MCP MOTORSPORT TESTIMONIALS
GT Purely Porsche - 964RS
If the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys, there must be some proper grown-ups amongst the ranks of German motoring magazines. And a true man amongst men in that particular crowd was, in 1991 at least, Tuning magazine.
You see, we mere boys of the British car magazine world normally have fairly limited scope when it comes to project cars. It's usually down to a staff member to find and fund the donor vehicle, which tends to mean it's a modest machine, and they then have to beg suppliers for whatever upgrades they can lay their hands on - it's the harsh economics of the British magazine scene.
In 1991, however, Tuning magazine was able to entertain much grander ambitions. No scraping around hoping that one of the editorial team might have enough spare Deutsch marks to get the project rolling, no 'let's see what we can get' mentality towards how to upgrade the car. Nein, our German friends set about creating the quickest road-going 911 that they could and acquired themselves a 964 RS as the blank canvas upon which to work.
Those of you with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the 911 hierarchy will realise that this particular version of the RS is not regarded as one of Porsche's best - contemporary tarmac tests branded it as almost too uncompromising for the road - but it's still a pretty extraordinary machine. And imagine the thrill of having one sitting in your company car park with the instruction to make it go even quicker.
Even quicker: that must have been some brief. In standard form the 3.6-litre 964 RS produced 260bhp yet weighed 1229 kilos, making it good for a power-to-weight ratio of 215bhp per ton. That in turn helped this iteration of the RS streak to 60mph from rest in 5.3sec, which is brisk by any standard and mighty impressive by the yardsticks of the early '90s. Many of us might have thought a car like this was fast enough...
Yet at the time there was already another 911 that could out-run the RS, the 3,6-litre Turbo. And it was probably the flawed driving characteristics of the Turbo that shaped Tuning's thinking on how to proceed with its RS project car. The 3.6 Turbo was one of the last truly scary 911's, not so much because of its aggressive performance, but because its turbocharger was almost irresponsibly laggy; when it did come on boost, the extra power struck like an avalanche, which was exciting if the wheels were pointing straight, full-on frightening if you were pulling out to overtake or were part-way around a roundabout.
With turbocharging a non-starter, the obvious route to considerable yet manageable amounts of additional power was supercharging. Tuning employed the services of Langenfeld-based Rolf Heidl, whose company specialised in motorsport preparation and aftermarket mods for Porsches. Although Heidl was to do all the spannerwork, including blueprinting the engine, there already existed a supercharger conversion specifically for the 964 RS - now there's a niche marketing for you.
The Cetoni K 29 supercharger - or kompressor as the Germans like to call it - conversion catapulted the power output from the standard 260bhp at 6100rpm to a gargantuan 456bhp (462PS) at 6800rpm. To put that into perspective, that's 6bhp more than the iconic 959 produced. There was a similarly gasp-inducing swelling of the torque curve; the Cetoni conversion generated 4061b ft compared with 2401b ft for the standard engine and the 3681b ft developed by the 959. Cetoni, the company that developed the supercharger, has since been swallowed byTechArt.
No wonder the boys - sorry, men - at Tuning were so keen to strap on their timing gear and take stock of their project car's performance. Before they could, though, Rolf Heidl himself ran the car for 1000 kilometres (600 miles) to ensure that everything was functioning as it should; it must have been the ultimate tease, knowing that your 456bhp 911 was finished but having to let somebody else drive around in it first.
But the wait was worth it. Big time. Zero to 62mph in 3.8sec. Zero to l00mph in 8.4sec. Zero to 125mph in 12.2sec. For a rear-drive car without traction control, those are incredible figures; acceleration that's on the pace with the 959 and is a tenth quicker to 62mph than the new 612bhp Carrera GT. As project cars go, Tuning must have been pretty pleased with the outcome.
But running figures on the car wasn't the end of the Tuning tale - the magazine used the modded RS as a long-term test car, racking up 10,000 kilometres (6200 miles) in it to prove that tuned cars aren't necessarily doomed to a life of being returned to the workshop. The Tuning test ended with smiles all-round, but what happened to the car after that remains hazy.
What's clear today though, is that specialist left-hand drive importer,Martin Pearse, has something very special parked around the back of his business premises near the seafront of the quiet north Norfolk town of Sheringham.
As a Porsche fan, Pearse is all revved up about his latest purchase, raving about its explosive performance, while at the same time slightly nervous about having to sell what, to the uninitiated, might be viewed as a needlessly modified RS.
You can understand his reservations about the ex-Tuning machine. On his driveway also sits a 996 GT3, a couple of Audi RS2 wagons, a 968 Club Sport, and a Mercedes 500E, and if we're being brutally honest about this, the supercharged RS seems rather ordinary. Although its metallic purpley-burgundv paintwork gleams in the bright February sunlight, it's not a great colour for a 911, especially not one that started life as an RS: the hallmark of an RS is a bright, often garish, colour and to judge by this particular car's interior trim, particularly the pink nylon door-handle pulls, it was probably pink originally.
