TIPEC All Torque 134

L AL E U Q R TO PRIL ISSUE 134 A

/MAY 2019

PACKAGE DELIVERED

THE RS SPYDER – PORSCHE’S OVERLOOKED CHAMPION

C1 RACING AT DONINGTON Jim Stevens tries cheap as chips racing in the 2CV’s successor

CAYENNE AS A DAILY? Paul Bird reappraises Porsche’s 4x4 for Chinese year of the pig

ROAD TRIP In 1978 Gerhard Plattner & Rudi Lins drove 18,600 miles in a 928

WWW.TIPEC.NET LIVE & BREATHE THE MARQUE

The cars are the stars at the Classic

www.silverstoneclassic.com Our club’s exclusive Car Club Display Package code is:

CCD0042019

All Torque 134 Apr/May 2019 All Torque is published bi-monthly by TIPEC (The Independent Porsche Enthusiasts Club) Text & images are © their creators.

Front cover image: The RS Spyder in DHL livery, from the Porsche Press Archive.

All Torque is based entirely on submissions from TIPEC members. This is your magazine!

Submissions for issue 135 (June/July) must be in before Wednesday 1st May 2019.

Editor & designer: Tony Blow tony@typescape.com Flat 2, 2 Bowmont Terrace, Glasgow G12 9LP Printed by: The Lavenham Press Ltd, Suffolk (01787 247 436) Advertising in All Torque is managed by: Sean Smallman, Walnut Tree Farm, Grain Road, Lower Stoke, Rochester ME3 9RE (07500 332 790) Website: www.tipec.net Twitter: @Porsche_TIPEC Search for us on Facebook TIPEC Chairman: Sean Smallman (07500 332 790) sean.smallman@tipec.net Treasurer: Paul Bird (01922 428 409) paulpsb928@yahoo.co.uk Advertising & sponsorhip: Sean Smallman (07500 332 790) sean.smallman@tipec.net Media Director: Paul Ffelan (07391 510 054) paul.ffelan@tipec.net Membership Director: Sue Simmons (07530 312 700) sue.simmons@tipec.net TIPEC Membership: Lavenham Group (01787 249 295) membership@tipec.lpl-uk.com TIPEC Valuations: valuations@tipec.net

All Torque & TIPEC are entirely independent of Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG, Porsche Cars GB Ltd and its dealers. All registered Trade Marks owned by Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG, including the word ‘Porsche’, the Porsche Crest and Porsche Script are acknowledged as such and are their property. Whilst all due care is taken in the production of All Torque; neither TIPEC, its officers or the editor can accept responsibility for the advice, information or opinions expressed herein. Opinions contained in any article published herein are of the author or editor and do not reflect the official position of TIPEC, its management or membership, unless clearly stated by a club official.

IN A PREVIOUS chat I wrote about the relevance of the club against an ever increasing growth of online groups. I am delighted to announce that we continue to grow and that membership is at an all time high. This is a brilliant achievement and I would like to thank everyone for getting stuck in and making so much happen.

The updated website has definitely made a difference as has as our presence on social media. There are also a few regions that have significantly moved forward over the last six months: North West, East Midlands and South Central.

Well done gone guys and a big thank you to all of the regional teams – I have seen the event lists and we are in for a great year.

Cumbria has merged with North West, the only other region that needs an organising team is South Yorkshire & North Notts. If we can not find someone willing to lead this group, we will split the region with Yorkshire and East Midlands.

If anyone would like to talk to me about becoming RO please get in touch. No issue if you want to change the venue or the night of the month you all get together, it would be great to see that part of the country vibrant again.

We would really like to keep the momentum going, so please spread the word so that everyone with a Porsche knows who we are. If you reference the Porsche Enthusiasts Club at every opportunity on Facebook/

Twitter/forums, it will go a long way to achieving our objective.

We also need your cars at both the local and national events that we attend across the country.

It is not too late to book tickets for D onin gton H is tor ic a nd Silverstone Classic. For details about all of these events, as well as Bicester Scramble and the third Northern-ish Gathering, check out the news section.

At Simply Porsche this year we have arranged a large dedicated parking area exclusively for club members. Details on how to buy advance tickets are in the news section. We will have a marquee in our section to make it clear to everyone attending who we are.

I have arranged for journalist and motoring author Johnny Tipler to sign copies of his new book Carrera: The Water-Cooled Era. His other works include Boxster & Cayman: The Complete Story and Carrera: The Air-Cooled Era. I am pleased to announce that C l a s s ic l i n e w i l l r e m a i n o ur preferred insurance partner until 2022. Darren and the team are on hand to answer any questions and they understand our needs for owners of classic and modern Porsches. Modern cars qualify for classic agreed value policies if they are not being used for a daily commute.Please give them a call and I am sure they will do their best to find you the right policy at a great price.

Enjoy blowing the cobwebs off.

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News & updates Donington Historic Festival 2019 May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic Festival is firmly established as a major fixture on the international historic racing calendar, attracting many thousands of spectators, hundreds of world-class historic racing cars and huge numbers of classic car club displays, including TIPEC. There are always plenty of off-track attractions and TIPEC will be attending in force as usual.

6.

Follow the process through to ticket selection. The online club ordering system automatically puts one adult entry ticket for your chosen day/days into your shopping basket before you get to the ticket selection area. So please only select any additional entry tickets that you may need when you get to ticket selection.

Club tickets are half price and can be booked online by following the instructions below, or by phone on 0843 453 9000.

7.

In the shopping basket you will see any additional tickets you have chosen showing as entry tickets and your driver entry ticket will show as a vehicle display pass (shown at the price for your entry ticket).

8.

At this stage everything will still be shown at full price – press to go through to checkout, then enter our unique club code DHF_JWJGEH9 in the Promotion/Voucher Codes box, which will apply the 50% club discount.

1.

Go to: https://shop.msv.com/DisplayCar/ClubRegister/DP-19-Historic

2.

Select TIPEC from the list of shown and click on its name. If you already have an MSV account, login. Otherwise, create an account.

3.

You’ll then be presented with a page showing the conditions for displaying a vehicle – click the box at the bottom to say that you agree, then you’ll be taken to a page that asks ‘who are you displaying with?’ Select ‘With a club’ then select TIPEC from the list that appears and press ‘Continue’.

4.

Select the day or days that you wish to attend and press ‘Continue’.

5.

CAR DETAILS: Add the details of the vehicle/s you will be bringing to display on the club stand.

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All entry tickets, including the driver ticket, will be sent out immediately but the vehicle pass (which is only a parking pass this year) will be sent out separately, two weeks before the event. Passenger Tickets will be available for immediate download (you can select to have them posted to you at additional cost). Display Vehicle Passes (including your entry as driver) will be emailed to you two weeks before the event. This is to allow allocation of parking positions after club ticket sales close. If you have any problems or questions, email karen@historicpromotions.com

SIMPLY PORSCHE 2019 AT BEAULIEU JUNE 2ND (SUNDAY)

THE MUST DO Porsche event of the year, with over 1,600 Porsches parked along the tree lined avenues of Beaulieu in 2018. Make a weekend of it and book your accommodation now before everywhere fills up.

We are delighted to announce that respected motoring journalist and author Johnny Tipler will be signing his latest book Porsche Carrera – The Water Cooled Era. His other titles will also be available to buy on the day, Boxster & Cayman – The Complete Story and Porsche Carrera – The Air Cooled Era. I am sure he will have a chat with Tony on the day and talk about driving the RUF SCR and the iconic 910.

We have a large dedicated club parking section at Simply Porsche, the space will be filled on a ‘first come first served’ basis. To park in our section you will need to do the following: • Buy your tickets in advance from www.beaulieu.co.uk/simply-porsche-2019 • Print off your ticket (phones will not be scanned) • Write Porsche Enthusiasts Club on a sheet of paper and show to the Parking Marshall once you are in the main grounds.

• Use Post Code SO42 7YG – do not follow the directional signage to Beaulieu • Gates open at 8:30am You will not be able to blag your way in without a pre-paid printed ticket.

There are no cash payments and you will be sent to the main entrance.

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Bicester Scramble April 28th (Sunday) The Sunday Scramble is an event of national repute, attracting enthusiasts from across the UK and Europe for the past five years, offering the opportunity to explore the former RAF Bicester base, the restored wartime buildings and the specialist businesses based here.

The April Scramble is historically the busiest of the year at Bicester Heritage. The former RAF Technical Site springs to life with a unique mix of vehicles brought by enthusiasts from all over the UK to visit this beautiful location. The specialist businesses of Bicester Heritage throw open the doors to their workshops, showrooms and offices, revealing an ever-changing display of magnificent vehicles from every decade.

You have to buy tickets in advance, you can’t buy them on the gate. You can buy tickets online at www.bicesterheritage.co.uk/?ticket=sundayscramble-tickets Click on the ‘Enter Promo Code’ link towards the top of the ‘Tickets’ block on the booking page and input TIPEC0419. The club ticket option will then become visible in the list of ticket options for you to select.

Please note, if any other ticket type is purchased instead of the Club Vehicle ticket, there will not be a space allocated in the club parking display area. Ticket sales close at midnight on Sunday 21st April.

THE ESSENTIAL BUYER’S GUIDE: PORSCHE 356

By Brett Johnson Veloce Publishing • www.veloce.co.uk £13.99 • ISBN 978-1-787112-96-4 Veloce’s model-specific buyers guides are always a helpful, clear, gloveboxsized basic reference. This 356 edition makes a few departures from the usual format, necessary for such a specialist (and high-priced) range of Porsches.

There’s a guide to buying at auction, a section on proper documentation, and one on the question of whether to restore or not. If you’re seriously looking to buy a 356, you really want more than this sort of brief handbook can give, but it offers a clear, simple starting point.

Northern-ish Gathering 2019 April 14th (Sunday) After the success of the first two Northernish Gatherings 2017/2018, members from the North West are busy making plans for their next big inter-region gathering.

Designed to be a season-opening Breakfast meet, the 3rd Northern-ish Gathering will take place once again on Sunday April 14th at The Wellington Public House, Weatherby Rd, Leeds, LS17 8LZ. Breakfast served from 8:30am until 10:30.

After Breakfast we will be taking a short drive to Performance Porsche/Klassiker 911 nearby at Brighouse. Chris and the gang have kindly offered to open up their workshops for us to spend a couple of hours looking round.

