Manual Spyder RS?! Your questions answered!

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Welcome everybody to NineWorks Radio, another episode where we're answering your questions

today. Myself Lee Sibley joined by two comrades today. We've got the usual in Mr Andy Brooks.

Good afternoon.

And we're joined by NineWorks hero driver and panelist on today's show, Mark Anderson. How are

you sir?

Good afternoon chaps. Lovely to be here.

Good. All the way from Scotland.

Whereabouts in Scotland by the part of the internet near Glasgow?

Not far from Glasgow. That's close to Leeds.

All places are close to Leeds.

Well played. Well played.

Yeah, you're fitting in nicely already, Mark.

We've been there already.

That's lovely. That is lovely.

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So, Mark, it's only been a couple of days since I saw you last and even better.

It was in the flesh as well, in the flesh.

We were, of course, out on the latest NineWorks road trip of the year.

We went to the Porsche Museum and a pilgrimage to Porsche Plats.

Yeah, is the car still caked in autumnal grime or has it had its clean?

Oh, he's been cleaning.

No, I had the opportunity yesterday just to do some deep cleaning and

two pee washes and a throw wash and the wheels taking about three hours to clean

and a bit of a bit of sealant on top of it.

It's looking very good again.

Yeah, no real casualties on the trip, which was good.

That was a great trip, a brilliant trip.

People in the NineWorks community are so good, blessed community.

Your cars, yeah, they never stay dirty for long.

I remember after the Northumberland trip earlier this year, again,

that car was, I think, washed and dried before I'd even got home, so.

You've got to take the opportunity when it's not raining.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's worth just kind of painting the picture a little bit really

for those like who don't know about you.

So I mean, your kind of car history, particularly like in Porsche terms

and Porsche circles has been quite varied over the last couple of years.

Yeah, you know, it was a new opportunity

when Porsche brought out Taycan for me to come back to the Porsche community,

really, because at the time, as a family, our use case was that electric cars

were pretty good for us and work for us.

And that brought me back into a Porsche dealership to have a look at what they had.

And in the course, I put my deposit down in 2020 word for the Taycan.

I ended up walking out the door with a 9-11, 9-9-2 to keep me going

while I was waiting for the year's wait list that was on the Taycan at the time.

And that seems crazy, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's a different time now. Yeah.

But back then, that's what it was.

So yeah, try it out, all kinds of things.

But my my my history is really just the early.

My first Porsche was in 1999.

It was a 3.2 Sport Coupe 1987.

And then we had kids and that was that for a long time,

boring estate cars and then an opportunity to to go and get a few things after that.

Well, I was going to say, so it's been a really interesting journey, Mark,

and we're so grateful, like, within the collective that you shared it with everyone.

I think it's possibly worth like a works only deep dive into your story

separately, if that's OK, because I feel like covering it in just like the five,

ten minutes, it will never do your story justice, particularly because

I think it's going to be of high interest to a lot of people.

You know, lots of different flavours of Porsche trialled

as you walk along that road that we all do on the quest to find

like your perfect kind of Porsche garage.

And I think certainly from what we were chatting on the road trip last week,

that you feel like you're near enough there.

Yeah, yeah, I do.

I think I've got a really good little

what do they call it, a capsule wardrobe, you know, something for everything.

Every every every season in the kind of reduced amount of cars

that can possibly do that, given space and budget constraints,

which we all have, you know, whatever that looks like.

And then, you know, 9-11 can probably do everything

that you ever want a car to do, except maybe take six people on a road trip.

But other than that, I can do everything.

And in my case, you know, blending my little spider with

with my 997 basically covers all the bases

and we have a family car in the Boxster for the airport stuff, you know.

So it's it's a really good little four car garage that works really well.

Yeah, yeah, it really is.

It really is that, yeah, the 997, that's the dot one GT three recently acquired.

And then that that 718 spider, I mean, we'll talk about that quickly

because on the road trip and I do want to just talk about the road trip shortly.

But on that road trip, you were so kind.

It was on the D996, actually, Mark, and said, yeah, would would you like a drive?

I was so grateful that that 718 spider in a ratio green.

What color?

The yellow contrast stitching inside is everywhere, as you were pointing out, Mark,

like around like the sport chrono, like back of the sport chrono clock

along the like leading edge of the dash, it really is everywhere.

It's possibly the most beautiful 718 spider I think I've ever seen.

I really mean that previous owner.

Whoever spent this car went absolutely nuts.

I think they just thought it was when you make an order form

that you just have to take every single box.

There's contrast stitching.

I didn't even know you could get contrast stitching on that panel or in that place

in this car. You can't see where the diffused boxes of contrast stitches

the size of the dashboard. I mean, you don't even see it.

It's crazy. Yeah, I mean, I would never have done it personally.

But I'm actually getting seat inserts made for it,

which are going to really liven the car up inside.

Yeah, I remember you showed me some pics on the road trip.

Are you allowed to share public clear?

Are you going to metaphorically sit on that for now?

Yeah, well, actually, I just got a text message from the chat that's doing it,

saying that they're ready to go.

So there'll be a photograph on the DNHC collective soon enough with them.

Yeah, that'll be to everybody's taste. I think it'll be funny.

Good on you. Good on you.

I think as well, like again, you kind of pointed out there that lovely

because a ratio green is super, super rare.

And I might take take on it is green cars.

They're just everywhere these days, aren't they in Porsche circles?

But that a ratio and shade is a real kind of fresh twist on that.

Really not seen often.

And actually, I think suits an open top and Elliot friend of Nineworks Radio

has that lovely nine on one speedster in a ratio green.

And again, with it being a open top car,

I just think it works really well.

I don't think that color would work on like a 992 coupé, for example,

it'd be too too much car for the color, if that makes any sense.

But yours right blended as well, like where the previous owners

spec like gloss black door handles exterior, it just break broken up really nicely.

And it's just, yeah, masterly, masterly car.

Yeah, I mean, it is a beautiful car.

It doesn't photograph well, actually, interestingly, for some,

but probably chosen the color was chosen because it would be a bit different.

And maybe maybe for an Instagram crowd.

But it's actually hard to photograph because it's quite a subtle color in the way it shows light.

And I have to say in person, I've really fallen in love with the color,

but I wasn't sure in the photographs when it was highlighted to me that it was coming up for sale.

And I had to go and speak to my wife about it.

I said, do you like this color?

I was like, because I'm not sure.

And she said, oh, it'll be fine.

And then I realized that I saw Elliot's car at Porsches by the Lake.

So I had a kind of memory of the color.

And I thought, but that's not the same color.

But that the car, the photographs I saw of the 718 were so light,

the color looks so light, whereas I remember Elliot's color being,

you know, quite a subtle kind of undertone shade to it.

And then I looked at my photographs because I had taken photographs of that car in the day.

And I happened to be taking them from the shade side of the car.

And I just thought, yeah, I really like that color.

That's lovely.

So I asked my OPC to have the car transfer from where it was being marketed,

which was down in the south to bring it up to Scotland for me.

And we did the deal on that basis.

So yeah, the color was a bit of a gamble.

It's one of these situations where I hadn't saw the car when I placed the order for it.

But I was super happy when they pulled the covers off and I said, I like the color.

Oh, it looks lovely.

Love it.

It is beautiful.

And yeah, driving it on the on the D996 or certainly the first half of it.

And then the second half I'd swapped into Matt C's 996.1, which has the 3.7

upgrade upgraded engine and was then trying to hold on to the Spiders coattails for the second

half of that D996.

And I have to say that that spider, it is absolutely rapid and its ability

to pivot and just turn of turn of pace is frightening to be honest with you.

