Tag Archives: Porsche

Porsche is adding a new track to the Atlanta Experience Center

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Atlanta — okay technically Hapeville — is getting a new track! Porsche recently broke ground on a massive expansion to its Experience Center in Georgia. The existing track and skid pad and off-road route and whatnot will stay in place, but the track will be expanded much further, to allow more people to experience the limits of a Porsche in safe and fun ways! This will effectively double the length of track on site, adding new features and corners inspired by some of the best race tracks in the world.

Not only will the expansion add miles of new track for customers to use, but the new 33-acre expansion will add a new Porsche Classic Factory Restoration facility, and a new parking deck to make up for the added capacity. The recently-opened Porsche Service Center South Atlanta is already built and operational on the grounds of this new expansion. It’s pretty cool that you’ll be able to take your vintage Porsche in for restoration work at the new facility. And while you’re there you could test a new one out on track.

“The physical connection a driver enjoys with our sports cars is core to the Porsche brand, which is why we’re expanding this option even as we and our dealers invest in new digital touchpoints for customers. The two worlds – digital and real – complement each other,” said Kjell Gruner, President and CEO of PCNA. “Whether a Porsche owner or not, the Experience Centers in Atlanta and LA serve as destinations where anyone can experience the thrill of a Porsche sports car and learn more about the brand. The Atlanta center has already hosted more than 6,000 visitors a month in normal times, and we hope the track expansion excites many more to come engage with Porsche.”

So what does the new track include? Elements of the 1.3-mile expansion include a Laguna Seca Corkscrew-esque expansion, a Nurburgring-Nordschleife style Karussel, and a section inspired by the Tail of the Dragon in the Smoky Mountains. You’ll get a pretty good idea of what your new Porsche is capable of by doing a few laps around this course, I can already tell you that without even having seen it. There’s also a new low-friction wet circle, a simulated “ice hill” to demonstrate traction control, and a large 135×555 foot patch of asphalt for handling showcases.

The two tracks will operate independently on most days, but it’s possible to link the two for an impressive 2.9-mile full course for special events. Porsche expects the track to be finished and operational by the first quarter of 2023. PEC ATL has been open since 2015, and serves as the brand’s North American headquarters.

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AutoHunter Spotlight: 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa

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Featured on AutoHunter, the online auction platform driven by ClassicCars.com, is a 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa that’s been upgraded with a Fabspeed exhaust system, performance chip, and a modern audio system.

“The Carrera 3.2 model debuted in 1984 a replacement for the 911SC-series and was offered through 1989 as a two-door four-seater,” the auction house notes in the Porsche’s listing.

Porsche, AutoHunter Spotlight: 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, ClassicCars.com JournalPorsche, AutoHunter Spotlight: 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, ClassicCars.com Journal

This 1988 example is finished in Grand Prix White and contrasted with black accenting trim for the bumpers with guards, rocker moldings, door handles, badging and window trim. 

The exterior features a removable black Targa top, fog lamps, a full-width taillight panel and a Fabspeed exhaust system with a polished outlet.

Inside you’ll find power-adjustable high-back bucket seats upholstered in black leather and matching door panels, console, dash and carpeting. Amenities include cruise control, retrofitted R134a air conditioning and an upgraded sound system.

Power comes from a rear-mounted and air-cooled 3.2-liter flat-six Bosch fuel injected engine connected to a G50 5-speed manual transaxle.

Porsche, AutoHunter Spotlight: 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, ClassicCars.com JournalPorsche, AutoHunter Spotlight: 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, ClassicCars.com Journal

This Porsche’s auction ends August 25 at 11:00 a.m. PDT.

Visit this vehicle’s AutoHunter listing for more information and gallery of photos.

Luftgekühlt 7 Has Been Rescheduled For September 10 In Indianapolis

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Thursday afternoon Luftgekühlt announced that its seventh U.S. market show would take place in a totally new city on a totally new date. After six shows in Los Angeles (and two further shows in the UK and Germany) the show for air-cooled cars is coming to the Midwest of all places. Indianapolis, Indiana will play host to the next Luft on September 10 of this year, which is a Friday in case you were wondering. We don’t have really any further information than that, but as soon as we have more, we’ll be sure to send it your way.

