992.2 First Thoughts, the Singer DLS Turbo, Le Mans and Andy's new Beige Volvo

dude, how long has it been?

andy, it's been a while, mate.

It's been a while.

Should we tell people, though, that it it almost was a lot less than it has been, but yours truly, here messed up the recording last time oh, that's right's right.

Do you know what I actually forgot about that?

I am still kicking myself, because we were there, you know, enjoying a good hour or so's worth of banter, and then you volunteered to edit the episode together and you were like, yeah, so have you got any more than like the first 30 minutes worth of audio?

I was like, yeah, so have you got any more than like the first 30 minutes worth of audio?

I was like what?

What you know and what's funny is, as I was doing show notes today, I was thinking, ah, damn, we covered all this stuff already in our last pod.

Oh, that's a shame because it would be good to talk about, but we never did so.

It's and I don't want to talk too much inside baseball about the pod, but it is.

It's very early where you are and to anyone listening at home, I'm just going to say this about my good friend, james McGrath.

The phrase ahead for radio really comes to mind right now 5 am and the troll you know those little trolls with the pink hair that I'm greeted by is quite, quite spectacular.

The man from the Hound of the Baskervilles.

Yes, that's me.

I just want you to start yelling.

I'm not an animal or calling for a baby.

Ruth, god, yeah, fantastic.

Well, let's talk about porsche.

What's on the agenda today?

Andy?

I did heaps.

I mean, uh, obviously, I would say the entire porsche world has been awaiting eagerly our views on the 992.2

, so we're going to get into that.

Uh, some updates on both of our cars.

I mean, we've not talked about that forever.

Road trips and rallies I don't know where you've been, you don't know where I've been and porsche racing at le mans.

I know you're going to be keen to discuss that and you'll do a deep dive, uh, and then some interesting porsche stuff in the news and of course we've got our good old video of the week.

Welcome to Curb and Canyon.

That was a good welcome.

That was a very just welcome to.

That was awesome.

The best bit was the deep dive on le mans.

I was like, wait, that's happened.

Yeah, I'll be talking about that in depth yeah, you know I follow events like that yeah, I'm looking forward to your report.

It's um, I'm sure everyone is.

It's because I'm I'm sure it'll be laden with um insightful coverage uh detailed lots of fast driving oh yeah, I mean no doubt, no doubt, james, how have you been?

It's been a while.

Huh, it's been a minute.

I it has.

Yeah, it's been.

It's been a while.

Huh, it's been a minute it has.

Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of months, as ever, but some fun things have been happening in the Auto Amateur Garage.

Not the least, I've seen a little change in the Auto Amateur Garage, uh-huh.

Uh-huh, yeah, I feel like I've sort of renewed my commitment to the car and to wrenching and to my channel, all just by making a choice, and that's to change my lift.

I've got this new awesome two-post lift in my garage and it is so good.

In fact it's so good it's almost a little intimidating, to be honest with you well, do you know, because I watched on socials I saw some footage of the lift going up and you know it's serious when it does that kind of ticking noise as it goes up.

You know it's got the safety mechanisms in place.

This is a serious lift, because you had what like a quick jack before that right no, it was a serious lift, serious lift.

It was, let's say, a semi-serious lift.

It was a scissor lift and it had all the safety features you know you'd hope for.

Um, it was, uh, it was the, the quick jacks.

You know you put them down, you take them up when you don't want to use them.

This was fixed in place so how high would that previous lift go?

could you get under the car?

You could get under the car if you were sitting on a stool, but you couldn't.

You couldn't walk under the car.

It was a mid-rise lift, so I think I think the spec said you got about 40 inches of clearance right, which is um I don't know what's that in kangaroo terms.

How many metres is that?

It's like four foot-ish.

And the reason I ask is my friend Fraz shout out.

He has one of those scissor lifts and I was around at his place.

We actually did just some inspection underneath my car, just wanted to make sure my shifter mechanism was all perfect.

And yeah, it's, it's a, it's an interesting height to operate at, because you can't stand but you sort of can't sit and it's, yeah, it's quite it's pretty awkward and I hit my head I don't know three or four times while I was under there yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I think, after having that sizzler for a good three years, maybe four years, I think, in total, absolute beaut for changing wheels, doing brakes

, you know, taking off the bumpers, maybe air filters, that sort of stuff, but actually to get fully under the card, no, not not fantastic.

Um, I mean, when we did project 996 and my mates, um, pat and steve, um, you know, we dropped the transmission and that was a lot of working around, you know, on our backs, on our knees, well, to be fair, those guys were doing that and I was videoing.

But no, right, right, um, but yeah, so this, this, um, you know the problem with that um sizzle, if they're ultimately was.

I got my car stuck on top of it several times, like it was fully extended in the air and, um, it happened once with my Cayenne and it happened twice with my nine 11 and it got all the way to the top, clicked in place and, you know, put the parking brakes on and it clicked in place.

But when I went to release it to try and bring it down, um, you could hear the electromagnets buzzing like they were trying to lift the brackets up so that the hydraulics would bleed, and and it would, it would come down, but it, it, it didn't happen.

And, uh, it was.

I mean, that's obviously quite concerning.

You know, my car stuck up there.

What am I going to do?

How did you resolve?

that.

Uh, that involved my, my good friend Costas uh coming over and my, my good friend costas uh coming over and, um, the two of us basically using a combination of floor jacks and crowbars to take the weight of the car on the lift and jack it up an extra like half inch so that we could take the pressure off one side, so that we could release the safety brake, and then we we kept the brake

open with a crowbar while we let the thing slide down.

It sounds super dangerous I was about to say, that doesn't I mean.

The good thing is that doesn't sound dangerous at all oh my god.

I think it's even more dangerous than we, than we assumed it was.

Oh man no doubt.