But yeah, I think it's one of my abiding memories from that road trip, really,

is just trying to follow that car.

And it's got such like a mesmerizing outline from the back.

It looks so low and so wide.

Somehow it's so good, don't they?

Really good.

And right, right level of like aggression versus just like prettiness, if that makes sense.

It's not an in-your-face car, but it's not something,

it's still something meanwhile that draws your eye to it and lots of details on it.

Yeah, one of my abiding memories, well, two of my abiding memories both involve you.

One was on the Nerfumblin trip and one was on this trip.

And in both times, you were in, in the case of Nerfumblin, I came in R,

and in this trip you were in, your mics kind of hot-rodded 996.

And there's absolutely nothing I can do to shake either of those two cars off the tail

of whatever I was driving.

And it just demonstrates why I need to do more driver training as well.

Because on paper, on paper, that shouldn't have been so difficult in practice.

It was very, very difficult to the point of impossible.

So, yes, seeing the both of those cars completely glued to the bumper of mine

under through the twisties was incredible.

Yeah, so curious to you.

No, there's a beer in you for that, Mark,

and you're welcome back on this podcast anytime, my friends.

Yeah, I mean, it's worth saying, you know,

Andy, you asked just before we hit the red button, you know,

so how was the trip then?

And I have to say, I just want to say it on like the public podcast

that like it could well be our greatest success as a collective in terms of our road trip.

So we've offered over 8,000 miles of road trip miles this year.

But yeah, there was, for one reason or another, slightly more cars than usual on this trip.

So 16 cars, 21 people,

which I think at first a few people thought cool.

That is quite a number.

And obviously, the more people, the more variables,

more things that can go wrong.

But I have to say, as well as the great spread of cars,

it was just surpassed by even better people

that just bought the right sort of temperament to the whole event.

And I'm sure as you've alluded to, Mark, you know,

all the cars really, they were extremely well peddled

and everyone got there and most importantly got back without hitch or incident.

And that was just testament to, yeah, like the durability of the cars,

but also the application of everybody on the trip.

So kudos for that.

I just want to highlight there are three father and son combos on the trip,

which was really, really nice to see.

Tim bought his son Oliver along.

A very, very knowledgeable young man on all things Porsche.

And the best thing was he's managed to convince Tim by the end of the trip

that he needs a 997 RS in his life.

So Oliver mentioned it on lunch on the first full day

and by the over a beer on the last evening,

we were Tim and I discussing balloon fees and all sorts.

So it was, yeah, fantastic.

Round him down.

Yeah, great, great.

I met Oliver at Caffeine and Machine in the summer along with his dad.

And yeah, he knows his stuff, doesn't he?

He really does.

We'll hear from Tim shortly because we've got a couple of voice notes

from some people that were on the trip.

So we'll hear from Tim shortly on that.

So that was a father and son combo.

And then we had son and father combos.

We had Andy bought his dad Al along, Big Al.

And Ethan also bought his dad Brian along for the trip as well,

which I know, I know Brian's going to love that.

But, you know, again, like, you know,

a memory that will always stick in my mind.

And Porsche Platts is really good for crystallizing this.

Last time we went there was when Guy let the young lad sit in his GT3

and in many ways made his day and ruined his life

because he knows he's just going to need to buy GT3 now.

But I was slightly behind the group coming through the Black Forest

as we came into Porsche Platts.

So you guys, Mark and everybody else,

were already arrived and parked up outside the museum

thanks to our friends who enabled us to do that there.

And I saw this lovely moment literally as pulling on to Porsche Platts of

Andy and Al next to Andy's touring.

And Andy had got his phone out, flipped it round to selfie mode,

and they were getting a picture of themselves on Porsche Platts' arm in arm.

And I thought, as a father and son combo,

you just can't get better than that, really.

And I think Al, at the start of the trip,

not too o-fay with kind of the Porsche brand and the magic of the cars,

but absolutely by the end had got it.

And we had to drag him out the museum by the end of it.

Really?

So, yeah.

It was really great just to see that father and son relationship

playing out on Porsche Platts, really.

It's, yeah, that was lovely.

So, yeah, look, kudos to everybody that came on that trip.

That was magic.

And we can't wait to go back already next year,

thanks to our friends at the Porsche Museum,

where hopefully we'll deliver an experience bigger and better.

But we'll hopefully bring that to fruition publicly a little bit later on.

Sounds good, sounds good.

Can I ask you about driving the Spyder if you're done on the trip?

How was the Spyder to drive?

Do you know what?

So, just to expand that, Ben, let me drive his 997 GT3.1,

water machine, water machine, that is.

They are so fast, amazing things.

And the sound of a Metzger engine,

Mark, as you well know, is just so special.

And again, I was surprised at how usable that was on the roads

through northern France.

I'm sure Ben had five majestic days in that car.

And, yeah, then with Matt and his 996,

it was interesting comparing, he drove my 3.4, I was in that 3.7.

It's just confirmed to me, and I appreciate, Andy,

this isn't the question, but it's worth saying,

I was really interested to try all that 3.7,

particularly with the mileage of Little Irish now being 177K

and an engine rebuild going to be in the medium term future at least.

It's absolutely crystallized things in my mind,

that I will definitely just get it rebuilt as a 3.4.

I think the character of that engine,

as something that really needs to be revved,

is just what makes that Gen 1 car so special.

That works for you.

Definitely. Matt and I were comparing over a dinner that night,

that whilst the 3.7 has that lower down torque,

the pickup in throttle response was better on Little Irish

with the 3.4 with a single mass flywheel.

And to me, just the way Porsche has characterized that engine,

perfect as it is.

So thanks to Matt for allowing that to better fruition

and come to light.

And as for the Spider, it was quite interesting, wasn't it, Mark?

When we again sat down to dinner at the end of the night,

and I'd said, look, I love to look at that Spider,

but for me, it wasn't for me in a way.

I'd have liked something to have been a little bit louder.

It yours is an OPF car, isn't it?

Yeah. I'd have liked something a little bit more raucous.

So I'm thinking maybe 981 from that Spider lineage might be more for me.

And also, I think it just comes back to,

nothing goes down the road like a 911.

And that is a concept that I'm just head over heels with.

And you can drive that Spider so fast and quite easy, I think.

And I just want something that's a little bit more of a challenge.

Yeah.

Yeah, which was great because I said that, and then Mark said,

well, funny enough, I really enjoyed the drive in the 996.

But then you said, but I prefer my 986, didn't you?

So.

Well, the thing is, so it was incredibly special

to drive a 996 down the D996.

Right. That is super cool.

And that's a road that has camber shifts.

It's got ruts.

It's got a kind of an inside track on it sometimes on the switchbacks.

It's got open spots on it as well.

When I was looking back through the video,

because I had the Reba Metazon,

and I did a couple of videos while I was driving your car and also driving mine,

I realized I was short shifting in the Spider.

And the Spider was able to, so obviously,

780, completely different thing.

But it was able to cope with the undulations and the camber changes

without it being unsettled.

And rarely did the traction control come in or have any of that sort of situation.

But I obviously wasn't driving my 986 on the same road,

and it would have been an interesting comparison to see how that copes with it.

But generally speaking, the Boxster, which my Boxster is on an MO30,

but actually, it's really a kind of a fake MO30,

because it's on H&R springs, which are MO30 spec and set of bell steens.

It's on standard anti-roll bars, and it's set up with a nice alignment on 18-inch wheels.

And of all the cars I have, apart from the KN,

it has the best ability to go down a road without being unsettled.

And it also has, possibly, the purest steering of all of the cars,

in that the slightest move of the steering wheel,

unless it's a car that feels like the whole car changes direction.