The first non-LA Luft was planned to go down in Durham, North Carolina on May 31 of 2020, but for obvious reasons that show was postponed. Originally it was delayed until November of 2020, but as we all know the Coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench in that plan as well. By September of last year we heard the word that there would be no Luft in 2020, and the 7th iteration was postponed until 2021. We assumed at the time that the show would still go on in Durham, but the notice sent out by the show runners indicates that Durham has been abandoned for Indy.

Now, all of what follows is pure speculation, so don’t take it as gospel quite yet. If I were a betting man, I’d say all of this hinges on Porsche’s renewed relationship with one Mr. Roger Penske. As you may have read, Porsche recently announced it would be entering the top-flight classification of prototype sports car racing alongside Penske Racing. Something you might not know is that Roger Penske also recently purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and has spent the last two years committing serious updates and upgrades to America’s oldest home of motor sport. It would make sense, then, that Penske wants to not only bring bigger and better things to the speedway, including social-media-friendly events like Luftgekuhlt, but also cement his relationship with Porsche. Hell, Penske used to race an air-cooled Porsche RS61 Spyder, and that would be a logical centerpiece for a show like this.

We’ll let you know more information as it becomes available, but I actually kind of want to see the show at Indy now. Maybe I’ll see you there!

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Porsche 917K racer in Gulf livery to star at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale

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No list of the greatest racing cars of all time is complete without the mighty Porsche 917. The flat-12-powered endurance racer was introduced in 1969 and dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and ’71, delivering the first overall victories to the German sports car company and setting a new standard for all such competition machines that followed.

RM Sotheby’s will offer a terrific example of this iconic Porsche, a 1970 917K coupe in classic blue-and-orange Gulf Racing livery, during its flagship Monterey, California, auction on August 13-14.

“To any automotive or motorsport enthusiast, the Porsche 917 needs no introduction, and it is the car’s early 917K coupe form that truly ignites the passions of these enthusiasts most strongly,” according to an RM Sotheby’s news release.

“Commonly regarded as ‘The World’s Greatest Sports Car’, boasting a near-perfect flat-12-cylinder, air-cooled engine that could propel the car to speeds in excess of 230 mph, the Porsche 917 set a standard for design, engineering and sheer performance that took endurance sports car design to new levels and which proved dominant over three incredible seasons of World Championship racing.”

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Chassis no. 917 031/026, engine no. 917 031, was driven at Le Mans in 1970 by Mike Hailwood and David Hobbs for JW Automotive Engineering / Gulf Racing with racing number 22. But it crashed out on the rain-slicked course on its 50th lap.

Although it didn’t finish, the coupe still would become famous as a result of that race; original footage of the 917K in action was used in Steve McQueen’s movie Le Mans. So not only is this Porsche a fabulous race car, it’s also a bona fide movie star, becoming known as “The Le Mans Legend.”

Chassis 026 was constructed as one of three 1970 Le Mans entries of the JW Automotive Engineering / Gulf Racing team, although its Gulf livery was different from the other two, having a solid-orange roof down to the belt line while the other had orange centerline stripes.

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After its Le Mans shunt, the 917 was repaired by the factory, rebodied as a lightweight open 917 Spyder, and renumbered ‘031’ for competition in the European InterSerie Championship, for Group 7 sports racing cars, the news release says.  The car was raced extensively by Ernst Kraus, and then acquired by Georg Loos and his Gelo Racing Team. It continued to compete with success in the series through 1973.

The 917 retired from racing in 1974 and became part of the Chandon Collection, where it remained until 1988.

“The current gentleman owner acquired the Porsche in Spyder form over a decade ago and has since fully restored the car, returning it to its original and seminal, Gulf-liveried Le Mans coupe specification,” the release says. “The restoration was executed without regard to cost and the results are impressive in every sensory regard, from the stunning design and livery to the unmistakable symphony of the boxer-engined 12 cylinder at full revs.”

The auction company’s estimated value for this remarkable piece of racing and Hollywood history is $16 million to $18.5 million.

