Mystery man at the NEC today . . . . .

I nipped over to the Autosport show at the NEC today.
Whilst there I found myself on the Bilstein stand. I got chatting to a gentleman who seemed to know his onions when it came to all things built by Porsche.

I happened to mention I owned a 964 RS, whereby he replied he too had owned one since 2007.

"Great cars, really fun to drive" he opined gently.

As said gentleman seemed happy to chat, I ventured to ask him which he thought was the best 996 generation GT3.

He thought for a moment, and after a brief pause replied "I think the original 360 horsepower version. It's a nice car to drive"

"Ahh, I have one of those" I responded "and I watched you driving a yellow one as course car on Rally Deutschland 2001"

"Ah yes, that car had done 70,000kms, it was wonderful car ! On the fast stages in Saarland we were as fast as or faster than the WRC cars"

So who was the mystery man on the Bilstein stand ....... ?

None other than :






I became aware of Walter midway through his rallying career having watched a video of him competing in The Manx rally against the established Manx experts in his "run on a shoestring" Group 4 911 SC. Whilst in 3rd place on the on the final day his car broke a driveshaft and he was forced to retire from the event.
Jurgen Barth was his chase car driver .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ6HrwIlzXQ

Other forays in '81 saw him driving Porsche cars as diverse as the 935, the 944 GTP, the 924 LM GTR and the 924 Carrera.

In 1982 Walter joined the Rothmans/Opel WRC squad to drive an Ascona 400. During that years campaign the superlative Russell Bulgin wrote one of his brilliant articles about Walter testing for and competing on the 1982 Tour De Corse. It was that piece that got me hooked on rallying over thirty years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuUCjyTctB0

After a tempestuous relationship with Rothmans and specifically Tony Fall, Walter headed to Lancia to drive the Lancia 037 rallye and when he realised that the 2- wheel drive WRC cars days were numbered, he headed onto Audi to drive the fearsome quattro's in spectacular fashion.

Once his career with Audi had stalled (not before he'd driven the V8 quattros in DTM, the IMSA Audi 90 quattro and the be-winged Pikes Peak car) he moved to a new challenge with Porsche. The guy's nothing if not adaptable !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf5bzRIhtUk

Once back with Porsche in 1993 he drove with the great Hurley Hayward and his old Audi team mate Hans Stuck in the 964 Turbo S Le Mans GT at Le Mans and The Sebring 12 hours. He also drove a 964 3.8 RS in the 24 hr Nurburgring that year.
Thereafter he wen on to develop the 993 Cup car and became more heavily involved with developing both Porsche's road and race cars.

That he remains with Porsche to this day is testament to his loyalty to the Stuttgart company, and I suspect, his love of his job !

Porsche couldn't have a better ambassador.

Nicely written piece Henry

Great to watch.....but that's Derek Bell.

It was badly advertised that he was going to be on the Bilstein stand in the afternoon, I spent a while talking to him about the 991GT3, the upcoming RS and how his experiences have changed at Porsche since he started working there.

Top bloke, bloody tall!!

Hi Steve,
I was just poking fun at g7jhp, as he posted a video of Walter that was actually Stefan Roser. Hence the apology and the winky from me for taking the mick.

...except yourself of course mrdemon...

as you rather do like to provoke...on a public forum.

Ha Ha....looks like I need that Whoosh Parrot!

I should have expanded a bit... I was interested in his take on the progress of the model, and the constantly falling lap times at the 'ring. He commented on his first sub 8min lap in a NA road going 911 and how he thought that was a major milestone and now not many years later its close to sub 7:30.

What he said contradicts a LOT of whats been written on here by "those that know"