Piers Courage feeds in touch of opposite lock with precision in 1968

The car was of course the BRM P126, powered by three liters v12 might. Courage drove the car for Reg Parnell Racing in both 1967 and 1968, before moving to Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1969.

MORE: 12 incredible shots of Formula 1 cars getting sideways!

Photo of the day: Steering on the throttle is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Sky Sports F1 commentator and 1996 World Champion Damon Hill, tells ” the untold story of the season that shook Formula 1” in this heart felt, touching and wonderfully shot film about F1 legend Ayrton Senna.

Damon Hill was Senna’s Williams team-mate at Imola on that fateful day in 1994 and he reminiscences about the events that shook the racing world 20 years ago this week

Video: The last team mate – Damon Hill on Ayrton Senna is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

If there’s a better sound out there than this, we’d like to know about it.

The 1991 Australian Grand Prix still stands as the shortest Formula 1 race ever held, and if you look to the sky in this video you can see a preview as to why. A torrential downpour caused the race to be called off after just 14 laps, however not before Ayrton Senna managed to weave his magic. He qualified first, and won the race. For us however, this video is all about the sound of that Honda V12…

Pure Sounds: Ayrton Senna’s V12 scream is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

If you’re into racing cars and you live in Sydney. This is where you want to be.

Need something to look forward to this weekend? Well look no further, because the Sydney Retro Speedfest is rolling into town. On both March 3-4, the family event is set to entertain with racing, off track entertainment and more – in fact in total more than 28 events are set to take course over the weekend!

What interests us the most is the promise of more than a dozen historic Formula 1 cars, from the likes of Brabham, Williams, Arrows, Cooper, Ferrari, March, Benetton, Lola, Surtees and Spirit. If that doesn’t excite you, then you might just be in the wrong place! But that’s not all; Formula 5000, IndyCar and Formula Atlantic machines from throughout the decades will also be in attendance, going heads up against legendary machines such as the Le Mans spec Porsche 962.

Furthermore, there will be a field of legendary touring cars, production sports cars, Formula Fords, a celebration of 50 years of mustang and an exclusive 1960s open wheeler trophy race!

Discounted pre sale tickets are available right now. Check out the Sydney Retro Speedfest website for further information.

This Weekend: Sydney Retro Speedfest is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Gerhard Berger explains.

This week at Motorsport Retro we’re looking back on the life of Ayrton Senna, and as part of that we’ll be seeking to uncover a little bit more about the man behind the legend than people are used to seeing and hearing. This video marks the begginning of that, interviewing former team mate Gerhard Berger of the time he spent with Ayrton. It’s a great piece – enjoy!

Photo: The Cahier Archive

Video: What was Ayrton Senna like as a team mate? is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Senna won the Monaco Grand Prix six times during his career – this was the first.

Taking victory by a full 33 seconds ahead of second place Nelson Piquet, there can be absolutely no doubt that Senna drove the wheels off his Lotus 99T that day. He also won pole position, and found himself on the podium at the end of the year in the Driver’s Championship for the first time. It was an incredible drive, captured here on video. Enjoy.

Image: The Cahier Archive

Video: Ayrton Senna onboard at Monaco (1987) is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Take a peek inside one very special private collection of cars and memorabilia.

Juan Pablo Montoya is a no-nonsense, take it or leave it type of racing car driver. His incredible car control, highly aggressive driving style and straight to the point attitude made him a fan favorite amongst Formula 1 fans worldwide. He was known for throwing reputation aside and driving the wheels off his cars, which made him very exciting to watch. In this video we get to know a little bit about the man behind the helmet, including being invited into his own private collection of cars and memorabilia. Enjoy.

Video: F1 Legends – Juan Pablo Montoya is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

This week marks 20 years since Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna lost their lives.

The event of course was the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. Roland Crashed during qualifying on April 30th, and Ayrton on May 1st. This became a part of what is now remembered as the worst weekend in Formula 1 history.

