Sunday Porsche Blogging

Sunday Porsche Blogging: the $1600 Porsche Phone, Is There No Substitute?

2007-12-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well not to be outdone by Apple, Porsche Design has come out with a Porsche cell phone. Sadly this follows the Ferrari cell phone. Currently available in Germany, Britain and Dubai the $1600 flip phone (with camera phone and a 3-speaker MP3 player) will be available here in the US sometime next year. Will it clash with Paris' Bentley? Only time will tell. If you were diligent I bet that you could find a decent and drivable Porsche 924 automobile for the price of that cell phone. Sure you would have to put up with some indignities and at some undetermined point in the future the car would present you with a bill exceeding it's value but you can't drive Lake Shore Drive in a cell phone.

Porsche Design is not part of the automobile company although it offers products through Porsche and it's dealerships. Porsche Design was formed by 911 designer and grandson of the company's founder Butzi Porsche after the family decided to remove themselves from the management structure of the automobile and engineering company in the early 1970s. However Porsche Motorsports may want to supply this latest bit of Porsche gadgetry to their racers at circuits like Le Mans. Flying Debris noted while live-blogging the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hour race that when a class leading Porsche 911 GT3R broke down at Arnage the driver did not have a cell phone to communicate with his pit, possibly costing him the lead: "(t)hey also said that the driver was not carrying a cell phone. Yep, spend $1 million plus and get stuck on the circuit without a device that is given away for free."

Well Vodaphone and others will not be giving away the pricey Porsche phone for free but I am sure that the driver in question would have gladly paid $1600 for the use of a cell phone while surveying the beautiful French countryside while the previously lapped Panoz repeatedly passed hime by.Here is a video from Arnage at 3 AM during last summer's race:

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Some Summer GT3 Photos

2007-11-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

Copyright: Flying Debris
This fantastic new 997 based Porsche GT3 was at the Autobahn Country Club during the Bobby Rahal Historic Races last August. The car is parked on the club go-cart track.

Copyright: Flying Debris
The same 997 based GT3 seen from the rear.

Copyright: Flying Debris
This is a 996 based Porsche GT3 seen up at Road America during the American Le Mans Series races last summer.

Copyright: Flying Debris
This is the front of the same fantastic 996 based Porsche GT3 seen here parked in the Porsche Club area at Road America last summer.

Just a few GT3 photos from my iPhone that happen to be on my Mac.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Porsche RS Spyder at Road America

2007-11-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Here is the giant killer Porsche RS Spyder of Penske Motorsports making it's way through turn 3, Corvette Corner at Road America last summer.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
The Team Dyson Porsche RS Spyder.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
The Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder on the straight between turn 2 and turn 3, a downhill run that looks more and more like a toboggan run the faster you go.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Penske Motorsports pits.

Road America is the fantastic four mile road race course outside of the picturesque town of Elkhart Lake, Wi. The American Le Mans Series has been racing there for several years and as the longest road course in the nation and at half the length of the Circuit de la Sarthe the series and the circuit are a wonderful fit.

Schumacher Buys Shelby Cobra

2007-01-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

Recently retired seven-time World Champion Ferrari Formula One driver Michael Schumacher has just gone out and bought himself a 1967 Mk II Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster. The Autoblog has commented that Enzo Ferrari, known as “Il Commendatore would not have liked this one bit.” Mr. Ferrari had a personal battle with Henry Ford II that took place on the world’s GT circuits and was sparked by Ferraris’ cancellation of a deal to sell Ferrari to Ford because it would take Mr. Ferrari off of the race team. Schumacher can afford it; his Wikipedia entry describes him as a billionaire.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: 911 Rallying

2006-08-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

Rallying a Porsche 911

This Post is a Day Late and Worth the Wait!

Check out Henri Toivonen flog on his Rothman’s 911 during the 1984 FIA Rally season. Because almost all rallying is done in the dirt Henri made very good use of the rear-end weight bias of the rear-engined 911 that he drove. If you have ever wondered about apexing a 911 in the dirt, the helicopter shots from this film will give you some good hints.

Rendezvous Meets Google Earth

2006-08-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Rendezvous

This is the best car chase without a chase, an accompanying real time guide map is linked below

Claude Lelouche made one of the great Paris/Car movies of all time with the Rendezvous, an early morning drive at breakneck speeds through the streets of Paris without regard to any traffic signals. Mr. Lelouche used a Mercedes 300 and later a Ferrari for the engine soundtrack; no Mercedes has ever sounded this good. Well, over at bhendrix.com they have gone and put the movie online and synced it to a Google Earth moving map of the ride through Paris. The fantastic mashup and great travelogue is here.

The Autoblog has more on the great original movie.

Drunken PCA Member Wrecks Porsche 908 – PCA Pays $250,000

2006-08-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

Disclosure – the author has been a member of PCA for many years.

The Porsche Club of America (PCA) has been found liable for the drunken actions of two of its members four years ago. An owner of a Porsche 908 was gracious enough to display his uber-rare race car at a club technical event in Huntsville, Al. The car’s owner had an agent who was responsible for transporting the car and the agent was unable to pick the car up the following week as planned; the agent finally arranged pick-up of the car six weeks later. The week of the delayed pick-up two PCA members had access to the car, one was an officer of the local region and the other was the owner of the garage that was storing the car. The two members decided to drive the race car on the street after drinking wine at breakfast. Apparently that foray passed without incident because more wine was consumed at lunch and the car was subsequently wrecked during some more drunken street driving. The cost to repair the vehicle was approximately $250,000.

The car’s owner filed suit and the Federal District Court in the Northern District of Alabama heard the case last year and handed down the opinion last June. The President of the PCA, Tom Bobbitt wrote in the August issue of the club magazine Panorama (the August issue is not yet online) that “the two drivers were acting outside the scope of any club authorization and not in connection with any club event, the Court nevertheless found that PCA had an ongoing obligation to care for the car indefinitely because it had been used in a PCA event and PCA benefited from the arrangement.” Neither Mr. Bobbitt nor I are attorneys but he described the liability as a “bailment for which PCA as the bailee is liable.” Mr. Bobbitt also wrote that the club intends to strip the two members of their memberships and that the club will attempt to recover damages from the two.