From a feedback perspective, I don't think it has a great deal of feedback through the steering.

The GT3 has this feedback for days on it, but it has certainly that feeling of,

you are definitely in control of this car. You know exactly what it's doing,

and where it's going, and when it's going to do something.

And it shrugs off a lot to do with road changes and undulations.

When I was driving your 996, your 996, because of the tractor suspension,

I didn't set it in 2, which I think is one of your sportier setups, isn't it?

It's not the full... I mean, it's like two or three notches up from...

Yeah, level two, basically, yeah.

And it has a wonderful flowing capability to it.

But I think your limitation is your Michelin PS5s,

because I had several moments where the car felt like it was understeering,

or where indeed the rear was starting to chirp.

And I don't, you know, just a feeling of, okay, I've got to be careful here with the car.

You know, there's more... I have to be careful how much torque I'm asking the car to do,

a given attitude to steering, which I never feel like I need to do with the Boxster.

The Boxster's stuck. So I wonder if that's really what I was feeling on that day,

but your car just goes so well. It's got that raw feeling to it,

but that stability is with it and the ride comfort is there as well.

Impressive thing. So I'm fluffing your car, but it really is impressive.

Don't fluff his head.

It's great to hear, Mark, as I said, you are welcome back any time.

But no, it's just great to allow other people to share that.

And it's funny, after you said that comment when we swapped over,

we have in that chat with me on the corner, the famous hairpin corner on the D996,

where last time the car wouldn't start a couple of years ago.

But yeah, when you mentioned about the tyres, I was then looking out for that.

And yeah, you're right. There is like a bit of tyre squeal comes in a lot earlier than it's

kind of ever done before. So I agree with it, to be honest with you. Maybe with, yeah,

say, go back to four Ss and see how they handle things a bit more,

but something if they're a bit more up to task, you might say.

Very interesting stuff. But yeah, I mean, that was it, wasn't it, I think?

A PS5 is a touring tyre, isn't it? It's not an outright sports tyre like a PS4S is.

I've just always got on with them, certainly on the KWs. And again, like the 996,

because it's on 18s, 8 and 10s. And what's the tyre size is?

225 and 265s I'm on, which some people run 285s on the back of 996s on 265s,

but it's almost could even be like slightly overtired even even then, really. There's a lot

of grip to play with and I enjoy it again, particularly at road speeds. It's you can

just play with it really. But yeah, there we go. It's horses for courses, right? So it was,

yeah, one of one of many great events on that. So thanks to you, Mark, and to everybody else

for making that such an awesome trip, as well as our friends at the Portion Museum as well.

So before we move on to the main part of today's podcast, here's a couple of voice

notes from members of the Driven Not Hidden Collective who joined us on the road trip to

Portia Platts. Here's some of their highlights. Hi all, I'm Serge. And yeah, this is my second

NineWorks trip. And boy, what an experience. It was absolutely amazing. Love traveling through

France, Switzerland and Germany to get there with an absolute amazing group of people. And yeah,

let's not forget that we all share the passion for the Portia brand as an added bonus. I love

having different conversations with different people about their cars. Yeah, absolutely great.

Huge thanks to Lee for organizing such an unforgettable road trip. I've always dreamt

of visiting Portia Platts, but never ever thought that it would be in my own car. And also, the

chance to park right outside with the rest of the group. Life is all about creating memories

with great people. And this trip is definitely up there as one of the best. Can't thank everyone

enough. Thanks for the NineWorks group. And yeah, brilliant. Thank you.

Hi, Lee. The tour was an absolute blast. And I'm still buzzing from the trip across the three

countries to Portia Platts. When I booked the trip, I thought I would enjoy the museum the most. But

for me, it was the variation of driving and the people I spent time with, my new friends.

I went with my son, Oliver, just turned 18, absolutely car obsessed since he could sit up.

He was welcomed by everyone on the trip. And a huge thanks goes to them for this.

Oliver, or Ollie to the crew, was also lucky enough to be a passenger in a few of the other

members' cars. Thank you, Ben, Andy and Paul. This has given him a massive confidence boost

and a new love, the Mezger engine. It's difficult to pick a highlight as the whole trip was fantastic,

but the drive through the Black Forest will always be a memory for me. Although sometimes,

just the little things, like sharing a wave and a smile with a German guy, I saw driving a speed

yellow 993 turbo on the Autobahn. Hope to see everyone again soon and looking forward to the

next one. Thanks, Tim. Good afternoon, Lee and Andy. PP here fresh back from the 2025 NineWorks

pilgrimage to the Porsche Museum. Highlights for many, but spending time with old friends and

meeting many new. The variety of characters and varied professions, careers is always a pleasure

to hear about. The great humour and kindness of all was also a highlight, as well as the

Doctor Two generation of Ethan and Ollie able to join us and share in the fun.

The other highlights, the D996 that came in our fluff more than holding its own against

other fine Porsche machinery. The very courteous driving through villages and towns,

as well as the chorus of clear, clear, clear when the open road beckoned.

Also seeing 16 Porsches of people, your friends in the rearview mirror was amazing.

So thank you one and all for all the miles and smiles. It was great fun. Thank you.

Lee, good morning. It's Kef Proser back at work. I just want to thank you very much for a fantastic

four days away. But firstly, just to thank you and Mr Brooks

for putting this collective together. It is an amazing thing that you both do,

a virtual clap on the hands and a thank you from me. It brings so much positivity and

happiness to so many people like this trip this week. The YouTube channel and the podcast is just

all fantastic stuff and puts a smile on my face. The trip itself highlights the D996 run

was fantastic. I can see what you shout about. 996 is so much Lee. I was following John most

of the way in his 996 Carrera. That car was so fast, grippy road so well. It was just a

fantastic spectacle to see. And then watching all the cars going over the hills in front of me

was just, it was just great. I love that road and should be going back.

The Porsche Museum itself was great. I loved it. I've been one of the go there for years,

just been able to park the cars outside was great. And just meeting 14, 15 people

with all one thing in common, which is Porsche become from all different backgrounds all over

the UK. And on the last night, you'd think we known each other for 20 years or laughing and

joking around the bar. Never a fantastic time. So hopefully made a lot of new friends going forward

and can't wait for the next one. And thanks again, Lee. It was a fantastic trip.

Hi, would like to say I had a great time road trip into Stuttgart.

Some fabulous roads, especially the D996 and the Black Forest. I also love the vibe at Reams.

All the cars look fab with the parked up or meandering through deserted French villages.

This was topped off with a great bunch of guys and some really good fun, great company and

conversation. I'd recommend to anyone considering and hopefully catch up soon. Thanks, Lee.

We just got a little bit of news elsewhere, really, but interesting to know if you,

Gents, if there's any interest to you at all, but have you seen from Porsche this week that

it will not be competing at the top level of Le Mans in 2026?

Bit of a shocker, that.

It is, really. I mean, Porsche has done it in the past. I think when was it 2014,

it returned to the top table at LMP1, but there was a period for years beforehand.

I think it was after the turn of the millennium, wasn't it? Basically,

it dropped out of the top level of Le Mans. There's this real barren spell.

Just like then, when a company is struggling financially, the first thing that gets

hacked is the racing schedule, unfortunately. I guess there'll be plenty more GT3s on the

circuit, though. It's an odd decision, though, doesn't it? And given that they're still doing

the American tour with the hypercar, and I wonder if it's because they've had

a conspiracy theory on this myself. So they've had a lot of success in America. They wanted

the Tona 24. They've been really quite successful with the car under the IMSA, REGS.

But their WEC has been a little bit hit and miss, and they've really been struggling with

balance of performance, I think, a little bit, and getting a fair shake at things.

