Harris on safe ground in a retro rally-spec 911 but just watch him go...
Look away now if you don't like 911s. Especially old ones.
'Making progress' the Harris way
I happen to like these cars - a fact that regularly lands me in trouble. The one featured in this video is a 3.5-litre monster used in the Belgian rally championship. Richard Tuthill was testing at Prodrive's track near Warwick, so I went along to annoy him and blag a go in this extraordinary car.
It appears that there are very few technical rules in this series, because what started out as an innocent little 70s 911 has been transformed into one of the most brutal cars I've driven in a while. Excusing the continuity mistake in the vid - the car has more like 365hp - and taking the weight as around 1,000kg, this car is monstrously fast. Then look at the gearing - it'll just hit 120mph in 5th gear - and you'll understand how potent it is.
Harris on home turf.
The transmission is a new design - effectively a 915 'box converted to dog-rings and you can flat shift up and down, giving genuine two-pedal driving should you want it. The engine is taken out to 3.5 litres and runs slide injection. It's a flipping masterpiece: so torquey you don't really need to go beyond 7,000rpm. The noise is - well, I suppose the beauty of video is I don't have to describe the thing to you. Just listen.
It's a car that loves to be hustled - it responds to light provocation, but take liberties and it'll make you look an idiot. You quickly learn to use that mass behind the rear axle to make a change of direction or set it up for a corner. The car is driven by Glenn Janssens in the Belgian Rally Championship. He's a lucky blighter.
Like how you try just justify hooning about in a rally spec 911 with the diesel passat bit, either way entertaining video. That 911 really does look a beast, cant blame a man for wanting a play in that.
Great video, I love the car. The production of the video is great too, the audio quality in particular - the sound of the gears engaging with that thunk is a sound I would never get sick of. You can pretty much hear what the gearstick would feel like in your hand!
Great video, it's getting on for 22:00 hrs, I'm not far off sixty years old, and when i've finished this post I'm going down to my garage, and going out for a drive, sadly not in what Chris was driving but a "poor man's" version, a 964RS. That's what a great video does for me. Thanks.
PS to "The Pits" yes it's got the the engine in the "wrong bloody place" but they've won more races and rally's than your favorite mid-engined brand could ever dream of, and people who like driving love them !
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