Background & Tech In the late 1960s, as California’s new anti-smog legislation became operative, it was apparent that highly tuned cars like the Porsche 911 would be affected. Breathing through carburettors and running on premium fuel, the 911 was soon in difficulty with traffic authorities. The S was even withdrawn...
JoinedSeptember 19, 2021
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Like many boys of my generation I was a car fan spending far more time with my nose in the latest copy of Autocar than in my schoolbooks. As a young man I remember ogling the Porsches in Hendon Way Motors, but they all seemed to cost about £3500, as much as I earned in a year. I had to settle for a BMW 1600. A commercial career and family life rather took over during the next two decades and a succession of company or family cars provided transport. As I headed for 50, I bought a 9-year old Porsche 911 and people who didn’t understand, talked about ‘mid-life crisis’. Good luck to them, I said, but you can’t own a Porsche without being fascinated by the company and I started contributing a back page column to a Porsche magazine. This gradually expanded as I learned more and writing articles and features gradually took over my time as a by now self-employed individual. I began writing for other mostly classic car magazine.
With so many writing about Porsche I have concentrated on historical aspects and interviewed many retired Porsche figures which has helped me to get into Continental and US magazines. As a largely historical writer I feel strongly that we need to take more care of archives. While company resources such as Porsche’s are secure, other private resources are being lost, for example much of the incomparable Haymarket archive at Teddington when the company moved a few years ago; I so wish my father had kept his 20-year Autocar collection. As a largely historical writer I feel strongly that we need to take more care of archives. While company resources such as Porsche’s are secure, other private resources are being lost, for example much of the incomparable Haymarket archive at Teddington when the company moved a few years ago; I so wish my father had kept his 20-year Autocar collection. Bicester Heritage for example has offered to house motor club archives often too big for members to store.
In this concluding article, we cross the 150k price barrier where the atmosphere becomes more rarified. Our upper limit of $250,000 reflects Porsche’s US pricing structure: in late 2024 the most expensive 911s are the Turbo S Cabrio at $243,000 and the GT3 RS at $241,000. For a different budget...
With our latest price limit, we are well beyond the new price of virtually any 718 Boxster/Cayman – the double in fact the base 2.0 Cayman, and most of the 911 Carreras except the GTS and Turbo models and of course the specialist small-volume 992s. Nevertheless, if demand for Porsches...
For prospective shoppers, six figures represent new cars, the Boxster Cayman 718 range, five-year-old 911s, and some very desirable, and above all, usable air-cooled cars. On a different budget? Check out these other Buyer’s Guides Porsche Buyer’s Guide: $25,000 Porsche Buyer’s Guide: $50,000 Porsche Buyer’s Guide: $75,000 Porsche Boxster /...
On a different budget? Check out our other Buyer’s Guides: Budget Based Porsche Buyer’s Guide: Up to $25,000 Budget Based Porsche Buyer’s Guide: Up to $50,000 In this third part, we review what the market has to offer nearer $75,000. And logically enough, this new cut- off brings in many...
Foreword For the would-be Porsche owner, the cost of entry can at first glance seem pretty discouraging: a fully specified 911 Carrera S will set you back at least $130,000 new, and a 718 Boxster/Cayman S two-thirds of that. And while the Panamera, Cayenne, and Macan depreciate almost as quickly...
Doubling our previous budget opens as you might imagine a much wider selection of Porsche sports cars. What can the buyer with half the price of a base Carrera 992 (without any of Porsche’s expensive options) expect to find? The Transaxle Models Surprisingly perhaps for thirty and forty-year-old cars, plenty...
Porsche has always defined itself through its achievements on the racetrack and the most important of those races takes place on a 13km circuit in the French département of la Sarthe known to the world as the le Mans 24 Hours. Porsche has appeared there every year since 1951 and...
History Long regarded as the best entry-level air-cooled 911, the Carrera 3.2 remains highly desirable. It was the final evolution of the original torsion bar 911 built from 1964 to 1989. Visually the only significant change came in 1974 with the so-called ‘impact bumpers’ of the G series, but under...
First Europe, then North America The 991.1 GTS was the second 911 offered as a GTS sub-brand. The first was the 997.2 in 2009 after Porsche tried it successfully on the Cayenne. The GTS concept was a clever idea: based on the S but priced above it, the GTS version...
