Category Archives: Porsche

WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone – Sat 16th & Sun 17th Apr 2016 Part 2

April 21, 2016 Phil-O Leave a comment

Sunny Sunday!

What a difference a day makes. The WEC weekend started off with snow and sleet on Saturday but Sunday brought glorious sunshine even though it was still a bit chilly.

The WEC 6 Hour Race was obviously the main event of the weekend. The 2016 WEC season opener and chance to really see what development has been successfully carried out by the teams over the Winter break.

Whilst qualifying provided an indication of top speed and relative handling capabilities – endurance race cars and drivers can only prove themselves in race conditions i.e. over several hours and with all classes of cars out on track simultaneously.

Continue reading WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone – Sat 16th & Sun 17th Apr 2016 Part 2 →

Endurance Racing, Porsche

WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone – Sat 16th & Sun 17th Apr 2016 Part 1

April 21, 2016 Phil-O Leave a comment

Snowy Saturday

Arriving at Silverstone in a blizzard on Saturday morning didn’t bode well. After depositing my old 911 in the Porsche Club GB parking zone – a warming coffee in the club tent was essential before wandering into the circuit to find out if and when the racing would start.

As the sleet and snow subsided – the race marshals gradually abandoned the warmth of the Paddock Café to make their way trackside. A sure sign that racing was about to commence.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche, Veteran Cars, Vintage Cars

London Classic Car Show – Sat 20th Feb 2016

February 22, 2016 Phil-O Leave a comment

This year’s London Classic Car Show at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London’s Docklands promised to be bigger and better than last year and thankfully – it was!

Spread over two large halls the show was easier to move around, it offered a more balanced mix of dealers, specialists and car club stands and last but not least it allowed for a much bigger open space in which to parade cars representing the great automotive nations.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, my car, Porsche, Uncategorized, Veteran Cars, Vintage Cars

Decisions, Decisions – 2016?

January 24, 2016 Phil-O 4 Comments

Moving on from reflections of 2015 – it’s time to look forward and consider how to indulge my motoring interests in 2016. What events should I attend and what improvements can I make to my ’71 2.2 L 911E? Decisions, decisions!

With a bit of careful planning – it would be easily possible to spend most of my weekends attending one form of motoring activity or another but this would certainly be a fast-track to divorce. Instead I need to carefully select those events that:-

a) Stand-out in terms of their quality, variety and spectacle,

b) Present an opportunity to meet up with old mates,

c) Provide new motoring experiences.

On the car front – my aim is to continue gradual improvement of my 911 with some mechanical and cosmetic upgrades as time, money and availability of parts & services allow.

So here are my thoughts on car events I could attend and car improvements I could make during 2016.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, my car, Porsche, Veteran Cars, Vintage Cars

The Dead Zone – Jan 2016

January 10, 2016 Phil-O Leave a comment

The winter months present something of a challenge to British motoring enthusiasts as it’s a motoring Dead Zone as far as races and classic car jaunts are concerned due to the poor weather and lack of daylight.

With precious motors consigned to winter hibernation – it leaves car enthusiasts dangerously prone to the onset of ICDS – Interesting Car Deficiency Syndrome!

To counter the debilitating effects of this affliction it’s important to reflect on the past year’s motoring highlights and to start planning for petrolicious pleasures in the year to come.

It also allows time to muse over the improvements you’ve managed to make to your classic car over the past year and fantasise over other reassuringly expensive ways of further improving its performance or looks.

NB: The featured image shows my Dad (on the left) and his colleague in the late 1940s just after they’d dug their way through a truck-high snow drift on their daily round to collect milk churns from remote farms around Appleby, Cumbria.

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Classic Cars, historic cars, my car, Porsche

Classics At The Castle – Hedingham Pre ’73 Porsche Event – Sun 6th Sep 2015

September 21, 2015 Phil-O Leave a comment

My trip to Hedingham 2015 started well as I drove passed Stansted Airport to find myself accidentally sandwiched between two 2.4 911s. We managed to pick up another 2.2E along the way to match mine and to bring our noisy convoy of early 911s up to 4, much to the delight (or possible consternation) of other road users!

