PORSCHE GEMBALLA 911s
The PORSCHE GEMBALLA 911s
Unveiled at the 1985 Geneva Show, the Avalanche had 400bhp courtesy of a Ruf 3.4-litre turbo engine, a top speed of 178mph and enough wings to keep a Top Gun pilot happy. And that rear spoiler - if a factory 911 Turbo's is a picnic table, then the appendage on the rear of the Avalanche is sit down dinner for eight!
The front of the Avalanche was straight from the Gemballa flatnose conversion current at the time, but the rear arches boasted a full four-inches greater width than a stock Turbo - on each side! Rather than just a sudden expansion of girth, the widening work began with the doors and side sills and three large side strakes visually filled in the door panel without making it seem too heavy. There were no door handles - operation was by infra-red remote control - so if the batteries give up the ghost, you had a problem.
Where the Avalanche really got through, was on the top surfaces of the rear where it took on the demeanour of a wild and Arabesque beetle. And yet the designer was obviously careful to retain the characteristic roof silhouette of the 911.The additional fins that surrounded the rear of the car were actually functional - a discreet ridge running out under each rear side window fed the intercooler.
The chassis was beefed up to take the extra performance as well as the extra downforce created by the spoilers and wider track. Wheels were super-wide 9J x 15 in front and 13J x 15 at the rear with 225/50VR15 and 345/35VR15 rubber.
With an exterior like that, the inside of the Avalanche had to be something special. 928S door trim panels were adapted to fit, and the standard seats swopped for Recaros. Instrumentation was a combination of analogue and digital and included a peak hold for the turbo boost gauge and a racing stopwatch. The finishing touch was a complete set of designer luggage in matching leather.
Customers who wanted extras like video, TV and high-powered stereos along with the re-trim have been known to have paid as much as £65,000 just for the interior alone!
But then was then as they say, and now is now, and the Gemballa 'Dream factory' is no more. Recession and a change of attitude amongst wealthy clients in the Middle East in the late 1980s found the flamboyant style created by these cars and others of its ilk a mere historical footnote.
To keep afloat in the stormy waters of the recession, in 1989 Gemballa took on venture capital partners, but by the following year, unhappy with their 'lack of understanding of the business," he started G-Topline on his own and began to build this up. By 1991, the original company was ailing under its new management and they persuaded Gemballa to come back and straighten things out. "Within four months, I trebled the turnover,"he said with some pride in his voice, "but it was clear they wanted out of the business and, at that point, the banks stopped their credit line. So I took my best people with me to G-Topline and we concentrated on getting a full range of Porsche conversions to the marketplace.
"It took just about two years to complete all the design and prototyping work," Gemballa said, continuing his story. 'The programme included 911, 928 and 968 cars, but we have not done too much for the 928 as the rarity of the cars new does not make it viable to invest heavily in a full programme. Thus, apart from the GTS and wide body look, we only do wheels, suspension, exhaust and interior conversions. The same is true for the 968 but for a different reason. These are much cheaper cars and it does not make sense for someone to double the list price of a 968 with a radical conversion."
Thus, the evergreen 911 remains Gemballa's most popular line and G-Topline carry a full range of conversions for both old and new models. "Our old-to-new look conversion is very popular," he explained. "All our parts are designed to use the factory mounting points, wiring harnesses and so on. We even do a Carrera 2 style centre console for the earlier cars, but this is an expensive item."
On the mechanical side, G-Topline offer a mass-f low sensor conversion for the Carrera 3.2 engine and there are modifications available for both old and new style Turbos with mass-flow sensors for the K and KE-Jetronic injection. "At the same time, we try to keep as much original as possible for servicing ease at main dealers," said Gemballa.
Explaining how this works with his most extreme conversion, the new-style flatnose, Uwe Gemballa told us that "this conversion uses all the original fixing points, not one single hole has to be drilled in the original inner bodywork. Any modifications that have to be done to the air-conditioning or oil cooler systems are modified according to the Porsche design concept." Suspension modifications use uprated Bilstein dampers and bespoke springs or torsion bars. G-Topline's stainles steel exhaust systems guarantee a l0bhp increase in power. Special adaptors for thei brake kits allow all 911 models to use 3.6 or Turbo S brakes.
For customers who need the security of roll cage, the G-Topline cages use as many original hard fixing points as possible. The system for the RS for instance, uses the B-post and rear seat belt mounting points and only the A-pillar and rear cross-brace sections require holes- drilled.
The cage is part of the interior conversio system which G-Topline describe as 'sporty but comfortable'. Recaro A8 seats are - recommended in place of the factory competition orientated Recaro RS seats for road use as they are more comfortable on long trips and their adjustable backrests make them more versatile while giving away nothing in support.
More personalised touches come in the form of bespoke leather covering of seats, door panels, steering wheel and so on. Instruments can be colour coded and high-end stereos installed. A normal modification to the instruments that get new faces is moving the red line of the rev counter round to 12 o'clock as in a race car, and the speedometer can be calibrated in either km/h or mph. 'The factory instruments have a metal sealing ring around them which needs to be replaced when you open the unit for any sort of work. We use a plastic replacement ring so you don't need the special tool to reseal it.' Gemballa explained the rationale behind his system of building his conversions: 'We are not always asked to supply a complete new car," he said. 'Sometimes, a client in another country may have an existing car and wish to undertake the conversion locally. Even a bodyshop with no experience in fitting complicated conversions is able to bolton new panels and paint them to match just like in a crash repair. One of our clients in Taiwan for instance had a flatnose conversion from us recently in kit form, and the only question he asked was what kind of waterproofing sealant to use around the new headlamp lenses. It is that simple." If you insist on Gemballa doing the work, his experienced freight forwarders can pick your car up, ship it to him for the work to be done and return it to you a month later.
