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The first Porsche?

Most people think that the first Porsche model was the 356. If the person is a bit more knowledged, he or she would say it was in fact the 356 Gmünd. But no, they would be both technically wrong. Or kind of wrong.

Ferdinand Porsche created the Typ 64 in 1939, while he was still working on the KdF-Wagen (aka Volkswagen Beetle). The Typ 64 was a lighter sportscar version of the KdF-Wagen, built specifically for the Berlin-Rome race of 1939 and with VW parts.

Three cars were built, but because of World War II the race never happened and the car was almost never seen again. This is the only surviving example, and will be auctioned at Monterey in August. The price? It’s expected to fetch a cool $20 million. However, Porsche does NOT recognize it as the first Porsche, since the company was founded a decade later.

New Evora – GT4 Concept

Generally speaking, I’m not the biggest Lotus fan, but I’m really digging the Evora GT4 concept. Lotus revealed the new Evora this week at the Auto Shanghai motor show in China – Lotus is owned by the Chinese automotive company Geely. It weighs around 1200 kg (subject to ballast) and could reach over 270 km/h.

It’s still a concept though, but the production version will probably be very similar. And there’s hope to see it at La Sarthe…

Ferrari P80/C – when you need an exclusive track toy

I’m not the biggest fan of the cars from Maranello, but boy this one looks GOOD! It’s the new P80/C, a one-off model based on Ferrari’s 488 GT3. The 488 GT3 was a more-than-capable track weapon, but the owner of the P80/C didn’t think it was exclusive enough. So he got Ferrari to build him an exclusive track car, and after four years of development, his brand new car is ready.

Over at Ferrari’s website you can find a little more about the car. They also posted a 12 minutes video:

Porsche takes back the Nürburgring crown

In September last year, a factory stock Porsche GT2 RS established a new lap record at the Ring, doing the Nordschleif in 6:47,25.  But in July this year, a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ did the lap in 6:44,97. So Porsche lost the crown…

However, the Aventador SVJ that did the lap had a full roll cage. The car does NOT have a full cage when it comes out of the factory and it’s NOT an optional .  So maybe (once again!), Lamborghini didn’t use a stock car.

Instead of criticizing Lamborghini for their faux pas, this week Porsche went back to Nürburgring. This time however with a special GT2. They used the GT2 RS MR, that was prepared by Manthey Racing, a racing team/company owned (51%) by Porsche. Manthey didn’t change much in the stock car, basically added a water tank to better cool down the fuel injection system, upgraded the breaks and added a few aerodynamic aids. The engine and suspension weren’t touched.

The result was a lap done in 6:40,33:

I’m not 100% sure if the GT2 RS MR can be considered a “stock” car, though I bet the Sant’Agata crowd would swear by it, if it was a Lambo . Independent of my opinion, it’s now the new Ring King.

McLaren Speedtail: successor to the F1

This Friday morning McLaren revealed the new Speedtail. And according to the manufacturer, it’s the successor to the iconic F1.

It’s a 1050 hybrid monster that can get past 400 km/h. Only 106 will be produced, and at a starting price of £ 1.75 million, it will be a rare bird to be seen on the highway (all sold out, BTW). I think it looks pretty good, but does remind me of the XJ220…

Uhlenhaut Coupe

Rudolf Uhlenhaut was the designer of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. At the time, it was one of the most advanced cars of the era, and the only reason it didn’t win everywhere was because Mercedes pulled out of motorsports after the 1955 Le Mans tragedy. So after Mercedes was out of the racing business, there were a couple 300 SLR race cars gathering dust in some warehouse in Stuttgart.

You know that expression “street legal racing car”? Well, very probably this was the first one of them all. Being director of engineering at Mercedes-Benz had a few perks, so Uhlenhaut was allowed to use one of the 300 SLR as his company car. He adapted some mufflers for the car and made the cockpit less spartan, and transformed an almost-Le-Mans-winner into his personal company car.

A fast company car, that is.