Tag: R Gruppe

I’ve just finished a feature for Total 911 magazine on a good friend of mine in the USA who has a very nice three-car 911 collection. Needless to say, he’s an R Gruppe member, so one of his cars is an early 911, tuned for an exciting drive, but with standard looks up top. It’s the Sports Purpose way.

One of the points my friend made in the interview for this feature is that most people are now building homage cars, following factory looks from the good old days: RS, RSR, ST, 911R and all the variations in between. What he feels is missing is the next big thing in modified classic Porsche, in a similar way to the US hot rodders who customise cars like the Ford Model As, and the evolution of their styles from year to year. [...]

I spent the weekend in Paris, meeting Porsche 356 racer Steven Harris and WEVO top man Hayden Burvill at the finish of the 2010 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. The weather was cold but sunny, and the streets were lined with spectators, all eager to see these magnificent machines arrive after their gruelling 14,000 kilometre drive across Mongolia, Russia, Iran and into Europe via Turkey and Greece.

On the 10th of September, ninety eight cars left China. Despite the incredible torture doled out on these vehicles, as they crossed the Gobi desert and used worn-out rock tracks to cover thousands of miles, only twelve retirements are recorded on the official time sheets. I’d call that the best result.

Standing next to cars like the 1903 Itala and the 1914 La France fire engine (“converted into a sports fire [...]

As I write this post, a fantastic event is taking place to raise funds for a fellow R Gruppe member in California. The benefit is in aid of long-serving Gruppe member Roger Grago, who is currently recovering from brain surgery.

At the time he was diagnosed, Roger was in the middle of switching from one job to another, and one health insurer to another, so when he suddenly needed emergency surgery to take a tennis ball-sized tumour out of his head, he was uninsured. Though the surgeon donated his services, there were still hospital bills and follow up treatments to pay for, running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Roger’s R Gruppe and Der Kleiner Panzer networks swung into action, quickly organising hospital [...]