Innehållsförteckning för No. 159 från Total 911

“Beyond 3,000rpm the Turbo hurls itself forward on a muscular, linear surge of acceleration” If you’d been lucky enough to work as a motoring journalist in the 1980’s (when budgets were generous and launches went on for days) you’d have laughed at the proposition that the 911 Turbo would evolve into the definitive, secure, all-weather supercar within the next decade or so. The original 930 Turbo may have become mildly more approachable with the 1989 advent of the G50 gearbox, its five ratios making lag slightly less of an issue, but here was a car that always carried a serious sting in its tail. A reputation cemented by a dastardly combination of short wheelbase, turbo lag, tail-heavy weight distribution and strong lift-off oversteer characteristics meant only the most skilled could…

If the wheels on each end of an axle are fixed, there is conflict between them as soon as they go round a corner, because the inside wheel is trying to move slower than the outside as it has a shorter distance to travel. This makes a vehicle difficult, if not impossible, to turn in a tight radius. Early automobiles solved the problem by having only one wheel driving. However, this caused traction problems – with only one wheel to transmit power, the vehicle could bog down, and again on a tight radius, if the driven wheel was on the inside it was effectively in the wrong place to move the car. This led to the development for mass production of a mechanism which could drive the wheels at different…

911 ON TOUR Total 911 looks at the best Porsche-only tours you need to enroll on for 2018 from around the globe GHOST OUTLAW Blink and you’ll miss it: on the road with an outlaw-inspired 3.2 Carrera on its own spiritual journey RUF DIAMONDS The full story on how Ruf makes some of the most exquisite custom sports cars on the planet…

C4 GTS British Legends 991.2 released Low numbers special edition to honour Attwood, Bell and Tandy’s achievements at Le Mans Porsche Cars Great Britain has revealed a special 991.2 C4 GTS British Legends Edition to celebrate the achievements of Drivers Richard Attwood, Derek Bell and Nick Tandy. Available in one of three colour combinations evoking the famous Porsche livery of each driver’s period winning car, this bespoke GTS has been developed with the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur department for the UK market only. Attwood, Bell and Tandy have all had a direct hand in choosing the spec of the car too, with the C4 version of the current 991.2 GTS chosen in honour of the all-wheel-drive layout of the current 919 e-hybrid piloted by Tandy in the World Endurance Championship. It…

911R v 991.2 GT3 Touring Dear Sir, Last month I read with interest your star letter from 991.2 Carrera GTS owner Jerry Nowak, who voiced his own personal disdain over the GT3 Touring. While I have a little empathy for his situation, it is important to remember that the process for buying a GT car from Porsche is different to buying a Carrera variant. Put simply, with a Carrera or even Turbo, you can design your car on the online configurator, send it to a Porsche Centre and, provided Porsche is still making the car, they can give you a build slot. With a GT car, you have to put down a deposit months before the car is officially released – don’t even waste your time with a letter of…

It’s just gone 7am on a bright, autumnal morning as I roll out onto the public road, some retracting black gates and a bright-red ‘Porsche’ script atop a grey building behind filling the rear view mirrors of my 991.2 Carrera. Before long the customary visual of Porsche Centre Reading, the home of Porsche Cars Great Britain, is well out of sight, a plethora of shining cars among its grandiose setting swapped for, well, a British motorway. All is not lost, however, for I feel like a large proportion of the showroom has accompanied me on my trip due north. Looking through the windscreen of my GT silver Carrera I’m treated to the glare of that red connecting strip of a tail light adorning an identically hued C4 GTS, while in…

Such is the historical importance of the 911 R for Porsche, it’s ludicrous to think the car was relatively unheard of for years for even the discerning enthusiast compared to, say, a 2.7 RS. Indeed, it wasn’t until the arrival of the 991 R last year, itself a seminal moment in the legacy of our beloved 911, which really shone a light on those 20 early cars and their acute significance to the brand associated with Stuttgart’s prancing horse. It's shocking to think some of those 20 original 1967 Rs were still available as late as 1970! The brainchild of one Ferdinand Piëch and the lightest Neunelfer to ever leave the Zuffenhausen factory, the R set the benchmark for the endless engineering evolutions Porsche would accomplish for its cherished 911…