Refreshments will be available.

Last year we had 90 Porsches take part and the organisers are hoping to break the 100 barrier this year.

Keep looking out for detailed updates from your local Regional Organisers as April approaches.

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Club shop Polo shirts We have a new club shop, run by UKCarclubs.com, a dedicated car club merchandise site.

They offer a huge range of products, from the usual T-shirts and caps to mugs, umbrellas, high-quality lambswool sweaters, fleeces, and fully weatherproof outdoor jackets.

Everything comes with your choice of TIPEC logo (featuring the silhouette of a 911 or a transaxle car) as well as your choice of region, and even your own name. All that can be in the colour of your choice.

You can reach the shop directly at tipec.ukcarclubs.com or visit from our club’s homepage at www.tipec.net by using the ‘Shop’ link.

Membership management Contacts for member queries We have a dedicated membership management agent.

The contact details for and TIPEC membership renewals, changes of address, queries, etc. are detailed below. Please make sure you mention that you are contacting them about TIPEC, as they deal with multiple car clubs: 01787 249 295 membership@tipec.lpl-uk.com TIPEC Membership Arbons House, 47 Water Street, Lavenham CO10 9RN www.tipec.net Go to the membership renewals tab. Password: tipecmember

All Torque Submissions

TIPEC website www.TIPEC.net

Submissions for the magazine are always very welcome – All Torque is your magazine and we rely on your articles, reports and photographs to keep it full of varied, interesting, Porscherelated stuff.

You can use the TIPEC website to register or renew your club membership, advertise cars and parts for free, view old issues of All Torque, and keep up with events.

Anyone can contribute – we only ask that it is all your own work (both writing and photography).

Email tony@typescape.com Sometimes there simply isn’t room for everything, so please bear with us if your piece hasn’t been printed in this issue – we’ll hold some over for the quieter months when less events are on.

At the top-left of the homepage, you will find a link to TIPEC’s online discussion forum.

This is the place to trade banter with fellow club members on a day-to-day basis, ask questions and share knowledge with your fellow TIPEC members, up and down the UK (and worldwide!)

We really do appreciate the effort made by our club members and contributors, and value every individual submission.

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RACE RETRO 2019

However, it was great to see Rauno Aaltonen doing a lively Q&A session. In addition to Rauno there were talks by Rosemary Smith, Russell Brookes, Jimmy McRae, Tony Jardine, Antony Reid and a few others.

There was also some serious metal on display.

As well as admiring cars such as Derek Bell’s 962, a 1982 Ford Escort Mk 111 and an Opel Ascona 400 there was the unique sight of Colin McCrae’s Subaru Impreza being driven by his father Jimmy with Patrick Walker as co-driver.

Author Brian Rowledge Photography Brian Rowledge

IF POLISHING CARS is your bag then Race Retro is probably not for you Race Retro is for petrolheads who enjoy seeing cars being driven hard, off road.

It is an event that concentrates on varied mainstream forms of racing, with static displays and talks from drivers of an age when ‘health and safety’ was an alien phrase; devoid of the sterile atmosphere of Formula 1 and similar processions.

This year the event was bigger than 2018 (record crowds again) with two rally stages and over 120 WRC and Group B rally cars ‘competing’.

Both stages were on mixed surfaces where tyre choice and setup were very difficult to judge. Stage one was especially slippery with numerous ‘offs’.

I went on the final day, Sunday. A mistake, as many cars were damaged on Saturday and then retired from the event. However, luck was with me as a friend had entered two cars for the weekend.

If you don’t mind the cold and are not put off by the possibility of getting muddy boots; perhaps I’ll see you at Race Retro next year!

I saw him in Parc Ferme prior to his first run of the day. Then off he went, but before I could get a photo of him he broke the rear axle of his first car on the first stage after kissing a kerb. I stayed on the first stage as he went off and picked up his second car, an ex-rally Porsche 996 GT3 from Belgium. He took the car onto the second stage of the event to ‘shake it down’ prior to setting off for a rally in Belgium; so I got no photos of him at all.

Rauno Aaltonen

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CHEAP AS CHIPS RACING “WE LEARNED HOW AN UNLOVED SHOPPING-CART CAN BE TURNED INTO A PROPER RACE CAR!” Author Jim Stevens Photography provided by Jim Stevens

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CITROEN C1 CHAMPIONSH DONINGTON PARK SUNDAY

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HIP TASTER DAY, Y 27TH JANUARY 2019 THIS ARTICLE HAS nothing to do with Porsches, but I figure that most members have more than a passing interest in motorsport of all levels.

Plus, I think that most of you would agree that driving any car absolutely as fast as it will go is always a hoot.

Sometimes living near a race track has its advantages, so when East Midlands member Richard Harwood spotted that there was a taster day running for the recently formed Citroen C1 Championship at Donington Park, he quickly posted on the East Mids Facebook group to see if anyone wanted to join him. As someone who loves abusing cars on a racetrack, I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough!

For those of you not familiar with the championship, the C1s have been pressed into service to replace the ageing 2CVs that have been the mainstay of cheap-as-chips endurance racing across Europe for as long as anyone can remember. The championship is designed to be as cost effective as possible, so the cars are virtually standard bar a chunky roll-cage, fire extinguisher and a couple of very minor tweaks to the suspension geometry. Even the heater and radio is left in place. So that means a mighty 67bhp from the 998cc three-cylinder engine shared with the Toyota Aygo and Peugeot 107.

Base cars can be bought for less than £1k and the engines are reputedly bullet-proof. This means that you can get up and running with a race car for just a few thousand pounds. The races are all endurance events, generally for 3–6 hours and for teams of 3–6 drivers so the costs are split across quite a lot of people. There are also three 24-hour events per year, including one at Spa! The day was being run by Majestic Motorsport who are a race-winning team within the championship and they were offering two 40-minute sessions in the car with an instructor for a very reasonable sum. The only question for Richard and I was “Where do we sign?”

The sessions were being run on a public trackday at Donington so we were braced for being the least powerful car on the circuit. We needn’t have worried because the car was remarkably quick.

The first thing to do, though, was to forget everything that we knew about how to drive a Porsche on a circuit. Being so under-powered, momentum is king and being front-wheeldrive meant learning a whole new technique.

The brakes on the car were fantastic so it took both of us a while to work out how late we could brake. You then had to turn in while still on the brakes (an enormous Porsche no-no!), and pin the throttle to the floor as soon as you’ve finished braking (another enormous no-no!).

Once we got our heads around this, the car was an absolute blast and we both managed to overtake cars with much more power. The car was totally flat-out in fourth gear down through the Craner Curves … which needed quite a large swig of brave-juice before I was confident enough to give it a go but once mastered was a real thrill.

Majestic Motorsport offer arrive-and-drive packages at all of the championship rounds.

Richard is certainly thinking about getting his race licence and diving in. Me? Well my wife might be reading this so I’d better say nothing …

I would encourage all readers to get their car out on a race track at some time. You learn so much about how well Porsches are designed for fast driving. We also learned how an unloved shopping-cart can be turned into a proper race car. Definitely not what I would have expected!

We’ll be running an East Mids track evening at Donington in the summer so do join us then if you can.

“BEING SO UNDER-POWERED, MOMENTUM IS KING AND BEING FRONTWHEEL-DRIVE MEANT LEARNING A WHOLE NEW TECHNIQUE.”

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HUNTING FOR SALES AS A CAR MAKER – and even as a new and inexperienced car maker – Porsche has always been very astute at producing products that are seen as highly desirable. Rarely has it seen the clouds of failure blotting out the sunshine of success in the way that has affected some other car builders.

Indeed, the company was sometimes surprised at the positive reception afforded to some of its models, with even those that were expected to be niche products having an uptake that called for further production. Typical of this is the original projection for its first 356 model being a very modest 500 units, as much as it was thought that the market could stand and even then only if spread over five years.

There is one Porsche product that certainly failed to live up to expectations however and as its targets seemed quite modest its failure was all the more surprising. The model in question is the Type 597, also known as the Jagdwagen, or Hunter in civilian form, and a mere 71 were made during its 1955–’58 production life. While the German military was seen by the company as the prime sales target for the vehicle, its potential for Land Rover-type use also saw it being exhibited at the 1955 Geneva salon as a general purpose all-terrain vehicle.

Designing the Hunter began at the end of 1953 as an entirely self-funded project, with an eye to the government contract for which the company had been invited to tender and then to any additional civilian business that might be obtained.

It was perhaps seen as a way for the small sports car maker to diversify into new markets, although in the event the nonmilitary aspect was something that the company would have to wait until the 21st Century to successfully accomplish with its hugely popular Cayenne and Macan models.

Author Martin Broadribb Photography Ted Walker Archive

Porsche was already tapping into something far removed from road and racing cars by producing tractors in partnership with Allgaier and Hofherr Schrantz and was about to enter into an agreement with Mannesmann to expand production under their own name. In the same way that it was calling upon its pre-war experience in this field there must have been good reason for the company to think that their wartime designs for the VW Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen would stand them in good stead with the new off-roader and like those VWs it too utilised a number of components already in production.

The 597 used some 356 suspension parts and its still rearmounted but detuned 1,500 engine, although this was soon replaced by the 1,600 unit. While usefully featuring additional front wheel traction with selectable (in motion) drive to that axle when required, the German forces – who were then engaged on a post-war rearmament programme, having joined NATO in 1955 – eventually bought domestically but elsewhere for reasons of cost and simplicity. Coupled with public indifference this effectively left the project high and dry, even after it underwent revisions for its final year.

On paper the vehicle seemed to have so much going for it.

A four-speed plus low gear transmission with a top speed of around 60mph, the capability to tackle slopes of over 60%, excellent approach and departure angles and good weight distribution – not to mention its ability to float! – were all strong features, but for non-military applications the Hunter lacked the appeal of, say, a Land Rover. Instead of providing the stillfledgling company with a valuable additional income stream the project turned out to be a very costly (allegedly almost DM2m) waste on almost all fronts, although its development contributed some improvements in engine and transmission design to the 356.

After production halted there were plans to reinvent the 597 as an improved range of models, but these came to nothing.