Yeah, but you know, actually, having scrapped it now, upon inspection it looked like one side of the lift had turned slightly and a twisted.

And if I, yeah, I know, and I, think about a year ago.

My eyes right now.

Why yeah?

I know, about a year ago I had a hydraulic leak and I thought I refilled it enough but I remember one time Can you get tablets for that leaking?

Sorry, it's a different thing.

Totally different.

That's your kind of leaking.

I think it's called dipends.

But yeah, when I brought the car down one time, one side was coming down faster than the other and so it was slightly off kilter and I stopped it immediately and pushed it all the way back up and then brought it down and it was fine.

But I think for that moment it was uneven.

It must have bent something and that was it.

That was it for that lift for good.

So it's done with.

And that was it.

That was it for that lift for good.

So like it's done with.

Not good, not cool.

Is there.

I mean, this represents, like you say, a move towards.

Okay, I'm back, I'm wrenching.

What's happening?

What's the first project?

Lift kit on the car end.

Dude, I've had the lift for a week and all I've done is car goes up, car goes down, car goes up, car goes down.

Just like Homer Simpson it's actually my 911's there.

All of the things are still in place, all of the struts are still in place, and I go into the garage and I'm like, yeah, let's just lift the car up.

Car goes up, car goes down, car goes up.

But I can get it almost all the way up to the ceiling and I can just about well, I can walk underneath it with, like my head slightly crooked because I'm a tall guy.

Um, but what next?

okay, well you know I actually want to start with an acknowledgement.

My buddy PJ, who you know, one of my driving mates.

I've driven with him for years now he organizes our Tasmania rally trip.

Really great guy and over the past I want to say two years he's embarked on guess, learning race craft or learning learning how to drive a car on a circuit and you know he's invested a lot of time, a lot of energy into training and coaching and track days and all of this stuff, ultimately leading to what happened two weekends

ago, which was his first race in the Porsche 944 racing series.

Wow.

So first, actual wheel-to-wheel racing and I think, once you step out of just doing track days and timed events to actually going wheel-to-wheel racing, I I think that, yeah, I think that's awesome.

He, he did incredibly well, I think.

Um, he started at the back of the grid, I think, in the first race and was, you know, didn't want to be the new guy rubbing fenders with other people and and sort of annoying the establishment.

Um, it's all, it's a complete 944, uh, spec series.

So there's, there's no other, no other cars.

But you know, within, within that race, he actually made up a bunch of places and I think in race two, I think he finished.

I want to say eighth, which you know for his first time out what a, that's awesome.

What?

an impressive effort, and there's um, there is actually a, a youtube streaming service that actually runs these events live, so you can watch them.

It's perhaps not quite sky f1 level of coverage, but it's it's still really great and and given that the racing was actually happening interstate, all of us were able to tune in on the day on youtube and watch the live stream.

It was.

It was really really great.

So, yeah, p PJ, hats off my friend.

It's impressive to watch and good on you for actually taking that step.

So what has he got to do with his car to sort of keep it track ready?

This is a track-only car, so PJ's got a few cars.

In fact I can't keep track of what cars he has.

He has a, I think he's got a 996 cup car and so most of his track work, I think, has been in that car.

And so this 944, it's a track car only I don't think it's able to be road registered, I don't think it's road legal.

But there was obviously quite an adjustment to going from, you know, a rear engine platform that is, the 911, which he spent most of his time in and some time in mid-engine Caymans to front-engine transaxle 944.

So I think that's taken some adjustment based on what he's said to me and said to our group more broadly.

But you know, and the car was prepped by our good mate Daz, who drives with us.

He runs a shop called Auto Coupe here in Melbourne, one of the best independent Porsche shops here in Melbourne, and he did the prep work on it.

And actually PJ's car looks amazing because it looks a little bit like Cole Trickle's car in Days of Thunder.

So good has he got himself an absolutely precious sponsor Something ridiculous.

Well, yeah, I think he may or may not have tweaked the auto coupe logo to look like the Mellow Yellow logo.

Oh, so good so tell me, would you?

I mean, I already know the answer to this, given your lack of interest in Porsche's motorsport in general Is track days.

I know you wouldn't want to race, but have you done track days?

Is track day something you want to do?

no, actually in, in theory, track days is absolutely something I would want to do and I'm like a really competitive person.

So yeah, like racing I'd be really interested in doing as well.

But I'd only want to do it if I could do it properly and I could do it consistently.

Like the idea of a one-off track day just really doesn't interest me.

I, I want to, I want to know that I can do it on a regular basis and I, I know that I don't have, or at least at the moment I know that I don't have time to do it.

But yeah, the whole idea and also I think if I wanted to do it, I'd want a dedicated track car.

I wouldn't want to use my daily, or at least my day-to-day 911 on the track which a lot of my friends do Partly just for the arse factor.

I couldn't be arsed changing over you know the brakes and the wheels all the time and you know, I think my track car I'd happily have you know crap all over it and have it dirty and wouldn't care about keeping it pristine, like my daily.

So in theory, absolutely, I'd absolutely love to do it.

But I'm a bit of an all or nothing guy and if I can't do it as much all as I want to, then it's just going to be a pipe dream and I'm not going to do it.

Do you know what I get?

That too, and I think what's interesting with track days is I kind of feel like if you do it consistently, it almost feels like well, then you have to take the next step and start racing and actually go wheel to wheel, and then that's a whole different level of commitment in itself, both in terms of, you know, obviously, the danger element, but also the time that's involved and the financial investment.

I'm a bit the same as you.

I've done a couple of track days both, both in the 964, and I've really enjoyed them.

But because they've been spaced so far apart the first like maybe two sessions I'm really slow, really just you know, like a newborn foal out there, just kind of wobbling around and it takes me a, takes me a good long while to work out that for a track to make sense you actually have to drive fast.