Being inspired by a 930 Turbo is a pretty good reason for starting a business, and that’s exactly what happened to Jon Freismidl. As a teenager his first sight of the car was on a German autobahn, and it began a lifelong passion for all things Neunelfer – one culminating in the formation of Engine Building Supply some 15 years later. Better known as EBS Racing, we were keen to pay him a visit at his impressive premises in Reno, Nevada. Once there, you find a business steeped in all things Porsche, and one that’s truly committed to its customers. Oh yes, and there’s a diner and bar, too. We’ll come back to that. First thing is finding out a bit more about the beginnings of the business, and Jon…

“Porsche would be among the first to adopt a rear wiper for a production model” Ever since its inception the 911 has been a sports car that you really can use every day, but if you intend driving in all weathers then a heckscheibenwischer will come in very handy indeed. That’s a rear wiper to you and me, and while carmakers have experimented with them since the 1940s, Porsche would be among the first to adopt them for a production model, and they’d appear on the Neunelfer in slightly unusual circumstances. Wealthy German industrialist Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was a serial owner of 356s, and in 1962 he asked Porsche whether they would fit a rear wiper to his 356B Coupé. They certainly weren’t going to turn down…

First two titles secured for 991 RSR Notable first season success for mid-engined 911 racer in United States The fruits of Porsche’s ground-up rebuild of its 911 race car are already beginning to appear after the 991 RSR secured the prestigious North American Endurance Cup for Weissach. Incorporating the long-distance classics of Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans, the North American Endurance Cup sees manufacturers’ GT cars put to the test, with over 52-hours of racing across the United States. Porsche’s 510hp mid-engined RSR emerged victorious in the GTLM class of the competition, with Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner also taking the drivers’ titles for Porsche. The RSR’s two titles were secured at the ten-hour Petit Le Mans race at road Atlanta, which saw LMP1 drivers Nick Tandy…

I’ve driven my 1972 911 over 40,000 miles in the last four or five years. I couldn’t believe it once we’d figured it out. The only problem was, the majority of the miles were trivial driving. The interstate, errands and stoplight to stoplight was eating my car alive, and wasting its potential. I had planned to fly out to Monterey for car week, so I decided I’d drive. I’d take my friend Alex with me as a co-pilot and motivational speaker. What could be more in the spirit of car week? However, I decided 90 hours in the car was just too much. I shipped the car to LA, and picked the 911 up at the Stanceworks garage near Los Angeles. It was covered in dust and grime from the…

I’m as guilty of it as everyone else. JZM Limited is, according to Google Maps, exactly 96.4 miles from my house. A perfect run for my 993, only it’s raining, and first 20 or so miles on the A422 aside, the route is mostly boring motorway miles down the M40. I leave the Carrera at home, satisfied I’ll take it out another time. That would have been inconceivable for the original owner of the 3.2 Carrera I’m off to JZM to see. Bought in 1988, the handbook sticker’s option codes include seat heating right and left, a stronger battery, amplifier, sound system, Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46, unleaded preparation, rear wiper and air conditioning. A sensible specification, especially when you consider that this Carrera 3.2 was bought to earn its keep.…

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.…

In a traditional petrol injection engine, fuel is injected into the inlet manifold where it mixes with air. This air-fuel mixture is then transferred into the combustion chamber when the intake valves open. This basic fuelling principle has been used on Porsche 911s since the introduction of the ‘E’ in 1968, the first road-going offering from Zuffenhausen to feature Bosch fuel injection. For the second-generation 997 though, Porsche made the move to Direct Fuel Injection (DFI), the first major revision to the sports cars injection technology in 40 years. DFI injects the petrol straight into the combustion chamber, leaving pure air to be fed through the inlet manifold. By injecting petrol directly into the cylinder (at pressures up to nearly 2,000psi) better homogeneity of the air-fuel mixture is achieved. This…