MORE: The worst weekend – Part 1

MORE: The worst weekend – Part 2

MORE: The worst weekend – Part 3

MORE: The worst weekend – Part 4

Illustration: Senna and Ratzenberger is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Take a blast around Jerez with Ayrton Senna during the 1989 Spanish Grand Prix

Senna’s machine in 1989 was of course the V10 Honda powered McLaren MP4/5. In this video he extracts every last drop of it’s potential and really shows the rest of the field how it’s done. He qualified first at the event, and won the race outright – on both accounts ahead of second place Gerhard Berger, who was driving for Ferrari at the time.

MORE: Watch Senna take the pole the following year in the 1990 Spanish GP!

Video: Onboard with Senna – Jerez 1989 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Take a look at this awesome Ayrton Senna T-Shirt!

This week at Motorsport Retro we’re celebrating the life of none other than Ayrton Senna! As part of this, our T-Shirt of the week is this very cool shirt featuring a fantastic shot of Ayrton Senna taken at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril. The race was of course, Senna’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix victory!

Our crew neck, short sleeved men’s t shirts are 100% premium cotton in a soft pre-shrunk jersey knit. Our women’s t shirts are lighter weight 150g tees made with deluxe 30′s soft style yarns for a soft feel

Click here to check it out!

MSR Shop: T-Shirt of the week – Senna’s first win is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

An intimate tale of Ayrton’s years rising through the ranks of Formula Ford.

Dennis Rushen and Ayrton Senna were lifelong friends. This is the story of the eventful years Ayrton spent in Formula Ford with Dennis’s team Rushen Green Racing – as told by the man himself. Thanks go to Henry Hope-Frost for the interview.

The first encounter

“I remember vividly the day I first saw and met Ayrton Senna, in 1981. My Rushen Green Racing workshop was based at Snetterton and there was a Formula Ford 1600 race going on in the background. It was a dull, grey day and as I walked back to the workshop I saw the pack coming round Coram. There was a black-and-yellow Van Diemen with a good lead. And then it started to rain. Next time round the black-and-yellow car was several hundred yards in lead. I turned round and went back to the pits to find out who it was.

“I introduced myself to a 21-year-old Brazilian kid called Ayrton Senna da Silva. His English wasn’t great, but we got by and I told him the next step on the ladder was Formula Ford 2000, with the two-litre engines and wings, and that my team was doing rather well in the British and European championships that season with Tommy Byrne. He nodded as though he understood.

“However, at the end of the year he went back to Brazil with his young wife – he didn’t even do the end-of-year Festival at Brands Hatch. I thought that was it and I’d have to wait for the next one to come along.

Lost and found

“Soon after, another Brazilian driver Chico Serra, who’d won the Festival a few years in the works Van Diemen, said to me: ‘I’m OK, aren’t I, Dennis? I mean, I’m a good driver?’

“I told him that he was and he fired back: ‘Well, I’m going to bring over someone seriously good, someone really special’. Turned out he was talking about Ayrton.

“Ayrton had phoned Van Diemen boss Ralph Firman, who’d run him to all that success in 1600 in ’81, and told him he was coming back. Ralph supplied me with the RF82 FF2000 car and we set off on another British and European adventure with Ayrton Senna da Silva. Funnily enough, and not many people know this: the da Silva [his paternal surname] bit was dropped after he saw a guy with the same name in a Brazilian newspaper. We told him that was like Smith in English, so he announced that he didn’t want to be Ayrton Senna Smith, but just Ayrton Senna.The human side

“As I’ve mentioned when I met him on that grey day at Snett, his English was not good. Initially, his conversation with the boys in the team revolved around two words, one beginning with f, the other with c – and the variations on a theme. In fact, he used to sign my Christmas cards ‘To my dear old friend Dennis, you f…… c…!’ The charming thing was he didn’t know the right and/or wrong time to use them.

