001POR188.qxd:1 18/9/09 14:50 Page 1 November 2009 www.911porscheworld.com YOUR FIRST 911 WHY THE 3.2 CARRERA IS YOUR PERFECT STARTER 911 SECOND THOUGHTS? PANAMERA ON UK ROADS RUF GREENSTER ELECTRO RETRO TARGA FUEL INJECTION FITTING A MAF KIT 11 www.911porscheworld.com £4.50 US$7.99 CANADA $12.95 No.188 993 RS 9 770959 878081 THREE WAY ROAD AND RACE CAR SHOOTOUT 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 16/9/09 14:54 Page 60 The Blues Brothers... Is colour enough to get three 993RSs together in one place? Well, what other justification could you need? Words: Adam Towler Photography: Antony Fraser 60 911 & PORSCHE WORLD 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 16/9/09 14:55 Page 61 993RS GROUP TEST 3 9E: Riviera Blue, in factory parlance. Colour provided the irresistible force to get this group together – and just one glimpse of their inimitably curvaceous 993 rumps confirms it to be a grand idea. But what they represent to Porsche’s mid-nineties evolution of the hardcore 911 was never far from our minds. We have today a left-hand-drive 993RS in standard (M002) specification (albeit modified to near Clubsport spec), a right-hand-drive 993RS Clubsport (M003) and a 993 Cup car. How they relate to each other, and how they drive, is why we’ve descended on Porsche’s excellent new Silverstone Experience Centre and, in particular, its short, twisty and challenging handling circuit. As this magazine featured a 993RS (alongside a 993GT2) recently, we’re not going to delve into the background of the car again too deeply. Its roots lay with the previous 964RS – especially the rare 3.8-litre version of that car – combined with the overall technical advancement of the 993 model series. It’s in the detail differences between the RS and the standard Carrera, and then between the standard-spec RS and the Clubsport RS, that we’re more interested in here. The 3.8-litre tag the 993RS wears is still unsurpassed in volume, even today – although, with 3744cc, it is both smaller than today’s 997 Carrera S gen2 (3800cc) and the new 997 GT3 mk2 (3797cc) and, in truth, closer to 3.7 litres if the badge was going to be a little more honest. This grunty M64/20 engine replaced the standard Carrera’s pre-Varioram M64/05 motor and brought 300hp at 400rpm higher up the rev range, at a peak of 6500rpm (compared with 272hp), and an increase in pulling power to 262lb ft, also 400rpm higher, at 5400rpm (compared with 243lb ft). The extra capacity of the RS’s motor is due to a larger bore – from 100mm to 102mm – and inside there 911 & PORSCHE WORLD 61 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 17/9/09 15:32 Page 62 are plenty of modifications, such as new piston spray nozzles and Grafal coating (both taken from the 911 Turbo), higher-lift intake and exhaust valves, wider ports in the head and, of course, the debut of the Varioram variable intake pipe length system alongside the regular resonance induction system. The Bosch DME system was remapped to adapt and optimise these mechanical changes, and the engine sat on hard rubber instead of hydraulic engine mounts. The G50 gearbox (G50/31 for the M002 and G50/32 for the M003) differed from the standard Carrera’s G50/21 ’box by featuring steel synchros throughout, a quick-shift mechanism, harder transmission mounts and a 40/60 per cent limited-slip differential. The M002 car stuck with the standard dual-mass flywheel but, as we’ll see later on, a solid flywheel was one of many changes on the Clubsport model. Naturally, the suspension was upgraded and tuned specifically for the more focused RS driving experience. For the front axle, the control arms and tie rods were mounted lower on the hubs – and there were harder rubber mountings. A 23mm anti-roll bar was used, with five adjustable positions available, the middle setting recommended for road use. Firmer twin-tube gas dampers were fitted, with the Porsche service documentation for the UK wryly observing that: ‘They have a more comfortable characteristic than those used on the 964RS.’ Very true. The uniball top mounts for them have two adjustment positions to alter the camber. In addition, the 993’s prized multi-link axle was similarly enhanced, with a 20mm anti-roll bar adjustable 62 911 & PORSCHE WORLD in three positions, camber and ride height adjustment, new dampers and Turbo-spec driveshafts. Any serious 911 should be blessed with a consummately serious set of wheels, and those on the 993RS were another visual classic: gorgeous three-part split rims, 8J x 18 up front and 10J x 18 on the rear, with 225/40 ZR 18s and 265/35 ZR 18s, respectively, a choice of either Bridgestone S-01s or Pirelli P Zeros being the rubber options in-period. However, in true RS style – more than any GT3 ethos – it’s the items that Porsche left out that form a substantial part of the performance enhancement. The PVC underseal, for example, was applied more sparingly – and the front bonnet, changed to aluminium, did without a pneumatic strut. There were also no rear seatbelt mounts, various trim mouldings in the interior