“The Gulf Oil Porsche 917K is essentially the holy grail of competition cars,” Gord Duff, global head of auctions for RM Sotheby’s, said in a news release.  “Its inclusion in our upcoming Monterey auction is nothing short of spectacular, and we are thrilled to be able to present the 917K to our clients at the auction where they can fully appreciate it in person.

“It represents the very best of motorsport history and heritage from an era of legendary cars and drivers; it will forever be a movie star in its own right. To me, it is truly a magnificent machine that has no comparison.”

For more information about the Porsche 917K and the Monterey auction, visit the RM Sotheby’s website.

Porsche Design And Puma Pair For Footwear Collection To Celebrate The 911 Turbo

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If you’re looking for a pair of kicks to match your Porsche style, you’re in luck. Porsche Design and Puma have partnered for a lineup of shoes to celebrate the pantheon of Porsche’s legendary 911 Turbo models throughout the ages. Eight new shoes for eight distinct generations of 911 Turbo, how cool is that? There are only five different points of contact between you and your Porsche—two hands on the wheel, two feet on the pedals, one butt in the seat—so why not treat two of them to a fresh pair of Porsche-inspired coverings?

“When Porsche approached us to design a capsule to celebrate the iconic 911 sports car, we were immediately taken by the idea,” says Anja Enja Egger, Head of Business Unit Marketing PUMA Motorsport. “For the collection, PUMA chose its era-defining sneaker, the Future Rider, and the motorsports-inspired Speedcat silhouette to create two different categories for the collection: Air-Cooled and Water-Cooled. “Our ’70s inspired Future Rider silhouette perfectly captures the historic era of the Air-Cooled Porsche 911 sports car, while the Speedcat is a true race-inspired style capturing the slick lines of the water-cooled generations of 911.”

The first four generations of 911 Turbo, which spans the 3-liter 930, the 3.3-liter 930, the 964, and the 993—otherwise known as the aircooled years—are represented by Puma’s Future Rider shoe. The latter four generations, covering 996, 997, 991, and 992—you know, the watercooled years—are represented by Puma’s iconic Speedcat motorsport-inspired shoe.

Porsche and Puma have shown off the eight shoes in this blurred graphic. The final designs won’t be released until the shoes are available for purchase on November 15th. You’re going to have to be quick though, as the button to early purchase each shoe will only be on the website for 2.7 seconds, which is how long it takes the 992 Turbo to accelerate from 0-60.

Each pair will retail for $150. I’ve got my eye on the Speed Yellow set, which ostensibly represents the 991 Turbo. I’m fine with that. Sounds great. Which ones are you going to buy?

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Our Porsche 912E Gets Its Full Suspension Overhaul After A Pile Of Problems

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Whenever you’re doing a task for the first time, it is bound to take several times longer due to a lack of experience with procedure and form. That was definitely the case here with our 1976 Porsche 912E suspension overhaul. We ran into some serious issues in the disassembly process but we expected the re-assembly to go a bit smoother. We were very very wrong. At pretty much every turn we ran into difficulties and hang-ups that delayed the process further. We would attempt a process, notice that we did something wrong or didn’t have the right tools, then order them and wait for them to come in. That’s going to increase our job time significantly. So a month after the whole suspension was disassembled, we finally have it back together and ready to go to the shop for a proper ride height, alignment, and corner balancing.

So, where do we start?

In our case we started at the front axle. In our last installment we had gotten the old front control arms off and couldn’t get the torsion bars out of the arm. We took these arms to local Porsche experts Reno Rennsport to have the old bushings removed, the torsion bar pressed out, and given a quick blast in the sand blaster cabinet. They looked great when they were done, but one of the rear control arm mounts was damaged in the process. So a quick call to Elephant Racing had their upgraded low-friction mounts in the mail to us. Thankfully they’re only a day away by mail in the California Bay Area.

I gave the control arms a fresh coat of black paint before attempting to install the bushings. I had seen a handful of tutorials and thought I could build a press to get the bushings installed myself. After a $50 run to Lowe’s I had a large threaded rod to go down the center of the control arm’s torsion bar tube, a slew of nuts and washers to clamp it all together, and some sections of pipe to push the bushings. If you’ve ever done this job you know how far in over my head I was. Without proper force on the bushing it wanted to bind and slip out the back side of the mount on the front, and without the tapered inset on the rear it didn’t want to sit properly, catching between the arm and the mount.