Club President Bobbitt wrote about three lessons from the experience; two of them have to do with the casual nature of many club events and the need for more contractual agreements. The third lesson has to do with the personal responsibility of club volunteers, a very diplomatic way of saying that one should not act like a jerk. Flying Debris would like to add two more lessons to that list; one is the stunningly obvious - don’t drive race cars drunk. The other is that if you’re going to drink alcohol at breakfast you may as well not kid yourself, drink liquor. Frankly a few pops in the morning should be followed with a comfortable couch and a few football games on the tube rather than driving a purpose built race car around the neighborhood.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: How to Kill a 911

2006-08-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

Top Gear - How to kill a Porsche 911

If This Video Were't So Funny It Would be Truly Depressing! In complaining about how tough this early seventies 911 is Jeremy, a Brit says, "Germans; can't beat us, can't beat Croatia" and then continues to try to kill the poor 911.

2006-07-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

Another Beautiful Ecurie-prepared 911 gets ready for the BRIC vintage races at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wi.
c Flying Debris

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Light due to Obligations

2006-07-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

c Flying Debris
A 2002 Boxster S in rare Polar Silver Metalic paint, 18 inch wheels and the optional hardtop

Obligations including work, social life, driving and cars have kept me from being able to find the time this week to work on many outside interests, so some photos will have to do!

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Type Numbers Part 4, Type 500 through Type 528

2006-06-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

Type 502
1950-51
1.5 liter engine for the Type 356

Type 506
1950-51
1.3 liter engine for the Type 356

Type 506/2
1954-55
Type 506 with three-piece crankcase

Type 508
1950
4-stroke diesel engine for Volkswagen

Type 509
1950
1.3 liter engine for Type 356

Type 514
1951
Le Mans cars for 1951 (Type 356 SL)

Type 519
1951-52
Synchronized Transmission for Type 356

Type 522
1951
Volkswagen design proposal with strut-type front suspension

Type 523
1951
Studies of marine engines

Type 524
1951
Fuel injection for Type 369 engine

Type 527
1951-52
1.5 liter production engine for the Type 356, initially made for Le Mans

Type 528
1952-53
1.5 liter sports engine for Type 356 1500S or Super

Type 528/2
1954-55
Type 528 with four-piece crankcase

Source: Porsche Excellence Was Expected - The Complete Story of the Sports and Racing CarsKarl Ludvigsen1st Edition, 1977 pg. 517-5182nd Edition, 2003 pg. 1484The Ludvigsen work is an ongoing labor of love and a must read for any serious student of Porsche history.

Previous parts of the Type Number Series are Type 7 through 114, Type 115 through 356 and Type 356 through 500.

Le Mans – Another First for Audi, Another First for Corvette and a First for Panoz

2006-06-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

At the end the Audi R10 Diesel TDI V-10 won the Le Mans 24 hour race handily, followed by a Pescarolo Sport team car and another Audi R10. The GT1 class was exciting as Corvette took the lead early in the (French) afternoon and never relinquished it. The story in GT2 was very exciting for the Panoz customer team that caught and passed the Porsche GT3 RSR in the last hour while the Porsche had gearbox trouble and went on to be the first Panoz to win its class at Le Mans in the ten years that Dr. Panoz has been bringing his cars to France for the endurance race. My prediction for next year is: better communications or cell phones for all of the drivers. The 2nd place Porsche GT3 driver had to wait until the team mechanics could reach him on the course to tell him how to repair the Porsche, saving enough time could’ve won the race for the Porsche.

Le Mans – Class Leading Porsche in Trouble W/O Cell Phone 2

2006-06-18T07:04:00.000-07:00

UPDATE:
WOW GT3 is on the circuit again!!! Team mechanics went out onto the circuit to tell the driver how to engage the tranny – he is now limping back to the pits, class win seems VERY unlikely – they need to fix the tranny – Panoz just took over class lead!

The class leading Porsche GT3 RSR is reported to be definitely stopped out on the circuit at Arnage. Speed Channel had reported a problem with 4th gear during the just completed pit stop. The Le Mans rules require the driver to get the car back to the pits if he is stopped out on the circuit, so the cars carry tool kits and communicating with the driver is critical in order to tell what to repair – Speed just reported that the car is stuck out at Arnage and that the pits have lost communication with the car, nothing, not even telemetry. The team is hoping that the Porsche factory group may be able to communicate some telemetry information (commentator implied that and yes it does sound dubious, on the other hand the factory did not have any entry in the race and may be there collecting telemetry for their customers). They also said that the driver was not carrying a cell phone. Yep, spend $1 million plus and get stuck on the circuit without a device that is given away for free.

Le Mans – Class Leading Porsche in Trouble W/O Cell Phone

2006-06-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

The class leading Porsche GT3 RSR is (reported to be) Definitely (!) stopped out on the circuit at Arnage. Speed Channel had reported a problem with 4th gear during the just completed pit stop. The Le Mans rules require the driver to get the car back to the pits if he is stopped out on the circuit, so the cars carry tool kits and communicating with the driver is critical in order to tell what to repair – Speed just reported that the car is stuck out at Arnage and that the pits have lost communication with the car, nothing, not even telemetry. The team is hoping that the Porsche factory group may be able to communicate some telemetry information (commentator implied that and yes it does sound dubious, on the other hand the factory did not have any entry in the race and may be there collecting telemetry for their customers). They also said that the driver was not carrying a cell phone. Yep, spend $1 million plus and get stuck on the circuit without a device that is given away for free.

Le Mans - WOW - Corvette Takes Class Lead!

2006-06-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

With James Bond’s (#007) sister car, the #009 Aston Martin DB9 in the pits the factory Corvette #64 has taken the class lead and is 4th overall. The battle between the Vette and the Aston has been a tight one since yesterday afternoon; if the Corvette can stay on track it has the race sewn up, however 2 hours and 35 minutes is a lifetime at Le Mans, and longer than any Formula One race.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Le Mans After 21 Hours

2006-06-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

The annual Le Mans 24 hour race is still going on, it will end at 5:00 PM local time (11:00 AM EDT), Audi is still leading the race with their wonderful diesel powered R10 TDI, however Henri Pescarolo and his Pescarolo Sport, a Courage chassis running a Judd V-10, is just five laps back. Henri Pescarolo is the team manager and a former winner at Le Mans; the team is also the pride of France, being based in the town of Mans.

Porsche is doing its job in the LMGT2 category with the Seikel Motorsport team of Frankfort Germany leading the class. Porsche was recently the only serious competitor in this class until Ferrari, Panoz and others decided to take on Porsche. The Panoz Esperante of Team LNT is seven laps behind the Porsche GT3 RSR of Seikel Motorsport.