They've obviously seen Ferrari's dominance in the race. Sometimes they've got a bit lucky,

but generally they've had outright speed at Le Mans itself. So I just wonder whether

there's a little bit of unfinished mission there that isn't giving them the kind of

marketing bang for the buck that they were hoping they would get with coming back and

doing what they should have been doing with the 960 at Le Mans and winning it. And maybe

they've now missed their opportunity to really make that impact with the car and the way the

REGS are. But it seems like an odd decision because we've never had a field like this with WEC

before with so many manufacturers. I mean, you're really talking way back in the kind of heyday

that, you know, when there were so many manufacturers involved as it are now. So it just feels like a

really big decision, that one. It must really demonstrate the business, the business peril that

they really have when they're making a decision like that, when everybody else really, it feels

like it's there. Yeah, well, many manufacturers are coming back in exactly as you said, Mark,

at a time when Porsche is pulling out. It's been interesting, although obviously it's

not had success, as you rightly point out, at the top level for a few years now at Le Mans.

Meanwhile, the US venture has always been so successful and I think the brand highlighted

as well that commercially it's always worked really well. The US is a huge market for Porsche,

so racing out there is important. It's interesting that those cars, the IMSA cars will be represented

by Manti, again, with Manti commercially playing such a huge part of that Porsche machine these

days with Manti upgrades for the road cars as well. So that's going to be interesting. I mean,

for me, yeah, I mean, I'd been to Le Mans when Porsche wasn't competing at the top level. It's

great to see 911s hacking round. But of course, we don't even, when it was back in the day,

you could watch RSRs. You're no longer watching top level Porsches in the top category and you're

no longer watching RSRs because RSRs have been ditched as well. So it's a funny time. As you

point out, Andy, yes, there'll be other classes that Porsche will compete in, but it isn't quite

the same. And they did kind of point out in the press release that Porsche will be staying in

Formula E. And who cares, basically? I just don't know anybody who has any interest in Formula E.

And I would love to be told otherwise. If you are, please let us know because as far as I can

tell, it just doesn't land. So I don't know if it's as much about fan outreach from Formula E as

it is about the fact that it is a proper development testbed for them, for future mobility and

motor stuff. But markets at a time when they're backpedaling on their EV program and turning

back towards ice engines. So you'd have to argue, well, how important is that in that dotted line

between race and road? Yeah, but we've got to remember it's not an ore, it's an hand.

I like it. I like it. Good counter. Good counter. So that's, yeah, that's the news for motorsport,

really. The Porsche has said it's not revealed its driver lineup just yet. It will do so later

in the year. They usually do that at the Knights of Champions, which is when all the Porsche drivers

gather at Visak for the annual awards. I think that's usually first or second week in December.

So it'll be a couple of months yet before driver pairings and we work out where drivers are going

to end up on Porsche's considerable roster for the 2026 season. Amazing, right? Shall we get into

some questions then? Good amount of them, isn't there? There is lots. So we decided to pop this

out to the Drivenot Hidden Collective and said, look, yes, ask us anything you like and we'll

do our very best to answer them. Even inside leg measurements, we're happy to share that publicly.

But thankfully, there's a lot more interesting questions fired at us than that. So

we decided we'll pick out three each to give us a solid nine being on brand and, yeah,

just discuss them really. So who wants to go first? I'll take the first one.

Toby Dyer wrote in, I'd like to ask, if you were CEO of Porsche,

what are the key changes you would make to solve the major challenges the company faces?

God, that's difficult. There's almost an impossible question, isn't it?

I feel I know what you're going to say, Andy. Do you? What are you thinking?

You're just going to say, I think you should just make SCs again. It's not far off of that, to be

honest. It is kind of like, I don't know, I just feel, but it's so difficult, isn't it? Because

it's so easy for us to go, yeah, just make a basic car again that's light and whether that's

propelled by petrol or electricity, go simple. Stop trying to put everything and everything

into a car. But the legislation for cars is to have all of that technology.

But I did see, I don't know, almost a bit of light at the end of the tunnel this week.

I saw a video about a new car that, of all people, Dacia are launching, which is totally

removed from Porsche. But I wonder if Porsche should take some interest in this sort of thing.

It's just a light, inexpensive car that's got so many little innovations in it

that I can see them selling millions of them. So why can't Porsche kind of take that ethos and

take an earlier car and just go simple? Go back to a Boxster 986 or something even before that.

That, I'm sure they can do it if they put their mind to it. But that's so easy for me to say all

of that shit, isn't it? It's such a difficult situation that all of the car manufacturers in

the world are in at the moment. I just love the fact that you've had a holiday for the last week,

so the prospects of you sitting on a beach somewhere watching a video about a new Dacia,

that's really amusing.

Well, I was in Corfu and I didn't see one Porsche while I was out there, zero.

Dashers were everywhere. It seemed to be the car of the island. They do, for some reason,

they appeal to me because I don't know, I just like the simple stuff, don't I? This is their new

cars, whether I saw electric ones or they were petrol ones. They appeal because of their simplicity

and their, yeah, just feel that maybe I'm not good for this podcast. I should go off and do

something else. I just love it. I love the fact that it's your holiday watch. That's so good.

For what it's worth, mate, I feel you're right to an extent. I just think what could we learn from

the previous financial complications at Porsche at the late 90s and what rescued the company and

turned the ship around was they simplified. In that instance, it was the amalgamation of

two product lines in 996 and the introduction of the 986 and the part sharing, whilst I'm not saying

they should do that again. I think they still do that, don't they, to a good extent?

To a degree, yeah, because they're made on the same thing, but I just think the answer is to

simplify. There's talk of another model line coming up above the Cayenne in the SUV market.

I understand there are implications now where Porsche is part of the VW group, but do we really

need it? Do we really need it? Panamera is that important. I personally just think, why don't

you just have three cars and sell loads of them? Or just sell loads of McCanns, like McCanns that

came out this week, didn't it? That car is really saving the company's skin at the moment.

McCanns sales, which obviously EV, are 20% up on the previous year. They are the good new story

for the Porsche brand at the moment. They're the only car that the company very clearly isn't having

any trouble selling or just punt more of them out. If everybody's driving McCanns and it saves

the company and allows people listening to this podcast and other enthusiasts to just drive the

sports cars as a minority, great. But spreading this over everything and trying to have one of

everything in the family stable, I just don't feel that that works, surely?

I was thinking about why is it we all love Porsche? What is it about this particular

thing that we want to spend time on and dedicate funds to and passion about?

I think it comes down to a resonance that that company was formed as an engineering company

that happens to make cars. There was a purity about its purpose. The moment it starts to step over

to trying to make things for different demographic segments in a marketing chart

is the moment where it starts to lose that engineering purpose and the moment where

I think enthusiasts start to get worried. Maybe we have seen a bit of that with Porsche over the

last couple of years of chasing different demographics and different business ideas

about how to bolster this brand. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not,

the internal combustion engines days are being looked at again. They're for pros and cons,

synthetic fuels and other things may prolong our ability to burn hydrocarbons and there's other

forms of mobility that can make a vehicle go down a road that obviously they're looking at.

But at the end of the day, people have to understand what a brand means and what it stands for.

And we've got to teach new generations what that means. You've got to educate people about what

this brand is for, products that stand behind it. And if anything, and the idea of it being an

engineering company are top of mind, then we do have way too much in the way of sprawl, product

sprawl, or indicator for different demographics and different markets. In my opinion, they're

they're only with the brand because it's friendly for them at that moment, but they're not really

going to be dyed and they will repeat buyers. They aren't going to be potentially folks that

stick with the brand through thick and thin. So I do think that they have to get back to that

kind of purity of purpose question. Agreed. Agreed. Okay, then should we do question two?