When it was launched in Europe in late 1993, the appropriately numbered 911 993 would be the last of the air-cooled Porsches. Indeed, the decision had already been made by Porsche. By the time the second generation 993 emerged in 1995, the coming demise of the 911 as enthusiasts, indeed...
Overview of the Porsche 718 Revealed in 2016, the Porsche 718 was the third generation Boxster/Cayman. Strictly speaking, it was the fourth generation Boxster, the first being the 996-based 986 models of 1997-2004. The Cayman was presented in 2005 and it, and an updated Boxster, shared the 997 chassis. To...
Overview The GT3s are the low volume 911s, road-going production cars homologated for what was Group 3 competition. The original homologated 911 was of course the famous RS 2.7 in 1972. After that Porsche concentrated on the higher Groups for which the 930 Turbo served as the homologation model. In...
It took Porsche twenty years before deciding to modernise its 911, yet outwardly, apart from its bumpers, the new 964 looked exactly like its predecessor. How was it that Porsche managed an evolutionary process so slow it would have bankrupted almost any other car maker? Already a Member? Sign in...
Once the Boxster was established, it was only a matter of time before a coupé version appeared. When the Cayman was launched in 2005, it was clearly a hardtop Boxster, but by pricing it slightly higher and endowing it with fractionally more power, Porsche pitched it as an intermediate model...
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Porsche’s Forrest Gump—the irrepressible Herbert Linge—pops up everywhere in Porsche history even after his retirement almost thirty years ago. The amazingly varied Porsche career of Herbert Linge would be unimaginable today—from wartime apprentice to manager of Weissach via workshop, development testing, race track, Porsche in the US, and Formula 1....
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Except perhaps at one or two retirement parties or other formal occasions, no one ever saw Roland Kussmaul wearing a suit and tie. Racing or workshop overalls, Porsche’s pit lane uniform perhaps, even a mere pair of grubby shorts in those shots of the sweltering Dakar where he raced during...
Follmer was born in Phoenix in 1934, though effectively he became a Californian as his family moved to Pasadena before he was two years old and it was in this northern suburb of Los Angeles that he grew up and raised his own family. He was, he says, a reasonable...
People usually recall the Chevrolet Corvair as the car that was “unsafe at any speed” which is rather unfair because the Corvair itself occupied barely a chapter in Ralph Nader’s infamous book. Indeed, amongst others, the VW Beetle also received a pasting—and Mr. Nader thought the VW Microbus was too...
The 914/6 was the Porsche-engined version of the 914, the joint venture sports car designed by Porsche and built at Karmann using mostly VW running gear. It was intended by VW to be a successor to the Karmann Ghia (and by Porsche to be an entry level model to replace...
The premise was disarmingly simple: a race bringing together the best drivers in motorsport, all competing in identical cars, in a spectacle designed around the requirements of television. It would consist of three forty-five-minute races over a weekend at the end of the 1973 season, followed by a final in...
British GP meeting which Nick Faure led outright, starting from the second row, against the Falcons and BGG Escorts. But the fan belt came off due to a rag left in the engine by my mechanic! Nick Faure was one of the first to race a 911 in Britain: he...
Obviously these two attractive models from the lingerie manufacturer Triumph (München) like this Porsche 914/6 – Rutesheim Athletics Club, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (1969) Very different from previous production Porsches, the 914 was an attempt by Zuffenhausen to introduce a lower cost model. Commercially it was only a moderate success, but it’s...
Porsche: The Carrera Dynasty by Glen Smale © Glen Smale A Spanish noun, ‘carrera’ can mean road, track or race and since the 1970s ‘Carrera’ has been a model name synonymous with Porsche. In fact, and as the author explains, Porsche had been using the name ‘Carrera’ since 1954 to...
Arno Bohn at Weissach with the 968 Cabriolet (1991) Arno Bohn was managing director of Porsche from 1990-92. An outsider who came from the computer industry, he arrived at a company seared by falling sales and riven by internal division about future direction. He left a Porsche which though still...
Porsche 356 Cabriolet competing at an aerodrome race in the USA, ca. 1952/1953 America has for decades been Porsche’s biggest market, and this was important for the young and growing company. In some ways, the importance of this market even influenced the development of certain models. In this feature, Porsche...
