Porsche 911 Rally Star…

For five decades, the 911 has been the iconic Porsche and since its debut as the Type 901 at the International Automotive Show in September 1963, more than 820,000 Porsche 911s have been built. Its one of the most successful sports cars in the world and as the legend Ferry Porsche once said “The 911 is the only car you could drive on an African safari or at Le Mans, to the theatre or through New York City traffic.”

Porsche is always known for there engineering ability and especially back in the day when these cars were hand built and many of the ideas and technologies that made their debut in the Porsche 911 were conceived on the race track, motorsport is Porsches most important test lab. The stats read well, nearly two thirds of Porsche’s 30,000 race victories to date were notched up by the 911 and we are all waiting expectantly for Mr. Webber and the Porsche WEC Team to push it out the pit garage so we can see what it can do.

Point blank it is among the most successful competition cars ever. In the mid-1970s,naturally aspirated 911 Carrera RSRs won major world championship sports car races such as Targa Florio, Daytona, Sebring and Nurburgring, even against prototypes and the 911-derived 935 Turbo also won the coveted 24hr Le Mans in 1979.

There is no denying its prowess but this later success all started with 4 wins on the Monte Carlo Rally. Londoner and racing legend ‘Quick’ Vic Elford took the first Monte win in 1968 but Porsche also won 3 more, the following two years 1969, 1970 and 1979 and also the European Rally Championship in 1970. However, in the 1971 season, Porsche ‘got duffed up’ by the Renault Alpine A110 and this led the Stuttgart minds to believe that the 911 was just ultimately too big to be a huge rally star so they pretty much walked away from rallying to concentrate on the circuits.

In 1984 Porsche were back, this time entering three cars into the renowned Paris Dakar Rally taking the overall win with the 953 a four wheel drive 911 driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne. This car was designed purely for the Dakar and was essentially a test bed for the 959 which replaced it only 12 months later. These cars in their Rothmans livery lined many boys a bedroom wall in the 1980’s positioned right next to the poster of a girl playing tennis and seeing to an itch…

Porsche returned to the Dakar with the 959 in 1985 but huge disappointment struck as all of the three cars entered failed to finish. The following year they were determined that their new model would succeed and this time they took no prisoners with a solid 1-2 finish again driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne.

As we have mentioned in other P42 articles of late, historic rallying is stronger than ever and not just in the UK, right across Europe. In 2011 a Porsche 911 driven by Bjorn Waldegard and Mathias Waldegard took a long over due win for the model in the infamous East African Safari Classic. The car was prepared by competition specialist and all round 911 guru’s Tuthill Porsche. So the big question is are we going to see more 911’s in the forests and attacking the stages on the historic rally scene? Who better to speak to than Richard Tuthill from Tuthill Porsche:

“Currently Escorts dominate the UK historic rallying but in Europe this is not the case we see many more 911’s. As a car, its design appears wrong, with the weight in the back, but it just works. The DNA for that period is unbeatable, these were hand built cars and with independent suspension and with the weight over the rear axel, this helps get the power down – they are incredible.”

The big misconception is that they don’t handle because of the rear end weight but Richard went on to say:

‘This always comes up. Driving an Escort is easy it will feel the same in every corner but a 911 will ask you a question, it will want you to respond and it keeps you interested – once you understand them life is great. It does take a while to master them but it will also make you a far better driver and whether you are on a circuit, gravel or tarmac stage they are a class above. As Walter Rohrl once said Porsche BHP is different to others.”

As a buyer what do I have to spend? Well we currently have an ex-Tuthill prepared car listed on Paddock42 for £64,995 (http://www.paddock42.com/advert/porsche-911-rally-car/) and the general rule is around £60k to £70k for good example. If you have the budget you can spend a lot more building an absolute top spec rally car but as with historic competition cars, you can enjoy it for a few years and you will get most of your money back.

The modern water cooled Porsches need a mention too, while we might not see them here in the UK, in Europe they are a big hit with drivers using both 996 and 997 GT3’s and RS models. Being modern cars with large brakes, ABS and the like these are clearly easier to master and they have not lost that flat six engine howl and put out massive horse power. Its impressive stuff and here is a little video just so we can see what we are missing here in the UK.