Yeah. Who's next? I'll allow our guests to go. Okay. Well, so we have a question from Nick

Jeffrey, and also from James Good, which referred to the kind of U-turn on ice. And so Nick poses

the question, when do we expect to see the new Boxster Cayman? And then a second part,

and have Porsche performed a U-turn on EV versus ice across the entire range of new mid mounted

cars, or just the GT products? So my understanding with what I've read and what I've seen related

to the Boxster Cayman, the one that we're expecting with the battery is that they've had supply chain

issues with the battery, haven't they? Development issues with the battery that result in a delay

to the product already. And then on top of that, I guess it's the timing of a sports car that's based

around the EV and the current climate of kind of selling that car is possibly challenged. So

I was understanding that that was a 2026 reveal that they were going to do, because we've still

seen the prototype running around an Erberg ring until relatively recently. But I don't know if it's

going quite quiet on that front. Has anybody saw any more than that on the different feeds?

No. From what I very primitively understood was, yeah, that that car would have been here by the

summer, by this summer, and then rolled out as a 2026 model year car, but was in showrooms,

really, as of now. Which obviously just hasn't happened. In terms of when that's likely to,

it answers on a postcard in terms of like, as a journalist finding things out these days,

like directly from Porsche, it can be quite difficult. It plays its cards quite close to its

chest more so than it ever used to do. So certainly from my black book, not able to extract an answer

on that, I'm afraid, not within the timeframe of the question being asked and us jumping on the

podcast. So it's a great question. I guess leave it with me. I'll try and find out. But

yeah, very clearly there is a, I think a very clearly a shift away from this all in on EV,

which is great news for the enthusiast, to be honest. And again, you know, like where exactly,

as you said, Mark earlier on with Porsche being an engineering company, it's put a hell of a lot

of investment into e-fuels. So let's not rule those out before we all start driving around in

fully EV vehicles is my take on it. What do you think, Andy? Well, it seems that way, doesn't

it? It's definitely, it's been pushed well out. But there's been that announcement for the GT

engine car. Well, it doesn't say GT engine. It said higher, higher model range,

didn't it? My thought is that that's going to be GT engine cars. I don't think that's going to be

including like GTS is my thought. I think that's going to be a GT fours. The top top

spiders with the GT engines in, I can't see it being any further down. What do you think?

Well, I think there's going to be a clear split. Zufan Alzin has already getting the

infrastructure with EVs, right? The Taycans made there and has been for years. So that

pure EV infrastructure is there. It would make sense for the GT cars, which are assembled at Visac,

to be made there, I guess. Yeah. It sort of all makes sense, doesn't it?

We know that the platform that the Boxster and Cayman EVs are on is that new scalable platform

that they have for all the EV products around the Volkswagen group,

which is obviously quite flexible. They're able to cope with something that's going to try and

feel like a mid-engine vehicle versus something else. And they're kind of more sporty around,

but it certainly is an engineer to take a gas combustion engine. So we're going to

scurry a lot, quite a few years, I think it's going to be before we see that a product,

a replacement product with a combustion engine that would be classed as a Boxster or Cayman,

given the architecture issues that they have with the current one being able to meet any of the

legislations that they have right now. It does make you wonder though, if any of that was like a

bit of a, I don't know, smoke and mirrors, bit of an excuse to kill those in some way.

Is it for real? Is there the software issue? Is that the cybersecurity mandate?

Yeah, is that really?

Well, it's legislation and the one to sell vehicles in Europe, they have to obviously follow that.

But the interesting thing about this that I could have gleaned from that press release is that

we're talking about 2030-ish, 2029-2030, which is in the realm of a gestation period for a vehicle.

Of course, we don't know if that'll even be a normally aspirated car at that point. Will that

be something that has turbo or turbo hybrid given the new legislation that we have for

vehicle emissions? Will Porsche have been able to crack synthetic fuels with their partners

in sufficient quantities to make it viable from a price perspective for people to use by then?

We don't know. But the point is they're talking about it on the road map. It's still on the road

map. There's still vehicles coming out that are going to have a combustion engine. And there's

something there for us to look forward to, whatever that looks like, which I think is awesome,

that there's choice. If an EV might well be perfect for me as a boxer, who knows? But at

least to have the choice, it's not been forced on me. And that's a good thing.

Yeah, definitely. It goes back to what we've said previously on the podcast. In many ways,

in recent years, we've lived through the golden age of the sports car. And that still is the

case to a great extent. We get to drive these highly emotive machines that are also incredibly

reliable and allow us to take us everywhere and do things like our Porsche Platts road trip and

comfort and everything else. And exactly that. Yeah, there's choice there for us before we go

down a certain route. So, interesting stuff. I'll dive in with the question, lads.

Wasn't there just a little bit more of that question from James was about the manual?

Yeah, do you think there'll be a manual RS Spyder?

No, there'll be something.

No. I can't see it. This is the thing, right? Porsche changes its mind a lot these days.

But I just can't see that for me. And the way Porsche has positioned the Rennsport model

to date for the last 10-odd years has been it's just the optimum and ultimate in performance.

So, therefore, it's PDK because it's far more clinical and faster as a result.

Yeah, seems unlikely, doesn't it? Very unlikely.

But they broke them all with a Spyder. They made a road version.

And again, of the famous backpedal with the non-1.2 being manual and the R being manual,

which kind of, yes, started all of that. So, yeah, agreed, there's potential for it. But

to date, RS is race sport, right? It's just ultimate in performance.

It's not necessarily the most comfortable. If you're on a manual Spyder, they sell them.

They definitely sell them. So, I can't see it myself. What do you lads think?

I don't know. I'm wondering, actually, sort of thinking about this through, you know,

if there's going to be, you've got your electric boxers and Caymans and then you've got your

internal combustion boxers and Caymans. Who are those combustion engine cars going to appeal to?

They're going to be the enthusiast type, personally, rather than your regular

sports car owner. And that enthusiast not only desires combustion engines, they desire

mechanical gear changing, manual gear changing. So, might there be a turn in what we see in those

combustion engineered cars? Does the maths work that the return of the manual could be the one

rather than going ahead with a PDK? Because all electric cars are automatically effectively anyway,

aren't they? So, do you need then to have a PDK in an emotional car rather than the car that's

the fastest because the electric's going to be faster than the combustion engine cars, aren't

they? Do you see what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I understand. I just think RS is race sport. It's

the fastest thing. It's what it's allegedly, and this is my issue with the Spyder RS as previously

documented is, well, that's not a race car. Porsche doesn't race with that car. But that is the point.

It's taken from the racetrack and uses race technology.

But I almost feel like this is a point where you could say the rulebook as we know it,

which is RS's are the fastest, aren't any longer. They're the emotional cars. They're the drivers

cars. And what does a driver want? They want a manual gearbox rather than a PDK. The rulebook

does it away? I think you're making a brilliant point about what does it mean to have driver

interaction nowadays. If Porsche is going down, say like let's take 911. We know the trajectory

more. I can't talk to GT cars, but the trajectory on 911 right now is toward hybridisation. We see

that with GTS. We see that now with the Turbo S. That's hybrid engines. Of course, I don't be manual

because you can't synchronise all of that on a manual. It needs to be automatic for the engine

and drivetrain integration. But there's no reason why they couldn't do the same thing as we'd do

with throttle, with throttle by wire, that they could do the same thing with gear change by wire.