“We soon bonded with him, and nicknamed him ’arry. We thought that was easier than ‘Eye-Airton’, which was the correct way to pronounce his name, of course. He hated it when people called him ‘Airton’ – even dear old Murray [Walker] changed it at the end, but Ayrton hadn’t minded Murray getting it wrong for years – he thought Murray was a wonderful guy, as we all do.

“He had a good sense of humour – witness all the shenanigans with Gerhard Berger in Formula 1 in the 1990s. People actually don’t know the half of it, I’m sure. People said he was arrogant. He wasn’t – he was shy, yes, but he made good, close friendships. His first friends when he settled here, people like Ralph Firman, fellow racer Mauricio Guglemin and, I’m honoured to say, me, remained his best friends.

“There was a lot of pratting about, and he drove me to distraction quite often, but I was incredibly fond of him and he was so magic in the car that it didn’t matter. We all got a real buzz when he came into the workshop, even when he turned up late because it had been too cold to get out of bed any earlier. He hated the cold!

“When we were in Denmark for the FF2000 race at Jyllandsringen, where we clinched the European championship for ’82, he got pissed and nicked a scooter and did wheelies up and down the street on it. He wasn’t always the sensible, god-fearing, clean-living bloke people imagined. He even spent the night with someone else’s wife that night. Allegedly!

“One of the most telling early examples about his character and all-consuming self-belief – and the way he punished himself over mistakes he’d made – came at Zolder earlier in that ’82 season. He’d got a girlfriend on the go and asked if he could borrow my [hire] car to go and see her if he won the race. I told him that would be fine and I’d make my own way back to England. He was 15 seconds in the lead and inexplicably fell off. No car, no girlfriend. He was utterly furious and had to drive me home instead. He didn’t talk to me for three days after that. We saw a similar thing at Monaco in 1988, didn’t we?

“A lot was made about his religious beliefs, especially when he became world famous, but he never mentioned it to me. He didn’t walk around carrying a bible or anything, but there was definitely a spiritual aura about him, a magic if you like. He had a line to ‘upstairs’, I’m sure.

Talent to throw away

“When Ayrton drove for me, he was just miles and miles better than everyone else – we won so many races that year. It was such a big deal when he didn’t win, because it was so unusual. He was the only guy I ever worked with who knew exactly what level of grip he had at any given moment and under any given circumstances. It was extraordinary. And his feel for what was going on with the car was incredible. He once came in to the pits during a test to say one of the rear tyres was two pounds down. We asked him how he knew and he said: ‘I can feel it and I can see the shape of the tyre in the mirror’. One of the mechanics checked the tyre pressure and it was precisely two pounds down.

“His racing brain was just tuned differently. I asked him once about the first two corners at Snett: Riches and Sear. I said, ‘what are you thinking about as you approach Riches?’ ‘Sear,’ came the succinct reply. He was one step ahead all the time. The driving fast bit was a piece of cake to him – he had tonnes of spare mental capacity to work at all the other stuff.

“He knew he was good, but he didn’t brag about it. He carried himself in the right way, although of course he did make mistakes that were high-profile because of his status.

“To Ayrton, F1 was never a big deal – it was something that was always going to happen; it was something that had to be done. He hated all the politics and posturing among F1 folk. In fact, I believe that his demeanour in the pictures from his early years with Toleman and Lotus is telling. He doesn’t look happy; it wasn’t his world. The same is probably true of the final year with Williams.

“He once confided in me that ‘one of these days, Dennis, I’m going to drive for Ferrari’. I like to visualise that yellow helmet in the cockpit of a scarlet Ferrari with the tifosi going mad, but wonder how he’d have fared with the politics at Maranello. They’d probably have stopped the day after he got there…

“There had certainly been some bad moments during his 10 years in F1, especially against authority and the powerbrokers and politicians. His relationship with the FIA hadn’t always been good, with all that business with [FIA president] Jean-Marie Balestre at Suzuka.

