Porsche Carrera by Johnny Tipler

Author:Johnny Tipler
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Crowood
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

This Porsche 550 Coupé (550-01) was an ex-works Le Mans car from 1953 and ran in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana – hence the livery – driven to the class win by José Herrarte. It is pictured here at Goodwood with Scott George, curator of the Collier Collection who restored the car, and historic racer extraordinaire Murray Smith. JOHNNY TIPLER

I’ve always loved Porsches, and I’ve had lots of them. In the early 1970s I bought an RS60, the ex-Ernie Erickson car which had done Sebring and Le Mans, and I raced it in the JCB championship in Europe. Then I bought an RSK, an ex- works Targa Florio winner that had been third at Le Mans, and it had a full-on four-cam Carrera motor – but I just didn’t like the handling and it blew up at least once; whereas the ex-Behra 787 single-seater Spyder I had was totally reliable, and I won the Sebring Historic Races three years in a row with that.

A drive in a 956 got him into Group C:

I thought they were really cool looking, so I bought myself a 956 – the one that was at Silverstone last year – and then I bought a 962 and concentrated on that for a while. I haven’t raced a 917 coupé, but I raced a 917 Can-Am Spyder, one of the very first ones, which had a lot of lift. I’ve still got a right-hand drive 2.7 RS, which is in England. It’s a lovely thing just to drive around in. Those cars are really great because they’re so light. They’re not driver friendly but they repay some skill because they are very easy to crash!

Murray has a pair of 356s in his garage – a pre-A split-screen coupé and a Speedster. The coupé needed a battery so we went for a blast in the Speedster. An SCCA racecar from its early years, the flared arches, disc brakes and hot engine are part of its provenance. Our first port of call was one of Murray’s neighbours, historic racer Steve Waltzer, who competes on the international Masters circuit with a variety of cars including a Lotus 24 and Chevron B16 Spyder. Pride of place in Steve’s workshop is the ex-Jürgen Barth 911 ST. You sometimes see classic 911s in this yellow and swirling red colour scheme, but Steve assures me that his car’s paintwork is authentic.

Murray’s eclectic taste in cars ranges from Maserati 250F to Lotus 15, Aston Martin DBR4 to Chevron B26. At the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed he drove a Group C Nissan R90 up the hill – while at the other end of the scale are his 1950 Packard Woody and 1948 Mercury M47 hot-rod pick-up. Challenged to choose a favourite, he’s at a loss, though he is particularly fascinated by one of his Porsches – a mint RSR with an extraordinary history, a one-off with an ambiguous provenance. It has just had a comprehensive overhaul at Jim Newton’s, and Murray is about to take it home.

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