Innehållsförteckning för June/July 2020 från GT Porsche

Stay at home. Only head out for essential items, such as foodstuffs and medicine. Don’t even think about hopping into that Porsche unless you’re a ‘key worker’. These are the messages being thrown at us right now, with good reason, of course. The impact of COVID-19 is plain for all to see, but I’ve lost track of the number of people I’ve spoken to who have misinterpreted government guidance as ‘do nothing’. On the contrary, as outlined by BTCC and Carrera Cup hero, Tim Harvey, in this very issue of GT Porsche, now is the perfect time to head out into the shed, garage or garden and sort through your piles of spares, fix niggles your car has been bugging you with for yonks or fire up the mower and…

After two and a half months, the qualification process for the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup has come to an end. A strong line-up of forty sim racers from fourteen countries makes up the grid, which includes Formula Once ace, Max Verstappen. The 22-year-old is one of twenty drivers to secure a spot via the Porsche iRacing Cup qualification procedure. The other half of the grid consists of the top twenty competitors from the 2019 season. Last year’s champion, Joshua Rogers from Australia, is another of the 'ones to watch out for' when the new season of the digital racing series takes off on 2nd May at the virtual Circuit Zandvoort, located on the Dutch North Sea coast. For 2020, participating drivers will compete for a prize fund of $200,000.…

Porsche is attempting to revolutionise the design of sports seats: the company presents an innovative alternative to conventional bucket seat upholstery with the concept study 3D-printed bodyform full-bucket seat. As the name suggests, the central section of the seat is largely produced by a 3D printer. Customers will be able to choose between three firmness levels (hard, medium, soft). With this new technology, the manufacturer is once again underlining its close ties to motorsport — the personalised sports seat follows the principles of driver-specific fitting, which is now customary in professional racing environments. “The seat is the interface between the human and the vehicle, and is thus important for precise, sporty handling. That’s why personalised seat shells customised for the driver have been standard in race cars for many years,”…

BILSTEIN EVO COILOVER KITS As an OEM suspension component supplier to Porsche, Bilstein is a brand many of our readers will recognise from the parts on their cars, not to mention the German damper specialist’s reputation for producing some of the most impressive shock absorbers available on the aftermarket. Never one to rest on its laurels, the company unveiled an entirely new line of coilovers at January’s Autosport International Show (read the GT Porsche event report by ordering a back issue copy of our March issue at bit.ly/issuesgtp), where the exciting new EVO range drew huge attention thanks to the Turner Developments Bastos-branded 964 taking centre stage on the Bilstein trade stand. Complementing the company’s existing product range, three completely new Bilstein threaded suspension systems will be available: EVO S,…

The development of a 469bhp 911-based highperformance sports car is hardly what you’d expect to come from a company founded in 1939 as a general all-service garage, before going on to become a fuel filling station and bus company after the Second World War drew to a close, yet the limited production CTR ‘Yellowbird’ rolling out of RUF’s Pfaffenhausen workshop in 1987 set the motoring world alight with its highly tuned version of the Carrera 3.2’s flat-six, enlarged to almost 3.4-litres of displacement and equipped with twin turbochargers. For many outside Porsche circles, this was the first time the RUF name had been brought to their attention. It would leave a lasting impression — the five-speed, rear-wheel drive, air-cooled CTR, riding on five-spoke Speedlines and Bilstein uprated dampers, outperformed the…

You’ve bought a pressure washer, but you’re still having to get busy with a bucket and sponge, right? Wrong! Thanks to the new Polar Series range of products from respected car cleaning brand, Autoglym, you can now complete the standard three-stage (pre-wash, wash and paint protection) process with nothing more than patience and a pressure washer. Better yet, GT Porsche is giving you the chance to win Autoglym’s entire range of Polar Series goodies. Kicking off proceedings is Polar Blaster, a high-quality foaming gun. Creating lashings of thick, clingy foam when fed with Polar Blast snow foam, this excellently designed product also optimises the density required to efficiently deep clean with Polar Wash pressure wash shampoo. Additionally, the Polar Blaster gun produces the perfect consistency to apply Autoglym’s super-hydrophobic Polar…