So you could, you know, Conan Zegger doing it with one of their cars where you have a manual,

a manual shift. And you put it in a gate and you move across the gate with it. But at the end

of the day, it's still some kind of robotised system. That's that particular car. I don't think

even has a gearbox, does it? It's a torque converter, effectively. So imagine a world where

you've got a car that we've got right now with the type of electric flywheels that they have,

because that's how that hybrid system works, where you can engineer by software the feeling of

a manual, the way a manual shifts gear, the way a manual pauses when it accelerates as you shift

gear through the gate, where you can flat shift if you want to, you can do all of that, but you've

got the interaction, you've got the noise, you've got the interaction. It's given you what you want

as a driver, but it's doing it in an artificial way. But we've got used to that. We've got, you

know, e-pedals now on our cars. We've got e-pass systems on our steering. And they've got it pretty

good from a calibration perspective. There's no reason why they couldn't go down that route with

their drive trains. And I think, you know, for me, I'd be all right with that, right? We still

have that interaction and that stuff, but then they can do what they do with everything else.

I think we've asked, instead of answering any questions, we've asked more.

I don't think we've delivered on our question to answer questions in this particular case.

I think, Andy, like where you're saying like the rule book's being ripped up, you're right.

I completely, you know, the Spider RS is the very kind of personification of that

if you can personify a car. But it's, you know, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

And to me, I mean, I think my head would explode. I'd full on lose my shit if an RS manual was made

again, because it's like, that's not, you know, guys, it's not within the framework, man.

You can't have, you can't have a manual RS Spider next to a PDK Spider. Like, why not?

What are we doing? Why are we doing? No, no, as far as I'm concerned, it's like, look, if you

like the Spider, but you want a more hardcore, just as fast and as uncompromising as you like,

that is what RS has always stood for. Yes, it has. RS's don't make sense since when Andy,

since the 1973. So yes, it's like a manual gearbox. I'd like to speak, buddy. Since this,

since the start of the Wren Sport lineage, the whole premise of that was race car for the road.

None of those cars, even the 2.7 RS, they don't make sense when poodling around on the public road.

They're built for just out and out performance. So the idea of that isn't like that the road

isn't its home. If you want that, then I would say that's club sport. It's not Wren Sport. Wren

Sport is race sport. Do you see what I mean? So it's like, I hear you in saying, well, the rule

book's already ripped up and I agree. And it probably will happen. But honestly, if that's

the case, I'm going to just dig a hole and put my head in it. You know? Bloody big, not Albatross,

what are they? What stick their heads in sound?

Porsche purist, mate. With our Wren Sport stripes.

Brilliant. Right, shall we go on to the next question?

Yeah, it's still GT product mind. It says in the, this is from Lee, Lee F. In the Porsche

marketplace update from August, there was a lot of discussion about GT3s, in particular,

the 911.1 GT3. We all know the issues with the engines, but cars with replacement G6

engines can be had for 80 grand-ish. A very similar price to original engines.

Surely these are a long term, safe car for enthusiasts, question mark. Also, did the 911.1

GT3 RS have similar engine issues? Your 3,000 miles in a GT3 RS video from last year still

has me looking at one. This is like the perpetual question, isn't it, these days?

It's difficult. I personally think, for a start, 911.1 GT3 is a cracking, cracking car.

I do, Lee's mentioned replacement G6 engines. I think Vince, a couple of weeks ago on this podcast,

mentioned we're onto H and possibly beyond that series engines now. The issue is,

whilst the manufacturer is looking after those cars currently, there is an end date.

And the big question, the cliff is, what happens at that point? Now, I personally feel like Porsche

was going to have to do something because you can't have a GT product bomb like that. But I

can see those cars still coming down in value, definitely. And if nothing is done from the

manufacturer, I can definitely see a future where a 911.1 GT3 is the same value as a 981

GT4. You can just see it, Ben & Wine, one's PDK, one's manual. Not tomorrow, guys, not tomorrow,

but I think something needs to happen myself. What do you guys think?

Mark's just falling over. Yeah, that's such a compelling proposition that I had GT4 money.

But yeah, I can't disagree with that, Lee, to be honest. I think it is, we are ultimately playing

a game across the parcel and at some point the music stops on it. And then you need to decide

if you're going to be your own warranty. Hopefully the specialist space will pick it up, though,

and maybe there'll be ways like we dealt with the IMS bearing stuff and the other things,

and we just prevent this stuff we could do to such a car that could bulletproof it in the future.

And then I think I've never driven one, so I have no idea how good they are, but from all

accounts, it feels like a car worth saving, worth being on the road, worth people having,

and hopefully we can get to a point where it has longevity.

What do you think, Andy? Well, I think, have we not heard of some specialists that

there might be a little bit of chat about stuff, about this engine, people looking into it.

I guess where the situation is concerned has been is that Porsche have been replacing those

engines as nobody has felt the huge urgency or need to look into what the fix is because Porsche

have been doing it. But yeah, hopefully, clever people somewhere are looking into this and can

come up with the IMS fix or the bore scoring fix. We always seem to have these type of issues.

They eventually seem to, somebody comes up with the great idea on how to get over it,

don't they? So I can see that coming in the next couple of years.

A quick question to you guys is, if they keep coming down in value, at which point

do you think, okay, might be tempted there. That looks pretty cool, if at all.

I think that's a question for Mark. I think you know that I'm not that interested.

No money in the world can get you in a water pumper.

I wouldn't say that.

No, I think if we're talking about opening up a sealed engine and fixing it,

I'm probably out. No, that's too much risk.

Interesting times. Just the follow up bit is, yeah, does the RS have similar engine issues?

We are hearing that this does happen a little bit. I think it's a different issue,

and I'm not well enough informed to say in a public forum exactly what that is. I can't remember.

I think it's camshafts. Is it lifters?

Yeah, in that area, isn't it? Valve train. Finger followers now.

Finger followers, that's it. So yeah, we are hearing and seeing a bit more of that.

So I think that's a story that could develop. What I will say is, and Lee, who posed this

question completely, I'm with you on it. Keep looking at those cars.

I was winking at that, yeah.

Well, yeah, well out of my league, but you're still looking at that and going,

that's a great chunk of Rensport there. It's the best Valley Rensport now, isn't it,

again, a version of that engine that was in the cup cars. Those engines are lifed,

ultimately. It's incredible that that engine was ever put in a none-on-one road car,

but yeah, we'll see on that, I think. Yeah, just as either of those cars,

buy, buy with warranty, buy from a great dealer and or specialist. I think there's one or two on

the Nomuts marketplace currently, lovely ultraviolet example, which actually Mark, I think, isn't that

your spec? No. The color is. The color is, yeah. For sure. Yes, I'm all about ultraviolet. That'd

be awesome. It's a good color. Amazing. Round two then. I'm going to go with Charlotte Peacock's

question. If Porsche was to bring back and do a modern version of one of their discontinues models,

which one should it be? For her, it would be the 944. I love the 944 for the pop-up headlights,

but we know that legislation wouldn't allow that, would it? It's still that four-cylinder engine,

isn't it? But what would we go for? Got any things that you'd like to bring back?

He's got to be a 996, surely. No, I know what I'd go for straight away.

Go on then. Right away. 356 Speedster. That was Peac Speedster for me, and it's minimalist,

though, absolutely the ultimate homage to Max Hoffman. Absolutely paired back. Don't even put

lightweight. More hardcore than what the... Well, the Spider isn't that concept, is it? It's just not,

but just the 356 Speedster. Bring that back. Lightweight. Put a four-cylinder in it. Don't

mind. Just a Canyon Boulevard cruiser slash Canyon Carvin sort of thing, not a high-speed thing.