Although it is a reasonable proportion of the total made only 15 examples are thought to remain, making it one of the rarest Porsche models. This is reflected in one being sold at auction for over £175,000 in 2016. The escapade certainly illustrates the perils of making something that is at odds with your reputation, unless it can be a marketing as well as an engineering success. Fortunately that was certainly something that Porsche got right the second time around, some 50 years later.

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2019:

YEAR OF THE PIG

I HAVE TOYED with the idea of a Cayenne for a couple of years or more and whenever I mentioned it, I had the traditional Cayenne comments: “You’ll need to tow a petrol tanker!” or “18 MPG mate!” were thrown at me – and these are echoed wherever you look online.

However, I wasn’t put off and in July 2018 I started to think about changing my daily driver.

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Author Paul Bird Photography Paul Bird

I was browsing online one Saturday morning with a cuppa and came across a 2003 Cayenne S in Salt Lake Grey with grey leather interior being offered by a trader in Droitwich, so I did a short detour on the way to work the following Monday for a look. After a test drive I made a deal and collected the car the following week.

Early in December I had a winter check carried out and did an oil change and transmission fluid/filter change at the same time as the latter hadn’t been done for seven years.

A headlamp bulb and a new set of windscreen wipers completed the service and maintenance thus far.

The car had some age-related marks (to be expected on a 15-year-old car) but cleaned up quite well. It had two keys and the original service manual with a decent service record, so all things considered I was quite content with my purchase.

I have planned for front discs/pads around the end of February, based on the level of wear, and I think I will change the rears late spring or early summer. It’s a big heavy car, so goes hard on brakes – and it’s a working car used every day.

Living with a Cayenne as a daily car is easy.

The high driving position and interior comfort level is good and it’s a modern car with electric windows, heated seats and all the creature comforts. I had a Parrot phone kit fitted so I could listen to music on my phone and have hands free calls, and that works well without changing the original look of the interior.

Cayenne’s are frequently referred to as “Pigs”, perhaps because most people don’t see them as a thing of beauty rather than the traditional “Porka = pig” connection used with other Porsches. Personally I like the look of the early cars, hence the purchase, and I’ve so far found it to be a very competent and useable tool for work and play.

Using the Tiptronic paddles makes the car more fun and when you push it really can move for a big car, while cruising around in Drive makes for a lazy experience behind the wheel.

Now into 2019 I have covered over 10,000 miles in the car without incident and am still happy I bought it. Fuel costs are high but, in my opinion, more than offset by how cheap Cayennes are to buy in the first place.

Ever a driver rather than polisher, I rarely give her the level of cleaning and polishing I see at club events on other cars, but she is a daily car and being filthy most of the time shows she is well used and loved. Porsches are meant to be driven after all, and this is a car club!

Chinese New Year started on 5th February and 2019 is the Year of the Pig, so perhaps it was a wise acquisition after all? Happy motoring.

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ROAD TRIP LOOKING BACK TO the early days of motoring it is surprising just how ambitious were the journeys undertaken by some pioneer car users. Like any other form of new technology there were always those keen to prove that something being dismissed by many as a mere flash in the pan with no future could confound the sceptics and establish itself as a serious development. The ideal way to do this was in competition, sometimes against other vehicles, sometimes against distance and sometimes against both.

The first competition between self-propelled road vehicles is generally accepted as having taken place in Britain in 1867 and in the early days of the internal combustion engine an attempt was made to hold a race in France in 1887, although only one competitor started. France being one of the cradles of ‘horseless carriage’ development it was only natural that by 1894 it was the location of what is generally regarded as the first proper motor race, the Paris to Rouen event which – perhaps surprisingly – had over 100 entrants and 69 starters.

From then on long distances races and reliability trials, such as the British RAC 1,000 miles Trial of 1900 which included one Charles Rolls in his Panhard, became an established part of the early motoring scene. However, as these took place on public roads and cars were already showing their ability to travel at unaccustomed speeds it was only a matter of time before a serious accident took place and a backlash ensued.

The occasion for this turned out to be the 1903 Paris-Madrid event, which the authorities stopped at Bordeaux due to nine public fatalities and this drove motor racing into the confines of purpose-built circuits, although closed circuit racing had already been taking place in America since 1896.

This situation brought about a rethink as to how men and machines could be pitted against one another and as well as outright speed the idea was born of endurance competitions over tough terrain that encompassed not just city to city or country to country routes but those that spanned different continents. The first of these was the 1907 Peking to Paris, an event that covered over 9,000 miles of often absurdly inhospitable landscapes but whose prize was merely a magnum of Champagne! Of the 40 entrants only five started but four finished and the following year an even more ambitious adventure took place.

Coupled with an early instance of commercial interest in the publicity value of motoring, the 1908 New York to Paris event was sponsored by The New York Times and Le Matin and took the six contestants across the USA, by boat to Russia via a section in Japan and then through Russia and Europe to Paris. The whole enterprise lasted for more than five and a half months and there were three finishers. As the race started in February even the US section of the route was often challenging – it marked the first crossing of America by a car in winter – and the proposed inclusion of Alaska was curtailed due to the climatic conditions.

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Author Martin Broadribb Photography Ted Walker Archive

“IN 1978 THE PORSCHE 928 WAS STILL A VERY NEW MODEL. WHAT BETTER WAY TO GAIN IT SOME PUBLICITY THAN TO HAVE IT PERFORM AN HOMAGE TO THE NEW YORK–PARIS CHALLENGE OF 70 YEARS EARLIER?”

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70 years later in 1978 the Porsche 928 was still a very new model, having been released at the Geneva show the previous year. What better way to gain it some publicity than to have it perform an homage to the New York–Paris challenge of 70 years earlier by undertaking something in a similar vein? On this occasion the route chosen also started in Times Square, NYC in February and crossed the US, but from San Francisco the car travelled north to Fairbanks Alaska and then east into Canada and Montreal. From there the car was flown in a Jumbo jet to Germany, travelling from Frankfurt where it landed through northern Europe as far as Rovaniemi in Lapland, just south of the Arctic Circle. It then made its way south-east through Scandinavia and into Russia as far as Moscow, before turning west and crossing Europe via Berlin to finish in Paris.

All of this amounted to over 18,600 miles at an average fuel consumption of just above 18.5mpg and seven litres of Mobil SHC oil (one of the sponsors of the trip) were consumed. The Austrian-registered car carried not only advertising from other companies whose components it used – such as Dunlop, Bosch and RUD – but the bonnet also bore a large sticker proclaiming its status as the 1978 European Car Of The Year.

Incidentally, the 928 is the only sports car to ever claim this title since the award began in 1964 and in these politically-correct times looks set to hold on to that record.

The crew for the trip were also Austrian. Motoring journalist Gerhard Plattner is a man still well-known as an economy and long-distance driving expert (which may have helped with their fuel consumption!) and is the holder of various records relating to these disciplines. He accompanied the former Porsche factory racing driver Rudi Lins, the son of one of the first Austrian Porsche dealers and someone who scored good results in a variety of Porsche models during the 1965–’71 period, including a class-winning third overall at Le Mans in 1970 driving a 908/2.

Given the catchy title of ‘New York–Moscow–Paris 1908–1978 Memorial Tour’ the forthcoming 1980 Moscow Olympics were also mentioned on the basically standard car. It seems to have taken the distance coupled with the wide variations in temperatures and other weather conditions in its stride, snow chains only being donned when necessary. In fact, the Russian customs seem to have been more of a problem than anything that the roads could throw at the intrepid pair, a far cry from the situation faced by their forebears 70 years earlier.

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“THE BASICALLY STANDARD CAR SEEMS TO HAVE TAKEN THE DISTANCE IN ITS STRIDE. IN FACT, THE RUSSIAN CUSTOMS WERE MORE OF A PROBLEM THAN ANYTHING THE ROADS COULD THROW AT THE INTREPID PAIR.”

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PACKA DELIV AT 134

AGE VERED Author Martin Broadribb Photography Porsche Press Archive

21

WE HAVE SEEN previously (in All Torque 128) that Porsche’s attempts to race in America were often thwarted by circumstances beyond their control, but between 2006 and 2010 they had a comparatively straight run at their target.

Although 2010 may seem like only yesterday, in motor racing it is a lifetime ago and the RS Spyder featured here seems to have become overshadowed by the 919 that put Porsche in the sports-racing spotlight once again. Much the same thing happened to the 908 when the 917 came along and from a European standpoint it does not help the profile of the RS Spyder that it raced comparatively little outside the US. However, the two seasons during which it appeared on this side of the Atlantic included class wins at Le Mans, so it is certainly worthy of a backward glance.

After its triumphant WSC-95/LMP1-98 (see All Torque 124) and 911 GT1 (see All Torque 123) of the 1996–’98 period, Porsche had seemed undecided as to its direction in top line motorsport, aborting a sports prototype project (the 9R3/LMP2000) developed during 1998–2000 and then turning down a huge amount of money from Sauber to design and develop an F1 power unit. In America, long a strong market for Porsche racing cars, AT 134

various teams took the absence of an endurance racing Porsche into their own hands and Porsche power was found in a number of cars including Fabcar, Crawford and Riley. While Porsche would ultimately lend support to some of these Daytona Prototype Series contenders it finally cemented its own racing plans in late 2004.

There was some disappointment among enthusiasts that these were directed towards LMP2 rather than LMP1, but the company – ever aware of the greatest commercial opportunities – saw more potential sales (and publicity value) in the lower category, especially as the project was angled towards America and the American Le Mans Series championship. The ALMS had been founded in 1999, a rare piece of transatlantic co-operation that adopted the LMP and GT class structure and rules of Le Mans organisers the ACO and so in it Porsche at last found a US series with stable regulations – well almost, as we shall see! An additional benefit of this joint approach for the American teams was that the first and second place class finishers in the ALMS series automatically qualified for entries at Le Mans the following year.

The initial intention was to base the engine of the new car on the Cayenne V8, although being

a production unit this was soon found to be too large and heavy. After considering other options including a turbo six cylinder unit, a purposebuilt 3.4 non-turbo V8 producing 478bhp was constructed. The Weissach design team drew on component suppliers throughout Europe to create a car which comprised a carbon fibre monocoque incorporating a stressed engine/ transmission, a sequential gearbox, ceramic brake discs with alloy calipers and a novel torsion bar suspension, all clothed in a particularly attractive body with a separate rear wing.

