Carpokes Porsche Forum

The 991 GT3RS was a drastic change from the earlier cars, PDK, completely new body and engine. I had a very specific objective to go to an event in Zell am See which was sponsored by Dr. Wolfgang Porsche.

This took a bit of negotiation. Porsche told my rep that they could not produce the car in time as the even was three days after the factory opened from the August shutdown. My rep worked tirelessly to get the car moved up, and Porsche actually wanted to see the invite to the Zell am See event before they moved on it. Luckily it was sorted so I could do a factory pickup two a day after reopening.


Arriving in Stuttgart for a couple of days to relax , I went over to the Mercedes Museum which has a lot more history than Porsche. I had been there before, but of course there is a Porsche connection since Ferdinand Porsche was the Chief Engineer there after Daimler and Benz merged and designed the legendary 7.1 litre SS, SSK and SSKL cars that were very successful racers in the twenties.

The car on the right here is a Porsche design.
Among some fascinating cars there was the Mercedes 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe. This looks superficially like a 300SL Gullwing but is very different. Straight 8 Formula 1 engine, lightweight construction, impossibly hot to drive but beautiful. They had very little competition as Mercedes withdrew from racing shortly after the Le Mans 24 disaster that killed 80 people.

The two cars that were built remained with the company until a year or so ago when they sold one. $135million was the price, highest ever paid for a car and required to be exhibited periodically and serviced at the factory. The remaining car is still at the museum.
Anyway, enough of Mercedes. For time reasons I took a quick trip to the Porsche Museum before delivery of the new car.

It was strange to see my 997RS there as a museum piece as well as the GTR Hybrid I wrote about in my last post when I saw it racing at the N24.
I knew from experience that tracking a car with new paint (especially at my two normal tracks) was going to result in a paint job, so my plan was to do the pickup and drive directly to the PPF place I had chosen and get it wrapped.

Time to get the car. When I arrived at the delivery centre I had the same person who had done delivery for me before. I saw along line of unusually coloured 911s ready for delivery. These were PCA cars actually and very limited , due for the US after their new owners had a tour.

The 991RS looked good in Lava orange. To me it is the best looking modern and I prefer it to the 997s or the 992 for its appearance.I also prefer the 991 dash.
The wrappers were great - I drove it over and one of them gave me a lift back to the hotel.
I picked it up that evening, and it was time to head for Zell am See.

Austria is a very scenic place and great mountain driving. Zell am See is a lake village and is where the family home of the Porsche family still remains. It was bought in the early thirties by Ferdinand Porsche, and beside the house is a private chapel where they are all buried and is currently the country home of Dr. Wolfgang Porsche.

The even pretty much took over the village. Had a great little hotel. The quality of the cars was wonderful and to see 959s,2.7RS and a bunch of other stuff being checked around on rallies and other event was a delight. Because I had the newest car at two days old they asked my to put it on display at the entrance to the opening reception.. The vast majority of the attendees were European from numerous countries and every one of them actual drove and put miles on their cars. Definitely not a concours event.

The gala dinner had a surprise. Dr.Porsche had arranged to have the actual Le Mans 24 trophy at the dinner and people could come up and be photographed with him and the trophy. Not my thing but very nice. He also made a very good speech where his pride in the brand was evident without arrogance, and he sincerely thanked the attendees. It was not a performance but a very genuine speech.

When I was up at the house I asked him if he would sign my new car. We had arrived as a group in a minibus, but I did take his pic at the house. I had had a quiet chat with his EA and she said, “wait, he will do it”.

Next morning was the awards ceremony again attended by Dr Porsche. I won the award for the most distant visitor:),. However, his EA said :”wait till everyone leaves”. Then in the light rain Dr Porsche and I went down the stairs to my car and he signed it. It makes a personal difference to have a tangible link to the history of Porsche. I will do this again next year with the 992.

Berlin is my favourite European city, and if you know it there is endless variety,
Overall this was one of my greatest Porsche experiences. I was amused after a hard run in the mountains with a string of cars. When we stopped I got a backhanded compliment: “ You drive very well for an American:)”..this from the 964 RS behind me!.( I am Irish)

I left Zell went through Innsbruck to Dresden in dark weather thinking that the rest might be an anticlimax.

A quick stop at the VW Museum. They are pretty limited about WW2 stuff unsurprisingly, but there were a couple of Ferdinand Porsche’s cars there: and endless variants of VW products:

After a couple if days R&R I headed up to Hamburg, There is a superb museum there called the Museum Prototyp., Two brothers-in-law had a huge interest in rare aircooled cars when there was little interest so had started to source various old VWs.Porsche specials and so on. They eventually became the authority in the space.

I really wanted to see the collection so contacted the museum. My only day was Monday and it was closed, I told them I would write an article, so they invited me to come in on the closed day.
They were wonderful people and had the car I really, really wanted to see. The 1939 VW typ 64. This in my mind is the true first Porsche. I had asked them if the could bring it out in the yard as a contrast to my new RS.
They said “sure” and took the car out. Then the weather changed. However, they said “ Bring your car into the museum” and we managed some shots as you can see below. I did oblige about the article and it was published in Panorama.
I will separately post some pics of other cars.

I got some period pics of the car, their first one being from 1941...

So far, so good. However, the main purpose of the trip was yet to come.

The Nürburgring.