Have it super low-geared as well. 100 mile an hour max speed. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Little wheels. Little wheels. Great stuff. I think Porsche have actually designed this,

and I think they actually made them or made one, but it's that sort of 904

thing. It's in the book, isn't it? I can't remember what the book's called. I'm talking

actually gibberish here, really, but you've seen the book that's like all of the design

sketches that they've done over the years, but I think they did build a full-size car.

So it's basically the 904 reborn. What a fantastic looking little thing that was.

Love the look of that. That was very truthful to the original

aesthetics, wasn't it? It looked sensational. What a car as well. What a car. I think that goes back

to my point from the first question as well, is that take away all the complication and

like you're going with your speedster, isn't it? We're talking the same language.

Which engine would you have in it, Andy, because they had a few for the 904.

I think it would be a low capacity six cylinder for me.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Love that. What a road trip that would be, by the way. The 90,

reborn 904 and 356 speedster. Mark, what's the third one that's, yeah, what are you bringing?

Well, I don't think this would be something that I'd ever be able to afford, but here's my thought.

It sounds interesting. Imagine a 906. We need a halo car right now. If we're going to compete with

McLaren W1 and we're going to compete with this new Ferrari, we need a holy trinity, right?

And what if we could do this with a reborn 906 as part of that holy trinity? Something absolutely

hyper car oriented to lift the brand image and that engineering lead focus and just do it better

than everybody else. Just like the previous halo cars did. You look at the cars that everybody

else built and they were all very nice and impressive, but they were basically built in a

shed compared to the Porsche version of whatever it was that was competing with that moment in time.

That it's properly thoroughly, deeply engineered product that still works today. Imagine that in a 906.

Wow. I mean, good about you boys. That sounds great. Yeah. Sounds good. That sounds great.

Inspired question, Charlotte. Thank you. Yeah. Very, very good. Very good. Mark,

what was the question you were fancying? The creeps question is a nice one. If you could pick

one passenger to travel in your car with you to the Arctic Circle in 2026, who would that be and why?

Given the distance, they would probably share driving. Now that part was very key for me on

that one. Who would I like to sit next to and drive be on a very long trip and talk to them

about everything that they've done in their life and all the stories about things? I think Derek

Bell would be a cracking guy to sit beside and ask questions of and just watch him drive that car.

That would be really cool. Yeah. Being passenger as well and soaking up that would be pretty special.

What are you going for, Lee? Have you got one? Yeah, I've probably thought about this a bit too

much. So I actually, for the Arctic Circle trip this year, I sat next to Sikib for the majority

of that journey on the way up, to be honest. I loved it. I absolutely love Sikib's company.

I could sit with him all day. Sikib, I'd probably put you, mate, right up there. Or because I also

think like, I mean, Sikib and I, we just didn't shut up. We were rabbiting the whole way there,

but there's moments in there on a trip of that scale where you just want a bit of peace and

quiet. If you're a passenger, you might even want a quick 40 winks and feel comfortable enough to

do that. So if my other choice would be, if not my wife, right, Max Newman, because I've shared

again many hours in the car with him, I think he and I have both fallen asleep at different points.

We can deep dive and get geeky about this stuff that appears on this podcast, but he's also hilarious

as well. So I think we'd have a good laugh. So yeah, it's no one famous, to be honest. It's Sikib or

Max for me. It's a good call. What about you, Andy? I love that you're comfortable to go to sleep

while he's driving. I'd stick you in there as well, Andy, but you're prone to, especially in a 996

where the window winders are in the middle, you're prone to just quietly popping your hand over

the electric window winders and then dropping your guts. No, not really up for that all the way to

Norway, to be honest. You're bastard. The disadvantages of the central. Yeah, yeah.

Too many times thinking about it.

Right, my one. I think one of our past guests that we couldn't shut up for hours and hours,

and I think I've got a lot parallels in my car world to his car world. So I think we'd have

plenty to talk about. And that's Mr. Johnny Smith. Yeah, right. I think he's quite accomplished

behind the wheel. I wouldn't be nervous. So I'd be quite comfortable with him driving.

And I think I'd enjoy his tales. I think we'd have lots of similar stuff to talk about.

So yeah, that's mine. I could foresee that sort of journey where by the time you two

have rocked up to the Arctic Circle, you've bought another car together. I can fully see that.

You've begun in Legion and bought some weird bit of shit. My old snot box. Yeah.

Great idea for a video, mind it. Yeah, absolutely. That's a very good question

from Sikib. Thanks for reading that out, Mark. So I will go for as number two.

It kind of is similar, I think, to a question we had earlier. Let me just have a reread of

it. It was Paul's one, Pee-Pee's. Oh, it's a long one, wasn't it? I'm trying to dig out the question.

Yes. Okay. Yeah. So Pee-Pee's question is in the vein of Nick Jay's question earlier on,

basically, are the manufacturers now biting back at the legislators?

There's a bit of detail in there which I think is worth sharing. Chinese manufacturers fully

geared up now produce 70% of the world's electric cars according to Paul's research,

at 12.4 million of them a year in 2024 and rising. The threat is that the EU car market will be

heritage and complete home goal by the governments. We have had peak car now and the one upside I see

is that good ICE cars and classics will be kept on the road by those that care and the

specialist independent businesses that maintain and deal in them will thrive, which is, I think,

is a great shout for it, for the independent sector for sure. So are manufacturers now biting

back at the legislators? I think they are, aren't they? Absolutely. We're seeing that with Porsche,

aren't we? Unquestionably. Unquestionably. And lots of other voices as well. Yeah. Yeah. What's

interesting and this is where without going full political, where this version of democracy fails

is all of the government, heads of government in the EU, which the UK used to be in, I might add,

when this was made, all those heads of government are no longer in power.

So we have to deal with a fallout from that. And in the same way, I always think like,

remember with COVID, from a UK perspective, when Bazaar was giving us his weekly updates,

he had two experts, he was flanked by two experts for every broadcast to the UK public,

because it was a crisis. And so he had to rely on people that are informed in the subject.

Now, there's lots of groups out there that are saying that we're in a similar crisis.

And yet the government isn't relying on industry experts to inform and guide them through the

choppy waters like they did at COVID. And again, to some, it's just, it's just as big and important.

So yeah, I think it's right. Manufacturers had to conform to these crazy and totally unrealistic

goals that were set to win elections, not to ever become reality. So I feel personally

like it was always going to be inevitability that manufacturers are pushing back led by the public

that were never completely on board with it in the first place. And you still see it played out

on social media every single day. Like if you want to cause an argument, just like put a picture

up of a Tesla or an EV and just watch all the petrol heads go in on it. And vice versa, to be

honest with you, it's still that kind of cutting. So yes, I think they are, but I think the

manufacturers are led by the buying public. I think the point about having alternative views

on solutions, you know, pose the problem and let people who know how to solve these problems

pose the solutions. Don't tell people what the solution is and then expect them to go and use

that solution as the only avenue. Alternative propulsion, electric vehicles, there's a place

for them. But it's not the whole answer doesn't cover all areas of transportation and other

areas that we've got. There's a much bigger angle than simply just what we drive. It's the fact that

whole swathes of our Spain and France and Germany and other countries like Slovakia

are employing so many people that are involved in automotive. So there's more to it than simply

just about what we drive. It's also about how people are living and how these countries

maintain a competitive edge. And it's a far bigger economic discussion and social discussion than

simply whether we like to burn petrol or whether we like to burn electrons. It's a huge issue.

So I do see an answer in Paul's point. Paul's definitely right. There's loads of manufacturers

that are now lobbying to say, look, we understand there's a problem. We know that we need to deal with

climate change and we know that we need to deal with emissions related stuff. But let us solve it

with the solutions that we can engineer. Don't tell us how to solve this. Let us solve it.