Another call to Elephant and I had their bushing install kit in my hands a couple days later. Once I had the right tools and a copious amount of dish soap to lubricate all of the surfaces, it went together incredibly easily. Getting the control arms back on the car was another incredibly painful process, but after a day of pushing and prodding and loosening and re-tightening we managed to finagle it in there.

The strut top bushings and steering column bearing from Rennline were both pretty straightforward to install while everything was out. Getting the old strut top bushings out of the mounts was a little bit of a pain, but I simply drilled around the metal segment in the middle until the old bonded rubber was destroyed enough to pull it out. Without the metal piece in the middle, the rest of the bushing had enough pliability to push it out of the mount. The new bushings are stiffer, but are built from two separate pieces of rubber, so they split in the middle and clamp together around the mount. The steering column bearing goes in the same way it comes out. Disconnect the column at the coupler in the front trunk and drop the whole rack from below. We’d already had the rack out in the last installment to check play. It’s not a super easy job to do on your own, but it’s not impossible. I leveraged the rack up into position then held it there with a floor jack while installing the bearing and re-tightening the coupler. Bob’s your uncle.

Then came the installation of our new torsion bars. For a bit stiffer ride we chose Sway-A-Way t-bars in 22mm for the front and 26mm for the rear ordered from our friends at Pelican. Once we cleaned out the torsion bar tubes in the front control arms with a long bottle brush we greased up the bars and pressed them in. With fresh hardware and seals from ECS Tuning we were looking great to get the front back together in quick order. Then we hit a snag.

The torsion bar adjustment screw on the passenger’s side went into the hole okay, but then it would seem the threads had been bungled up in a previous adjustment or something, as it got super cross threaded and didn’t want to budge. Okay, another problem to hold us up. Do I need to buy a new mount? Those aren’t cheap. After some investigation, I decided the best course of action was to chase the threads with an 8 dollar tap. A quick walk to the local hardware and we got it looking clean again.

I had to be very careful about the initial installation of the adjuster bolt, but once it was threaded in the right direction it went back together like a dream. Then I re-installed the front uprights and cranked the ball joint back into the control arm. Popped in the tie rods and tightened those down. All that’s left is to put the sway bar in.

Oh, we ordered the wrong size sway bar bushings. We ordered the 20mm front bushings instead of the 16mm front bushings we needed. Great. This is becoming a comedy of errors. Or, look on the bright side, it’s an excuse to buy a used 20mm front sway bar for $98 instead of four new correct 912E bushings for $84.

Okay, let’s move on to the rear suspension. The rear spring plate installation was a massive pain that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies. Once the torsion bars were installed I set the rear spring plates at approximately 35 degrees. Luckily the new Rennline spring plates are adjustable, so they simply needed to be in the right range and can be adjusted lower from there. We think. We’ve never done this before.

Getting the spring plates to seat into the chassis involved a whole lot of dish soap, a couple longer-than-stock bolts to get the plate started, and a whole lot of cursing. With standard replacement spring plate bushings you can push them into the body and the retaining plate before installing the spring plate itself which is much easier. In the case of these bonded Rennline units you need to essentially press the whole thing into the chassis before pulling the retainer plate closer to the body with the bolts. It was a slow and steady process, and you can only access three of the bolts at first. Once those three are tight, you can affix the spring plate to your trailing arm, jack up the whole thing, and then install the fourth bolt. Not easy, but it’s done.

Our 912E never had a sway bar during our ownership, but the trailing arm mount and chassis mounts were still there, so we figured it was time to get a rear bar on this bad boy. Porsche decided that because the Volkswagen-sourced Type 4 engine in the 912E was a little more vibration heavy than the internally-balanced flat-six in a 911, it needed to add a 12-pound ballast weight to the transmission mount to reduce vibration into the chassis. Of course the standard straight 911 sway bar wants to occupy the same space as that weight, so 912E sway bars have a kink in them to kick out around that weight. Those are positively unobtanium, so we sourced a 911 bar and deleted the weight.

