tooling already created for the LM, it meant “almost starting again” to create what would become the 962 CR, with a new chassis built by Reynard—it would be evolved from the ACT carbon-fiber chassis but some two inches wider to free up extra cabin space. The CR would also be powered by the 962’s flat-six, this time to IMSA specification with 3.4 liters, with two-valve single-cam heads and full air cooling. It made 600 bhp.

The plan was to build 25 to 50 examples, each priced at 195 million Yen, equivalent to around £830,000 in 1994. That made the CR three times more expensive than the XJR-15, a similar project created by Tom Walkinshaw Racing from the bones of Jaguar’s Le Mans racer. “Tom was interested in our car and I drove his car, actually,” Schuppan says with a laugh. “I didn’t think it was very good.”

Vern Schuppan Ltd. became a big operation, with as many as 60 people working on the 962 CR when the wider network of suppliers was factored in. VSL even bought out a composites business owned by former March F1 employee Bill Stone, allowing it to bring production of the CR’s carbon fiber bodywork in-house.

The dark blue car on display at Rennsport Reunion was the 962 CR prototype, an example unique in that it was built on a carbon-fiber chassis identical to the Omron 962 Le Mans race car—only later examples use the wider Reynard monocoque, including the car photographed, which is available at BingoSports in Japan.

It’s a beautiful car. Compact and low-slung, the design flows with organic sleekness from nose to tail, but it is also immediately recognizable as a Porsche. That’s in part because the teardrop canopy clearly references the 962 Group C race car as engineering hard points no doubt dictate, but perhaps more impressive is how neatly integrated Porsche road-car cues are with the rest of the bodywork.

Key to the family resemblance at the front are ellipsoid headlights and a plunging neckline of a bonnet set between raised front wings, almost like a 911 sticking its head out of a car window. At the back, a hoop rear wing visually flows into taillights linked by a full-width reflector, much like on Porsche’s own supercar of the era, the 959.

The 962 CR could easily be mistaken as an internal Porsche project. In fact, Schuppan explains that the project actually began with Ray Borrett, head of prototype production at Holden, GM’s Australian subsidiary.

Schuppan subsequently commissioned three design studies before settling on a winning design from Mike Simcoe, then global head of design at GM. “Mike’s design was streets ahead of the others. He was working for Saturn at the time in the U.S., going back and forth to England and not just designing the car but working on the buck, changing radii, spending all weekend on it.”

Ralph Bellamy worked on the dynamics, an Australian-born ex-Lotus and ex-McLaren race car designer whom Schuppan credits with pioneering ground-effect in motorsport. All the while, pressure to complete the 962 CR was immense.

“I tested the LM on the MIRA [test track] banking and drove it on the road to Silverstone, but I never got to drive the CR for any length of time because the Japanese were constantly on our case. Ray said it would have been almost impossible to get that car done at GM in the timeframe the Japanese wanted,” Schuppan says. “A team of guys came over for the final test at MIRA, in 1991, including journalists from Car Graphic in Japan, then we immediately handed over the prototype and they flew it to Japan.”

Despite the pressure, it was a case of so far so good, but the project quickly unravelled when AS replaced the 962 CR badging with a Porsche crest and announced it had full worldwide rights to Porsche’s supercar. As soon as Stuttgart heard the news, it immediately pulled the plug on its supply of parts, including 20 engines that were due to follow the five already delivered. Shortly afterward, AS reneged on its side of the agreement, making VSL’s growing debt increasingly impossible to service.

Before the deal collapsed, Schuppan says, “we needed a larger factory and started to buy somewhere, on the agreement AS put up some of the money for it. Part of the deal was that each time AS took delivery of a car, some of the loan principle was paid off. When they decided to bail out they called in the loan and gave us 14 days to pay them back. We had no money coming in, we couldn’t.”

A £6 million cancellation clause seemed to offer VSL a get-out-of-jail-card, until AS’s lawyers fully interrogated the contract.

“They hired a notoriously nasty law firm in London who tried to have the court case increased from two weeks to two months, eventually settling on five weeks. They’d already run us out of money, and I had to find another £300k as security against costs. We were getting calls at 3 a.m. and reams of faxes on a Friday night. In the end, we lost our house and cars, including my Le Mans-winning 956.”

Schuppan says he eventually persuaded AS to agree to take ten cars, but when even that fell through, he flew to Japan and secured a deal for three. “That would have generated almost enough money to save us at £900K, but I don’t think they believed we could get three cars done. We did and sent two to Heathrow, but Arts’ lawyers called for an emergency hearing in the court the next day to say their contract allowed extra time to road test the cars.”

When the judge ordered a road test could go ahead and put the onus on Schuppan to have the cars unloaded, the plane was already preparing for take-off. “As soon as the plane took off, Arts’ lawyers called Barclays saying I’d disobeyed a court order and was in contempt of court, and Barclays refused to pay the letters of credit,” Schuppan says.

Eventually, one car came back to the UK and one in remained in Japan. The prototype was in a dismantled state and in total only three examples of the 962 CR were built – one prototype and two production cars; there was also a hybrid of an air- and water-cooled Le Mans 956 and 962 CR for AS to race at Le Mans.

Looking at the CR beside us at Rennsport, Schuppan glows with pride, but the color soon drains from his face when I ask if he could imagine a continuation series, perhaps finishing the originally planned 25-car minimum run on a built-to-order basis. “Never,” he laughs. “I have no interest in getting back into that. It came close to destroying our lives.”

The 962 CR, then, seems destined to remain one of the most desirable supercars of all time. Not only does it tick the usual boxes of race pedigree, cutting-edge technology, and a design to die for, but it also boasts a backstory like no other plus an exclusivity its modern-day descendants can only dream of.

Schuppan does reveal Porsche has sold models of the CR at its museum, so it’s a pity the firm still doesn’t officially recognize its illegitimate offspring. If it had a change of heart, the 30th anniversary of the 962 CR’s demise wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

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Ewan McGregor isn’t just a Hollywood heavyweight—he packs quite a punch when it comes to cars. The Scottish-born actor has eclectic taste, as well as the money to buy pretty much whatever he wants, but he doesn’t always hang onto his automotive treasure.

Two years ago, McGregor sold a 1927 Buick Master Six sedan for $28,000 on BringATrailer.com because, he says, he moved to a house on a hill and the car struggled to make it up the incline. Now he’s back on BaT with a 1972 Porsche 911T Targa that he acquired in 2020.

McGregor has also owned a number of other classics, including a 1969 Aston Martin DBS, which he sold in order to buy a 1967 split-windshield VW Westfalia Camper.

So where did McGregor’s love of classic vehicles come from? He told Top Gear that he likely caught the bug from his grandfather, since his dad wasn’t much of a car guy. Volkswagen Beetles were the family’s car of choice when McGregor was growing up, but he was first attracted to motorcycles. He started with a 1978 Moto Guzzi T3, and later moved on to a Ducati and some Spanish Ossa dirt bikes. Cars came later.

“I bought my first ‘proper’ car when I was in Australia doing Moulin Rouge,” he told Top Gear. “A member of the crew had a 1972 Ford Mustang fastback, and he always parked it outside my dressing room because he wanted me to buy it. Anyway, for some reason I found out about another Mustang that was being sold in Sydney at the time—a 1965 convertible. It was the color of vanilla ice cream with a light blue roof. I fell in love, bought it and shipped it back to Britain because it had been converted to right-hand drive. That was my only car for a long time because I was always on my bikes.”

McGregor began collecting cars when he moved to the United States in 2008. Among his many purchases: a 1960 Silver Cloud II, Porsche 718 Cayman, two rat rods (one based on a 1920 Dodge and and the second “a ridiculously slammed 1927 Ford Tudor”), a 1937 Wolseley that served as the family car in the 2018 film Christopher Robin, and several VW Beetles, one of which is an electric-converted 1954 model that he commissioned from SoCal specialist EV West. McGregor also plans to buy a Volkswagen ID Buzz when it hits dealerships in 2024.

As for McGregor’s 1972 Porsche 911T Targa, bidding has reached $93,000 with three days remaining in the BaT auction.

According to the vehicle description, the Targa had been stored from the late 1970s until 2019, and it was acquired by McGregor the following year. Finished in black paint over black leatherette and Pepita fabric, the German sports car is powered by a 2.4-liter flat-six that’s mated to a five-speed 915 manual transaxle.

Features include a removable roof panel, stainless-steel Targa bar, 911S-style front spoiler, four-spoke leather-wrapped steering wheel, driver’s sport seat, right bucket seat, fold-down rear seats, staggered-width 15-inch Fuchs alloy wheels, and factory air conditioning. A timing chain update kit, Porsche Classic radio (with Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay, satellite radio, and USB charging ports), and replacement speakers have recently been installed. Performed maintenance includes a valve adjustment, resealing the transmission, and replacing the clutch, flywheel, shifter bushings, various engine oil seals, and ignition components.

This 911T Targa comes with a Porsche Production Specifications certificate, as well as the owner’s manual, recent service records, spare parts, and a clean California title in the owner’s name.

The Porsche’s left front fender was repainted prior to McGregor’s ownership, and the antenna has been relocated to the right front fender. The front has rock chips, and the paint has other imperfections as well.

The car wears 185/70 Vredestein Sprint Classic tires and retains its factory-equipped ventilated disc brakes. The rear shocks were replaced in 2020.

The five-digit odometer shows 38,000 miles, but the car’s true mileage is unknown. Also unknown is why McGregor has decided to part with the car. Perhaps he has his eye on another Westfalia.

***

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Short of a pickup, there seems to be a Porsche permutation for every person, family, and enthusiast. Need a twin-turbo hyper-coupe? 911 Turbo S. Freaky fast fun for five? Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, available as a sedan or—for a little while longer, anyway—a wagon. Is the cabin a bit snowed-in this time of year? Pick a Cayenne, any Cayenne. Maybe you want a little bit of everything previously mentioned, minus the thirst for gasoline? A Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo is a real model, not a Mad Lib, and it checks the battery-only box. If any Porsche can be called a hot hatch, though, it’s the Macan GTS.

Yes, we admit the Macan GTS is larger and rides quite a bit higher than, say, a VW Golf R. But if you want practical transportation with a Porsche badge, this is about as lively and well-balanced as it gets. Our loan of this Python Green 2023 Macan GTS took place in Phoenix, Arizona, allowing us to visit a car-themed coffee shop that’s been on our radar—the Fourtillfour cafe. It’s the type of place that 911 owners frequent; can any people-mover Porsche fit in with such a crowd?

We’ll get to the coffee later. First, a refresher: The Macan launched in 2014, and a almost decade later it’s still competitive with rivals like the BMW X3 and Mercedes GLC. The GTS is the top dog of the current Macan lineup, whereas Porsche previously offered a Turbo variant. For the 2021 model-year refresh—ushering in the third iteration of the Macan since its 2015 model-year debut—Porsche reorganized the Macan family tree so that the new GTS effectively replaces the prior Turbo in performance and price. Lesser Macans include the base model, the Macan T, and the Macan S.

In practice, the new hierarchy means that the 2023 GTS packs the same 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 and seven-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission as the now-dead Macan Turbo, complete with the same 434 hp and 406 lb-ft. The “GTS” badge, used on a variety of models including the 911 Carrera, signifies a suite of performance upgrades over the standard car; aside from a 0.4-inch drop in ride height, the adaptive dampers are 10 percent stiffer at the front and 15 percent at the rear. The optional $12,010 GTS Sport package adds more meaningful goodies, including a limited-slip rear differential and 21-inch lightweight wheels shod in gluey Pirelli P Zero Corsa PZC4 summer tires.

Specs: 2022 Porsche Macan GTS

Price: $81,250 (base); $99,170 (as-tested)
Powertrain: 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V-6; seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Horsepower: 434 hp @ 5700–6600 rpm
Torque: 405 lb-ft @ 1900–5600 rpm rpm
Layout: All-wheel-drive, four-door, five-passenger SUV
Weight: 4400 pounds
EPA-rated fuel economy: 21/27/23 mpg city/hwy/combined
0–60 mph: 4.1 seconds
Top speed: 169 mph
Competitors: BMW X3M, Mercedes-AMG GLC 63, Audi SQ5, Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio

As you’d expect given the hardware, the Macan GTS is quick. Porsche claims a 4.3-second 0-to-60-mph scramble, but Car and Driver has clocked it at 3.5 seconds on the way to a 12.1-second quarter-mile. That 434-hp six-cylinder shrinks arrow-straight desert highways like a retracting tape measure. Standard all-wheel drive and dual-clutch gearbox make for snappy response and on-demand merging speed that’s particularly useful when you need to outrun a semi on short notice. In more clogged city conditions and over craggy pavement, the Macan GTS remains nearly as comfortable as your average upmarket crossover, despite the slightly stiff ride and sub-par bump isolation.

Everything else makes for a dandy daily driver. The Audi-sourced 2.9-liter six retains much of its quad-ringed cousin’s robust but generally placable character. Aside from some muffled growl, there’s nothing in its normal operation that indicates there’s more on tap here than the base Macan’s 261-hp turbo-four.

Porsche’s dual-clutch (PDK) transmission, as usual, is faultless: mundane in ordinary traffic and whip-quick when you break free onto some country roads. The gearbox really shines when given the chance to make use of the V-6’s thick torque; even in the Normal drive mode, the transmission is shockingly quick to drop down multiple gears when necessary. Strong acceleration is a moment away, any time. Power does not noticeably drop off until you’re cruising at extra-legal speeds. In the most aggressive “Sport Plus” mode, the transmission holds gears until near redline unless directed otherwise via manual paddle shift, drawing on every hoof of that 434 hp. Taken entirely within the context of a small-ish crossover SUV, there is a spooky amount of grip from those wide Pirellis.

Following my arrival into Phoenix, the arrestingly green super-crossover struck us as a nicely equipped yet highly conspicuous runabout, useful for hauling luggage, people, and groceries, occasionally all at once. The Macan’s interior proved a popular point with our passengers. The snug sport seats, carbon fiber trim, Alcantara, and green stitching combined to produce a far racier vibe than the Audi Q5-ish exterior profile suggested.

The color, though, did a lot of the heavy lifting as far as helping the Macan GTS blend in aside the Fourtillfour Cafe. Located in Old Town Scottsdale, the coffee shop isn’t strictly Porsche-themed, but the moto-chic décor drips with depictions of air-cooled 911s and bygone Porsche race cars. High-end coffee beans are served in a modern facsimile of vintage oil cans, while small, customized scale-models of cafe founder Nico Samaras’ various real-life 356s pop out between cascading potted plants.

An Arizona native, Samaras started Fourtillfour after two tours of duty in the Marine Corps, fostering his love of both old Porsches and coffee while still enlisted. Prior to and during his service, he bought and sold a number of 356s, hosting drives and cultivating community under his “4till4” brand—3:56, or four minutes until 4 o’clock. Get it?

The small Scottsdale café opened in 2015, and quickly evolved into one of Arizona’s most popular stops for enthusiasts. Official themed Cars and Coffee gatherings happen each weekend, with monthly events for Porsches, motorcycles, “fast cars,” air-cooled VWs, vintage European and JDM metal, and classic off-roaders. A second, larger café opened in Encinitas, California a few years later and is now a staple of the Porsche scene in San Diego.

The verdant Macan loaner was the only Porsche in sight on our gray, mid-week morning visit. Which means nobody was there to tell us we didn’t belong! Eager to get out before that status could be challenged, we blasted back out into the Sonoran desert for some mountain driving. Up the slithering AZ State Route 88—officially known as the Apache Trail—the Macan GTS felt every bit a sports car.  Like most modern Porsches, the steering weight at speed is marvelously dialed in, imparting uncanny granularity through the helm, which feels plucked right from a 911 or 718. This, of course, is a much larger and taller car, and enormously strong brakes bring the 4400-pound crossover to a brisk halt.

By every parameter, the Macan GTS is a tremendously capable five-seater, but comes shy of what we’d call “thrilling.” There’s still no escaping the car’s size, weight (a BMW M340i weighs about 400 pounds fewer), and elevated driving position compared with a traditional sports car or sedan. On the charge, you can sense that adaptive suspension sweating to maintain the car’s composure.

Still, the Macan GTS is, without pretense, the sharpest and most engaging four-door Porsche under $100,000—as long as you’re careful with the options. It falls short only of the sharpest Panameras, Taycans, and the supernatural Cayenne Turbo GT, which can be many tens of thousands of dollars pricier.  If we’re sticking to ideal characteristics of a hot hatch—a fine balance of performance, usability, practicality, and affordability—the Macan falls short only in the latter category. An all-electric Macan is in the cards for the next-generation crossover, likely due next year, but this third-wave GTS quenches our hot-hatch thirst as-is.

2022 Porsche Macan GTS

Highs: Sports car–worthy chassis dynamics, astoundingly good transmission, sensible interface layout.

Lows: Bit tight inside compared with rivals, options stack up quickly, ride not as polished as it could be over large bumps.

Takeaway: The Macan GTS is about as convincing, usable, and rewarding as an SUV with sports-car ambitions can get.

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Road-registering Porsches that aren’t really supposed be on the road at all is a Bruce Canepa speciality. The California native has fitted license plates to 911 race cars and was instrumental in the Show or Display bill, which granted special exemptions for road cars without U.S. homologation. All legal, all above aboard, all leaving a trail of “what the … ?” in their wake when they roar past on a U.S. highway.

But if you’ve heard of Canepa, you’ll probably know there’s more to his story. He’s raced at everything from the 1979 24 Hours of Daytona (third) to the 2023 Rennsport Reunion (first), set a world record in 2002 for twin-axle big rigs at Pikes Peak, and made a name for himself beyond motorsport with his eponymous luxury car dealership, which opened in 1982.

Today, a staff of 80 works at his Scotts Valley headquarters, where Canepa is as renowned for its restoration and race preparation services as the impeccable cars on offer—engines, interiors, paint, composites… all is taken care of on-site.

But it always comes back to Porsche, so we recently caught up with Bruce for a guided tour of two projects—one a road-legal 934 race car, the other his take on Porsche’s 1980s supercar, the 959.

The 959, of course, was road-legal in most markets, just not the U.S. (Porsche declined to submit cars for crash-testing). But making it road-legal in the States over two decades ago has culminated in Canepa’s incredible 50-car run of 959 CS models, which cost around $1.6M—in addition to the cost of a base car now valued around the $2M mark. McLaren’s Zak Brown owns one example.

Canepa and 959s go back to Bruce buying his first in 1988. “I was the first to bring one to the United States. I brought it in on a tourist visa under a friend’s name from overseas, I drove it for a year—that was easy—then it went back and left the country,” he says.

But others weren’t so lucky, including Bill Gates of Microsoft, who had his car impounded at San Francisco customs. The Show or Display bill of 1998 provided the workaround.

“We passed a bill in Congress to make them legal and that really became an exemption for cars that weren’t homologated in the U.S.,” Canepa says. “There had to be fewer than 500 cars in production that were also historically or technically significant as well as never intended to come here.”

Cars did not need to meet U.S. crash standards and could be driven for 2500 miles per year (though a retiring official later confessed there was no enforcement on that figure—good job, given one Canepa customer racked up 72,000 miles).

The 959s did, however, need to meet U.S. legislation for the year of production. It meant some significant work for the 2.8-liter flat-six, which features an air-cooled block, water-cooled four-valve heads, and sequential turbochargers (one for low-rpm boost, then a big hitter to make the numbers).

“We switched to Motec management, switched the turbos, put on knock sensors and cats, and did a bunch of stuff, ” Canepa says. “We not only got them to pass the federal emission standards but we passed CARB—California Air Resource Board—which was unheard of pretty much.”

Passing emissions standards also simultaneously led to Canepa unlocking massive amounts of pent-up power.

“We put an engine on the dyno and it didn’t look right—you got the one turbo, and it starts increasing in power, then all of a sudden it’s gone and then it starts coming back up again,” recalls Canepa. “A guy from Weissach was kind of helping us on the side and he said ‘Yeah, that’s the way they are.’ He couldn’t tell me what to do, but he would tell me what not to do. So I said I’m going to put twin turbos on it (rather than sequential) and he said, ‘That’s right, you’ll notice we never did that sequential turbo thing again!’”

The result was a bump from 444 hp to 580 with catalytic converters and 91-octane fuel and no internal modifications. The engine has been developed ever since.

Canepa then turned attention to the chassis, taking the simplified and inch-lower 959S suspension set-up as its jumping-off point. “The only thing I disliked about the first year in my car was the hydraulic suspension. It was a pain in the ass and would porpoise and do weird things. Our coilovers have titanium springs and Penske builds our shocks—it’s much more controlled but still very compliant.”

Canepa has also upgraded the brakes and offers magnesium hollow-spoke alloys with the look of the originals but a diameter increased from 17 to 18 inches—the size Porsche originally intended to fit but couldn’t due to the lack of a suitable tire.

The expertise means that from the total production of 292 units never intended for U.S. sale, Canepa estimates 87 to 90 have passed through his workshops. Today that has culminated in the 959SC, a 50-unit run that “reimagines” Porsche’s first supercar and is billed as the final evolution of upgrades Canepa will ever create for the 959.

Upsetting for some purists it may be, but a 959SC does represent a sympathetic and highly appealing package of upgrades far beyond what Porsche ever could have imagined in-period.

The entire build is said to take 4000 hours, with over 500 devoted to prepping the body alone, which is painted either in Porsche’s paint-to-sample colors or a one-off shade. A further 400 hours are lavished on the gorgeous interior, the detail extending even to new tool pouches and owner’s manual in matching leather.

But the most impressive numbers of all are reserved for the engine, described by Canepa as its fourth generation and engineered by legendary tuner Ed Pink. Highlights include twin BorgWarner turbos with internal wastegates, new pistons to raise the compression a little, Pankl titanium connecting rods, and an upgraded valvetrain. It’s an exhaustive and all-encompassing overhaul good for a massive 850 hp with 650 lb-ft of torque.

The vibe is very much ultra-luxury GT, and no two 959SCs will ever be alike.

Canepa’s 934 project, meanwhile, goes back to Bruce’s racing roots. He entered his first sports car race at Sears Point in 1978 driving a Porsche 934.5 (essentially the Group 4 racing version of Porsche’s 930 Turbo road car, with the rear wing and wheels from the 935 Group 5 racer) then upgraded to the last factory-built 935 the following season. It’s a car he still owns and he raced it to victory at Rennsport this year.

When it debuted, the 934 race car was incredibly close to production specification, making it an ideal candidate for a road conversion. Porsche produced just 31 examples, and Canepa has converted four for road use. The blue car pictured is Bruce’s own 934.5.

“Guys laugh when I tell them, but I say it’s just a 1976 911 Turbo, you know?” says Canepa. “The front spoiler doesn’t rub, it’s got good ground clearance, we soften it up a little bit, put in a really good brake pad, and I just throw my luggage in the back—it’s easy.”

Each 934 undergoes a typically meticulous Canepa restoration, with a paint finish the race cars could only dream of (and which originality buffs might balk at) as well as attention to detail throughout. Bruce highlights the trademark rivet-on arches.

“When these were built, the flares never fit like this, but we have a composites guy in-house to get it just right,” Canepa explains, before talking us through wheels with period-correct center-lock nuts but an upgrade in diameter from 16 to 17 inches.

Inside—as it was in-period—the feel is very much road car with a few racing upgrades. There’s a racing seat with harnesses, a roll cage, a small-diameter steering wheel, and that’s pretty much it.

“The factory delivered these cars with carpet and power windows, so we take the lollipop seat, split it in half, and add one or two inches, depending on the size of the guy,” he explains. “The only thing I change is the rubber matting material underneath the carpet, particularly at the back, just to kill the noise. I put electric A/C in one or two of them, and it’s got all the things you need, a gas gauge, a speedometer, a handbrake …”

Much like with the 959, the 934 engine is also tuned to be much more driveable, notably with a Garrett turbocharger featuring modern wastegate technology to reduce lag, and Motec management so it starts from cold and idles smoothly, then delivers its power progressively. The twist is the output—a huge 670 hp in a car weighing around 2535 pounds.

The third car converted by Canepa was an orange example for actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. “Jerry has done a lot of miles in his car, and he just sent me a text last week saying it’s four years to the day since he’d fired it up and driven off on New York plates.”

Canepa’s own website shows the car idling in its workshops, then cuts to Seinfeld at the wheel, grinning like a man who knows he can drive a racecar straight past a police car without going to jail.

What comes next for Canepa? “I’m going to do the Carrera GT,” reveals the founder. “I’ll do all the interior, a proper clutch, figure out a wheel … it just needs a couple of things to make it more user-friendly. It’ll be very understated.”

Given Canepa’s track record, “a couple of things” will likely evolve into a whole lot more. Watch this space.

***

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Porschephiles tend to have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the colors their favorite models came in, and that’s no small feat given the range of hues the company has offered over the years. Onlookers of  “the White Collection,” a Porsche-centric sale hosted last week by RM Sotheby’s, had things a little bit easier—of the 56 Porsches crossing the block, only two were something other than a shade of, you guessed it, white. Despite the more limited palette, however, the sale of these Porsches offered plenty of variety, and some market lessons to boot.

While we typically focus on a single vehicle in our Sale of the Week, this round features a few cars from this auction in order to shed a little light on the current market for newer Porsches. In an overall market that’s been cooling for more than a year, the fact that Porsche’s recent GT products still command a significant premium or dealer markup demonstrates how resilient they’ve been in the face of market forces. Other exclusive models from Stuttgart have displayed similar strength.

Record transaction prices from the White Collection sale would appear to back that up, but the big numbers aren’t simply indicative of a segment of the market continuing a nonsensical post-pandemic frenzy. Digging a little deeper reveals something about what buyers are prioritizing within the P-car world.

For instance, this paint-to-sample Grand Prix White 2019 911 GT2 RS Weissach with a scant 15 miles on the odometer sold for a record $1,006,000 including fees. More than $344,000 worth of options led an MSRP of $639,345 when new (a full 116 percent above its $295,345 base price). However, its sale at the White Collection represented 110 percent of the condition-appropriate price ($478,199) for a base GT2 RS Weissach without those add-ons. That suggests that the options are the primary price driver, and though the number itself is dramatically more than what other GT2 RS Weissachs have sold for, this is a consistent sale that doesn’t reposition the GT2 market.

A 2016 911 R—a darling of collectors since its debut— commanded a premium rooted less specifically in its option list. Selling for another record at $1,105,000 including fees, it wore add-ons that bumped its original MSRP 48 percent, but it sold for 81 percent more than #1- (Concours) condition value. With less than twenty miles on the odometer and everything from detailed order correspondence to its pre-delivery coverings, it’s not too surprising that this museum-grade 911 R came at an additional premium.

Even further on the spectrum, RM Sotheby’s snagged a record-breaking $3,937,500 for this 2015 918 Weissach Spyder. Wearing the same paint-to-sample Grand Prix White and Yachting Blue interior colors as the above GT2 RS, this 918 is yet another museum piece and includes a wealth of collector accessories. Whether or not its new owner fits into the included racing suit, shoes, and helmet is beside the point—this car’s value is no longer associated with its enormous capabilities at the track. Despite options that added a comparatively paltry ten percent to the original MSRP, it sold for 75 percent above its #1-condition value. With such a pristine example of one of Porsche’s best-ever road cars, it’s no surprise that options played a less significant role in its sale price.

According to manager of valuation analytics John Wiley, for The White Collection’s sales of 997 and 991 GT cars, 911 R, 911 Turbo S Exclusive, and the 918 Spyder, the average share of options as a percentage of the base price explains 78 percent of the premiums these cars achieved. What does that mean? A couple of things: first, decked-out cars tend to hold their value well in the Porsche community. Second, options don’t explain the whole story for each car, and low mileage, unique appointments, and outright intangibles still propel GT and high-end Porsches to a premium.

Despite that, we are beginning to observe a slight tightening in the GT market. By no means have premiums gone away, but they have generally been flat or trended down this year, with the exception of those for the 991 GT2 RS and the 2023 GT3 RS. Don’t get your hopes up for a comparative bargain anytime soon, though—the 2019 GT3 RS still commands a premium north of 30 percent, and that’s the lowest of the group.

The White Collection’s dramatic numbers reaffirmed the continued strength of this segment. It also demonstrated that top-flight Porsche sales are subject to rational behavior, and that’s a sign of a healthy market.

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Motorsports fans of a certain age will recall Tom Walkinshaw Racing as a pivotal force in sports car racing. Founded in 1976, the former race driver began TWR as a race team and engineering firm, dealing with several marques before forming a strong alliance with Jaguar, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the brand in 1988 and 1990.

TWR and Jaguar formed a company to build tuned versions of Jaguar, producing the XJ220 and XJR-15 sports cars. Ford’s purchase of Jaguar in 1989 soured the relationship. TWR had continued to achieve success with other carmakers, winning Le Mans in 1996 and 1997 in a Porsche-powered WSC-95. However, it was the purchase of the Formula 1 team Arrows in 1996 that foreshadowed the end of TWR in 2002. Walkinshaw himself died in 2010.

We mention all this because TWR is back, under the leadership of Walkinshaw’s son, Fergus. And the company has hired designers Magnus Walker and Khyzyl Saleem to build “reimagined” sports cars, the first ones based on a Jaguar XJS.

Walker, known mostly for his work with Porsches, said he has owned Jaguars before, “but the car I had never owned was an XJS. I remember talking to [automotive designer] Ian Callum about how I wanted to do an outlaw version of an XJS.” The TWR opportunity “was just what I was looking to do, and I was in. The stars aligned perfectly. The XJS is a car that was sort of misunderstood. I wanted to make my mark on it.”

Said Saleem, who has designed liveries for stunt driver Ken Block: “I’m designing something pretty badass and helping to create a truly relevant TWR for the 21st century. The XJS has been seen as sort of unloved, a difficult second album to the E-Type. There’s an obvious history with it and TWR, and to have the chance to give it a new life is special.”

The new TWR, founded in 2020, plans to “make its name as a constructor of bespoke automobiles for a whole new generation, seeking to perfect and protect the analog driving experience with its own products.” No production plans were revealed.

***

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You’ll be surprised how much acoustic guitars and bespoke Porsches have in common. Fourteen years ago, no one thought the world needed custom Porsche 964 restorations worth well into six figures. Forty-nine years ago, nobody thought the acoustic guitar was in need of reinvention.

In each case, a wildly successful Californian company has since proved the naysayers wrong while teaching us something about the reinvention of old ideas.

Taylor Guitars was founded in 1974 by Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. In the decades since, they have brought modern engineering and fresh thinking to an industry dominated by tradition and fuzzy intuition. Through CNC machining and constant innovation, the company has grown into one of the world’s largest builders of acoustic instruments, but also a compass for the guitar industry, influencing even legacy giants like Martin and Gibson.

Singer Vehicle Design is younger. English expat Rob Dickinson found public exposure in the 1990s as the vocalist for shoegaze band Catherine Wheel. In 2009, he started a company to “reimagine” the Porsche 911 through heavily customized, ground-up restorations. Singer’s jewel-like work costs as much as a West Coast house and looks it, but it also launched an industry, birthing countless copycats. Singer reps won’t admit this publicly, but the company’s work is so good, it’s admired even within the executive suites of Porsche itself.

Happily, Dickinson and Listug know and respect each other. The former owns and plays a Taylor, while the latter, a longtime 911 fan, just took delivery of a Singer restoration after a four-year wait.

Mindful of all this, we toured Singer’s new restoration facility in Los Angeles. After that, we visited Taylor’s modern San Diego factory. Finally, we sat down with Dickinson, then Listug, and then Taylor’s new CEO/chief luthier—the architect of its recent renaissance—Andy Powers.

We met these men separately but asked each the same questions—on creativity and inspiration, but also on how you make something new in a hidebound environment. Their answers comprise the virtual roundtable on the following pages.

All three men love machines and music and view both in unique ways. (Powers even drives a vintage pickup to work and wrenches on it himself.) But enough introduction—we’ll let the creators speak for themselves.

Taylor now owns 40 percent of the American acoustic market. Singer has delivered more than 200 customer cars. Growth like that doesn’t happen by accident. And yet you can’t totally plan it, either.

Rob Dickinson: It takes a nutjob, an individual. Just setting out on these goals… cannot be done by a committee. It can only be done by someone who’s got something in their brain that they just can’t shake off. That they’re convinced will be good.

Did you ask Kurt if he imagined Taylor would grow to this? I can probably guess his answer. There was never a destination to my idea. I just knew I was absolutely f***ing convinced it was a good idea. In as much as it would not kill me, or bankrupt me, or bankrupt all the people—my wife’s family—providing the money to get it off the ground. I was just convinced it would be OK.

Kurt, did you and Bob ever think deeply about growth? Or was it just… finding the next cool step?

Kurt Listug: The things that you do are the things that make sense to do. We’re dreaming all the time about things we want that could be great for the business, but it’s a matter of timing and resources. What do you get really amped up about, that you want to work on and pursue?

We grew the business to $150 million a year and basically self-funded. We started with $10,000, we reinvested, grew and grew. Looking back, it seems impossible, but that’s what we did.

You waited four years for one of Rob’s restorations. Why?

Kurt: I’m a 911 guy. I’ve had 11 Porsche 911s. I saw [Singer’s work] in the magazines and thought: Wow, that’s really incredible. The workmanship, the quality of the craftsmanship, the design.

Rob is… being an artist. I hoped [the car] would be as good as I wanted it to be. It really exceeded my expectations.

You told me that ordering one felt like a leap. That a project this complex could be worth the money and time.

Kurt: The car is reimagined, turned into something completely different. I like it when people do that, and really, any industry would just get stale and die without it.

With Andy being so creative, someone who can invent new guitar designs, that’s important to us—that’s who we want to be as a company. We want to make instruments that inspire people to create new music.

The music business and car business each run on an odd balance of tradition and new.

Kurt: With guitar companies, typically, when the founder gets old, they sell. The company is usually bought by financial people. They’re backing sales and marketing, and nobody’s in charge of design anymore.

The same old design becomes a legacy product. It doesn’t really advance, but it has to. You have to keep creating the new world, so to speak.

When I started the business, we couldn’t pay ourselves regularly for the first 12 years. I know with Rob, the company was basically financed early on by customers paying their deposits. He surrounded himself with people who were equally passionate. That’s how new things come into being.

Everyone knows these industries die if they don’t occasionally break out of the box. And yet they both push back on reinvention and call you nuts when you try.

Rob: It was just like, “We’ve got to build this and show our idea.” If you talk about it, people will just roll their eyes and say you’re f***ing bonkers.

That’s why we didn’t have any luck raising any money before we started Singer. We had to do it ourselves. “I don’t really understand. What do you mean, great quality? How are you going to make it look any different, any better?”

You start to get bored with those conversations quite quickly. I think the only way to do it is to build it. It comes through sheer passion or sheer insanity: I can’t stop thinking about this when I go to sleep, and I can’t stop thinking about it when I get up.

I love how artists and engineers, when they start a project, don’t always know where it will end up. They just know where to start.

Kurt: It’s getting an idea, an intuition, of the direction to head in.

Rob: Lots of people have good ideas. But lots of people can [move on, go] do something else. I just was unable to do that. To the extent that I pushed aside a reasonably rubbish rock-and-roll career for the sake of a car I had become obsessed with.

If everyone thinks something is fine as-is, how do you begin thinking about changing it? Is that process rooted in need? Problem-solving?

Andy Powers: All of the above. I have all these things, and none of them satisfy me—why not?

If you’re making something new through deeply considered choices, how do you prioritize that work process, not get overwhelmed by possibility?

Andy: What do I want it to be that it isn’t? That’s incentive No. 1. I don’t have what I want. I have no means to get it unless I build it.

Another part would be, maybe I have the ability to build something that nobody else has. Knowledge or tools or personal initiative. There’s also that simple question: Why not do this? With Southern California… in other places, the expectation is: Don’t do that, that’s not the way it’s done. Here, it’s: Oh, yes, do your thing, man. Hope you don’t get hurt.

Rob: The process isn’t work. I grew up in the Porsche community in England and was deeply within it for 5 to 10 years before I moved to America. Gaining opinions and attitudes, desires for what was best, what was average. The natural library builds up in the head as to what great can be.

So many great bits of new have compassed off California culture. Like how early hot-rodding evolved, couldn’t have grown the same anywhere else.

Andy: It’s the opportunity of a place and ability and desire all stacking together to go: Hey, this should be, and there’s nobody to tell me no. They’re not even paying attention.

Rob: And it is unavoidably entangled in ego. Wanting to express yourself. To be seen as the person who did something that needs to be done.

Ego can be productive.

Rob: If I’m brutally honest, I thought someone would do [what Singer does] before I did, and I wanted to get in there first.

I was thinking last night about where the great music has come from. The best rock-and-roll is audacious. Audacity is a product of ambition and ego, I think. Wanting to make your mark, to go: F*** it, I’ve done it, go tell me I’m wrong. The audacity to do that in a song! The Beatles had it flowing out of every pore.

