Mouth watering. I can’t believe I didn’t somehow get it together to make it down there. A dizzying array of Bandinis and Stanguellinis and Siatas and OSCAs, and that doesn’t even mention the gaggle of Porsche 917s. Good gravy! Head over to Etceterini for the complete set.
Here is the press release and photos of this new car which I think is way cool!
The Geneva Auto Show is on this week, giving forth a bounty of automotive treats and even a few glances into the future. One of the most exciting cars we’ve seen from the show has been Porsche’s 918 Spyder concept. Because it’s a Porsche (yet neither a sedan nor SUV), it’s beautiful on the outside.
What’s inside is even more interesting. The 918 Spyder is really a “super hybrid” — pushed by both a 500-horsepower V8 and a pair of electric motors. The electric motors are attached at each axle, giving the car an additional 218 hp. Porsche says that means the concept can hit 60 mph in just over 3 seconds. That is incredibly fast, Porsche or not. The fact that it’s a “hybrid”? Well, that’s even better considering all the weight it’s pulling around.
The part about this that is so compelling isn’t just the pure speed — it’s that Porsche claims the car is wildly efficient from a miles-per-gallon perspective, too. Porsche says the 918 Spyder hits 78 miles per gallon, burping out just 70 grams of CO2 per kilometer. It can go 16 miles on pure electric power alone.
The 918 Concept can operate in either electric mode or gasoline mode, or a blended mode of both, making it a parallel hybrid. This is the more efficient way to create a hybrid car (“series” hybrids aren’t as efficient in terms of pure MPG savings). Porsche says there are four modes that the 918 Spyder can drive in, either dialing in more performance or more efficiency per the driver’s request.
Concepts being concepts, this 918 isn’t available for sale. The company is carefully watching how the consumers will react to performance cars with a green edge (Tesla already sells its 6-figure roadster, while Ferrari’s hybrid sports car from this week’s Geneva show will prove instructive for the German company, too). If you’re really burning for a Porsche hybrid, you’ll be able to buy one shortly: the Cayenne SUV will offer a hybrid model at the end of this year.
In this installment of the John McClure archives, the November 7, 1954 running of the Orange Empire National Sportscar Races at March Air Force Base. It is a real treat seeing the racing action ahead of scores of aluminum planes in the background.
Unfortunately, the Briggs Cunningham team that swept the previous year’s race was a no-show. This race, however, was significant for Porschefiles as the first US race run by a 550 Spyder. Sadly, the car crashed and burned in practice with the driver escaping reasonably unscathed. Instead, Ferraris ruled the day, with 7 of the top 10 spots in the featured over-1500cc race. Also in the film is a parade lap of Historic cars (teens and 20s).
Cliff has race results over on Etceterini.
I’m no fan of crash porn, but I caught this 356 crash in the Hurry Downs complex at Road America during the SVRA Vintage GT Challenge last year. I was trying to capture the silver 356 of Edmond Ross, which I have a bit of a soft spot for because an image of Edmond’s car was the header image on this site for The Chicane’s first year. The crowd’s reaction caused me pan back in the field to John Winter just as he was losing his car into the wall, apparently a suspension or steering problem according to other spectators. Does anyone know if we’ll see this car on the track this year? It looks like a fair bit of damage, but seemed that the spin only managed to take out one corner of the car’s suspension and steering. Anyone know the status of this car?
You don’t often think of the Porsche 914 as a rally car, but this shot from the 2010 Boucles de Spa rally in Belgium shows it’s versatility yet again. She may among the forgotten and unloved Porsches but I’m always impressed by them at vintage races, where they often participate in 4 or 5 different race groups—another sign of their range. This is, after all, a car that finished sixth overall at the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, and deserves more props than it gets.
Fantastic bokeh in this shot.
(via Bulgogi Brothers)
Another installment from the John McClure archives, this time it’s the October 1956 Pomona Road Races. The particular turn that features prominently in this film looks particularly harrowing—and fun. Plenty of competitors overcooked it a bit, resulting in a whole lot of drifting, spins and oversteer. Great stuff!