There were a few changes at Le Mans this year; yesterday they started the race 1 hour late in order to accommodate the TV schedule for the World Cup soccer matches. This is much better than the 1968 race that was rescheduled for that fall due to student unrest in France that summer. They have also moved the “carnival” and its Ferris wheel to the area near pit-in rather than behind the front-straight grandstands. It has been said that some of the best food in France that weekend can be found on the grounds of Le Mans. The usual camp-site mania seems to be occurring again this year, with car nuts from around the continent gathering in camp sites throughout the area. The 8.3 mile circuit includes public roads that wind through the farm country near the town of Mans and contains plenty of suitable camping sites. Many continental car clubs (especially from Britain) attend the race en masse, gathering at designated camp sites and carrying on in what for them is traditional manner (including copious amounts of alcohol). It is somewhat like Sturgis without the Harleys and less tattoos.

J Bond’s Car at Le Mans

2006-06-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

This year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race was featuring the first Le Mans racer to sport a triple digit number. The lead Aston Martin (in green livery) is number 007, something to warm the hearts of James Bond fans. Things aren’t going too well for the 007 car, they made a somewhat routine pit stop after 6 laps (under a caution flag) and came out just behind the rival Corvette; the Aston crew changed tires after driving through some wreckage debris. One lap later the Aston’s crew made a late (and likely surprising) call to pit and the Aston ran over the Armco at the start of pit lane and tore off the oil sump (oil pan). That caused quite a mess in the pits (and at pit-in) and the 007 Aston Martin is in the garage being worked on after 7 laps; a big bonus for the Corvettes.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Type Numbers - Part 3, Type 356 through Type 500

2006-06-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

Type 356
1947
Open Mid-Engine two-seat sports car based on VW chassis and components
The link is to a Wikipedia photo of the actual first Porsche car

*Note: The early 356 models, pre-1954 models except the cars built in Gmund, are rear-engine cars known as “Pre-A 356s” but badged as 356s. The cars built in Gmund are known as “Gmund coupes”

Type 356/2
1947/48
Rear-engine Porsche sports car
Known as Gmund Coupes because they were built in Gmund, the town that Porsche was located in during the end of WWII and the early post-war period

Type 356A
1955/56
Improved series production Porsche with 15-inch wheels and a 1,600 cc engine

Type 356B
1959/60
Improved 356 model with “T-5” body

Type 356C
1964/65
Further improved 356 model with disc brakes

Type 356 SL
1951
Racing version of Type 356/2 Coupe

Type 360
1947/48
Cistalia Formula One Grand Prix car

Type 361
1947
Single cylinder test engine for Type 360

Type 362
1948
2.0 liter unsupercharged Formula Two version of Type 360

Type 369
1949/50
1.1 liter engine for Type 356/2 and Type 356

Type 370
1947
Cistalia 1.5 liter touring car

Type 378
1948
Porsche-Schmid gearbox for Volkswagen

Type 384
1948
Porsche-Schmid gearbox for Volkswagen

Type 425
1948
20-hp diesel tractor

Source: Porsche Excellence Was Expected - The Complete Story of the Sports and Racing CarsKarl Ludvigsen
1st Edition, 1977 pg. 517
2nd Edition, 2003 pg. 1484

The Ludvigsen work is an ongoing labor of love and a must read for any serious student of Porsche history.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Sally Carrera the Leading Lady in Cars

2006-06-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

c Leonard Turner
This photo of Sally Carrera, the 2002 Porsche from the movie Cars was taken by Porsche photgrapher extraordinaire Leonard Turner

Sally Carrera, a former big-city lawyer moved to Radiator Springs, is the “leading lady” in the upcoming Disney/Pixar animated movie Cars. As the name implies her automotive character is based on a Porsche Carrera, in fact she is based on a 2002 Porsche Carrera, referred to as a type 996; the newest Carrera models are referred to as type 997s. Porsche started using the name Carrera to celebrate its class win in the grueling Carrera Panamericana race of 1953. The first Carreras of 1956 were considered too luxurious to race, that changed dramatically the following year.

Sally was modeled after the second newest iteration of the long-lived 911 line that acquired the Carrera designation in 1984 after using the SC or Super Carrera nameplate from 1978 to 1983. Previous to that time the Carrera moniker was reserved for low volume cars that were often race-bred specials derived from a street car. Then there was the Carrera 6, or the type 906, the first Porsche race car that could not be driven on the street at all (a Wikipedia disputes that and so far I haven’t found the proper citation but having seen numerous Carrera 6s I really doubt the Wikipedia assertion that the car was ever a street car).

The Porsche Club of America’s (PCA) monthly magazine Porsche Panorama did a full write up on the Porsche/car-guy angle in their May issue. When Pixar decided to make this movie in 2001 the production team has made sure that the animators understood cars, their dynamics and auto racing. They took them to NASCAR races, auto shows, car museums; they were even sent them out onto Infineon Raceway with pro drivers. Pro race drivers can put the fear of God into most folks. As a result of all the preparations, technical and psychological, the vehicles shown in the movie have the dynamics of the actual vehicles, down to suspension and tire pressures.

Apparently Doc Hudson, voiced by actor/racer Paul Newman has driving characteristics of a 1951 Hudson Hornet, of course Sally behaves like a 2002 Carrera and the leading man Lightning McQueen, behaves like a NASCAR race car. In addition Pixar used a new technique called “ray tracing” that accurately depicts reflections off of the surfaces of cars, the dozens of head-light beams in night shots and the shading of surfaces and characters. This technique is so complex that even using Pixar’s 3000 networked computers the average time to render a single frame of film for Cars was 17 hours! Obviously many frames where done at a time.

For many Pixar employees this entire exercise must’ve been a blast. Panorama interviewed PCA member Gary Schultz and pictured him in front of his white 1967 911S with some trick yellow rally lights. 1967 was the first year for the 911 S series, the most performance orientated of the street 911s. The S designation has been carried on with the modern Carrera S. 1967 is also the final year of the short wheel base 911s, making that year’s S model a particularly desirable 911.

Porsche Cars North America donated the promotional Sally pictured above, the car started out as a 1999 Carrera that was updated with 2002 body panels. The car was created by movie car creator Eddie Paul from a car that had been damaged in transport and had been used as a repair training model. In order to achieve the proportions of the animated Sally the car’s wheelbase was shortened by seven inches, the roof was raised by 3 ½ inches and the windshield rake was lessened giving the car a more upright windshield. Eyelids are built into the windshield and the eyeballs are controlled by magnets built into the interior. The front grills of modern Carreras also hold a number of radiators that Sally must be hiding quite tactfully behind those teeth.