Does that process look different when you’re rethinking someone else’s creation?

Andy: It does. You feel a great dose of respect, and you don’t want to upset that legacy. You already love what it is. In the case of a Porsche, there is a very emotional connection Porsche drivers have—with the legacy, the fenders, the sound, the feel.

Musicians have an attachment to their instrument that makes it behave almost like a living thing. It’s intimate—used as an expression of emotion, philosophy, aesthetic. You don’t want to do something that is totally irrelevant to that legacy, and yet, within context of it, you can make your changes.

One of the things that was a real departure in the history of acoustic guitars—we started bolting the neck on instead of doing woodworking joinery to glue those parts together. Mostly because [that change] makes it more serviceable. It just does a better job serving the musician over the life of the instrument.

Because guitars change shape over time. Wood moisture shifts, the neck has to be adjusted to play right.

Andy: Instead of a super-invasive and expensive repair job, this takes like 10 minutes. You take it apart, you put a different set of spacers in—it’s no different from, say, changing a car’s alignment.

Kurt: It’s all done with CNC [milling] equipment. Bob designed shims of different thicknesses… you can change, in thousandths of an inch, the angle of the body.

Before, you had to break the guitar apart to do that. It was decades to get to the point where he could do that. I knew he would eventually figure out how.

Andy: We went to great pains to make it look familiar. You want it to look and feel comfortable and respect the tradition of how the thing performs. More recently, we totally changed the internal architecture of an acoustic guitar.

Taylor calls it V-class bracing—this massive shift in how guitars are built.

Kurt: Un-freaking-believable. That’s a problem guitars have had forever: They’ll go out of tune once you go up the neck. Andy figured it out from surfing, looking at wave-forms. Sound is waveforms. He figured out it was really the guitar top fighting itself. He redesigned it. His V-class bracing, they play in tune all the way up the neck. That’s never been done. Ever.

Andy: It was a series of circumstances: Oh, I should take this influence from archtop guitars and mandolins, all these different instrument-building legacies, and I’ll combine those in this funny surfing context—that would give me a better architecture for how an acoustic guitar could work.

I could voice that and steer it in a lot of different directions. But the first course of business was, take this radically new idea that performs better and deliberately voice it so it is familiar to what a Taylor player already loves.

It’s not going to come out of left field—I’m going to hide it. When you play it, you’re going to instantly go: That is the sonic signature of a Taylor guitar. It’s all that I like, there’s just more there.

Why are we so compelled to make new from the old without losing the old?

Rob: [Our cars], in my humble opinion, they’re me thinking to myself: This idea can be even more fantastic than it already is.

I live in the past. I don’t like sci fi. I don’t like computers, really—I’m not very good with them. I live in a rose-tinted world of trips to France with my parents in the 1970s. From 1970 to 1985, we spent six weeks each year driving down to and around the south of France, sometimes into Spain.

You can imagine what I saw on the roads. The glamour and beauty, the birth of the appeal of the automobile to me, as an object of deep, dry-mouth desire. Those cars became my life.

I think it’s the same with music. My songs are very much a product of loving other people’s songs. I think our work on the 911 is very much a product of us loving the 911 and wanting to do our own thing.

That “dry-mouth desire” can be hard to share. Is it ever frustrating, trying to get a customer on board? “I can’t explain it, just trust me?”

Kurt: It’s not frustrating. It’s a challenge. You think about Rob, how he went about making a [964 have the nose of a] long-hood 911? What it takes to rebuild the whole thing to be able to do that? I texted the guys up there about the steering. I wondered what they’d done differently because it felt so good. I got back this answer: We’re using this and that and there was a 993 something-or-other and we designed our own bushing for this and that.

It’s just… they knew no bounds, to make it as good as they could.

A Porsche designer once told me that redesigning the 911 was half privilege, half curse. Everyone wants the car to get better, but no one wants it to change. It ties into this old saw in the car business, how what the customer wants and what they say they want don’t always jibe.

Andy: Ask your favorite band: We need a new single—can you make it different from the last one and make it sound just like the last one?

To me, it feels like a left-brain/right-brain exercise. You’re going to look at this thing as the sum of its parts, and at the same time, you’re going to see it as a cohesive whole: What do I like about it? What feels expressive?

Musicians are not doing their business with dollars and cents. They work with the currency of emotion. They’re trying to make sense of a wider world. That’s the language we need to think about if you’re going to disassemble this thing. Let’s say we want the guitar to have more empathy. What the heck does that turn into? What does it mean when a car has great road feel? What translates through a steering wheel? Technically, that’s a flaw, but why is it so dynamic? It feels like you’re engaging with a living thing. That’s something that needs to be preserved.

Those are all measurable, quantifiable things, but what they really turn into for a musician is: What can I do with this? How expressive can it be? I start disassembling them mentally. I want them to turn into the more subjective experience. Then, when I go back over to my holistic side, I want all of these components to still reflect and affirm each other. In other words, the guitar needs to sound the way it looks and look the way it feels.

That’s all fuzzy, personal stuff, but also real and universal.

Andy: It’s very real. If it looks a certain way, you want it to then feel that way when you pick it up. You want the sound that comes out of it to conjure up the same sensation.

So much of creativity orbits rules—new ones we make, old ones we break. Success can calcify that thinking. You don’t want to risk what you’ve built.

Kurt: I’ll give you an analogy of creativity versus not being creative, wanting to do the same thing over and over.

If you have financial people running, say, a record label, they’ll look at what’s been selling. They’ll say, I want you to sound like so-and-so. They’ll squash [an artist’s] creativity when that person really needs to develop their own voice, their own personality.

I think that’s just the nature of business types, because they’re used to looking at metrics like that. They’re not always able to discover something new, see something in it.

The car business is so similar.

Rob: I’m asked more and more what I think of the industry that perhaps we had a hand in inspiring. I’m going, “Why don’t you try and imagine what Singer might do next, rather than trying to copy what we’re doing now?”

I look at this new [Singer-like] Porsche 928 [restoration] that’s just come out. The entrepreneur behind this company found a car designer that he loved, a good car designer but with no passion for Porsche whatsoever. It’s like, let’s change it as much as possible for the sake of reimagining it. Rather than look at how the guys that were responsible for the 928 [thought], set about reimagining that.

Apparently, though, a lot of people love it. Which is fantastic. Who am I to say what the rules are?

Who are any of us?

Rob: It’s interesting how other people misinterpret why we’re around. Yes, I wanted to start a business. But what I really wanted was to make a name synonymous with doing something particularly, dare I say, unusual in the automotive sphere.

To get under the skin of a subject and understand it. Not just from a design aspect. From an industrial aspect, a social aspect.

The 911 is such a social thing. It’s bought for what it means, how it feels. And yet the business model is so metric-driven. Each new one must be faster, or they’ve failed.

Kurt: You stake 15 more horsepower every time you turn up with a new one. They have to give people a reason to buy it.

Right! As if a Porsche weren’t desirable already. The balance is so funny. If carmakers ask the customer what they want, they want a crash-proof ’69 Camaro with 3000 horsepower and a 5-pound curb weight. Does the music business have more latitude to listen there?

Kurt: The music business is really, really teeny compared to the car business. They don’t have the capability or the resources [to respond] to the public as quickly.

I admire what Porsche does. I think they’ve done a remarkable job with not wrecking the 911. They’re basically all the same animal, but the personalities are all a little bit different.

Does it ever feel limiting to work with only one instrument? One car? Evolving one object for most of your career?

Andy: I break them into categories. There’s always the projects that are going into production in six months. Some things, we can’t make in even 10 years. The players aren’t ready for it. We’re not ready to figure out how to make it.

To me, it’s exciting to work on all of them. Because you’re a product. Whatever a person makes is a snapshot of who they are right then—your experiences, influences, resources, inspiration at the moment. That might be the availability or lack of a certain material. It might be a musician asking for something. It might be a changing aesthetic that you can’t even put into words yet, but you know is there.

I’ll look at something and go, man, we just put everything into it. Now, two years later, how the heck are we going to do that again?

You can’t just double your efforts. You won’t get anything new or fresh out of that.

Rob: I think that Singer has an opportunity, maybe, to become a car manufacturer. Because of whatever we’ve done thus far. I’m slowly starting to put together the idea of what our first [ground-up] car will be.

In the past, I didn’t really scratch that itch, because I didn’t know what it was. I’m starting to get a better idea. I think it’s a journey through the past to get to something brand-new. That no one has ever seen before.

The question is, do we reimagine 911s for the rest of our lives? Or do we do other things with that notoriety that perhaps we’ve gotten? I don’t know.

With creating, what does it feel like when you realize you’ve gone…

Andy: Too far in the wrong direction?

It’s typically coming out of the struggle to bow to some market metric. Let’s say as a company, we want to make a new thing, and we understand that there’s a market and a price point we should look for. And that if we arguably delivered a set of features at that price, mathematically, you would have a certain number of customers.

The reality is, it rarely works that way. As I said, musicians aren’t doing their business with the currency of dollars and cents. Fortunately, we’ve never really gone that far. You tiptoe up to the line and go: Oh, that was the line, back away.

There was a psychologist, I think his name was Mendo. He did a lot of work back in the ’50s and ’60s trying to define creativity. The closest he ever got was saying that his essence of creativity was the formation of a connection between disassociated ideas.

You take two things that aren’t related, and you make some sort of connection between them, you’ve created something new.

What’s scarier—creating on a blank sheet with endless freedom, or inside fences?

Andy: Both are exciting and terrifying. Within an existing box, you don’t want to ruin it. You have a lineage, an expectation. A community of enthusiasts. You can all stand around this thing and agree on what it is.

Don’t disrupt that. That’d be like some kid stomping on your sandcastle. At the same time, [freedom] has its own pitfalls. Something entirely new—I might make one and go, “Well, this was exactly what I wanted,” and nobody else will agree. “You have what you wanted, now get back to making some we all like.”

Rob: A blank sheet is always scarier, but only if you don’t have an idea.

If you got an idea, it’s great. Approaching that blank canvas each morning. Even if you are embracing the traditional mores of popular music, which is built on repetition. If you’re challenging and you’re audacious, maybe your second chorus isn’t the same as the first chorus. Maybe there’s only one chorus. Imagine three verses and one chorus—f*** me!

When any band is trying to find new ways of doing things, these things are always experimented with. And you do find yourself coming back to this very satisfying sense, if something is really lovely, you want to hear it again.

It sounds so easy once you see someone do it. Making something new. Convincing people it’s worth it. And yet.

Kurt: I was the person who did all the sales, called on stores, and drove around the country. People working in guitar stores, or guitar players, they always want to see a new guitar. For ours, it was the [ease of] playability. Bob liked the thinner neck—he didn’t see any reason why we needed to have a [more traditional] bigger neck.

Everything in the business is problem-solving like that, even the creativity with marketing. When I had the money to start doing advertising, I didn’t want ads that looked like everybody else’s. It helped put the company on the map.

Really, anything you approach, you have to look at the problem and come up with a creative solution. Not just do what everyone else has done. Because who wants what everyone else has done? That already exists.

***

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The Porsche 911 RSR was the dominant force in privateer endurance racing in the early 1990s. Just two road-going versions were built and now one of those is for sale at Bonhams Abu Dhabi auction on November 25.

The RSR was based on the lightweighted Type 964 Carrera RS 3.8, but with a wider Turbo body and around 350 horsepower to take on the world’s racing circuits. Scoring outright wins at the 24 Hours of Spa, the 1000km of Suzuka and the 24 Hours of Interlagos, plus category victories at Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring the RSR was in a class of its own.

Porsche built approximately 50 examples for customer race teams, but two clients wanted an RSR for the road. Not that the car going to auction was ever driven—after 30 years it has only ten kilometres (6.2 miles) on the clock and remains wrapped in a Cosmoline protective coating from the factory.

Beneath the wrap you’ll find Polar Silver Metallic paintwork and a Guards Red leather interior, chosen to match the buyer’s existing pair of 3.3 Turbo Lightweights. The competition seats, headlining, dashboard, steering wheel, column, door caps and roll cage are all swathed in the luxuriant hide, while there are Can-Can Red carpets to match. Although this RSR has a passenger seat it still comes with a full complement of race equipment including center air jacks, locking differential, 120-liter fuel cell and a Le Mans-spec twin-plug engine. There are Schroth six-point harnesses and a battery isolator switch for safety.

Three-piece Silverline alloy wheels are finished in Amethyst Metallic and you can see gold-painted brake calipers through the spokes. Such was the complexity of the build that although the car is registered as a 1993 model year the owner didn’t actually take delivery until 1996. The original keeper stored the car until 2017 when it passed over to the current seller in the United Arab Emirates.

Bonhams estimate that the rare RSR will sell for $2-$2.5 million, comfortably making it the most expensive 964 ever sold.

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They independently shared the name Carrera for decades, so it was only natural when Porsche and TAG Heuer combined their storied histories two years ago and partnered to create a new motorsports-inspired Carrera watch. 

Hold on tight; they’ve turned it up a notch.

The two legendary companies continue their collaboration with the introduction of a new showstopper, the perfect timepiece for every Porsche enthusiast: the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche. Offered in two versions, the watch pays homage to the momentous celebration of the 60th anniversaries of the TAG Heuer Carrera collection as well as the Porsche 911 (called the 901 in pre-production). Merging elements from both the watch and the car, TAG Heuer says the timepieces “offer an unparalleled timekeeping experience.”

With the new release, speed and precision converge, capturing the essence of the original Porsche 901’s remarkable achievement: reaching 0–100 km/h in a mere 9.1 seconds, an enhanced milestone as the history of the 911 unfolds.

“This watch perfectly encapsulates the essence of the motorsport universe, which is a shared value in our partnership with Porsche,” says Frédéric Arnault, CEO of TAG Heuer. “We have seamlessly merged the heritage of the 911 and the TAG Heuer Carrera, leveraging cutting-edge technology and unique design. It is a testament to our shared values of precision, innovation, and a deep appreciation for our respective histories.”

Inspired by Carrera Panamericana

Both TAG Heuer and Porsche’s use of the name Carrera—the Spanish word for race—was inspired by the nine-stage, five-day, 2100-mile Carrera Panamericana, Mexico’s famed 1950s road race. While Porsche’s use of the name clearly celebrated its success in the event (the automaker’s first victory came in 1953 when a 550 Spyder claimed the Small Sports Car category), TAG Heuer’s path there was a little less obvious.

In 1962, Jack Heuer, then head of the company founded by his great-grandfather a century earlier in St-Imier, Switzerland, was in Florida for the 12 Hours Race of Sebring. Heuer, a talented driver in his own right and fan of the entire racing experience, was told stories of the Carrera Panamericana. His interest was instantly piqued. When Heuer returned to Europe he immediately registered rights to use “Carrera,” deciding it was the perfect name for a watch with a racing spirit—useful and functional, featuring a clean and legible design, without extraneous elements that would distract the wearer’s gaze. 

“I loved not only its ‘sexy’ sound, but also its multiple meanings—which include road, race, course and career,” Heuer explained in his 2013 autobiography, The Times of My Life.

In 1963, the first Heuer Carrera watch arrived in the form of the Heuer Carrera ref. 2447, also known as the “Carrera-12.” Sixty years later, with a historic list of enthusiasts that includes racing legends like Bruce McLaren, Ayrton Senna, and Niki Lauda, TAG Heuer continues to create watches that motorsports drivers and fans are proud to wear. 

The Power of Precision

Since its groundbreaking introduction in 1963, the Porsche 911 has captivated enthusiasts with its unwavering commitment to performance, precision, and innovation. Its acceleration from 0–100 km/h in 9.1 seconds not only achieved those goals but paved the way for future generations of the 911, pushing boundaries and setting new records for speed and driving dynamics.

In that vein, TAG Heuer once again pays tribute to Porsche’s exceptional speed achievement. Bringing to life revolutionary designs and conceptual timepieces, the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche watches stand out. Both the Steel and Gold Editions celebrate the iconic status of the Porsche 911 and its remarkable performance heritage, fusing the spirit of Porsche’s groundbreaking achievements with TAG Heuer’s unwavering pursuit of excellence.

As a tribute to precision and speed, TAG Heuer introduces the groundbreaking TH20-08 movement, a new interpretation of the in-house caliber TH20 launched at the 2023 Watches & Wonders fair.  Designed for precise measurements of short time intervals, the TH20-08 movement mirrors Porsche 901’s acceleration from 0–100 km/h in 9.1 seconds. Its central hand accelerates swiftly, gradually decelerates over 60 seconds, and quickly restarts. In a word, it’s cool.

The movement’s unique mechanism features two snail-shaped wheels, creating a decelerating motion for the central hand. These wheels are crafted with state-of-the-art technology, the so-called LiGA process widely used in the MEMS (microelectromechanical system) industry. The TH20-08 represents TAG Heuer’s commitment to precision, craftsmanship, and captivating design, setting a new standard in watchmaking.

The dial of these watches beguiles with “a visual representation of speed and acceleration.” Red lines on the flange mirror the 0–100 km/h achievement in just 9.1 seconds, paying homage to the very first Porsche 911. Adding a touch of automotive inspiration, further subtle red details can be found throughout. The 6 o’clock subdial features a reference to the iconic dashboard of the 1970s Porsche, where the area around 50 km/h was often highlighted to indicate the recommended speed in urban areas.

An additional nod to the rich sportscar heritage lies in the red portion of the 9 o’clock subdial. It serves as a reminder of the critical engine speed beyond which damage may occur. It’s not by chance that TAG Heuer chose to place the red line at 6.8 hours; it refers to the limit of 6800 revolutions per minute. In addition, the counter hands of the watch are similar to the shape of a car dashboard, completing the cohesive automotive design aesthetic.

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche also offers an innovative double glassbox—a curved crystal glass that pays homage to similarly domed Hesalite crystal designs from the 1970s. Re-engineered to have a curve that flows seamlessly over the tachymeter scale, it runs along the edge of the dial, blending into the case. This design, a first for the TAG Heuer Carrera, offers easy reading of the indications on the dial via the domed crystal and a captivating view of the watch’s intricate mechanics through the see-through caseback. The caseback is designed to replicate the iconic three-spoke steering wheel of Porsche.

Both watches feature a calfskin leather strap, in brown for the gold edition and in black for the steel edition, with the embossed original number “911” on the strap.

The steel version boasts a silver dial and flange, while the gold edition wears a beige dial and flange. Each watch is presented in specially designed, co-branded TAG Heuer x Porsche packaging with subtle touches of gold and steel reminiscent of the watches.

Decades after TAG Heuer and Porsche came to the same conclusion about the magical name “Carrera,” the two have created a watch that embodies their shared spirit of speed and precision—and their unwavering pursuit of excellence. 

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Like many things, being in a relationship with a classic car can be a double-edged sword. Moments of joy are sometimes interrupted by breakdowns, literally, and the bloom falls off the rose for a bit. Having spent decades nursing marginal machines onto and off of the road, again and again, I have come to accept that the risk is much less than the reward. Nonetheless, we all expose ourselves to mechanical breakdowns when we take our decades-old cars out for a spin.

This exposure led me to be on the receiving end of a call the other Saturday from a friend whose air-cooled Porsche 911 had left him stranded on the side the road. Now, this friend is a very intelligent gentleman, with great optimism about fixing problems, but his familiarity with car repair is only recently emerging. So, we began the dance of a road-side diagnosis by phone, and I guided him as best I could, mimicking my late father’s best bedside manner.

“Describe the symptoms—what happened right before it died?” I implored my friend.

“I was driving along and heard a loud ‘pop’ and then the engine went dead,” said Steve.

Step One in diagnosing a dead car on the side of the road is its behavior right before the incident. Fuel delivery failures generally are less dramatic, with lots of associated wheezing and limping, as dying not with a bang but a whimper. They show up as surging and poor running that quickly gets worse, and then become terminal. Ignition problems, on the other hand, typically start as a misfire that may last for the rest of the trip, or as immediate mortality with little warning.

“How long had you been driving? Was the car warmed up yet? Was there any surging or weakness before the ‘pop’ occurred?” I asked.

“No, it just popped and went dead. I’d been driving for about 20 minutes” he replied. This led me away from a fuel pump failure (sometimes common on cars that sit a lot—the pumps themselves and the associated relays, etc.).

“Are you in a safe spot?” I asked, paraphrasing the first line of most 9-1-1 call operator’s scripts. The good news was that this was a ’71 911 with manual everything, so having the engine lose life does not cause lots of other “maneuverability” problems, and my friend was able to easily coast to a safe spot on a side street.

“I’ve called a tow truck,” Steve said, which could have ended our need for a discussion right then and there, but I don’t often back down from an automotive challenge.

“Let’s try to diagnose it while you’re waiting,” I said, since I presumed that he had nothing better to do at the moment. Captive audiences are the best.

“Sure, I’m game” came the reply. And so we began.

Engines need three things to start: Fuel, spark, and compression created by at least about 60 revs per minute of rotation (whether it is provided by a starter, a roll-start, or the explosion of a gun shell in one cylinder—see Coffman starter—an engine does not care). Compression failures rarely happen to all cylinders at once, so roadside failures of this sort seldom occur. “Does the engine crank over?”

“Yes,” Steve responded. So, the battery has charge and the pistons should be making compression.

“Crank the engine for ten seconds with the throttle wide open,” came my first instruction, invoking my 10-second rule for cranking dead engines; starters get real hot real fast with dead-cranking. “Then stick your nose right up to the tail pipe and tell me if you smell gas.” No spark will mean raw gas will be sent out the exhaust system, unburnt, and will be easy to detect with a good sniffer. No fuel will mean the exhaust smells “dry.” This applies to carbureted and fuel-injected engines alike. The wide open throttle moves the most air to get any unburnt gases to the tailpipe with the least cranking.

I heard the phone being tossed onto the seat, some muffled rustling, and then the sweet sound of an air-cooled six-cylinder being cranked over at brisk rpm, but no combustion. More rustling and Steve came back on the line. “I smell gas at the tailpipe,” he reported. “Is that good?”

“Fuel pump and carbs are working,” I said. “It’s probably your ignition.” We had compression, we had fuel, and the immediate stopping of the engine was confirming where we were going with our diagnosis. The battery was good, so the ignition system should be getting juice as well. Now it was time to look at the hardware that makes and delivers the missing sparks. I instructed him to open his engine lid and look for the ignition distributor.

“What’s it look like?” came the reply. So began a game of Clue using verbal instructions. My buddy was a smart guy. We could do this. Like a movie scene where a surgeon guides a layperson in removing a burst appendix over a phone line, we dug in.

“Look for a black thingy on the engine that has seven black wires coming out of it.”

“Like an octopus?” he asked.

“Yes, an irregular octopus,” I said. “A septopus.”

“Hmm. I think I found it.”

“Six black wires in a circle and one in the middle?”

“Yessir! Now grab the head of the septopus firmly and wiggle it.” Words I had never spoken in my 60 years of language. “Is it loose, or pretty solid?” This was the beginning of finding any problems with the distributor. If wires are not connected or parts are loose, issues arise.

“Solid,” came his reply. So the distributor cap itself was in place and probably not the culprit. I contemplated having him pop off the cap to go deeper into the rotor button and points, which are prone to problems, especially with modern off-shore parts. However, I remembered the golden rule of diagnostics: Look for the simple problems first. So, I kept it simple.

“Find the septopus’s center wire and follow it to a small, black soup can thingy somewhere on the engine,” I said. Losing one cylinder from one bad spark plug wire would have kept him running on five cylinders, but he had a total failure of all cylinders at once, and we had already determined that he had fuel flow, so I suspected it might be the ignition coil.

“I found it, the small soup can thing is on the cooling fan shroud.”

“Is the soup can hot?” I asked—one symptom of a fried coil.

“No, warm but not hot.”

“Press the black wire deeper into the coil. Is it loose? Check the other end as well.” Again, all cylinders dying at once meant that all the sparking was not getting to any of the plugs.

“Both are good.”

I was running out of cards to play but asked the next question with expectation. “There will be two small wires going to either side of the soup can, like an old dry-cell battery. Do you see these?” Luckily Steve is over 40 years old and knows what a dry-cell battery looks like.

“Yes,” he said.
“How do they look? Tug on them to make sure they are connected.”

“One is connected, the other one is loose.”

Bingo! Houston, we found our problem. A previous mechanic or owner had used a crimp connection on the wire’s terminal end, without adding soldering and covering it with heat-shrink tubing. For a mission-critical wire such as this, and one that lives in an open engine bay with moisture and dirt, this was unforgiveable.

“Do you have any tools on you, like pliers?”

“This is the one time I left the house without my toolkit,” Steve said. “I was just going for a 30-minute drive.”

“Well, that’s your problem. You can stuff the wire back into the crimp connector, but it may just wiggle loose again. It needs to be soldered and covered with heat shrink. Maybe the tow truck driver can help you when he arrives.”

And that is just what happened. A simple re-insertion of the wire and a quick crimp with the tow driver’s pliers got my friend back on the road. The tow was not consummated, and a crisis was avoided.

Now my friend is watching YouTube videos on how to solder so he can fix the wire’s end correctly, himself. Welcome to the ‘fix it yourself’ club, Steve. Bask in the accomplishment of reversing a seemingly desperate situation with a little Yankee know-how. But keep that Hagerty Roadside number nearby. It sounds like your fuel pump is whining a little too loudly…

***

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Artist Daniel Arsham, known for his extraordinary “eroded” cars including Porsche, Ferrari and DeLorean, has teamed up with Mattel to make art on a smaller scale.

The Future Legends collection by Hot Wheels x Daniel Arsham will be released in four “laps” that will each feature a pair of 1:64 scale models, made, not from their usual steel and plastic, but Silkstone. This lab-made material is a simulated porcelain created from bauxite and polyester resin and allows Arsham’s trademark “contemporary archeology” eroded detailing to be recreated in miniature.

“Mattel Creations developed creative ways to deliver my vision by thinking outside of the box and experimenting with new materials and processes,” says Arsham. “This is the first time Silkstone has been used on a Hot Wheels model, and my first time working with this material, making it a historic moment for both of us.”

The first two models are a Porsche 930 Turbo and a Rodger Dodger Charger SE. Collectors will also be able to buy Arsham’s interpretation of the 1968 Hot Wheels Rally Case to store their models, plus assorted keychains, stickers and limited edition prints.

Each car comes in a presentation box with a pair of special gloves to avoid damage when handling. These definitely aren’t to designed to hurtle down a track!

The collection will be for sale starting October 27 at 9am PST on the Mattel Creations website and will be on display in a New York gallery as well.

***

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In amongst all the multi-million dollar sales and supercar reveals of Monterey’s Car Week you may have missed a significant milestone in the 84-year history of German Porsche tuner Ruf.

The company, which began pumping gas (and still does) in the small Bavarian town of Pfaffenhausen, unveiled its most powerful model ever—the 800-hp CTR3 Evo.

There was surprisingly little fanfare for this 236-mph rocketship, or indeed the R Spyder, Tribute, and BTR Twin which the company also uncovered in California.

Perhaps that’s because Alois Ruf would rather let the cars speak for themselves as they have always done. Here are five times that Ruf was definitely on fire.

1977 Turbo 3.3

The Ruf family’s fascination with Porsche began in 1963 when Alois Ruf Senior took a crashed 356 into storage at his garage. He soon diversified into Porsche parts and service, but it wasn’t until three years after his death, in 1974, that his son would begin seriously modifying the Stuttgart-supplied cars. He started by stroking the 930 Turbo to 3.3 liters and boosting it to 300 hp—an increase of almost 50 horses.

1987 CTR “Yellowbird”

A decade later, Ruf made headlines when its new CTR “Yellowbird” became the fastest production car in the world. In April 1987, the 463-hp, 3.2-liter turbocharged machine was clocked at 211 mph–besting the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40. A year later it increased its margin to 213 mph. With its wide body, upgraded aero, huge NACA ducts for cooling, beefed up brakes, and an upgraded suspension, the Yellowbird was much more than a straight-line sprinter as a now-legendary video of it monstering the Nürburgring proved.

1995 CTR2

In 1995 Ruf was back in the record books with the CTR2. Based on the 993 Turbo, Ruf managed to get first 520 and later 580 hp from the car’s 3.6-liter engine. The body featured lightweight Kevlar, while suspension and braking were both seriously upgraded. Reaching 217 mph, a Ruf was again the fastest production car in the world, ahead of the Jaguar XJ220. Only the McLaren F1 could knock the CTR2 off its perch when it hit a remarkable 241 mph in 1998.

2017 CTR

To mark 30 years since it took the world by storm with the original CTR, Ruf launched its successor. Powered by a twin-turbo 3.6-liter flat-six, the 2017 CTR produced 710 horsepower, but its biggest innovation was its carbon fiber monocoque–the first of its kind to feature in a rear-engine car. “The concept for the 2017 CTR is one that I have had in my head for a very long time,” said Alois Ruf. “We have been waiting for the right point in our history to build our own car and the 30th anniversary of the CTR ‘Yellow Bird’ is that moment.” The CTR weighed just 2640 lbs, could hit 62 mph from rest in under 3.5 seconds, pass 125 mph in less than nine seconds, and max out at 225 mph.

2023 CTR3 Evo

Today’s Ruf flagship adds extra spice to the 2017 recipe. Now running a dry-sumped 3.8-liter engine, there’s 800 hp and 730 lb-ft of torque to play with. That’s all sent to the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. It wears ceramic disc brakes all around, pushrod suspension, and it comes with a top speed of 236 mph. Priced from around $1.5 million it “takes our iconic supercar to the next level,” says Ruf.

***

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A new cylinder head kit from Britain’s Swindon Powertrain gives a mighty boost to 964- and 993-chassis, air-cooled Porsche 911s.

The company’s M64 head adds an extra two valves per cylinder and is said to “unlock substantial increases in both power and torque.” Swindon Powertrain’s testing shows that inlet peak flow is increased by 40 percent while exhaust peak flow is upped by 66 percent.

The new head is cast from A356 aerospace-grade aluminum and the heads and cam chests are CNC-machined by the company that built engines for the last three British Touring Car Championship winners. It weighs around seven pounds less than the original 993 unit as well.

In addition to the head, there are titanium inlet and exhaust valves with springs, caps, collets, shims, finger followers, and shafts, plus camshafts, cam covers, and timing drive input. Extra options include a power steering drive to enable the use of the 993’s production system, custom pistons designed to take full advantage of the increased breathing efficiency, inlet porting, and bespoke cam profiles.

Opt for all the goodies and your 964 or 993 will safely rev to 12,000 rpm!

“Factory cylinder heads traditionally held back worthwhile gains for the traditional oversquare Porsche air-cooled flat-six engines,” says Raphaël Caillé, managing director at Swindon Powertrain. “Our extensive research and development programme enabled us to eliminate the compromise to create arguably, the ultimate cylinder head for an air-cooled 911. Using the latest innovations in materials alongside CNC machining to F1 tolerance standards, our cylinder heads transform an air-cooled engine. The improved breathing and ability to rev, unleash the potential to experience your 911 like never before.”

The kit costs £29,950 ($36,300) plus taxes and comes with a 12-month warranty.

***

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Patrick Dempsey, one of the fastest men in Hollywood, is to drive a custom-built Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS in the epic Carrera Panamericana road race.

The car has been built to commemorate milestones in the history of Porsche and watchmaker TAG Heuer. 70 years ago two customer teams entered the gruelling Mexican event driving Porsche 550 Coupes, while ten years later Jack Heuer unveiled a timepiece targeted at racers called the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph.

Actually, two TAG Heuer x Porsche—Legends of Panamericana vehicles were assembled by the Stuttgart firm’s Sonderwunsch department and are styled to pay homage to the racers of 1953. Painted in Le Mans Silver Metallic, they wear TAG Heuer and classic Mobil-inspired livery and the racing numbers 152 and 154.

Inside there are Guards Red leather seats and cross stitching in the green, white and red of the Mexican flag. Most notably there are a pair of TAG Heuer stopwatches mounted in the center console so that Dempsey and his co-driver can keep tabs on their stage times during this year’s race.

Dempsey will driver car 154 on the first two stages of the Carrera Panamericana which begins October 13 in Veracruz, Mexico and covers some 2000 miles before reaching the finish in Nuevo León on October 19. Car number 152 is set to be auctioned for charity in 2024.

“With TAG Heuer and Porsche, the Carrera Panamericana brought together two brands that have so much in common: innovation, a passion for racing, and making dreams come true. We want to celebrate our partnership with this pair of one-off cars. It’s also a gift to our many enthusiastic customers in Latin America,” says Robert Ader, Head of Marketing at Porsche AG.

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Porsche has chosen the seventh Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca, California to release its hottest track tool of the 992 era.

The 911 GT3 R rennsport is based on the GT3 R but gets a host of unique parts. Visually, it’s a throwback to the seven-time Daytona-winning Brumos Porsche 935/77 thanks to its stupendous rear wing, with vertical struts inspired by the 962. The wide-bodied shell is made entirely from carbon fiber and sits on a stretched wheelbase. Aero-enhancing fins and larger air intakes all aid on-track performance, while side mirrors have been ditched in favour of cameras to reduce drag. It sits lower to the ground on shortened springs and rides on 18-inch BBS alloys, shod with purpose-designed Michelin racing rubber.

Available in seven colorways the car can also be ordered with three different liveries: Rennsport Reunion Design, inspired by Laguna Seca’s iconic Corkscrew corner, Flacht Design, named after the German HQ of Porsche motorsports, and Speed Icon Design, featuring shades of blue to exaggerate the car’s width.

“Porsche has been shaped by its rich history,” says Thorsten Klein, Style Porsche Project Manager for the GT3 R rennsport. “This is especially true in racing. This has subsequently inspired us, of course, but by no means did we want to produce a copy or an obvious retro paint job. The three options we selected are new interpretations that are realistic and not some blatant nod to the brand’s history.”

Inside, the GT3 R rennsport is stripped back to the basics, with just a single driver’s bucket seat and no air conditioning to save weight. There’s a unique numbered plaque, a pair of screens to replace the mirrors and an FIA-specification roll cage.

That said, Porsche actually “cast aside all constraints of the FIA GT3 regulations” when building the rennsport. Its 4.2-liter flat-six has been fettled to deliver 620 horsepower and stretch to a redline of 9400 rpm. The car’s specific output is “a record for a naturally aspirated engine of a GT racing car,” says Porsche. Find a long enough straightaway and it will max out at 196 mph, compared to the GT3 R’s 184 mph.

A six-speed sequential constant mesh transmission sends power to the rear-wheels and has been geared the same as Porsche’s GT3 would be for Daytona. It’s also been designed to run on bi-ethanol and e-fuels should its owners wish to reduce their carbon footprints as they hurtle around a track. It’s available with a straight-through exhaust or with silencer and catalytic converter so that buyers can choose based on the noise rules at their favorite circuits.

“The new Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport offers the experience of driving a 911-based racing car in what is probably the most primal form,” says Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Motorsport. “It gives you goose bumps whenever you look at it and combines the finest motorsport technology with a design language that is typical of Porsche.”

Just 77 GT3 R rennsports will find lucky owners, and with all sold this weekend’s Rennsport Reunion may well be the only chance to see one in the wild.

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The Goodwood Revival took place last weekend, and as ever, the cars were sublime, the racing superb, the period dress perfect, and the highlights videos a treat. This week we’re looking into the best from the event, including this action from the Fordwater Trophy.

Few road cars are more closely associated with racing than the Porsche 911, and this year’s Fordwater Trophy at the Goodwood Revival saw a whole fleet of them vying for the same patch of asphalt—and, occasionally, for some of Goodwood’s carefully trimmed grass runoff.

Thirty cars formed the Fordwater grid, including a few 901s—ones that sneaked out through the factory gates in the ’60s before Peugeot politely coughed and reminded Porsche that the French firm had a trademark on model names with a zero in the middle.

Not all 30 returned, however: An early retiree was renowned Porsche builder and rallyist Richard Tuthill, who met the barriers early on. Oliver Webb took an early lead before Tuthill’s incident, with a spectacular pass around the outside at Woodcote, and took off again once the safety car peeled in.

That lead would come to an end as the pit stops for driver changes began, with early stopper Matthew Holme climbing out and former touring car champ Andrew Jordan stepping in. Jordan set a pace that nobody else could match and took a fairly unchallenged victory.

One highlight was watching former F1 pilot Mark Webber fold himself into his 911’s cozy cockpit and then go on a charge. He brought his car home in an impressive fifth place, avoiding some of the chaos going on elsewhere—something almost inevitable with more than two dozen near-identical cars going ’round.

It wasn’t just the racing that was notable at this year’s Fordwater though; this was also the first race in the Revival’s history where all cars were powered by synthetic fuels—possibly pointing to a future for the entire event, as the world and transportation wean themselves off fossil fuels.