And yeah, and and you know I'll go out in the first session and you're pulling out of the pits and a gt3 comes hammering past 250 kilometers an hour and you just think, oh shit, it's.

It feels like, you know, when you're a kid and you go roller skating for the first time and you go out on the rink and you just feel like everyone else can do it, but you can't yeah, yeah, yeah by the end of the day I always feel good, but yeah, I haven't done one now since gosh 21.

Maybe a good few years yeah, yeah, you know, I think in some ways, if I can equate it to golf, is that a really lame thing to do.

But I imagine the amount of portia people out there that play golf is probably quite significant.

I don't know why is there a high correlation between golf playing and portia ownership?

um, when I, when I was a kid, uh, my brother was massively into golf and so, kind of by default, I was into golf and I had the opportunity to play every weekend and I had the opportunity to play once or twice during the week and I I did that, loved it, got into it, and so, because I had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time doing it, I threw myself into it, got pretty good, um, and got my handicap down and absolutely loved it.

But now here living in the states, I bought myself a bag of clubs and in 10 years I think I've been to the driving range once and every.

Now and again, when somebody is like, hey, you want to go to the driving range, I'm like not really, to be honest, um, because I know that it'll be like a one-off thing yeah um, even the odd chance to go to a you know, go and play a round of golf.

I know that it's going to be a one-off thing and no, I want to.

That's probably a huge character defect here I'm exposing in myself, but I know that it's.

I don't have time for it in my regular, like scheduled life and therefore why do it just once?

yeah yeah, I mean, it's funny if I think about motorsport.

I think the kind of motorsport that would appeal more to me would be like tarmac rally, um, but because that's more akin to the sort of driving I do on the weekends.

But first of all, I don't think I have anywhere near the talent for that, nor the just.

I want to say bravery, but it's sort of bravery mixed with seemingly a lack of self-preservation that those guys have, and I think the danger element is just so dialed up in that form of motorsport, because you don't have runoff, you don't have kitty litter, you have trees that don't move when you hit them.

So anyway, I think, the bottom line is I don't ever see myself participating in any form of motorsport, as much as I enjoy watching it.

I don't ever see myself participating in any form of motorsport, as much as I enjoy watching it.

Also, let's face it, the one time I did really try and commit to go tracking with my friends, I bought the helmet.

It didn't fit.

When I did find the helmet, when I did find a helmet that even partially fit, I couldn't get my big, massive head with that helmet inside the 911.

See, I did the opposite.

I don't know why, but I bought this like, I guess, the kind of helmet that someone who rides a cafe racer motorbike would wear.

So it was just this open face, no visor, I remember.

Open face, no visor, I'm sure on a guy with like high cheekbones and great bone structure, it would have looked cool and that's how I imagined it looked.

And then I saw actually how it looked on me and it just I just looked like a human ping pong ball.

I could not have looked more ridiculous.

I was just all cheeks and chin.

And this is this pissy little helmet.

It was the worst thing ever.

Good, I remember, yeah, I remember.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna say yeah, but yeah, not good luck.

All right, shall we talk about the 992.2

?

I was gonna say speaking about not good looks, I've, you know, yeah, let's talk about the 992.2

.

I was going to say speaking about not good looks, you know.

Yeah, let's talk about the 992.

Should we be surprised, or should I be surprised, that what I've heard so far is a lot of criticism and a lot of naysaying from people around me and the press that I've read online?

I'm actually kind of excited about it.

I mean, why not, sure, let of excited about it.

I mean, why not, sure, let's talk about it.

What do you think?

So let's maybe start with broad brush, just impressions of it.

I think it looks the styling I'm really happy with.

I think you know each time they do the second-gen version of one of their cars 991.2

, for example, this car I feel like having had the opportunity to live with the industrial design that finds itself into that first series for a couple of years.

They're really able to then refine it.

So I think from a design perspective I really like the look of it.

I don't like one of the gts's that I saw uh, maybe it was in a cars with luke video actually has this big like dome thing in the in the front grill which I think has something to do with like gets a camera or something.

That thing looks weird.

It's a.

It's a double dome from what I understand.

Yeah, that's right, double dome.

Spec.

Without that it looks heinous.

But other than that my overall impression just broadly is I really like the look of it.

And does that extend to the sort of the fins on the left and right of the front bumper?

Yeah, I like like them, like active.

Yeah, I'm, I'm about that yeah, you see that that's the one part of the design I'm not so sure about, to be honest.

But but overall, and maybe this is just because I don't know the 992 well enough, it just basically looks the same with new fins.

To me, I, there's nothing revolutionary there, well, and okay, fair enough, that's.

I fell into the trap, isn't, haven't I?

There's nothing revolutionary, really, generation to generation about the 911.

That's the whole point, that's right, it's just.

But also, yeah, and when you're talking about the second iteration of the same generation, then it's absolutely an evolution rather than revolution argument, right?

Yeah, yeah, but like you know, the profile to me basically looks virtually identical to the Dot 1.

The rear essentially looks like the Dot 1.

From a styling point of view, it's really just the fins and the cameras at the front, but see, they fixed that rear bumper though, because you know how, where the license plate recess on the basic Carrera used to be really low, they've lifted that up and I think that looks less awkward.

And I also think the whole intake across the front of the car, which had this sort of shark's mouth slight awkwardness to it which, to be honest, in that first gen I don't think was resolved with.

You know you could get the sport design package on the exterior right and it had the kind of angular intakes.

I actually thought that was a little bit clumsy too, because you had the outer edges of those intakes were vertical.

Then with the angular sort of centerpieces of them, it didn't quite work.

It looked as though they tried to channel the shape of the intakes from the 991.2

GT3, but just hadn't quite nailed that.