An open cockpit was chosen for practical purposes and as it would have no aerodynamic disadvantages. At that time motorsport was entering a transitional period when racing cars were moving from being things of beauty that looked strikingly fit for purpose even when standing still towards their becoming aerodynamically efficient devices that were ironically often removed from the smooth lines of production models. The RS Spyder managed its airflow without looking to be the product of a committee that rarely met and had some nice and also functional details, such as the central nose vent (later enlarged) that took air to the brakes and the engine air intake restrictor built into the LH cockpit fairing.

Construction of the new car began in late 2004 and an intense development period of 11 months followed. In a throwback to the great days of the 917 in Can-Am racing 30 years before, Porsche chose Roger Penske as its ally to enter the new car and when it made its race debut in October 2005 it looked stunning in the yellow livery of German-owned international courier DHL Express. This resulted in a satisfactory class win and fifth overall and after further testing over the close season a two car team for 2006 brought seven class victories and even an overall first, securing the team the LMP2 championship and one of its drivers, Sascha Maassen, the driver award.

For 2007 Porsche made customer cars available in the way in which it always had, although at almost £700,000 plus the consequent maintenance costs (a factory engine rebuild was £57,000!) teams would require sound financial backing. Referred to as an ‘Evo’ version in the company’s press release, power increased to 503bhp and most of its mechanical systems featured upgrades. While of much the same appearance the body was also subjected to various changes and Dyson Racing, who had previously enjoyed much success with Porsches, obtained two of the latest cars.

In that time-honoured way an unexpected regulation change requiring a 10% ethanol fuel content was introduced only a month before the first 2007 race, although in view of the testing required to evaluate the effects of this a four race dispensation was allowed. A 5% reduction in air restrictor diameter was also imposed with little notice mid-season which reduced power to its former level, but Penske still took eight overall and three class wins that year, vanquishing the more powerful LMP1 Audis while Dyson made slower but sure progress with their cars.

2008 brought a 25kg weight penalty for the Spyders but power was back up to its former level. The Penske cars again took the LMP2 and the drivers championships with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, Porsche also just netting the manufacturers title. The outstanding performance by the team that year was an outright win in the Sebring 12 Hours, some 20 years after Porsche had last achieved this, and the season was a fitting swansong to Penske’s efforts with the car. Team CytoSport contested the series with an ex-Dyson car during 2009 and 2010 scoring some good placings and a couple of wins but by 2011 the car was obsolete and its career over.

However, on this side of the Atlantic some private teams took up the model for the 2008 European Le Mans Series, in the shape of Essex of Denmark, Van Merksteijn of Holland and Horag of Switzerland. The Danish and Dutch teams contributed a car each to the model’s first appearance at Le Mans that year and respectively secured a 12th and a class-winning 10th, collecting another five class wins between them during the season with Van Merksteijn, Essex and Horag respectively securing the first three places in the LMP2 championship. For 2009 the only two European outings for the car were at Spa, where the Essex team took a class victory and at Le Mans, where the ex-Van Merksteijn entry of the Japanese Team Goh retired but the Essex car won its class and came 10th overall.

It is a shame that the RS Spyder was not seen more widely in Europe and particularly in Britain (where it raced only once), but it was primarily designed to do its job in the USA and this it accomplished very well. Its engine also provided the basis for the 4.6L naturally aspirated V8 used in the 918 road car and the car could be said to have been at least some of the inspiration for the 919 Hybrid that took Porsche back to the top of sports-prototype racing. The RS Spyder may not be the best known of Porsche racing cars but it is none the less important for that.

23

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AT 134

SALES, SERVICING & REPAIRS

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25

Regional round up R2

Scotland

R8

Anglia & North Essex

R4

Yorkshire

R11

North London, Herts & South Essex

R5

North West

R12

Kent & South East London

R18

Cheshire & Staffs

R13

Thames Valley

R26

Shropshire & Mid Wales

R9

Surrey & Sussex

R6

South Yorkshire & North Notts

R21

Hampshire

R24

Peterborough

R23

Southern

R19

East Midlands

R22

Bristol, South West & South Wales

R7

Central

R15

Cornwall & Devon

R20

South Central

R2

R4 R5

R18

R26 R7

R22 R23

R6 R24

R19

R8

R20 R13

R11

R21

R9

R12

R15

R2

SCOTLAND

scotland@tipec.net RO David Clelland • 07794 600 808 ARO (West) Neil Baird ARO (East) Tim Price Facebook: TIPEC Scotland Meetings are held first Wednesday of every month 7:30pm for an 8pm start in the 007 bar, upstairs at Bo’Ness Motor Museum, Bridgeness Road, Bo’Ness EH51 9JR. www.motor-museum.bo-ness.org.uk Regional sponsors: McLean and Stewart, Solicitors & ClipperTrek Motorhome Hire There was no meeting at Bo’Ness in January.

However, that didn’t mean that nothing happened during the month. Quite a number of members SORN their Porsches over the winter, when the roads in Scotland are covered in salt. With this in mind, a lunch was arranged at Louis Brown’s, Dalgety Bay on the 20th January and to get there you could just use your everyday car. Considering that this was arranged at short notice it was well attended and I’m happy to say that there were no complaints on the quality or the quantity of food that we received.

Later in the month, on the 30th January, we celebrated the Bard’s birthday. Unlike most Burns Suppers, it was a very informal affair held at the Rail Bridge Bistro, South Queensferry. While there was no poetry or addressing the haggis, we still had traditional fayre of cullen skink followed by haggis with bashit neeps and champit tatties, finished off with cheesecake. It was delicious and I’m sure everyone enjoyed themselves.

AT 134

Thanks must go to Nick Marshall for organising Dalgety Bay & Neil Baird for South Queensferry.

The first meeting of the year was held on the 6th February and the new management team took charge. Not to confuse anyone the format was the same as always and the business in hand was dealt with promptly without any undue problems arising. Although it did leave a very embarrassed RO after he won the monthly bonus ball prize.

The outing for February was held on the 17th and took the form of a lunch run. The weather was actually good and, apart from a shower around midday, stayed dry. We met at Kinross Services ready to leave at 10:30am and from there headed towards Milnathort and up through Glenfarg to the motorway at Bridge of Earn.

Rather than going through Perth we hopped onto the M90 to go over the River Tay and then past Scone Palace on the road to the world’s largest beech hedge at Meikleour just before Blairgowrie. From there it was to Bridge of Calley and then along Strathardle to lunch at Moulin Inn outside Pitlochry.

Lunch stop on the Scottish Region’s January run

After being fed and watered, we headed back south again eventually passing through Aberfeldy, the Sma’ Glen to Crieff, Gleneagles and Glen Devon to Muckhart, where those that were left had afternoon tea at Mona’s Tearoom.

Another great day out, enjoyed by all and hopefully the start of many to come in 2019 ( as requested in our recent survey).

The classic car show season will soon be on us and Doodle polls have already been posted for the various events. Some have a limit to the numbers attending, so if you want to go, get your name down now before it’s too late. Also, keep an eye open for emails informing you of other events.

Finally, please feel free to email any suggestions you have to the management team at scotland@tipec.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

April 3rd (Wednesday) Club night at Bo’ness Motor Museum May 1st (Wednesday) Club night at Bo’ness Motor Museum

February’s lunch run to the Moulin Inn

R4

YORKSHIRE

yorkshire@tipec.net RO Chris Grayson-Pedley RO Laurence Parkin Facebook: The Independent Porsche Enthusiasts Club Yorkshire Meetings are held third Monday of every month 7:30pm at The Red Lion, Main St, Burley in Wharfedale, Ilkley LS29 7BT.

R5

NORTH WEST

RO Colin Hammerton • 07500 908 091 col.hamm@hotmail.co.uk ARO Richard Sholl • 07970 147 779 n22rks@googlemail.com ARO Allan Diamond • 07582 197 558 joandald@aol.com ARO Cumbria Dean Mason • 07599 015 694 deanthediver@gmail.com Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month from 7pm (with club business dealt with at 8pm) at The Bowling Green, Preston Road, Charnock Richard PR7 5LA. We had a great start to 2019! 26 cars carrying 45 people turned out for our New Years run. We took a drive down to Porsche Centre Wilmslow, where we’d been invited to visit for a look around their showrooms and a coffee stop. From there we had a drive out to the Three Greyhounds Pub for a fantastic roast beef lunch.

The landlord of the pub is a huge car fan and both he and his staff made us welcome. After lunch some members made their way home but the rest of us had a run up to Buxton, then to Chapel-en-le-Frith and homewards with a coffee stop on route. Standout NW Club Cars on the day have to be the Cream 356 C owned

by Alan, Yellow 993 Turbo S & Red 993 RS both owned by Chris and the brace of GT4s owned

by Simon & Paul.

Traditionally our February club night is pretty quiet due to dark nights and cold, damp weather. Not tonight it wasn’t, we had a meeting room full to busting. I counted at least 15 Porsches and numerous non-Porsche cars on the car park. The topic of conversation was mainly about the year going forward and the many events we have planned. If you’re reading this and have never been involved in any of our events please feel free to do so – it’s the best way to get the most out of your Club Membership.

We had another very busy breakfast run, 27 Porsches and an M2 (Paul’s 996 & 968 were locked away) descended on Glasson Dock on a cold Sunday morning in February to enjoy a fry up at the Lantern O’re Lune Cafe. We also had former Director of PCGB Rob Kellock along for the ride on his first ever outing with TIPEC. Some of us then took a run over the Trough of Bowland and stopped for coffee in Chatburn.

Before I sign off, remember to get the 14th April in your diary, it’s our third Northern-ish Gathering.

April 7th (Sunday) TIPEC AGM, Coventry April 8th (Monday) Club night at the Bowling Green April 14th (Sunday) Northern-ish Gathering Breakfast from 8:30am at The Wellington Inn, Weatherby Rd, LS17 8LZ. Then a 30 minute drive to Performance Porsche, Brighouse, who are opening their doors for us from around 12 noon.

Coffee/tea and biscuits will be provided. We will also be having a charity collection for the Yorkshire Blood Bikes. NW Region are meeting at McDonald’s, A59 Clitheroe from 7am to be on the road for 7:30am. It’s a 75 minute drive to the Wellington on some great roads.

April 26th (Friday) Chippy tea run, destination to be confirmed.

May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic, details on p4 May 12th (Sunday) Jasmine Porschalink open morning from 9–11am. 3A Pendleside, Nelson, BB9 6RY. Bacon butties and brews provided.

