Porsches in California
The 911's 50th anniversary year is nearly over (phew!) but we thought we'd have a final fling
A bit of lobbying (OK, pestering) secured a press 991 Carrera 2 S for the duration of the trip, Guards Red and manual gearbox completing a perfect spec, thank you very much. It might be two years since we attended the 991 launch out here but the car still has a novelty value. With no front numberplate in the Californian fashion the look really comes through, the 991 decisively sharper and more stylish than the 997 and beautifully detailed.
Contrived sound or not, the buzz-saw rawness of the Carrera S's 400hp 3.8 is utterly addictive, howling all the way round to 7,000rpm and beyond with characteristic smoothness. Happy to trundle at Interstate pace in seventh, in the canyons second and third cover most bases, the only disappointment being the ponderous shift action and over-long gearing of the manual 'box. A whisper of the classic light-nosed 911 balance persists too, though it's a car that grips and goes rather than dances about on its toes.
In the gritty downtown LA warehouse district a shiny red 991 does stand out somewhat but when we pull into the courtyard of Magnus Walker's loft garage/home there's a yellow Cayman, a new Cayenne and a Panamera there too. Seems we've been gatecrashed by Porsche's design team, the PR man laughing nervously through clenched teeth as we mill around Magnus's 911s shooting the breeze with Michael Mauer and his colleagues.
It's interesting to see corporate Porsche showing a bit of leg to the self-styled 'UrbanOutlaw'. But Walker's celebrity status is now bursting out beyond the LA Porsche community, a process he's not shy of helping along or capitalising on.
He talks of his first Porsche, a flatnose conversion bought in 1992 for $12,500 on which he spent $30,000 in his nine years of ownership before ... selling it for $12,500. He laughs at the memory but the recent sale of one of his cars to the Ingram collection at Pebble Beach for just over $300,000 - double the estimate - has given him renewed confidence at his acceptance into the premier league of Porsche collectors. And a benchmark for the perceived value of his distinctive cars. He's clearly flattered and full of ambition, most famously his desire to own every 911 from 1964 to 1973. Describing his long hunt for a 1964 car as his holy grail he shows us the recent realisation of that dream, a 'patinated' example that's not turned a wheel since 1979. He thrives on the back stories to all his cars and will embark on a 'light driving restoration' in due course.
In the meantime don't expect the noise around Walker to die down any time soon. Fashion may be a fickle business but it's one he understands well and has funded his habit.
Our next stop couldn't be more different. Jonathan Sieger's 'Car Brewery' specialises in exporting rust-free Californian 911s to Europe but Sieger's own baby is an extraordinary celebration of a racing 911 that dominated the 1968 Trans Am championship.
Sieger is full of wonder at the achievements of the small team based around driver Tony Adamowicz and his crew of Mac Tilton and Don Breslauer. On a shoestring they built a car known as 'The Junkyard Dog' based on a wreck retrieved from the NYPD car pound and packed with homebrew tech to humiliate teams on million-dollar budgets. The trio reunited to build this authentic recreation using the inside knowledge only they could possess, Sieger its proud custodian.
Adamowicz himself, a sprightly 70-something, hasn't lost any of his speed either, Sieger saying he took delight in "scaring the f*** outta me" on a recent track excursion. There's a vid with the full story on Adamowicz's website if you're interested and a taste of the car running here. Get your earplugs ready...
Sieger's ambition is to keep the story of its giant-killing success alive and use it to celebrate the success of a team of have-a-go heroes and a noisy little Porsche. All power to him!
A common thread through many of the Porsche stories we encounter on our Californian travels, David Bouzaglou's TRE Motorsports would seem to be something of a Porsche institution in these parts. His packed workshop has a diverse mix of air-cooled 911s of various vintages, clients Alex and Stefan demonstrating the long-standing modification culture among Californian 911 owners.
David cuts an authoritative, paternal presence having seen fashions come full circle. Back in the 80s he was transforming unloved 60s and 70s 911s into then fashionable flatnose conversions. Today it's the other way round, 80s SCs and 3.2 Carreras blank canvasses for backdating into 70s-look cars or donating engines and running gear for souped up sleepers like Stefan's gorgeous Slate Grey 911 T. Hot rodding 911s may have only got mainstream attention off the back of Walker and Singer in recent times but it's clear Californians have been fiddling about with Porsches for decades.
TRE worked with Jack Olsen on his distinctive black 911, as featured in a Time For Tea? video a little while back and it was with David's input that Singer's Rob Dickinson built his first customised Porsche.
Inevitable then that the next port of call would be to see Singer Vehicle Designs. Our 991 gets plenty of attention, not least from Rob who casts a critical designer's eye over it, chuckling at the cluttered 'essay' of model badging on the engine deck.
Tucked away in a corner of the workshop and under a sheet is that original car Rob built with TRE's assistance. A Bahama Yellow 1969 911 E Sportomatic with a 3.0 conversion and the familiar 911 R style central fuel filler cap seen on the Singer cars, it was Rob's daily driver around Hollywood. "I had so many people say they wanted to buy it off me that was where it all started really," he recalls. And now look at them...
Fastidious, obsessional attention to detail permeates every step of the Singer customisation process, Rob's right-hand man Maz laughing at the occasionally (self confessed) ridiculous lengths they'll go to and detailed ... and detailed in Chris Harris'svideo. The process is officially described as 'reimagination', which sounds a tad pretentious but is in fact a trademarking necessity. If it keeps the lawyers happy...
And with that we leave them to it, the Singer workshop still a hive of activity gone 5pm on a Friday when most would have downed tools and cracked the first weekend beer. As we leave Rob is scooting around on a footstool, scrutinising and photographing a nearly completed car ahead of its imminent collection. A more in-depth story on this extraordinary operation in due course.
For Dan's full LA blog click here; for more pictures from each stop scroll down; special thanks to owners Stefan and Alex and all the people who took time out to see us.
[Sources/links: Vintage Motorsport, via Youtube, TRE Motorsports, CarBrewery, Singer Vehicle Design, Magnus Walker's blog]
Magnus Walker
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Trans Am 911
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TRE Motorsports
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Singer
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Long may it continue - the Piech era 911s were amazing things; what manufacturer would nowadays go to the trouble of making their engine block and gearbox casing out of magnesium alloy just to save a few kilos?
SS7
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