“He still displayed the fun side to his character, though even as an F1 superstar. I used to go to grands prix to see him and he’d throw his pass round me neck so I could get on the grid to talk to him. Ayrton Senna didn’t really need a pass, did he? Remember what I said about his close friends? We kept in touch for the rest of his life – he phoned, wrote, came to stay and we maintained that relationship throughout. He didn’t really change as a bloke.

Fast forward

“People often wonder what he’d have been like as a retired multiple world champion, aged – what would he be now? – 54. I’ll tell you what he would’ve been like: magic. He’d have been utterly magic. He would have retained that mysterious, moody, latin aura and, like always, been able to silence a room just by walking in. Marilyn Monroe, Eddie Cochran, James Dean, Ayrton Senna – they’re the same in that respect. They just had that something and would never have lost it. In racing, Fangio was the same, right up until he died in his 80s.

The final chapter

“It’s always been something I’ve struggled with. I was watching the Imola race on TV and, like all of us, didn’t see it coming. I turned the telly off and that was that. A friend owned a lovely estate near the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland and I went there on my own and stayed there for two weeks. I just needed to get away. I’ve never watched the accident again, I’ve not seen the Senna film and I haven’t read the Senna books. And that’s how it’s going to stay.

“Many years after we’d worked together and he’d gone off and won all those F1 races and world titles, I asked him: ‘what was the most important thing you’ve done?’ He came straight out with it: ‘winning the European championship in FF2000 with you, Dennis’.

“That’s enough for me.”

A personal account of Ayrton Senna – before F1 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

The Brazilian Grand Prix of 1985 marked the commencement of the relationship between Lotus and Ayrton Senna.

Ayrton would end up retiring from the Grand Prix with electrical issues, however would go on to win the Portuguese Grand Prix soonafter. Here, Ayrton can be seen celebrating on April 7, 1985.

MORE: Why Senna was so fast (video)

Photo of the Day: Celebrating Senna (1985) is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

One very angry Ayrton Senna quarrels with a young Michael Schumacher.

At the very beginning of the 1992 French Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher attempted a bold overtake which resulted in a collision with Ayrton Senna. Ayrton’s car was wrecked – and his race was over just moments after it started. Schumacher was able to rejoin the race, however ultimately was forced to face the wrath of one very frustrated Senna.

Video: Senna gets in Schumacher’s face (1992) is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

In the wake of Ayrton’s tragic passing, his sister Viviane Senna set up the Instituto Ayrton Senna (IAS) to fulfill his longing to help his countrymen of Brazil. This is that story.

This video explores Senna’s dream to give the children of Brazil opportunity to realize their own potential, just has he was able to reach his. It tells the story of Ayrton’a love of Brazil, and his distress at the realization of how little opportunity so many children in his home country were given. It was created with the help of video game giant Gran Turismo.

See Gran Turismo’s full tribute to Ayrton Senna here.

Ayrton’s Wish – A film by Gran Turismo is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Martin Brundle sits down with Alain Prost to talk of strong team mates, and Ayrton Senna.

As you’d expect, he’s got some pretty insightful things to say. We can think of no better way to round out our week remembering the life and times of the legend, Ayrton Senna. Enjoy.

MORE: Gallery – The absolute best of Alain Prost

Image: The Cahier Archive

Video: Prost talks about Senna is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

“How’s the weather?” need not be the most boring question in the world. Racing Elements is an awesome new little app which combines accurate, worldwide weather updates with 60 years of incredible Formula 1 photography from the Cahier Archive.

It’s here to save the day, and turn the needlessly bland original weather app on your smart phone or tablet into something you’ll end up finding yourself opening just to scroll through the incredible images. Best of all, it’s free!

That’s not all either, the images change depending on the weather in your selected location, and there’s an inbuilt social media section which allows you to keep up to date with the latest F1 paddock info – if you wish! It allows you to check the local and world weather, as well as the forecast for the up-coming F1 races, spiced up with a brilliant twist.

Racing Elements is available to download now for Android phones and tablets on Google Play, and for iOS via iTunes. What are you waiting for?