This year’s Hedingham Porsche gathering delivered an enormous and varied turn-out of classic Porsches which confirmed the burgeoning popularity of the event, further enhanced this year by the inclusion of a Classic Porsche Auction run by Coys of Kensington.

The Porsche Museum, Porsche Cars GB and some very trusting private owners enhanced the already great turn-out with some extra-special cars including beautiful and rare 356 Carreras, 550 Spyders, a 904 and an iconic Gulf liveried John Wyer 917 (as used by Steve McQueen in his film Le Mans).

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche, Uncategorized

Donington Historic Festival – Sat 2nd & Sun 3rd May 2015

May 8, 2015 Phil-O Leave a comment

The Donington Historic Festival goes from strength to strength and for 2015 – races were spread over no less than 3 days spanning the early May Bank Holiday weekend. Fortunately for many of the attendees – cold weather made “anoraks” a thermal necessity rather than just a disparaging character assessment!

Donington embraces Classic Car clubs by offering cheap ticket deals to members with the added benefit of parking in marque specific areas of the infield plus the chance to participate in a lunch time parade lap around the circuit. What more can you ask? OK – warmer weather would be nice – sort it out Mr Wheatcroft!

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my car, Porsche

911 2.2S Engine Rebuild – Part 14: Dizzy, Aerated & Exhausted!

March 10, 2015 Phil-O 2 Comments

This could be the range of emotions that you’d expect to go through as an integral part of classic car ownership but in the context of this post they refer to remaining problems that had to be sorted out on my engine following its complete rebuild.

With the benefit of hindsight – driving the car to Le Mans in June 2014 before the engine was fully sorted and properly set-up wasn’t one of my better ideas!

Steve did his best to sort things out but both he and I were unaware of some underlying issues which impacted performance and smooth running during the trip.

Thanks to Steve’s perseverance in analysing the multiple, linked issues and sorting them out I now have a car which is running so much better than on the Le Mans trip that I barely recognise it. I just can’t stop grinning whilst driving it!

Continue reading 911 2.2S Engine Rebuild – Part 14: Dizzy, Aerated & Exhausted! →

Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche

Jaz Porsche Open Day – Sat 31st Jan 2015

February 1, 2015 Phil-O 2 Comments

Jaz Porsche provided a great uplift from the January gloom by holding an open day to show off their new St. Albans premises and to display some of their projects and handy work.

Sleet and snow meant that driving conditions were not ideal but the prospect of quick blast up the M1 in my old 911 to Steve and Claire Winter’s new premises and meet up with fellow Porsche enthusiasts over a drink and bite to eat was too good to miss.

The new workshop is much more spacious than the one that Jaz left in Wembley and with fresh paint and great Porsche posters adorning the walls it looks like a clinically clean environment in which to service and restore treasured Porsches of all ages.

A quick chat with Steve resulted in me adding to his order for US-sourced Salt & Pepper 911 carpet sets. Then a chat with Bruce Cooper from Sportwagen got me booked in for a paint check and trimming work to fit the new carpet set. Job done!

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Car Designers, Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche

London Classic Car Show – Sat 10th Jan 2015

January 14, 2015 Phil-O

The lack of sunshine during the dark Winter months gives rise to a particular form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which can result in susceptible people suffering from mild depression. This condition is treated by exposing sufferers to bright light.

I suffer from a very specific form of Seasonal Affective Disorder called ICDD or Interesting Car Deficiency Disorder! The only viable treatment for this terrible affliction is to expose sufferers to interesting cars at any and every opportunity.

The London Classic Car Show at London’s Excel Centre provided just such an opportunity! Judging by the turnout – lots of other people had also opted to for a serious course of ICDD treatment!!!

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