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Germany’s plan to announce a multi-country initiative that would back e-fuels, thus allowing some internal combustion cars to stay on the road in the shadow of the Europe Union’s ongoing electric mandates, fell so flat that Germany didn’t even present its case as it had planned at the Munich auto show, according to an article by Politico.

“Efforts by Transport Minister Volker Wissing to persuade countries to sign up to a statement meant to be announced at the show backing synthetic e-fuels as an option for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars was scrapped because of disagreements on the proposed text,” the story said.

“A draft of the declaration obtained in advance of the show by Politico asked signatories to pledge to invest in new e-fuel plants; to share know-how, and to defend ‘technological neutrality’ in the development of clean vehicle technology—shorthand for refusing to purely rely on batteries to decarbonize road transport.”

But in the end, “only three countries backed Wissing—the Czech Republic and Japan, both big carmakers, along with Morocco, which is hopeful of commercializing its vast potential to use solar and wind power to generate green hydrogen. That prompted Berlin to drop the effort, according to two industry officials with knowledge of the declaration.” It may be surprising that Italy didn’t sign, after Ferrari said it backs e-fuels.

Wissing did tout the benefits of e-fuels, which are made with captured carbon dioxide plus hydrogen obtained from clean electricity and can be used in traditional combustion engines. “A successful market ramp-up of e-fuels requires comprehensive political support–worldwide,” Wissing said following a press conference with his Czech counterpart Martin Kupka.

“Berlin has pushed hard for EU rules banning the sale of new polluting cars and vans from 2035 to include a loophole for e-fuels. Together with Italy, Germany led a last-ditch effort earlier this year to include language allowing the synthetic fuels.” The effort is “seen as a way of preserving at least parts of Germany’s world-leading internal combustion engine industry.”

The e-fuel exemption is still a work in progress, Politico says. “The [European] Commission plans to consult member states in the coming weeks in view of a vote … later this year,” said Tim McPhie, a spokesperson for the Commission which, together with the European Council, forms the executive branch of the European Union. “After that, the act will be subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council.”

That doesn’t mean that at least one German company, Porsche, isn’t pushing for e-fuels on its own. The company, which has said it hopes to build ICE cars for as long as possible, has invested $75 million in a company in Chile that will build a plant to make e-fuel.  

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I meant well when I showed up at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday morning for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. I really did. I had multiple talks with my editor, Grace Houghton, about the stories that I would write based on my day at the race track, the first time I’d ever attended this famous vintage racing event in Monterey, California. We had a plan—well thought-out, tactical, and ripe for execution. It was going to be great.

Then I was there, at Laguna Seca, and a 1969 Ferrari 312P came shrieking past. The sound of its 3.0-liter V-12 completely melted my brain.

There is nothing quite like vintage racing. Among the annual gatherings the world over, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion (“Rolex Reunion,” for short) is in the upper echelon. Every type of race car, from old prewar metal to high-tech machines barely a decade old, storms the 11 turns of Laguna Seca with a ferocity that will make you weak in the knees. It’s one of the few chances to see your motorsports heroes—any and all of them—run flat-out. If you have even an ounce of interest in racing, cars, or history, you absolutely will not be able to peel yourself away from the track.

At the Rolex Reunion, cars are separated into classes based on time period and racing series. Vehicles run throughout the weekend, but Saturday is entirely racing—out laps, rolling starts, and then 10 laps of fury for each group.

I showed up midway through the first group, eager to find my photo vest and to tail Hagerty’s senior editor and camera wizard Brandan Gillogly around like a happy, dumb puppy. The first group we saw run flag to flag was the 1961–71 FIA Manufacturers Championship—basically anything that would have run at Le Mans, Daytona, and a host of other locales around the globe during one of racing’s most innovative periods.

Alongside that V-12-powered Ferrari, there were V-8 machines like the Ford GT40 and Lola T70 as well as all sorts of flat-six-powered Porsche 911s, and even a straight-six-powered BMW 3.0 CSL. The noises—my god, the noises—were as diverse as the cars, each a snapshot into the mindsets of a brand as it sought to build a  name for itself on the track. The experience was magical, a haze of noise and color and scent that left me temporarily without recollection of where, or when, I was.

We were transported to several different time periods before lunch. Following the ’60s racers, open-wheel and single-seat Grand Prix cars from as far back as 1927–1955 took the track. Watching the drivers steer these machines—many of which rode on tires that could pass as mountain-bike rubber—with their whole bodies was mesmerizing. Their pace wasn’t anything to sniff at, either: I watched a fearless pilot drift a 1928 Bugatti Type 37A around the Andretti Hairpin, wringing the blue machine for everything it had.

As the open-wheelers exited the track, I turned to Brandan, mumbling something about walking the pits to see machinery up close and scope out an interview or two. Then a 1987 Protofab Corvette driven by famous Corvette ace Ron Fellows snarled past, its soundtrack all V-6 and spooling turbo. Brandan and I both dropped our cameras from our eyes, mouths and eyes wide open. “What was that?!”

Fellows absolutely pulverized the field, which consisted of cars from IMSA’s GTO and Trans Am class from 1981 to ’91. The other cars in the mix—Motorcraft-liveried Fox-body Mustangs, Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams, a Buick Somerset, even a Merkur XR4Ti—were just as riveting.

I dashed from my perch at turn two to dump a memory card in the media center. As I ran back to my spot, worried I would miss something on-track, I suddenly realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had drunk any water. In the California desert, especially in full August sun, dehydration is not your friend. I chugged a bottle of water, then booked it back to the track.

I found a new vantage point to watch the 1972–81 FIA and IMSA class, which held all manner of machines, from a handful of Porsche 935s to Lola open-canopy prototypes to a Datsun 240Z. Watching the drivers manage the immense speed deltas between types of machinery was intense; thankfully, nobody wadded a car. Somewhere on the track, however, the 1979 Porsche 935 of Bruce Canepa met something with enough force to chew up the front right corner of the car. Of course, Canepa charged on anyway, the damage merely a bit of added war paint. I fist-pumped as he hammered by in the closing laps.

If the previous class was all about differing powertrain philosophies, the Can-Am class that followed was an exercise in the dark art of downforce. These wedge-shaped monsters get grippier with speed. Between their bodywork and the big-block V-8s powering many of the cars, they posted some of the day’s highest corner speeds.

If I’d had any doubts about how sincere the folks running these cars were about their passion for motorsports, seeing Zak Brown—yes, that guy, the Team Principle for McLaren’s Formula 1 team—pound a papaya orange 1970 McLaren M8D through turn four erased the thought entirely. The guy was movin’ around Laguna.

We paused to eat lunch for all of maybe 15 minutes before my FOMO dragged me back trackside. I’d been told not to miss the class that ran just after they sang the National Anthem at 1:30. Whoever gave me that mandate—your name is just one of a thousand things that I forgot that day, my apologies—I owe you a beer. Or fifty.

The Historic Trans-Am class, consisting of cars from 1966 to ’72, is without a doubt the best race of the day. Picture all of the classic American muscle cars we know and love engaged in a 10-lap, bare-knuckle brawl. “You might see more overtakes in these 10 laps than you have in the last 10 sessions combined,” crooned the announcer as a field of 32 (!) cars rumbled past on the out lap.

To watch them, Brandan and I scurried out to the Corkscrew, Laguna’s most famous corner combination (8 and 8A), a drop of 59 feet over 450 feet of track. “Green flag is out, listen to these machines thunder past!” came the call over the loudspeaker.

Parnelli Jones. Dan Gurney. Peter Gregg. Chevrolet Camaro. Ford Mustang. The Gray Ghost. AMC Javelin. Penske. Shelby. If a name looms large in the pantheon of 1960s American motorsports history, it was accounted for in this field. I’d only ever read about these cars before, maybe perused a handful of YouTube videos to watch some of the action. Photos, videos, and words do the machines little justice compared to the sight of the real things backing through the on-camber turn nine, just after the Corkscrew.

You feel the noise in your chest whenever more than two of cars charge past. Imagine trying to mediate a fistfight between a silverback gorilla and a white rhino; that’s probably about what each driver was experiencing as their cars’ roaring V-8s did their best to peel the rubber from the rear wheels. Having to call it quits after just 10 laps was an immense bummer—I would have watched them run for hours.

Then again, I’m not sure. The combination of August sun, completely uncorked excitement, too little water (I might miss a hero car!), and sleep deprivation caught up to me. Dizzy and nauseous, I hailed a ride back to my hotel. Once back, the little food I had eaten that day promptly left the way it came.

A bit wilty, I began to thumb through the thousands of pictures on my camera, suddenly realizing that my carefully laid plans for the day had been vaporized before I could finish the morning’s breakfast burrito. But then again, even my lofty expectations had fallen short of the real thing. I chuckled at my own naivety and began scheming a way to do it all again next year.

Well, maybe not all of it.

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Mention Porsche to anyone, and their first thought almost certainly involves some sort of 911. The swooping sports car has anchored Porsche’s lineup (and its lore) for 60 years, and well over a million units have hit the road since its inception in 1963, covering every nook and cranny of the market. There is no Porsche without the 911.

This much was plainly evident at the ninth annual Porsche Werks Reunion Monterey, held at the Monterey Pines Golf Club near the airport. The show’s main grounds hosted 911s of all shapes and sizes, from early first-gen (1963–72) cars to svelte G-body (1973–89) cars to modern 992s (2019–now), and every rare or eccentric model in between.

But the event also featured scores of other cars proudly bearing the Porsche crest on their hoods, hind ends, or fenders. Below is a round-up of eight particularly charming Porsches that are not the 911, all of which showed up for Werks Reunion Monterey. Some of these are specific cars, while others are a collection of a specific model. Similarly, some are bone-stock, nearly preservation-grade rides, while others caught my eye due to their tasteful—or downright ambitious—modifications. There was only one rule here: A 911 was a no-no!

1986 Porsche 944 Turbo

Produced from 1982 to 1991, the Porsche 944 was an example of making lemonade from lemons. It was based on the 924, a strange and somewhat maligned collaboration between Porsche and Volkswagen to produce a front-engined sports car. The 944 was an evolution of the 924, better in every way, and more than 163,000 were produced over its lifespan, which made it, at the time, Porsche’s most successful sports car to date.

In 1986, Porsche opted to turbocharge the 944’s 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder, creating the 944 Turbo. The car pictured here is an ’86, owned by Erik Wayne Lunn of Pleasanton, California. As Lunn tells it, when he acquired the car back in 2018, it wasn’t what he was originally looking for. “I kind of fell into the Porsche world,” he explained. “I was trying to buy a Lotus Seven at the time, but a deal fell apart. A friend of mine said, ‘Have you considered a Porsche?'” He had, but only briefly.

Then, this car came across his desk. It was in fair shape but had its share of mechanical issues. Lunn set about refreshing and modifying the car to fit his vision—he called it modifying for “sports purpose.” The car now boasts a built engine producing somewhere around 280 horsepower—a fair bump from the 217-hp rating these things carried from the factory. It has plenty of suspension work as well, including a rear torsion bar delete, Koni adjustable shocks at all four corners, new strut braces front and rear, a Club Sport steering wheel, and 18-inch forged wheels. “[I did] everything you can do to sharpen these, and now it’s an absolutely delightful car to throw around.”

1971 Porsche 914/6 Tribute

Porsche and Volkswagen have had their fair share of joint projects over the years, perhaps none as recognizable as the 914 sports car. Upon the 914’s 1970 debut, it featured two engines: A 1.7-liter air-cooled flat-four from Volkswagen making 80 hp, or a 2.0-liter air-cooled flat-six making 110 hp, cribbed from the contemporary Porsche 911 T. Slow sales of the pricer Porsche-powered 914, dubbed the 914/6, led to the six-pot model being discontinued in 1972.

This car, owned by Bruce and Carmie Brincka of Folsom, California, began life as a 1.7-liter 914/4. “Growing up, I sat in the back seat of my dad’s 911, so I loved that [flat-six] sound” Brincka explained. “My sister bought a 914 when I was young, and I ended up loving both cars for different reasons. But I always gravitated toward the looks of the 914.”

This is Bruce’s third 914, but the first one to feature that flat-six sound he loved. In place of the little four-pot, the blazing orange 914 now boasts a 3.2-liter flat-six from a 1988 911 Carrera. It’s paired with a 915 manual gearbox from 1986. “A friend of mine actually built this car,” he explained. “It was on the East Coast for a while, but I had the chance to buy it back.”

Additional modifications include flared fenders at all four corners, Maxilite Fuchs wheels, front brakes from a Porsche Boxster, and new shocks front and rear. Inside, a smattering of houndstooth fabric accents the seats and door panels. There are practical mods, too, like the center console that Bruce fabricated for day-to-day comfort. “My wife told me, ‘I’m tired of holding the drinks!'” That awesome roadway carpet up front? “That’s there so my grandkids have a place to play when we go to car shows.” Who says fun and family-friendly can’t exist in a two-door, mid-engined sports car?

1958 Porsche 356A T2 Speedster

In 1956, Porsche unveiled the 356A, a comprehensively revamped version of the 356 that is widely regarded as Porsche’s first mass-market automobile. Max Hoffman, the famed businessman and car importer from New York City, bent Porsche’s ear and suggested that it make a no-frills, open-top version of the 356A called the “Speedster” for the American market. The Speedsters were well received, but most of them were sold, used hard as race cars, and then discarded.

Luckily, the car seen here, owned by Steve Raucher of California, escaped that fate. It’s a 1958 model, the last year of the Speedster run. Raucher’s research showed that this example was produced about 150 Speedsters before the final unit rolled off the line.

It may not have been used and discarded, but this 356A Speedster has still seen its fair share of drama. Raucher’s late father, a highly-regarded West Coast 356 authority, purchased the car in 1974, after it had spent its early days in Honolulu, Hawaii, and then in Colorado. About two months after his father purchased it, it was stolen in the Los Angeles area by a circle of thieves notorious for targeting Porsche 356s. The car, originally painted Tangerine Orange, was repainted to the navy seen here, and the original bumpers were removed. The thieves flared the fenders as well (Raucher has since repaired them) to further obscure the car.

The elder Raucher ended up taking out an ad in a local collector car magazine asking for help finding the car. Eventually, he was contacted by one Bruce Canepa—yes, the guy who founded the custom and refurbishing shop famous for its work on all sorts of Porsches—who said he may have spotted the car in the Santa Cruz mountains. Sure enough, with the help of Raucher’s father, the Santa Cruz police organized a sting on the small shop where Canepa had spotted the car, busting up the ring of thieves in the process.

The car returned to Steve’s father’s possession, albeit now decidedly unoriginal. Rather than lament the Porsche’s somewhat beleaguered state, Raucher embraced it, going full “outlaw.” The car now boasts disc brakes and an air-cooled flat-four from a ’66 912. “It’s a mixture of original and reproduction modified,” explained Raucher. There’s a fiberglass headrest cover over the soft top, but it looks right at home. “I wanted the car to look a little racier, so I had this piece custom-made. In period, a lot of the cars that raced looked this way.”

Raucher is planning to strip the paint and return the car to its original color scheme soon, but in the meantime, we’re happy to appreciate it for how it looks now.

Overlanding-ready Porsche Cayennes

This one isn’t a specific car, but rather, a growing trend within the Porsche community that has been spearheaded by a somewhat controversial model. Hindsight is 20/20, but the Cayenne is widely regarded as the reason Porsche can still build the 911—and the 718 Boxster and Cayman twins, and scores of other neat sports cars—today. And it’s not like the Cayenne wasn’t a seriously capable machine from the get-go.

The Cayenne S, specifically, seems to be the popular one to utilize for an overlanding build. It boasted a two-speed transfer case, a locking center differential, and an optional rear locker.

Porsche Palm Springs built the blue and white example seen in the first picture of this gallery. Christian Cirillo, a technician at the dealership, explained how this 2008 Cayenne S went from an on-road cruiser to an off-road monster. “[The Cayenne] was in typical second-hand condition when we got our hands on it,” he explained. “A little rough around the edges, in need of some work.”

Cirillo and his team fitted the Cayenne with Bilstein coilovers, Eurowise upper control arms to give the suspension more articulation, and the 33-inch Mickey Thompson tires that you see here. “It rides a lot better [with the modifications],” said Cirillo. “It’s night and day, this thing at high speed just soaks up the bumps.”

His team didn’t just call it good with a shock and tire package, though. They also fitted the Porsche with a roof-top tent and a hitch-mounted bike rack—upon which a Porsche E-bike sits—as well as a front bumper with four additional Hella lights.

The other Cayennes in this gallery were either elsewhere on the show field, or just tucked away in the parking area. As overlanding continues to gain traction, expect these sorts of builds to follow suit.

1957 Porsche 356A Carrera GT

In the early 1950s, a talented young engineer named Ernst Fuhrmann created a highly advanced engine that would kickstart Porsche’s dominance in the world of motorsports. The “Fuhrmann Four-Cam” engine was a 1.5-liter, air-cooled flat-four with four overhead camshafts driven by bevel-gear shafts that turned off a central crank. The skunkworks engine went on to propel the 550 Spyder to remarkable victories in everything from hill climbs to Le Mans.

In 1954, the engine made its way into a run of Porsche 356s, which took on the “Carrera” moniker, named after the grueling Carrera Panamericana race. Those 356 Carreras are some of the most sought-after cars in Porsche’s history.

This car, now owned by Gregg Blue of Maui, Hawaii, was put into storage in Brooklyn, New York, in 1969, where it remained until 2016. It’s one of the few known completely original Carreras left in existence—original paint, original Fuhrmann Four-Cam engine, and original interior.

That hasn’t stopped Blue from enjoying the car immensely—he’s put over 23,000 miles on it in the last five years, driving road rallies and to and from shows all over the country. (Peep those front license plates, stacked one atop the other!)

Despite its similarity to Steve Raucher’s 356A, this one made the list because how can you not tip your cap to someone enjoying such a special machine so voraciously?

1987 Porsche 928 S4

By the mid-1970s, slumping sales of the 911 coupled with the oil crisis of the 1970s had Porsche executives toying with the idea of a replacement car that combined certain elements of a luxury grand tourer with traits of a sports car. The resulting car, the 928, heralded a number of firsts for the brand. Namely, it was the first V-8-powered model from Porsche.

This car, owned by Jeff Mohler and his daughter, of San Jose, California, was purchased in 2015 for $1000 as a parts car. The Porsche had already undergone extensive restoration work by the previous owner, but Mohler and his daughter took things a step further, rebuilding some of the mechanicals and commissioning a full repaint in 2017. The car is now a daily driver, going out on weekend adventures as well as taking part in NASA HPDE track days at the hands of Mohler’s daughter.

In fact, she’s so smitten by the car, that she ended up buying her own 1985 928 when she turned 16. Additionally, she eventually enrolled at the Universal Technical Institute to further her automotive technician dreams, even being accepted into a highly competitive Porsche Technology Apprenticeship Program (PTAP). In that program, she gained experience disassembling and reassembling every Porsche model, including a test mule for the 918 Spyder. Mohler credits her for much of the work that has led to this black 928 S4 appearing in the condition it does today.

1986–88 Porsche 959

Considered to be the most technologically advanced car of its time, the Porsche 959 was an absolute stunner—in person and on track. The 959 began life as a Group B rally car, replete with a high-tech all-wheel-drive system that featured dynamic torque vectoring and adaptive suspension. The race car debuted in 1983 at the Frankfurt motor show, while the road-going version, created to satisfy the FIA’s homologation rules at the time, debuted two years later at the same event. Numerous issues ultimately delayed delivery of the road-going versions for more than a year, and the first ones didn’t reach customers until 1987.

The sequential, twin-turbocharged 2.8-liter flat-six engine was a derivative of the four-cam, 24-valve powerplant used in Porsche’s vaunted 956 and 962 race cars. It produced 444 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque, which, when coupled with the remarkably aerodynamic bodywork, allowed street 959s to reach speeds of 197 mph. Some variants could achieve an eye-watering 211 mph.

Porsche built just 337 959s, including 37 prototypes and pre-production models. The 959s are some of the most sought-after Porsches in existence today, largely because of what they did to push the brand forward in terms of performance and technology.

2004–2006 Porsche Carrera GT

It’s not a stretch to say that the Porsche Carrera GT was the spiritual successor to the 959. It was ambitious, advanced, and it caused plenty of ripples in the industry when it debuted. The Carrera GT featured a 603-hp, 5.7-liter V-10 engine that was originally developed in the early 1990s for a Formula 1 team, but was later shelved. The carbon-fiber monocoque chassis was extremely futuristic at the time, and the car employed all sorts of exotic materials and engineering, including inboard-mounted pushrod suspension.

Anytime you get to see one of these beasts in public is a special day. Porsche had originally planned to build 1500 units, but a change to U.S. airbag regulations cut that run short. In August 2005, Porsche announced that it would not continue production through the end of 2006 as originally planned. When production drew to an end in May 2006, just 1270 of the planned 1500 had been sold. Just 644 made their way to the U.S.

The combination of rarity, the gorgeous purple paint job, and the remarkable white interior landed this one a rightful spot on the list.

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It might be down the Porsche purists’ pecking order but the 914 is following on from the 911 and 912 by attracting the attention of resto-modders.

Fifteen Eleven Design, based in the Derbyshire, U.K. town of Bakewell that’s most famous for its tarts, has done far more than simply tart up the targa-topped Porsche.

Even in its most potent two-liter six-cylinder form, the 914 could only muster 110 hp, but Fifteen Eleven Design has squeezed a 3.8-liter six from the Cayman behind the seats. What’s more the British firm, which is part of multiple World Rally Championship winning Mellors Elliot Motorsport, has reworked the motor with forged pistons, a Life Racing ECU, drive-by-wire throttle, stainless steel exhaust, and other mods which means it now makes 400 horsepower.

A six speed manual transmission is fitted, and the chassis has had a major upgrade to a Cayman-based suspension system with Reiger adjustable coilovers. T45 tubular steel has been used to stiffen and strengthen the entire structure of the car, and braking is by Porsche Brembo calipers with cross-drilled discs and an AP Racing pedal box.

Eighteen-inch Fuchs wheels are installed and the 914’s body has been remade in carbon fiber allowing for a wider stance and a redesigned hood and bumper that aid with cooling. At the rear a cute ducktail spoiler adds a little downforce.

Inside there’s more room than an original 914 thanks to a redesigned bulkhead, and the cabin is trimmed in leather, with figure-hugging Recaro seats.

We first reported on Fifteen Eleven’s plans for the 914 back in 2021 and finally “Our vision has finally become a reality,” says Managing Director of Fifteen Eleven Design Ben Mellors. “The Fifteen Eleven Design Porsche 914 has taken longer than we expected but it’s not an exaggeration to say that we have strived for and delivered perfection in every area of the build; that of course takes time.”

The Fifteen Eleven Design Porsche 914 can be specified in left or right-hand drive and order books are open now.

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Here’s an Automotive Journalist Hard Truth: You get jaded in this line of work. Not by choice, and not all at once, but it does happen. Talk to anyone who covers this world in some capacity, and I promise you there is a car they used to go nuts over that barely elicits an, “Oh, that’s cool,” now. One day, the car you used to obsess over rolls past, and you don’t even attempt to take your phone out.

I palmed my iPhone Wednesday afternoon as I stepped onto the tarmac at the Monterey airport. Force of habit, but also a test run, spurred on by uncertainty over how many times the device would escape its fabric prison to help freeze a moment in time over the next six days. Optimistically, I hoped that Monterey Car Week would prove to be an antidote for an enthusiasm that had been somewhat tempered by the rolling pin of life. Truthfully, I wasn’t so sure.

Once I got home and had a bit of time to decompress, I checked my photo roll from Wednesday to Sunday evening: 1246 photos, 58 videos. On my DSLR camera, the cards read north of 5100.

At the risk of stating the obvious: There is absolutely nothing like Monterey Car Week. For roughly seven days, the winding roads and towns nestled into the misty coastline of Monterey, California explode with a crop of cars so rich and so diverse that you feel like you got dropped into a David Attenborough documentary blended with Pixar’s Cars franchise. Everything, and everyone, everywhere you look, bleeds passion for the automobile in a truly heartening way.

Things crystallized for me before the first morning’s breakfast reached my gut. I was a guest of Cadillac this week, and our first full day there involved a cruise up and down the Pacific Coast Highway in the brand’s svelte debut EV, the Lyriq. As we rolled away from the hotel and towards historic Highway 1, I began to notice the cars lining the streets. They weren’t exotic metal, but rather, ordinary cars, helmed by perfectly ordinary people.

Trucks with folding chairs and coolers in the bed. Camrys with the trunks open, inhabitants folded into only semi-comfortable looking poses. Some had cameras, sure, but many more were simply there to gawk at whatever came rolling around the bend, hoping to catch a glimpse of something that got their heart pumping.

And they had no shortage of choices to get excited over. During our 100-ish-mile tour, we were passed by everything from vintage Camaros to a McLaren F1 GTR Longtail (!!!) to a Bugatti Chiron to a handful of the historic vehicles that would take their rightful places later that week in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Car Week’s marquee event.

Everyone at the wheel of a significant car—and you can set your own parameters for that qualification—was full of smiles, ready to wave to those posted up and watching. The egalitarian nature of the cruise sat in my brain like a happy marine layer; sure, that Ferrari 250 GT SWB might be worth several million dollars, but no price tag can buy it a pass around the ratty Miata two cars ahead. Might as well sit back and enjoy the processional. A smile and a friendly wave don’t carry a transactional value—they’re just acknowledgments of the common bond between those who scraped to buy one car they enjoy and those whose collections fill entire warehouses.

The next day, I had the chance to attend the Porsche Werks Reunion, a marque-specific show held on Friday at the Monterey Pines golf course. The free-to-attend event (there’s a fee for parking inside the event, but plenty of folks found nearby lots to walk in from) is unmitigated Stuttgart, celebrating the brand’s rich history, passionate owners, and rabid fans.

We enthusiasts are remarkably tribal, a reality that both fuels and stymies enthusiasm for the automobile. You’d think the parking lot of a Porsche event would hold, well, Porsches. And it did—several hundred, by my unscientific estimation. But it also held Lamborghinis, Ferraris, drift-ready Nssain 240 SXs, lifted Toyota Land Cruisers, heavy-duty pickups, and bone-stock 2022 Nissan Altimas. It felt like an armistice had been called between the factions; everyone just wanted to see cool cars.

There was no armistice at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, however. Seeing aces like Ron Fellows slicing through the fields of unforgettable race cars blew me away. So much so, in fact, that I’m writing a separate story on it. Stay tuned.

Of course, Monterey Car Week is centered around Sunday’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. This year, the swanky show featured 200 cars spread across 27 classes, each celebrating an automotive milestone or highlighting some of the hobby’s grandest eras. The night before, I dialed up Eddy Eckart’s story from last year’s event, which read as a lovely ode to the diversity of the hobby. I was hopeful that the following day would bear similar fruit for a first-timer like me.

I didn’t have to wait long to find my answer. Running on precious few hours of rest, I headed to the bucket-list golf course well before the sun rose to experience Dawn Patrol, one of the Concours’ grandest traditions. I watched as icon after icon rumbled past and headed out to take its place on the lawn.

Buzz and daylight grew in unison as the festivities got underway. Flush with a hearty breakfast and an unmentionable amount of coffee, I headed out to walk this year’s crop. Hand up, I’m not all that familiar with prewar cars, which are often considered the hallmark era for the event. But as I wandered among the preservation-class Packards and the gleaming chrome of the Figoni coachbuilt exotics, it was hard not to get caught up by their exquisite craftsmanship.

I wasn’t the only young enthusiast taken by these beasts, either. Scores of young folks that I would have expected to find swarming the 1994 Lamborghini Diablo SE30 Coupé were also taken by machinery that predated them by several decades. Phones were out everywhere I turned, busy snapping pictures. More impressively, plenty of folks were stopping to ask owners and handlers more details about the cars before them, curiosity trumping generational divides.

As the day drew to a close and confetti cannons emptied over the fenders of the 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster that ultimately took home the coveted Best of Show award, I finally stopped to catch my breath. The cars filtered off the lawn and a single-file line of heroes headed back to waiting transport trucks. I flipped through my phone, trying to re-sear the stunning machines into my psyche. Some of the cars will stick with me forever, others will undoubtedly be relegated to the program that snuck into my suitcase before making the flights home. So it goes.

Strip away the dizzying auction results and the unspoken exclusivity that surrounds so much of this week. When you evaluate what’s left, you’ll see that dollar signs aren’t the metric to use. Rather, check your camera rolls. Hiding among the throngs of photos and videos, the conversations and the moments of exclamation, you might just rediscover that child-like exuberance that first led you to pick up a wrench, a magazine, or a set of keys.

I know I sure did.

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Seminal French house duo Daft Punk released their final album, Random Access Memories, in 2013. Some critics prefer the group’s earlier albums like Homework or Discovery, but many regard the group’s last record as their magnum opus. So what does electronic dance music made by two guys dressed as robots have to do with cars? Well, like Random Access Memories, Porsche’s fourth-generation 911, codenamed 993, was the last of its kind. And while Stuttgart’s earlier air-cooled cars are great, the last iteration is arguably the best one.

Introduced in 1994, the 993 was the most refined 911 yet. It received a completely new aluminum chassis complete with a multi-link “Weissach” rear axle, which made the 993 less sketchy in the corners than earlier 911s. Also new to the all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 models was use of a viscous coupling that could send up to 40 percent of power to the front wheels. Compared to its predecessor’s computer controlled hydraulic unit, the viscous system was less complex and saved on weight.

The 993’s engine was more of an evolution than a revolution. Porsche took the 964’s air-cooled flat six, punched it out to 3.6 liters, added lightened connecting rods and pistons, extended the intake ports, and added lighter and larger valves. All this work was good for 272 glorious-sounding horsepower. Power is channels through a six-speed manual transmission. Car and Driver clocked an impressive 4.7 second 0–60 time with this combination.

Unfortunately, Porsche’s air-cooled engines couldn’t meet upcoming emission standards, and 1998 was the last year for not only the 993, but its unique power plant as well. The 993’s successor, the 996, ushered in Porsche’s water-cooled era.

Porsche produced a total of 68,881 vehicles of the Type 993. Our auction pick of the week is a well preserved Carrera 4 wearing paint-to-sample Silver Metallic over a Classic Grey partial leather interior. Fresh Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires are installed on this 993’s 17-inch Cup II aluminum wheels. Both the interior and exterior show minor wear from traveling an indicated 98,140 miles.

There’s no reserve on this Carrera 4, so make sure to place your bids on the last of the air-cooled 911s. The auction ends Thursday, August 24th at 3:30 pm ET. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

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Plenty of barn finds claim spectacular significance, but few boast provenance like this Porsche 901—officially the final one built before the sports car’s naming convention switched to 911. The car has been transformed from basket case to museum piece by Porsche itself and, as well as laying claim to being the final 901, it’s also the earliest factory-owned example of a… well, let’s call it a Porsche 2+2, rear-engined, flat-six sports car.

As the Porsche 911 turns 60, we’re getting the inside story on this early example’s creation and restoration before jumping behind the wheel.

901, then. When Porsche replaced the 356 with what would become the 911, the new sports car was initially called 901. It appeared at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1963 marketed as such, and 901 badging is clearly visible in period brochures.

But shortly after the 901’s appearance at the Paris Salon in October 1964, Peugeot objected on the grounds it had been inserting a zero between two other numbers since the 201 of 1929. Series production of the new sports car had already begun, but Porsche acquiesced and the cars that were built as 901s were officially delivered as 911s.

“On October 22, 1964, Ferry Porsche said ‘call it 911’ and this car was the last of three cars built that day, of 55 cars built in total to that point,” explains Alexander Klein, manager of the Porsche Museum’s classic car collection.

There are no differences between a 901 and a 911 produced on 23rd October, but 901s have numerous detail differences that were quickly phased out as production ramped up – think more fuzzy boundary than hard cut-off.

After being delivered on 27 November 1964, this final 901 was lost to Porsche for half a century, until researchers from German reality TV series Tröedeltrupp—literally Junk Troop—contacted Klein. A man named Bernd Ibold had been in touch with the show, asking if it might help him offload two old 911s, one red, the other gold. He was in his 70s, still lived in his native East Germany, and had owned both cars for years.

“I asked the researchers for the VINs, and when they said ‘300057’ for the red car, I knew this was a very, very early car,” beams Klein. “I asked them if they were sure, and they read it again – ‘300057’ – so two of my team went to view both cars in a barn in Brandenburg, near Berlin.”

Why is the 55th car’s VIN suffixed with a 57? Because, explains Klein, cars weren’t built sequentially, but rather in batches according to color. Perhaps more perplexingly, even some of Porsche’s official online content still lists total 901 production at 82 units, though Klein assures me this is an error carried over from an older book, where a record was misinterpreted and early 911 builds added to total 901 production.

The VIN, plus numbers on the dashboard and even notes in chalk hidden inside door panels, helped confirm the 901 really was an early model. The gold car, meanwhile, was identified as a 1967 L.

Both cars were in terrible condition, and both were transported back to Stuttgart together with two large crates of spare parts, but the 901 naturally became Porsche’s focus. Along with its general neglect and extensive corrosion, missing parts included both front wings, the front bumper, and a vast majority of the interior.

Produced for the German market, this 901 had two former keepers before garage owner Ibold acquired it as a service car for customers. He worked on it himself and improvised repairs when he was unable to source parts in East Germany, until family life saw both the 901 and the 911 (bought as a restoration project, never completed) relegated to the back of the garage.

“We wanted this to be an empathetic restoration to reflect Bernd’s time with the car and maintain the unique 901 details,” explains Klein. “But in those days, Porsche used to improve car-by-car, they were basically hand-built. There is no period documentation of that, and we had a lot of missing parts, including the engine grille, so we looked at earlier cars and later cars and asked other experts for input because we realize we are not the only ones who know.”

Restoring the 901 without writing over its past was crucial, and this delicate process was managed by Porsche master technician Kuno Werner. The body was stripped and dipped in a chemical bath (gentler than blasting), new metal was let in where required (Werner feared more than half the body was beyond repair, but his initial estimate happily turned out to be pessimistic), and a 1965 donor 911 provided replacement front wings and front bumper, along with additional spare metal.

Finally, the body shell was painted in the original Signal Red with a cathodic dip coating and modern water-based (rather than solvent-based) paint, just like modern 911s. In many ways the 901 is unrecognizable, but telltale clues live on, and even some of Ibold’s welding remains visible. The bodywork alone consumed 12 months.

Exterior details versus later 911s are a spotter’s dream and include different door handles and release pop-ups, slimmer bumper over-riders, and wheel hub mountings from a 904 race car. Porsche even stuck with the leatherette attached between the body and front wing for authenticity—later cars used more durable rubber, helping to prevent rust. They also tracked down an early engine cover to replace the missing part.

“The cover sat higher than later versions, which were flush with the bodywork and you would hurt your hand washing it, which is maybe why they changed it,” explains Klein. “Eventually we found one advertised privately online. We asked the guy to measure it and then we knew it was correct.”

Meanwhile, Porsche Classic refreshed the seized engine, which—like the gearbox—was found to be a period-correct replacement, while work progressed on the interior.

The 901’s steering wheel, dials, and glass were original, but the otherwise barren interior initially caused much head-scratching, until someone realized the seats in the gold 911 had actually been lifted from the 901—the giveaway being houndstooth trim comprising six longitudinal strips to later cars’ five.

Inside, there are other ‘901’ details too, including an ashtray with a wider central hole for cigars, not cigarettes, and headlining stamped with square perforations, not the diamond pattern adopted soon after (Porsche tracked down the original spiked roller tool to make a replacement headlining).

All in, Porsche quotes a total cost of $250,000 (about £200,000) over three years, which rather focuses the mind before our drive in these less than perfect conditions.

The driver’s seat is high-set for a sports car. The aged bolsters easily collapse under my weight, and the steering wheel is large in diameter, with four spokes stretching to the thin wooden rim around the quarter-to-three position. It’s easy to overlook the rear-engined layout in a modern 911, because the centre console is so large, but the 901 is strikingly spare ahead of the gear lever, a visual reminder that there’s no powertrain up there at all, just like the Beetle.

I twist the key and the flat-six settles to that familiar breathy chatter, before I ease in the friendly clutch, slot first gear (down and left on a dogleg) and we’re away.

There’s just 130 bhp and 128 lb-ft from this early 2.0-liter mill, and although a ’60s 911 weighs only about 2250 pounds, it doesn’t feel particularly peppy on first acquaintance—in fact, the 911 switched to shorter ratios from the four-cylinder 912 from July 1965, perking up performance considerably.