I feel like this is a more resolved front end.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair enough.

Okay, I can buy that, but I think the interior is where some of the most notable changes are.

No manual, right?

Not so far, there's no manual.

Is that true?

Thank God, we've still got the Braun shifter though.

But we've got an eight-speed PDK.

Fantastic, you know I love pdk, but but no manual.

I I'm I'm pretty sure that's going to change when the gt3 comes out oh, I've no doubt I, I I don't know if this is a silly question, but because I don't understand the the technology behind it.

But so the gts is the only uh variant that has the this t hybrid technology.

Does that, does that hybrid technology, allow for a manual gearbox, or or does that in some way prevent, prevent the car from being able to have a manual?

good one.

I I've heard that it prevents it from having a manual, but then does that mean?

don't you love that detailed analysis, the technical expertise I've heard?

but then does that mean?

Does that mean, well, the gt3 might just come with a regular engine then?

well, so the it's quite possible because the, because they've dropped there's, there's seven variants in one hit right.

So they've done the carrera, the carrera cab, the gts, the gts cab, gts4, gts4 cab and gts4 targa.

So no carrera s yet, which is really odd that the gts doesn't usually come out until after.

It's usually Carrera and Carrera S right, and maybe Carrera 4S.

So it seems odd that the GTS has come so quickly and it's got the hybrid.

So does the S.

Does it not have a hybrid?

Is there not going to be an S?

Yeah, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how it develops.

Right, once that S comes out, once the Turbo comes out, once the GT3 comes out, how are the cards all going to fall?

There's got to be a manual in there somewhere.

And the hybrid just comes with the 3.6

litre flat six that's in the GTS.

The hybrid isn't coming with the standard Carrera, correct, right, right.

So you've got to go for the gts if you want that hybrid experience.

Yeah, but then it also, from what I understand that, you know, the minute I think of hybrid, I think of my wife's highlander, and that driving experience is so bad, it's so bad.

You know, it's such a bad car to drive in so many ways, but the hybrid component is just spooling the turbochargers faster, right, so the engine is still operating like a combustion engine, but the turbos are being sort of pre-spooled so that they come on faster well, yeah, I think that's what I, that's what I understand no, that's right, it's so.

So you'll never just take off in battery hybrid mode, you know, and and it's obviously not a plug-in hybrid but yeah, the hybrid acts to um, I don't know whether it's pre-spooling the turbos or whether it's how should I say?

It kind of comes in to introduce the torque and horsepower in that moment before the turbos have spooled up, so that you don't get any of that lag that the hybrid does the early lifting before the turbos come in, the early lifting before the turbos come in.

And I've In fact my new daily has that exact or a form of that technology and it's seamless.

You don't notice it, I don't think you notice it.

So I don't think it's going to be like the Toyota Highlander experience.

There's a lot to suggest.

The new 911 will not drive like your wife's island, with the greatest respect to ruthie's daily let's, let's hope, not um.

And then the other thing uh, people are up in arms about is that there's no more analog tack face.

It's no more analog, it's completely electronic in the middle, which I am.

I personally am sad to see go.

But like does this?

Is this a weird way of looking at it?

If you want an analog TacFace, just buy a 911 with an analog TacFace, just don't buy the new Porsche.

Is that just too obvious?

No, it may surprise you to hear me say this, but I kind of don't care.

You know, my view is the 911 constantly evolves.

It should be a performance and technological tour de force.

And, yes, I love the analog throwback to a time past, to a car like my 964.

But it's not.

It's 2024.

There is so much technology in the car I don't think it's necessary to have an analog tech face.

Like I say, I'm not sure that's a view that many would agree with, but I think the way you just put it is spot on a view that many would agree with, but I think the way you just put it is spot on.

If, if yeah, I think if you want that experience, it doesn't make for an analog driving experience.

The car is anything but that.

So yeah, if you want that, buy a 993 or a 996 yeah or a g body yeah, well, or or just a 991 you know, yeah, yeah%.

If you can afford a 992.2

, you can afford to go and buy yourself a 991 Carrera just to put it in your garage to say you've got an analog.

Tack face.

Well, and so think about that right, like who's the main customer for Porsche selling 911s?

I don't think it's hardcore enthusiasts who would see or who would feel a level of disappointment that the analog tack was gone.

In fact, if anything, I think the average Porsche buyer would probably look at that throwback and and and almost see it as a as a negative that oh hey, I can go buy a new r8 and they've got a complete virtual cockpit, or a new mercedes has a complete yeah yeah and porsche have got this stupid old bloody taco in the middle of the screen.

What the heck?

Yeah, yeah, fair enough, fair enough I don't know they fixed the um, those uh outer gauges which you couldn't see through the, through the steering wheel on the first gen which everyone seemed to get frustrated about and I always kind of laugh at because I think man drive a 964, you can't see anything you know, actually that that is true.

The when I have driven the 992, um I have I have wondered or at least I have I can't talk this morning, it's way too early um, I've, I've wondered if this stuff in the instrument cluster that I should be caring about, looking about that I can't see because the steering wheel and my hands are in the way, yeah, and so that has worried me a little bit.

Um, but yeah, on the analog thing, the last piece of analog technology in the cockpit seems to be the clock if you get the sports that still has an analog uh hand, um.

And then the last thing on the exterior that struck out to me, um, or stood out to me, I think, is by default, it's now just a pure two-seater sports car you have to option in the rear seats.

I think that's pretty cool at long last yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?

because obviously the rear seats are a no-cost option.

Um, I'd be.

I'll be very interested to see how they're specced right, because I have an ongoing conversation with a couple of friends of mine that the 991.2

Carrera T.

It's very rare that you see one with what we would deem to be quote-unquote correct spec.