Some of the great Cahier Archive galleries we’ve featured in the past:

Gallery – The best rainy Formula 1 moments!

Gallery – Amazing photos of the 1961 F1 season

Gallery – The very best of Jackie Stewart

Like F1? You’ll love this free weather app! is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

The fourth Spa-Classic is right around the corner! All the details here.

Spa-Francorchamps will host the 4th edition of the Spa-Classic organised by Peter Auto fro France, during the weekend of May 16th, 17th and 18th. Since 2011, the year that saw birth of one of Europe’s greatest historic motorsports events, the event has grown in stature, experience and maturity. The epic scenery of the Ardennes region, combined with the unique shapes and sounds from cars that have written history throughout the world, settle down for a thrill ride on the Ardennes rollercoaster.

Seven epic starting grids are presented over the three days of racing, including Classic Endurance Racing, one of Europe’s best historic motorsports series featuring sportscars and GT’s from the late sixties to the late seventies. From the UK Group C Racing is present featuring a vast grid of unique prototypes that bring back the golden days of endurance racing to the Ardennes. Fans of historic touring cars and GTs will be treated with a large field gathered into Sixties Endurance. If you’re passion lies within Italian Sports and GTs from the late fifties until 1965 you must come and see the cars that from the Trofeo Nastro Rossa, promoted by Peter Auto. Besides these Italian beauties, this year will see some Aston Martin DB GT and DB4 GT Zagato are invited to compete against Italian rivals.

Last year, Peter Auto introduced the Spa Endurance Tourisme grid to tribute the Spa 24 Hours. The brand new Heritage Touring Cup takes us back to the glory years of touring car racing (1966-1984) featuring cars such as the BMW 3.0 CSL, BMW 635i, Ford with both the Escort and Capri and many others. From the UK, the Historic Motor Racing News U2TC is present including pre-66 under two-litre Touring Cars, including the BMW 2002, Ford Lotus Cortina and Alfa Romeo Giulia. Last but not least, the British HSCC organisation is back in Belgium featuring the Historic Formula 2 Championship including legendary classic F2 cars such as the Ralt RT1, March 782, Chevron B34 etc.

For the second-time in a row the well known British auction house Bonhams will be present at the Spa Classic. Over fifty cars will be offered for sale. More information about this great event, ticketing and programme can be found here.

© Marcel Hundscheid/Speed-O-Graphica.com

Preview: The Spa Classic 2014 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

The idea was much closer to reality than a lot of people ever thought.

Two of the most emotive worlds in motorsport almost came together in 1986: Ferrari and the Indy 500. Can you imagine? It might seem like a fanciful dream to most enthusiasts, but that idea was closer to reality than a lot of people ever thought. Just for good measure, throw a young Adrian Newey into the mix. Fact, or fiction?

By Andy Hallbery

The background of the Ferrari IndyCar story was the result of politics, principally Ferrari’s Commendatore Enzo Ferrari, and Formula 1’s Bernie Ecclestone, over that age-old document of battle, the Concorde Agreement. By 1985, Ferrari – himself 87 years old remember – was still not one to lay over and give in. So to threaten F1, he commissioned the Ferrari 637, designed and built to compete in America’s CART World Series, which at that time included the famed Indy 500.

To do so Ferrari had got in touch with the future Indy 500-winning CART team TrueSports, and a March IndyCar was delivered to Ferrari for the design team to dissect how it worked and what was needed for their new venture. Bobby Rahal, 1986 Indy 500 winner for TrueSports, was also sent to Fiorano mid-season for a two-day test of the March for Ferrari to gather data.

Rahal explains: “This was right in the middle of the racing season, and I went there to test in September while the season was still going on. We tested our March-Cosworth at Fiorano, and [Michele] Alboreto drove the car, too. Of course, Ferrari copied everything, or tried to. We took a skeleton crew over, and we tried to convince [then race engineer] Adrian Newey to leave March and design the Ferrari IndyCar, but we didn’t know March had committed Adrian to another team for 1986.”