Even on this damp day, where a glossy sheen covers the snaking road, it feels improbable I’d unstick the rear tires simply by flattening the throttle, and I’m rather more likely to find trouble by carrying too much entry speed. So it’s reassuring just how much feedback bubbles through the steering as it gently bobs in my hands, constantly communicating grip. The transparency encourages me to work the 901 harder, to use the revs, and soon the flat-six that felt a little flat soars and rasps towards its 6200-rpm peak of performance. That’s more like it.

Build more speed and the front feels strikingly light and glides effortlessly for the apex. The sweetness of the turn-in is partly because there’s so little mechanical baggage over the front end, but these early 911s also had a wheelbase 57-mm shorter than a 1968-on 911, and 165-section 15-inch rubber all-round rather than the staggered setup that debuted on the ’73 RS.

It’s a gorgeous thing to flow down a twisty road like this, but as I park up, I wonder if previous owner Bernd Ibold wasn’t just a little bittersweet when the car that had languished unloved at the back of his garage for years was not only transformed, but rediscovered as one of the most important Porsche 901/911s of all.

“We invited him to lift the sheet off the finished car in our workshop,” reveals Klein. “We were nervous and asked ‘do you remember this car?’ but Bernd remembered all the details. He was close to tears.” He also got to enjoy it again, too, when he co-drove with Tröedeltrupp’s presenter, Otto Schulte, on the Hamburg-Berlin Classic rally.

Turns out Bernd did pretty well out of the sale, too, with Porsche seeking the counsel of two independent experts to agree a fair price. “We paid €107,000 for the 901, and €14,500 for the L,” explains Klein. “We knew the significance, especially of the 901, so we couldn’t rip him off. It was a record for anything sold on the television show.”

Old 911s have changed hands for more, but few have provenance like this last 901. As for the gold 911 L, Porsche plans to keep it in bard-find condition forever more.

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Not one, but two electro-modded classic Porsche 911s are set up cause a kerfuffle in California. Against the backdrop of a Concours d’Elegance where absolute originality is all that counts, the cars from Britain’s Everrati and Connecticut’s Sacrilege Motors are sure to draw crowds.

The big question is whether the masses will be carrying pitchforks or check books. How will traditional classic car enthusiasts react to the removal of a sonorous and characterful flat-six engine in favour of a near-silent drivetrain?

In the case of the rather knowingly-named Sacrilege Motors it’s a 1992 991 America Roadster that receives the EV treatment. A 500-hp single-gear motor is powered by a 62 kWh battery to provide a claimed range of 200 miles and 0-60 acceleration of less than four seconds. Adjustable Penske race shocks and uprated Brembo brakes are fitted to help deal with the car’s 3200-lb weight.

“Our passion for Porsche cars is paramount to this project,” says Bobby Singh, Sacrilege Motors’ president and technical lead. “We want to deliver an analog, air-cooled-era 911 with the reliability and instant power of an EV, while preserving an exhilarating driving experience that’s familiar to air-cooled 911 enthusiasts. Retaining the 911’s best handling characteristics, with added performance and upgraded components, all while reducing its environmental impact, was our ultimate goal. We’ve kept the same weight distribution, which is crucial to the car feeling like a Porsche 911 should.”

Not far down the coast Everrati will be displaying one of the first cars built by U.S. partner Aria Group. The carbon fiber wide-bodied 964 is finished in Mexico Blue and will be exhibited alongside a concours-condition 911 S from 1970—which, for the time being at least, still has its original motor.

“We are excited for visitors to see up close our redefined 911, which represents our mission to future-proof and preserve the most iconic cars ever created, to be enjoyed by future generations,” says CEO Justin Lunny.

On the 75th anniversary of the Porsche 911’s introduction does 2023 mark a turning point for the future of classic cars or will the resistance to electrification be too strong?

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Much has been made of the mass (or rather lack, thereof) of the new Porsche 911 S/T, but if you really want a lightweight neunelfer then Britain’s Theon Design has the solution.

The company’s latest 964 restomod weighs just 2564 lbs wet—or almost 500 pounds less than the new S/T. Almost the entire body is carbon fiber, with just the doors in their original steel for side impact protection, and weight saving measures are everywhere. There’s a Mil-Spec wiring loom threaded through the bodyshell, while electrically powered air conditioning and power steering pumps are lighter and re-positioned low down in the car’s nose for better weight distribution.

The 3.8-liter, normally-aspirated flat-six motor puts out 395 hp at 7350 rpm and 290 lb-ft of torque at 6000 revs with the aid of a new ignition system, Jenvey throttle bodies, and Theon’s own engine management. A ceramic coated exhaust system is switchable so drivers can choose between subdued or screaming sounds.

A Hewland six-speed manual transmission is controlled by an RS gear shifter and delivers drive via a Wavetrac Torsen limited-slip differential. Braking is by a 964 ‘Big Red’ setup and five-stage switchable Tractive dampers are fitted so the car’s dynamic response can be tuned to the road (or track) conditions.

This example is known as GBR001 as it’s actually the first car Theon has built for a British customer. The car’s look, however, has a distinct U.S.-influence with the Slate Grey color scheme being chosen to evoke Steve McQueen’s car in the 1971 classic Le Mans. Inside there are Recaro seats finished in Phantom leather while switches, handles and vents have been cast in aluminum.

Each Theon Design 911 is unique, built to order with prices from around £380,000 ($483,000). Which of the new 911 dynamic duo would you choose to lighten your wallet?

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Powerful, lightweight, high-revving, and packing a manual transmission—the newest 911 is a waking dream for a sports car enthusiast.

It’s more of a reality for very well-to-do sports-car enthusiasts.

To celebrate 60 years of its beloved 911, Porsche has stuck its hottest, naturally aspirated engine into its most svelte 911 body: The 516-hp, 9000-rpm flat-six from the 911 GT3 RS into the understated, wing-less figure of the 911 GT3 Touring. If you don’t get fussy with the order sheet, this manual-only coupe—designated S/T—is the lightest 911 in the current portfolio. Porsche will make one thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three of them, each priced at $291,650.

In case you’re not up to date on your Porsche acronyms, the 911 GT3 RS is the barely street-legal one with the fancy, adjusts-on-the-fly aerodynamic bits. All of the GT3 variants are naturally aspirated; though the turbocharged 911 models make way more horsepower, the GT3 cars are generally favored by the purists for their sharp driving dynamics and nuanced feedback.

The purists are exactly the ones Porsche has in mind with the S/T. And who but the nerdiest of Porsche nerds would know that, in 1969, “S/T” was the internal code for the racing version of the 911 S? (We, ahem, totally knew that.)

To hit that magical 3056-pound figure, Porsche spared no expense. After removing the rear-wheel steering system found in other GT3-line 911s, Porsche reached for the lightest, most exotic materials handy: Magnesium for the center-lock wheels, a carbon-ceramic compound for the brake rotors, and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic for almost every panel ahead of the rear wheels. The rear axle’s anti-roll bar and the stiffening element on the rear axle are carbon-fiber, too. Porsche tapped its engineering department on the shoulder to request a lightweight clutch be developed specifically for this car.

Together with a single-mass flywheel and shortened gear ratios in the six-speed transmission, that clutch does more than save weight; it allows the 516-hp 4.0-liter flat-six to hit its 9000-rpm redline even quicker than before. Porsche says the throttle “responds to input with striking urgency,” a description which suggests to us that Germans are squeamish when it comes to phrases like “pants-crapping quick” in their press materials. Top speed is 186 mph.

Inside, the changes are subtle. You’ll find no back seat, in good GT3 tradition, only a set of carbon-fiber buckets—which you can swap out for four-way adjustable chairs at the cost of zero dollars and an undisclosed number of pounds. The instrument cluster and the dash clock are accented with green. As you might guess, the S/T is way too cool for door handles; you get loops instead, as in the GT3.

Aside from the Gurney flap on the extending rear spoiler, even a keen eye would have a hard time telling an S/T apart from a GT3 Touring. The clues lie on the rear deck, where you’ll find two plaques, one celebrating the 911’s 60th, the other identifying it as a 911 S/T. If that second badge is finished in gold, the discerning owner probably wanted numbers on the side of the car, and a comfier leather interior, all of which come with the optional Heritage Design Package.

Porschephiles at this fall’s Rennsport Reunion will be the first to see the S/T.  Nobody will have the privilege of parking one in their temperature-controlled garage until spring of 2024. Naturally, each also comes with a Porsche-badged watch, logically called the Chronograph 1 – 911 S/T.

Company executives have promised that the 911 will remain combustion-powered for as long as possible; against the background of electrification, we’re cognizant of one thing: even if you can get it at sticker, $291,650 might be the cheapest this finely fettled Porsche will ever be.

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Our man Stefan Lombard stammered a bit when asked how he came up with the idea—which we have gone to enormous lengths to execute—of gathering a 1973 Pontiac Trans Am SD-455 and a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 in the central Texas Hill Country. “They are kind of the same shape,” he began. “Well, they both have ducktails. The Firebird was the pinnacle of Pontiac production, the 911 was the pinnacle of… you know… Porsche.” He’s on a roll now, hand on chin, eyes at the ceiling. “They have enough small similarities that added up in my mind to—it was just kind of a ‘what-if’—plus, it’s Porsche’s 75th anniversary, and there will be a lot of stories, but not this one.”

At least that last part is certain.

You can classify cars a lot of different ways—by make, by body type, by price, by size, by national origin. Here are two cars joined pretty much solely by year. And the fact that they are both coupes. And they both have four seats (the Porsche is debatable on that point). And they both lean on the sporty side. OK, that’s an understatement; the Porsche was as close to a street-legal factory racer as you could buy in 1973, and even crazier cars were ahead in the company’s future, which is what helps make the ’73 RS so ridiculously valuable today. More on that in a minute.

The Pontiac, meanwhile, is also pretty special, practically a factory hot rod championed and steered through GM’s red-tape forest by a dedicated group of engineers. It is one of just 252 Super Dutys built in 1973 and one of just 73 with a four-speed. Plus it was the final act, practically the end of the road for the division’s decade-long craze for shoving its largest engines into its smallest cars. In 1973, the optional $521 Code X engine, the Super Duty 455, had an 8.4:1 compression ratio and was rated at 310 horsepower. Two years later, the Code X was gone, the Code Y 455 offering a pale 200 horsepower via a 7.6:1 compression ratio. By 1978, the big 455 was extinct.

What the ’64 GTO wrought, the ’73 Firebird Trans Am SD-455 effectively finished, as Pontiac’s performance cars thereafter lost their punch to emissions regulations and oil embargoes. Pontiac as a division still had a few good years left in the ’80s and ’90s, but in between, the so-called widetrack Tigers were tamed and shackled into toothless kittens.

Thus, one empire, Porsche, rising; one empire, Pontiac, in decline. Ever has it been so. The Egyptians gave way to the Greeks who gave way to the Romans, all of whom left behind a lot of stuff we would classify as condition #4 or worse. As Pontiac began its long glide toward eventual mothballing in 2010, Porsche ascended to heights in sales and profitability that would have been unimaginable to founder Ferdinand Porsche (as would the modern SUVs that largely did the heavy lifting).

And the troubled year of 1973—sample newspaper headlines: “Nixon Claims History Will Justify Viet War;” “Inflation Our Big Problem Now;” “Cold Weather Could Intensify Energy Crisis;” and “Stories on Watergate, Syphilis Top Journalism Award Winners”—seems as likely a year as any to be considered the crossover point. Hence, this matchup. You’re welcome, Stefan.

On a gloomy Tuesday in March with a blanketing overcast sky bringing forth wind and spurts of rain, we rolled out of Kerrville, Texas, a town about two hours west of the state capital in Austin. The Mooney Aircraft Company once built small planes here with their famously distinctive forward-swept tails. The Porsche and the Pontiac both have rearward-swept tails, plastered with 3-inch-high lettering shouting their names at the traffic. Because you could do that back in the 1970s, pizazz up your most macho models with bright paint and colorful graphics. You could even paste a flaming blue bird on the nose and everyone up to and including the Marlboro Man thought it was cool.

But then, GM was pretty fearless back in those days. Unlike today’s glacially slow ooze of design evolution, the second-gen Camaro/Firebird, delayed until early 1970 after slowdowns caused by a strike, was a clean break from its predecessor. Pontiac’s then-design chief, Bill Porter, and his team channeled European themes by leaning and visually lowering the car while stripping off most of the chrome and traditional Detroit gimcrackery. The new polyurethane front bumpers supplied by Detroit’s McCord Corp. and its Davidson Rubber Division—GM called it the “Endura” bumper when it debuted on the ’68 GTO—had looked somewhat grafted on when it was applied to the ’69 Firebirds. Now, for 1970, the stylists were able to shape a whole new front end around the bumper, crafting a long and low sportster with alluring proportions behind twin flaring nostrils that defined a clean and all-business nose.

Our Trans Am owner, Keith Sasich of Dallas, certainly likes the look. A lifelong drag racer who started in Pontiacs and still owns his first car, a ’67 Firebird 400 that he laid his eager teenage mitts on in 1974, Sasich walked away from a chance to buy a ’73 Super Duty in 1979. The car was $3500, and the mistake haunted him down through the decades. Just a few years ago, he put up his paddle at Barrett-Jackson for the numbers-matching example you see here, adding it to an all-American collection that tilts toward Pontiac and includes a ’69 GTO Ram Air Judge four-speed and a ’71 455 H.O. Judge. “Many a true Pontiac fan wants these cars,” he says of the Super Duty, conceding he probably paid too much (funny, our Porsche owner said the same thing), but hey, what the hell. He really wanted that four-speed, even more than his preferred color of Brewster Green.

There’s nothing subtle about the Firebird, which is all thundery bravado when you pry open the single 800-cfm Rochester Quadrajet to let the 455 (technically, it’s a 456) inhale. The retro remanufactured Goodyear Steelgards fitted to this car can’t maintain grip against the tidal wave of torque any better than the originals did back in the day, and the ’Bird shakes its tail feathers reliably and hilariously at the slightest provocation. Much finesse must have been required for magazine testers to pull out a 13.7-second quarter-mile in period. Hands up, those who think drag racing isn’t hard.

Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac offered 455s in 1973, but because this was old GM, before bean counting all but eliminated the independence of the divisions, the three engines were completely different except for displacement. The cast-iron Super Duty outwardly resembled the Pontiac 455 available in other Firebirds, but Special Projects engineer Herb Adams along with Skip McCully and Tom Nell labored to make the oily innards feature improvements gleaned from NASCAR, NHRA, and Trans-Am racing, all while still meeting new emissions limits. They include thicker internal block bracing, four-bolt main bearing caps for greater crankshaft support, connecting rods and pistons that were forged for more strength, and an 80-psi oil pump for better lubrication at higher revs.

GM’s suits had by this time banned multi-carb induction setups like the famous GTO Tri-Power, so the Super Duty ran the single, lunchbox-size Rochester four-barrel under a Shaker scoop poking through the hood. The twin forward-facing ducts of the lesser Firebird Formula’s hood were said to be better for breathing, but the Shaker, as always, puts on a better show.

GM automatics in this era had developed to a reliable state of creaminess, which helps explain why so few of the Super Dutys were built with a stick in ’73. There’s no particular joy in shifting the Muncie M20 four-speed with its Hurst shifter about as long as a Texas copperhead. Unless, like Sasich, you were raised on them. Mile-long and trucklike throws along with a heavy clutch are what you remember most, as well as the amusing fact that—per some GM lawyer most likely—you can’t pull out the ignition key unless the shifter is moved to reverse. As you do it, you can hear the cables and pulleys of this Rube Goldberg safety interlock sliding and spooling behind the dash, all part of the charm of this rare car.

Everything feels bigger in the Pontiac, especially the expansive dash trim that salesmen claimed at the time was easier to remove thanks to it being mounted with a total of five screws. Lightbulb swaps in the new F bodies were said to take a mere 60 seconds. In contrast, the delicately spoked and leather-wrapped steering wheel seems small for a car weighing close to 2 tons, a lot of it engine. Our relatively gossamer Porsche was fitted with a plastic rim at least an inch larger. But alas, there is power steering, something the Porsche doesn’t have—or need.

That’s because the Carrera’s creators in 1972 targeted a weight for their RS homologation special of slightly under 2000 pounds. As has so often been the case with Porsche, what the company said it was going to do, it did with aplomb. The result is a glorious little corner eater you drive with your fingertips and toes, the center-mounted tach—where else?—effortlessly zinging on a crescendo of air-cooled clamor to its 7200-rpm redline.

The Carrera feels just as small and light as it looks sitting next to the Pontiac, with that classic upright seating position putting you in perfect relation to the pedals and five-speed shifter. If you bemoan the acres of plain, hard plastic in the Trans Am, you won’t find much relief in the spartan Porsche, even though its price new was more than twice that of the Pontiac. This Porsche isn’t a car as much as it is a tool, and to murder a phrase about a hammer, when all you have is a Carrera, all your problems look like racetracks.

Especially the narrow scribbles that interconnect Texas Hill Country burgs such as Barksdale and Leakey by cutting through the hillsides of limestone and clay, providing undulating, constant-radius joy for drivers and cyclists equally. Having at one time or another owned 35 Ferraris and too many Porsches to remember them all, our Carrera’s custodian, Mike Green of Houston, isn’t easily impressed, but he does like these roads and knows them well.

A longtime exec with the Sysco food distribution giant, Green was out buying hot stuff when it was just lukewarm. But he got bit by the Carrera bug too late and, as mentioned earlier, “paid too much. But I wanted to make sure I got a good, genuine car. I like my cars to be factory spec; taking the original seats out [they’ve been substituted with more comfortable chairs] is kind of a big deal for me.”

Porsche by 1973 was no longer the cottage German firm that seemed to uneducated eyes to make nothing more than hyper Volkswagens. It had only a few years earlier taken its first 24 Hours of Le Mans victory—not in class, but overall, with the outlandish 917K, which instantly elevated the Stuttgart stable above so many of its longtime British and Italian rivals (granted, Alfa Romeo won Le Mans in the 1930s, but that was already ancient history)

However, Porsche’s 240-mph, cost-no-object racing program couldn’t be sustained for long. Thus, when engineering leader Ernst Fuhrmann took over the top technical job in 1971, he was determined to refocus the company’s racing efforts back on production-based models and especially the 911, the better to remind buyers what Porsche mainly sold in its dealerships. As one door closed—1973 was the final year for the 917 in Can-Am—another door opened with a car that took its name from Porsche’s 904-through-908 racing Carreras of the 1960s as well as its long-ago campaigns in the famous Mexican road race, La Carrera Panamericana, which ran from 1950 to 1954.

Key to the effort was getting the 911 accepted for the newly revised FIA Group 4 “Special Grand Touring” competition class, which required that at least 500 units be built for sale to the public. A then-young engineer named Norbert Singer, not long out of the Technical University of Munich, was put in charge of developing the 911 Carrera RS. If Singer’s name is familiar even to non-Porschephiles, it’s because he went on to blaze an illustrious career in the ensuing decades as the company’s brilliant racing czar.

Aerodynamic enhancements like the famous fiberglass Bürzel, or ducktail, were shaped in Porsche’s new wind tunnel while Singer and his colleagues went to work on the chassis and engine, stripping the 911 of carpet and other sound insulation. Out went the bolstered door panels, replaced by simple flat panels with pull cords, as well as the sun visors, clock, under-coating, exterior trim, glovebox, even the gas struts holding up the front trunklid. Anything that could be yanked out without impeding the car’s performance was yanked, though some luxuries crept back in later in an optional Touring trim. The magic of the RS, however, is in the stuff you can’t see from the sidewalk; engineers spec’d thinner sheetmetal and glass for the RS to shave pounds, as well as lighter Bilstein shocks, the first Porsche production car to wear them and the beginning of a very long association between that brand and Porsche.

It’s not entirely wrong to say the 2.7-liter flat-six is half of a 917 flat-12. The Carrera’s 210-hp fuel-injected mill was bored out from the regular 911 S’s 2.4-liter to eventually share its bore and stroke measurements with the later 917/10 Can-Am car (and who didn’t have the Corgi model of that white wedge with its red and black L&M cigarette logos?). The Carrera’s engine employed a then-radical spray-on hardening process called Nikasil, developed by the German supplier Mahle for strengthening an aluminum engine’s otherwise fast-wearing cylinders.

So many important firsts, so many distinguished fingerprints; the 1973 Carrera RS ranks among the cream of the Porsche collector car elite. Though at the time, writes eminent Porsche chronologist Karl Ludvigsen, the company worried that all 500 units would not find buyers, especially since the 2.7-liter engine hadn’t been certified for U.S. sales. The price was thus kept artificially low, at the German deutsche mark equivalent of around $10,000. However, the initial run was sold out within a week of the Carrera’s debut at the Paris Salon in October 1972, and the company went on to produce three times as many as originally planned—1580—thus launching a dynasty.

Of course, that’s not nearly enough cars in a world of 8 billion people, so the Carrera RS, like the even rarer Super Duty, trades hands for many multiples of what lesser—but really, not that much lesser—versions go for. Here are two cars from the very unsentimental year of 1973 that prove that no matter what, in the collector car world, it’s all about sentiment. And personal choice informed by your own history, your own experiences, and your own tastes.

Mike Green and Keith Sasich both unquestionably fall under the title of “car guy,” but, as with their cars, they don’t have much in common beyond that. Sasich likes his thrills one quarter-mile at a time and doesn’t own a foreign collector car. And Green has never owned an American muscle machine—or, indeed, any American collector car beyond a modern Ford GT. We tried to persuade him, but no luck.

Different passions inflame in different directions, and 1973 was a crossroads year in which two storied brands found themselves on vastly divergent trajectories reflected in this pair of special, limited-production cars. The good news is that a half-century later, in times that are perhaps equally fraught and uncertain, you still have some excellent choices. Perhaps 50 years hence we’ll be publishing a comparison of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, both new for 2023. Stefan is already working on the pitch.

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This article first appeared in Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Click here to subscribe and join the club.

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Porsche is surging towards the electrification of its entire product range—with one key exception: the 911.

By the year 2030 the German sports car maker has pledged that 80 percent of its lineup will be fully-electric, however, according to Porsche’s e-fuels team leader Karl Dums the rear-engined icon will escape. “We will produce the 911 as long as possible with a combustion engine,” he told Reuters.

Porsche has invested heavily in e-fuels, with carbon-neutral gasoline—produced in conjunction with Chilean energy firm HIG Global—already powering several of its racing programs. Porsche, alongside Ferrari, recently pushed European lawmakers into providing an exemption to allow ICE-powered cars to continue into the 2030s as long as they run on e-fuels and, if that gets ratified then the life of the car’s character-defining flat-six in the 911 would be extended.

While the 911’s main motive power will—for the foreseeable future at least—be from combustion, the next generation is expected to feature at least some electric accentuation when the Turbo S hybrid is launched in 2024.

As for the rest of Porsche’s plans, an all-electric Macan SUV will be on sale in 2024, followed by the 718 (Boxster and Cayman) and the company’s best-seller, the Cayenne.

As it gears up for this rapid expansion the company has also announced that it will be building a network of Porsche Charging Lounges where owners can relax or work in luxurious surroundings, with drinks and snacks on offer, while their cars charge at speeds of up to 300 kW on renewable energy. Germany, Austria and Switzerland will be the first to get these high-end charge stations, but other regions may well follow.

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For the first time in research firm J.D. Power’s 28 years of producing the U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution, and Layout (APEAL) Study, there is a consecutive year-over-year decline in owner satisfaction. According to the 2023 study, overall satisfaction is 845 (on a 1,000-point scale), a decrease of 2 points from a year ago and 3 points lower than in 2021.

The 2023 U.S. APEAL Study is based on responses from 84,555 owners of new 2023 model-year vehicles who were surveyed after 90 days of ownership.

“The decline in consecutive years might look small, but it’s an indicator that larger issues may lie under the surface,” said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power. “Despite the technology and design innovations that manufacturers put into new vehicles, owners are lukewarm about them. While innovations like charging pads, vehicle apps, and advanced audio features should enhance an owner’s experience, this is not the case when problems are experienced. This downward trajectory of satisfaction should be a warning sign to manufacturers that they need to better understand what owners really want in their new vehicles.”

The study is based on 10 factors—nine of which have declined year over year, the study reveals. The only factor to improve is fuel economy (771), which is 15 points higher than in 2022. The factor with the largest year-over-year decline is exterior, decreasing to 888 from 894. Satisfaction with exterior styling on new models in 2023 is particularly unremarkable, scoring only 3 points above carryover models.

Built-in infotainment systems are a prime example of technology not resonating with today’s buyers, the study says. Only 56 percent of owners prefer to use their vehicle’s built-in system to play audio, down from 70 percent in 2020. Three of the most common uses for built-in systems are: owners looking to make phone calls; use voice recognition; and navigation—with less than half (45 percent, 37 percent and 43 percent, respectively) of owners preferring to use their vehicle’s built-in system for these functions.

The APEAL Study measures owners’ emotional attachment and level of excitement with their new vehicle, asking owners to consider 37 attributes, ranging from the sense of comfort they feel when climbing into the driver’s seat to their exhilaration when they step on the accelerator. Vehicle owners’ responses to queries about these attributes are aggregated to compute an overall APEAL Index score.

One key finding is that electrified vehicles are closing the gap to gas-powered vehicles: The overall APEAL Index score for gasoline-powered vehicles is 843, tied with plug-in hybrids. In comparison, Battery Electric Vehicles (excluding Tesla) increased by 2 points year over year to 840 and have reduceded the gap in satisfaction to gas-powered vehicles to just 3 points. Tesla vehicles are summarized separately due to their high weight in the BEV segment, J.D. Power says. It is notable that certain attributes of Tesla models continue to outperform other BEVs, though there are challengers emerging from traditional manufacturers, including five BEV models that received segment awards.

Satisfaction with Tesla declined, however: Tesla, with a score of 878, remains one of the higher performing brands in the industry. However, the score in 2023 is 9 points lower than a year ago when Tesla was first included in the study. Satisfaction scores for Tesla have declined year over year in all 10 factors. Because Tesla does not allow J.D. Power access to owner information in the states where that permission is required by law, Tesla models remain ineligible for awards.

The highest-ranking brands include Jaguar, which placed highest among premium brands with a score of 887. Land Rover (883) and Porsche (883) rank second in a tie, while BMW (878) ranks fourth.

Dodge ranks highest among mass-market brands for a fourth consecutive year, with a score of 887. Ram (873) ranks second and GMC (858) ranks third.

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I brought this Porsche back from the dead—literally, as it was sitting in the basement of a funeral home for 20 years.

In the early 1990s, I started doing work for a gentleman named Jack, who owned two local funeral homes. Jack bought this 1983 Porsche 944 new and used it for weekend trips to the Hamptons and not much else. It sat covered in his home garage the rest of the time. He got married in 1993 and moved to a house where he could no longer garage the Porsche, so he parked it in the basement garage of one of the funeral homes.

Jack passed away suddenly in 2002, and the car sat. Eventually, it got covered to its roof with foam casket wrappers from patrons on their journey to the great beyond. The funeral home business, which had been taken over by Jack’s wife, closed for good in 2019. I still did work there and asked her what was to become of the Porsche. She told me that out of gratitude for so many years of service, I could have it.

I was blown away. The car needed a lot of work, because everything made of rubber had deteriorated after 35 years. But the paint was flawless, as was the interior, and the recorded mileage was only 17,600. I don’t think there are many 944s out there in this condition, as it barely saw the sun. It’s a great story and a great car, and I feel so lucky to own it.

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The mark the 30th anniversary of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Porsche is bringing a fresh concept that blends something old and something new. Called the Vision 357 Speedster, the open-air roadster inflects the brand’s pursuit of all-electric sports cars with a bit of classic Porsche history.

Squint, and you can see a touch of the 356 Speedster in the body lines, which is very much The Point. The Vision 357 Speedster is the next evolution of the Vision 357 Coupe, which debuted earlier this year as a celebration of Porsche’s 75th anniversary. That car was styled specifically to be a modern adaptation of the 356, featuring a pronounced curvature to the rear of the car, a bubble-like cockpit, and carbon-fiber wheel covers that sort of look like the bolt-on rims that the early drum brake-equipped 356s used.

But since the 356 came in both open-air and coupe form, chopping the top of the Vision 357 was the next logical step. “The Porsche Vision 357 is a nod to the first Porsche model line, Ferry Porsche’s dream sports car. And since the 356 has burned itself into the collective brand memory as both a convertible and a coupé, the same logic applies to the concept car: there can only be two,” said Michael Mauer, vice president of Style Porsche, in a press release.

Both cars share similar bones donated from the 718 GT4 sports car, but there are some key differences: The coupe version takes its main structure from the 718 GT4 RS, including that car’s wailing 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated flat-six engine. The Speedster, meanwhile, gets its underpinnings from the 718 GT4 e-performance, which means that instead of a combustion engine, it gets the electric motors and battery technology from the Mission R.

The Vision 357 Speedster boasts a host of neat touches such as a stubby windscreen that lacks a cross-member over the top, which was a common treatment of the front glass on classic speedsters. There’s a tonneau cover for the entire passenger side as well, also a fixture of olden-day speedsters.

Dashes of tech do appear in this decidedly throw-back design, too. Cameras replace side-view mirrors on the car, fixed forward onto the front fenders rather than to the doors. The front and rear lights are integrated into the bodywork, appearing almost hidden until they actually turn on.

The interior has been shaved down with a decidedly minimalistic approach. The carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CRFP) seat is integrated into the monocoque of the car, with synthetic padding applied for a modicum of comfort. Below the exposed carbon weave dashboard, you’ll find a few straps in place of a glovebox; if you must carry accessories, secure them here.

While just a concept now, don’t be surprised if sometime soon it turns into a new mass-market, all-electric Porsche 718. We’ve already received confirmation from company CEO Oliver Blume that it’s due in the middle of this decade. The question is whether the Boxster and Cayman EVs will fully embrace a new design direction or seek to comfort its buyers in the warm familiarity of the past.

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Lamborghini has finally revealed its SC63 hybrid prototype race car that will debut at the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in January, as well as race in the FIA World Endurance Championship races overseas. The reveal came at the Goodwood Festival of Speed motoring show in England this morning.

The GTP Lamborghini will compete next year in the four North American endurance championship races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, which are at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, and at the season finale, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Current GTP competitors are Cadillac, BMW, Porsche, and Acura. Additional manufacturers are expected to join the class.

The Lamborghini platform, which is built by Ligier, uses an all-new 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine that has been developed by Lamborghini engineers specifically for the racing program. The engine is a “cold V” configuration, meaning that the turbos are mounted outside the “V” angle of the engine which makes them easier to cool and to service. Furthermore, the “cold V” solution lowers the mass and optimizes the car’s center of gravity, Lamborghini says.

Said Stephan Winkelmann, Lamborghini Chairman and CEO: “The opportunity to compete in some of the biggest endurance races in the world with a hybrid prototype fits with our vision for the future of high-performance mobility, as demonstrated for road legal cars with the launch of the Revuelto. The SC63 LMDh is the step into the highest echelons and into the future of motorsports for our Squadra Corse.” Lamborghini currently competes in the GT classes of sports car racing, which won’t change.

This project follows the “Direzione Cor Tauri” strategy presented in 2021: A roadmap for electrification leading the company to hybridize the entire model range by the end of 2024, “enhancing driving emotions and performance at the same time.”

Drivers will be Lamborghini factory racers Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli, together with new drivers Daniil Kvyat and Romain Grosjean. The latter two have recent race experience in hybrids in Formula 1 and have been able to help the engineers to tune the LMDh system, specifically helping to design the steering wheel controls to allow the driver to control the necessary functions of the hybrid system. Additional drivers will be announced later this year. The Iron Lynx team will field the entries.

“This year marks not only the 60th anniversary of our brand, but also the tenth anniversary of Squadra Corse, Lamborghini’s motorsport division,” said Giorgio Sanna, Lamborghini’s Head of Motorsport. “Over the last decade we have achieved great results. Starting from scratch we have won some of the most prestigious endurance races in the GT category for our production-based racing cars. These include three class wins at the 24 hours of Daytona, and two wins in a row at the Sebring 12 hours. Now we are ready for what is our biggest step into the future of motorsport, measuring ourselves against the best manufacturers in the world.”

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Bay Harbor, Michigan, looks built for a postcard. From the clear blue waters of its namesake harbor to the tidy main drag to the world-class golf course draped along the Lake Michigan shoreline, it is a little slice of summer heaven. For one weekend in late June, that main drag, the harbor, and the surrounding lawn become an automotive enthusiast’s field of dreams.

2023’s Bay Harbor Classic Car & Boat Festival featured something for every car nut: Prewar icons, British roadsters, American muscle cars, and modern supercars like the mid-engine Corvette Z06. Between the carbon fiber, polished chrome, lacquered wood, and the sun, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could have seen the twinkling from space.

While automotive eye candy was available everywhere you turned, one car had a presence like no other: A 1933 Duesenberg Model J “Sweep Panel” Dual-Cowl Phaeton owned by Bob Grooters, one of the show’s organizers. The striking two-tone red and black paint, paired with pristine whitewall tires and loads of sparkling metalwork, set off the monolithic lines of this art deco star.

No matter how many images you pore over on Google, no combination of pixels can convey the majesty of a Duesenberg in real life. There’s a certain scale to the car in person that gets lost in even the most artful photos. When I stood next to the driver’s seat and looked down the front of the car, I was shocked by how far away that angular hood ornament sat.

The brash grandeur of dinner plate-sized headlights and an engine cover that could double as a canoe somehow balance perfectly with subtle flourishes like the contoured metalwork atop the grille and the brushed aluminum of the instrument panel cover. The sumptuous cabin felt like the perfect perch for the industry magnates who bought these cars new. Witness a car like this, and the seven-figure price tags Duesenbergs routinely command at auction suddenly make sense.

The ’33 Model J wasn’t even the only Duesenberg at the show; there were two others. There was also a 1935 Duesenberg SJN, a special Model J car that combined the supercharged Lycoming straight-eight engine from the SJ with the lower, wider Rollston bodywork of the JN. This white-over-black example is one of just four Rollston-bodied cars, and it’s the only one with the factory-supercharged Lycoming straight-eight. The other Duesy was a 1934 Model J four-door Arlington sedan by Derham in stunning black and red.

The rest of the Bay Harbour show boasted stunners from every era. A Jaguar owners club showed out in force, bringing everything from E-Types to XJs. A British car club brought out an original Mini as well as a few Austin-Healeys and Triumphs. There was a whole row of C8 Corvettes, the star of which was a white Z06 70th Anniversary model.

At one point, an Amphicar even puttered right through the harbor and up the boat ramp onto the main street. That harbor housed plenty of classic wooden boats, the star of which was a massive cruiser that goes by the name Pilgrim. On the lawn of a restaurant that abuts the harbor sat a collection of soap-box derby cars with sleek bodywork and wafer-thin wheels, celebrating a bygone era of mechanical ingenuity.

Up the main drag were a few German stars like a Porsche 356 Coupe and a BMW Z3 M Coupe, more affectionately known as a “Clownshoe.” A Ram SRT-10 pickup sat across the way, its hood wide open to show off the Viper-sourced V-10. If you fancied more modern exotics, a few Ferraris and McLarens were just a stone’s throw away around the corner.

If you find yourself in Northern Michigan in late June of next year, be on the lookout for the Bay Harbor Classic Car & Boat Festival. The show is free to spectators and a delightful way to spend a summer Saturday, whether or not you have a car on the lawn.

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Front and center in any good car project is the list of parts necessary to complete the job. I’m presently at the shallow end of returning my 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera back to (mostly) stock, and recently had my trusted shop price out a few components before diving in. One of my car’s key needs is an exhaust system, so I asked the shop to price a brand-new, OEM heads-to-tailpipe replacement as it would have left the factory.

I was quoted $17,273.32, including tax.

Ouch. According to the Hagerty Valuation tool, the cost of parts alone would be 64 percent of the projected value of the entire car. Based on inventory found on reputable online sellers of OEM Porsche components, a full replacement exhaust for a far newer and far more valuable 991.2 (2016–19) Carrera settles somewhere around the $9000 mark.

Shocked? You betcha. But I shouldn’t have been, considering I was duly warned over a year ago by a foremost marque expert that parts for my car—and all older cars, for that matter—are going to rapidly become significantly more scarce and expensive.

I visited Jake Raby’s Flat-Six Innovations (FSI) facility back in the early spring of 2022. As a 996 owner, this former pig farm in the hills of rural Georgia is sanctum sanctorum; Raby and his outfit build the best M96/M97-family engines on the planet, turning engines long seen as unpleasant, problem-prone paperweights into over-engineered reactor cores that match Porsche’s own Mezger for meat.

Toward the end of the day-long tour, he took me into a repurposed shipping container that held one of his on-site parts archives. This veritable treasure trove of OEM-grade Porsche parts would shame any official service center. Sandwiched between shelves of coil packs, manifolds, and various flat-six detritus, he told me he maintained this archive to battle a wide-reaching parts shortage that was hitting 996s and 997s, hard.