were left on the shelf, and so was the cassette (whatever they were...) box. Reading on down the list, manual mirrors replaced the electrically-powered items, the front sidelights and side glass were thinner (but not the front ’screen, as is commonly believed) and the simple RS door cards featured manual winders (although electric windows were an option on the M002) and a simple strap to open the door. Door pockets? Pah, forget those, as you could the heated rear window and a good proportion of the interior sound-deadening. What you could look forward to were leather sports seats derived from those in the 964 Speedster, mounts for a racing harness and the prep for a fire extinguisher fitment. Moreover, if you ordered a left-hand-drive model, as our M002 example is here today, you gained Mike Curtler’s M003 Clubsport is one of just seven right-hand-drive examples (just five are believed to remain) and is pristine, with just 14,000 miles on the clock 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 16/9/09 14:55 Page 63 993RS GROUP TEST a huge 92-litre fuel tank. Visually, the RS received a chin spoiler (lips either side, with a gap in the middle), black plastic sill extensions and a colour-coded whale tail rear spoiler. The overall effect is so exquisitely judged, its claim to be the horniest looking road 911 of all time is worthy of a significant brawl amongst Porsche-nuts come last orders. Down in the paint shop, the colour choice was limited Ben Savill’s RS (brought along today by Steve Winter of Jaz Porsche, who tends to all three cars here) doesn’t look much like a ‘standard’ car as I walk towards it. Chiefly, that’s because it wears, like the other cars present, the Clubsport aerodynamic package (more on which later), often referred to in the UK as the ‘RSR’ kit. It’s also because it sports hardcore-looking BBS split rims, has a black rollcage, Bilstein PSS9 suspension, a sports exhaust, a pair of Left: Stance is low, with wheels tucked into curvaceously flared arches. Clubsport spec means a full cage and a minimum of sound-deadening to be the horniest looking road 911 of “Itsallclaim time is surely worthy of serious debate ” to Grand Prix White, Black, Guards Red, Speed Yellow, Riviera Blue, Polar Silver metallic and Midnight Blue metallic – the two metallic finishes not being eligible for M003 cars. All the interiors were black, with black-and-grey leather seats, but seat belts, door loops and the RS logo inside were all finished in the chosen body colour, adding a dash of flair to an otherwise sombre and workmanlike cabin. All in, the RS weighed 1270kg, 100kg less than a stock Carrera which, with the useful gains in power and torque, meant the 0–62mph time was now dispatched in just 5 seconds dead, and 172mph was achievable. Recaro bucket seats and an Alcantara-covered race steering wheel. With 150,000km on the clock, this RS has clearly seen some action. And while that means it’s not in concours condition, it also lends the car a delicious battle-hardened aura, exuded by the patina of both the exterior and interior. As a track-modified M002, it is also an interesting mix of the raw (hard steering wheel with centring marker) and the ‘touring’ (electric windows, carpeting). Yes, it’s noisy but, as I shall find out, nothing like as noisy as the others. Despite the slight unfamiliarity of a left-hooker, the Left: Gorgeous three-piece wheels cover the Big Red four-pot calipers. Carrera RS is surely the ultimate adornment for any 911? 911 & PORSCHE WORLD 63 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 16/9/09 14:58 Page 64 This is the proper racer out of the trio – a full-on Cup car with racing history, including the Nürburgring 24-Hour race. Owner Vic Cohen actually uses it on the road, which is brave! good vibes start the moment you wedge yourself into the RS’s bucket seat – and don’t leave until you’re standing outside again wondering why one’s piggy bank is so lamely short of the task. The driving position is intrinsically ‘right’, and tucked behind the business-like ’wheel, the throb of the 3.8-litre flat-six is an ever-present reminder that you’re about to drive something special. Just how special has an awful lot to do with the quality of the driver’s controls: not just their clarity of feedback, but also how they relate so perfectly to each other. The gearshift, for instance, is the epitome of the motoring journalist’s rifle-based cliché, the brakes sturdy under foot – but perfect in moderation, and the power steering reassuring in weight but never cumbersome and never unnervingly stiff if you have to call on its services in a hurry. It soon becomes clear that the Porsche Handling Circuit will be easy meat for our Riviera trio. In this RS, third and fourth gears are all that are required: third, even for the awkward downhill right-into-a-left that flicks immediately back and onto a short straight to the farthest point on the circuit. The 3.8-litre engine loves to lug in the mid range, and it’s soon apparent that progress is more elegant through here if you’re not as