Innehållsförteckning för No. 158 från Total 911

For many Porsche enthusiasts, the 1973 2.7 RS is the early 911 at its peak. It was the first road-going Porsche to wear the Rennsport badge, and indeed the first 911 called ‘Carrera’. Its legacy is enviable, its influence incalculable. Andreas Preuninger – godfather of every RS since the 996 GT3 – even had one on his bedroom wall. The 2.7 RS story begins with the demise of the 917. After an illustrious career, including two Le Mans wins, Porsche’s sports car racer was outlawed in 1972. In search of a sequel and keen to stimulate sales, engineering director Ernst Fuhrmann set his sights on the 911. 500 such examples were required to homologate a race-ready version for FIA Group 4: a legend was born. Porsche used the 2.4-litre 911S,…

Never has there been a Porsche-oriented story with such fortitude, extravagance and exaltation all in the same breath such as this. Unique for its success in the senate as much as its dynamism on the dyno, Bruce Canepa’s goal to simply drive the ultimate expression of Zuffenhausen engineering in the United States lay at the end of a long, torturous road. Watching the car rumble through the streets of Scotts Valley, CA and into Canepa HQ on a sunny summer’s day shows the journey was worth it. The 959’s quest to have its wheels turned on American soil is perhaps the ultimate triumph over adversity – for the simple reason it should never have happened. The tale of the 959’s production itself is well known, a detailed history appearing in…

It was decided that the SC RS would not be entered into the World Rally Championships, where a full-works commitment required a small army of technicians and support staff, if any level of achievement was to be expected. Instead, the SC RS was aimed at the European Rally Championships, where competition came in the form of the Lancia 037, which, by the way, was ripping up the World Rally Championships in 1984. Dave Richards had been in charge of Opel’s rally team, and following the withdrawal of the Rothman’s sponsorship from that team, he set up shop in Banbury, England. Prodrive, Richards’ newly created motorsport company, was given the task of prepping the SC RS cars for competition. With respect to the Prodrive of today, back in late 1983 this…

The Porsche 911 has for some time now been described as the everyday sports car or supercar. Far more usable than any of its rivals in the sector throughout the past five decades, this means owners of a Porsche 911 are able to happily wrack up the miles in their prized Neunelfer. While this means there are many 911s around with a healthy amount of miles on the clock, the upshot is there are plenty of air-cooled classics with ‘high mileage’ (Total 911 defines a high-mileage classic as having more than 150,000 miles on the odometer). These cars are undoubtedly at the more affordable end of their particular model’s market, but as an air-cooled car they’re still not cheap by any means. So is a high-mileage car a good classic…

“Porsche’s engineers decided that the handling balance could be improved by relocating the oil tank” Few would disagree that Ferdinand ‘Butzi’ Porsche had fashioned a timeless shape for the 911, one that would change little until the advent of impact bumpers. But standing still wasn’t the Porsche way, and the evergreen sports car would be subjected to regular developments – one of which resulted in the rather rare item we focus on here. The decision to install a flat six engine meant a greater oil capacity was required, and taking lessons learned from racing led to the adoption of dry-sump lubrication. The oil tank required as part of the system was located in the engine bay, on the right-hand side aft of the rear wheel, but the arrival of the…

GT3 goes Touring First deliveries of wingless GT3 set for April 2018 Porsche has announced it is to offer GT3 customers a Touring specification as a no-cost option for 991.2 cars delivered next year. Available at no extra cost to the customer, the ‘Touring’ option will be available in time for deliveries of the first manual GT3s in more than five years, those stick shift cars themselves now delayed until next year too. Revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the Touring pack will be available on manual cars only. Aside from the presence of a six-speed manual shifter, the Touring cars are identifiable thanks to a flat-back decklid design, a standard engine grille replacing the fixed rear wing usually associated with GT3s. Window surrounds will be chrome, while inside the…

GT3 Touring: is it necessary? Dear Sir, I read with interest regarding Porsche’s decision to release a GT3 ‘Touring’ package at September’s Frankfurt Motor Show. Now, the point of my correspondence (and sorry to look negatively on a car that no doubt will receive great press) is I’d like to ponder a question: is the very creation of this GT3 Touring package simply an act of appeasement by Porsche to dissuade numerous angry customers who never got an R, from leaving its brand? I question the concept of the car for a start. Surely a ‘softer’ GT3 impinges on the merits of the GTS, which as we know is the sportiest Carrera yet much softer than the chassis of a GT3. Sure, we all asked for a manual GT3 after…