I left with a hot coal in my gut.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when a conversation with Jonathan Hodgman of Atlanta’s Blue Ridge Mercedes echoed Raby’s earlier sentiment to an eerie degree. Hodgman’s one of the top resources in the States for pre-merger AMGs and related models, specialty hand-built cars that have always required clever fixes or fabrications for bespoke parts that simply didn’t exist. But as Hodgman tells it, he’s struggling to source OEM-grade “essential” componentry, and it’s become a serious problem. “I used to spend 20 minutes of my time ordering parts. Now, I spend half my time ordering parts,” he sighed. “It’s become a real chore.”

So, along with Hodgman, I checked in with Raby a year and change after my visit to see what is happening, where we are heading, and what can be done. “From the root to the top of the tree, it’s dying,” he tells me in a video call. “There are too many factors that are going to take it all away.”

We’ll start with the “what.” As both Raby and Hodgman tell it, the basic supply of new OEM-quality replacement parts—that is, parts manufactured by either the original equipment manufacturer or to the same quality—has all but dried up. If there are aftermarket or non-OE supplied parts available, they’re of sub-par quality and often fail right out of the box.

“Radiators, hoses, basic stuff started to be a struggle ten years ago or so,” explains Hodgman. “Then the pandemic happened alongside the push for electrification, and that has had a staggering effect on parts availability. Ten years ago, it wasn’t really a problem, it was just annoying. But, as the years have gone on, it’s only gotten harder and harder and harder.”

“It’s 356, it’s 914, it’s Volkswagens, it’s the more modern Porsches—it’s everything,” says Raby. “Inflation has helped with parts supply for 996 and 997s because it’s taken some of the demand away—that’s good. The parts supply is there, but now we have is the quality of the parts.”

He tells me of troublesome oil-air separators and water pumps, finding that more than a few are duds right out of the box. As a result, he’s been forced to build a specialized test rig in the shop to test the oil-air separators before installation. “If it was built during or post-COVID, it has a question mark on it, quality-wise,” Raby says, frustratedly. “Now, we go by date-codes.”

Ah, there it is—the great “Everything Shortage” of 2020 and onward. Peak pandemic supply struggles saw acres of brand-new vehicles parked en masse mid-assembly, awaiting parts. As automakers scrambled to fill in-market parts supply, many production lines for old parts were pivoted in the name of profits. “Suppliers are turning off these mildly profitable lines and retooling them for newer cars for which there are mass shortages as well,” says Hodgman. “I get that it’s simply supply and demand, but that doesn’t help me any.”

So, as the OE supply dwindles, lower-tier suppliers fill the vacuum with sub-standard replacements—or nothing at all. According to both Raby and Hodgman, stock of legacy electronic modules for mass-produced are essentially non-existent. “You need an E-GAS module for your [Mercedes-Benz] 500E—a part that it essentially needs to run? Good luck—I bought the last seven Mercedes had in stock, and they’re never going to replenish them ever again,” says Hodgman, laughing ruefully. “I’m going from recommending certain cars to not, simply because the parts supply is such a dreadful ordeal, and there’s no ready workaround.”

I push Hodgman on what the limits are of this scarcity, asking him what would happen if a wealthy owner brought his 500 E in for a module fix. “Well, I’ll say that we have two options. Either we sit and wait patiently for a good used one—hopefully—cause no one is remanufacturing,” he explains.  “Or, you unfortunately have to re-engineer the car, and that’s an expensive proposition. You’re taking what was a $1000 module problem and turning it into a $30,000-$40,000 re-engineer problem.”

I’m sure owners of most pre-war and low-volume cars are nodding in affirmation by now. Parts supply for some early cars is non-existent to the point where everything is custom fabricated or re-machined. For many cars, it’s been this way for well over half a century, and in most cases this means metal and shop work and is mostly a matter of money and time. The same cannot be said for those irreplicable electric components.

Ok—at this point, you’d think there’d be enough moneyed enthusiasts sick of crappy parts and long layovers at the shop that someone would step in to re-introduce quality components. And people have, to a degree; Raby tells me Flat-Six Innovations is building more exhaust components, coil packs, and modified water pumps in-house. “In some cases, we’re taking older parts and fitting new bearings in and building it ourselves,” he explains. “We’re building a better part.”

Problem at least partially solved, it seems. But this perceived gold rush—driven primarily by the extreme appreciation in the collector car market—has spawned a legion of new shops who, according to Raby, don’t know what they don’t know. “They just buy all these parts and think it’s ok,” says Raby. “They don’t know any better. They could have the best intentions in the world, they could want to sell a great engine, but don’t know it’s filled with junk.”

“People come to me with broken cars, telling me ‘I’ve replaced this, I’ve replaced that,’ and in their mind, those replaced parts are no longer a factor in the problem. A guy like me questions the new part first,” he continues. “There are some instances of cars going to shops, and leaving worse off than when they first went there.”

I reached out to Hagerty senior editor and noted 1970s–2000s Ford expert Sajeev Mehta for a more domestic perspective on the Teutonic shortage. “The thing to remember with mainstream [domestic] brands with huge dealer networks is that their parts supply decreases far less rapidly than the cars themselves get scrapped,” he explained in an email. “I can pretty much rebuild a 1986 Ford Taurus under the hood with parts from eBay and Rockauto because they made the parts by the hundreds of thousands and very few cars still exist to utilize them.

“Dealer networks from Porsche, Honda, VW, Toyota, et cetera weren’t nearly as large as the big three back in the 1980s and 1990s, so their parts supply dried up a lot quicker, which exacerbated the problem during the pandemic,” he continued. “The problems you are noticing are real, and that’s why I smile at my euro-centric car friends and wish them the best.”

I ran this by Raby. “I can get any part I want for my old Bronco with absolute ease,” he laughed. “What you also need to keep in mind is much of what the Big Three built also shared a ton of parts across many models. Porsche? Not so much.”

Where do we go from here? Is there a tipping point?

Hodgman is somewhat optimistic, particularly on emerging tech like metal 3D printing. “I hope as technologies become more accepted and advanced, the price will come down and these niche items will be easier to find,” he reflects. “I hope we’re in this middle lull where the emerging technologies can’t quite meet the demand we’re having now—but hopefully in ten years, that will come around and start to flip.”

“Unless people really step it up, it’s going to become quite a nightmare and chore,” he continues. “At the same time, it’s going to take a lot of mid-grade cars off the road as parts cars. I see that happening now.  Cars that are a little tired, a little worn. But, they have a bunch of stuff you can’t get anymore, and it’s worth more in parts than as a car.” Hodgman tells me has four “rough” 500Es as parts cars, and I cry foul at the idea of decommissioning such a special car. But, without this sacrifice, a lot more 500Es would be off the road.

I ask Raby what we as enthusiasts can do to potentially turn the tide in our favor. “We need to hold manufacturers, shops, and automakers to a higher standard,” he explains. “Be a better consumer through education. It’s up to the hands, minds, and wallets of the [car] owners. If you keep buying the junk, the bar will never be raised.”

In the meantime, I think this has the very real potential to push a portion of enthusiasts who were not considering electric conversion over to the sparky side. When faced with the choice between pickling a prized car for want of unobtanium componentry or installing one of the (nearly) drop-in EV conversion kits becoming increasingly available, more might take the plug-in path than previously expected.

Hodgman rejects this false dichotomy. In true early-AMG fashion, he’s swapping a 6.2-liter M156 (think C63, E63 AMG) into a 500E donor car hooked up to a BMW-sourced six-speed manual. “It’s so, so much easier to get parts [for the M156], and it keeps the true spirit of the car intact,” he says, sounding excited. I ask him when he thinks it’ll be ready. “I’d get it done a whole lot faster if I had another set of capable hands on my staff.”

Hear that? That’s the sound of another can of worms being cracked open.

***

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The one-off Porsche Classic Club Coupe we told you about earlier this month has gone to a new owner. Perhaps you’ve heard of him: Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who has one of the country’s most impressive private Porsche collections.

Earlier this month the car sold for $1.3M at Broad Arrow’s Porsche 75th Anniversary Auction, a single-marque sale held during the celebration of the brand’s 75th anniversary at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 10. It was inspired by the 2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic, as well as the current 911 Sport Classic, and designed by Style Porsche Director of Special Projects, Grant Larson, in conjunction with the Porsche Club of America.

During a meeting between members of the Porsche Club of America and Porsche Classic, a conversation arose around what a collaboration would have looked like if Porsche’s special manufacturing unit and the PCA had worked together in previous decades.

Thoughts turned to the 2010 911 Sport Classic, Porsche’s first Exclusive Manufaktur series production model. That inspiration led to a question: What would a prequel to the 2010 911 Sport Classic look like? Larson—designer of the Carrera GT Case Study, the 2012 911 Sport Classic, and the 2023 911 Sport Classic while serving as Director of Special Projects at Style Porsche—involved himself from the beginning. Larson sketched out his vision of a proto-Sport Classic from Style Porsche in Stuttgart.

Concurrently, in Maryland, PCA Executive Director Vu Nguyen searched for the right donor vehicle. Ultimately, a 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe was located in Virginia. Shortly thereafter, the 911 Coupe was flown back to Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen to begin the transformation from “just” a classic 911 to a 911 Classic Club Coupe.

Revealed in 2022 at PCA’s Werks Reunion gathering on Amelia Island, this 911 Classic Club Coupe toured the country that year, visiting PCA events such as the Porsche Parade in the Poconos, Porsche Sports Car Together Fest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Werks Reunion Monterey, and ünStock.

In early 2023, the 911 Classic Club Coupe returned to Amelia Island, closing the circle of its North American tour, featured at Broad Arrow Group’s inaugural The Amelia Auction. The Classic Club Coupe has less than 300 miles on the odometer.

The 911 Classic Club Coupe, which was offered at no reserve, was only available for purchase by PCA members, which Seinfeld has been for more than 30 years.

“One of the things that makes Jerry such a star collector is that he often has unique vehicles, which helps explain why he apparently got this unique 996,” said John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics at Hagerty. “However, it also means determining just how much his name on the title adds in value is hard, but based on sales from his partial collection sale at Gooding’s Amelia auction in 2016, his name adds an average of 47 percent for a Porsche.

“Given that a 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 coupe currently has a condition 1 value of $63,000, and the 996 GT3 condition 1 value is $191,000, Seinfeld clearly spent way more than what his typical premium brings, but at what price comes uniqueness?”

Disclosure: Hagerty announced its acquisition of Broad Arrow Group in August 2022.

***

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Imagine an alternate reality where, by adding a digit to its most iconic model number, Porsche actually created a superior product. In this version of the multiverse a lighter, more agile, and even more rapid variant of the 911 was called the 912.

Well, that’s exactly what Hungarian filmmaker-turned-resto-modder Miklós Kázmér has done with the KAM Manufaktur 912c.

Kázmér grew up in the Budapest tuner scene where, before the Iron Curtain fell, engineers would improvise with whatever parts they could lay their hands on to make sorry Soviet-era cars go faster. Tractor turbo for a Trabant, anyone?

For Kázmér, however, it was access to the VW Beetles that flooded in after communism’s collapse that inspired him. Fettling the flat-four engine became an obsession that remains just as strong today, and has led to the creation of a motor with the highest specific output of any air-cooled street engine, installed in a carbon fiber-bodied Porsche 912.

Switzerland’s JPS Aircooled is responsible for the transformation of the original 60-horsepower 1.6-liter 616 motor into a two-liter powerhouse delivering 190 hp. That’s 95 hp per liter. The engine case, heads, and con rods are all uprated, there’s electronic fuel injection and individual throttle bodies from DBW, plus a Life Racing ECU, and KAMM’s own stainless steel exhaust and carbon cooling ducting. Mounted to it is a 901 five-speed transmission which dispatches drive through an aluminum Porsche racing clutch and a ZF limited-slip differential.

Adding to the united nations of suppliers are the U.K.’s TracTive Suspension, which supplies semi-active front and rear coilovers; AP Racing, which provides the vented discs brakes and hydraulic handbrake; and California’s Tilton Engineering, which built the pedal box. Heritage Fuchs three-piece steel-look alloy wheels come from Germany, and Yokohama tires are flown in from Japan.

Back in Hungary, KAMM manufactures the carbon fiber body parts that are fitted to a fully restored and reinforced chassis. As standard, the front fenders, hood, doors, engine cover, and bumpers are made from the lightweight material, keeping the roof and rear panels in steel, but a full-fiber body is an option should the 750-kg (1653-pound) wet weight (without fuel) somehow be considered a bit chubby.

Exposed carbon is everywhere inside. Dash, doors, even the foot brace for the passenger and floor mats are made from the miracle material. Black leather trims the classic fixed-back bucket seats, and there’s more hide for the straps that open the doors and are required to pull down the Lexan polycarbonate windows. There’s a raw beauty in it all, but luxurious it certainly isn’t. Although air conditioning is installed, there’s no in-car-entertainment—simply a magnet to hold your phone and a socket in the glovebox for a USB cable.

You’d never hear it anyway. From the moment the boxer engine fires up it totally dominates, the slightly rattly idle resonating through the shell like it’s a giant amplifier. As the engine speed rises so does the volume, and as this is an engine that thrives on revs, there’s little choice but to embrace the thrash metal racket.

When it’s screaming its loudest above 5000 rpm is when the engine does its best work. In the narrow power band that peaks at 7200 rpm there’s a real urgency to the acceleration, but drop out of the mosh pit of power and the 912c feels sluggish, despite its minimal mass.

That’s even truer in its standard running mode, which maps the throttle to 70 percent. Pulling a switch marked “Drive Me Crazy” not only releases full power but adds to the din with overrun pops and bangs.

Kázmér has geared the car to exploit the engine’s character. The dog-leg first is really only needed to pull away, and then all you’d ever need on a backroad is the fore-aft plane of second and third. Given that second gear can take you to 70 mph, maybe that would suffice on its own. Fourth and fifth are taller still, and a partially successful attempt to reduce the aural assault at cruising speed. In fairness, the car is still in development and the next phase is to incorporate a valved exhaust so that the deafening can be deadened.

As part of its progress, this prototype example has already had changes made to soften its ride and make its steering less fierce. Kázmér originally set up the car super stiff and with a speedy 1.7 turns lock-to-lock, but now the TracTive coilovers have more give, while the steering now takes 2.4 turns to go from full left to full right.

I didn’t drive it before the changes, but for road use the balance seems spot on. I leave it with the dampers set to position three out of five and have nothing to complain about regarding ride quality, although over some especially nasty bumps on my test route it skips briefly into the air, a factor perhaps owing to the 912’s lack of weight as much is its suspension stiffness.

It does feel extraordinarily light at all times. The unassisted steering is a particular delight, painting a perfect picture of the road surface and grip levels. The brakes are stupendous, with a rock-hard pedal that needs a firm foot but rewards with a fabulous feel and prodigious stopping power.

KAMM’s own carbon fiber gear shifter is tall and repositioned further back from its original spot, and it’s the only control I have the occasional issue with. There’s no spring to center it like in most manual transmissions, which can make the fourth-to-third downshift a little tricky. Slowing into roundabouts from dual-carriageway speed, I sometimes grab fifth instead of third and have to look down to seek out the correct gear.

I don’t use the hydraulic handbrake to its drift-inducing potential, but do find that a throttle lift in the midst of one of those roundabouts loosens the rear end, while a little corrective lock and some throttle quickly sorts the slide. The grip-to-oversteer transition is intuitive and entertaining, and it certainly never feels like getting away from me without provocation in the way that early 911s can.

Overall, there’s a beautiful balance to the way the 912c drives. A little less of a lump in the trunk and its harsh diet mean the car has a lightness and confidence-inspiring handling that might well out-perform a 911 on the right road or track.

It’s a little extreme at the moment, but KAMM is working with its first three customers, in Florida, California and the Czech Republic, to perfect the specification.

There will be those out there who question a $355,000 912, but in a universe where a Singer-fettled 911 costs millions, this alternate reality might just make some sense.

***

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It’s not often I nominate a brand-new car as a future classic. Usually a car’s potential becomes more visible with a little age and a few years off-sale to allow its contribution to be assessed with a little hindsight and its position in the natural order of things to become apparent. But just occasionally, it’s pretty obvious from the go. The Carrera T is one of those cases.

Now, when the talk is of future classics in general and the eligibility or otherwise of a Porsche 911, it would be too easy by far simply to nominate a GT3 RS or some other slice of automotive esoterica from the 911 stable. But that would be a trifle obvious and perhaps a little less interesting as a result. So in fact I’m going to the completely other end of the range and suggesting one of the cheaper models from the current range: the 911 Carrera T.

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Porsche’s 75th birthday gift is the potential successor to the 918 Spyder. Called Mission X, the all-electric hypercar is currently a concept, “with production to be decided in due time.”

The German sports car maker conceived the future flagship to be the fastest road-legal vehicle around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, regaining its EV crown from the upstarts at Tesla, while also besting the six minutes 57 seconds time set by the 918 Spyder in 2013. To achieve this the Mission X will be as light as it is powerful, matching the notorious Koenigsegg One:1 with a power-to-weight ratio of one horsepower for every kilogram (2.2 lbs) of mass. It will surpass the 911 GT3 RS in generating downforce, and exceed the Taycan Turbo S for charging speed as well, thanks to a new 900-volt system.

For ideal weight distribution the batteries are positioned behind the seats in an “e-core layout” that will make its production debut on the electric Boxster and Cayman. The Mission X is significantly larger, however, measuring 177 inches in length and 78.7 inches in width, which matches the dimensions of the Carrera GT and 918 Spyder. Staggered 20-inch wheels at the front and 21-inch rims at the rear provide grip and aid aerodynamics.

The Mission X would be the first production Porsche to feature butterfly doors, enhancing dramatic, if slightly derivative styling. The glass dome and rear are reminiscent of the Ferrari Daytona SP3, while Porsche says the headlights were inspired by its 906 and 908 race cars. Given its pace potential the Rocket Metallic paintwork is certainly appropriate.

The interior is best described as Le Mans-meets-luxury, with racy features such as the open-top steering wheel and dashboard stopwatch mount paired with two-tone leather trim for the carbon fiber seats.

“The Porsche Mission X is a technology beacon for the sports car of the future,” says Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. “It picks up the torch of iconic sports cars of decades past: like the 959, the Carrera GT and the 918 Spyder before it, the Mission X provides critical impetus for the evolutionary development of future vehicle concepts.”

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Live coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans starts at 9 a.m. ET Saturday on MotorTrend TV.

You can’t wait that long? Then let us suggest you check out a fascinating documentary between now and then: Racing with Giants: Porsche at Le Mans, produced by Hagerty Media and Mobil 1, and narrated by former sports car racer, Le Mans podium finisher, and current actor Patrick Dempsey.

Racing with Giants is the perfect primer for the most important sports car race in the world, especially since this year marks the return of Porsche to the top-ranked Prototype class, where they will battle for the overall win.

Porsche has been active, and successful, in the production-based GT ranks, but this year, under the direction of former racer, team owner, and owner of the IndyCar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Roger Penske. The 86-year-old billionaire has almost every win for his teams on his resume except the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and he’d love to add that trophy to his collection.

“From our own rich history in motorsport and our long-standing relationship with Porsche, this documentary truly celebrates the unique impact that racing has on the cars that we drive every day,” said Bryce Huschka, consumer marketing manager for Mobil 1. “For 100 years, Le Mans has uniquely captured the attention and imagination of fans. Thanks to them, our partners, and fellow car lovers, we couldn’t wait to bring this exceptional story to life.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Racing with Giants features archival footage of Le Mans races past and present, along with interviews with multiple drivers and Porsche team principals, including Allan McNish, Patrick Long, Jacky Ickx, and Nick Tandy.

The documentary can be viewed for free on YouTube.

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This year marks one full century since the first running of the 24 Hours Grand Prix of Endurance, aka the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The world’s most important sports-car race has some serious history behind it, and several pieces of that history will be up for grabs at an RM Sotheby’s auction held at the French circuit in conjunction with the race.

A small, curated group of 21 race cars (plus one very cool 1963 Ferrari safety car) will cross the block on June 9. Each is worth checking out, and all but one raced at Le Mans. Below are our favorites.

1996 Chrysler Viper GTS-R

It wasn’t the first time American muscle made the trip to Le Mans, but Chrysler’s effort with the Viper was certainly one of the most successful.

Vipers took three class wins at Le Mans from 1998 to 2000, with the French team ORECA building and campaigning the cars. The first seven racing Vipers, however, were home-grown cars constructed by Chrysler in Detroit. This white and blue one is one of those Chrysler-built cars, and it ran its first race in 1997 for Viper Team Oreca at the 24 Hours of Daytona. After a 15th place finish there, it went to Le Mans with Justin Bell, John Morton, and Pierre Yver driving. That trio took it from 38th to 14th overall and fifth in class behind a quartet of Porsche 911 GT2s.

Before the 1998 season, it sold and was subsequently run in the British GT Championship, where it scored a handful of wins and helped secure the GT2 class championship. The year after that, it won a race in the Spanish GT Championship. Its last big performance was a class win at the 2008 Britcar Snetterton race, and its last competitive outing was at the 2008 Britcar 24 Hours of Silverstone, where it finished 5th in class.

Now, this piece of Viper Racing history has a €600,000–€700,000 ($650,000–$750,000) estimate. That’s not much compared to the seven-figure estimates of some of classics crossing the block in this sale, but if this GTS-R sells, it will become the most expensive Viper ever sold at auction. The current record holder is a 2017 ACR Voodoo II Edition sold for $418,000 earlier this year.

1991 Jaguar XJR-12 LM

The 1990 Le Mans race saw Jaguar take its last win at the French classic. The XJR-12—with its monster 7.0-liter V-12, rear fender skirts, and flamboyant, purple and white Silk Cut cigarette livery—was the car with which the British marque did it. For 1991, the Group C formula that had defined sports car racing for the past decade was replaced, but older Group C machinery was still allowed to compete. Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR)/Jaguar ran the XJR-12 LM again, this time with an even larger 7.4 liter 12-banger.

This one ran the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1991, finishing second and fourth, respectively. At Le Mans that year, Derek Warwick, John Nielsen, and Andy Wallace brought it home in fourth behind the winning Mazda 787B and the two other Silk Cut Jags.

Other Group C–era Jags that have crossed the auction block before include a Silverstone-winning 1990 XJR-11 that sold for £1,191,000 ($1,540,000) five years ago and a Daytona-winning 1988 XJR-9 that sold for €1,917,500 ($2,070,000) last year. This one could go even higher: It carries an estimate of €2,500,000–€3,000,000 ($2.7M–$3.2M).

1967 Alpine A210

Known mostly for the rally-winning A110, the modern model of the same name, and its current Formula 1 team, Alpine (pronounced Al-peen) also has a long history in sports car racing. This car especially so—it’s a three-time Le Mans veteran.

Started by Jean Rédélé in 1955, the French firm had a Shell-sponsored race program going by 1962 and built steadily quicker pocket-rockets with Gordini/Renault power, lovely blue paint, and high rear fins. The A210 of 1966 followed the same formula, with a range of rear-mid-mounted, Gordini-tuned Renault twin-cam fours underneath the blue fiberglass bodywork. Only eight A210s were built, and this is arguably the most desirable of the bunch.

At Le Mans in 1967, it finished ninth overall and won its class with a 1.3-liter engine. It then finished seventh at Kyalami in South Africa with 1.5-liter power and in fourth at the Nürburgring 500km race in 1968. At Le Mans ’68 it won its class again, this time with a 1.0-liter engine, and won the Index of Performance—an award for efficiency that favored small (and, typically, French) cars. It returned to Le Mans in 1969 but sadly couldn’t pull off the hat trick, retiring after two hours with head-gasket failure.

Like many old race cars, this Alpine wound up unceremoniously stuffed into a shed, in this case for four decades. Pulled out in the 2010s, the dirt-covered racer sold for €872,800 ($949,800) at auction in 2016 and has since been cleaned up and mechanically sorted but not restored. Another A210 sold in 2015 for €476,800, but for the Le Mans auction this class-winner has a much higher estimate of €1,200,000–€1,500,000 ($1,300,000–$1,600,000).

1984 Lancia LC2

Like the Alpine, this Group C car is an endurance racer built by a company known for its rally cars.

Lancia withdrew from sports-car racing in the 1950s, but its rally success in the ’70s with the Fulvia and the Stratos encouraged the Italians to get back to the circuit. First came some class success with the Beta Monte Carlo silhouette racer (though it looked like a production car, the race version was significantly different on a mechanical level.) Then there was the spyder-bodied prototype LC1 designed by Gian Paolo Dallara. After a short competition life, it was replaced by the LC2.

The LC2 still featured a Dallara chassis, and its carbon fiber/Kevlar body was similarly shaped to that of the LC1, but now the race car had a roof. Lancia also ditched the LC1’s small, turbocharged four-cylinder for a Ferrari V-8. Based on the 32-valve engine from the 308 QV, the new mill was downsized to 2.65 liters and fitted with two KKK turbos.

The LC2s were always quick, but the reliability just wasn’t there, and on virtually every grid the Group C Lancias were far outnumbered by Porsches. At Le Mans in 1983, for example, there were three LC2s up against nine Porsche 956s. This one for sale took both pole and fastest lap at Le Mans in 1984, but couldn’t keep the pace and eventually finished eighth . . . behind seven Porsches.

It did, however, win the 1000-km race at Kyalami and found the podium at Silverstone. One of nine total LC2 chassis constructed for the 1983–86 World Sportscar Championship seasons, it has a €2,200,000–€2,400,000 ($2,350,000–$2,550,000) estimate for the Le Mans auction.

1936 Delahaye 135 S by Pourtout

Built in 1936, this competition-spec Delahaye was entered in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Due to labor unrest, however, the organizers canceled the event that year. The car did finally get to Le Mans in 1938, and it finished second overall behind another 135-chassis Delahaye and ahead of a Talbot-Lago T150SS. Despite the German stranglehold on Grand Prix racing in the late 1930s, the home team still held its own at Le Mans. At the 1938 race, French cars, all driven by French drivers, took the first five places.

After the war, the Delahaye got a new, barchetta-type body in 1951 and raced at the 1954 Tour de France. In 1955 it was rebodied again as a cabriolet. From 2005–8, it received a full restoration to its period Le Mans specs, including a rebody in the correct Pourtout style. It has a €1,500,000–€2,000,000 ($1,600,000–$2,150,000) estimate.

1955 Ferrari 121 LM

The 1955 Le Mans race is remembered for two things: Jaguar’s victory with its D-Type, and Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes launching into the grandstands and killing over 80 people. It was worst disaster in motorsports history.

This Ferrari was there, keeping pace with the eventual winner until it retired in the 10th hour with engine failure. It also ran at another famous race—the 1955 Mille Miglia—which saw Stirling Moss’s legendary performance in the winning Mercedes-Benz 300SLR. The Ferrari actually led that race for a time, but eventually suffered an oil pump failure. Sold at the end of the 1955 season, it raced in North America and underwent restoration from 2018 until earlier this year. One of just four Ferrari 121 LMs are left, this one sold in Monterey six years ago for $5.72M. For this trip across the auction block, it has an estimate of €5,500,000–€6,500,000 ($6,000,000–$7,000,000).

Works Ferrari race cars from the ’50s can be eight-figure cars, but a couple of things are keeping this car well below that threshold. First, the 121 LM is a straight six–powered car, which is generally less desirable than one with a V-12. Second, this chassis was involved in a fatal accident at the Pebble Beach Road Races in 1956.

1985 Porsche 962

Campaigned by the Rothmans Porsche factory team in the 1985 and ’86 World Championship seasons, this 962 was driven in period by a who’s who of ’80s sports car racing: Derek Bell, Al Holbert, Jacky Ickx, Klaus Ludwig, Jochen Mass, Vern Schuppan, John Watson, and Hans Stuck.

It debuted at Le Mans in 1985, qualified fifth, and ran in second place behind a Porsche 956 for over 12 hours before this 962 suffered a crankshaft failure. At Le Mans the next year, it qualified on pole but retired. It then sold on to the factory-supported Joest Racing team and took second at the 1987 Nürburgring 1000 km. Over the course of its competition career it raced at Hockenheim, Mosport, Spa, Monza, Silverstone, and Kyalami—quite the resume.

Its predecessor, the Rothmans-sponsored 956 that won Le Mans in 1982, sold for $10.12M back in 2016, but without a win at La Sarthe to its credit, this 962 has a presale estimate of “only” €6,000,000–€9,000,000 ($6,500,000–$9,500,000).

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When 81-year-old retired racer Derek Bell talks about going fast at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche, he’s speaking from experience. “I just drove it completely, and stupidly, as fast as I could. And I was going 246 mph. I don’t think anybody has gone faster.”

That’s Bell being interviewed for a documentary called Racing with Giants: Porsche at Le Mans, produced by Mobil 1 and Hagerty Media.

The one-hour special connects Porsche’s 75th anniversary with the 100th anniversary of the running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (It’s actually the 91st event; the first one ran in 1923.) It also celebrates Porsche’s return to the top class at Le Mans, which takes the green flag on June 10.

“From our own rich history in motorsport and our long-standing relationship with Porsche, this documentary truly celebrates the unique impact that racing has on the cars that we drive every day,” said Bryce Huschka, consumer marketing manager for Mobil 1. “For 100 years, Le Mans has uniquely captured the attention and imagination of fans. Thanks to them, our partners and fellow car lovers, we can’t wait to bring this exceptional story to life.”

“Racing with Giants” features archival footage of Le Mans past and present, along with interviews with multiple drivers and Porsche team principals, including Allan McNish, Patrick Long, Jacky Ickx and Nick Tandy. Porsche has long competed at Le Mans, though recently solely in the slower GT class. The company will go for an overall victory this year, with new Porsche prototype cars fielded by racing legend Roger Penske.

Following a premiere in New York City, the documentary will air on Hagerty’s YouTube channel beginning June 1 at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch the official trailer below.

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Ferrari Enzo designer unveils Maserati-inspired bare-bones “Birdcage”

Intake: Ken Okuyama, the Japanese designer who headed up Pininfarina when it imagined the Enzo for Ferrari, has revealed a wild two-seater barchetta. The Kode61 Birdcage is inspired by its namesake, the Maserati Tipo 61, and follows a trend of utterly open supercars such as the McLaren Elva, the Aston Martin V-12 Speedster, and Ferrari’s SP1 and SP2 Monzas. The Kode61’s minimalist bodywork is a breathtaking mix of swooping curves and harder angles that evokes a retro spirit with state-of-the-art styling. The cabin continues the theme, mixing pristine polished metal, a proper gated manual transmission, and lightweight carbon fiber sports seats. High-mounted twin tailpipes confirm that the Kode61 is powered by internal combustion, but exactly what underpins this car has not yet been confirmed.

Exhaust: Okuyama is the first Japanese coachbuilder to be nominated in the concept car category at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este where the Kode61 was officially unveiled. However, it’s more than just a show car; the Kode61 is said to be headed for very limited production. If we’re speculating, the wheels and the mid-engine proportions seem to hint that Maserati’s MC20 underpins this marvel. The brand tie-in would certainly make sense. — Nik Berg

Manthey Performance kit for 911 GT3 reaches U.S. shores

Intake: At long last, the Manthey Performance kit for the Porsche 911 GT3 will finally be offered stateside. Last year a 992-generation 911 GT3 equipped with this package was able to turn a 6:55.737 lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife—a whopping 4.19 seconds faster than a stock 911 GT3. The kit focuses on improvements to the aerodynamics of the GT3, as well as some chassis adjustments. Upgraded aero components include an improved front spoiler and side flaps, underbody panels, a more dramatic rear diffuser, and a wider rear wing. On the chassis side, the kit features four-way coilover suspension that can be adjusted without tools, and modified spring rates (10 percent stiffer up front, 7 percent softer in the rear). Optional components include upgraded brake pads as well as lighter forged wheels that reduce unsprung mass by around 16 lbs. Those rear wheels get extremely cool-looking aerodiscs to help increase aerodynamic efficiency.

Exhaust: Manthey’s kit won’t void the manufacturer’s warranty on your GT3, which is perhaps the best part. That said, it’s not cheap—at all. With installation, the new kit costs $57,300; tack on another $15,500 if you want those sweet aerodisc-infused wheels. With the Manthey kit, the 911 GT3 is only a little more than 6 seconds shy of the ultra hardcore 911 GT3 RS‘ lap time (6:49.328) around the Nordschleife. Then again, that one costs a hair over $225,000, and by the time you add up the cost of a 911 GT3 ($163,750) plus the kit with the wheels ($72,800) you’re well into GT3 RS territory. Choose wisely. — Nathan Petroelje

Cummins-powered Colorado wins Charlotte stop of Hot Wheels Legends Tour

Intake: The winner for the Charlotte, North Carolina stop on the Mattel Hot Wheels Legend Tour was built by Tim McDonald of Monroe, North Carolina: It’s the 2015 Chevy Colorado, “Kymera,” which was made for rock crawling. McDonald spent more than a year building this Dino truck, which features a 12-valve Cummins twin-turbo diesel engine, independent all-wheel steer, MRAP axles, and a Baja-style suspension with Fox coilovers and triple bypass shocks.

Exhaust: The Hot Wheels Legends Tour covers the U.S looking for an especially wild custom vehicle that will be made into a Hot Wheels car. Here’s the rest of the Tour: May 27, Atlanta, Georgia; June 10, Detroit, Michigan; June 24, Chicago, Illinois; July 8, Houston, Texas; September 9, Dallas, Texas; September 23, Phoenix, Arizona; October 7, El Segundo, California. The finale will be livestreamed on November 11. — Steven Cole Smith

Hyundai eyes a solar panel-infused tonneau cover

Intake: Hyundai has entered into a “formal agreement” with Worksport to configure a version of their solar-powered tonneau cover and power bank to work in the unique bed design of their Santa Cruz truck. Worksport’s SOLIS cover and COR power bank are currently accepting reservations, but they do offer conventional vinyl-clad tonneaus for multiple applications. Pricing and availability are not currently available, but the press release had something interesting, as the two companies are also partnering on a “yet to be announced vehicle” that we might learn more about in October.

Exhaust: Could Worksport be making the modern equivalent of a jerrycan? Electric vehicles are the future of our truck-intensive country, so offering a tonneau cover that does more than just protect bed contents from the elements is a fine idea. Solar panels provide free energy for those who travel with battery-powered tools, and they might even recharge a stranded EV. — Sajeev Mehta

Are car prices the reason for inflation?

Intake: In a story titled “Why is inflation so stubborn? Cars are part of the answer,” The New York Times partially blames car prices that went up during the pandemic and the attendant parts shortages, but haven’t come down after the shortages were remedied. “Instead, prices for new cars have risen further. Domestic automakers are still producing fewer cars and focusing on more profitable luxury models. Used car prices helped to lower overall inflation late last year but rebounded in April as short supply collided with a surge in demand,” the story said. “Car prices have proven to be uncomfortably sticky. Used car prices have declined, but in a more muted—and volatile—fashion than economists expected. And new cars are becoming increasingly expensive this year as manufacturers try to maintain established margins in 2021. ‘Now the big question is: Are companies going to start competing with each other on price?’” asked Blerina Urushi, chief U.S. economist at T. Rowe Price.

Exhaust: The story makes a point, but you only have to watch a couple of hours of TV to see that automotive advertising has largely turned to pricing, as incentives continue to rise. Still, if people are willing to pay the price, what reason would manufacturers have to lower them? — SCS

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More than one German industrial city was severely damaged by Allied bombs during the Second World War, Stuttgart among them. Porsche Engineering Headquarters were (and still are) located in Zuffenhausen in the north sector of the city. Those facilities suffered no damage, however, thanks to German Reich Minister Albert Speer. That said, Porsche Engineering personnel in 1944 relocated to Gmünd, Austria, a town close to the Porsche family retreat in Zell am See, Austria. Their postwar return to company headquarters in Zuffenhausen was delayed until very late in 1950, due to those facilities being used as a postwar Allied command location.

Professor Ferdinand Porsche was under house arrest in the Alsace region of France, having been detained by the French at the end of the war. The company was under the control of Ferdinand (Ferry) Porsche II, son of the founder, assisted by Karl Rabe and designer Erwin Komenda. With a small group of management and engineering personnel and approximately 175 technicians, they initiated a very basic production facility in a series of buildings in Gmünd that had been used as a sawmill. There, the birth of the now-iconic Porsche 356 occurred.

Those early cars were primitive, even by the standards of postwar European production. Although the professor had designed and coordinated the manufacture of the very successful prewar mid-engined Auto Union grand prix cars as well as the three Volkswagen Type 60-K-10 aerodynamic examples for the high-speed Berlin-to-Rome 1300-plus-kilometer endurance race, this effort in Gmünd was truly the launching of Porsche as a car company.