May 13th (Monday) Club night at The Bowling Green May 18th (Saturday) RPM Porsche Specialists open day. Book your free tickets, hog roast and refreshments provided. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/porschefest-2019-tickets-55214750806 We are meeting at Mc Donald’s A59 Clitheroe from 7:45am to be on the road for 8:15am.

Breakfast will be at the at Hopper Lane pub 9am then off to RPM. Porsche friendly cross country drive home.

May 19th (Sunday) Porsches on the Prom (PCGB event) May 31st (Friday) Curry night June 2nd (Sunday) Beaulieu Simply Porsche TIPEC Annual show See p4 for details June 10th (Monday) Club Night at The Bowling Green June 23rd (Sunday) Annual Longest day run TBC June TBC Tatton Show

Our January club night saw around 30 people turn out. This was my first as RO and my chance to present Richard & Diane Sholl with a gift from us all at TIPEC NW. We’d had a collection at Christmas to buy a present to thank Richard for all the hard work he’s put in as RO over the last three years. With the money collected we had a canvas print made of his lovely 964, some flowers & chocolates for Diane and £50 worth of vouchers for a couple of local restaurants.

To say they were gobsmacked would be an understatement!

Our first breakfast run of the year was very busy, TC’s Cafe didn’t quite know what had hit them! Luckily Richard had phoned and tipped them off earlier in the week to get extra supplies in. 22 Porsches and a couple of non-Porsche cars, carrying 38 people, rocked up for breakfast on what was a cold, damp Sunday morning.

First breakfast run of the year for the TIPEC North West members 29

C&S cars parked up on the New Year drive

The Cheshire & Staffs region’s New Year drive through the Welsh hills (photo by Gareth)

R18

CHESHIRE & STAFFS

RO Chris Hulme • 07775 794 291 chris@claytonhulme.co.uk ARO Stefanie Mahan • 07776 132 389 ARO Gareth Aldridge • 07881 228 944 gj.aldridge@yahoo.co.uk ARO Ian Highfield ianhighfield@talktalk.net facebook.com/groups/TIPEC.CS Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of every month at 8pm at the Kilton Inn, Warrington Rd, Knutsford, WA16 0PZ. 2019 kicked off with our New Year Drive.

This year we went thorough the Welsh hills before stopping for an evening meal in Bala.

The convoy was led by Gareth & Stef in their VW Corrado, closely followed by 12 Porsches, a Ford Fiesta MK2 and BMW M2. The beautiful winters morning was a sunny one as we headed onto the Welsh roads.

We stopped for a coffee and cake in Whitchurch before carrying onto Lake Vrwyn for a sneaky ice cream! As we were the only beauties on the hills a perfect photo opportunity was had and some spectacular shots were taken. The day was finished off with a lovely meal before everyone headed home.

In February we kicked off the show season with our annual club display at Dubfreeze. I can’t deny Rosie (Stef & Gareth’s Boxster) was the only Porsche this year in the lineup, but we had a full club stand with four members in their VWs and a gorgeous Fiat 126.

Rosie looked lovely parked next to Max (Central region’s) Porsche support VW Caddy truck, the livery is amazing. Dubfreeze didn’t live up to its name this year as it was surprisingly warm – which made the show even better.

AT 134

‘Rosie’ at Dubfreeze (photo by Lucasz)

The winter heatwave made Race Retro a glorious event to attend seeing some fantastic works of art making their way around the grounds of Stoneleigh, including a number of ex-works cars.

There were the usual air-cooled 911s but also a stunning 996. The sounds and smells of late ’80s British forest stages came flooding back! It was great to get up close and personal with cars, mechanics and drivers, including Jimmy McRae. The last few club nights have seen many club members (longstanding and new) chatting all things motor related, with handy hints and tips passed over the table. If you haven’t already come to a club night or a club/region event then come along and join us on our adventures.

We have lots in the diary for 2019 and plans are afoot for the region’s weekend of the year.

Donington Historic is fast approaching and the club’s early booking discount offer is still available. If you haven’t booked already, get booking and come join us over the bank holiday weekend to watch some fantastic historic racing and enjoy the atmosphere.

Some club members are camping nearby … The more the merrier if you wish to join us (contact Stef/Gareth for details). We look forward to seeing many of you there.

As ever, please keep your eyes peeled on email and social media for unplanned events.

April 16th (Tuesday) Club night at the Kilton Inn

Max’s Porsche support Caddy (photo by Lucasz)

May 19th (Sunday) Porsches on the prom, Llandudno (Convoy details on email) May 20th (Monday) Galloway’s visually impaired and blind driving experience (fully booked) May 21st (Tuesday) Club night at the Kilton Inn June 1st–2nd (Saturday–Sunday) Tatton Passion of Power show (Let Gareth, Stef or Chris know if you’re joining us) June 2nd (Sunday) Simply Porsche at Beaulieu June 16th (Sunday) Trentham Transport Show (Confirm attendance with Gareth or Stef) June 18th (Tuesday) Club night at the Kilton Inn

April 28th (Sunday) Easter egg treasure hunt and meal (Confirm attendance for the meal with Stef or Gareth)

July 16th (Tuesday) Club night at the Kilton Inn

May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic (book your tickets!)

July 26–28th (Friday–Sunday) Silverstone Classic

R26

S HROPSHIRE & MID WALES

RO Richard Simmons • 07972 811 221 richardjjs@yahoo.co.uk ARO Deana Simmons Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month from 7:30pm at the Corbet Arms, Uffington, SY4 4SN. John Parry picked up his Carrera 4 GTS from Redline Cars where they had an amazing selection of Porsches, Ferrraris, McLarens and even a Ford GT40 for sale. We had a Breakfast Meeting at the British Iron Works with John Parry Bringing his new purchase and Paul his GT4. Both amazing cars. Thanks all for attending.

Please keep an eye on our Facebook Page as we are arranging a few gatherings.

April 2nd (Tuesday) Club night at the Corbet Arms

Peterborough cars on the ramps at Center Gravity (photo by Richard Sholl)

May 7th (Tuesday) Club night at the Corbet Arms (first outdoor meeting on the patio, overlooking the River Severn)

R24

June 4th (Tuesday) Club night at the Corbet Arms July 2nd (Tuesday) Club night at the Corbet Arms July 14th (Sunday) Transport Rally at British Ironworks Centre www.britishironworkcentre.co.uk We are arranging a joint visit with Cheshire and Stafford region. Last year’s event had over 500 vehicles in attendance. Members please contact me so I can add you to the list.

PETERBOROUGH

peterborough@tipec.net RO Stuart Wand • 07725 328 183 ARO Michael Walter • 07975 542 981 facebook.com/groups/PeterboroughTipec Monthly meetings are held second Thursday of every month from 7pm at The Tap and Kitchen, Oundle PE8 4DE. The Peterborough region has a new home for 2019, we’ve moved our meetings to the Tap and Kitchen in one of the most picturesque towns in the Peterborough area, Oundle. It is based in the wharf area with a huge floodlit car park to allow the space we require for our growing region. With our monthly meetings attracting over 20 people on average, we found we needed a new venue to allow for enough parking. The Tap and Kitchen is a very high quality restaurant which also serves high quality real ales from the brewery that is onsite.

We’ve held our last two meets there and all have enjoyed the food and atmosphere.

Please also note that we are changing the day of our monthly meet nights to second Thursday of every month.

John Parry collecting his Carrera 4 GTS

John’s Carrera beside Paul’s GT4

We had a rather wet trip to the Super Sausage Café in February. Affectionally named Porkbased Breakfast, this was a joint event with South Central and Thames valley. Although it was cold and wet, it was good to meet up and chat all things Porsche over mountains of bacon, sausages etc. At least the weather kept the bikers away.

The club visited Center Gravity in February. For those who don’t know them they’re the premier car alignment centre in the country. Their main focus is Porsche, but they’re equipped to do all makes and models of performance cars.

Chris and Pete are incredibly knowledgeable and have a brilliant way of describing how the setup on a car affects its handling in a way that the layman can understand.

We were greeted on arrival and treated to tea/coffee and pastries before we were given a brilliant and entertaining talk about the business, their history and aims for the future.

Our cars were all checked and had the flaws to our setups explained to us and how they can be improved to get the most from our cars; Chris could tell us just from the setup data what issues we had with the handling of our cars, very impressive.

We enjoyed our visit immensely and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone who requires their car setting up. Many of us are making bookings!

Plans are gaining pace for out inaugural European trip to Spa Classic and excitement is growing for the lucky ones. We’re also building a packed program of events for 2019.

April 11th (Thursday) Monthly meet at the Tap and Kitchen, Oundle April 14th (Sunday) Northern-ish Gathering Road trip to meet up with our friends in the North April 20th (Saturday) Porsche Club Championship 2019 at Donington Park May 9th (Thursday) Monthly meet at the Tap and Kitchen, Oundle May 17–20th (Friday–Monday) Peterborough Porsche Enthusiasts go to the Spa Classic

31

R19

EAST MIDLANDS

east.mids@tipec.net RO Jim Stevens • 07879 885 260 ARO George Acquah • 07958 057 582 ARO Jack Littlemore • 07759 775 705 Meetings are held first Wednesday of every month 7pm at The Packe Arms, Rempstone Road, Hoton, Loughborough LE12 5SJ. As I sit here writing this it feels like spring has already arrived despite the fact that February’s not over yet. Still, as thoughts turn to warmer weather and longer evenings, I’m starting to feel the excitement of another year of friendship and activities with the East Midlands region.

Taking a moment to look back, we had a great New Year meal at the Packe arms back in early January. As usual, they put on a fantastic spread for us and it was a chance to put 2018 to rest and start to think about what 2019 might bring. Star of the show was James MackenzieScott who was managing to get over the grief of having his Porsche damaged in a car park shunt by showing off the brand-new Aston DB9 he was given as a ‘like-for-like’ courtesy replacement. It’s a good job that the pub management are tolerant of engine noise …

We had a well-attended February meeting too, and welcomed some new faces including new member Trevor Chesterton who astounded us all with tales of his car collection and car history.

We are certainly looking forward to seeing some of Trevor’s fleet at future meetings!