Coronavirus. It’s affected each and every one of us in different ways, though there’s a common complaint we can all level at COVID-19: its devastating impact on the motoring scene. From classic car shows to F1, from informal gatherings in beer gardens to serious hammering around Silverstone at full pelt, the summer show season has been completely compromised. The following five pages were reserved for a report about Das Feuer, Porsche Club GB’s highly anticipated membersonly event bringing together a rare selection of Porsche’s historic road and race cars in a unique and previously unseen setting (the Fire Service College in the club’s hometown, Moreton-in-Marsh), where a series of industrial backdrops, including architectural ruins, fire-damaged aircraft and a mock motorway, were to provide the backdrop for a display of some…

With work hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Palace of Versailles and the Moscow Kremlin, Régis Mathieu has forged an enviable reputation as a world-leading designer and restorer of chandeliers, yet visit his open workshop in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southeastern France and it’s not just the beauty of his grand interior decoration that takes your breath away. A vintage car buff since childhood, he bought his first Volkswagen Beetle not long after his seventeenth birthday. Fast-forward thirty years to the present, and Mathieu has amassed a personal collection of more than twenty rare Porsches, including a 904 Carrera GTS, a 718 RSK, a 914/6 and a 356 B 1600 GS Carrera GTL Abarth. As you’d expect, a selection of rare 911s inhabit his personal playground, but…

Porsche's Next Visions theme platform is expanding to include a podcast of the same name, furthering the manufacturer's determination to provide rich content during a time brand enthusiasts are likely to be consuming online media more than ever before. In each podcast, speakers will hold open discussions on topics relating to the future of business and automotive technology. The first season consists of five episodes, which will be available on all common podcast platforms. In each episode, two 'thought leaders' will discuss many of the social, economic and ethical questions of our time. Ebru Koksal, former Managing Director of the Turkish football club, Galatasaray Istanbul, and Herminia Ibarra, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the London Business School, will start off by talking about radical career decisions and the importance of…

Porsche bringing along a sublime example of its awe-inspiring 904 Carrera GTS to park alongside the new-for-2020 Macan GTS at the model’s international media launch earlier this year may seem a little incongruous. What, you might wonder, has a dinky little mid-engined sports car from the swinging sixties got to do with this thoroughly modern hunk of high-performance SUV? The badge is the obvious link, but is the marketing connection as tenuous as it might first appear? If any other manufacturer pulled the same stunt, you’d be asking questions, but this is our beloved Porsche, is it not? Following on from the 1963 904 Carrera GTS was the 1980 924 Carrera GTS, a lightweight version of the 924 Carrera GT, built in limited numbers. And while Porsche cites the 1992…

NEW SERIES ICONIC PORSCHE ENGINES Frankfurt Motor Show, Autumn 1963. The covers were whipped off the 901, a pretty two-door coupe previewing Porsche’s replacement for the highly successful 356. This sensational show car was the precursor to the 911 (a name change was required following Peugeot’s challenge to Porsche, when the French car maker claimed rights to three-digit nomenclature with a zero in the middle). The rest, as they say, is storied history, but just as interesting as the svelte new 2+2’s slippery lines was its engine. Carrying on where the design of the 356 left off, the allnew flat-six was mounted behind the rear axle, setting the template for the 911 and one which hasn’t changed dramatically over the course of fifty-seven years The story of the then new Porsche…

Radically altered weather patterns have seen climate change rise to the top of political and social agendas in recent years, and yet, the widespread adoption of electromobility has been markedly slow. It’s only in the past decade that truly usable electrified cars have appeared, and it’s no surprise they were far from the kind of vehicles likely to appeal to fans of Stuttgart’s finest sports machines. That said, Porsche’s association with automotive electrification goes back longer than most. As outlined in the November 2019 issue of GT Porsche (order a copy at bit.ly/issuesgtp), Ferdinand Porsche designed the Egger-Lohner C2 Phaeton in 1898. The vehicle was powered by an octagonal electric motor. Producing between three and five horsepower, the C2 reached a top speed of 15.5mph. A year later, Porsche joined…

1 WATCH ENDURANCE British director, James Routh, famous for his award-winning Formula One documentary, Drive to Survive, follows Porsche Motorsport, its technicians, drivers and customer teams as they strive to tackle the world’s two greatest endurance GT races in the space of just eight days. Filmed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Nürburgring last summer, Endurance outlines the preparation, challenges and thrilling in-race efforts of everyone involved in this mammoth effort, though the protagonists are the 911 RSR and 911 GT3 R, cars which have to deal with tense situations caused by drivers of other vehicles around them, including a Corvette keen on surprise brake testing! Porsche works drivers, Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell provide a unique inside look at…