So so often you see those Carrera Ts and their PDK with glass sunroof full leather and rear seats and so all of the things that make the T the T have been stripped or kind of changed back to basically Carrera S style specification.

So I wonder how many people are going to spec a 911 with no rear seats, regardless of how useless those rear seats are.

I think there's always a way that one can reconcile the fact that they're buying a ridiculous sports car by saying, yeah, but if I need to, I can put the kids in the back.

Yeah, well, maybe, yeah, I guess.

So, yeah, yeah, I've used that with Ruthie once or twice.

I think time will tell.

Right Time will tell.

I think you'll see most of them with seats.

Yeah, I imagine there'll be a lot of people optioning them back in.

But I think if I was backing it, I would just happily not have them in the back.

I agree.

Okay.

So one thing that I've seen a lot of people up in arms about is we now have a start-stop button.

Oh, yes, I've got to say that I am disappointed about that.

You know, take the tag face.

You know, take the rear seats, but come on.

I must be less of a traditionalist or anorak than I thought I was.

You don't care I don't give a shit.

Every other performance car has a start-stop button.

At least give the buyer the option.

You can't do that, why not?

The tooling would be completely different.

And again, I think it's probably because it's not for the enthusiast right.

A new 911 kind of isn't for the enthusiast, it's for the person just getting into the brand who doesn't know the whole key on the left, all that stuff, you know.

Dude, that itches my crack.

I mean, that's the one thing those you know porsche guys up there in stuttgart should have really thought twice about.

I mean good, I'm glad we went there I you don't talk a little more about your crack?

It's itchy, especially this time in the morning.

oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

All right, let's switch on.

So let's talk about Le Mans and get that out of the way, because I obviously have got no clue what's going on there.

So go on.

Then it happened, it was fast, someone won Great.

Well, yeah.

I mean, look, I watched a lot of it on the stream over the weekend.

A lot of my friends did.

It was very exciting because the Porsche 963 hypercar actually achieved pole position in the very capable hands of Kevin Est, who's just an insane beast of a driver, but finished just off the podium in fourth place.

And in fact I read today that Porsche has actually come out and claimed that rivals were sandbagging in the early sessions.

I don't know how or why that matters at the end of the day.

My understanding is that they had some issues with acceleration and top speed in one of the stints.

But you know, fourth is not bad.

Bad, but I guess just off the podium, which is sad.

But the team obviously did a an amazing job.

But porsche did win in the lm gt3 class with the mantai racing ema 911 gt3r driven by richard leitz who, if you if you've watched the um road to le mans series with michael fassb, he features very heavily and that seems to just be an amazing driver Morris Turing and Yasser Shaheen.

So they actually won the LMGT3 class.

So that's pretty damn cool and it was good to watch.

I love watching it.

I think it's the pinnacle of motorsport 24 hours making these cars.

It used to be that you had to be so careful not to break the car, and that's why one of the reasons Porsche racked up so much, so many wins over the years.

Now it just seems like it's flat out for the entire 24 hours, except in this instance where we had four hours of safety car.

But pretty amazing racing.

I would encourage you, I would encourage you, to get around it next time.

Do you mean you the listeners, or you me?

Well, I believe our listeners are not quite the Philistines that you are.

A lot of them probably watched that already.

Well, do you know what it is?

Yeah, you see, that rings a bell now.

Well, it's like sport, you know, usually you don't get to barrack for Porsche.

Do you know what I mean?

They're not in F1.

And you know.

So, yeah, we all have our football team or our hockey team or our basketball team that we follow, but it's really cool to be cheering for Porscheorsche in a in a in a sporting setting.

So I love that.

I love the frustration of seeing them make mistakes and I love the the elation of seeing them, seeing them win um yeah you know, all right, fair enough.

And this, this conversation is ringing a bell because I do remember at some point sometime this year you've sent me a text message about Porsche being in pole position, and now it's all falling into place.

So the next world endurance championship race that's on.

I don't know what the next one is.

Maybe it's like Nürburgring or spa or something.

I'm going to get you to do a report on it oh, my goodness, let's, let's, let's not.

You know, subject people to that no, I want to see it.

I want, I want to hear a report from you so, um well, look, talking about go on what, what's next?

Because I I actually had one to throw in, considering I haven't read.

Read your show notes for the day, which didn't arrive in my inbox, by the way.

Just want you to know.

Yes, they did.

They did not.

I don't have show notes today, andy, but let me throw one at you, speaking of cheering for Portia in the battleground of Portia versus Singer and this is an article that you sent me recently, by the way, which we were going to talk about at some point in a previous pod.

That never happened Portia suing Singer.

Have you heard about?

this.

Hasn't this all been resolved?

I don't know, you tell me.

What other old news are we going to talk?

about.

All right, then Go on then.

The launch of the 997?

.

I, we're going to talk.

Oh, all, right, then go on then.

The launch of the 997 I thought this had been resolved.

No, I, I'm surprised porsche haven't sued singer faster and earlier than this.

By the way, look, I'll certainly say this uh, regardless of of what the outcome was, oh yeah, porsche drops legal challenge against Singer because I know that the I don't know whatever came of Singer's rally car that they built with Tuthill, which was launched to quite some fanfare back in I want to say 20 or 21, suddenly just vanished, and apparently that was something to do with um porsche having an issue with

it.

I know that porsche is not backwards in coming forwards when it comes to protecting their ip and sometimes I think they do that to the detriment of their brand.

I know they've done it with content creators.

I know that an extremely well-known content creator had to change the name of his entire concept because Porsche made him.

And you know, to me I sort of think, well, if somebody's maybe you can argue somebody's profiting from creating a link with a brand that they own.

But on the flip side, I think one of the things Portia needs to be a little bit careful of is that I don't think they can control the entire culture around their brand.

The brand is too wide-reaching.

