Innehållsförteckning för No. 207 från Total 911

“Air rushes through the cabin and allows me to enjoy the 993’s throaty exhaust sound” Sundays are made for driving. The winter in South Africa’s Western Cape is, compared to Europe, not that long or cold, but it is wet. As is also the case in Europe, the winter is our rainy season here and it can rain continuously for days. But you are guaranteed that after a cold front, it will clear up and the sky will be perfectly blue again. It is for those days that you need to plan your drive and, in this case, take the roof down and head for the mountains. The owner of this 993 Carrera 4 Cabriolet has known about this car for a good five years, and several of the previous…

The 911 has always packed three times as much horsepower as (what we used to call) the average family car. Keeping that power safely on the road is naturally a constant concern of Porsche, and the company has long been at the forefront of tyre development as a result. It was in response to lobbying from Porsche in the early 1970s that the German traffic authorities allowed the fitting of wider tyres on the rear axle than the front, of particular benefit to the rear-engined 911. The arrival of the 911 largely coincided with the wholesale availability of radial ply tyres and while the principle of their design remains much as 50 years ago, what has changed is the rate of advance in the compounds used, particularly in the last…

Peter Wilson Adelaide, Australia @peterwilson_oz Model 930 3.3 Year 1980 Acquired 2011 Life is starting to get back to normal in the Wilson household. Our house and garage renovations have continued apace over the past month and we now have a new roof and a taller garage. The garage structure is finished but it still has no ceiling or lighting and the walls look like Swiss cheese after various plumbing and electrical incursions. As a result, the 930 has been in offsite storage for the past five weeks at Richmonds (richmonds.com.au) who offer secure storage in addition to buying and selling prestige and classic cars. So it was with great excitement that a long-planned driving weekend finally arrived and on Friday afternoon I went to retrieve the Porsche from its…

Pay attention to the Porsche marketplace and you’ll have noticed a general inflation of prices for used 911s across the board, from collectibles at the very top, right the way down to the everyday 996 at the bottom. Whether this consumer confidence is boosted solely by a relaxing of year-long coronavirus restrictions remains to be seen, but there’s no doubting enthusiasts are happy to spend lavishly on acquiring 911s – perhaps best exemplified by the mammoth £7.5 million realised during Collecting Cars’ online sale of ‘The Leonard Collection’. Clearly, a lot of money is sloshing around the Porsche marketplace currently, but is this a good thing? Jonathan Franklin at the eponymous Porsche specialists is cautious. “It may seem great that prices are going up across the board, but this points…

Mansour Ojjeh 1952-2021 Mansour Ojjeh, who has died aged 68, was a central figure in Porsche’s rousing return to F1 in the mid 1980s. Total 911 looks back on the partnership Mansour Ojjeh had a French mother and was largely educated in France, finishing his studies in the US with a degree in business administration. His Syrian-born father, Akkram, who had made a fortune brokering deals between the Saudi and foreign governments, set up Techniques d’Avant Garde, TAG, in Geneva in 1975 in order to diversify from public sector contracts such as defence and armaments. He installed Mansour as director and it was clear that one of the missions of TAG was public relations, to present the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (then a mysterious oil-rich state) in a more open,…

“The 3.6-litre engine is quick and responsive, the steering light and so rich in detail” The lunacy of the situation isn’t lost on me. Following Mark Sumpter of Paragon Porsche, he approaches a roundabout, there’s a gap in the traffic and he exploits it. We’re on a mission to meet photographer Pullen, and Sumpter’s enjoying the drive. Sumpter’s got masses of space, and he’s through. I’m a few car lengths behind, for good reason, and briefly have to wait for my opportunity to catch up. Not that there’ll be any missing him, as the 964 he’s in is painted in hellgelb, that’s ‘pale’ yellow apparently, and there’s a sizeable wing on the back. A 964 couldn’t be more obvious, its tall rear wing joined by Turbo bodywork, some 18-inch Speedline…