Weekday Special: New Porsche Track Car – Except for the US

2006-05-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

Rear window of Porsche's upcoming GT3 RS shows off the factory roll cage
c Porsche

The new GT3 RS is a continuation of the GT3 series of street-legal track-worthy 911s and will be released in October. The Porsche 911 GT3 RS features the same 3.6 liter 415 hp engine that the base GT3 has. The car is a lightweight version of the US legal GT3, shaving almost 45 pounds off of the already light GT3. It also features an adjustable wing and a full factory roll cage. Porsche shaved almost 45 pounds off of an already lightweight car and added a roll cage; that is impressive. It is likely that the roll cage is keeping the car from being imported into the US; the feds do not like to okay vehicles with roll cages.

The car comes with a lightened flywheel and a closer ratio transmission plus a fire extinguisher and racing seats. This is one heck of a weekend racer, for the very well healed. With a reported price of 94,280 British Pounds ($177,482) it makes for one expensive track car. Porsche has put a mini site on the web featuring this new car.

Hat Tip: the Autoblog

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Porsche Type Numbers – Part 2, Type 115 through Type 356

2006-05-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

As the name states this is the second in a series of posts detailing the project numbers that Porsche has used. These project numbers are mostly chronological. As mentioned in Part 1 these project numbers are not to be confused with the somewhat confusing part numbers system.

Type 115
1939
Supercharged Kdf 1.1 liter engine overhead camshafts

Type 116
1938/39
Kdf backed 1.5 liter racing car with Type 114 components

Type 128
1940/41
Kdf based amphibian Schwimmwagen

Type 135
1940/41
130 Watt Wind power Generator

Type 136
1940/41
736 Watt Wind Generator

Type 137
1940/41
4500 Watt Wind Power Generator

Type 138
1940/41
Amphibian Schwimmwagen, alternative design

Type 160
1941
Design for Integral Body/Fraame for Kdf-Wagen

Type 166
1942/45
Kdf-Powered 4x4 Schwimmwagen, final design
Type 170
1942
Marine Sturmboot Engine, version 1

Type 171
1942
Marine Sturmboot Engine, version 2

Type 174
1942
Sturmboot Engine using Normal Kdf Engine

Type 175
1942
Steel Wheeled Military Tractor, the Ostradschlepper

Type 180
1942
Tank Design with Electric Transmission

Type 181
1942
Tank Design with Hydraulic Transmission

Type 205
1942
180 ton Tank, Maus

Type 212
1942
Air-Cooled 16-Cylinder Diesel Tank Engine

Type 245
1942
18-Ton Multi-Purpose Tank

Type 250
1942/43
Turretless Tank with 105 mm Gun

Type 285
1945
3.5 hp experimental Water Turbine

Type 293
1944
Personnel Carrier

Type 300
1944
Jet Engine to Power V-1 flying bomb "vengance weapon"

Type 309
1945
2-Stroke Diesel Engine for VW or Tractor

Type 312
1945
Gasoline Tractor

Type 313
1945
Diesel Tractor

Type 323
1946
11 hp Diesel Tractor

Type 328
1946
28-hp Tractor

Type 352
1946
Passenger car design for von Senger A.G., Switzerland

Type 356
1947
First Porsche Automobile, Open, Mid-Engined two-seater built with the VW as the basis
The link is to a Wikipedia photo of the actual first Porsche car

Source: Porsche Excellence Was Expected - The Complete Story of the Sports and Racing CarsKarl Ludvigsen1st Edition, 1977 pg. 517
2nd Edition, 2003 pg. 1484

The Ludvigsen work is an ongoing labor of love and a must read for any serious student of Porsche history.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Porsche Type Numbers - Part 1, Type 7 through Type 114

2006-05-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

This weeks Sunday Porsche Blogging subject is the Porsche numbering system for projects. Forget the part numbers, those are akin to a Dewey Decimal System for German engineers. This is the first of several lists of project numbers that will detail the surviving project numbers and what they involved. The numbering system for projects was a sequential chronological numbering system. The initial displayed project is seven because the first six never made it past the drawing boards.

Type 7
1930/31
Wanderer 1.86 liter chassis (1st design by Porsche office)

Type 8
1930/31
Wanderer 3.25 liter chassis

Type 9
1930/31
Supercharged version of type 8

Type 22
1932/37
Auto Union GP car

Type 52
1934
Auto Union sports car design

Type 60
1934/41
Kdf small car, later became the Volkswagen Beetle

Type 60K10
1939
Kdf sports coupe for Berlin to Rome Race

Type 62
1936
Kdf cross country, with open-sided body

Type 64
1937/38
Sports car, 1.5 liter, based on Kdf components

Type 66
1938
Kdf right-hand drive

Type 67
1939
Kdf listed as an "invalid vehicle"

Type 68
1939
Kdf panel van

Type 80
1938/39
Mercedes-Benz land speed record car

Type 82
1939/40
Kdf based Kubelwagen

Type 87
1939/41
Kubelwagen with 4-wheel drive

Type 100
1939/41
Tank prototype

Type 101
1942
Carrier for 88 mm gun with an electric transmission

Type 102
1942
Type 101 with hydraulic transmission

Type 108
1938
2-stage supercharger for Mercedes Benz

Type 110
1938/39
Small tractor, Volkspflug

Type 111
1939/40
Small tractor, new design

Type 112
1940/41
Larger-engined small tractor

Type 113
1941
Small tractor, third version

Type 114
1938/39
F. Wagen, a 1.5 liter sports car design

Source: Porsche Excellence Was Expected - The Complete Story of the Sports and Racing Cars
Karl Ludvigsen
1st Edition, 1977 pg. 517
2nd Edition, 2003 pg. 1484
The Ludvigsen work is an ongoing labor of love and a must read for any serious student of Porsche history.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: the Coming Porsche Panamera

2006-05-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

c unknown
A third possible design for the upcoming Porsche Panamera

Porsche has been open about its plans to build a four door car beginning next year and according to Sybarites.org (Big Hat Tip to Autoblog) Porsche has started factory preparation for the new project. One of the Sybarites forum members has “informed” them that after discontinuing production of the Carrera GT at its Leipzig factory, Porsche has started preparing the factory for Panamera production. A four door Porsche is something that the firm has toyed with from time to time, even some early 911 design studies were for a four door vehicle. During the eighties and nineties the firm said that they would not produce a four door vehicle because it would interfere with the design work that they do for other automobile companies.