It has myriad different audiences within the brand in terms of the level of think they can hope to appeal to or communicate with all of them.

And I think Porsche's approach to advertising and brand messaging and the like, I find it typically a bit overwrought and heavy handed, whereas I look at what, you know, people like Pat Long and Jeff Swart have been able to do with Luftkakut and what that interpretation of the Porsche brand looks like.

That's something I connect with way more than what Porsche does themselves.

So I think they need to be careful with the way they go after brands that like Singer.

That I think, ultimately, whether you are a fan of Singer's work or not.

Ultimately, I think Singer are just helping to continue the Porsche legacy.

I think you've got to be careful in Porsche about how hard you go after brands like that.

Yeah, I think so too.

First off, I didn't realize there was any kind of relationship between Singer and Porsche, which the article that you sent me sort of called out that there is.

There is actually a memorandum of understanding between Singer and Porsche and Porsche believed that with the DLS Turbo they'd actually broken that and gone way too far.

I mean, have you seen what that car looks like?

I mean, it looks more like a supercar hypercar than a 964 convert or a modded 964.

It's got that massive Jetsons kind of whale tail on the back.

Yeah, it's amazing.

I mean, I would happily have one.

It looks pretty awesome.

But I guess, if, if, if the agreement with porsche was you know, we're gonna, we're gonna mod the 964s and we're gonna put our unique stamp on them and they all sort of look like the ones that we've been producing for the last however many years.

You know, you'd kind of be fine.

And then porsche see this, I, I could see them spitting up their bratwurst with their morning coffee and being like what the fuck are they doing now?

Um, so I can see that side of the argument, but at the same time, you know what you were just saying.

I think there is so much that benefits Porsche from having a shop like this.

Just put their stamp on these cars that are no longer in production, that you know are no longer competing with the cars that are coming off the production line.

It's sensational.

Yeah, I agree, and I think that's a really important distinction to make.

That in most instances well, in fact I think in all instances a Singer DLS isn't competing with a brand new 911.

The buyer of that car, if you have the money for that, chances are you've probably just bought yourself a GT3 RS as well.

Anyway, right, it's not like for like, so I don't think they're competing propositions.

I think where Porsche felt that Singer had gone too far was actually in the use of the trademarks and the brand, which there's, as you say, historically been an understanding between the two of them.

But anyway, look, in April Porsche dropped it.

So I don't know quite how that was resolved, but thankfully it has been.

Very good yeah.

Very good.

Well, I hope Singer continue to pump out whatever they're pumping out for those 964s.

I love them.

Every time I see one at a car show it kind of feels, you know, like you've come to a special event.

I love them too, but I'm sort of sick of 964s being backdated.

To be honest, I really love what Workshop 5001 in LA are doing, where they take these 964s, do incredible builds, incredible engine work, but retain the integrity of the 964 shape, which I happen to think is one of the most beautiful 911 shapes there is.

Obviously I'm biased, but yeah, I would rather say to Singer hey, build me a Singer, but just keep it looking like a 964.

Yeah, yeah, hey.

By the way, so your 964, I think you slipped in some news about a segment ago which we haven't talked about.

Did you say you've got a new daily?

I do have a new daily.

It's kind of exciting to me me, but probably not so exciting to our audience is it a beige volvo?

uh, no, it's not.

It is a black bmw m340i which is oh, look, it's a little bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing.

It's a couple years old, 2021 model.

Uh, it's a what is it?

Three liter, turbo, inline six.

It's very rapid, it's super fast, but it's also really quiet, really comfortable, really refined.

Um, to be honest, I've only had it a week and I'm loving driving it, just loving it.

It's the best place to be every day, but I'm actually really looking forward to taking it in some twisties, because it goes.

It's got a jekyll and hyde personality.

It's very quiet and refined, but then you put it in sport mode and then the shifts are just violent.

Uh, it's stiff.

It's got adaptive damping, so everything stiffens up and it's uh, yeah, it's.

I think it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun and, in fact, my son Ryder and I are planning a night away, a bit of a rally that we do every so often, and I said to him tonight I said, okay, which car do we take?

And he was like oh, I don't know.

What do you want to take?

And I said I don't know.

And he was like oh, I don't know.

What do you want to take?

And I said I don't know.

So can we talk about the fact that you're betraying the brand that we hold so dearly close to our hearts?

And podcast about Well, look what's that about.

I've kept it German, and you know, the daily that I'm selling was Murican.

It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT with a V8 Hemi, which I've had now for eight years.

So I figure, hey, if I've gone from an American SUV to a German sedan, that's heading in the right direction at least.

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, yeah, yeah look, hey, do you know what if I, if I, if I, if I could have afforded to, I would have done what I did?

Uh, through four years ago, I would have loved to have daily to 991 that.

That that's sort of the dream.

And I, you know, I tried to do that a couple years ago.

It wasn't the right time.

I'm actually at a point in my life where it would have been the right time, but just not the right time financially, you know, the market's still still a bit hot.

So, uh, yeah, I'm.

Do you know what I make?

no apologies, I'm, I'm really happy with this car you completely faked me out because you told me about the daily and then you sent me a photo of a 992.

And I was like what?

Really no way.

Come on, I did Cheeky bastard.

Hey, actually, speaking of photos, I just want to circle back to Le Mans for a second.

I saw a thing on social media today that a couple of my mates all shared around.

There was a photo of the porsche 963 hypercar so one of the penske motorsport cars that competed at le mans on a trailer being towed by like a volkswagen jetta or something like just on a highway somewhere in france.

I'm like that cannot be real, surely that cannot be real.

That can't be true.

No, I know, but it's just it was yeah, it's quite something.

Oh, that's a German helping out a fellow German.

Maybe, maybe.

So hey, obviously, since last we spoke, you've gone from.

Well, there's some yellow stripes for just a minute.