A huge banner adorns the side of this high bay warehouse in Werk 2, announcing the 25th anniversary exhibition of Exclusive from 1st March to 1st May 2011 Rolf Sprenger was a versatile engineer whose Porsche career was founded almost entirely on customer service. “If I want a trailer (caravan)...
Toine Hezemans in his Brussels home, 2015 One of the Netherlands’ most successful racers, Toine Hezemans is part of a motorsport dynasty that began with his father who raced Porsches in the 1950s. This family tradition continued with Toine who began racing 911s in the late ‘60s, but after his...
Ernst Fuhrmann at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 June 1977 Porsche’s first CEO is frequently maligned as the man who tried to kill off the 911. There is far more to his Porsche career than this misconception as he was the inspiration behind the 911 Turbo. This Porsche...
Anatole Lapine, 1973 Anatole Lapine who was in charge of styling at Porsche under two disparate CEOs, Fuhrmann and Schutz, looks back on quite a CV: Chevrolet Corvette, Opel GT, Porsche 928, Porsche 964. But there is a lot more to this designer whose career spans two continents and most...
Kieron Fennelly sitting behind the wheel of his 993 Owning a sports car is a compromise: on the one hand, it doesn’t have the space of a family estate, and for some it is slightly less practical as a daily run around. On the other hand, it has superior performance...
Rallye Paris-Dakar 1984: Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 4×4 (Type 953) – driven by (from L-R) #175 Jacky Ickx, #176 René Metge, #177 Roland Kussmaul For many years, the éminence grise of Porsche’s competition department, but now in retirement, Roland Kussmaul seems busier than ever. He left Porsche officially at the...
Weissach – Porsche Werk 8 – on 9 June 2016 By the late 1950s, the German Wirtschaftswunder was well underway and as the economy grew, so traffic density increased. This was particularly noticeable around Stuttgart often making testing on local Autobahnen inconvenient and it caused Ferry to think about creating...
Tilman Brodbeck poses with a 1973 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Coupé (left) and a 911 Sport Classic (right) – 21 September 2009 To be able to write on your résumé that you worked for one of Porsche’s CEOs would be quite an achievement. Tilman Brodbeck can however do a little...
The formidable Carrera 6 outside the Porsche headquarters, Stuttgart Zuffenhausen, 1966 The Carrera Six, as Porsche officially called the 906, was a radically different car from its predecessor, the 904 GTS. The 904 was a sleek glass fibre bodied racer penned by Butzi Porsche, and it took over as Porsche’s...
Jean Behra following his accident at Caracas 3 November 1957 Staring out of period black and white photographs, Jean Behra’s handsome, but battered face tells its own story: a combative soul who seemed to thrive only when living on the ragged edge and for whom an exploit was either going...
Dr. Ulrich Bez (1988) Hailing from the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart, Ulrich Bez, who as Porsche Technical supremo hatched the 993, had two significant stints at Porsche. During the 1970s he worked in research and was responsible for establishing Porsche’s crash test programme; in the 1980s, he followed Porsche’s...
Peter Falk sits on the sill of the famous #23 Porsche 917 KH Coupé, winner of the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours. On this occasion it is located in the Porsche Museum Workshop on 28 June 2010 In a 34-year career at Porsche, the influence of Peter Falk – Porsche’s...
The inspired engineer behind so much of Porsche’s success, Helmuth Bott has long remained the company’s eminence grise, but little has been written about him. Now, Porsche Road & Race, looks at both the professional and private life of one of Porsche’s most devoted servants, revered by his subordinates, but...
Mont Ventoux, 18 June 1967 – Rolf Stommelen won this hillclimb driving a Porsche 910/8 Bergspyder Rolf Stommelen was one of Germany’s leading racing drivers for over a decade and if as the title (above) of his biography implies, he could drive anything anywhere, this was largely true. Although his...
Autograph card signed by Jürgen Barth (ca. 1980) More books have been written about Porsche than any other car company so the publication in English of another tome is hardly headline news until you realise that the author, exceptionally, is a Porsche insider, but not just any insider. Jürgen Barth...
Valentin Schäffer (1978) Another keen young recruitee to Zuffenhausen in the early 1950s, Valentin Schäffer, would become Porsche’s racing turbo specialist and engineer the induction systems that endowed Porsche sports racers with a dominance that lasted decades. The compact figure of Valentin Schäffer trotted up the steps of the Porsche...