I am sure that some of the world’s Porsche purists will send up a great cry of despair over a Porsche four-door but I will not be one of them. Flying Debris has already commented on the reaction by Porsche purists to Porsche coming out with an SUV here. There are some people who deplore the fact that Porsche moved beyond what are referred to as the pre-A 356 models. Flying debris is happy that some of the rare Porsche parts that the factory still makes will likely still be manufactured, assuming that the Panamera doesn’t bomb.

2006-05-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

c unknown
Another possible design for the upcoming Porsche Panamera

2006-05-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

c unknown
One of the expected designs for the new Porsche Panamera

Sunday Porsche Blogging: A New Flying Debris Porsche Blog

2006-05-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

c Sideline Sports Photography
'66 Porsche 911 prepped as a 911 R works the North Course at the Autobahn CC on April 2

The crack staff here at Flying Debris has organized all of the Sunday Porsche Blogging posts and assembled them on one handy web site, the originally named Sunday Porsche Blogging blog. Enjoy.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Driving an Antique 911

2006-05-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

As the photos below show, I have been driving a forty year old Porsche 911 on the race track. The car was set up very well by one the best shops for such cars here in the US, Ecurie Engineering, of Mequon, WI. Due to the care that the car had in setting up the suspension it is a very stable race car. In fact the car is likely far more stable than when it was originally raced. It was raced during the ‘60s and the early ‘70s. When the car was raced it was set up as a 911 T/S with the wider tires and corresponding fenders; in addition, late in its career it acquired a now ubiquitous whale tail (the last tail it used was actually known among Porsche geeks as the tea-tray tail). The person I purchased the car from had restored it to its current configuration, as a 911R. The 911R was a very rare race vehicle that was mostly used in FIA Rallies. The car employed a twin-plug version of the 2.0 liter (1991 cc) 911 engine, the type 901/23; it is the 911 version of the successful 906 race engine.

Set up as a 911R the car is a handful. Unlike modern cars, even race cars, this antique does not have any boost in the steering mechanism; so the driver is essentially controlling a constant battle between the steering wheel and the accelerator pedal. Too much of either one will send the car into an immediate spin, a condition known as being “tail happy” or oversteer. The car currently has a small racing steering wheel, the better to stay away from the roll cage, but I can see why the car was originally delivered with a huge steering wheel, a little more leverage can’t hurt and the old-time roll cages weren’t in the way of anything. The difference between the ’66 race car and a modern sports car is like night and day, primarily because of the steering, you simply do not need to muscle a modern car around the track. It gives one a lot a respect for those old time race drivers; and I’m not even talking about the mortality rates that they faced.

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Sunday April 30, 2006

2006-05-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

c Sideline Sports Photography

More Work on the North Course of ACC April 1

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Sunday April 30, 2006

2006-05-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

C Sideline Sports Photography

Working the North Course at the Autobahn Country Club in a '66 911 on April 1

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Sunday April 30, 2006

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Sloan Cars, the Low Mileage Porsche Place

2006-05-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

c Sloan Cars

Jerry Seinfeld's 7100 mile '97 Turbo S; at $225,000 the celebrity status likely doesn't add more than $25,000 to $50,000 to the Jerry Seinfeld's 7100 mile '97 Turbo S: at $225,000 the celebrity status likely doesn't add more than $25,000 to $50,000 to the price of this uber-rare air cooled classic.

The June issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Magazine has a great article (not yet on the web) about Richard Sloan and his passion for collecting low mileage and oddly optioned Porsches. His passion for those low mileage (mostly) 911s has lead him to start a business catering to those who want very low mileage used sports cars. It seems odd but some people don’t drive their Porsches, sometimes they are initially intimidated by the car and put it away, sometimes they have so many cars or do so little driving that they do not rack up many miles on any one vehicle, sometimes they plan not to drive the vehicle or it even falls through the cracks (what a problem!). His business, Sloan Cars in New Haven Connecticut has been advertising in Excellence Magazine for several years but the article about the collection/business is interesting in that it brings out tidbits like a relatively high mileage, at 30,000 miles, ’79 911 Turbo in beautiful Minerva Blue that had the $2000 (in 1979 dollars) optional color matching Blaupunkt radio control stick. Or his never titled ’97 Carrera with 450 miles on the clock. No doubt the cars are expensive, but when he says that this may be the most original, low mileage 914 on the planet, he may be right; other than some copies squirreled away in European museums. So if you are in the market for a low mileage original Porsche and you have the financial wherewithal, definitely head on out to New Haven and talk to Richard Sloan, just bring your checkbook.

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris April 23, 2006.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Old News, Porsche Buys 20% of VW

2006-05-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

Porsche, a publicly traded German company recently bought 20% of Volkswagen Group in what some thought a surprise. Many wrote how the purchase helped to ensure further chassis work and R&D cooperation. The purchase may also the influence the statist ideas of the Lower Saxony government, a sizable shareholder. There was also the threat of Stuttgart neighbor Mercedes buying into VW. Additional threats come from opening up the company. The family firm founded by former VW CEO Ferdinand Piech’s mother, Porsche Salzburg, still is the VW importer to Austria and points east. That arrangement would be less likely to continue with outside involvement.

The Mercedes threat is one that is almost genetic, Mercedes fired Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche in the ‘20s and blamed him for some manufacturing problems that they were experiencing at the time. It is said that the Porsche family has held a grudge ever since. When Porsche was looking for a partner to share the development costs of a new SUV they negotiated with Mercedes until Mercedes suggested that they take a share of Porsche in order to consummate the deal. Porsche Chairman Wendell Weideking walked out of the room. He knew that the Porsche and Piech families would never agree to such an arrangement.

A further Porsche genetic issue is the fact that Volkswagen was formed to build the car that we’ve come to know as the Beetle, a car entirely designed by Ferdinand Porsche and his engineering firm. In negotiations after WWII between Porsche and the Occupying Allies, the Porsche engineering firm received 1 German Deutschmark for every Beetle to be sold world-wide. This was payment for the prewar design work on the Beetle. Porsche has continued to do extensive amounts of design work for VW over the years. Porsche also shared design and manufacturing work with VW on the ill fated 914, a car whose unibody price was increased after a change in VW leadership, leaving Porsche without price control for a large portion of their product. That quickly doomed the wonderful but high priced 914-6; the standard 914 used a Porsche-breathed-on VW engine, as did a succession of the lowest priced Porsches. Porsche did not want to face this again with their very successful Cayenne line. The Cayenne shares its unibody with the VW Touareg. There were such rumblings last year concerning the VW engine used in the base model Cayenne, VW insinuated that it would stop building the engine that Porsche buys from them. For some family members it was 1968 all over again.