Porsche chose the Swiss Grand Prix in Bern, held on July 4, 1948, to unveil the first Porsche to the public. After testing 356-001, European journalists described the car as “very pleasant to drive, handling as we imagined a modern car should be.” One week later, 356-001 was also demonstrated at the Innsbruck races with great acceptance by the public.

A mid-engined car has limited space not only for storage, but passengers as well. Before the first 356 was completed, Ferry Porsche had begun to design a more practical, more marketable model: a 2+2 coupe officially referenced as 356/2. The engine was relocated to the rear, aft of the rear axle, to allow two—albeit small—rear seats. This car would become known as the 356 Gmünd Coupe. The aluminum bodies were shaped by workers hand-hammering them over wooden body bucks—a very time-consuming process. Over the next two years, Porsche would produce about 50 examples of the Gmünd cars, including eight cabriolets. Today, these Gmünd cars are the most collectible of any of the 356 Porsches.

Porsche is now a world-renowned brand with great racing success, but in postwar Europe, it was just one of many small car manufacturers, competing for recognition and public acceptance with the likes of Lancia, MG, OSCA, and Simca.

Though not intended to be a racing car, the 356 in 1951 was entered in the most prestigious annual sports car race in the world: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car’s entry was intended to give Porsche additional recognition. Three cars were originally slated to be entered but due to various pre-race road accidents while testing, a lone entry made the Le Mans start on June 23, 1951. Starting is one thing at Le Mans. Finishing after 24 grueling hours is another. But this single Porsche entry not only finished, it also won its class. It managed a top speed of 100 mph and a best lap of 86.5 mph around the 8.5-mile circuit—not bad for a car with a 1086-cc engine producing 46 horsepower. This first (class) victory was the beginning of an unmatchable 20 overall Porsche wins at Le Mans to date.

Back in Zuffenhausen, Porsche started to produce a 356 that had more roadability to appease would-be buyers. Produced in both coupe and cabriolet models, the cars initially had some carryover components from the Volkswagens of the period, but the new steel chassis had a box section running longitudinally along both sides of the floor section as well as through the center of the cockpit to provide additional structural rigidity; this benefited the cabriolet models in particular.

More important, the newer 356s would allow the company to show a profit for the first time since production began in 1948. Porsche’s original projections were for 150 cars to be produced in the first year at the Gmünd facility, but by the end of 1950, fewer than 60 total cars had been produced. Profit was nonexistent. As Ferry Porsche put it: “We did not go broke producing these cars in Austria, but this period did not produce any profit. It simply started at zero and remained at zero.”

The key element of being back in Germany was the ability for Porsche to align with a body manufacturer to construct the 356 bodies. A Stuttgart/Zuffenhausen-based company, Reutter, had produced the bodies for the three cars built for the prewar Berlin-to-Rome race. An initial order to Reutter for 500 bodies coupled with an agreement to lease 5000-plus square feet in the Reutter facility directly across the street from Porsche headquarters allowed production of the steel-bodied 356 to begin in early 1950, before Porsche gained access to their building.

The first Zuffenhausen Porsche was completed in the spring of 1950. Employees nicknamed the car “Greyhound.” Professor Porsche, now released by the French and back at his home in Stuttgart, gave it his blessing only after he had minor changes made to the body. Side-to-side symmetry differed by less than one inch, something that the professor was able to detect by eye.

There were considerable differences between the German-produced cars and the cars built in the Austrian sawmill location. Gone were cable-operated brakes and lever-arm shocks, replaced by hydraulic brakes and telescoping shocks. The angular body shape of the Gmünd cars faded away to a smoother and more appealing appearance that would become known as the quintessential Porsche look. The spartan interior featured three gauges: a speedometer, an oil-temperature gauge (which was the lifeblood of the air-cooled four-cylinder engine), and a clock … which was wound by pulling a spring-loaded cord. Without a fuel gauge, the driver knew to measure the fuel in the tank located in the front trunk (along with the spare tire) by using the wooden stick also located in the front trunk. At a point when the engine started to starve for fuel, the driver could tap a small reserve of fuel by turning a lever located under the dash.

A two-piece windshield was used with radiused ends to allow a better field of vision for driver and passenger. The air-cooled engine was located aft of the rear axle as it had been in the Gmünd cars, still producing 46 horsepower. The front and rear bumpers were flush with the body of the car, producing a clean aerodynamic look.

A total of 298 Zuffenhausen Porsches were completed by December 31, 1950. This was more than double the anticipated production. Reutter had to increase the size of its facility to accommodate production requirements. Porsche’s first milestone, the 500th German-built 356, was celebrated on March 21, 1951. Just five months later, Porsche celebrated the 1000th 356 produced in the Zuffenhausen works.

Enter car dealer Max Hoffman, whose facility on Park Avenue in New York City sold British and European sports cars. Hoffman had deep respect for Professor Porsche, and had imported three of the Gmünd cars. One went to the West Coast to dealer and racer John von Neumann. Hoffman sent the second car to Ed Trego in the Midwest. Fritz Koster, who lived on the East Coast, purchased the third car. Hoffman became the 356 conduit to the U.S.

Engine displacement was increased in 1951 to 1300 cc and later that same year to 1500 cc, boosting the output to 60 horsepower. Customers who purchased the cars marveled at the minimal amount of effort required to drive them at high speeds. Porsche had a winner, but the price of the car was considerable. The coupe was $4284 and the cabriolet was $4560. This was $300 more than the well-known—and more powerful—six-cylinder Jaguar 140 model.

Interior improvements included a very basic radio. Sun visors were added as well. A modified 1500-cc engine was offered in 1952, referred to as a 1500S (Super). Road wheels were widened from 3.25 inches to 4.5 inches. Bumpers were extended away from the body of the car with added overriders. Changes continued with improvements occurring monthly. Engines were available for customers in 1100-, 1300-, and 1500-cc displacements with both a 1300 and 1500 Super available. The Super offered additional horsepower.

Hoffman clearly saw the 356 as a great addition to his store. In a meeting with Ferry Porsche, he suggested that Porsche replace the individual letters with a crest. The Porsche crest, still being used to this day, was first developed in that meeting on a napkin. The logo blends the horse, which symbolizes Stuttgart’s origins, and the coat of arms from the state of Württemberg, of which Stuttgart was the capital.

Hoffman also had another thought to assist in boosting Porsche’s U.S. (and his) sales. A small run of 16 cars with all-aluminum bodies was produced by Heuer-Glazer from 1952 to 1953 and named the America Roadster. These cars created a stir on U.S. racetracks with their success, but 16 cars were not what Hoffman had in mind. “Let’s get the price of a Porsche under three thousand dollars,” was Hoffman’s cry to Stuttgart. “Make it an open car. No more roll-up windows; replace them with side curtains. Get rid of the sun visors and the radio. Offer the car with a 1500-cc normal engine. Have only a speedometer, an oil pressure gauge, and a tachometer. Install lightweight bucket seats to convey the sporty look.” Lo and behold, Porsche produced the Speedster such that Hoffman could offer it at $2995. A 1500-cc Super engine was available for an additional $500. The cars tipped the scales at a little less than 1800 pounds and were able to reach a top speed of more than 100 mph. And the rest, as they say, is history … Porsche history.

Only minor body changes had been made since the beginning of production in 1950 at Reutter. A one-piece windshield had replaced the two-piece version. Larger taillights were utilized, as well as headlight changes. There were many alterations and refinements to the engine. Major suspension changes were made to provide a smoother ride as well as improving the handling of the 356. Body enhancements included a radiused windshield and rubber molding along the midpoint of both sides of the car. Wider tires were used on the 15-inch-diameter rims. Interior upgrades included a flat dash that featured a smaller radio and a glove box. The level of the floor pan was lowered by 1.4 inches, which made ingress and egress much easier. All these changes resulted in what Porsche would term the 356A model. On March 16, 1956, Porsche’s 356 total production reached 10,000.

During the years 1956 to 1959, Porsche offered customers the option of replacing the four-cylinder pushrod engine with the racing Carrera engine, which in a detuned form produced 100-plus horsepower. These engines were produced in 1500- and 1600-cc capacity. These 356 Carreras, as they became known, were frequently used at many race venues throughout six continents with great success.

By 1959, Porsche was working on a new model that featured a rear-camber compensating spring and an engine that was now producing 90 horsepower from the 1600-cc pushrod powerplant. The nose of the body was very different, with a much larger bumper and larger overriders. The headlights were relocated higher in the front fenders and the top of the fenders were straightened. Horn grilles and driving lights appeared, as did additional grilles allowing greater airflow to assist in cooling the new, larger front brakes. Porsche referred to this model as the 356B series. The internal reference for the body was T-5.

A small run of 263 roadsters of the 356B model was produced for Porsche by the Belgian coachbuilder D’Ieteren Freres in 1961. The T-5 body was only in production for a short time. In late 1961, a body with the front trunk lid featuring a much straighter lower edge and rounded at the corners, referred to as a T-6, was its replacement. A more form-fitting fuel tank was designed with the filler neck now on the outside of the car, contoured to blend into the fender. A proper dash-mounted clock was installed. The rear window was enlarged, and the engine lid featured two air grilles rather than one.

The Carrera version continued to be offered in the 356B in both the coupe and the open cars. Front disc brakes used on the late Porsche Spyder race cars—a modified version of the drum brake referred to as the annular disc—were a new feature on the Carreras. Porsche had no purpose-built GT race cars during 356B production so 20 356B chassis were sent to coachbuilder Abarth located in Turin, Italy, to have aluminum aero-shaped bodies built and installed. This very collectible 356B was often referred to as the Italian Porsche, more properly referenced as an Abarth Carrera.

By mid-1963, Porsche was making additional changes to its ever evolving 356. Proper disc brakes with rotors and external calipers were fitted both front and rear. Cockpit improvements included repositioning of the light switch, changing the heater control, and deeper seats that increased headroom. Door arm rests were also added. The body remained unchanged, but the model was now referred to as the 356C for the final two years of the 356. Engines were still offered in 1600-cc displacement in both the coupe and cabriolet cars, with a 90-hp model referred to as the SC. A 2.0-liter variant of the four-cam engine was also available. This model was known as the Carrera 2. The last 356 was produced in September 1965; the 356 gave way to the 911 model with the new six-cylinder engine.

Over the 17 years of production, more than 75,000 cars were built—a far cry from the 50-plus cars built in that converted saw-mill in Austria. When driving your 356 and another 356 is coming in the opposite direction, make sure you flash your lights. This is a tradition that started 75-plus years ago, and it still exists today.

Porsche 356 is one of 20 classes to be featured at the 2023 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, on June 2–4, 2023. Download the 2023 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance event program to learn more about Sunday’s other featured classes, Saturday’s Concours de Sport, our judges, sponsors, non-profit partners, 2022 winners and more!

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AM radio could live again, lawmakers say

Intake: Reports of the death of AM radio may be premature. A group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday to bar automakers from eliminating AM broadcast radio in their new vehicles, citing safety concerns, says Reuters.  Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., one of the sponsors of the bill, said at least eight automakers have removed AM broadcast radio from their EVs, including Tesla, BMW, Ford, and Volkswagen, with Ford removing it from gas vehicles, too. Lawmakers say losing AM radio undermines a federal system for delivering key public safety information to the public. The bill would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue regulations to mandate AM radio in new vehicles without additional charge. “Carmakers shouldn’t tune out AM radio in new vehicles or put it behind a costly digital paywall,” Markey said.

Exhaust: Most of the automakers that are removing AM say it is because interference from electric vehicles affects the signal. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing major automakers, said “mandating AM radios in all vehicles is unnecessary. Congress has never mandated radio features in vehicles ever before. Automakers remain 100 percent committed to ensuring drivers have access to public alerts and safety warnings.” — Steven Cole Smith

Canyon AT4X AEV Edition promises to take GMC’s midsizer up a notch

Intake: On Instagram yesterday, GMC announced that an even more capable version of the Canyon AT4X midsize pickup would surface on July 6. The Canyon AT4X AEV Edition, created in partnership with off-road aftermarket firm American Expedition Vehicles, will represent the ultimate off-road midsize pickup in GMC’s lineup. It will join the Sierra HD AT4X AEV Edition, revealed earlier this month, and the light-duty Sierra AT4X AEV Edition, which was unveiled last July. The AEV treatment usually involves new underbody skid plates, new bumpers, new wheels, and possibly more, all adding up to increased ground clearance, better approach and departure angles, and generally even more off-road worthiness. From the teaser photo, we can see a new front bumper for sure as well as some very stout underbody armor. The Canyon’s platform mate, the Chevy Colorado, gets goodies such as 35-inch tires and hydraulic jounce shocks when it dons the forthcoming AEV package; expect the Canyon to get this tech as well.

Exhaust: What began for AEV as a fruitful partnership with the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 has now spawned a serious tie-in with the entire GM family of pickup trucks. Despite the serious off-road chops, don’t think of this as a response to Ford’s recently revealed Ranger Raptor—that thing still feels like it’s in a league of its own. Instead, this feels like an even more ready-made platform upon which to live out your wildest overlanding dreams. — Nathan Petroelje

Everrati and RS Werks electrify the Porsche 911 ST

Intake: British electro-modder Everrati and Pennsylvania Porsche specialist RS Werks have partnered to produce an homage to the 911 ST. Based on the G-Series chassis 911 from 1973–1989, the car is a tribute to the short run of 33 STs made in 1970–1971 to meet FIA racing regulations. Wider wheel arches allowed for fatter tires and STs were lightened by using thinner steel, removing the heating ducts, and cutting back on interior features. The Everrati/RS Werks car has also been built with weight-saving in mind to compensate for the fitment of a 62-kWh battery and 446-hp electric motor that drives the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential. The car is claimed to reach 60 mph from rest in less than four seconds and have a range of more than 200 miles. AC and DC fast charging is included to make it a practical tourer and, unlike the original ST, it doesn’t skimp on luxury. Air conditioning, power steering, and a high-end audio system with Apple Car Play are all included, while TracTive adaptive damping is an option.

Exhaust: Although Everrati hasn’t released numbers the company says the car’s weight and weight distribution are “targeted at as close to that of the original 911 ST.” If that’s true then it would tip the scales at just over 2000 lbs and be more proof that it is possible to add electric performance without amassing mass. — Nik Berg

Ram 1500 Rebel Havoc Edition is a mini-TRX in yellow

Intake: If you missed the boat for the 2023 Ram TRX Havoc Edition announced last December, there’s a new less expensive 2023 Ram 1500 Rebel Havoc Edition featuring the same Baja Yellow exterior color. “Ram 1500 Rebel Havoc buyers will enjoy the newest addition to our light-duty lineup, which offers a distinctive combination of unique exterior appointments only seen on a Ram truck,” said Mike Koval Jr., Ram brand CEO. The Ram 1500 Rebel Havoc Edition “features a unique combination of technology, graphics, performance, and exterior appearance straight from the factory.” Selec-Speed Control is new on the Ram 1500 Rebel for 2023 and allows the truck to maintain a consistent speed while traversing variations in slope. The new tech applies engine torque and brake pressure to help keep a consistent pace, allowing the driver to focus on steering.

Exhaust: The Ram Rebel Havoc Edition starts at $72,205, including a hefty $1,895 destination fee. It goes on sale, “available in extremely limited quantities,” later this spring. —SCS

Ford recalling 422,000 SUVS for video issue

Intake: Ford and the NHTSA are recalling about 422,000 sport utility vehicles in the U.S. because the video output may fail, preventing the rearview camera image from displaying. The recall covers the 2020–2023 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, and 2020–2022 Lincoln Corsair SUVs, all with the 360-degree camera.  The recall expands and replaces prior Ford recalls, including one from January 23, for a similar issue. Ford last year updated the image processing module software in an effort to address the issue.

Exhaust: Letters should go out to owners next month. Ford says it is “working together with suppliers to identify root cause and provide the correct remedy as quickly as possible.” — SCS

And speaking of recalls…

Intake: Carfax, the automotive information service, has identified more than 2.5 million vehicles that have been the subject of serious “Do Not Drive” or “Park Outside” safety recalls that remain unrepaired as of May 1, Carfax data shows. Ten states have more than 70,000 of these vehicles each, with California leading the way with 245,000 vehicles alone. “Despite efforts by state and federal governments—and the auto industry itself—too many consumers are driving in vehicles that have been deemed too dangerous to drive, or that shouldn’t be parked in or near a home for fear of a fire,” said Faisal Hasan, general manager for Data at Carfax. “Officials and communities need to break through consumer recall notice fatigue and drive home the message: We can save lives today by getting these recalls fixed.”

Exhaust: You can check VIN numbers on both Carfax.com and NHTSA.gov to see if your vehicle has a “Do not drive” and/or “Park outside” recall. It really could save your life. — SCS

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23 new records, 1 day: Rimac Nevera redefines fast

Intake: Rimac’s battery-powered Nevera just set 23 acceleration and braking records in a single day. The headliner is the Nevera’s 0-400-0-kph (0-249-0 mph) run, which it clicked off in just 29.93 seconds. That time is over a second quicker than the previous record, set in 2019 by the V-8-powered Swedish hypercar, the Koenigsegg Regera. Each of the Nevera’s records was independently verified by two third-party testing companies, Dewesoft and RaceLogic. Other records toppled by the 1914-hp, 1741 lb-ft Croatian rocket ship: 0–60 mph, 1.74 seconds; 0–100–0 kph (0–62–0 mph), 4.03 seconds; quarter-mile ET, 8.26 seconds; 0–100 mph, 3.23 seconds; and 0–250 mph, 21.89 seconds. (Highest times shown, since occasionally the two testing companies got different results.) Rimac will make only 150 Neveras, and deliveries are already underway.

Exhaust: From a standstill, the Nevera can accelerate to 400 kph (249 mph) and brake to a standstill faster than it took the McLaren F1 to reach 350 kph (216 mph). Not bad for company founder Mate Rimac, a guy who started by EV-swapping his E30 M3 after he blew its motor during a race. — Nathan Petroelje

Liter for liter, this Porsche 912 outguns a 911 2.7 RS

Intake: Hungary’s KAMM Manufaktur is fitting its Porsche 912c restomod with a two-liter JPS Aircooled flat-four with the highest claimed specific output of any air-cooled street engine. The motor’s 95-hp-per-liter shames the specific output of the real-deal Porsche 911 2.7 RS, whose engine can only muster 78 hp from the same displacement. Do the math and you’ll note that the car’s total power is 190 hp, which isn’t especially astonishing, but consider that the 912c weighs in at less than 1500 pounds: It’s a recipe for a riot. The minimal mass is courtesy of a part-carbon body and Lexan windows, while a full-fiber shell is also an option. KAMM has configured the 912c to make it at home on the road or the track. TracTive semi-active coilover suspension is installed, and there are APC brakes, a 901 five-speed manual transmission, and a ZF limited-slip differential. Each KAMM 912c costs $390,000 including a donor car, or $350,000, if you supply your own.

Exhaust: “The 912c is designed to be as usable as a modern car but retains the driving experience of a classic racing car,” says KAMM founder Miklós Kázmér. The idea definitely seems to have appeal with the first car set for delivery to an owner in Florida and only two build slots left in 2023. Look out for our test drive in the coming weeks. — Nik Berg

Mercedes luxury, camper vans coming to U.S.

Intake: A new battery-powered vehicle architecture from Mercedes-Benz will birth a new luxury van that will, at long last, be offered to American buyers. Beginning in 2026, all Benz’s commercial and private luxury vans will ride on a new modular, scalable platform called VAN.EA. The electric architecture will feature a standardized front module across all models, a scalable center one depending on the wheelbase and battery size of the van in question, and a rear one that will offer an electric motor for vans specced with all-wheel-drive capability. Alongside the luxury and commercial vans, Mercedes says it plans to introduce a new line of VAN.EA-based camper vans. Outputs, range, and battery capacities have not been released yet. Currently, the Mercedes-Benz eSprinter, which will go on sale in the U.S. later this year, claims to have traveled from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Long Beach, California, (roughly 283 miles) on a single charge of its 113-kWh battery pack. Expect the new VAN.EA architecture to offer driving ranges that match or exceed that distance—in at least some of the configurations.

Exhaust: The van’s simple “two-box” layout makes it a prime candidate for electrification. Offering multiple models on a single architecture will reduce manufacturing complexities and offer significant cost savings—Mercedes says it plans to reduce portfolio variants by over 50 percent compared to its current vans with gas-powered engines. — NP

Over 400 Ferraris recalled for potential fuel leak

Intake: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall for 425 Ferrari 296 GTB models from model years 2022 and 2023 and for GTS models from 2023. The issue relates to some corrosion detected on the fuel-tank connecting pipe due to unintended contact between the pipe, which is made of aluminum, and the high-voltage battery protection cover, which is made of glass fibers and inox steel (essentially stainless steel). Unintended contact between the pipe and the cover allowed the formation of corrosion on the pipe due to a chemical reaction between the aluminum and inox steel, which in turn allowed the formation of a hole in the pipe that permitted fuel leakage.

Exhaust: Ferrari is aware of no incidents that have been caused by the potential leakage. The fix is to install a new fuel-tank connecting pipe that is reinforced with an anticorrosive protective sleeve made of rubber. Owners of cars made on April 20 of 2033 or later needn’t worry—those 296s have already been fitted with the new pipe. — Steven Cole Smith

Higher incentives, income lower car payments

Intake: New-vehicle affordability improved slightly in April and contributed to improving new-vehicle sales, according to the Cox Automotive/Moody’s Analytics Vehicle Affordability Index. Most factors helped as declining new-vehicle prices, increasing incentives, and improving incomes offset a small increase in the average new auto loan rate. Median income grew by 0.3 percent, incentives from manufacturers increased to their highest point in a year, and the average new-vehicle transaction price declined slightly in April. The average new-vehicle loan interest rate increased by 3 basis points to 9.52 percent. As a result of these changes, the estimated typical monthly payment declined 0.3 percent to $766, from an upwardly revised $769 in March. The average monthly payment peaked at $792 in December 2022.

Exhaust: “Though we are seeing some slight improvement in our index, affordability challenges are still a major barrier to the new-vehicle market,” said Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke. “We continue to see subprime buyers [those with below-average credit scores —Ed.] squeezed out of the auto market by the Fed repeatedly moving rates higher. The 10 consecutive rate increases have limited who can buy vehicles to mostly high-income, high-credit-score buyers.” — SCS

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New AC Cobra GT roadster modernizes a ’60s icon

Intake: “Starting with a clean-sheet design, the AC Cobra GT Roadster is a cutting-edge modern sports car, produced using the latest technology and engineering processes, yet it remains faithful to the spirit of the AC Cobra of the 1960s,” says the company. The new roadster is the result of a multi-million-dollar investment sustained over nearly four years. Intended to be both beautiful and usable as a sports car, it “remains in a class of its own.” Just 250 GT Roadsters are expected to be built for worldwide markets every year, with the first year of production already allocated. The car is significantly larger than the original AC Cobra. It’s available with either a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter Ford V-8 or a supercharged version using the same modular engine, with the supercharged version making a 0-to-60 mph run in 3.4 seconds. A six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic transmission is offered.

Exhaust: True to the original Cobra, it looks the part and it’s a fairly light car, weighing under 3,200 pounds. The debut was in England, where the company is located, but the car will be offered in left- and right-hand drive. No pricing information was given but the car is available for order here. — Steven Cole Smith

Hyundai, Kia sued by insurance companies

Intake: Nearly 70 companies that sell auto insurance are suing Hyundai and Kia, saying the widespread theft of vulnerable older Hyundai and Kia models not equipped with an anti-theft device could end up costing the U.S. insurance industry up to $600 million. Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, American Family, and 65 other auto insurers, which comprise only a fraction of the country’s insurance companies, estimate that just their portion of the payout to owners who have been affected by the social media-driven crime wave could top $300 million, says Automotive News.

Exhaust: The cars are the victims of the so-called Kia Challenge on TikTok, which details how easy it is to steal the older-model cars still equipped with a key ignition. The lawsuit said that just repairing broken windows and busted steering columns resulting from an attempt to break into a vehicle and hot-wire its ignition often costs an insurer more than $3,000. “Hyundai believes this litigation is unnecessary,” the automaker said.” A subset of Hyundai vehicles on the road in the U.S. today—primarily ‘base trim’ or entry-level models—are not equipped with push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices. It is important to clarify that an engine immobilizer is an anti-theft device and these vehicles are fully compliant with federal anti-theft requirements.” – SCS

2024 Lexus GX keeps angular styling of larger LX sibling

Intake: Lexus released two teaser images of the 2024 GX SUV, which is expected to be revealed in full either late this year or early next. The GX slots just below the LX series in Lexus’ lineup, the smaller of the two body-on-frame SUVs offered by the luxury automaker. The front end looks similar to that of the new LX 600, with slim, angular headlamps and pronounced hood bulges. That blacked-out grille suggests that this model is wearing some sort of F-Sport package akin to the one found on the LX 600 that we tested last fall. Looks like the new GX will feature a rear lightbar that spans the full width of the hatch as well. The dust and grime in those pictures imply at least some off-road chops.

Exhaust: As the LX 600 did when it molted from the LX 570, expect the new GX (perhaps 500? 350?) to ditch its trusty V-8 engine for some sort of twin-turbo V-6. We’re also hopeful that the new model gets the same interior upgrade that the LX received; the outgoing model’s user interface was lacking, to put it mildly. — Nathan Petroelje

The Renndienst bus is back with a Buzz

Intake: For two glorious decades from the 1950s to the 1970s Porsche’s factory race division was supported by Volkswagen’s iconic T1 and T2 vans, and now the Renndienst (race service) bus is back in business. Two VW ID. Buzz vans have been painted in the traditional dark red and liveried up just like their predecessors to support the German Porsche Carrera Cup Series. As far back as the 1954 Mille Miglia, VW buses were used to transport spare parts and mechanics, serving as workshops and mobile homes for the race crew and they’ll play the same role in 2023. “Like the Porsche race cars they accompanied, the red buses also achieved cult status. We are building on this and reviving the partnership in a very contemporary way: still dark red, but now also noticeably quiet – because they are electric,” says Lars Krause, Member of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Board of Management for Sales and Marketing.

Exhaust: The VW ID. Buzz was already pretty cool, but this takes things to a whole new level. Do we sense a special edition coming soon?–Nik Berg

BMW Motorrad celebrates 100 years with new R 12 nineT

Intake: The RnineT is getting a special edition to celebrate the 100 years of BMW Motorrad. The new model is the R 12 nineT, which updates the model name to reflect the company’s current naming convention of including the engine size in the model name. This means it is the same 1200cc boxer twin in the frame, but this new model gets updated styling centered around a gas tank that is patterned after the BMW R32 from a century ago.

Exhaust: The RnineT is ten years old now and has aged wonderfully. After riding one recently we can say if you like the styling, you will likely enjoy the ride. With the proper mix of old-school and new-school, we expect this new R 12 nineT to age well too.  — Kyle Smith 

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493-hp Spyder RS is Porsche’s most powerful Boxster ever

Intake: Porsche just unveiled the gnarliest-ever version of the Boxster: the 718 Spyder RS. (The name recalls the late 1950s, when Porsche first used the “718 RS” moniker on a race-car derivative of the 550 Spyder.) The convertible blends many goodies from two high-performance siblings, the 911 GT3 and the 718 Cayman GT4 RS. Power comes from the same engine that you’d find in the 911 GT3, a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six that’s been detuned here to make 493 hp and 331 lb-ft of torque. It soars to a sonorous 9000-rpm redline and sings through a stainless-steel sport exhaust. A seven-speed PDK automatic is the sole transmission choice. Performance figures are appropriately nuts: 0 to 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds, top speed of 191 mph. Suspension is derived from the 718 Spyder and the Cayman GT4 RS, with standard Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) that lowers the car 1.18 inches. The 718 Spyder RS will start at $162,150, including a $1450 destination charge, and it should reach dealers next spring. Order one, and you’ll also get a custom chronograph watch by Porsche Design that matches the spec of your car.

Exhaust: You can expect three things about a high-powered, flat-six Porsche these days: potent chassis, potent waiting list, potent price. Relative to the normal 718 Boxster Spyder, which starts right around $100,000, the Spyder RS gets 79 additional horsepower, a half-second faster 0-to-60-mph time, 59 fewer pounds, and a 5-mph-higher top speed. We can’t wait. — Nathan Petroelje

No way! Norway gets GM Europe’s first EVs

Intake: As soon as this autumn, GM will re-enter the European car market on the back of an “all-electric” portfolio of vehicles, GM Europe president Jaclyn McQuaid told Automotive News Europe yesterday. Those battery-electric cars will come from a slew of brands owned by General Motors. GM is staying mum on its target markets, but a source tells AN Europe that Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden—will get first dibs on the vehicles. GM didn’t really need to be so secretive: Remember that GM Super Bowl commercial from 2021, with Will Ferrell? “No way, Norway”?

Exhaust: Saying you have an all-EV portfolio sounds virtuous, but the business case for GM pursuing Nordic markets is obvious: Based on New York Times data, EVs represent only 20 percent of European new-car sales in 2022. In Norway—because of a truly wild story involving “Take on Me” and unpaid toll fees—that figure rises to a utopian 80 percent.

Here’s Toyota’s next electric car

Intake: Toyota has shown a teaser of its new electric vehicle. Based on the rendering above, it is nothing like anything Toyota has done before. Automotive News says the actual concept will be shown in Tokyo at the end of October. So far, you can expect a very sleek car, with a low nose and a high rear end that could imply a hatch-style trunk. Renderings are usually exaggerated toward sportiness, but this one looks like it could be accurate. CEO Koji Sato said today that Toyota would invest an additional 1 trillion yen ($7.44 billion) into EV development and production through the end of the decade. That brings Toyota’s total commitment, through 2030, to 5 trillion yen ($37.2 billion).

Exhaust: The new EV is scheduled to debut in 2026, Automotive News says. We’re definitely seeing a new, modern design language at Toyota for its battery-electric vehicles, starting with the surprisingly handsome new Prius. — Steven Cole Smith

Alpine announces hot hatch for 2024

Intake: Alpine, the raciest brand under French firm Renault, has revealed its first EV. The A290_β is just a concept for now but heralds a full production version due in the next year. The car is based on its sibling, the Renault 5 show car, but with an added helping of performance and aggressive styling. In silhouette and stance, there are echoes of the classic Group B Renault 5 Turbo 2, but overall it’s a forward-looking design, hunkered down and ready to rip up a backroad. While the exterior appears near-finished, the cabin design, with its central driving position, is clearly still at the concept stage. Alpine hasn’t revealed any stats yet, but we expect the A290 to have a pair of electric motors driving the front wheels, in contrast to the now-common rear-drive setup of many compact EVs.

Exhaust: The A290 will mark Alpine’s move into mass production and build on the French flagship’s global presence, which it is currently boosting through its Formula 1 program. The A290 probably won’t be coming to the U.S.A., however: CEO Laurent Rossi states that the company’s American debut will be in 2027 or 2028 with a pair of sporty electric SUVs. — Nik Berg

Car prices are down a bit, and incentives are up in April

Intake: The average transaction price (ATP) for a new car dipped in April, says Kelley Blue Book, dropping to $48,275, a month-over-month decrease of 0.03 percent ($14) from an upwardly revised March reading of $48,289. New-vehicle transaction prices in April were up 3.7 percent ($1744) compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, auto manufacturers’ incentive spend rose to the highest level in the last year at 3.6 percent of the ATP in April, averaging $1714. After 20 months of new-vehicle prices holding above the average sticker price, transaction prices are now trending downward. In April 2023, the average price consumers paid fell to $378 below sticker price. For comparison, a year ago, the average ATP was $600 above MSRP. Sales volumes were down month over month by 1.5 percent but up 9.0 year over year in April, higher than most forecasts and fed by higher inventory levels and a healthy dose of fleet deliveries.

Exhaust: “New-vehicle transaction prices are trending downward in 2023, which should feel like a breath of fresh air to buyers following the last few years of low supply and rapidly rising prices,” said Rebecca Rydzewski, research manager of Economic and Industry Insights for Cox Automotive. “Now that inventory levels are starting to climb and manufacturers are increasing incentives, the market will respond accordingly. High auto-loan interest rates are still a major issue for many buyers, but inventory and price trends are a positive in the market right now.” — SCS

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One of the biggest problems the Space Shuttle landing strip at Cape Canaveral faced in its 27 years of use was the Least Tern, Latin name Sternula antillarum: a smallish, black-capped, gray-and-white seagoing bird, sort of a small seagull, found near Florida’s coasts.

Birds have always been an issue at the 500-acre Shuttle Landing Facility—cranes, hawks, pelicans, eagles, you name it. But the little tern is an unlikely troublemaker. It seems the thousand-foot runoff areas at each end of the SLF was once mottled gray, a perfect camouflage for tern eggs, and Least Terns are colony nesters. So terns by the hundreds, perhaps thousands, flocked to the strip’s ends to propagate the species. To have the Space Shuttle landing on terns and tern eggs—well, that just wouldn’t do.

As the strip’s official biography says, “To solve this problem, the overruns were painted black. [But] since the black paint on concrete could not last from year to year, the overruns are now paved asphalt, which is naturally black and doesn’t have any properties that are appealing to the Least Terns.” Your tax dollars at work.

That still-black asphalt is where we’re gathered today: Porsches, Chevrolet Corvettes, Audis, a Lamborghini, a McLaren, a Ferrari, a Dodge Hellcat Charger, a blue Ford Mustang that is going to surprise the hell out of all of us, and multiple other cars, all brought to test their manufacturers’ claims. They came from as far away as Northern California.

The event in question is “straight-line aerodynamic testing.” It takes place on the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility, which is the new name for the SLF, located at Kennedy Space Center. Here, drivers have a chance to top-speed their cars in a 2.7-mile run, with tow trucks, paramedics, and fire engines at the ready. Prices vary per program. Suffice it to say entry is not cheap but reasonable.

If Bohmer sounds familiar, it’s probably because his 2006 Ford GT, nicknamed The BADD GT, set a world record for a licensed, street-legal, air-conditioned car. This one has 2700 hp and launched Bohmer to a 310.8-mph pass down the strip. You can watch the pass below:

The Launch and Landing Facility hasn’t seen a Space Shuttle since the breed’s final flight, on July 21, 2011, when Atlantis brought down the curtain. The SLF saw 78 missions in all, the first being a Challenger landing in 1984. (The Shuttle shown here in photographs is a training mock-up, Inspiration, now used only for display. It needs work.)

Bohmer started his test program here. He put it together in 2011, he says, “for use by mostly manufacturers and race teams. I wrote all the rules, pretty elaborate stuff.” Our visit came on the first top-speed day he’s done in nearly two and a half years. The rest of the site’s tests, which occur almost daily, are slower and more pedestrian, punctuated by some private go-fast work by, among others, Bugatti and Hennessey.

“I developed this entire testing program,” Bohmer says. “As you can see, there’s a lot of moving parts to this operation. About 99 percent of what we do is OEM testing. Boring stuff. Last year we did probably 300 days. Manufacturers do straight-line testing and testing for the EPA. Cars, race cars, school buses, tractor-trailers. We can get two days of testing done in one 24-hour period. Most never get over 70 mph, but at one time or another, pretty much everybody has been out here doing high-speed testing.” He’s a consultant for many firms that visit. After all, nobody has driven a street car faster than he has.

“One company has exceeded 400,000 miles of testing here. And that’s just one company—we have a lot with 80,000 to 100,000 miles.”

As for the runway: It is 15,000 feet long, with 1000 feet of tern-deterrent blacktop at each end, one of the longest airstrips in the world. (Top honors go to an 18,045-foot, high-altitude strip in Tibet.) The runway’s 1974 construction cost $22 million, about $138 million in 2023 money. The center is Portland cement 20 inches thick, feathering to 14 inches at the edges. The surface is slightly crowned for rain runoff, so test runs today will be done on one side of that crown, where the cement is essentially flat.

By the way, the BADD GT isn’t here today. Bohmer says managing the test and driving is too much combined responsibility—“When I run, I just rent the facility for myself. That way, if I break something, I don’t ruin anybody else’s fun.” But the car will be back. Bohmer thinks he can hit 333 mph.

Not counting the paved shoulders, the JBPG strip is 300 feet wide—a football field—though one Shuttle pilot famously remarked that he wished it were half as wide and twice as long. The strip was grooved side-to-side for rain runoff, 8000 miles of grooves. But they did too good of a job. The grooving’s sharp edges damaged Shuttle brakes and tires, and until a solution was found, landings moved to Edwards Air Force Base in California, which meant the Shuttle had to be shuttled back to Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing 747.

Those grooves eventually received a treatment much like shot-peening, to dull the edges, and it worked. That effort and weather have smoothed the grooves to where a driver can’t feel them at speed; you merely hear the tires sing. There are zero bumps. Today’s run brings no tire failures, so it must work.