The year was 1981. Porsche’s chief engineer, Helmuth Bott, proposed an injection of new life into the 911 concept following the proposal of Group B competition regulations for factory built experimental cars. Stressing his desire to develop a 911 with a rock solid four-wheel drive transmission, Bott managed to convince his superior, the late Porsche CEO, Peter Schutz, to give the go-ahead for an exciting 911 project that would use Group B as a proving ground to help accelerate the development of technology that could be used to great effect in Porsche production cars. Codenamed Gruppe B, Bott’s plan of action would result in the 959, one of the greatest sports cars ever built. Mentioning the 959 will bring to mind the curvaceous appearance of the technological trailblazer that went…

This year's World Car of the Year Awards may have been held in unusual circumstances, but global lockdown didn't stop the all-electric Taycan seeing the chequered flag in two categories: World Luxury Car and the highly contested World Performance Car of the Year. Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board, Porsche Research and Development, received the awards. "This double win underlines what we wanted to achieve with the Taycan project," he said. "It was our aim to create a driver-focused, fully electric sports car capable of taking on any performance car in the world, regardless of its power source. At the same time, the design and engineering experts working on the Taycan project kept everyday usability and contemporary comfort, not to mention digital luxury for four passengers, a priority. Needless…

The last financial year was successful for Porsche. The company traditionally allows its employees to share in its good fortune. In times of COVID-19, the firm is combining this voluntary bonus scheme with its new Porsche Aid campaign. To this end, the firm has increased its charitable donation volume by €5m, with the expenditure for donations to food banks local to company locations doubled to €200k. The programme also comprises measures for the procurement of urgently needed medical equipment, as well as support for Baden-Württemberg and Saxony local government teams through the sharing of project managers and IT specialists. "Porsche is taking on social responsibility. This is our philosophy and our understanding of sustainable action," said Porsche CEO, Oliver Blume.…

When was Weissach UK established? September 2018. Prior to that time, I ran a successful office-based business, though I was heavily involved in the maintenance of my own Porsches, including my long-term Carrera 3.2 restoration. Later, an opportunity came along to get involved with an established independent marque specialist in the North East of England. The knowledge I gained working there, combined with CRM system skills honed in my previous business, put me in an excellent position to start my own Porsche service and maintenance firm. Whereabouts is Weissach UK based? Byley, also known as “the heart of Cheshire”, about fifteen minutes drive from Warrington. We occupy specially prepared workshop space, as well as a large, clean storage facility for housing Porsche road and race cars. Which models does Weissach…

Regular readers will recall my previous GT Porsche driver coaching articles outlining core technique for cornering and dealing with weight transfer, as well as the limit of grip. More specifically, the advice I offered in the October 2019 edition of the magazine (order a back issue at bit.ly/issuesgtp) was all about keeping things safe and stable on the twisty stuff. Principally, I explained how to provide maximum vehicle stability into and through a corner by dealing with braking before the corner and then keeping the chassis as flat as possible in pitch (nose up/down) in order to ‘balance’ the car’s weight correctly across front and rear tyres. Additionally, holding the steady speed necessary to balance the car will ensure the driven wheels are torqueneutral. By this, I mean there’s no…

His career may have ended violently against an earth bank at Goodwood Motor Circuit on Easter Monday in 1962, but Sir Stirling Moss still had a huge amount to give to the world of motorsport until, fifty-eight years later, on 12th April 2020, he slipped quietly away from us. Aged ninety, The Boy (as he will be fondly remembered by legions of devoted fans around the world) is finally at peace after wrestling with a long illness. His reputation for being “the greatest racing driver never to win Formula One” is widespread, but less is known about his longstanding association with Porsche. Having driven largely British and Italian sports cars up until the mid-1950s, he took up a role driving for Mercedes (Daimler-Benz) in 1955, winning the year’s Mille Miglia,…

SUBSCRIBE TO GT PORSCHE SEE PAGE 82 FOR DETAILS 1987 944 TURBO We make no secret of the fact we’re big fans of the 944 Turbo, which is why we were keen to see the final sale price of this ‘time capsule’ example after it went under the hammer at the RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island auction, which took place a short while before we went to print with this issue of GT Porsche. Hardly driven by its first and only owner, this stunning force-fed transaxle shows barely 1,620 miles on its odometer. It’s certainly one of the lowest-mileage and most original surviving examples of a claimed 25,245 944 Turbos assembled between 1985 and 1991. The car’s owner’s family explained that each mile added was for a specific purpose, and that…