Since the early nineties when it looked like Porsche would go bankrupt or be swallowed up by another car company Porsche has radically changed their manufacturing processes. The company eagerly took the best of Japanese manufacturing prowess and added their own Germanic touches. They have also become very adept at exploiting the markets that they sell to. The cost of designing a new car has become so enormous that one failed vehicle could’ve put a small company like Porsche out of business. Since those dark days of the early ‘90s Porsche has successfully launched 3 new 911 Carrera models (1 air-cooled, 2 water-cooled, each having as many as 20+ variations), 2 models each of the Boxster and the Boxster S, the SUV Cayene (currently 4 variations), the new Cayman (a Boxster derivative) and in 2 years they plan to release a 4-door sedan named the Panamera. Add to that a very successful customer racing program. It is too early to judge the success of the Cayman but all of the other vehicles have been financial successes.

The Porsche management has struck me as prudent in the extreme; I doubt that they would take such a big risk if they didn’t believe in the future of VW. As the share prices for many auto companies are taking a beating Porsche likely sees value in VW at these price levels. They have also greatly aided their own business.

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Sunday April 16, 2006

Sunday Porsche Blogging – Why the Cayenne is a Good Thing for Porsche

2006-05-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

Due to time spent at the track the Porsche blogging is once again light. So light that I am linking to a post by another blogger; the Truth About Cars guy. He is rightly peeved at Porschephiles who make snide (and worse) remarks about the Cayenne, the Porsche SUV. His editorial can be found here. My experience with the brand has shown me that I want them to make money. Surprisingly there are parts for older street cars that Porsche no longer produces. Now I can see not producing the body panels for a low volume special but the starter switch for pre-1968 911s? When Porsche was at its nadir I was seriously worried about the supply of parts; if the company won’t produce a starter switch what will an OEM company decline to produce?

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Sunday April 9, 2006.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: A Decades Spanning Photo

2006-05-07T18:46:00.000-07:00

Four Decades of Porsche Technology on Display at the Autobahn CC Paddock Sunday Morning
c Flying Debris

From an early 911 through the latest supercar, the Autobahn Country Club had a museum worth of Porsches on track this weekend.

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Sunday April 2, 2006

If You're Going to Get Pulled Over, Be a Rich Guy in Italy

2006-05-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

c rssportscars
But Officer, I Thought That the Sign Said 200 mph!

Italian telecom executive Riccardo Ruggiero told the local police that he was just putting his new Porsche Carrera GT “through its paces” when he was pulled over doing 193 mph. The 357 Euro fine seems like quite a deal considering the lousy excuse he gave to the cop.

This post originally appeared on Flying Debris Tuesday March 21, 2006. So it isn't even a Sunday post, but its worth throwing in.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: Very Light This Week

2006-05-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

Tight Urban Garage, and Glad to Have It
c Flying Debris

Due to ongoing issues with Blogger discussed here, the weekly Porsche Blogging is light, the time that I would normally have spent writing has been spent dealing with ongoing posting issues. There are also more parade photos to be posted; hopefully Blogger will get it together soon. Ther above photo shows what urban car nuts have to put up with. In this case it is the garage of a Porsche fan, thus giving me an excuse to call it Porsche Blogging

This post initially appeared on Flying Debris Sunday March 19, 2006

Sunday Porsche Blogging: the New Porsche Turbocharger

2006-05-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

As Porsche prepares to release its new type 997 Turbo, they are starting to show the car off to the press. The Porsche factory magazine Christophorus has an interesting piece on the turbocharger itself(1). The new turbocharged version of the 911 Carrera utilizes one of the fifteen pound devices on each of the two exhaust streams, one on each side of the flat six cylinder engine. For this new car Porsche has developed the first turbocharger to be used in a gasoline engine that uses variable-turbine geometry, meaning that the turbocharger is always working and thus ready to immediately increase power by working harder. This is a big deal.

The turbocharger for piston engines was patented by Swiss engineer Alfred Buchi in 1905, a time when the full potential of the device was not realized due to the materials available back then. Turbochargers increase power by increasing the amount of the air/fuel mixture consumed by the engine; they greatly increase the amount of air forced into the intake manifold. This attribute of higher manifold pressure was the attraction for one of its first major applications; piston airplane engines used in the low pressure environment of high altitude before and during WWII.

Turbochargers work by placing a powered impellor rotating at very high speeds that acts as a compressor in the path of the air going into the engine, thus increasing the airflow’s speed and pressure. If the impeller was powered by a belt off of the engine it would be a supercharger, or Kompressor in Mercedes-speak. Instead the turbocharger saves engine power by using a shaft attached to an impellor placed in the fast moving, highly heated stream of exhaust gasses. This proximity to the exhaust has caused serious heat issues with turbochargers over the years; that combined with the fact that compressed air heats up are the reasons that intercoolers have been so popular with turbocharged applications. It is desirable both in terms of power output and engine longevity to have a cooler fuel/air input charge.

Diesel engines have used turbochargers for years; this makes sense as diesels are powered by pressure driven explosions in the cylinders. Exhaust gas temperatures of Diesel engines run cooler than Otto (gasoline) engines, 1350 degrees F vs. 1850 degrees F, making the construction of turbocharging devices easier in the diesel world. Diesels have been using turbochargers with variable turbine technology for some time now due to the lower temperature environment; the metallurgy was not all that expensive as there already were jet engine and space travel applications. The differing expansion rate of different metals was the difficult problem that Porsche engineers had to surmount in order to build this new turbocharger.

When I first heard about this variable-turbine geometry I assumed that variable part referred to the actual vanes on the exhaust impeller, with the vanes changing their angles of attack depending on how forceful the passing gasses are. In fact it refers to a device that directs the exhaust stream through the impellers. The device, consisting of eleven small blades, expands like tiny lobster tails into the exhaust stream to capture more of the exhaust stream at times when the exhaust stream is less powerful, i.e. lower RPMs. By contrast the device retracts to capture less of the stream at higher engine speeds due the lower relative power needs to keep the turbocharger impeller spinning at optimum levels. This is the portion of the turbocharger that needed the metallurgy breakthroughs.

