Classic YouDrive @ Silverstone

[kitten1]

Hi Guys

What a brillant day though I'll would like to go back to master the Kick Plate and the Ice Hill. In Kits defence I felt that she felt a bit lumpy when driving so much so when I got her home and took her off the trailer she did not sound good at all!!! I'm thinking it could be iffy fuel I bought down at a garage near to Silverstone. What symptoms would this cause?

Taking her back into the garage next week..do hope it is nothing major.

Very nice to to meet Nick, Darren, Paul(ferryman), Ian and Mitman.

Margaret

[swift911]

Hi Guys

What a brillant day though I'll would like to go back to master the Kick Plate and the Ice Hill. In Kits defence I felt that she felt a bit lumpy when driving so much so when I got her home and took her off the trailer she did not sound good at all!!! I'm thinking it could be iffy fuel I bought down at a garage near to Silverstone. What symptoms would this cause?

Taking her back into the garage next week..do hope it is nothing major.

Very nice to to meet Nick, Darren, Paul(ferryman), Ian and Mitman.

Margaret

Did you stop at Stafford services on your way home. Saw a really nice 911 on a trailer in the car park. I was in a white 3.2 Carrera, my mates 78 turbo was parked next to me.

[kitten1]

Yip that was moi!! We saw your cars and had a right good look at your carrera - very very nice....shame our paths didn't cross. Maybe next time!!
Was the Targa with you also?

Margaret

[swift911]

Thanks for your comment about my car. I didn't see the Targa.

[jackstowers]

Which ones the tonbridge car?

The 'offroader' in the foreground:

That's shocking. I'd have been ashamed to show it - wouldn't have taken long to drop it to a sensible height

I saw it on their lift last week and had a fairly close look. The wheels looked a little off with the silver and the masking of the black, the houndstooth seat inserts looked really good as did the close detail. The parts guy who showed it to me said they had tried really hard to source original parts but had to modify some from other models (944) to replace NLA parts. Interestingly it's a sporto and when they got it it was brown with a whale tail and tan interior. The amount of air between front tyre and arch was about the same suspended from the lift! They're into it for £40k + ignoring the purchase price and over 500 hours for reassembly.

[MattFu]

I think that's a great point. My one criticism is you don't get a chance to record yourself spinning around, found it hard to get any footage through the windscreen as my iPhone kept focussing on the wipers. Good day out though.

Surely you didn't spin, did you?

It was the extra pressure of having you there with your cameras Keith.

Nice shots though. Very ahem, dramatic.

[MattFu]

Surely you didn't spin, did you?

Thanks for that Darren! I think it's been soundly proven that I spent a lot of time facing the wrong way.

[Ferry Man]

But why should everyone at an OPC know all about restoring an old 911? That doesn't make them 'bad people'.

I'm with Keith on this hence my post above. I don't think any OPC professes to be a master of restoring early 911s to factory spec nor should they. However, good on the ones who took part

Fair comment. Please don’t think I’ve tried to portray them as bad people though.
I stand by the opinion that the cars presented were in some cases unfinished, many were customised or ‘body-kitted’ or turned into racers. Nothing wrong with that, I guess I just thought they’d be returned to how they’d looked when they’d previously been in a Porsche showroom.
I felt the quality of the work presented was rather lacking in places.

However, I admired the black 993 and the white 964, Both very nice cars. The blue long hood was going to be superb when finished, another very fine car. There was lots to be impressed by.

But hey, I’ve taken far too long on my current restoration. I’ve overspent in reckless fashion. I’ve not completed it yet and it will likely cost me more than it’s worth. It’s not even the original colour. All my fault. So, I’m not one to talk.

[Ferry Man]

I think Porsche – and the OPCs that took part in the exercise – should be given credit for going along with the fun. Clearly there was nothing financially to be gained, but it acted as a good 'team building' exercise, I'm sure.

I spoke to many of the teams and all of them were genuinely excited to be involved.
The initiative was driven along by Porsche to highlight the classic parts supply and the ability of the OPC’s to support early 911 owners with servicing & restoration. It did that wonderfully.
It also served to enlighten many Porsche centres as to the complexities involved in working with older cars.
The Porsche dealers I chatted to were keen, enthusiastic and highly motivated.
The exercise had galvanised the whole network and I’m sure Porsche will be delighted.
Well done.

[Ferry Man]

I spoke at some length to many of the teams that often were forced to buy targa or 'T', etc.

God forbid!

I apologise at any offence. I'm a big fan of T's (I think the wide spread of prices between T/E/S is crazy, meaning the base model is the bargain one to buy and only marginally different in performance).
I simply meant that with the OPC's spending £75k? or £50k? or even just £30k on the restorations, to start with an early eighties impact bumper targa was never going to be commercially viable.

[Ferry Man]

Very nice to meet Paul (ferryman)

Thank you Margaret, it was very nice to meet you at last.
May I say how delightful it is to share this forum with someone who uses an early 911 as their daily driver and has such an obvious enthusiasm for classic Porsches. And then I discover you are also charming and vivacious. It's good to have you on DDK.

[Ferry Man]

At the outset of this initiative I saw the vehicle about to be restored by Tonbridge OPC and was somewhat saddened.
It was a Sporto (I think) in brown with a tan interior. Very much of its period. And yet they were going to rebuild the car in a modern metallic colour.

But on Saturday I saw the car come off the trailer and it looked fabulous.
I chatted to the dealer principal of Tonbridge and his team. I admitted it had turned out so much better than I’d predicted. I said I’d been round all the other cars and had them marked out as a dark horse, long odds but worth a punt. I prophetically told them they might just win. And so it proved.
It was obvious to me that the pairing of that old car with the current 991 50th Edition – as colour matched ‘twins’ - would trigger lots of PR opportunities for the manufacturer.
They thoroughly deserved the win.

[Ferry Man]

Here's that blue 'longhood'. There was some very nice work being done here.
Sadly not complete on the day but impessive neverthless.
And this OPC had set out determinedly to restore back to standard-ish.
The signage is confusing on colours, I believe the car was originally metallic blue (but red when found).
The interior had originally been ivory/white (I think) but they had changed that to black.

[Ferry Man]

I saw the car on Saturday.
Apparently it had been painted 10 days earlier on Wednesday.
Then collected by Porsche from the bodyshop on Friday and displayed in their showroom (at an open day) as a bare shell on wheels that weekend.
They then commenced building the car on the following Monday with only until Friday to have it ready for showing at Silverstone.
So it went from painted shell to installed interior, lights, wiring, windows, bumpers, dials, exterior trim, etc, etc, in 4 or 5 days.
Well done.

[Ferry Man]

It seems that the Tonbridge OPC restoration did indeed win the " Best Restoration" prize. Well done! All they need to do is address the ride height and get the Fuchs done properly.

I now hear that the overall winner was the white 964.
So, I'm rather confused.
But, both good cars and if everyone gets a prize, that's nice isn't it?