U Can't Make Up History

[Rick Cabell]

Yep! Those are them.

[Jens]

I had an interesting ang protracted discussion (argument) on another forum some years ago with a dear friend (a Porsche expert and noted author).

I was in the process of a year-long build of a Tangerine '73 911T for my dear Heidi. My motivation for the car was to build an exceptionally performing road car as well as to get my Missus sucked deep into my affliction of the love 911s, and then allowing me to justify my Porsche expenditures. On both counts it worked. It had all the right stuff.

The arguments with my friend were based on his view that the cars should be preserved in the state that they left the factory and remain totally original. My ideas were that the factory itself realized improvements, corrections and upgrades on the cars from the earliest of prototypes to the present day. Sometimes even in mid year. The 911 history is an excercise in research and developement all through it's glorious existence. Much of which was from it's involvement in racing; road courses, rallys, hillclimbs and autocross. They also took clues from privateer's own modifications and developements.

In the end we agreed that there is certainly a case for both concours restorations of these wonderful machines as well as performance oriented modifieds in emulation of the glory days of racing. Just to bust his chops a little I named Heidi's car the '73 911T-RS 2.7 Bastard Evolution Lightweight. It has since passed away, but it's vital organs live on in race cars and street cars all over the world.

In it's heyday (and all pumped up on adrenaline and endorphins) I was able to eat the lunch of many comers including M3s, Corvettes, and even a Viper Coupe on my home turf here in the mountains of Vermont.

[pwd72s]

Jens...you'd fall in love with Tom Wilkinson's car...

[pwd72s]

MFI 2.7 RS spec engine you like? Me too! There are a lot of beautiful cars in R Gruppe, but Tom's (no longer T) RS clone sans flares or tail just turns my crank every time I see it!

[tabs52]

History is static, this is the way it went down; the interpetation of history is subjective.

The R Gruppe is like a bunch of Civil War recreationists, dressing up every weekend and refighting the battles of the CW. There is no real glory in that, that belongs to the ones who really fought the battle. Further the front lines of racing have progressed in the past 30 years, so the Gruppe is still left fighting yesterdays wars.

I take it from Jackie O's comments that the Gruppe back in the day would modify their then new 911's in to Racing Sport models.

The one thing I find admirable about the Gruppe boyz is their dedication to the preservation and memory of an other wise forgottne model. Since I too am enamoured with the same cars, I have bin especially wicked with the boyz. Other wise I woulda blown them off long ago.

[RandyWebb]

Hey Paul,

That orange Tom W. car seems to have fiberglass rear bumpers but with rubber bumper overriders (partly cut off in the pic).

Is that right? I didn't know that was possible(?) Do you know anything about it -- or how to do that?

[Zeke]

Originally posted by tabs52


That one thing an R Gruppe clone can never be...is a piece of History...it simply did not exist in time... It has no glory of it's own.

...it simply did not exist in time...

That's like saying there were no '56 Chey hardtops that were on a rake with reversed wheels and a 4 speed in the early '60's

If people modified cars when they were new, they damn sure can modify them now. It's no sacrilege and it doesn't have anything to do with history or driving a piece of it. What would you rather have now, a 56 Bel Air with 6.50x15 bias ply and a PowerGlide staight six or a 350 crate motor and a Getrag 5 speed on 50 series rubber mounted on 16" wheels that fill out the huge wheel wells? I'll take the latter and the General would be proud.

Same with 911s.

[Zeke]

You know, tabs is really two different people. One can spell and make a point now and then. The other, his girlfriend, boyfriend, gardener or whomever he lets log on under his name is a blithering idiot. (Sorry to call your compadre an idiot, buddy, but it's so true). The real tabs is quite a sport to let his alter persona come on and make a complete fool of himself, or the both of them.

The master tabs is like a cat playing with a mouse. And the guest writer must realize his/her shortcomings, but over a scotch they must laugh like crazy. They are definately having some fun with all this.

If I was any smarter, I might have originanlly concieved this ruse and had a little fun myself. Let's see.....I wonder who I can get to sit down and finish this........

[Jens]

A clone car is a respectful emulation of the real car. Done right and with all the right details it can offer the driver the EXACT experience of the gen-yoo-wine car.

I have a friend who campaigns a '73 Carrera RS clone in historic events. He's been very anal in all the mechanical details as well as cosmetic cues. It looks and performs (and weighs) precisely as a real and serial numbered RS. It has the soul of the original, but not the actual history. The only way for him to afford the RS experience was to build it himself.

I think that's just wonderful!

[RandyWebb]

"It's no sacrilege ..." to modify a car.

Milt, Can you expand on that? You wouldn't modify old # 1 (the first 356) would you? How about an original RS? original R? original S?

You can see where I'm headed -- the rarity is one thing we think about when considering whether we will alter a work or not.