It goes without saying that for any car enthusiast with a penchant for adventure, road trips are fun, always. They offer new sights, new roads to drive, new cultures to experience – what’s to dislike? But road trips are like lives: even when they’re going really well they can have bad days. It’s a pity that this was day one. Total 911 decided it would be good to test whether a classic 911 could cut it as a workhorse on a long, tough road trip. It would need to be to somewhere challenging, exciting and fun. Somewhere like the Arctic Circle during the midnight sun, and then to Lapland, before looping back through Finland and eventually coming home: six-thousand miles in total. Certainly challenging, certainly exciting, but we’d only know…

It has long been Porsche’s philosophy to produce lightweight, high-performance sports cars that are forerunners in competition. This approach stood the company in very good stead right from the 1950s and 1960s. The 356s, 550s and later the 911s often beat more powerful opposition, earning them the nickname of ‘giant killers’. This was a hard-earned title, as Porsche frequently embarrassed manufacturers who boasted much larger budgets in support of their sophisticated racing machinery. In 1967, Porsche once again set about creating a lightweight racer using the 2.0-litre engine from the Carrera 6 race car, and so the 911 R was born. Only 21 examples of this racer were produced, but it paved the way for development of the 1973 Carrera RS 2.7, the 1974 Carrera RS 3.0-litre and the RSR…

After amateur racer Michael May mounted an inverted aerofoil onto his Porsche 550 racer in 1956, wings became a common sight in Formula One. Since then, the importance of downforce has played a key role in automotive design. Downforce is created using an inverted aerofoil to split airflow through two paths (either travelling over the longer bottom side or the shorter top edge of the aerofoil). The air taking the top route travels slower than the air underneath. This creates a high-pressure zone on top of the wing, with a low-pressure area formed on the underside. The difference in pressure pushes the wing towards the ground from above, and sucks the underside down. Increasing the wing’s angle of attack accentuates the difference in airspeed over the two sides of the…

Le Mans on the move in WEC calendar shake up 24-hour race to be season finale; 2018/19 to be mammoth ‘super season’ The FIA has released early details of plans to shake up its stuttering World Endurance Championship in the wake of Porsche and Audi’s public exodus. Under new plans, which the competition says was first mooted before the departure of the two German manufacturers, the WEC season will be split over two calendar years instead of one, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans making for the season finale. Next year’s 2018/19 campaign will be a transitional ‘super season’, running from the Prologue at Paul Ricard in April 2018 and finishing at Le Mans in June 2019. There will be six races in 2018 and three in the first…

When the Gen1 996 GT3 was £40,000 to £45,000 people used to do lots of modifications on them, spending large amounts of money to use them on track. Steve McHale, technical director at JZM, used to go to track days at Spa with over 50 GT-badged cars, 30 or more of which would be customers of his. That’s changed – not McHale’s expertise or enthusiasm for the GT3 models and their GT3 RS counterparts – but the reasons customers are buying them. “They appeal to a certain type of person, somebody who wants an asset, someone who wants a car that will not go down in value. Initially they were bought by people who want to use them on track, but it seems not so much now. If you go…

You always remember your first. Be it love, a car or simply a day in a new job, that earliest milestone is one that stays in your mind long past its practical relevance. It is special. The same rings true of your first 911: often the start of a prolonged association with Porsche’s most esteemed sports car, many of us have gone on to own more than one Neunelfer in our lifetime, our thirst for more flat-six finery triggered by the romance of that original purchase. Some lucky owners even have a whole collection of Neunelfers inspired by their first. As a case in point, Tony Foster fondly remembers his first Porsche 911, a Polo red ‘T’ model bought way back in 1969. It’s an early example of those long-wheelbase,…

 911s in the data file are organised in rows according to release date, beginning with the very first model in 1964. Many models were available in Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet forms, with the option of automatic transmission. Here, data has been provided from the Coupe variants unless stated. All data here has been compiled, where possible, from Porsche’s own figures. General valuations This reflects the general market trend for a model’s used value compared to the previous financial quarter. The review for 2018 Q1 will be January. The review for 2017 Q3 was September. Ratings Each model is rated out of five in ourhalf-star system according to their performance, handling, appearance and desirability.…

STORY OF 911R R4 Total 911 takes you up close to the last of Porsche’s four hallowed R prototypes RUF DIAMONDS The full story on how Ruf makes some of the most exquisite sports cars on the planet GT2 IN LONDON The ultimate air-cooled expression of Porsche’s 911 icon visits London’s finest landmarks Contents may be subject to change…