This is a big deal because it allows the turbocharger to spin at optimum levels at a wider range of engine speeds, especially low speeds. Traditional turbochargers need higher engine speeds with the corresponding higher exhaust gas speeds in order to spin fast enough to push the amount of air needed to boost the intake pressure. This often produced dramatic “turbo lag”, the time that the turbocharger took to spool up fast enough to make a difference to the engine’s power output. In some cars the power would come on with such a surge that the driver needed some skill to control the vehicle. Because the exhaust can account for a loss of up to thirty-percent of an engine’s power, the turbocharger allows the engine to capture some of this lost power and put it to use, allowing for a smaller, lighter and more efficient engine relative to power output. The turbo lag problem has been a definite marketing issue, a smaller engine that doesn’t get good power until it reaches 3000 RPM and then has a rush of power is much less comfortable to use than a larger engine that puts out good usable power at lower engine speeds but gets worse gas mileage. In addition to being more efficient fuel wise, the smaller engine also weighs less, another efficiency that leads to better gas mileage. The smaller size also offers a host of other advantages including engine placement.

This new Porsche turbocharger is a big deal because it dramatically advances turbocharger technology and if this new technology can be produced in a cost efficient manner it seems likely that we will see more, and more usable turbocharged automobiles. This technology could lower the amount of energy that we use for each mile traveled. The new Porsche turbocharger also has a usable range large enough to find use in the gas engine portion of hybrid vehicles, making those vehicles even more efficient.

(1)Christophorus, The Porsche Magazine; number 318, February/March 2006, pages 16-27

This post initially appeared on Flying Debris Sunday March 12, 2006.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: The type 987 Coupe, the New Porsche Cayman S

2006-05-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to test drive the new Porsche Cayman S in mid January at Loeber Motors in Lincolnwood, IL. That car is an apex eater; I can only imagine what the Cayman would be like through the Carrousel at Road America. The car feels like it just wants to go faster through turns. After looking the car over for about fifteen minutes I got to climb into a black model with 18 miles on the odometer and fire it up. The interior is comfortable and definitely advanced from my ’02 Boxster S. When you sit in the car it feels solid, especially when the door closes. The transmission is wonderful; the shifter is placed correctly, with shorter throws than either of the previous Boxster models and it is very, very smooth. Here was a mid-engine car with 18 miles on the clock and the transmission felt as smooth as silk. When the engine is fired up the interior fills with the fabulous sound of the new 3.4 liter flat-six engine directly behind you. At least at low speeds the engine sounds better inside the car than outside of it. That is as it should be; the passerby is not making the payments on the thing.

My test drive was in a rather crowded urban area so I took the car out to a nearby highway clover leaf and was able to do several “laps” through the entire Touhy Ave. clover leaf at relatively high speeds. Because it was winter there was debris on the edges of the ramps and on a few of those passes I intentionally put the inside wheels on this gravelly debris in an effort to unsettle the car. The Cayman would have none of that; it just give a hint of slip before once again settling into its attack the corner mode. The car that I drove was equipped with PSM, the Porsche yaw control system and if PSM did kick in, I never noticed it.

The car that I drove was not equipped with the Sport Chrono option, which in addition to putting a stop watch on your dashboard, gives you a sportier shift pattern when it’s engaged. Further, when the Sport Chrono package is combined with the GPS package and its space hogging screen you will be able to record lap and split times in the GPS system. Very cool.

The Cayman S is a type 987, as are the current two Boxster models, the Boxster and the Boxster S. The initial Boxster models, the standard and the S, built through 2004 were type 986 models. The Boxster models have always shared components with their more expensive Carrera siblings, the 996s and the new 997s, thus the numerical designations of 986 and 987.Building this car is an interesting marketing decision; Porsche has shown that they understand the market they operate in and they have been able to successfully exploit that knowledge. Mercedes and Lexus have shown that there is a market for a $60,000 two-seater and Porsche saw that niche as missing a truly sporting component. Porsche feels that they can fill that niche with a vehicle that shares enough with the existing Boxster line to make even relatively limited production a profitable endeavor. The shame about the mid-engine Porsche line up is the lack of racing experience. It has been said that Porsche does not want their expensive and profitable Carrera streetcars and GT3 race program to be at all shown up by the less expensive Boxsters.

The Cayman is interesting in the race aspect because the thing is a track car, right out of the box. When the Sport Chrono and GPS goodies are thrown in, the car appears to be perfect for people who get in a decent amount of track time. If guys start taking these cars out to places like the Autobahn Country Club and whooping up on Carreras, then it may be tough to keep the Cayman off of the track. I would like to add that I do not know whether the Cayman S can take the Carrera, I would rather not hazard a guess. There were rumors, later quashed by the factory, that implied the Cayman S was faster than the Carrera in testing at the Nurburgring.

Further Flying Debris Porsche Blogging can be found here, here, and here.

Sunday Porsche Blogging – type 951 the Porsche 944 Turbo

2006-05-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

951 on Lake Geneva
c Flying Debris

The above photo is of an old car of mine, a 1987 Porsche 944 Turbo; the Porsche factory number for that car is the 951. That shot was taken on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, about a mile or two off of the bar Chuck’s in Fontana. The University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory is in the far background. A few of us had gone up to go ice boating and there wasn’t enough wind so I just had to drive around the lake in a Porsche.

That 951 was in many ways a wonderful car, although it did have a few expensive repair bills. When properly driven the car is incredibly fast, smooth and quick; for the inexperienced the turbocharged nature of the car can be dangerous. I probably would’ve kept the car for the long-term (I had it for 7 years) if I drove more. As the screen name implies I take public transportation to work everyday. Lately I’ve been putting about 3000 to 5000 total miles per year on a few vehicles. That’s what city living can do for you, not only can I walk to a grocery store and restaurants, but I can walk to Home Depot and Office Depot; the down side is that parking is ridiculous.

The Porsche 944 Turbo (951) is often on lists of relatively inexpensive but relatively exotic sports cars, excellent examples of pre-1988½ can be found well under $15,000. Even the more powerful 1988½ and later cars are now in that $15,000 range. As those magazine articles often point out, it is critical to get a well maintained vehicle. A point to pay particular attention to is the proper maintenance of the timing belts. The factory replacement schedule must be religiously followed, including follow-up adjustments. Another area to check is the motor mounts, they are made of some hard rubber-like compound and they wear out from use and age. Not only are they expensive to replace but as they wear out the engine movement endangers the torque tube, the torque tube is the drive shaft in this rear transaxle car and is not inexpensive.