At the end of January, yours truly and fellow club member Richard Harwood spent the day messing about in a Citroen C1 racecar at Donington Park (more on this elsewhere in the magazine). Richard has certainly caught the bug, got his race licence and will be competing for the first time at Croft on March 16th. Good luck Richard – we look forward to hearing about your heroic exploits.

Looking forward, we’re starting to get some interesting dates lined up for 2019. We’ve been invited to attend a ‘Porsche and Pancakes’ event at Porsche Centre Nottingham on March 2nd, and Porsche Centre Leicester have kindly offered to host our March monthly meet (see below). March is all about the OPCs! Not forgetting the independents though, we’ve then got our breakfast meeting at Barkston Refinishing (classic car restorers) on March 24th and a visit to Kev Whitehouse’s DW Performance on March 30th.

If you haven’t been to a meet before, you will definitely be welcomed at Porsche Leicester on March 6th (plus there will be ‘drinks and light refreshments’!) If you can’t make that one, do come along in April. The April meeting always feels like the start of the year as the longer evenings bring out the cars and we start to get really good attendance at the get-togethers.

Can’t wait!

AT 134

Finally, I’d like to offer a warm welcome to all the recently joined members. The East Midlands Region has just reached 50 members which is quite a milestone. We value all of your memberships and want to offer you a rewarding club experience. As ever if you’ve got any feedback, suggestions, or ideas for events – do let us know. I look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon.

April 3rd (Wednesday) Club night at The Packe Arms April 6th (Saturday) Tech talk at Center Gravity Academy Workshop, Unit 2, Plot 14, Brindley Close, Holly Lane Industrial Estate, CV9 2GA. The plan is to meet there at 10am. The guys will give a practical talk on suspension, including putting a number of our cars up on the ramps and giving us a guided tour underneath as well as discussing potential issues and remedies.

It will be free-of-charge for paid-up club members and £5 for non-members.

Anglia & North Essex Christmas shindig

April 7th (Sunday) Club AGM at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon CV35 0BJ. This is your chance to get involved and share your thoughts about the club.

April 14th (Sunday) Northern-ish Gathering III The Wellington, Wetherby Road, Leeds LS17 8LZ. Breakfast meet up for all TIPEC regions north of Watford! We're aiming to beat the 90 cars that attended last year. After breakfast, we will be leaving the Wellington pub from 11:15am for a drive of about 20miles to Performance Porsche/Klassiker 911 at Brighouse, who will be opening their doors exclusively for us.

R8

A NGLIA & NORTH ESSEX

Ian Jones • izzy.spyder@sky.com John Briggs • john.briggs@charcoal.uk.com Yvonne King • yvonneking@hotmail.com Adam Jiggins • adamjiggins69@gmail.com facebook.com/groups/618348854957396

From your international correspondent …

With the meal finished it was onto yet more drinks for the overnight stayers. This seems to be an agreeable formula, albeit leaving some sore heads on Sunday morning.

The Steering Committee has met to have a run through of the shows and events that are currently on the agenda for the forthcoming year, and there certainly are plenty to choose from.

Meetings are held fourth Tuesday of each month from 7pm at The Woolpack, Fornham St Martin, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 1SW. www.thewoolpackfornham.co.uk 01284 753 380

It is obviously not practical for everybody to attend all the events, but what we will try to do is keep you informed as to what is coming up, be it an organised or ad-hoc event.

The easiest way for us to inform you is via our Facebook page, although we will be also sending out emails mirroring the Facebook posts when possible.

I hope you are well and surviving the cold weather. I think our region has been reasonably lucky and missed the worst of it so far, and now the mini heatwave is bringing a few cars out of hibernation.

As always, your suggestions are very welcome by either contacting the Steering Committee or simply posting on our Facebook page.

Our post-Christmas shindig was a great success and enjoyed by all who attended.

We met up mid-afternoon in Bury St Edmunds for some pre-match drinks, then onto a very nice meal at an Italian (very Christmassy).

Many thanks to Sam & Shirl for donating the wine and raffle prize!

We discussed the possibility of arranging more weekends or overnight trips away, sort of a mini road trip to a pre-arranged point of interest, with an evening meal and a few drinks, stay in a hotel and either head home the following morning or tie it in with a car show or other event. The possibilities are endless, and we welcome your input as always.

R6

S OUTH YORKSHIRE & NORTH NOTTS.

RO & ARO wanted urgently Meetings are held first Sunday of every month at 7pm for 7:30pm start at Ye Olde Bell Hotel, Barnby Moor, Retford, Notts, DN22 8QS Keep up to date at www.synn.org.uk or look for us on Facebook as ‘Porsche Enthusiasts Club - South Yorkshire & North Notts (TIPEC)’ R7

CENTRAL

tipeccentral@outlook.com RO Lindsay Brown • 07768 442 050 ARO Steve Jones • 07775 581 044 ARO Neil Smith • 07899 961 429

Those of you who have shown an interest in the Nurburgring Old Timers weekend; Please see our Facebook page for more details (or email/ message Ian Jones).

The Eurotunnel crossings will need to be booked ASAP due to the event falling within the school holidays – the trains will be filling up very quickly.

April 7th (Sunday) TIPEC AGM April 23rd (Tuesday) Club night at The Woolpack May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic Festival Early bird offer on page four May 28th (Tuesday) Club night at The Woolpack June 2nd (Sunday) Simply Porsche, TIPEC annual event at Beaulieu Motor Museum June 25th (Tuesday) Club night at The Woolpack July 23rd (Tuesday) Club night at The Woolpack July 26–28th (Friday–Sunday) TIPEC event, Silverstone Classic Early bird offer on page two July/August, date TBC Regional BBQ, kindly hosted by Yvonne August 9–11th (Friday–Sunday) Nurburgring Old Timer GP CAMPING, cars and beer weekend (Not for the faint hearted!)

Contact Ian ‘Izzy’ Jones for details

Meetings are held second Monday of every month 7:30pm onwards at The Bull’s Head, Birmingham Road, Shenstone WS14 0JR. www.vintageinn.co.uk/thebullsheadshenstone The show season is well underway, and Central have a couple of breakfast meetings under our belt already this year. We have attended the Donington meeting again in February, and we weren’t alone – about 300 cars turned up.

Unfortunately one or two felt the need to do donuts in the car park. The security were quick to stamp this out and the offenders have now been banned from all MSV events.

With the lighter nights just around the corner we will be able to kick tyres in the car park at The Bulls Head, and also the evening meets at The Fig and Olive, which have some serious cars turning up. Why not pop along for a couple of hours on a Tuesday evening?

In April we drive up the M1 to Leeds for the third Northern-ish Gathering, some of the Central members are making a weekend of it – if lasts years event is anything to go by it will be a cracking weekend. We are again booking a table at The Lodge for a curry evening, so if you fancy a ruby let me know and I can add your name to the list.

Our monthly garden centre breakfast meets are going from strength to strength, again why don’t you pop along? It’s not just a male activity, bring your other half along and they will be made more than welcome.

I must confess to looking forward to the Donington Historic Festival in May. Sunday tends to have a large attendance from TIPEC, and where else could you find the now infamous prosecco tent and bacon rolls sizzling away on the camping stove? If you haven’t got your ticket yet don’t leave it too late.

May also sees us joining up with PCGB for their annual Porsches on the Prom at Llandudno.

I’ve never been to this so I’m looking forward to seeing more than 300 Porsches displayed on the prom.

An Ace Café run on the second Bank Holiday Monday in May is an almost annual event for us, but last years was cancelled at the last minute due to flooding. Fingers crossed for this year.

Jumping ahead to June 16th, we are joining up with our friends at Cheshire and South Staffs for the Trentham Gardens show, please let me know numbers ASAP so we can book it, thanks.

April 7th (Sunday) MMM at Middleton Hall April 7th (Sunday) Club AGM at Gaydon April 8th (Monday) Club night at The Bull’s Head April 13–14th (Saturday–Sunday) Northern-ish Gathering, at The Wellington, LS17 8LZ April 20th (Saturday) Curry night at The Lodge April 21st (Sunday) Breakfast meet, venue TBC April TBC OPC visit, date TBC May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic Festival May 5th (Sunday) Middleton Hall car show.

May 5–6th (Sunday–Holiday Monday) Notts Classic Car and Bike Show, NG22 9EP May 7th (Tuesday) Club night at the Fig and Olive May 13th (Monday) Club night at The Bull’s Head May 19th (Sunady) Porsches on the Prom, Llandudno May 21st May (Tuesday) Club night at the Fig and Olive May 26th (Sunday) Breakfast meet, venue TBC May 27th (Monday) Ace Café run June 1st–2nd (Saturday–Sunday) Simply Porsche at Beaulieu June 2nd (Sunday) Middleton Hall car show June 4th (Tuesday) Club night at the Fig and Olive 33

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N ORTH LONDON, HERTS & SOUTH ESSEX

NLHSE@tipec.net RO Vince Dallimore • 07798 630 649 ARO Peter Musk • 07734 769 953 facebook.com/groups/1217447545000223 David’s 964 at Hitchin Town Classic & Dub Club

South Central cars at the Bicester Scramble

Some of us ventured down to Hitchin at the end of February to the Hitchin Town Classic and Dub Club. A great meet on the impressive Hitchin Market square. Plenty of Porsches as well as other eye-catching cars and bikes. Well worth a trip on the last Monday of the month.

Vibrant colours at the South Central club night

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SOUTH CENTRAL

south.central@tipec.net RO Nick Papé • 07801 881 170 ARO Gary Howard • 07856 723 196 Instagram: @tipecsouthcentral Facebook.com/groups/southcentraltipec Meetings are held first Thursday of the month from 7:30pm at The Green Man, Lavendon MK46 4HA. It was a great way to kick off 2019 achieving 50 members in South Central. I’d like to welcome our new members to the region and hope to meet you soon.

Our January meeting was call for a celebration with Chris’ (ahem) birthday and you know you’ve been accepted in the pub when the landlord gives out a card from the staff. For both our January and February club nights, the cold, dark (but dry) nights didn’t stop us having a wander around the cars following a hearty dinner. At least one 944 bonnet gets opened each South Central meeting for a ‘thorough inspection’.

January saw us return to the popular Bicester Scramble at Bicester Heritage. A bracing way to kick off the new year saw enthusiasts from neighbouring regions join with us on our club pitch. The next Scramble is on the 28th of April and club booking promotional code is covered earlier in this edition of All Torque. Please come along, it is a great day out.