high in the rev range as you are in second. Only the final straight back towards the centre is long enough for a squirt of fourth, but all too soon I’m picking my braking point. It feels fleet of foot, eager to change direction and reassuring, as the pivot point of the chassis appears to be somewhere below your nether regions. There are no lurid tail slides today, but loading up the chassis still further through the tighter corners unleashes a touch of understeer, the warning conveyed by a squirrel seemingly nibbling at the ’wheel. By the end of my session, it feels as if each lap takes about ten seconds... On to Mike Curtler’s M003 Clubsport, and what a very special car this is: one of only seven right-hand-drive M003s (with only five thought to remain in existence) It’s a race car, and it drives like one. The Cup car is hardcore – with solid, or at least very hard, mountings for everything, plus a race clutch and no power steering. It’s feral and frenetic 64 911 & PORSCHE WORLD 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 17/9/09 15:30 Page 65 993RS GROUP TEST out of an overall RHD 993RS population of 48. It has just 14,000 miles on the clock and is something akin to Porsche royalty as a result. Just standing next to it I’m struck by its exotic aura, borne from the potency in its stance and details, and the fact that it has to be unique in provenance and condition. Its owner is a lucky man, but then he’s put the graft in to get there, not least because he had to wait eight years to buy it as potential opportunities to purchase drifted in and out. This is his second 993RS – the first was a black RHD M002 – and, as he says, it’s ‘the ultimate, and a keeper’. Clubsport specification back in the days of the 993RS meant much more than a half-cage and a battery cut-off switch. These cars got the big-wing kit, welded-in and colour-coded rollcage – still a LHD Porsche’s Driving design, even in this RHD car. The two seats were now Experience circuit is a Nomex-covered racing buckets, and a six-point bit too tight for this Schroth racing harness replaced the inertia-reel belts. racer. Going ‘quite fast’ The carpeting and sound-proofing material have been isn’t really what it removed, and just one sun visor remains in what is a does best dramatically bare cabin: flick the bare underside of the roof with your fingers and the sound cannons off the interior like a primitive reverb box. A battery cut-off switch lurks next to the light switch – something I dearly hope we won’t need today – and even under the front bonnet the carpet has been removed, so Porsche felt obliged to spray the whole trunk area properly, seeing as it’s on display. Clubsport spec back in the days of the 993RS “ meant more than a half cage and battery cut-off ” for starters, consisting of a wrap-around front spoiler with a rubber lip underneath and that huge rear wing. Those with an eye for detail will note that, although the latter looks like the one fitted to the nutty GT2 cousin of this car, it has a different construction, being a GRP wing bolted to a standard steel engine lid, unlike the all-GRP item on the turbocharged car. But M003s also gained the aforementioned different gearbox, with shorter ratios for fourth, fifth and sixth, and there were harder transmission mounts and a solid flywheel (instead of the dual-mass item) with a sprung centre plate but a road-type lining. A suspension crossbrace was fitted as standard, along with a Strapped tightly into the seat, the sense of excitement, stirred in with the weighty presence of responsibility, is palpable and insistent. After the deep roar of the M002 car, the sound inside here is more layered, and much louder. You can hear and feel all the internal machinations of the flat-six: the vibrations, usually filtered away, that run through the car and then your body, and the sound of countless cogs and bits of steel and aluminium in the drivetrain – all clattering and alive in a kind of vaguely syncopated rhythm. That means that, on the move, this M003 car is in some ways much more of an onslaught compared to its standard stable mate but, perversely, it also feels 911 & PORSCHE WORLD 65 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 17/9/09 15:30 Page 66 more delicate. From the moment I turn the gorgeous, slim, three-spoke leather steering wheel, this Clubsport is electrifying to steer. It runs appreciably more negative camber than our M002 example, and is on Toyo 888s rather than P Zero Corsas. Whatever the reason, the steering response the moment you turn away from dead ahead is sensational, and the whole car is alive in your hands. Despite all the sound effects, it still doesn’t actually feel that harsh – not as unyielding as the 964RS I happened to be driving the week before – and its turn-in is so precise and quick that, perhaps even more so than the previous car, it reduces this challenging little circuit to little more than a few blurring steering inputs. It’s this nimbleness that is the car’s ace card, as its owner testifies: ‘On a track day, the moderns often leave me on a straight, but you can usually make up most of that in the corners.’ Having driven it, I can quite see why. In some ways, this article has been written backwards, as the basic design of the 993 Cup car predates the RSs here, even if this particular model is of 1995 vintage. Work started on the 993 Cup at Weissach in the May of 1993, and in testing at Mugello Walter Röhrl was three seconds per lap faster in the new car compared to its 964-based predecessor. 1993 was a watershed year for sports car racing, the tragic waste of the Group C category through the FIA’s ruinous 3.5-litre engine formula over the previous years leaving a shaky, but determined, new world of privateers with road-based machinery. That year, the 964 3.8 RSR won both the Le Mans 24 hours and the Spa 24 hours, amongst many others, and would go on to win Le Mans again the following year. Once again, Porsche provided the vital backbone to customer 66 911 & PORSCHE WORLD sports car racing. The Cup car, despite its looks, wasn’t a watereddown version of any 993RSR – that didn’t arrive until the 1997 season in the GT3 class – in fact, in its first season of Supercup, it ran without any spoilers at all, and even kept the standard electric rear wing. Nevertheless, it’s the proper racer out of our trio. The 3.8-litre engine does without Varioram but, with Supercup cams and solid lifters, it produces around 315 urgent horsepower, a figure which had grown from the 310hp in the ’94 season, thanks to changes to the valve gear. As befits any racing engine, the maintenance schedule of the unit is judged in hours, not miles. The rear subframe is bolted directly to the body, with spring and damper rates far higher than for the road cars, and the front turrets are cut off for easy camber adjustment. There’s a racing clutch with sintered metal linings and a 50/60 per cent LSD, along with brakes off the 964 Turbo and Pagid race pads. The power steering system was omitted, but the ABS was retained, albeit reprogrammed for circuit use. With absolutely no interior at all, alloy doors (although not on our example today), centre-lock alloy/magnesium wheels and Macralon rear side glass – not to mention an engine some 30kg lighter – Cup weight was quoted at 1110kg. Cup cars were usually delivered from the factory in either red, white or black, wearing Pirelli rain tyres, but our Cup owner swears that this particular Cup was painted Riviera Blue from new. That man is Vic Cohen, an irrepressible and hugely knowledgeable Porsche enthusiast and serial 911 owner. And he’s just handed me the key! This particular Cup was built in April ’95 and raced in the Supercup with Eichin Racing before being driven by Ben Savill’s 993RS has covered an action-packed 150,000 kilometres, which probably makes it one of the highest mileage RSs around. Good to see it used, we say! THANKS Many thanks to: Vic Cohen, Mike Curtler and Ben Savill, plus Steve Winter of Jaz Porsche: 020 8903 1118, www.jazweb.co.uk 060POR188.qxd:PW Template 17/9/09 15:21 Page 67 993RS GROUP TEST Like the other cars present, Ben’s 993RS wears the Clubsport aero package. The hardcore BBS split rims are unbeatable for that race look Axel Rohr as part of a two-car assault on the German Carrera Cup in 1996. Beyond that, it enjoyed a colourful racing career, culminating in an entry to the Nürburgring 24-Hour race in 2006 before a bare metal restoration was commenced that led to the immaculate condition this car is in today. In fact, so fastidious is the work that there’s even a genuine Porsche battery, and the information stickers are still flat-out. Going ‘sort of quite fast’ is not what it likes to do, and although you can drive it thus, the sheer volume of noise from the transmission and the engine’s bias towards top-end power dissuade you from this. I’m a gear lower for every corner and straight of this little circuit, the key being to keep the revs up high and absolutely nail it. Even more than the other pair, this Cup car really needs to be let loose on a proper circuit cacophany as we pull away is wild, and the “The engine has a feral response to the throttle ” on the bonnet underside and the Matter rollcage. Without any power steering, a racing clutch and engine, and solid – or at the very least very hard – mountings for all things mechanical, you’d be right to assume this car is a harsh and frenetic environment. The cacophony as we pull away is wild, and the engine has a feral response to the throttle: everything is taut and straining to do what it does best, which is to go – then it must be immense fun. And on the road? Vic, even with your earplugs, I don’t know how you manage... Then again, I guess I do. For the maximum hit of Porsche-branded adrenaline all three of these cars deliver, any compromise seems worth it. These cars aren’t just about a classic Porsche colour; they illustrate a great era in Porsche’s recent history. PW The 3.8-litre flat-six might have all the aesthetic style of a washing machine, but there’s no arguing that it can get the job done 911 & PORSCHE WORLD 67