What happened?

You know well.

So I've been, you know, tinkering with my car, like I usually do.

I've gone for the yellow brake calipers and the yellow sports chrono clock face on the interior.

I just, you know quite fancy stripes.

I think I've put stripes on most of my cars now.

They just didn't work out.

They just, they know quite fancy stripes.

I think I've put stripes on most of my cars now.

They just didn't work out.

They just they didn't work out.

And they didn't work out because they unfortunately weren't quite straight.

Oh, are you serious?

Yeah, yeah, to my untrained eye they looked fantastic.

I've got four words for you.

We're not robots, mate I did think about that scenario actually when I picked it up, because the guy who installed him poor guy, I won't name and shame him um, he installed the first set and I didn't realize they were the wrong color.

So, to be fair, I gave him a set of stripes that were a slightly different yellow than the yellow that was in the door decals that he'd already installed for me.

But he didn't notice that the color that he was installing across the roof were different to the color on the door.

So we didn't figure that out until they were already installed.

So we got, we took them off.

Um, I had to order replacement set from the guy that you know I bought the stripes from.

So the correct color came.

He installed them, I picked them up.

I thought it looked epic.

I loved how they looked.

A few weeks later I'm at cars and Coffee with my friends and they all start to notice that the stripes on the hood aren't straight.

I'm like what are you talking about?

Are you kidding me?

It's like having a piece of bezel stuck in your teeth and you just can't get it out.

Oh, mate, it was pretty embarrassing.

So there was that, and then also the stripes on the roof was starting to bubble, um, which is not good.

Um, one of them started to peel back already.

So right there at cars and coffee, we decided to actually just stand there and peel them all off and we did, oh you, oh, you did it at Cars and Coffee.

Uh-huh yeah, we just stood there and peeled them all off, chucked them in the bin.

Did you end up with this like layer of dust just where the stripes had been, like it kind of stuck to the sticky bit?

No, well, yes, for a second you could see the shadow of the stripes.

But the good thing is that before the stripes were installed, um and this is also probably the reason why they weren't straight um, I had a modesta ceramic coating put on, yeah, and so getting rid of the the ghost image of the stripes was super easy.

I just, you know, got some spray and buffed it off.

But I think that's the reason why the stripes weren't straight, because I swear to God, and I don't, unfortunately, have a photo directly in front of the car with the stripes on.

All the photos I've got are of the slight angles, so I can't quite prove this, but I think, when I picked the car up, the stripes were straight.

I think, when I picked the car up, the stripes were straight, and I think a combination of heat and wind from driving has, and the fact that the stripes were installed on top of the ceramic coats, has meant that the stripes have shifted slightly and have moved, okay, so I don't know if that's possible.

You know I love you right, and I know it's early.

That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

There is no way that has happened.

You don't think so?

No, look, ceramic coating is great, but what Just?

And it moves.

All right, fair enough.

Do you know, when we did Tasmania last year we had these like old school rally decals and they were quite big and this really super heavy, thick, sticky stuff and we're all actually pretty nervous about putting them on our cars and to the point where a couple of the guys uh, like my pal rocco put, he put his on his rear windscreen.

He's like I just don't want to put it on the paint and because also he had like a ppf on his car and he was worried it was going to lift off the ppf.

And I remember after the rally I was meeting kath and we were going to spend a few extra days driving around Tasmania and I went to a car wash and was washing the car and I thought I need to peel it off.

I need to know my car's okay underneath it.

And I was peeling it off just thinking I could just picture all the clear coat coming with it.

But it didn't.

Thankfully it was all okay.

Well, I was worried about that, as we were stood there at carson coffee just pulling it off.

But just getting into it with razor blades.

Well, you know, um, having pulled off decals before, these ones were coming off surprisingly easy and and what's?

Probably because of you, yeah, it was probably because of the coating.

But yeah, so we, we realized, we my friend Steve, realized it wasn't straight, because as you looked at the two stripes going up the bonnet, the hood, they started perfectly, even either side of the Porsche crest, but they didn't end up perfectly aligned with the sports chrono housing and the mirror in the window.

They actually kind of tailed off to the left.

So, yeah, the stripes came off.

So is that the only work that the car's seen over the last little bit, like some stripes on, stripes off, stripes off uh, yeah, yeah, pretty much, um, but but I I do have a tune that's going to go on and it's coming on.

I can tell you when are we lowering it a high degree of certainty?

When are we loving it?

We're not lowering it.

Um, we might.

But look, I finally got myself a windows tablet here so that I can actually, um, you know, install the tune, which has been the reason why I haven't done it yet.

Um, but you know, I've spent the past couple of uh wrenching sessions working on my cayenne.

Um, I've, uh, I've been doing the brakes on the cayenne.

Yeah, I know sorry, okay, tell me more, I'll tell you about my jeep oh god, hey, speaking of jeeps, I had a um.

So I live in the suburbs of of minneapolis and it's very suburban, you know, very, very kind of suburban.

So the other morning, on the way to cars and coffee, I was driving with my son, adam, um, pulled up at the lights, next to me was an srt, uh jeep cherokee and uh, grand cherokee, and uh, driving it was a 50s or 40s something soccer mom with her kids in the back seat and um, she pulled the window down and she was like you know, revenue, wanting to, to go.

So I was like, all right, sports mode, let's go.

And uh, I'm.

I'm happy to say that the nine 11 outperformed the Jeep SRT uh, three stoplights in a row, it wasn't even close.

Oh really, cause, cause, cause.

One thing I will say about that car it's quick off the line, like I had I the launch control.

I think the best time I had was like 4.3

to 100 to 62 okay, pretty quick.

Okay.

Well, it didn't sound like she was doing launch control, but she was definitely flooring it and giving it gas.

Oh, good on her.

