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As promised I would get back with some more stories around the Historic Zandvoort Trophy of a few weeks ago. The Saturday was a nice surprise, but the Sunday went very well also. There were two races on Sunday with the same field participating. In Saturday’s race I was still getting used to the car and lost second place to the 71 2,5 liter ST. I didn’t realize I came in 3rd on Saturday until the marshalls waved me through to the pitlane for the prize giving. It turned out that the ’74 RSR had been black flagged for loosing oil on the track…

On Sunday morning I started 3rd on the grid with the lightning fast Zakspeed Escort in front of me and the ST next to me. The red and yello RSR had made repairs overnight and started all the way at the back. This is a monster car though and soon after [...]

Sometimes timing is everything. I wrote to my friend Steven in New York that family festivities would take me to the area of New York and whether lunch was in the stars. When I shared the dates with Steven, he responded enthusiastically and told me about the local R Gruppe’s 3 day rally through the Adirondack mountain range. He insisted I detach myself from the family matters for a couple of days and offered his Ivory White 2.7 RS clone (“Shivory”) for me to drive. Shivory and I had met in California a few years ago and this beautifully tuned, carburetted clone carried my wife and me around that state for a week. This offer could not be refused. The pink slip for 48 hours was obtained.

Jim Garfield and several of the local membership had produced the roadbook and selected the pitstops. We gathered at 8 on Friday morning in Newburgh NY and after [...]

Many of us started as the ‘mustn’t touch’ type of Porsche owner, who doesn’t change anything on the car without approval by the manufacturer. ‘Mustn’t touch’ types instead spend their spare cash on espresso cup sets featuring the 908 and 917 in various poses, or ceramic brake cuff links. Don’t look at me like that: we’ve all bought that stuff.

After a time, ‘mustn’t touchers’ begin to realise that coffee cups and cuff links have nothing to do with getting maximum return from a 911. They question the driving experience their car is providing. They want more involvement, more dynamism. They start looking at aftermarket products to sharpen up their sports car.

From here, there are many options. At first glance, the main differentiators seem to be cost and quality, but there’s more to it than that.

So much of the Porsche tuning stuff [...]