Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i Classic Porsche

PORSCHE MODERN CLASSICS BOOKAZINE New from the team behind 911 & Porsche World magazine comes this 164-page celebration of the 996- and 997-generation 911s and their Boxster/Cayman 986/987 counterparts. We chart the design and evolution of this hugely popular range of Porsches, going on to examine the long-lasting impact these cars have had on all subsequent Porsche products, not to mention the sports car world as a whole. Along the way, we get behind the wheel of standout models, delve into owner stories, explore ground-breaking engineering and show you what to look out for when on the hunt for an early water-cooled 911 or Boxster/Cayman to call your own. Essential reading for marque enthusiasts, this beautifully presented bookazine comes hot on the heels of our successful Porsche Air-Cooled Classics title…

The increasingly ridiculous Fast and Furious movies would have you believe Japan’s big cities are awash with bright, neon-lit Nissan Skylines, Mazda RX-7s, Subaru Imprezas and Honda Civics, their high-revving engines boosted by whooshing turbochargers and ear-splitting straight-piped exhaust systems. While there’s a thread of accuracy to tales spun by Hollywood hot shots, the truth of the matter is Japan’s car culture runs much deeper than its domestic products. THE EXPERIENCE OF GUIDING THE 912 THROUGH OSAKA’S STREETS AND OUT ONTO OPEN RURAL ROADS WAS SEARED INDELIBLY INTO TOSHI’S CEREBELLUM “My father, Akira, is a huge petrolhead,” remembers forty-five-year-old Toshi Matsunaga, when we meet him and his 912 on a warm, sunny day deep in the Suffolk countryside. “Dad was the inspiration getting my two brothers and I into cars…

We’ve championed the 912 in previous issues of Classic Porsche, but beyond the model’s low price point (when compared to a same-age 911), what is this four-cylinder Porsche’s appeal? Despite being a rear-engined sports coupé like the 356 before it, the 911 was always going to be a considerably more expensive proposition thanks to the introduction of a six-cylinder powerplant. Concerned the 911’s asking price — some thirty percent higher than the outgoing 356 — would reduce overall sales for the brand, Porsche pulled together a plan of action intended to produce a more affordable, four-cylinder version of its new car, thereby maintaining appeal for Porsche products among less affluent buyers. To keep development costs low, many of the same components, including the body shell, were used across both the…

Porsche restomods, retromods, backdates, evocations. Call them what you will, they’re very much a thing, as this magazine demonstrates. For the purposes of this publication, we’ve settled on one primary term of reference: restomod. And the purpose of this article? To examine the restomod scene and chart its twenty-plus-year progression from cheap-as-chips, fibreglass-panelled RS lookalikes to near million-quid, hand-built creations launched at glitzy concours events. To help us on our way, we’ve got a lovely restomod from the team at Porsche interior trimming outfit, Lakewell, and master engineering firm, Vintage Garage. Put simply, this particular 911 is a prime example of where we’re at and what’s what in this now mature world of Porsche personalisation. Of course, it isn’t just 911s getting the restomod treatment, but you could be forgiven…

Every now and again, an event of huge global significance encourages us to remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when news of the development broke. Where was your car, though? Moreover, what was it doing? As far as the heavily modified 911 on these pages is concerned, the event was the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The car’s location? Paris. What was it doing there? Chasing Diana and her companion, Dodi Fayed, into the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, where the Mercedes-Benz W140 280 they were travelling in clipped a white Fiat, collided with a pillar and hit the tunnel wall, resulting in the pair (and their driver, Henri Paul) losing their lives. A FACTORY NON-SUNROOF CAR IN LHD AND ORIGINALLY DELIVERED TO A CONSISTENTLY WARM…

Every German manufacturer had something new to offer at the forty-second Frankfurt Motor Show, which opened on Thursday 16th September, 1965. The Glas V8 broke cover, as did the Volkswagen Type 3 1600 TL, the updated Opel Rekord (pitched alongside the brand’s newly launched Kadett B and Karmann-built Diplomat convertible), the Auto Union Audi F103 1700, the Mercedes-Benz W108 and the NSU TT (a high-performance version of the Prinz 1000, launched at the same show two years prior). German brands also brought new and somewhat experimental body styles to the 1965 Frankfurt bash, with Opel’s GT sports coupe, NSU’s Wankel Spider hard-top and BMW’s Karmannassembled New Class 2000 CS coupe providing a feast for the eyes, the latter carrying disproportionately tall front grilles not entirely out of harmony with the…

How is it possible I can step out of a 991 GT2 RS, considered by many to be the pinnacle of modern 911s, and be completely won over by a narrow-bodied Neunelfer from the 1970s as soon as I walk up to it? It’s probably the simplicity of design. The slim hips. The smooth deck. The modest silver paintwork. If the 991 GT2 RS represents the most extreme production 911, this is the purest form. Except, despite every morsel in my body telling me this is a G-series 911, it isn’t a 911 at all. FINDING THERE’S NOWHERE TO PUT YOUR CARAMEL MACCHIATO AND NO WAY OF STREAMING TAYLOR SWIFT ON SPOTIFY Phil Brown, the owner who’s as approachable as the car itself, reveals this is a 1976 912 E.…

Ripping the beating heart and soul from a classic Porsche? Where do we stand on this one? Perhaps, more pertinently, where do I stand on this one? A somewhat rhetorical question, I know, but I only ask this of myself because, to date, my experience with this somewhat controversial combo of classic sports car and futurist electrification is precisely zilch. In fact, my experience of electric cars in general extends only to a weekend in charge of a Taycan back in 2020 and a more recent drive in a Taycan Turbo Sport Turismo modified by German tuning house, TechArt. THE COMMON DENOMINATOR WITH EACH OF THESE CLASSICS IS THAT THEY HAVE ALL BEEN MODERNISED IN SOME WAY Conclusions? After the ‘wow factor’ of discovering the colossal and immediate performance on…

You’ve got to admire a man who keeps an engine in his living room as object d’art. There are many who would, perhaps, contest an engine could be any such thing, but fortunately, they’re unlikely to be reading Classic Porsche. Meet, then, Andy Palmer. The engine in question is an immaculately restored 1.5-litre flat-four. As an aside, I once visited a North Norfolk pub named The Wiverton Bell, known locally as ‘the pub with the engine’. Said engine was a Jaguar straight-six, which was installed in the venue’s huge fireplace. If customers demanded, the Big Cat lump would be raucously fired-up on its open carbs, with the exhaust reverberating up the chimney. Please excuse this early off-piste tale, but it amuses me. And Andy. While the pub still exists, sadly,…