Then there's the small matter of the non-standard rear wing. The standard 964 RS had a small wing that rose electronically from the engine cover when you got up to speed, but when the Cetoni-modifed engine was installed this car gained a large, fixed rear wing. Made of Kevlar composite and moulded into the engine cover itself, this wing is the same as that used for an American 911 race series, so its ability to provide high speed stability has been proven in combat, even though it has a slight hint of the aftermarket about it.
There's another very practical reason for the replacement rear wing - it's needed to accommodate the giant intercooler. Look through the grilles on top of the wing and you can sense that something sizeable lurks therein, but it's still slightly shocking to open the engine cover to be confronted by such a substantial chunk of alloy. The intercooler and its associated pipes and trunking dominates the engine bay - it's as if someone has left a trendy aluminium suitcase on top of the engine - although a large conical air filter also catches your eye. So, not all 911 engine bays look the same after all.
Another reason that this car lacks external visual drama is its wheels. When Tuning had it, this modified RS ran on a set of eye-candy Azev five-hole 18-inch alloys that looked flash without seeming vulgar. Who knows where those rims might have disappeared to over the years, but this car deserves something better than what it's got now.
Of course, it's stupid to let a car's looks govern your opinion of it, but as Pearse clears the driveway of his other stock to let the Porsche out, some of my earlier expectations about this car have lost their edge. Then it fires up. The engine crackles into life, emitting a mid-toned bark of crystal clarity and sufficient volume to send nearby seagulls squawking and clattering from their perches. Expectations return to full strength.
Although the interior is unchanged from standard, you can't help but feel a buzz clambering into an RS. Those high-hipped seats make you feel like a race driver, and when you pull the meagrely-trimmed door - cloth handle, cheapo plastic window winder - closed behind you, it clangs the clang of a lightweight component. A quick look over your shoulder confirms the lack of rear seats and the Carrera RS script embroidered onto the rear bulkhead carpet; already this is a 911 with a difference.
German roads are generally smoother than our own, which must be why Tuning felt confident in tightening up still further suspension that had been roundly criticised for its overbearing firmness. But we're not in Germany, we're in the back streets of Sheringham and the ride quality is on the raggedy edge of what's both acceptable and what's physically bearable. Even as we clear the town and head onto 30mph and 40mph B-roads, the suspension thumps and pounds crankily.
Low-speed running also reveals the one small flaw of the engine conversion it doesn't much like being asked to chug around in a tall gear at less than 2000rpm. Tuning's road test on the car reckoned that it behaved 'like a lamb' around town, but it must have meant a lamb having its tail docked - in fourth, for instance, the whole transmission fidgets and chunters to such an extent that you have to change down. It's not really a problem, it's just that as superchargers operate across the whole of the rev range you tend to expect great things from them.
Great things, however, are just around the next corner. Well, make that when we get to the next straight. Even on restricted B-roads, when the engine's spinning at more than 2000rpm its massive potential is omnipresent. A mild brush of the throttle pedal summons up a strong and insistent surge of thrust and you find yourself catching up with corners and other traffic at a rate that you weren't expecting. There's no delay in the throttle response, never any doubt that you have at your disposal a fearsome amount of torque and horsepower.
What might be in doubt, though, is your own ability to harness a full-throttle onslaught, and that's why it's best to build yourself up slowly to such an adventure, wait for a straight that's long and empty enough to unleash all 456bhp. You'll want a stretch of tarmac that's smooth enough, too, because while the ride quality improves immeasurably with speed, the RS is still prone to wandering slightly off-line over steep cambers and deep potholes.
It's an amazing feeling when you finally do let rip in the supercharged RS. The thrust is incredible, not merely for its savagery, but because of how solid and relentless it feels. Imagine the fight-winning punch of a world champion boxer, but instead of his fist slowing and stopping as it hits his opponent, it keeps on going right through him without faltering. In a 959 you can feel it as each of the turbos ramps up and your rate of acceleration leaps accordingly, but in this supercharged car you're swept along on a wave of energy that doesn't ebb or diminish until you crash into the rev limiter.
Sometimes linear power delivery can be boring, but this isn't one of those sometimes. Acceleration is ferocious and you need a firm grip of both the steering wheel and your wits if you want to deploy it efficiently and safely.
It's all too easy to find yourself hard on the gutsy, uprated brakes, because you've failed fully to comprehend how much speed you've picked up in such a short distance.
We soon discover that the roads of north Norfolk, even well out of tourist season, are no place for a car with performance as immense as this supercharged RS's. You run out of straight all too quickly, and even allowing for the slim body of the 964, the lanes aren't really wide enough to squeeze past traffic that is inevitably moving far slower than you are. But mixed with the frustration of the conditions is a deep sense of respect for the car and the quality of the conversion.
On a track or up on a deserted alpine pass, this is a car in which you could have the time of your life. Martin Pearse has it for sale at around £40,000, roughly a third of what a good 959 costs these days; for outright ability and all-weather pace the super sophisticated, all-wheel drive 959 probably has the measure of even this RS, but for thrills and kicks the cheaper car turns the tables. Pearse reckons that anyone suspicious of the supercharger conversion could strip it off and still have a bargain price RS - that, however, would ruin the appeal of such a spectacular and unique Porsche.
Print this page
Introduction | The Cars | Current Stock | Testimonials | Suppliers + Aftercare | Export Info | Non Stock Info