Quite a few Austin-Healeys, Lotuses (Lotuses? Loti?), ACs, and the ubiquitous Porsche Speedsters and Spyders (I just love that there was a time when you could refer to Spyders as ubiquitous).
West Coast Sports Car Journal had this to say about the main event in their November 1956 issue:
At the drop of the flag, Bill Murphy was first through turn one, something he has perfected through the years. But right on his tail was Evans, Gregory, Hauser, Bob Drake in Joe Lubin’s DB3S Aston Martin, Miles, in that order. Following at a more leisurely pace was the rest of the pack led by Mike Kingsley in the Sparks and Bonney Special and Fred Woodward in his Jaguar Special…
On lap sixteen, the first three cars were running tail and nose, still at an incredible pace. They were lapping three and four seconds faster than the under 1500cc cars had; and this short twisting course is more suitable for small machinery!
I won’t spoil the finish for you here, but you can download a pdf of the complete article here. You can also download the complete results and race report from the November 2-9, 1956 Issue of MotoRacing here.
Our recent Paramount Ranch video was discussed on the Pelican Parts forum, where one member brought up their recent tour of the Paramount Ranch track as part of the Santa Barbara Region PCA run, which included a partial lap with the Park Rangers. While it is sad to see her current state, I am pleased that the National Park service is sharing the history with visitors.
This might be a good side trip to add on to this year’s Historic Challenge at Road Atlanta. To celebrate Porsche’s 60th year in North America, the Porsche Museum will be exhibiting the 1939 Berlin-Rome Type 64 at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art exhibit The Allure of the Automobile from March 21-June 20. The car is undoubtedly the spiritual ancestor to every Porsche made since and was the first appearance of many of the design hallmarks that would define the cars. The exhibit will also feature the ‘53 550 LeMans Coupe.
The 64 was a prototype hand built special assembled in Zuffenhausen immediately before the Porsche family left Germany for Austria during WWII. The car was designed for the Berlin-Rome race, the nimble and lightweight car would be a perfect competitor for a long overland race through the Alps. Three examples were made: one was destroyed in a bombing raid, one was joy-ridden to death by celebrating American soldiers, the only remaining example holds a prized place in the Porsche museum since it was re-acquired by the factory in 1951.
This is indeed a rare opportunity to see this priceless and important machine in the only setting anyone is likely to ever see it again, a museum pedestal.
CarCulture.com has some marvelous photos of the Berlin-Rome car here.
Update: Still looking into an inconsistency on this bit of news, the High Museum exhibit lists the ‘39 on display as a replica, Porsche seems to be listing it as the genuine article – waiting on confirmation from Porsche on this.
More footage from the John McClure archives, this time from the August 56 running of the Paramount Ranch road races. The footage here is nice and close, it seems John staked out the perfect spot for the featured Sunday races.
The under-1500cc consolation and feature races in the first half of the video has some great shots of Richie Ginther absolutely walking away with the feature race in his #211 Porsche 550 Spyder; the aftermath of Rex Huddleston’s crash in his #75 Maserati-powered Lotus; William Binney’s beautiful #359 Doretti; an interesting shot in the pits of someone’s front-engined(!) Porsche 4-cam powered racer (is it a Lotus 11?). Nice to see some Cooper Formula IIIs mixing it up with the road cars and specials in the low displacement race.
In the larger displacement race, there’s some nice shots of the lovely little battle between Eric Hauser, Bill Krause, and Harrison Evans. Each of them took 1st in their classes piloting their #70 Morgensen Special, #27 Jaguar D-Type, and #130 Ferrari Monza 750.
Seeing the track in use really highlights was an absolutely beautiful location Paramount Ranch was, even moreso than when we featured it in our Lost Tracks series.
What do you say we take a spin around Silverstone with Porsche Experience driving consultant Gordon Roberston?