With Newey unavailable, Ferrari designer Gustav Brunner was selected for the job. Predictably the outcome was a gorgeous, scarlet IndyCar, adorned with the Prancing Horse.

To stir things up, as you would, Ferrari issued a news release: “The news concerning the possibility of Ferrari abandoning Formula One to race in the United States has a basis in fact. For some time at Ferrari there has been study of a program of participation at Indianapolis and in the CART championship. In the event that in Formula One the sporting and technical rules of the Concorde Agreement are not sufficiently guaranteed for three years the Ferrari team (in agreement with its suppliers and in support of its presence in the US) will put this program into effect.”

In effect, ‘I have my toys, and you have the pram. And I am prepared to throw those toys out’.

So, Brunner’s IndyCar came to fruition. Side by side, it was as pretty as the F187/88 F1 car that Brunner later produced for Ferrari. Welcome to the world, the type 034. No six wheels on this type 034, but just as much of a surprise.

Alboreto tested the car at Ferrari’s legendary test track Fiorano, where it is said that it was as competitive as the March 85C that Ferrari still retained.

But just when it was looking good for one of the most emotive names in racing to arrive in IndyCar, in stepped Ferrari’s John Barnard. He decided that the IndyCar project  was hurting the F1 programme, and should stop. And it did.

Not before the politics started again, however. The old man was not going to walk away quietly. Enzo wanted an end to the 1.5-litre turbo formula in F1, so suggested a new idea to Ecclestone. If F1 would switch to a 3.5-litre normally aspirated formula for 1989, allowing his beloved 12-cylinder engines to compete again, Ferrari would cease work on the IndyCar project.“In the end, Enzo was just pulling everybody’s chain,” Rahal says. “He was fighting with the FIA, as he did so often. But it was an interesting time and an interesting experience.”
The Ferrari IndyCar might never have seen the light of day, but the Type 034 engine survived and was ultimately re-engineered and badged as an Alfa Romeo. Installed in a March chassis, the Alfa was raced by Roberto Guerrero, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser, but without any real success.
As for the car itself, the Ferrari 637 IndyCar finally made it to Indianapolis. In 1994, it was loaned for a time to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, where American racing fans saw it and dreamed about the day when Ferrari met Indy. The never-raced chassis, which ran only a few times, now resides in a corner of the Gilles Villeneuve exhibit at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy.

Follow Andy Hallbery on twitter, @hallbean  and at www.romanceofracing.com
-ENDS-

When Ferrari Almost Came to Indy is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

An incredibly detailed road-going recreation of a Targa Florio legend.