Yeah, she was loving it.

She even had a golf visor on as well.

Bit of Saturday morning excitement for her.

Oh, that's gold.

Very good, that's gold.

So did you really not get the show notes?

Oh, promise to God, nope, didn't get the show notes.

What's the video of the week?

The show notes.

I promised god, nope, didn't get the show notes.

What's the video?

of the week?

I haven't seen it.

What is it all right?

Well, so the video of the week, uh is, I think, one one of the one of the great motoring journos, steve suck cliff, and he is comparing I really enjoyed this video the 992 gt3 rs to the 993 carrera rs.

Now wait a minute the, not the nine night, wait the what?

the, the current gt3 rs to the 993 rs carrera rs oh, so two two cars separated by a long time and, but it was a really interesting and, I think, very fair and balanced comparison.

The obvious performance advantages that the 992 GT3 RS had over the 993, of course there was no masking those.

Of course there was no masking those, but the way the 993 was able to carry speed, carry momentum meant that it was not in any way embarrassed by the 992 GT3 RS, and ultimately his view was maybe not surprisingly that the 993 was just a far more engaging drive and far more enjoyable.

What was interesting though and I've heard this from a lot of different reviews now is he was saying that the GT3 RS suspension tune is better for the road than the 992 GT3.

So a lot of the commentary you've heard about the 992 GT3 being simply too stiff.

You would expect the GT3 RS would be stiffer and even harder, but seemingly they've managed to dial a level of compliance into that chassis that is missing from the regular 992 GT3.

And actually I've heard that later model 992 GT3s the suspension characteristics are slightly different from the early ones early ones.

So the learnings from both the gt3rs and the 911 st have been applied to have been applied to the the later model gt3s.

I don't know if that's the case in reality or not.

Maybe some of our listeners have had that experience.

But yeah, that's the.

That's the rumor I've heard you know, they say never meet your uh, never meet your heroes, never drive your dream cars.

Because I I had a gt3 rs, a 991 dot I can't remember what generation it was, but a 991 um, gt3 rs, uh, for a day, and I couldn't wait to give the keys back is that because it had the bucket?

around for a day.

Well, yeah, it did have the buckets and my giant dinosaur ass was, uh, in pain at the end of the day.

But no, well, maybe that had a factor to do with it.

But man, that suspension was stiff, it was too loud.

It was just the the alcantara feel underneath my fingers on the steering wheel.

It was just gross.

I couldn't wait to give the keys back.

No, thank you.

Just don't want it.

Yeah, just couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Just, it was way too much, just too much.

Oh see, I would love to have a go on one of those, and I think that's as I say, the thing that excites me about this new rs is the fact that they've somehow made a car that looks that looks like it doesn't belong on the road, seemingly be very, very road compliant and and very good on the road.

I I'll never own one.

Maybe one day I'll have the chance to drive one I would love a go I'd love to have a go in one.

I don't imagine I'd come away from it with quite your level of keenness to throw back the keys.

I feel like I'd enjoy it.

I think I would.

Well, don't get me wrong, the first half an hour to an hour, I was super excited, I was giddy.

Was this at the Porsche Experience Center or was this on the road?

What were you doing?

No, this was a mate's car that I was installing Joy Auto into.

Oh, okay, you know I had it for the day.

Yeah, I couldn't wait to give it back, tell me about it.

What is it about the feel of Alcantara that you struggle with?

It's like nails on a chalkboard, really.

Yeah, it just doesn't.

First of all, it doesn't feel natural.

Obviously it's a synthetic fiber.

I can't talk this morning Maybe I've got sweaty palms, but you know, it's just, it's not.

It's just not a very workable fabric.

I just it doesn't feel like it should be a fabric to to touch like.

I'm fine with it as the roof material.

I even don't mind it too much as a, as a, as a um, a seat fabric, even though you kind of stick to it.

Unfortunately you can't slide across it like you can with leather I think that's the point no no, exactly that is the point, um, but for the steering wheel, no god, just gross I'd love to see your ultimate spec like can I have flat seats, maybe a bench seat?

can I have my favorite armchair squished in there, please?

It would be the homo sims.

See, I don't want to.

I don't want to live with an alcantara steering wheel.

Uh, because it I've.

When I bought my car there was actually it had an alcantara wheel in it, which I personally I love the feel of it, I really do.

But it's very hard to prevent them from kind of gumming up and I know there are a lot of videos on youtube of how you can do it and I see that you can rescue them, even if they are pretty badly all gummed up.

But mine reached a point where I just couldn't bring it back.

So I don't think I would ever spec an Alcantara steering wheel in a car.

But if I drive someone else's car with an Alcantara steering wheel in it, I love it.

I actually love that.

It doesn't matter if your palms are sweaty.

In fact, that's probably what destroys the steering wheel.

But it actually looks quite nice.

Well, guys, I think that's it for another episode of Curb and Canyon.

Thanks for checking in and sticking with us, andy, thank you for making fun of my morning hair.

Do you know what I can genuinely say?

It was my pleasure.

I enjoyed this conversation, as I always did, and so glad to have you all along with us, give us a follow on Instagram and obviously check out James at Auto Amateur on Instagram and YouTube and me, andy, at Last Rasp on Instagram and YouTube, and we will see you in Last Rasp on Instagram and YouTube and we will see you in another pod real soon.

Soon Ish.

Thanks guys.

992.2 First Thoughts, the Singer DLS Turbo, Le Mans and Andy's new Beige Volvo

About this episode

Porsche Cayenne

Porsche 911

Porsche 944

Porsche Cayman

Toyota Highlander

Audi R8

Porsche Carrera T

DLS Singer Dls

BMW M340I

Jeep Grand

Volkswagen Jetta

Porsche Carrera RS

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from Curb and Canyon: A Porsche Podcast