With the environmental concerns at the Bonneville Salt Flats and the nation’s few remaining dry lake beds, the Bohmer facility may be the safest place to top-speed vehicles in America. Of course, the moats to each side of the strip are full of alligators, which like to sun themselves on the track, so there’s that.

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It’s not yet dawn when we gather at the Kennedy Space Center credentialing office—everyone has had to pass background checks in advance. After that, we caravan to the runway, a journey that takes about 15 minutes. Once there, we congregate at one end, near Bohmer’s trailer, as the International Mile Racing Association sets up timing equipment. Drivers, of which there are 18, will do a standing half-mile, then a mile, then 2.3 miles, and finally, 2.7 miles, which is the distance Bohmer figures leaves enough room at the end to stop safely, plus a modest buffer.

Really, it isn’t as exciting as it sounds. The cars launch hard and swim through the gears until they pass the timing markers. Then they do a 180 and use the other side of the runway as a return road. Speeds are relayed back to the starting line and entered on a white board with a blue marker.

Top speed at the half-mile: a blistering 172.658 mph, achieved by Maxwell Logan’s Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. The car’s only modification is a carbon-fiber hood and a seemingly wide-open exhaust that sounds . . . well, let’s say invigoratingly unpleasant. In the 2.7-mile leg, it ran 215.249, fast time of the day.

Logan really wanted to beat R.J. Valentine’s 214.341 in the 2.7-mile run, which came in a Porsche 918 Spyder. The car is stock, Valentine says, adding, “I barely know how to drive it.” Unlikely, since he has a class win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance race.

Seven other cars managed to top 200 mph: a Dodge Viper, a breathed-on Audi RS6, a Superformance Cobra, a pair of C7 Corvettes, an Audi R8, and a McLaren 720S. Honorable mention goes to a Ford Mustang GT with a 5.0-liter V-8 and Whipple Stage 2 supercharger; the owner says he added a lowering kit and a Borla exhaust but changed nothing else. The car went 190.933 mph.

Birds were a concern. John Canal backed off in his Viper (200.017 mph) out of reflex when he saw one coming at 190. “A bird that size would have come through the window,” he says. Propane cannons are fired off periodically to scare birds away. They do not appear to work that well.

By all accounts official and otherwise, no Least Terns were hurt, no eggs smashed, no alligators run over. The only mechanical issues were a loose wire in the Superformance Cobra (203.767 mph), and an axle problem with the Dodge Charger Hellcat (180.400 before it broke). Bohmer isn’t sure when the next top-speed test will take place; maybe this summer or fall, he says, or maybe not. His company’s website is jbprovinggrounds.com.

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2024 Tacoma keeps the manual flame burning

Intake: Welcome back to the weekly Tacoma Teaser corner. This week, Toyota revealed something that genuinely caught us off guard: The 2024 Tacoma will still offer a manual. The teaser image above was released with this kitschy little quote: “Legends are more than automatic; they always come in clutch.” The current Tacoma is one of just two mid-size pickups to offer a manual transmission, Jeep’s Gladiator is the other one. It’s unknown yet whether the manual option will be offered with the hybrid drivetrain that Toyota previously teased for the new Tacoma, but we wouldn’t bet on it.

Exhaust: The Tacoma has long represented Toyota’s adherence to older, proven technology that just plain works, but we’re surprised to see a manual stick around during a landmark transition for the best-selling mid-sizer in the U.S. Between this news, the detachable Bluetooth speaker, and the upcoming Trailhunter trim, the 2024 Tacoma seems ready to offer something for just about everyone. — Nathan Petroelje

New USPS vehicles behind schedule

Intake: The U.S. Postal Service said it doesn’t expect to receive its next-generation delivery vehicles until June 2024, nine months behind schedule, says Reuters. In March of 2022, the USPS placed an order worth nearly $3 billion with Oshkosh Corporation for 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles. It expected to begin receiving deliveries in October. The modern vehicles will replace older USPS vehicles that lack airbags and air conditioning. It will also buy 18,500 trucks from Ford and Chrysler. In February 2021, the USPS announced an initial $482 million contract for Oshkosh and said it could order up to 165,000 vehicles over 10 years in a deal that could be worth $6 billion or more.

Exhaust: If it sounds complicated, it is, and further muddying the water is that the deal is being challenged by 16 states and environmental groups that filed a lawsuit seeking to block USPS’s plan to buy mostly gas-powered trucks instead of electric ones. In December, USPS said it would more than double planned electric delivery vehicles purchases, saying it now plans to buy at least 66,000 electric vehicles through 2028, including at least 45,000 out of 60,000 Oshkosh-built vehicles. USPS said it would also buy 14,000 charging stations. – Steven Cole Smith

Tesla re-opens order books for Model 3 Long Range

Intake: After a nine-month hiatus, Tesla has re-opened the order books for the Model 3 Long Range, which has a bigger battery and a 325-mile range, compared to 358 miles for the last Long Range. Starting price is $48,880 with destination, for a June delivery date. It’s eligible for a $3750 incentive, the same as the base model, which has a range of 272 miles. The Performance version of the Model 3 is eligible for the full $7500 incentive. It all depends on where the battery materials are sourced from, and where it’s assembled.

Exhaust: Electrek.co is speculating that the new Long Range may be using a different, Chinese-sourced battery pack. “There are changes that suggest the car might be using Tesla’s LFP [lithium-iron-phosphate] pack, which is used in Chinese-built Model 3s and in the Model 3 Standard Range. The car is now listed as having ‘325+’ miles of range, as compared to the previous 358 miles. LFP is a cheaper, less energy-dense technology, so it would make sense that a pack might have less energy in it, and less range as a result.” Since Tesla has no press office and doesn’t respond to queries, your guess is as good as ours. – SCS

Porsche to hike prices to fight higher supply chain costs

Intake: To curb higher costs that hampered profits in the first quarter of 2023, Porsche has announced that it will raise prices for its vehicles between 4 and 8 percent, according to a report from Automotive News. Porsche’s chief financial officer Lutz Meschke told AN that supply chain issues, particularly for semiconductors and the parts for the Taycan EV’s high voltage charging system are to blame, but that those pains should ease in the coming months. The company also said that it is targeting a move further upmarket to challenge the likes of Ferrari.

Exhaust: Those supply chain pinches around key EV components are a focus for Porsche right now. Within the next 5 years, Porsche is planning to release an all-electric Macan, an electric 718 sports car, and an electric high-performance crossover that will sit above the Cayenne in its lineup. — NP

Volvo’s smallest crossover EVs get RWD option, more range

Intake: Volvo announced a handful of changes for its C40 Recharge and XC40 Recharge compact crossover EVs. To boost the range of the small electric utes, the Swedish automaker will now offer a rear-wheel-drive version of each—the first time in 25 years that RWD has been offered on a Volvo USA product. The 248-hp electric motor pairs with the same 82-kWh battery pack as before, but range climbs to 297 miles on the C40 Recharge and 293 miles on the XC40 Recharge, up from 226 miles and 223 miles, respectively.

The all-wheel-drive versions of these two also get updated drivetrains. In place of a 150-hp electric motor affixed to each axle in the old setup, Volvo’s new in-house developed 255-hp electric motor will now be fitted to the rear axle and a 147-hp asynchronous electric motor will power the front axle. The new setup, which won’t require the front axle motor to provide power continually, allows the C40 Recharge and XC40 Recharge to eek 254 miles of range out of the 78-kWh battery pack, a gain of 31 miles over the outgoing layout.

Exhaust: These smaller electric crossovers might not offer the big profit margins automakers seem to be addicted to these days, but because of their lower prices, they’re the types of vehicles that will make a bigger impact on getting folks to transition to EVs. With competition from the likes of the Genesis GV60 mounting, Volvo’s updates bring a welcome boost to these trendy utes. — Nathan Petroelje

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You’ve logged thousands of miles driving powerful automobiles with three pedals and a shifter. Banging gears has become second nature. You don’t think, “Disengage the clutch and then move the lever to the next gear position.” You just do it, near as rapidly as is a human being can. Your machine, if older, can perhaps even outperform a similar car with a torque-converter automatic gearbox. But what about a similar car with a dual-clutch transmission?

The conventional manual, with its direct-connection clutch and gear changes, had long been the best option for driver control, most forms of auto racing, and quick sprints to 60 mph and beyond. Its day on the performance podium, however, appears to be over. Now standard equipment in many performance cars and in some lesser automobiles as well, dual-clutch transmissions (DCT) enable both automatic and driver-initiated gear changes, and they shift faster—with less chance of error—than a traditional manual.

Because the DCT is coupled to the engine directly via clutches, there is no slippage and no loss of momentum. They can shift so quickly because the next gear has been selected before the shift occurs. A DCT is built with two main shafts, one with the odd-numbered gears and the other with the even-numbered gears. One shaft also includes a reverse gear and park mechanism, and each shaft is coupled to the engine with its own clutch. Hence the name “dual-clutch.”

When a DCT-equipped car powers out in first gear with the shaft-one clutch applied, second gear is already engaged on the other shaft. As the clutch on shaft one is released, the clutch on shaft two is applied. Electronic controls dictate the precise timing of clutch application, and hydraulics do the heavy lifting. How quickly and with how much force the second clutch applies depends on the control system calibration and, where applicable, in which mode the car is being driven. If the driver has selected an ultimate performance mode such as “track,” the result can be a shift time of less than 100 microseconds, or about 1/10,000 of a second.

Among the first to explore the dual-clutch concept was the French engineer Adolphe Kégresse. He experimented with the approach to transmissions in the 1930s, but World War II got in the way and Kégresse died before peace resumed. If not for war putting the DCT on the back burner, your dad’s ’67 Sting Ray might have been a quick-shifting beast. Well, probably not, but fortunately, the concept didn’t die with Kégresse.

At the end of the 1960s, Imre Szodfridt, a Porsche engineer, pitched a DCT development project to Ferdinand Piëch, then head of development for the Stuttgart automaker. Szodfridt went so far as to develop prototypes, but they languished in storage until Porsche engineers dug them out and dusted them off in the early ’80s. Hoping to gain an advantage for Porsche race cars, the engineers went to work building a modern version of the Szodfridt transmission.

“It was a huge challenge for a small department such as ours,” said Rainer Wüst, the technical manager assigned to Porsche’s DCT project at the time. “Maybe it was naiveté that helped us, but certainly our pragmatism in dealing with the challenges did, as well as our passion for the subject.”

The team succeeded in building a workable transmission called Porsche Doppelkupplung, or PDK, and tested it in a 944 Turbo. A single gear lever in the center console was marked with plus and minus signs to signify upshifts and downshifts. Given the simple operation of a DCT, that’s all that was necessary.

That experiment was deemed a success, so the capability of the PDK was tested more rigorously in the 1983 Porsche 956 race car. With the test drivers free of clutch work, they could brake with the left foot and stay on the throttle with the right, keeping turbo boost high. Reaching for a gearshift lever in the middle of a corner was no longer required. Missed shifts were a thing of the past, and late braking was possible given the PDK’s rapid downshifts. Near-instant gear changes reduced lap times significantly, but the jolting application of torque resulted in mechanical carnage. The team went back to work and introduced a refined version of the PDK in the 962 race car, successor to the 956. This time, Porsche turned it loose on the rest of the racing world to great success.

The quick-shifting PDK transmission would eventually become a key component of Porsche road-going automobiles, but there was some resistance to overcome. Porsche’s 1967 attempt to market the Sportomatic automatic transmission had been met with well-deserved disdain, since a 911 so equipped was two seconds slower to 60 mph. The bad taste that lingered from that effort had made the lack of a clutch pedal a non-starter for Porsche cognoscenti.

Porsche engineers were not deterred. After refining the dual-clutch PDK in the race cars, in 2008 Porsche adapted it to the 911 Carrera and Carrera S. It made the Carrera nearly half-a-second quicker to 60 than it was with the six-speed manual, and the system enjoyed moderate success. A year later, Porsche made the dual-clutch box standard equipment on some Panamera models. In 2016, the eight-speed PDK II dual-clutch became the only transmission available in the Panamera. Today, more than 75 percent of all 718 and 911 models are equipped with a ZF-manufactured eight-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission that can outperform any conventional manual on the planet.

In the years that have passed since Porsche pioneered the DCT, the technology has migrated to other nameplates. Audi used a DCT early on in endurance racing, and Volkswagen pioneered it on the street in 2003. Both have long partnered with Porsche, which along with Audi is part of the Volkswagen Group. Beyond those marques, a variety of automakers have shifted with a DCT, including Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Ford, Dodge, Acura, Nissan, McLaren, Lamborghini, BMW, and Chevrolet in the Corvette.

Adapting DCT technology to an automobile that will be used in a variety of ways presents a challenge. When a car is driven aggressively, the transmission should follow suit. When it’s driven leisurely, the transmission software must recognize that and regulate shifts accordingly. A well-executed mapping of transmission operating parameters will prevent jarring shifts when cruising and optimize full-throttle shifts. A DCT’s electronic control unit can also be programmed to take advantage of the acceleration boost that is generated between shifts when engine torque remains constant. In today’s advanced DCTs, the control units are sophisticated microprocessors, and the solenoids that regulate shifting and clutch application aren’t mere on/off switches. They’re complex devices that can gradually apply a clutch or hammer it home almost instantaneously. Making it all work seamlessly is dependent on exacting calibration.

Ford worked extensively with Tremec to calibrate the seven-speed DCT in the Mustang Shelby GT500. George MacDonald, Ford Performance powertrain supervisor, in speaking of the vehicle’s development, said, “We had full integration of the Tremec calibration teams. When we went to tracks, they were right there with us. Our pro drivers know what customers will want, so we integrated them with the Tremec people.”

MacDonald explained that the transmission’s electronic control unit can determine when to downshift and upshift on a racetrack, even when the car is driven as an automatic in track mode:

“A really good race car driver will know exactly when to upshift and downshift when shifting manually, so working with Tremec calibrators we were able to implement upshift and downshift times that are accurate in automatic operation. When to downshift is determined by where you are in throttle and brake. If, for example, you’re in track mode at 35 mph and 25 percent throttle, as you brake the software will determine when you get a downshift. In track mode, upshift and downshift points are much different than in normal or even sport mode.”

The mid-engine C8 Corvette must compete with the world’s best performance cars, so a DCT was the obvious choice; a conventional manual isn’t even offered. The complex shift linkage required by the rear-mounted transmission also entered into Chevrolet’s decision to forgo a third pedal.

Like Ford’s DCT, the Corvette transmission is made by Tremec, but it’s calibrated by Chevrolet engineers. Its hardware support includes accelerometers, throttle-position sensors, and steering angle sensors to provide the data that enables the control unit to determine how the car is being driven. Shifts and other operating parameters are regulated accordingly. Paddle shifters are wired directly to the transmission control module to minimize the time it takes the transmission to respond to paddle action. A modified version for the potent Z06 Vette has a stouter final-drive gear ratio and some fortified components.

Glenn Hoefflin, GM’s assistant chief engineer for DCTs, said the engineering effort that resulted in today’s Corvette DCT began 10 years ago. Asked about the biggest challenge the engineering team faced, Hoefflin said, “With the elimination of conventional automatic and manual transmission options, creating a driving experience that appeals to the automatic customer while providing an equally engaging and responsive experience for the manual customer … required considerable effort from the development team.”

Although most automakers have dipped a toe in dual-clutch technology, Hyundai has gone all-in by developing DCTs for a range of internal-combustion and hybrid Hyundai and Kia vehicles. The gearboxes are manufactured by Hyundai Transys, and all calibration work was performed by Hyundai engineers. The transmission control units are supplied by Vitesco, a partner company to Hyundai.

Hyundai dual-clutch applications range from modestly powered small cars to more potent midsize machines, so the automaker has developed both wet-clutch and dry-clutch DCTs to meet the different requirements of its products. The oil of a wet-clutch DCT cools the clutch pack and enables higher torque loads, but it comes with an efficiency penalty, as the oil exerts drag on rotating clutches. When efficiency is the primary goal and torque loads are not a major concern, a dry clutch is advantageous.

Hyundai’s most robust DCT, the eight-speed “8DCT,” uses a wet clutch and is offered on the manufacturer’s “N” models, both of which use a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder of 276 horsepower. The six- and seven-speed DCTs used in models where high torque loads are non-existent are dry-clutch units.

Though excellent drivability is of some importance in supercar applications, it’s essential in vehicles where reliable, comfortable daily transportation is the goal. Jason Valentini, the Hyundai manager for transmissions at the Hyundai America Technical Center, said the automaker devoted plenty of development and calibration time to achieve excellent low-speed shifting. “The result,” he continued, “is smooth, crisp shift response.”

Supercar engineers speak of shift times of approximately 100 milliseconds (a tenth of a second), which is the speed of the proverbial “blink of an eye.” The Hyundai 8DCT at wide open throttle in performance driving mode achieves what might appear to be a leisurely shift time of 300 milliseconds—still only three-tenths of a second.

Still faster than me or you? Definitely. More fun than the three-pedal shuffle? Highly debatable.

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Springtime has a funny way of playing with your decision-making skills, especially if you live up north. The thaw in 2014 began in late March, after a particularly harsh Northeast Ohio winter, and that first glimpse of warmth made up my mind: It was time to own a convertible again. That June, I brought home a 2001 Porsche Boxster S.

It wasn’t just the emergence from that year’s polar vortex and its negative temperatures that sent me hunting for a ragtop, however. I’d gone without open-air driving since 2006, when I built my road-going Miata into a race car. So I knew what all convertible people know: Once you get the bug, it’s hard to go without.

To be honest, the Boxster hadn’t even been on my radar. I’m not a Porschephile, and it was on a whim that I decided to take one for a test drive. The mid-engine induction noise seemingly plumbed directly to my ears was the first hint that the Boxster would be a good fit. That was soon followed up by gleeful discovery of the chassis’ poise; after catching an eager, cold-tire tail rotation with a flick of my wrists, I was smitten with the car’s balance and communication.

As I began searching for the right Boxster, that little buzzkill called rationality entered my internal chat. I heard it out. Yes, the intermediate shaft (IMS) issue—a bearing that is internet-famous for its potential to grenade these early water-cooled engines—was well-known by that point, but so were the signs and solutions. The “Porsche tax” on parts meant that there’d be a premium over the Miata parts I’d gotten used to buying. That said, a bit of research, knowing that I could perform most maintenance tasks myself, and the pull of that initial drive overcame any lingering doubts. I set about finding the best one I could afford.

My search took a while, and I drove several cars before settling on mine. Unlike prior Porsche models or more modern limited editions like the Boxster Spyder, there were plenty of pedestrian first-gen Boxsters out there to choose from. Before the Cayenne and Macan SUVs started printing cash for Porsche, the addition of the Boxster as a close sibling to the 996-generation 911 helped turn the company’s fortunes around. The first generation Boxster (986, in Porsche-speak) sold in droves, with 164,874 produced from its debut as a 1997 model through 2004. In its debut year alone, the Porsche sold 55,705 of them, beating the company’s 1992 total global sales by 40,000 cars. Porsche was well on the road to redemption by way of runny-egg headlamps and water-cooled sixes out back.

In addition to the sheer number of Boxsters on sales lots, there was great variation in what was available, as Stuttgart incrementally improved its little savior over the years. Initially introduced with a 201-hp 2.5-liter flat-six, the base car’s engine got a 0.2-liter bump in displacement in 2000, upping horsepower to 217. The S was introduced in 2000 and included a 3.2-liter, 250-hp engine, six-speed manual transmission option (the base came with a five-speed, and Porsche’s Tiptronic torque-converter automatic was available on either trim), larger brakes and wheels, suspension tweaks, an additional radiator, and split exhaust tips. The updated “986.2” arrived for 2003, its most obvious changes including revised front and rear fascias, clear turn signals in place of the amber strips, and a glass rear window in the convertible top. The base car received tweaks to reach 222 hp, and the S got an eight-horse bump up to 258.

I found the ’01 Lapis Blue Boxster S you see here in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After viewing a wealth of photos and securing a clean bill of health via a detailed pre-purchase inspection from a local Porsche dealer, I flew out to pick up the car.

Since then, it’s been a joyous go-to, and the car I find myself choosing for short trips, or those golden hour just-because bombs through rural back roads. All of its attributes score well on their own, but the Boxster’s seamlessness is what sets it apart. Roll into the firm brakes (there’s always more on tap from that pedal), grin at the engine’s trademark scream through the heel-toe downshift, and feel the steering’s granular precision as it loads up on the dive into the corner. String a few of those moments together a couple evenings a week in the summer, and you’ve got a cure for most any woe.

Nearly as happily, over nine years and 24,000 miles, my Boxster S has been trouble-free. To be fair, though, it has required more than Toyota appliance-level maintenance. I’ve followed the prescribed schedule, including replacing items like the water pump, plugs and coils, and air-oil separator. I also added an LN Engineering oil filter kit for better filtration, and I send my oil out to the analysts at Blackstone Laboratories for testing with each change. Looking forward, at 22 years old and 77,000 miles, the car is about due for a suspension refresh.

What’s not to like? Lest I come off sounding like these cars are trouble-free, I should stress that if you’re planning on buying one, find an example with good maintenance records. Once you own it, keep up with it. They can get expensive if you get behind on repairs. Do your research, too, as some engines are more reliable than others; early cars have a dual-row IMS bearing, for instance.

Porsche strangled these cars from the factory with tiny intakes and exhausts to keep them from nudging 911 territory. The sound, and a few ponies, can be freed up with updates like switching to the second-gen intake and a larger plenum and throttle body, along with an aftermarket exhaust.

Inside and out, the styling is an acquired taste. Personally, I prefer the 986’s lines to the more buttoned-up 987, though the interiors aren’t nearly as nice as newer Boxsters.

If you’re considering a convertible from this era, you have a few options, and it’s good to cross-shop—this hobby is about finding what you love, after all. Looking for nimble, crisp driving characteristics? The Boxster, Lotus Elise, and Honda S2000 all arrive at that target in different ways, each with its own personality. BMW’s Z3 in its various guises offers a classic roadster experience, though it isn’t quite as sharp or sporty. You could even toss in a fifth-gen Corvette convertible for kicks—it’ll handily outpace a Boxster S and offers its own glorious soundtrack, but it doesn’t feel nearly as alive when the roads get windy.

After sliding into a trough in 2017, 986 Boxster values have been on the rise. They’re still outshined in the market by their competition, with values of the aforementioned S2000 and Elise appreciating more rapidly. A few factors are at play, but you could argue that the Honda benefits from the current enthusiasm for Japanese sports cars, while the comparative rarity of the Lotus gives it a boost. Add in the love-it or loathe-it Porsche aesthetic of the era and concerns about reliability, and the Boxster’s trailing values start to make some sense.

Another factor in the Boxster’s slower appreciation is its interest across demographics. Boomers lead the share of insurance quote data on these cars, with 47 percent of quotes sought. That outstrips their overall market share by over 13 percent. Gen X makes up 30 percent of quotes, effectively tracking with their share of the market. Millennials and Gen Z pay comparatively little attention to the first-gen Boxster, which may tamp values in the longer term if trends remain the same.

You can still find a good driver-quality 2000–02 Boxster S for under $20K, which represents a tremendous value for the experience. The 2003–04 models will fetch a few grand more, and the added tweaks like the glass rear window that comes with the later models are more sought-after. While other convertibles from the era continue to appreciate, and younger buyers are flocking to BMWs from the early 2000s, attention for the 986 Boxster is steady at best, a bit wanting at worst.

From my perspective, that’s OK. I know my car’s never going to be an expensive collector piece. That frees me from worrying about where to park it and enables me to perform minor upgrades without concern for absolute originality. I bought this car for how it makes me feel, and for the fun of using it and working on it. If you go about your car purchases the same way and find yourself itching for some top-down fun, give the 986 Boxster a look.

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The Petersen Automotive Museum’s latest exhibit We Are Porsche looks back at 75 years of the Stuttgart automaker and highlights the brand’s biggest market: America. Forty vehicles show the breadth of the brand, from early 356 models and svelte ’50s racers to modern supercars and track machines.

The exhibit, assembled in collaboration with Porsche Cars North America (PCNA), takes up a good portion of the California museum’s second floor and sprawls into the lobby. You’ll find some modern racers, a wild safari 911, and a whimsical art piece from Mr. Brainwash that places a real, full-scale 1973 Carrera RS 2.7 into Matchbox toy packaging.

The exhibit illustrates the wide reach of Porsche and how its cars have influenced racing, pop culture, and art, with vignettes centered around influential Porsche drivers, owners, and collectors including Hurley Haywood, Slash, Renée Brinkerhoff, and Steve McQueen.

“As a Porsche lover, I’m particularly excited that the Petersen gets to play such a significant role in celebrating the 75th anniversary of these incredible machines,” said Terry L. Karges, executive director of the Petersen Automotive Museum. “Porsche’s history on and off the track speaks for itself, and we are honored to help them commemorate this milestone.”

“Porsche is an iconic brand that took off in America, thriving in California’s car culture,” said Kjell Gruner, president and CEO of PCNA. “From there, the love for the brand spread around the world. We are delighted to celebrate our 75th anniversary at the Petersen Automotive Museum—the center of car culture in Los Angeles—with such a unique exhibition.”

With more than 40 Porsche vehicles located throughout the museum, mostly on the second floor, there is plenty to take in, including rare one-offs and some customs that weren’t seen at the last major Porsche exhibit at the museum in 2018.

Three that stand out are the four-door 911 built by Tom Barnes and Dick Troutman, Chris Banning’s chopped Mulholland racer that inspired the film King of the Mountain, and the EV-swapped 935 K3V by Bisimoto Engineering.

Of course, you can’t have a Porsche exhibit without race cars, and plenty are on hand to represent the breadth of the company’s competition history.

As usual, the Petersen Automotive Museum has done an excellent job curating a fascinating cross-section of vehicles to tell an important story. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, we highly recommend a visit. Tickets are available here, and the exhibit is expected to run through April 2024.

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If you’re a Corvette aficionado, you know that Zora Arkus-Duntov’s birthday falls on Christmas Day. This April, the month in which he passed away, we’re revisiting a lesser-known chapter of Duntov’s story. This piece originally ran on our site in June of 2017. —Ed. 

When you hear the sound of a raspy flat-six in a Porsche 911, it’s likely you don’t think of Zora Arkus-Duntov. After all, he’s Mr. Corvette. Most credit Duntov for saving the Corvette after GM nearly killed it due to poor sales after the Ford Thunderbird debuted in 1955. He also took many risks to establish the Corvette’s racing pedigree during a time when GM was officially not involved in motorsports.

But things may have been different if one of the Corvette’s rivals had its way. Duntov had a golden opportunity to join Porsche in the mid-1950s after distinguishing himself with two class wins at Le Mans while driving for Porsche. He also solved an engineering issue on the Porsche 356 and had carte blanche to join the legendary German automaker.

Duntov, of course, would have been more than happy to race for his own employer at Le Mans or anywhere else, but no such driving opportunities existed at GM in the early 1950s. The corporation was still riding the crest of a postwar demand for cars and trucks, and racing was not part of its immediate business plan.

But Chevrolet chief engineer Ed Cole foresaw the need for Chevrolet and GM to generate excitement among younger buyers as well as to make its products better through the disciplines of racing. This fact would at least open the door for Duntov himself to race, even if Chevrolet wasn’t.

What led to the Porsche connection? Duntov had established some visibility as a driver in Europe, having competed at Le Mans for Sydney Allard and his British sports car enterprise back in 1953 and ’54. Duntov had worked for Allard in London for several years in the late 1940s, and that connection resulted in the offer of a seat. (Duntov DNF’d both years with mechanical problems.)

While Duntov’s attempts to drive for Allard were met with criticism and almost amounted to his outright dismissal from GM, Porsche had been impressed by his Allard drives. It extended to Duntov an offer to drive the silver cars from Stuttgart in 1955. The Porsche opportunity was more warmly received by GM management based on better timing, if nothing else. Cole felt that GM could learn a lot from Porsche when it came to air-cooled engines and rear swing-axles, as the company was experimenting with rear-engine, air-cooled cars long before the Corvair surfaced in 1960.

Porsche’s 1954 effort was to feature four 550 Spyders. The 550 was a simple yet elegant mid-engine machine that was to become best known as the car that James Dean drove to his death on a California highway in 1955.

Duntov and his codriver, Olivier Gendebien, were set to compete in one of the 550s. Duntov’s car was powered by a 1.1-liter flat four with twin spark plugs per cylinder, while the other team cars had 1.5-liter engines of the same configuration.

When one of the Porsche teams dropped out after only four laps, racing director Huschke von Hanstein decided to run the other three as conservatively as possible. However, after only an hour and a half, the Duntov/Gendebien 550 had lapped the remaining 1.1-liter cars at least once. Driving in a steady rhythm around the 8.3-mile circuit, Duntov learned that there were advantages to having less power. He was able to adopt a much smoother driving style compared what he had previously used in the Allard cars, with their torquey Cadillac and Chrysler engines. Later, some mechanical glitches and a huge rainstorm caused some unforeseen challenges, but Duntov managed to handily win his class.

During the race, Duntov noticed that the handling of his car deteriorated as the amount of fuel in its tank decreased. The fuel tank was located over the front wheels, so with a full tank the front-to-rear weight distribution was 49/51. When empty, it was 45/55. Thinking he knew how to compensate for this phenomenon, Duntov told Ferry Porsche that he’d like to discuss the issue during his prearranged visit to the Porsche engineering facility at Zuffenhausen. Zora had an idea about a front stabilizer bar to help cure the oversteering problem.

Upon arrival, he began working with engineers Helmuth Bott and Leopold Schmidt. Porsche didn’t have a skid pad at the time, but Chevrolet, thanks to R&D head Maurice Olley, was already employing this technique. At Zuffenhausen, Duntov suggested they find an area wide enough to create a skid pad, and such a surface was found at nearby Molsheim airport. There, Duntov showed Bott a dozen tests that GM used to evaluate handling. Bott was impressed with the controlled conditions and measurability of Duntov’s methodology, and he tried different toe-in and rear-wheel camber settings as well as an antiroll torsion bar connecting the front wheels, an addition which also helped reduce oversteer.

Bott and Duntov stayed in close contact after Duntov returned to Detroit, and Duntov sent Porsche many sketches of his stabilizer bar design. After several months of development, Bott tested Duntov’s stabilizer bar design on a Porsche 356 road car, and the car showed marked improvement. Dr. Porsche then asked Bott to begin the same work with the new race car, and Duntov claimed he knocked 30 seconds off its lap time at the 14-mile Nürburgring track. “Like day and night,” Duntov said. “And 1955 Porsche, all Porsche, has a front stabilizer.”

While Porsche did not publicly advertise that a Chevrolet engineer had helped them solve a major problem, the German automaker privately gave Duntov credit, along with an unofficial job offer. Porsche even offered him a new 356 as a goodwill gesture. But Duntov politely declined. He already had what he really wanted—the visibility and respect of the entire Porsche organization.

There were other times when Duntov might have been persuaded to join Porsche had the right position been offered. “There was a time that he wanted to become chief technician for Porsche,” said Anatole Lapine, a friend and design staff contemporary of Duntov’s at GM who later went on to become design director at Porsche. “Ferry would have loved to have the guy on his team—lots of exchange.”

Even though Duntov elected to stay at GM, he corresponded with Bott, von Hanstein, and Ferry Porsche himself for many years afterward, becoming particularly close with von Hanstein. Duntov clearly thought that a bigger opportunity existed at General Motors, which rapidly became the largest corporation on the planet.

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Epilogue: Duntov was invited back to drive the 1.1-liter 550 Spyder at Le Mans in 1955. He won his class again, but the event was marred by the greatest disaster in motorsport history when the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh came in contact with Lance Macklin’s Austin-Healey and veered into the stands, killing 80 people. Duntov and codriver August Veuillet went on to claim a bittersweet victory, but from that moment forward, all of Duntov’s driving exploits were behind the wheel of a Chevrolet.

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Jerry Burton is the author of Zora Arkus-Duntov: The Legend Behind Corvette, Bentley Publishers, Cambridge, Mass., 2002.

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It’s always a little awkward to talk about money first, but we really need to address the pricing of the 2023 Porsche 911 Sport Classic. It’s $282,810. For that you could buy two 911 Carreras and still have $50,710 left over. Or a 911 Carrera and a Taycan, with $53,410 still available to invest in retirement. Or even the more powerful, faster 911 Turbo S, on which this car shares its engine; it costs $232,050, leaving you $50,760 in mad money.

So why is this most expensive of 911s, the Sport Classic, worth the big bucks?

Two reasons. One, it’s a truly excellent version of an already great car. And two, Porsche has this magic wand called “limited edition” that it waves over a model, instantly drumming up a wealthy audience practically begging to take their cash. The 911 Sport Classic is a limited edition numbering just 1250 examples worldwide. The last Sport Classic, a 997-generation model sold for 2010, consisted of 250 copies. It wasn’t offered in the U.S., but this one is. Those 250 are genuine collector’s items today. There’s no reason to think this 992-generation Sport Classic won’t be, too.

It’s not just about exclusivity. This car is perfectly executed, inside and out, and the formula points to solid, old-school fun: a manual transmission and rear-wheel drive.

The exterior of our test car Sport Gray Metallic, a subtle, unthreatening shade for such a racy car. A big 911 Carrera RS 2.7-inspired ducktail spoiler hangs out back, above a 3.7-liter twin-turbo boxer flat-six with a potent 543 horsepower and 442 lb-ft of torque. That output makes the Sport Classic the most powerful Porsche engine you can get with a manual transmission, just 29 horses shy of the all-wheel-drive, dual-clutch-auto only Turbo S. Porsche claims a 0-to-60 mph time of 3.9 seconds, which seems very conservative. Peak torque is available from 2000 to 6000 rpm, and third and fourth gear pretty much work for everything outside of committed corner-carving.

So where to find some corners? Our test of the 911 Sport Classic started out slow, as in Atlanta traffic slow. After visiting Porsche’s U.S. headquarters and the Experience Center’s expanded track, we were hungry for some winding roads to stretch the 911’s legs.

On the last-minute recommendation of a local, I headed to Dawsonville, Georgia, about 90 minutes northwest of downtown Atlanta. It’s home of the famous Dawsonville Pool Room, which is now a restaurant with just a single pool table (and good hamburgers) but still the unofficial headquarters of former NASCAR champ Bill Elliott, Dawsonville’s proudest son. The old-fashioned siren mounted on the Pool Room sounded whenever Elliott won, and still does for his son Chase, also a former champion in the NASCAR Cup series and a Dawsonville resident.

The Sport Classic performed well enough in the stop-and-go traffic. The clutch is light and linear, but the footwell is a bit narrow; if your loafers are size 14 or up, driving barefoot might seem tempting. I say that because this car was a guided missile on the slightly banked curves and smooth pavement surrounding Dawsonville. Power is so linear it feels like it comes from a non-turbo powerplant; the seven-speed transmission, however, with rev matching when you select the Sport + setting, is seamless but a little vague-feeling when it comes to gear selection. The car has various performance settings, including Wet (for foul weather), Normal, Sport, Sport +, and Individual (used for programming your own parameters). We kept it in Sport + except when in the stop-and-go stuff; it’s where the car seemed happiest.

Braking is nothing short of race car-like, with ceramic-coated, cross-drilled rotors and ten-piston calipers up front and four-pistons in the rear. The suspension is perfectly suited to the car’s temperament, and aiding with grip are fat Pirelli P Zero tires, 255/35 ZR20s up front, 315/30 ZR21s out back. They’re mounted on handsome five-spoke, center-lug alloy wheels.

Instruments and controls are intuitive and familiar-seeming. You just get in, twist the fob-shaped ignition switch left of the steering wheel and go, never confused or desperate to reach for the owner’s manual. Front seats are fine; the rear seats are vestigial, as in the case of every 911 today, but the car is impressive enough that someone may actually volunteer to ride back there. Upholstery on our test car was tan leather with traditional black-and-white pepita-pattern fabric. Despite a $4000 Burmester sound system that can replace the standard Bose, the flat-six plays sweeter music.

As for that sticker, it starts at $272,300, and ended up, with about $8000 in options and a delivery fee of $1450, at the aforementioned $282,810. That also included a $1000 gas guzzler tax, though the 911 isn’t exceptionally thirsty for what it is; the EPA rating is 15 mpg city, 21 highway, 17 overall.

On our way back to Atlanta we pass through downtown Dawsonville, where a police officer is directing traffic. He looked bored, stone-faced. Then he saw the Porsche. His faced brightened, he smiled and waved.

Even big money doesn’t always buy that kind of reaction. Were it him behind the wheel, he would not have been disappointed, either.

2023 Porsche 911 Sport Classic

Price: $272,300 / $282,810 (base / as tested)

Highs: Magical engine, confident handling, charming retro styling. A special edition in an under-the-radar color.

