Thursday 26th September 2013

Rallying 911s: Time for Tea?

If this doesn't have you heading to Germany with a bobble hat and Thermos, nothing will

---

We've become so accustomed to track-focused 911s that it comes as a genuine shock to see GT3s hooning around gravel rally stages. But like that first time you see a bottle opened with a fag lighter, it's a pleasant if bizarre surprise.

Of course, the 911's rallying proficiency during the 1970s was famous, and culminated in the 959 Group B programme. But since then its motorsport progress has been dominated by the 911 Cup competition and the accompanying GT3 road cars.

If this German video is anything to go by, that's rather an oversight. Hearing that flat-six bark echoing through forests is hugely evocative, and there's plenty of slip in the old-fashioned rally way. And if a GT3 can withstand rallying, track days should be a piece of cake...

Today's video is quite a long one at nine minutes, but you'll want to watch a fair bit. It's arguably club-level motorsport at its finest.

See here!

 

[Picture: flatsixes.com]

[matbat]

I want all of these cars!! They sound amazing!

[UltimaCH]

The howl of the flat six is just bliss to the ear

[clubsportguy]

1st class video but I'm sure "Taxtherich" could do the same with a GT3 roadcar on daddy's country estate !!!!

[red997]

thanks for that - makes me miss my MK1 CS even more now.
glorious sound from the Mezger

[LordPetroleum]

[Krikkit]

Beautiful sounds, absolutely brilliant recordings.

Only just "Club" motorsport there! Pretty high costs putting a full-on rally engine and flat-shifting sequential box into one of these monsters.

[red997]

40 K will get you into a 997 Cup with sequential shift and all that sound....running it is a different matter !

[Coolbanana]

Awesome! Good video.

[Crimp a Length!]

Right i'm off for a spin in my GT3.
Awesome film

[Lowtimer]

I'm quite surprised a GT3 can be jacked up enough to give adequate ride height and ground clearance for this sort of thing, TBH.

[gofasterrosssco]

997 with quad spots on the front = rally chic

And I suppose more weight at the front can't be a bad thing!

[strummerville]

Ironically,I posted this today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hStcyDj830Q&fea...

[Lordbenny]

That 2 minutes of my life I'll never get back....why would anyone want to watch over 8 minutes of that. Those cars just aint cut out for rallying even though they sound quite nice.

[Impasse]

Matt Bird in his article said:

But like that first time you see a bottle opened with a fag lighter

Wait, what?

[drakart]

I just wish the MSA would allow modern cars over 3000cc to rally in the UK. This is what we are missing! We also suffer noise constraints that they don't have in Germany, Holland and Belgium and also we can't close roads like they can. It's why so many Brits rally in Belgium.

[interloper]

Lordbenny said:

That 2 minutes of my life I'll never get back....why would anyone want to watch over 8 minutes of that. Those cars just aint cut out for rallying even though they sound quite nice.

Are you broken? IMO there is a lot of pleasure to be had watching somebody work a difficult machine across tough terrain. This sort of thing drew me to rallying in the first place

[rob1234]

Lordbenny said:

That 2 minutes of my life I'll never get back....why would anyone want to watch over 8 minutes of that. Those cars just aint cut out for rallying even though they sound quite nice.

Err - because it's awesome?

[juansolo]

Lowtimer said:

I'm quite surprised a GT3 can be jacked up enough to give adequate ride height and ground clearance for this sort of thing, TBH.

This is ground clearance

[juansolo]

Lordbenny said:

Those cars just aint cut out for rallying even though they sound quite nice.

A bloke called Francois Delecour might disagree with you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRvcobW-LN4

[rallycross]

Thanks what a great clip, good to see a 911 being driven flat out down some bumpy mixed surface roads, the guy in the bright red Brose sponsored car was really on the limit spectacular driving!