Ask anyone to name the great sportscar races and they’ll inevitably mention the twice-round-the-clock events at Le Mans and Daytona, the 12-hour thrash at Sebring, the 1000-mile epic of the Mille Miglia, perhaps any of the great 1000km races of the world sportscar championship’s heyday. What they might not mention – without prompting – is the incredible Targa Florio road race, the challenging blast around the mountain roads of Italian island Sicily.Fought over by the world’s most iconic racing brands Alfa Romeo, Bugatti Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati and Porsche, the Targa had counted towards the world sportscar championship between 1955 and 1973. A series of high-profile accidents and fatalities involving drivers and spectators in ’73 sounded the death knell for the event in its existing form. And that final ‘proper’ Targa was won by Porsche, the German firm securing their 11th win to seal their place as the race’s most successful marque.There was something special about Porsche’s ’73 Targa victory, too. The winning car was not one of the all-out prototype monsters. No, they all fell by the wayside that year, allowing a production-based 911, the Carrera RSR driven by Swiss Herbert Muller and Dutchman Gijs van Lennep, to win. And that fabulous, #8 Martini-liveried machine lives on. Well, sort of.Craig Drury has achieved a lifelong ambition to own an example, by lovingly recreating the car. Here, Craig tells the story of how his RSR came to be.“I’d always loved the 1973 RSR 911. I had a replica based on ’72 911 that was a road-registered race car, complete with full rollcage. It was fast, of course, but not that pleasant to drive on the road.
What I really wanted was a replica based on a more modern car to blend the developments of the 911 over the past 40 years with the superb looks of the early cars, especially in wide-arch RSR form.
On a visit to the Porsche Museum I saw the car I wanted to recreate: the 1973 Martini RSR #8. Out came the camera for numerous reference pics!”He continues: “My goal was to create a road-going car that was as close to the ’73 Targa winner as possible. That meant I had to get the detail spot on, including wheels, bumpers and, of course, those legendary Martini stripes.
The answer to my prayers came in the form of Sydney-based Porsche specialists ZAG Automotive, which produce the best early-model Porsche replicas in Australia, and are probably equal to the best in the world. We discussed the various options and details and the project kicked off.I chose a 1989 3.2 Carrera as the donor car and a 993 Varioram engine with a custom-made exhaust to give that angry 911 growl and idle and intoxicating howl at high revs.The bodywork was modified to accept RSR brake vents, cut-down overriders and exhaust location holes, as well as a fibreglass ducktail rear spoiler.I had a problem with wheel and tyre sizes, as it’s impossible to get road tyres to fit the original 9/11×15 inch wheels, so the wheels are 17″ diameter, while retaining the 9″ and 11″ widths. The brakes came from a 930 Turbo and feature matching brake booster to ensure the correct brake bias front to rear. As far as suspension goes, the front struts have dropped spindles and Bilstein shock absorbers, just like an original RSR. I had the struts modified to accept light, period-style coil overs, which add to the torsion bars front and rear. The magic was done by East Coast Suspension.The interior of the car is full leather with aircon to make it a comfortable experience – certainly more that Muller and van Lennep would’ve experienced on the Targa. The instruments were sent to North Hollywood Speedometer for refurbishment and back dating. The tachometer was changed to the 10,000rpm
My ‘RSR’ is painted in original Porsche silver red roof. The front and rear bumpers were quite challenging in terms of getting the right shade of bright orange. As with the rest of the car, ZAG did fantastic job matching colours from the photos and the finish is outstanding.Most people’s favourite bit – the Martini stripes – came from various sources. The decals on the sides, front, and back were custom-made by Magnagrafik, while the roof and spoiler-top stripes were sourced locally.
All that left were the all-important Martini door decals. There were hand-made using pictures of the Museum car, and cut in vinyl. I think this adds to the authenticity and period look. They really set the car off.
On the road, the car has a firm, well-controlled ride. It weighs less than 1200kg, so the Varioram engine gives the car ample plenty of go, with brakes to match. East Coast’s suspension set-up gives the car excellent balance and grip – even the non-power steering is usable with the large 255-width front tyres.It’s a wonderful tribute to a great car – but I would say that! With air con, electric windows, leather seats, and bluetooth stereo it could be used every day, but the attention it gets wherever you go makes that a bit difficult. It’s certainly no shrinking violet, but I love it.”

Photos by to Jayson Fong at Form and Function

Gallery: Martini Porsche 911 RSR replica is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Image: The Shannons Club

Renault’s mighty R8 Gordini powered through the 1970 Australian Rally season to take the championship, giving Renault a huge boost in sales and branding.

So they brought their R12 Gordini back in 1972, hoping to bring the fight again in the rugged Australian series. Two years had passed, however, and competition was tougher and faster than ever.

Holden had been hard at work in the interim, developing their LC Torana GTR-XU-1 into a fierce, fast and rugged competition beast. And for 1972 they had upgraded it to the LJ, with a larger and more potent 3.3-litre hot six.

Renault had the commitment and motorsport prodigy, but their front-engined, front wheel drive 12 Gordini was in for a rough season. Enjoy its story in Renault 12 Gordini: Front paws in need of lion claws at the Shannons Club.

Via the Shannons Club

Image via the Shannons Club

Renault 12 Gordini: Front paws in need of lion claws is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.