Lows: Modest trunk space. Rear seats suitable primarily for packages and groceries. Profoundly pricey, even for a 911.

Takeaway: Packing the 911 Turbo’s engine with a manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive, the Sport Classic is a parts-shelf special that feels special, indeed.

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Don’t call it a facelift. The Porsche Cayenne has had an all-encompassing series of updates to make it faster on the road, more capable off the beaten track, and more comfortable anywhere. “It’s one of the most extensive product upgrades in the history of Porsche,” says Michael Schätzle, vice president of the Cayenne product line.

The SUV’s metalwork isn’t significantly changed. A new front end features high-definition LED matrix headlamps and a subtly tweaked fascia with reworked intakes. There’s a new hood, more pronounced wheel arches, and the rear gets redesigned taillights, and a revised rear apron with an integrated license-plate holder. Wheels come in 20-, 21-, and 22-inch sizes, and there are three new paint colors added to the palette.

Moving inside, the improvements are dramatic. The whole new cockpit design has shifted to what is now known as the Porsche Driver Experience, which first appeared in the all-electric Taycan. Porsche describes the arrangement as “the right balance between digital and analogue elements,” although the scales definitely tip in favor of the digital with a 12.6-inch instrument cluster, a 12.3-inch center display, and a further 10.9-inch unit in front of the passenger.

This third screen gives the shotgun rider much more of a genuine copilot role, with access to vehicle performance data and infotainment controls. There’s also the option to watch streaming video content, with a special foil on the passenger-side screen preventing the driver from being distracted from the latest viral TikTok or YouTube music video.

There are multiple mechanical modifications as well. Cars equipped with steel-spring (rather than air) suspension now come with Porsche Active Suspension Management, which uses shocks with two valves allowing for separate rebound and compression stages. The company claims this improves comfort at low speeds and also enhances cornering capability by reducing pitch and roll. Adaptive air suspension remains an option and comes with Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus driving modes so the driver can adjust the car’s characteristics to suit mood or road conditions.

Under the hood there’s more power, whether you opt for entry-level V-6 or top-end V-8 engine. The base three-liter six now makes 348 hp, with the E-Hybrid model adding another 174 horses of electric oomph, giving a range of 55 miles on battery power alone (according to the city-centric European WLTP measure). There’s also faster, 11-kW charging so a full top-up takes less than three hours.

The Cayenne S now comes with the V-8 instead of the V-6, enjoying 34-hp hike in power to 468. The king of the hill remains the Turbo GT, which you can only buy in the coupe body style. It gets a 19-hp boost to 650 horsepower, allowing it to reach 62 mph from rest in just 3.3 seconds and go on to almost 190 mph.

Prices start at $80,850, up from $73,650 for the 2023 model, and rise to $197,500 for the Cayenne Coupe Turbo GT.

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VIN #001 Corvette E-Ray raises $1.1M for charity

Intake: At Barrett-Jackson’s Palm Beach Auction last weekend, Chevy auctioned off the first retail-production Corvette E-Ray. Rick Hendrick, chairman and CEO of the Hendrick Automotive Group and owner of the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team, placed the winning bid of $1.1 million. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to an education nonprofit called DonorsChoose, which connects donors directly to teachers with classroom requests in low-income public schools.

Exhaust: Hendrick added the E-Ray to his stable of other VIN #001 Corvettes, including the first 2020 Corvette Stingray ($3M), the first C7 Corvette ZR1, and the first C8 Corvette Z06 ($3.7M), all of which were also auctioned off for charity. — Nathan Petroelje

First electric Porsche 911 built for California tech titan

Intake: Matt Rogers, cofounder of connected home technology firm Google Nest, is the first American to take delivery of an EV-converted Porsche 911 from British specialist Everrati. The “Signature” model features a carbon-fiber widebody kit finished in Mexico Blue with a Bridge of Weir dark blue leather interior. It was hand-built in the U.S.A. by Everrati’s partner, Aria Group, in Irvine, California. The car is powered by a 62-kWh battery pack which enables it to cover more than 200 miles on a full charge and take advantage of DC fast charging.

Exhaust: Rogers is so taken with his Everrati that he has invested in the British firm. “I have been a huge fan of the 964 since I was young,” he says. “And as we rapidly move into the age of electrification, I am thrilled to immortalize this iconic machine. It captures the zeitgeist perfectly, being sustainable and environmentally conscious while also keeping the character of the air-cooled Porsche era.” —Nik Berg

Hyundai fixes Elantra N’s only flaw

Intake: Irreverent and unusual, the Elantra N delivers delicious front-wheel-drive fun for $33K. Our only gripe? That angry-catfish face. Hyundai’s just fixed that, as this YouTube video above reveals. The “New Elantra N,” presumably the 2024 model, adds horizontal elements that calm and settle the visage: Viewed head-on, body-color blades anchor each corner. Each headlight ditches its boomerang shape and single-bulb element for an LED blade above twin rectangular elements. A light bar connects the two headlights, paralleling a body-color blade that divides the grille into top and bottom sections. The H badge on the nose is now matte black. The red-edged chin diffuser remains. There’s also a new 19-inch wheel design—if you can take your eyes off that now-harmonious face.

Exhaust: Well, we need one. Yesterday. —Grace Houghton

Lamborghini celebrates 60 with Huracán trio

Intake: To celebrate the brand’s 60th birthday, Lamborghini has announced a trio of limited-run, special-edition versions of the three gnarliest Huracáns: the STO, Tecnica, and EVO Spyder. Just 60 units of each variant will be produced. The Huracán STO will get two special liveries—the first is a blue-on-blue exterior with a black, gray, and blue interior; the second livery features a gray and black exterior with a black, gray, and red interior. The Huracán Tecnica’s two liveries will incorporate the red, green, and white colors found in the Italian flag: The first is a black, gray, and red exterior with a black and red interior; the second is a white and green exterior with a green and black interior. Finally, the Huracán EVO Spyder’s two liveries: Blue and white exterior with a black, blue, and white interior, or a green and white exterior with a black, red, and white interior.

Each of the 60th Anniversary Edition Huracáns will get a “1 of 60” plate on the interior as well as a “60th” logo painted on the doors and embroidered in the seats. They will debut on April 21 at a special event as part of Milan Design Week.

Exhaust: Turning 60 is as good an excuse as any to don some fancy new colors. Expect these cars to be anything but subtle—just as Lamborghinis should be. — Nathan Petroelje

Polestar’s 4 kills rear window for backseat comfort

Intake: Polestar’s new electric SUV coupe, and the brand’s fourth model, debuted recently at the Shanghai auto show. The design throws coupe aerodynamics and SUV spaciousness into a blender, drawing inspiration from the brand’s Precept concept car by eliminating a rear window in favor of more room. The changes are all made possible by a camera-aided rearview “mirror” system. “Immersive” is the buzzy adjective that Polestar is pitching for the experience of rear-seated riders in the 4. The model is the company’s second SUV, coming in under the Polestar 3 in terms of size and price with a length of 4839 mm (190.5 inches), a width of 2139 mm (84.2 inches), and a height of 1544 mm (60.8 inches), costing $60,000. One notable way the 4 bests the 3 is on zip, jolting out 544 hp from a 102-kWh battery that gets 300-plus miles of range. China gets first dibs on the vehicle at the end of 2023, while North America will have it in 2024.

Exhaust: Polestar would like you to believe that by riding in the back of the rear windowless 4, you will feel cozier than a swanky cave rental on Airbnb, but reality says that the jury is out. Only time and objective testing from the masses will determine whether this SUV design swing will be a hit or a miss for electric luxury. — Bryan Gerould

2024 Lincoln Nautilus gets massive screen, new sheetmetal

Intake: Lincoln has unveiled the 2024 Nautilus, a heavily reworked version of its midsize luxury SUV. The biggest news is inside, where a massive screen spans the entire width of the dashboard. Combined with new ambient lighting and three new scent cartridges housed in the center console, Lincoln hopes to make your time in the Nautilus as refreshing as possible. A Revel Ultima 28-speaker audio system will bathe the cabin with all types of auditory indulgence.

While on the go, Lincoln’s BlueCruise 1.2 hands-free driving assist stands ready to handle highway jaunts. The outside features new sheetmetal and new LED headlamps and taillamps. Power will come from either a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, good for 250 hp and 275 lb-ft of torque, or a hybrid setup that employs the same engine plus a 100-kW electric motor for a total system output of 310 hp. The former engine will be mated to an eight-speed automatic, the latter to a CVT. The adaptive suspension will smooth road imperfections. The 2024 Nautilus will arrive in North American showrooms in early 2024. No word on pricing yet.

Exhaust: The Explorer-based Nautilus needs to make some waves for Lincoln. Brand sales have been declining for the past four years as the portfolio of Ford’s luxury brand grows stagnant and rivals increasingly focus on EVs. We haven’t heard anything from Lincoln about an all-electric offering yet—which is concerning, especially since cross-town rival Cadillac already has two electric offerings in the pipeline. — Nathan Petroelje

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Porsche proudly points out that about 70 percent of the cars it has built are still on the road.

Desirability, strong resale value, and the support that the company offers for its classic models undoubtedly play a role in keeping vintage 911s, 968s, and 944s out of junkyards. That 70-percent figure, however, is also a testament to the time and effort the company’s engineers have long put into designing relatively solid cars. One of Porsche’s earliest longevity-related studies is the Forschungsprojekt Langzeit-Auto concept unveiled in 1973.

The car’s name, often abbreviated as FLA, roughly translates to “research project long-term car.”

Car-bashing—a popular pastime in Europe—is not a recent invention. “Boos have joined the joyful car chorus since the early 1970s,” a 1973 Porsche press release said, “and there is no lack of voices to damn the automobile with an existence and future of the drabbest kind. Many such complaints are so emotional they cannot be taken seriously. Others, however, give us sufficient reason to further consider the situation of the automobile and its possible future development.”

Porsche wisely ignored its more radical critics, but with the FLA, it gave the moderate ones something to chew on. The concept, Stuttgart claimed, was capable of lasting for 20 years or 300,000 kilometers (about 186,500 miles), remarkable figures at a time when five-digit odometers were common. (For context, documents in Porsche’s archive peg the average cradle-to-grave lifespan of a 1970s German car at about 10 years.)

Commissioned by Germany’s Ministry for Research and Development, the FLA prototype made its public debut at the 1973 Frankfurt auto show. It must have turned quite a few heads—the shape of a city car, with a gridlike and see-through false body seemingly made from giant egg crates.

Enthusiasts, Porsche said at the time, could rest assured: Mass-production was not the project’s goal.

“[We] put this long-life study up for discussion at [Frankfurt] in the hope of animating drivers as much as car producers,” the company’s PR department explained at the time. “Incidentally, the long-life automobile on display doesn’t pretend to be a specific car, but rather a demonstration intentionally kept independent of any specific design principle as an idea, neither complete nor final.” The FLA, it added, was designed as a “lower-middle-class car.”

In that light, the design’s virtual anonymity makes sense—only a set of 15-inch Fuchs wheels, similar to those used on the 911, and small “Style Porsche” emblems on the fenders identified the FLA as a product of Porsche’s R&D department. Wheels and badge aside, the car could have been just about anything else. (I think it’s vaguely Volkswagen Brasilia-esque, but maybe that’s just me.)

While the display car offered little in the way of bodywork, a production model, Porsche suggested, could feature aluminum and stainless-steel components in order to minimize corrosion. Significant use of plastics and other synthetic materials would allow much of the car to be recycled at the end of its life.

Undoubtedly to the chagrin of its racing-obsessed engineers, Porsche learned that designing a car to last 20 years and 300,000 kilometers required the use of a “wholly unsporting engine.” Instead of an air-cooled flat-six, as in the 911, the FLA featured a water-cooled, 2.5-liter four-cylinder tuned for 75 hp at 3,600 rpm and a 4000-rpm redline. Even in the 1970s, that wasn’t asking a lot of 2.5 liters; Porsche’s 924, released in 1976, offered a 2.0-liter four rated for 123 hp.

The FLA’s engine was rear-mounted, spinning the rear wheels via a three-speed semi-automatic transmission. Combined with the car’s predicted gearing and drag, this would be enough, Porsche predicted, to send the 2200-pound concept (if fitted with full bodywork) to a top speed of 99 mph. Some of the measures taken to increase longevity included oversized engine bearings and transmission gears, for reduced stress and wear, plus an electronic ignition and a corrosion-resistant exhaust.

All told, the company predicted that a car designed to last 20 years would cost about 30 percent more than a comparable model of the time. It would also cost about 15 percent less to operate and maintain, Stuttgart suggested, noting that this number could increase if shortages and price hikes wreaked havoc on car production—an eerily prescient forecast at a time when oil embargoes and chip shortages were still the stuff of science fiction.

Porsche’s research wasn’t limited to the oily bits. The manufacturer went so far as to detail a new business structure for carmaking, one that included “special overhaul plants” where cars could be refurbished or modernized where appropriate, refitted for another 20 years of service. Manufacturers in the aviation and marine industries were already doing this sort of thing at the time, and the process is arguably what Singer Vehicle Design does today with classic Porsches.

The 1970s were a tumultuous time for the automotive industry, and Porsche’s competition had greater problems to solve than longevity. The conversation that the firm hoped to start didn’t really happen, at least not at the global stage. For its part, Porsche stressed, there was no space for the FLA in the company’s catalog: “[We] certainly have no intention of producing such a long-life automobile in the near future.” That said, rust-resistant hot-dip galvanized body panels appeared on the 911 in 1975.

Porsche frequently compared the FLA to the various Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV) prototypes that emerged from various government- and carmaker-funded projects in the 1970s. Those vehicles displayed a varying degree of visual and engineering wildness: English sports-car manufacturer MG notably tried to drunk-driver-proof a heavily-modified MGB GT, for example. As Popular Mechanics said in 1972, “The world may never want to place an ESV in production, but we sure want the answers they can give us.”

We wouldn’t want to commute in the FLA, but the car deserves credit—the thinking behind it is undoubtedly at least a small part of what keeps now-classic 911s on the road.

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It’s a wild and interesting answer to a question that nobody asked: What if Porsche kept building the 928? Artist/designer Daniel Arsham’s Nebula 928 imagines what the car would look like if production hadn’t stopped in 1995 and instead received an update at the dawn of the new millennium.

It’s the latest of a half-dozen collaborations between Arsham and Porsche. Consistent with past practice, the Nebula takes an Eighties icon and showers it with “Y2K aesthetics,” which is to say, design cues from a period broadly defined as the years between 1997 and 2004. Unveiled at the Porsche X exhibition at SXSW in Austin, Texas this year, this one-off concept is a fascinating re-contextualization of an old car with later-era cues that also puts the spotlight on one of Porsche’s lesser-loved models.

The 928 was Porsche’s luxury touring car from 1978 to 1995, and its radical (for Porsche) placement of a water-cooled V-8 engine in front of the driver ushered in the company’s “transaxle era” that also included the four-cylinder 924, 944, and 968. The 928 gradually got faster and better-developed through the 1980s and early 1990s, but it also got more expensive, thanks in part to unfavorable exchange rates. As a result of the latter, sales in the U.S. (Porsche’s biggest market) dwindled. The model was discontinued after 1995.

Unlike the 911, which has been a canvas for tuners, customizers, and artists like Arsham for decades, the 928 has remained in the shadows. It’s a car Wall Street guys drove in the ‘80s, and Tom Cruise drove one in Risky Business, but the 928 is not remembered for a whole lot else.

“It’s not as popular in the Porsche universe,” said Arsham when sharing why he chose it instead of other, more cherished Porsche models like those used for his other projects.

Despite that, the 928 shares a trait with its fellow models that lends itself well to this sort of reimagining. “Porsches in general have always been around and they have always evolved slowly over time, so they’re kind of like this time machine,” he explains.

The Nebula started life as a standard example from 1978, the first model year for Porsche’s front-engined, water-cooled wonder. After he bought the 928, it sat in Arsham’s garage for a couple of years—he was unsure what exactly to do with it. Then, the idea of an early 2000s 928 came up.

In the year-long process it took to create the Nebula, Arsham worked with digital automotive artist Khyzyl Saleem on the exterior, completely redid the interior, and had the 4.5-liter V-8 completely rebuilt. Everything in the car reportedly functions and it is fully drivable, although Arsham admits that not all the panel gaps are up to factory standards.

If you don’t exactly know what “Y2K aesthetics” are, you’re not alone. This isn’t exactly a mainstream movement in the car world, but a few quick looks of the Nebula’s details will bring you right back to the days of Apple eMate laptops, metallic-look clothing, hints at futurism and tech optimism in the dot-com age, and Britney Spears.

A central theme on the Nebula both inside and out is “meta-balls,” circles or blobs splitting from each other like cells. The front fog lights and turn signals as well as the lower intakes follow the theme, with a dot-gradient pattern on the fog lights and Arsham’s studio logo outlined in the marker lights. The brake lights and rear signals follow a similar pattern and between them “Nebula” is spelled out in lights with a futuristic font. Just above that is the rear wing, which is reminiscent of another 2000s Porsche – the 996 GT3. The artist 3D scanned an actual GT3 wing and then had it resized to better fit the 928’s proportions. A pair of compact rally car mirrors slim up the shape a bit, while the wheels ape the ones from Porsche’s 1989 Panamericana concept car (although they also remind me a bit of wheels from the first-gen Prius). The oh-so-2000s metallic paint looks like a mix between the well-known Porsche factory shades of Cassis Red and Frozen Berry.

The car only gets wilder inside with purple everywhere, from the custom-woven fabric inserts to the Ultrasuede dashboard and the door cards. Aluminum also features prominently, with a blobby two-eared shift knob and an even blobbier asymmetrical steering wheel milled from a single block of the metal. The stereo, meanwhile, looks the part of a new millennium motorcar but is period correct to the car’s original build date in the late Seventies.

The whole car looks like a digital concept rendering in photos but it is indeed the real deal, so it was cool to look it over in the metal at its Austin debut. Is it over the top? Sure. A little gaudy? Yes. Would it hurt to work that gigantic aluminum steering wheel on a hot day? You bet. But the project, importantly, points toward a new trend possibly emerging in the car world. Nostalgia is just about the most powerful force in our hobby, and you don’t need a calculator to realize that the year 2000 was nearly 25 years ago. We haven’t seen many Y2K-themed projects (yet) in a hobby that’s currently in love with the Eighties and Nineties, but give it time. You may see more meta-balls and metallic mauve in the not-so-distant future.

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Via Insider

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Porsche recalls Carrera GTs to inspect suspension for damage

Intake: Porsche is recalling 489 2004–2005 Carrera GTs to inspect, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “The spherical joints that connect the wishbone suspension components on the front and rear axles,” says the recall report. The joints, says NHTSA, may be affected by salt-related corrosion and mechanical stress that could cause failure. NHTSA and Porsche first became aware of the potential problem when joint degradation was found in a Carrera GT undergoing unrelated service in August of 2019. Because of the age and scarcity of Carrera GTs, it took until last month to sufficiently analyze sample vehicles and create “a suitable simulation method and model [that] had to be defined and validated. On March 29, 2023, out of an abundance of caution, Porsche decided to voluntarily recall the subject vehicles,” NHTSA says.

Exhaust: Porsche produced fewer than 1300 Carrera GTs, well short of a production run that was supposed to be 1500 cars. The Carrera GT sold new for about $450,000, and Hagerty values a 2005 Carrera GT in #2 Excellent condition at $1.3 million. Porsche has no replacement joints available, so cars will be inspected and those with no damage will be cleared for driving, and if any are found with damage, owners will be advised to not drive the cars until replacement parts become available. The original component manufacturer was Carl Hirschmann GmbH of Germany. – Steven Cole Smith

Polestar 4 set to be the fastest in the fleet

Intake: Polestar will shine the light on its fourth model, imaginatively named the Polestar 4, at the Shanghai auto show on April 18. The 4 is an SUV coupe and the Swedish-Chinese brand claims it’s much more than a restyled version of its recently-announced 3 SUV. “Polestar 4 is not simply a modified version of our first SUV. Instead, we reconsidered the entire design to create a new breed of SUV coupé,” explains Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO. Wearing a significantly more aerodynamic body than the 3, the 4 will nonetheless offer the same cabin space as a conventional SUV, says the firm.

Exhaust: The 4 is said to be the fastest Polestar built to date, which would mean it eclipses the 489 hp of the 3 and even the 609 horsepower of the hybrid Polestar 1, despite being driven only by electricity.  Tune in next week to find out more. — Nik Berg

Revised EV mileage calculation could make CAFE ratings much harder to achieve

Intake: According to a new report from Reuters, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed a significant revision to how it calculates the petroleum-equivalent fuel economy rating for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The move could have a big impact on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHSTA) Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program, the figure that examines the overall efficiency of the mix of vehicles sold by a given automaker. Currently, fuel economy ratings for EVs and plug-in hybrids–reflected as Miles Per Gallon equivalent (MPGe)—that are used in CAFE calculations are much higher than those listed on fueleconomy.gov. The discrepancy has come under fire from environmental groups, who say that the inflated MPGe figures offer an outsized measure of reduction to CAFE ratings. The system to calculate MPGe hasn’t been updated in more than two decades.

Under the DOE proposal, a Volkswagen ID.4, which is rated to return 380.6 MPGe under the current calculation, would return 107.4 MPGe. A Ford F-150 Lighting, currently rated for 237.1 MPGe, would be reduced to 67.1 MPGe.

Exhaust: With tightening efficiency requirements for gas-burning vehicles looming, this new proposal would force automakers to further adjust fleet mix to remain in compliance with CAFE requirements. Unsurprisingly, environmental groups have come out in support of the DOE’s new proposal, while groups that represent the large automakers are calling into question the effect such changes would have, arguing that they might discourage EV adoption. — Nathan Petroelje

Laguna Seca erects new bridge after a three-month delay

Intake: While Weathertech might be the main sponsor of the Laguna Seca race track, it can’t control the California weather and the rain has put a major damper on the track’s latest project: Replacing the pedestrian bridge that allows spectators to cross over the start/finish straight. Earlier this week, a major milestone in the project was finally reached as the new 160-foot bridge was lifted into place with the help of a 350-ton crane. Due to significant rainfall since the project was approved in November of 2022, the team building the bridge has had to go to double shifts to ensure the project will be wrapped in time for the first two events of the year: Trans Am SpeedFest on May 5–7, and the Motul Course de Monterey on May 12–14.

Exhaust: Seeing investment and support from all sides involved in this project is encouraging, as this bridge replacement is only one step in the significant investments being made in Laguna Seca raceway. The next steps include a full-course resurface that will start on May 16 and provide a brand new track for the MotoAmerica Superbike SpeedFest on July 7–9. — Kyle Smith 

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A tip of the cap to whoever thought up the Porsche Experience Centers, represented in the U.S. by two separate locations—one in the Los Angeles area, in Carson, California, and the other essentially on the grounds of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, next to Porsche’s North America headquarters.

Both facilities are well worth a visit, especially if you are a Porschephile. Each has a test track on the grounds, with a fleet of vehicles available for ride and drives. Each has an on-site restaurant as well as a behind-the-scenes look at some vintage Porsches in the restoration shop.

But at the moment, the nod has to go to the Atlanta center, where the facility benefitted from recent a $50 million makeover of the headquarters property. Joining the existing track is a brand-new track, designed and built by Hermann Tilke Engineers & Architects, the firm responsible for more Formula 1 tracks, including Circuit of the Americas, than any other.

The Atlanta center has welcomed nearly 400,000 guests since opening in 2015 with its first track. The new West Track, which opened April 1, is adjacent to the original South Track; the two tracks can be run separately at the same time, or combined to create one track that’s more than 2.5 miles long. The new West Track includes elements inspired by some of the world’s most iconic race tracks, including the Carousel from the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, the Bus Stop from Daytona International Speedway’s road course and a mini Corkscrew from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with a rise of 30 feet and a drop of 25 feet through approaching and descending turns.

“This is a special moment for all of us. I’ve driven the new West Track and it’s awesome. It adds a new dimension to our sports car experience,” said Kjell Gruner, President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America, “I’m proud to be opening the new site, welcoming our guests and—once more—to be investing in the Atlanta area as we celebrate our 25th year in the city.”

In addition to the track, there are some new features of note on the property:

• Low-Friction Circle: A concrete circle, measuring over 196 feet in diameter, with various levels of grip and polish. It is soaked with water to test the driver’s car control while inducing both understeer and oversteer. An experienced driver can drift all the way around it.
• Ice Hill: A highly polished concrete surface with a bottom comparable to grippy 400 grit sandpaper, leading up an 8 percent slope. When computer-controlled water jets drown the hill, the surface goes slick as glass. You go down the hill, and if you can—it takes a deft touch on the accelerator in some vehicles—drive back up.
• Autocross: An expansive area of asphalt that can be flexibly configured in an effort to continue improvement of driving skill and technique. The area can be set up to navigate through slaloms, create acceleration and braking zones, or for a host of other options.

Inside the building itself there’s an ever-changing display of curated Porsches, simulator driving, tours, and a retail store. For body fuel, the Experience Center contains Restaurant 356 and a coffee shop, Carrera Café.

You must make reservations for track experiences (available here) but nearly every vehicle Porsche makes is available, including the Taycan and the 911 GT3. Depending on the program and the vehicles chosen, prices start at $450 and climb to $800 for the Taycan Immersion Experience, which includes 90 minutes of track time in the 750-horsepower sports car, plus a 30-minute technology presentation, and there is a similar GT3 experience for $1200. There are also half-day track sessions offered.

We drove everything. Our suggestion: Do what you can to get into the seat of the 911 GT3.

Of course, the whole point of the Experience Centers is to sell Porsches. “And we do,” said one of the instructors. “We had people come off the track and ask us for the address of the nearest dealer.”

The post Atlanta Porsche Experience Center gets new track, more features appeared first on Hagerty Media.

We’ve just fallen down a Slot Mods rabbit hole. In case you didn’t know, the Michigan-based company creates bespoke, handcrafted 1:32-scale slot car tracks for the rich and famous.

For a hefty price, Slot Mods will create your dream track or replicate a real-world track, complete with aluminum Armco crash barriers and little details from a moment in time or a notable event.

A “Custom Scenic Megatrack” will set you back at least $75,000, although a more “affordable” “Standard Scenic Raceway” is available for $50,000. In both cases, you’re looking at a long wait before you can get your slot on.

Which is where the Slot Mods Porsche 917 Le Mans Slot Car Raceway came in. It was advertised for sale via auction on Bring A Trailer, but bidding finally closed at a whopping $210,000, including fees.

The track is built in the style of the 24 Hours of Le Mans course as it appeared in the 1971 movie Le Mans and is housed in a replica Porsche 917 body.

Remember that Scalextric set you yearned to find under the Christmas tree as a child? This is that with the coolness level cranked up to eleven.

Cool enough to tempt the Scalextric social media team into tweeting about it.

Yes, we know it’s not a Scalextric track, but how could we not share this incredible slot car track hidden within a Porsche 917 body shell

Created by the magicians over at Slot Mods, this beauty is currently for sale over at https://t.co/E8uig8TsHI pic.twitter.com/tWoKXz6Nh1

— Scalextric (@Scalextric) April 2, 2023

The 917’s body features a clamshell design that opens via remote control to reveal a 13 feet long by 6 feet wide layout with hand-painted track surfaces, structures, signs, landscaping and spectators. Note the Dunlop bridge, Esso “Mr Drip” and Martini barn.

The set, which has been owned by the vendor for a decade, also features trackside lighting, grandstands, hay bales, trees, shrubbery and 19 slot cars.

Highlights include a Ford GT40 modified as a camera car, Ferrari 512S Coda Lunga, Lola T70, and a Porsche 917 in Martini livery. Naturally, the 917 driven by Steve McQueen in the 1971 film is also present and correct.

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The post Replica Porsche 917 and custom Le Mans track look like slots of fun appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Ron Thomas has created one of the greatest Porsche collections (and car collections in general) in the country. When he adds cars he does so with passion and attention to detail, obtaining as much history and memorabilia about each car as possible. One area in particular where the history may surprise even the most hardcore Porsche fan, is his collection of open-wheel race cars. This includes a Porsche Formula One car, and two Porsche IndyCars, including the one I immediately recognized from the last time I saw it on a historic day in 1989.

Ron’s personal collection, mostly stored below his home just north of Columbus, Ohio, could be an amazing car museum in its own right. His open-wheel racers sit in just one small corner of his collection. He personally raced most of these single seaters with many regional and national Formula Continental victory trophies on display. “I decided to create a space where each class of open-wheel racer was displayed – from Volkswagen powered Formula Vee’s all the way up to IndyCar and Formula One.” Ron shared. “Along with each car I try to match it with race programs, paintings, model cars, and as much race history as possible.” His collection is an example of the open-wheel ladder system and includes Formula Ford (typically the first step on the ladder), Formula Vee (VW Bug based), Formula Continental, F2000, Formula Atlantic, IndyCar (CART), and Formula One.

As a Porsche collector, Ron Thomas wanted to find any Porsche open-wheel examples for his collection. Unfortunately, despite their rich history and decades of dominance in sports cars there just isn’t much in the way of success for Porsche in open-wheel racing. They only have one total Formula 1 victory from back in 1962 (though they provided engines for McLaren that won the championships from 1984-1986). Here are three of the most significant pieces of Porsche open-wheel motorsports history that most people have never heard of… all in one personal collection.

IndyCar – 1989 No. 8 Quaker State March 89P-Porsche Indy V8

After the Porsche 962 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1986 (their 6^th in a row) it was time for a new challenge. One thing Porsche had never done was win an IndyCar race. From 1988-1990 they entered a car with the most powerful engine in the series featuring their 720hp 2.65L turbo V8. Seeing the #8 in Quaker State livery in Ron’s basement immediately brought back memories. I remember seeing this car at my first ever motorsports event, the 1989 IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio my dad took me to at 9-years-old. That was the day I became a lifelong motorsports fan.

History was made at Mid-Ohio when Teo Fabi piloting the #8 won that day, marking Porsches first and ONLY IndyCar win. Despite their engine being more powerful than the field of Ilmore Chevys and Cosworth-Fords, it wasn’t enough to overcome an uncompetitive chassis most races. After just over 2 seasons of racing and a combination of struggling to find the handling they needed, dealing with the death of the head of the Porsche North America’s Motorsports Division, and fighting against some questionable political rules made specifically against their cars, Porsche pulled the plug on their IndyCar program after the 1990 season. A total of 44 races, and 1 win.

Porsche hasn’t returned to Indy racing, leaving this the only Porsche to ever win an IndyCar race. It’s quite a sight to see it in person again after over 30 years, unrestored. It still has chips in the paint and the original (read: hard as a hockey puck) Goodyear Eagle Racing Radial 15” tires. Don’t take “unrestored” to mean unloved though. Ron has spent a great deal of time and effort to surround this car with as much original memorabilia and records as possible. He even commissioned Bill Patterson to do a painting of the car, now one of his favorite pieces of memorabilia,  displayed next to the team uniform.

There are also original media kits, team banners, posters, and even Teo Fabi’s actual race used helmet. Ron has done an amazing job preserving this significant piece of Porsche motorsport history. Watching the race online now, as Fabi crosses the finish line announcer Paul Page shouts “Porsche has done it! At Mid-Ohio they have scored their first victory in Indycar! The crowd is loving it, they recognize the significance of this moment.” Pretty epic call, even if we didn’t understand how significant that win would be at the time.

That is a day, and a car, I will never forget. Ron was able to save this part of Porsche history after purchasing it directly from the Porsche Museum in Germany. As it sits in his basement the car still can start and run today.

Formula 1 – 1991 Porsche Footwork FA11C

In 1987 Porsche left F1 racing after supplying motors for McLaren the previous few years. Those motors were never badged as Porsche; instead they were labeled as “TAG”, and helped McLaren win three drivers’ championships and two constructors’ championships.

However, Porsche wanted back in, and they wanted to do it on their own this time. They returned in 1991 using a 3.5L V12. Unfortunately, the car came in overweight and underpowered compared to the competition. Porsche lasted just six races before the Footwork Arrows team withdrew from their partnership saying the German manufacturer had fallen far short of their contractual obligations. They never finished a race.

This #9 example was driven by Michele Alboreto at the Monaco, Canadian, and Mexican Gran Prix’s. Ron shared, “This Porsche Formula One car is the only one left in the world with the original V12 motor. I was able to get this directly from the Porsche Museum. I’m still waiting for the gearbox to arrive, but once that happens this piece of history will be able to drive.” Pretty sure people throughout Columbus will hear when he fires up that V12.

IndyCar – 1980 TSM Interscope Porsche Type 940

Understanding the value of what performing well in the Indy 500 could do for their brand in the states, Porsche reached an agreement with Interscope Racing to enter the 1980 Indianapolis 500. Unfortunately, it was bad timing to be a new team as IndyCar was struggling with fighting between the governing body (USAC) and the teams (CART). Porsche built a car that met all the rules and went testing.

The results were more than impressive with their reported speeds scaring a lot of the traditional team owners. AJ Foyt eventually lobbied USAC for a rule change that would severely limit the turbo power of only the Porsche and threated to quit USAC if they didn’t agree. The Porsche team and driver Danny Ongais were ready to qualify for the 500 and expected to compete for the pole when just one month before the race USAC gave in to Foyt and changed the rules. Despite all the time and money invested in their IndyCar plan, Porsche took the only course of action available and shut down the program. In addition to the car, Ron has collected a lot of the rare marketing materials created to promote what was to be Porsche’s historic Indy 500 debut. “This is one of only 3 that Porsche ever built. I was able to get this on Bring A Trailer without a powerplant and plan to add a correct motor so it can run it in the future.”

Ron also has an extensive Porsche car collection that has proved to be helpful for his business as owner of AASE Sales, an online Porsche parts store. When someone calls with a question about a particular part, his team can literally go look at one of Ron’s 40+ Porsches to find the answer. They feature over 17,000 parts on their website with the majority being “new old stock”, including everything from posters to vintage restoration parts for all Porsche models.

Do any other Hagerty members have unique pieces of automotive history you would like to share? Email us at: HDCcommunity@hagerty.com and share your story.
We would love to feature more stories in future newsletters. You never know, your car may be one that someone else had seen as a child that impacted their life. Like Ron Thomas’ Porsche IndyCar did for me.

The post Significant pieces of Porsche motorsport history live in an Ohio basement appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Airstream and Porsche stoke affluent urbanites’ tamest dreams

Intake: An unlikely collaboration between Airstream and Porsche has resulted in one of the more modern camper-trailer concepts you’ll ever lay eyes on. The space nugget measures 16.4 feet in length on a single-axle setup and sleeps up to two people. Its headline achievement is garageability, playing to the romanticisms of urban dwellers who would love an edgy outdoor weekend vessel but are limited by tight storage space. An articulating axle in the suspension can lower the body to fit most urban garages; while in the wild, the trailer’s expandable pop-top roof easily achieves standing room comfort. Porsche’s designers reworked, by traditional Airstream convention, the rear of the camper to be more aerodynamic. It opens up fully with the help of a hatch and tailgate—similar to what homebrew commercial vanlifers achieve, but excessively more refined. Some components even utilize carbon fiber to help reduce weight and meet the towing capabilities of smaller ICEs and regular EVs.

Exhaust: Many companies are making hay while the sun shines and capitalizing on an uptick in outdoorsy sentiment. Airstream has every reason to do the same. Those who enjoy the outdoors often say that nature is the only true beauty, but you can’t fault the efforts of Airstream and Porsche for challenging that assertion with their design prowess. Would this Airstream inevitably cost an arm and a leg? Yes. But would it look good behind your Cayenne? More importantly, yes. — Bryan Gerould

Mini Clubman bows out with Final Edition

Intake: A last run of 1969 Final Edition Clubmans will mark the end of the line for “the exceptional gentleman” of the Mini range. That number is significant as it honors the year when the Clubman first went on sale. Today, as its designer Roy Haynes says, “The impression that only ugly things can be functional has disappeared.” The original Clubman, with its shooting-brake styling and split rear doors, remained on sale until 1981, and it wasn’t until 2007 that the name once more appeared on a Mini. The Final Edition is based on the third iteration, which launched in 2015 and is available in Cooper or Cooper S guises, the most punchy of which offers 178 hp from a two-liter turbo four-pot. These last cars will be offered in Nanuq White, Enigmatic Black, and Melting Silver exterior paint with detailing in Shimmer Copper. There are “1 of 1969” badges on the C-pillars and inside the leather-lined cabin. Exactly how many of the 1969 examples will make it to the U.S.A. has yet to be confirmed.

Exhaust: The Clubman is making way for the Aceman, a fully electric crossover that sits between the Hardtop and the chunky Countryman. It’s set to go on sale in 2025 and Mini expects it to rapidly charge to the top of its sales charts. — Nik Berg

Ford braces for $3 billion loss from EV unit