All the body components used in G-Topline flatnose and wide-body conversions are available in steel and kevlar depending on your use and budget. "The design of our new flatnose conversion matches the 91 l's lines better than the old-style flatnose," Gemballa said "It is a concept for the 1990S."
That 'concept for the 1990s' is a totally new direction for Gemballa. Where he produced the wildest, most radical 911 s before, the G-Topline programme is comparatively restrained, a sign of the times. Today's cars are stunning in a more subtle way and are beautifully detailed.
When we arrived at G-Topline's new offices, the red RS 3.8 replica and the yellow flatnose were parked outside, Gemballa's staff just finishing cleaning them for us. We were absolutely knocked out by this dynamic duo. As a shape, the G-Topline flatnose is a car that appeals to me despite my normal dislike of flatnose 91ls. That dislike stems from the dichotomy of a sharply raked flatnose meeting the horizontal waistline of the classic 911 mid-section. The impact bumpers of the old-style cars makes the whole composition look even more messy.
The Gemballa design on the other hand has a more rounded front section that curves gracefully up into wings that are almost as tall as stock 911 at the apogee, but are in fact broader and flatter. This helps to balance things out and is in fact the best of both worlds as it negates the need for silly pop-up headlamps which are complicated, add weight and upset the aerodynamics of the car. The price for the RSR Flatnose conversion, complete and fitted, is DM 65,000. To fill out the wheelarches, either factory Turbo S style wheels or Gemballa's own five-spoke, three-piece Cup-design alloys can be used. On the yellow car, these are 9J and 10J x 18, colour-coded and shod with 235/40ZR18 and 265/35ZR18 rubber.
The new factory RS 3.8 has become an object of desire in the way that the original 3.0 RSR was back in the 1970s. It is also a rather expensive indulgence though at over P90,000 even in Germany, Thus, Gemballa was quick off the mark with a conversion for Carrera 2/4 and RS owners. The red car in the photos is the first customer RS 3.8 conversion. Based on a 3.6 RS, it has all the new panels required to make it a dead ringer for its double-priced brother, backed up by the 3.8-litre 320bhp engine conversion that Gemballa is offering.
In the past, Gemballa was known only for optik tuning' as they say in Germany. Mechanical conversions were done by specialists like Ruf on his behalf. Times have changed, however, and engine and suspension work is done in-house so that a complete package can be offered.
The factory RS 3.8 has 300bhp in road trim. The yellow Gemballa RSR flatnose matches this power but retains the 3.6-litre capacity for clients who want extra power but don't want to have a brand-new engine ripped apart. This conversion involves new high-lift cams, solid valve lifters and a lightened flywheel to better throttle response and allow high rpm, modified Motronic brain, freer-flow air filter in a modified housing, mass-flow sensor in the induction system, larger throttle body and twin-pipe sports exhaust system all of which aid better breathing. Part of this exhaust is a free-flow catalyfic convertor which weighs just 3kg and liberates an extra 5bhp. This is available as a separate item if anyone requires it. "We keep the rear silencer in our system," Gemballa explained, “because we found that removing it actually loses a few bhp. But we change the middle silencer box and this has two outlet pipes, one to the original silencer and the other to the new left-hand outlet. This system gives about 8-1 1 bhp more." The exhaust has been tested at a Porsche dealer's facility for power and noise and meets German TUV regulations. "It is a deeper sound but not a louder one," said Gemballa.
I was able to find a quiet stretch of autobahn to really open out the Gemballa RSR and having recently driven the factory 3.8 RS, was impressed with the modified car. The 3.8 is more torquey because of its bigger motor and this makes it feel more 'ordinary' than the modified Gemballa 3.6 which felt truly electric It has plenty of low speed torque for road use and after I discovered just how smoothly and quickly the needle on the tacho went straight for the red paint, I was hard pressed to stay away from the gearlever, Half of that urge to use the revs comes from the fact that the engine is so sharp and responsive and the exhaust makes such a lovely noise I did one standing start run on the autobahn and the 300 rampant horses simply flung the yellow projectile down the road just as fast as I could swop the perfect ratios with my right hand. If the RS 3.6 1 borrowed from Porsche Cars GB two years ago was raw unadulterated fun, and the factory RS 3.8 I drove at Donington last autumn was almost too civilised by comparison, the Gemballa RSR felt like a nice balance between the two. Despite its mega-rubber and uprated suspension, it did not feel as harsh as the RS 3.6 on German country roads at least, but it had more than enough feedback through all the controls to let you know that it was a 911 with real attitude.
Grip was simply astonishing, on public roads at least. It would take a good thrash around a racing circuit to sensibly discover the limits of this car. And there is no doubt, one would also discover that the factory RS brakes are the best around.
If you had mentioned 'flatnose' to me before my encounter with the Gemballa RSR, you would most definitely have got a derogatory response. Now, however, I have no hesitation in admitting that this is the most stunning, radical 911 styling conversion I have come across. Uwe Gemballa is back with a vengeance!
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