In February we met with friends from Thames Valley, East Mids and Peterborough at the award-winning Super Sausage Café near Towcester. No one leaves the Café hungry and despite the rainy start, around 20 cars met.

Some then followed on to Banbury to the Classic Car meet there and an impromptu tour with Nash of Retro Restorer. A top day of Porsching.

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Our club nights at the Green Man in Lavendon are very informal. Please do come along on the first Thursday of the month from 19:00 for some top Porsche chat, food and drink.

For more up to date news and to join in the discussion, please join us on Facebook or keep an eye out for emails. As always, the club is run by the members for the members so if there is something you would like to see or do, please let Gary and me know.

April 4th (Thursday) Club night at the Green Man in Lavendon April 14th (Sunday) Northern-ish Multiregion Gathering Early start for convoy to Leeds April 27th (Saturday) Dyno Day at RGS Motorsport April 28th (Sunday) Bicester Sunday Scramble (Requires pre-purchased tickets)

Two informal monthly meetings: first Sunday 10:30am (open marque) at The Goat Inn, Vicarage Causeway, Hertford Heath, SG13 7RT. Last Monday 6pm (Porsches only) at The Ace Café, Ace Corner, off the A406, Stonebridge, London NW10 7UD. The balmy weather in Jan and Feb has allowed greater use of the cars with only a short period of snow and salt to deter getting them out.

Whilst we use Facebook as our primary instant contact media, we’ll try emailing you directly to update on events.

With the intention of restarting a regular club night, I have provisionally arranged with Laura at The Goat Inn for an area of the pub for us to meet and chat about members thoughts and interests in respect of our region of TIPEC. We see around 10% of our region members at the regular Goat and Ace Café meetings, so we’re interested to know what the remainder are doing with your Porsches and whether you’d like more club-specific activity. To allow time for this proposal to circulate with the magazine, I will book the Goat for the evening of 17 April, a Wednesday, at 7:30pm for introductions and 8:30 for a Fish and Chip supper, paid for by the club.

We’ll need provisional numbers to book food, so please contact Peter or myself by email to NLHSE@ TIPEC.net to let us know if you can join us, or not.

Our North London Herts, South Essex Facebook group now has 43 members registered, albeit

May 2nd (Thursday) Club night at the Green Man in Lavendon May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic Festival May 6th (Monday) Castle Ashby Classic Motor Show May 19th (Sunday) Denton Vehicle Day May 26th (Sunday) Breakfast run to the Super Sausage Café

GT2RS at the Ace Café

June 2nd (Sunday) Simply Porsche at Beaulieu June 6th (Thursday) Club night at the Green Man in Lavendon June 7–9th (Friday–Monday) Laon Classic June 9th (Monday) Visit to RPM Technik

944 at The Goat

not many of our actual members. Forthcoming events are posted here for your convenience, as well as being noted in All Torque, where events will be posted to aid communication with you all. Find and ask to join the Facebook group for our region at: www.facebook.com/ groups/1217447545000223 Since our last update, we’ve had two meetings at The Goat, at the start of January and February.

The March gathering was a washout with heavy rain and storm Freya winds!

The Ace Café meetings in January and February were both capacity gatherings with many cars having to park on the road; this is usual on dry clear days when lots of owners break out their cars. Watching Top Gear on Sunday 4th March, the 911GT2 RS was featured and took top place on the lap time leader board; at around £250,000 it was a surprise and coincidence that an example was at the Ace on the 25th!

I visited the London Classic Car Show at Excel on the Friday, less busy with people at work. My first impression was that the show seems to have shrunk again; a new location, same set up with the grand avenue and displays by dealers and clubs, traders and seemingly space filling others.

The cars on display were, as always, impressive and totally out of reach for your typical car owner.

The themes this year were the Mini and Citroen’s anniversary – pretty yawn-inducing unless that is your bag. Next year I’ll be looking hard at the setup and themes before buying tickets and if you were wondering, yes of course I bought some cobalt drill bits and some other tat to prove I’d been!

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K ENT & SOUTH EAST LONDON

kent.sel@tipec.net RO Paul Greer • 07799 412 870 ARO Stuart Watson Meetings are held first Monday of the month from 7:30pm at The Carpenters Arms, Three Elm Lane, Hadlow, Tonbridge TN11 0AD. www.carpentersarms.net We had a great turnout for our first club night of the year in January with a few new faces, which is always good to see.

A few brave souls attended the MGJ Engineering winter rally at Brands Hatch on the 19th January, which was a great event to start off the year .

Our annual 10 pin bowling took place at the Hollywood Bowl in Rochester on the 20th January, 24 members and guests took part in the this fun event. After a close competition, this year’s winner was Callum Stewart – my eldest daughter’s boyfriend!

On Sunday 27th January we held our first breakfast club of the year at The Malta Inn,

Callum Stewart 2019 10 pin bowling champion

Maidstone. A new venue for us where 16 of us gathered for breakfast and a catch up.

February club night was another well attended evening, good to see Dan & Stewart from OPC Tonbridge attending their first club night of the year.

On February 17th we held our second breakfast club of the year, again at a new venue – The Gunpowder Mill, Faversham. It was great to see Dave & Di’s new car, although it is a McLaren!

April 1st (Monday) Club night at The Carpenters Arms, Hadlow April 7th (Sunday) Club AGM, Gaydon April 14th (Sunday) Breakfast drive and photo opportunity, at The Bosuns Bite, Rye Harbour Meeting 8am at Maidstone services April 27th (Saturday) Detailing Day at Walnut Tree Farm, Lower Stoke 9:30 am start Check our page on the club website and our Facebook page for up to date event information.

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THAMES VALLEY

thames.valley@tipec.net RO Andrew Harris • 07812 146 999 ARO Graham Driver • 07799 625 279 Meetings are held second Tuesday of every month 7:00pm at The Bell & Bottle, Bath Rd, Littlewick Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3RX. What a wonderful start to 2019 … with over 7,000 tickets sold and over 30 cars on our club stand at the Bicester Heritage Centre for the Sunday Scramble on 6th January, what better way is there to start our year? There was an abundance of everything Porsche along with copious amounts of everything else, Ed China was even wondering around! It was great to see so many of you at the Oxford Services and I am sure you all enjoyed Graham’s ‘spirited’ drive around the countryside.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend our first meeting of the year due to major traffic issues along the A4 making it near impossible for me to get to the Bell & Bottle before closing!

Thames Valley at the Super Sausage Café

However, Graham made it along to keep the Thames Valley dream alive and being a dry and mild evening, Graham saw a busy car park with lots of people and lots of chat, a good night by all accounts. I managed to attend our February meeting and, unlike the Sunday before for our Super Sausage drive out, the evening was dry and mild and with so many of you in attendance making for another enjoyable evening.

Our first Sunday morning breakfast run of the year to the Blackbushe Café on 20th January was as popular as ever with 10 cars leaving the Bell & Bottle and Graham leading the way. We very much under-estimated the levels of interest for a cold January morning and pretty much took over the café as we had a further 10 or so cars joining us from around the region … Fabulous.

The Super Sausage Café, famous for all things petrol and sausages, most kindly provided us with some Porsche Enthusiasts Club parking and an amazing breakfast for our joint breakfast meeting with South Central, Peterborough and East Midlands regions on Sunday 10th February and with 20 or so cars in attendance, it couldn’t have been a better morning out. The Thames Valley members met at the M40 Oxford Services for 7:45am, time for a quick coffee and then a damp but spirited drive to the Super Sausage Café at Potterspury, thank you Graham for a fab route.

April 7th (Sunday) TIPEC AGM April 9th (Tuesday) Club night at the Bell & Bottle April 28th (Sunday) Bicester Heritage Sunday Scramble May 14th (Tuesday) Club night at the Bell & Bottle May (Sunday, date TBC) Afternoon tea in Brighton Throughout the year we put on a number of outings along with our summer ‘themed’ meetings at the Bell & Bottle. Please keep an eye on our diary page of our website at: www.tipec. net/regions/thames-valley or our Facebook page, Thames Valley Region – Porsche Enthusiasts Club.

If you are unable to attend any of the events, please feel free to pop along to our monthly meeting at the Bell & Bottle, it is always enjoyable with lots of friendly people and good food.

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May 15th (Wednesday) Porsche Meeting at The Fairmile Portsmouth Road, Cobham, KT11 1BW May 17–20th (Friday–Monday) WotY – Trip to Bedford/Cambridge area, details TBC June 2nd (Sunday) TIPEC Simply Porsche Beaulieu Motor Museum June 12th (Wednesday) Club night at The Bolney Stage, June 19th (Wednesday) Porsche Meet at The Fairmile Portsmouth Road, Cobham, Surrey, KT11 1BW June 23rd (Sunday) Bromley Pageant of Motoring All details of our regional events can be found on our regional section of the TIPEC.net website.

Nick Barnes’ 928

Our annual weekend away – WotY – is booked for the weekend of May 17–20th and centred around The Flitwick Manor Hotel, Bedford with visits to Duxford and Cambridge arranged so far, more to be advised in due course.

We have a couple of rooms still available if you would like to join us.

Antiques or collectibles?

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SURREY & SUSSEX

surrey.sussex@tipec.net RO Bob Stephens • 07548 306 803 ARO Terry Rockall • 07771 511 433 facebook.com/groups/ tipecsurreyandsussex Meetings are held second Wednesday of every month from 7:00pm at The Bolney Stage, London Road, Bolney RH17 5RL, 10 miles south of Crawley off the A23.

Through contacts with the Morgan club, who got the details through the Sunbeam Talbot club, we attended a breakfast meeting on Sunday 24th Feb at The White Hart at Hartford Bridge, complete with bacon butties and coffee.

This is a charity event open to all makes and with the good weather we have enjoyed recently it was well attended.

The White Hart is now an Antiques centre so whilst the boys enjoyed viewing and discussing the cars the girls were able to take themselves off for a bit of retail therapy.

The cars included a very rare (a much over used word in classic car ads) BMW, which our beemer guru Terry has still not yet identified.