The N classification first appeared in 1988 and it defines a tyre specifically approved by Porsche, a seal of approval which almost all the first-tier tyre brands think is worth attaining for at least some of their high-performance tyres. To become an original equipment tyre supplier for Porsche, the maker has to work closely with Weissach specialists from the outset of development. Porsche has no fewer than 33 criteria which must be met, starting with dry-weather handling followed by wet-weather grip. Compared with its competitors the 911 is especially tail-heavy and when cornering, the pendulum effect means a tendency to spin on wet surfaces if all the electronic safeguards are off. OE tyres for Porsches must also pass lab tests to prove that they are capable of remaining stable on…

Data file Full specs, ratings and market values of every Porsche 911 model, including the Anniversary models, can be found beginning on page 78 Plus Showroom Looking for a new 911? The classifieds from our independent specialist partners are the first place you should start your search Servicing & tuning Get the very best from your Porsche 911 with the help of our selected performance and maintenance specialists Porsche lifestyle Helping you make the right lifestyle choices to complement you and your 911. Don’t just drive Porsche, live the brand Insurance & finance Get your Porsche covered with the best insurance deals for road and track to ensure happy, safe motoring…

There is often an interesting backstory to why people sell cars. All human life is there! For example, I bought a Porsche recently that was quite evidently in tremendous mechanical condition. But if that was the case, why was the paintwork so faded and a bit scruffy? Because it was the product of a divorce. The wife had had the Porsche as her driver. But she knew that come the final divorce settlement she wouldn’t be able to hang on to it. Which was why she left it outside in the sun every day, a decision that appeared to involve a large element of raising the middle finger. In every other regard the car was in fantastic shape, except it urgently required a paint job. The Porsche in question was…

996: the lesser-known (but very big) problems Dear Sir, I am an avid Total 911 reader, listener of Road to Redline, viewer of That Nine Eleven Guy and also a fellow 996 owner. I have a 2000 Carrera 2 and sadly just before lockdown a big end bearing failed, without warning, resulting in catastrophic damage. Listening to your recent Road to Redline podcast you touched on the cost of rebuilding 996 engines and the option of a replacement short block from Porsche. From my research your figures were out of date and the cost is closer to £9k now. My car has been sat with Steve Bull Specialist Cars in Devizes since the engine went. I bought the car from them and they had maintained it for the previous owner…

“With full torque from zero rpm, the sudden shove hits you straight in the solar plexus” Air or water cooled, naturally aspirated or turbocharged, a flat six engine has been the beating heart of our favourite sports car since 1964. Transplant it for an electric motor and do you still have a 911? More pertinently, perhaps, can it excite petrolheads like you and me? Justin Lunny thinks so. The CEO of Everrati prefers the term ‘motorhead’, but his passion for cars isn’t confined to EVs. “I’ve owned plenty of 911s over the years, most recently a 991 Carrera S and 991.2 GT3 RS,” he reveals. “My daily driver is a Taycan Turbo S, but this car is lighter, more agile and simply more fun.” Lunny’s lightbulb moments both happened close…

Pikes Peak is written into history as one of the world’s most iconic races. It is to the art of hillclimbing what Le Mans is to endurance racing: every driver wants to win it, every team wants to conquer the competition and be crowned king of the hill. This year, Total 911 followed the fortunes of BBi Autosport, the Los Angeles-based independent Porsche specialist founded by Betim Berisha. In a true David v Goliath story, Berisha and his BBi team once again took on manufacturer efforts in the top ‘Time Attack’ class for the 99th running of Pikes Peak, after the team and star driver, David Donohue, suffered heartbreak in the 2020 event as a punctured tyre curtailed efforts to win the competition outright. In the run-up to this year’s…

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 2021 Q4 will be October. The review for 2021 Q2 was July. Ratings Each model is rated out of five in our half-star system according to their performance, handling, appearance and desirability.…

Anatole ‘Tony’ Carl Lapine’s contribution to Porsche and its 911 sports car is sizeable. Lapine was chief of Style Porsche for 21 years, from 1967 to 1988, overseeing not just key developments in the 911’s storyline but also the hiring of notable individuals who would go on to play their own part in its history. Born in Riga, Latvia, Lapine first served an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic with Daimler-Benz in Hamburg, Germany, before travelling to the United States to join GM’s advanced body engineering department in 1951. Lapine would stay there for 14 years until 1965, returning to Germany to head up Opel’s Research Centre, before he made his decisive move to Porsche as head of the company’s styling department. When Lapine joined, the 911’s wheelbase had merely grown…