The last 951 was last sold new in the US in 1990, so all of these cars are at least 16 years old and any 16 year old car will have parts that break and Porsche parts are expensive, as is service. Figure dealer shop rates at $100 per hour and private shop rates somewhere in the $60 per hour range. My advice on these and any older Porsche street car has included “be ready to spend $5000 on your car at any time, you may never have to spend it but you should always be prepared to spend it.” For an air cooled 911 a rebuild starts at about $7000. The reality of a nice $12,000 951 is that it should be seen as a $20,000 car, not only realistic but really quite a deal. It may take years to spend the extra $8000 budgeted but it will get spent.

Another great point about the 951 is that they can be dramatically improved; the bottom end of the straight-four engine is rock solid and can take much bigger forces than those it normally faces. Additionally the turbo and controlling software can easily be modified, allowing for huge power increases. Due to the car’s race history there are plenty of products to improve the power, the handling, the transmission and anything else that you could imagine, or pay for. At the 1999 24 hour race at Daytona there was a team running a 1987 street 951 that had been modified for racing. The car finished, it didn’t win anything but it finished the 24 hours. That 951 had been a well used 12 year old street car that was rebuilt and went out and took on the world’s best, not bad.

The 951 is wonderful on the highway, when Road & Track first reviewed the car they recorded the fastest highway passing times that the magazine had yet recorded. I can attest to those findings, at high speeds the car feels like it settles down (the aerodynamics give the car fantastic down force) and with proper use of the turbocharger (through throttle control and judicious gear changes) it will go from 80 to 110 in what seems like an instant. Visibility and stability of the car give the driver great confidence at high speed, the car just feels rock solid at speed. The best gas mileage that I ever got was 32 mpg., all highway driving between 60 and 80 mph.

The interior of the car is snug but comfortable and it looks fairly modern, in ’86 it was the fist car to have driver and passenger air bags as standard equipment. The ergonomics are great for me; I can reach and see all of the controls and gauges. However, I have heard complaints from others concerning their view of the gauges. The car is a hatch-back so it is very practical; I put 8’ 2x4s through the hatch and into the passenger foot well. The 951 is a 2 + 2, meaning that it has rear seats; these fold down seats would be great for kids if you could put a child’s seat into them. I didn’t try all that hard, but I never did find a seat that fit. I’m not sure if they still use the term but Porsche once referred to their rear seats as “occasional seats”, you don’t want to sit in those things, even occasionally.

Overall I would recommend the 951 as a great car as long as one accepts its limitations and costs. It is a car that I would buy again, if I was in a situation where I often found myself on highways. I would also suggest swapping the wheels for the 17” 5-spoke Carrera Cup2 wheels; they improve and update the looks dramatically. A great spot for a CD changer is under the rear carpet in the area behind the wheel well. The car also makes a great race car; after all it is directly derived from the 924 GTP that raced in the 1981 Le Mans 24 Hour race and during its production run Porsche also turned out a variety of racing versions of the 951.

Further Porsche Blogging at Flying Debris can be found here and here.

Bobby Rahal Drives the "Hippy Car"

2006-05-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

Rahal's Ride!
c Flying Debris

This post was never actually labelled as a Sunday Porsche Blogging post but it deserves inclusion as the first true Porsche post on Flying Debris. In addition it was written on a holiday Monday.

This is one of my favorite race cars of early ‘70s, the Porsche 917. 25 of these cars were built for the ’69 sports car season; they were very fast but notoriously untamed. Porsche test driver Hans Herman once said of the early 917 “Often I really believed that my next resting place would be in heaven.”1 The ’69 Le Mans 24 hour race was the closest Le Mans ever. Yet the excitingly close finish was between a Porsche 908 driven by the 41 year old Herman and a Ford GT40, driven by a 24 year old Jacky Ickx; the vaunted 917 was not involved in the chase for the checkered flag. The Ford won after a final lap that featured several lead changes being reported back to the packed grandstands from the 8.365 mile course.

The next year, 1970 saw a 917L race at Le Mans with this fantastic Martini Racing livery that inspired observers to dub it the “hippie car” for its beautiful swirling paint job. The “hippie car” took second place in the rain soaked Le Mans of 1970 with Gerard Larrousse and Willibert Kauhsen at the wheel. The winning car was the 917K entered by Porsche Salzburg, the firm owned by Louise Porsche Piech. Louise was the daughter of Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche, the older sister of then Porsche Chairman Ferry Porsche and mother of 906 designer and later Volkswagen Audi Group Chairman, Ferdinand Piech. Her story is a wonderful one in itself. I once read an interview with her in which she said “I’ve only ever driven my family’s cars. First the cars of my father, then those of my brother, and now those of my son.”2

The fact that Louise had such a hot car in the 1970 race while customers Martini Racing and Team Gulf chased her car didn’t sit very well with the customers. On the other hand it was Louise who kept Porsche going both as the head of the firm and by moving supplies and funds through the various Allied Occupation Zones in the early post WWII period. During much of that time both her father and her brother were being held as economic war criminals in France due to the pre-war and war-time activities of Porsche, Ing. The engineering firm could count the Volkswagen Beetle and the King Tiger tank among their war related projects. An exasperating factor is the fact that Ferdinand Porsche, in his roll at the bizarrely named KdF (Kraft Durch Freude; the Nazi conglomerates’ name in German, translates as Strength Through Joy) had authority over the Peugeot factories during the German occupation of France. Needless to say, Peugeot, a previously proud French firm, was not turning out smartly elegant French cars while under the thumb of KdF. The area between where the Porsche family was living, Zell Am See and the firm’s base in Gmund was split by the post war authorities. German men had a much tougher time crossing between those zones than German women, giving Louise an advantage over the other early Porsche employees. It was an advantage that the young Porsche firm needed, for without that help it is likely that the firm would have lost many key employees to other opportunities.

The photo above shows the “hippy car” after being run on a Saturday afternoon by Bobby Rahal in July of 2002. The shot was taken in the pits at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. during the Brian Redman International Challenge (BRIC). The BRIC has been renamed the Kohler International Challenge with Brian Redman; KICBR doesn’t really work so it will likely still be called the BRIC. It is an annual vintage auto race held in July at the Kettle Moraine area race track, the longest road course in the US. The BRIC is also one of the largest vintage races in the country and is always a great time. The nearby towns of Elkhart Lake and Plymouth are nice Midwestern farming towns that have enough economic activity to still be described as thriving. They are the quintessential dairy towns of middle Wisconsin, a real throwback.

1 Porsche Excellence Was Expected by Karl Ludvigsen 1st Edition 1977 pg. 660 2nd Edition 2003 pg. 583
2 Excellence Magazine #143, Dec. 2005 pg. 82

This post originally appeared Monday February 20, 2006.