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April 6th (Saturday) Ace Café InCarNation April 6–7th (Saturday–Sunday) Members Meeting Goodwood Motor Circuit, PO18 0PX April 10th (Wednesday) Club night at The Bolney Stage April 14th (Sunday) Southern Classics Breakfast Shoreham Airport, Cecil Pashley Way, BN43 5FF April 17th (Wednesday) Porsche Meeting at The Fairmile Portsmouth Road, Cobham, KT11 1BW April 19th (Friday) Piazza Italia Cars & Motorbike Show The Carfax, Horsham, RH12 1DW April 22nd (Monday) Goodwood Road Racing Club Spring Sprint Goodwood Motor Circuit, PO18 0PX

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SOUTHERN

RO urgently wanted ARO Jim Tarrant • 0120 260 1886 jim.tarrant@consequia.com Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month from 7:30pm at The Old Thatch, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 7NW. Monthly meetings are back at The Old Thatch now that they have re-opened. We had a reasonable turn out in February and even some Porsches in the car park – it would be great to see even more in March!

The calendar is filling up and there are a few more things in the pipeline that members are arranging. If you are planning on a visit somewhere and want some company, let me know and I will publicise it to the wider membership.

If anyone has any words and/or pictures of what what they’ve been up to with their cars, please do email them to me for publication.

April 2nd (Tuesday) Southern Region AGM and Club Night at The Old Thatch, Wimborne April 7th (Sunday) TIPEC Annual General Meeting British Motor Museum, Gaydon CV35 0BJ

April 22nd (Monday) Piazza Italia Car & Motorbike Show The Carfax, Horsham

April 28th (Sunday) Wilton Wake Up Breakfast at Iconic Performance Cars Meet at Ringwood Car Park 7:00am

April 28th (Sunday) National Drive It Day, details TBC

May 3rd–5th (Friday–Sunday) Donington Historic Festival

May 8th (Wednesday) Club night at The Bolney Stage

May 7th (Tuesday) Club night at The Old Thatch, Wimborne

May 26th (Sunday) Wilton Wake Up Breakfast Pre-’88 Retro & Classic Cars Meet at Ringwood Car Park 7:00am June 2nd (Sunday) Simply Porsche Beaulieu www.beaulieu.co.uk/events/simply-porsche June 4th (Tuesday) Club night at The Old Thatch, Wimborne

Hampshire members at the Blackbushe Café

June 15–16th (Saturday–Sunday) Le Mans 24 Hours

Plenty of free parking. So we have organised a lunch run out in June and will give more details nearer the time.

June 22nd–23rd (Saturday–Sunday) Bristol Classic Car Show Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet bccs.bristolclassiccarshows.com Please visit our region’s part of the website at www.tipec.net/regions/southern as we are continuously updating our events page.

Members will also receive email notifications of upcoming items.

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Hampshire Region cars at the Departure Lounge

HAMPSHIRE

hampshire@tipec.net RO William Batchelor • 07941 034 422 ARO Andrew Morle • 07450 435 347

Not to be missed is the annual Ashington Festival with Classic Cars and Vintage Vehicles, Carnival and stage arena with acts running throughout the afternoon and evening. An invitation and opportunity to you to show your Porsche, we will be there with a TIPEC stand and welcome your participation. There will be plenty of stalls and also a car boot, it is a huge event with special entertainment in the evening with the Creative Covers band and William on Saxophone! Also a fantastic firework display, so hope to see our members there.

April 12th (Friday) Curry night May 1st (Wednesday) Club night at the Links Tavern, Liphook

Thank you to all those that made it to the Breakfast Run at the Departure Lounge in Alton, fabulous food and great to meet up and chat about our cars and all sorts.

Spring is in the air, time to get those dust covers off and disconnect your trickle chargers! Looking ahead, we have a few events organised and look forward to seeing our members and new people joining us in the future months. Your ideas and suggestions are very welcome, at a recent meeting there was a suggestion of a run out to Blackbushe Airport Gmund qs 30/6/08 their 16:49 Pagemenu 1 and recommended Café. Great and prices, all day breakfast, all fresh cooked food.

B RISTOL, SOUTH WEST & SOUTH WALES

RO Sue Simmons • 07530 312 700 sue.simmons1@gmail.com ARO Debs Bradshaw • 07423 436 503 debbradshaw@sytner.co.uk ARO Sarah Hughes Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month from 6:30pm at The Plough, Pilning, Nr Bristol BS35 4JJ. www.theploughpilning.co.uk Both of our monthly meetings in January and February were well attended, and at the February one Derek had prepared a Quiz – the hardest 20 Porsche related quiz questions ever. Well done to Lawrence, Sharon and Mick for winning and for going home with Amazon vouchers.

April 3rd (Wednesday) Club night at the Links Tavern, Liphook

Meetings are held first Wednesday of every month from 7pm at The Links Tavern, Portsmouth Road, Liphook, Hampshire GU30 7EF.

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May 5th (Sunday) Lunch run and classic cars at Departure Lounge June 2nd (Sunday) Simply Porsche, Beaulieu June 5th (Wednesday) Club night at the Links Tavern, Liphook June 16th (Sunday) Lunch run meet from 1 pm, details TBC Further updates can be viewed online at www.tipec.net/regions/Hampshire

The night also gave us the opportunity to hear about Richards planned ‘Rust to Rome’ adventure this May. This is where he buys a roadworthy car for under £500 and then drives it from Edinburgh to Rome (bizarrely driving first to Edinburgh so he can then drive down to Dover!) So the Volvo 850 looked a bargain but since then he has given himself some other options … The charity he is supporting is Guide Dogs and our raffle that evening raised a nice £105 for the cause – thanks everyone for your generosity.

Our region has a newly negotiated deal with Porsche Bristol, thanks to Philip at the dealership with the discounts being successfully taken up by a few members already. Contact me if you haven’t received a copy.

www.gmundcollection.com The internet's largest collection of Porsche memorabilia.

DVD’S & CD’S C’était un rendevous - £14.99 The new RUF DVD - £55.00 Best Motoring - The Porsche 996 Turbo - The King? - £19.99 Porsche model info CDs - £10.00

PHONE FOR LATEST MODELS WORKSHOP MANUALS Original Porsche workshop manuals available for all models, most ex-stock

BOOKS

SALES BROCHURES Porsche Sales Brochures from the 1960’s/70’s/80’s to present day are now available. From £10

ORIGINAL DRIVERS HANDBOOKS These handbooks are what would have been supplied with every new car that left the dealership. They contain lots of very useful information - almost every model is still available with prices starting from £25.00

w w w.g m u n d co lle c t i o n .co m email: info@gmundcollection.com tel: 0870 20 20 911 fax: 0870 20 20 959 37

July 21st (Sunday) Classics at the Castle, Sherbourne Castle July 26–28th (Friday–Sunday) Silverstone Classic August 18th (Sunday) Thornfalcon Classic Car Show This will be the first year we have a club stand at this show … and its FREE Bristol, South West & South Wales cars lined up with the Great Western Air Ambulance (photo by Matt Sudol)

Following on from our Christmas Grand Draw we were invited to visit the new Air Ambulance base near the M4/M5 intersection on February 1st – the day of the snow! So it got postponed to March 1st – and thanks to the members who came along in seven cars to create a stunning display in front of the Great Western Air Ambulance helicopter.

The base is a joint venture with the Police and we were allowed on the apron on the condition that if they got a ‘shout’ we had one minute to remove all the cars. Fortunately the moment they got a ‘shout’ was when Conrad’s GT3 was having a final photo after the other six had returned to the car park, so Conrad had no problem leaving the apron as fast as he possibly could – if you know what I mean! This is such a worthy cause and Joe and Emma, the fundraising coordinators, as well as the operational base staff were all very welcoming and giving of their time, making it a very informative visit.

In the coming weeks we are hoping to arrange a day’s drive in Wales, a possible special visit to Hinckley Point Power Station as well as planning for stands at Donington Historic, Silverstone Classic, Sherborne Classics at The Castle, Weymouth Porsche on the Prom to name but a few – oh and Simply Porsche at BEAULIEU of course, our star event of the year.

April 7th (Sunday) Malvern Festival of Transport, Three Counties Showground May 5th (Sunday) Bowood’s Spring Classic Car & Motorcycle Show June 2nd (Sunday) Simply Porsche 2019 at Beaulieu in Hampshire, our very own annual show

September 18th–23rd (Wednesday–Monday) Holiday in Southern Ireland If anyone wants to put dates in the diary you can see our planned events on our regional page at tipec.net/regions/bristolsouthwales Please contact me for any info you need on sue.simmons@tipec.net or 07530 312 700.

See our regional page on tipec.net and see our Facebook page for details of more things to do.

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CORNWALL & DEVON

RO & ARO urgently wanted For now, c/o Sue Simmons • 07530 312 700 sue.simmons1@gmail.com Merged with Bristol, South West & South Wales until a local RO is found.

0121 248 9343

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For anyone who’s not visited it yet, The Porsche Enthusiast’s Club has a brand spanking new online store, hosted by UKCarclubs.com, the UKs #1 dedicated car club merchandise site.

What makes us different? Well, we’re fellow petol heads, we love our cars and we started UKCarclubs as an excuse to go to more car shows (but don’t tell anyone) and it grew from there, today we have club stores all over the uk with members in the 100s of thousands.

Today we dedicate ourselves to making sure that our club’s members get only the best quality merchandise, service and of course value. That’s why we are so excited abut the opening of your new store, because we’ve been working together to make sure you get ju that, a great range with everything from branded mugs and decals right through to the just finest quality lambswool sweaters and everything in between, all branded with the club logo, you’ve also go the oppon to choose the club logo that suits your model best as well as choose your region, logo colour and even personalise the items with your name, What is good club merchandise? We think it’s having things people want to wear or own and at the same me gives them the opportunity to support their club. We know you’ll love the store as much as we do, so why not have a look hhps:///pec.ukcarclubs.com

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TIPEC is the friendly face

of Porsche ownership. Non-elitist, serving the needs of ordinary people from all walks of life who share our common passion.

We welcome anyone who has a Porsche or is just an enthusiast. Owners of all Porsche models are very welcome. TIPEC is an entirely independent, not-for-profit Club, run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts and is not connected with Porsche AG in any way.

Join the club online at www.tipec.net TIPEC membership is £40 for one year or £60 for two years. * £45 per year in Europe and £50 per year Rest of World

Benefits include: • • • • • • • •

National events Club nights countrywide Regular club drives Technical advice Member discounts Busy online forum Bi-monthly magazine Car valuations