With fresh chassis mount clamps, hardware, and bushings, it took a bit of pushing and prodding to get the rear bar installed, but it’s in there now. Hopefully the reduction in body roll will be worth the trade off in increased noise, vibration, and harshness without that drivetrain damping weight.

We couldn’t get the drop links to pop onto the ball mounts, so that’ll be another job for Reno Rennsport to tackle during our upcoming alignment. We’ve also decided to save the trailing arm bushing installation for the professionals, too, as we’ve not seen a convincing way to get it done without a press and we just don’t have one.

After a quick jaunt around the block to test everything, the car definitely feels more taut now, especially in the steering and turn-in. Then again, both of our sway bars are currently disconnected and the alignment is completely jacked. So, let’s schedule a time to get the car in for the work it needs and we’ll report back soon.

And because you made it this far into this piece, here’s a fun little anecdote about doing work on your cars yourself when you have a forgetful mind like we do. When we got back from the test drive there was a thin line of oil drip leading from the street into our driveway. Naturally we had a heart attack immediately thinking of the worst possible scenario. Did we forget to tighten the drain plug and it fell out? Did one of our pushrod tube seals fail? Did the case explode?

We got down under the car and looked for the source of the leak and found it to be the fan housing. Curious, we said to ourselves, what could have happened there? Crankshaft seal?

We popped the lid and found…

Oh. Right, we’d done an oil change two weeks prior while the car was in the garage and on stands and we were waiting for parts. Apparently we left a full bottle of old oil in the engine compartment and closed the lid on it like Tommy Boy. Anyhow, over the course of our half mile journey, the fan had delicately peeled back the plastic container to allow just enough oil to drip out into the road and cause me to momentarily panic.

Great work, universe. Thanks for pulling that prank on us!

While the car was up in the air we got a fresh set of Vredestien Sprint Classic tires mounted up and balanced. We really loved our last set on this car, and can’t wait to put this set through its paces. We’re also planning to get a set of track rubber mounted up on our other set of wheels, a staggered quartet of faux Fuchs. If you have suggestions for a good 200-ish treadwear tire to mount on 15×6 and 15×7 wheels for light trackday work, drop them in the comments below, we’d love to hear what you’re rolling on.

And here’s the aftermath of a month and a half of wrenching. It’s going to take me a month to clean up this garage!

Until next time, keep the shiny side up!

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Porsche’s Taycan Launch Hit Hardest By Industry Shutdown

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The entire world has suffered immensely under the thumb of a terrible virus, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands of people globally. In the midst of this pandemic, Porsche was trying to launch a new electric car that could portend the future of the brand. The new Taycan has received praise, including from us, for its incredible dynamic abilities and true Porsche feel. It’s the first EV that has truly gotten our blood pumping, as it’s not only quick, but also fantastic to drive.

As a cautionary move, Porsche closed down its factories for 6 weeks from early April to mid May. That timing was crucial for the Taycan, and Porsche’s ability to meet demand has suffered as a result. In a recent conversation with Automotive News, Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer had this to say: “That six-week window was very much reserved for fulfilling the U.S. demand. We had to take thousands of cars out of our sales plan for this year that we will not get into the United States and Canada.”

Deliveries of the new Taycan began here in North America back in December of 2019, and demand has been climbing. Porsche is selling Taycans as quickly as it can stock them, and this delay has caused many buyers to put their names on a wait list of indefinite length. Global demand for the Taycan, particularly the new lower-priced 4S model, has reportedly seen Porsche re-double its annual capacity of the model to 40,000 units. Having driven one, it’s easy to see why. It’s the best car Porsche sells right now. Bar none. And possibly the best new car on the market, period.

“The Taycan is the sports car in the battery-electric vehicle segment right now,” Zellmer continued. “That’s what people aspire for.”

This electric sports car is very important to the Porsche brand, as evidenced by the company shelling out for a super bowl commercial touting the new model this year. If Porsche can make significant in-roads on the electric market that Tesla has nearly single-handedly forged in the United States, it’s got a real winner on its hands.

Personally, I’m waiting on the rear-wheel drive long-range model to come out. Eventually. Hopefully.