Let us figure this out. Give us the trust back to do that because engineers are really,

really good at finding solutions to things. Good answer. Yeah, yeah. So much more diplomatically

and convivially put very well done. It's like a master of economics.

Shall we do our last round of questions? Yes. Okay. My last question from Simon Gwin.

How many 992.2Ts do you think Porsche are making, are making stroke selling?

And will this model be the last career with a manual transmission?

And we kind of answered this a couple of weeks ago, didn't we? Because we didn't think they were

making too many. And we were worried that this could be the last manual transmission car because

of that situation. They're not selling enough of them. So really, yeah, we've got to get out

and buy some, haven't we? I'm a bit scared. But then I'm also hopeful that Porsche are listening

and going to jump on our bandwagon of building simpler cars for the future of goodness. Come on,

guys. Let's get on board. What I always say is what I love about Simon's question is he is

a very public 992.2 manual Carrera T owner. He's definitely got out the pump for his tires there,

isn't he? He's not staying quiet about them, is he? Does it benefit him if they don't sell a lot

or does it benefit him if they don't?

It could very well be, exactly as you said, Andy, as we discussed previously,

could very well be the last manual Carrera that. And if sales continue the way they are,

I think, yeah, the prospect has already been signally died, to be honest. But really hope

that's not the case. Mark, what are your thoughts?

Well, take up rate, really. I don't know what the numbers are for 992.2, but I think,

anecdotally, when I listened to the PCA's podcast, they talk about 50% take up rate in the US

for manual versus PDK on sports cars in the US market. So there's still hope there. Maybe the

UK is so low, but maybe other markets, it's higher, and perhaps they're seeing the sales

figures for that to continue to do it. Yeah, it's funny how that's kind of turned around,

really, and it's more stateside now than it is here, because it used to be completely the other

way around. So yeah, please, please keep buying them. Amazing. Mark, your final question and answer.

Well, this is a contentious one. It's from Tomas Vernek. So Tomas asks,

I was always wondering, on the collective's take, what is the most reliable 911 engine of all time?

Is there such a thing?

Such a good one.

Yeah, yeah.

911 SC. I'm touching lots of wood.

There it is. As Chris at Right Tune rightly pointed out, at the end of last series, when

we had a chat with him on air-cooled engines, they do need a rebuild around 100,000 miles. So

in terms of, did he say, what's the most reliable engine? Well, yeah, I think you could put it

there, because it will work faithfully through anything until around that sort of mileage,

and then it will need a rebuild. Well, it's probably still running. That's the thing with

an air-cooled 911 engine is that even with just one head stud holding on each head,

they'll still run. They'll leak like a sieve, and they won't be giving you much power,

but they're still running. Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

Although, I would say the other is Metzger. That is just such a bullet-proof engine.

Well, that's the same engine, but with some water-cooled cylinders on it, basically.

It's the same design engine. Yeah, there is lineage to that, so it's that same design.

What do you think, Mark? What's Mark thinking? Well, yeah, you've got one.

But you can, you know, with that really high mileage 996, horrible out there, right, that

the chart has at 760,000 miles or something, religious oil changes, apparently, and fixing

anything that goes wrong. But, you know, just that comment about it being basically an air-cooled

one with an air-cooled engine with a water-cooled head, the engine itself reliable, but the

ancillaries, the extra complication, the turbos, the water pipes, you know, the condensers,

they require maintenance and can fail and have the problems. So my answer to that is probably an

air-cooled engine from an earlier car, something that's simpler, simpler, better, you know, maybe

even the 911 engines, you know, something that sits in that space where they're really mechanically

simple and mechanical. Keep it simple. Love it, love it, Mark. Great, great input there, great input.

Love that. Okay, final question then, I guess. Do you mind if we do a little bit of an internal one

from Kestas? He said... Sounds dodgy. It's not, I promise, I hope it's not. Okay. Kestas says,

are there any updates on your magazine plans or other new developments in the NineWorks space?

Some ideas were mentioned in the private podcast a while back. Any support needed from the community?

Well, Kestas, funny you say that because, yes, behind the scenes we have been peddling

and working very hard to bring that print product that is still going to happen,

the mechanics behind it have been complicated in working things out from a financial

footprint, a financial outlook. And as we've kind of discussed with hero drivers recently,

you know, the trouble with print media, and we know there's a want from it in the style we want to

do, and we know the physicality of it, that's already been designed with our friends at KMS

Litho with Mark, who's in the collective. So we know what the physicality of the product is going

to be. The trouble with print media is the upfront cost. And again, we're a really small

enterprise, small business on that front. So whilst we are already down the line in terms

of content gathering and paying for it, we are going to need some help from the community as

the reality. So we are going to be launching a Kickstarter campaign. Any donations, welcome.

We think we're going to need, according to our very best calculations, about 25 grand to bring

that first issue. And that is really going to be to trial it, test the water. And if there's

enough demand from it, and it's a success, then we can go on from there. But at least if it isn't,

we know we've given it our very best shot. So we'll share the link to the Kickstarter

campaign that will have a lot more detail in there, because I appreciate this probably

isn't the forum in which to go into it too much. But there'll be a lot more detail on there.

And yeah, any, any donations to bring that to life is really most welcome.

Yeah, well put, well, time to question, guestess.

Yeah. Yeah. Very.

Anything else, Andy, that we want to share?

Publicly?

On the magazine side.

Just anything, really. Like what else, what other plans have we got cooking?

We've got plenty of events and road trips for next year. In fact, I've just been updating the

events page. So we, there's all of the DNHC stuff that we've, you know, there's some dates there,

there's some dates to be confirmed, that gives you an idea of what's coming up next year,

and the latter part of this year. So yeah, do have a look on the events page.

Yeah, very well put. It's worth pointing out, as we said at the top of the podcast,

you know, we've delivered 8,000 road trip miles to the DNHC this year. And next year,

I think we'll surpass that pretty confidently with the things we're offering. So our UK trips

are about to go live for members to get involved with. We are also going to the Arctic Circle and

what really is shaping up to be an epic trip. We will go back to the museum, we will go to Ireland,

and we've got a couple of extra bits up our sleeve, which are not quite ready for kind of

public consumption, but we'll talk to those, we'll reveal those in our internal podcasts.

Yeah, and of course the event, sorry, the awards ceremony as well. I think we've mentioned that,

that we're working on that. We've got a date set for that. That's on the events page as well.

Yes. And I was on the phone to what I am hoping will be our guests, but at this stage will be

potential guest of honour. I was on the phone to him last week from his Visak home, no more clues

available as yet. But again, yeah, we hope once, once we've got things found up, we'd love to

share that with everybody in hopes as many people was possible there really. Yeah. So there was,

there was a last question from Tim, which I think you wanted to highlight Mark,

which slides in nicely to a gem of the week.

What 9-11 would you pick for daily driving? Must be £40,000 or less?

What would you, what do you guys go for in that? There's a creeper side.

Oh, there's a car that's on the marketplace at the moment that I think would fit that bill just

absolutely bang on. Well, go on, go on Mark, what you saying? Well, so daily driving, you know,

you never know what you're going to encounter, right? You know, maybe it's going to be sunshine,

maybe it's going to be wet, maybe it's going to be snowing. You need four-wheel traction,

be nice if the roof came off. You don't want to deal with traffic, so it'd be nice if it could

kind of deal with the traffic as well and, you know, just do the shifts for you. Well,

Williams Crawford's got the car for that job and it's under £40,000. It's a 2004 Porsche 996

turbo to Tronic S Cabriolet and it's gorgeous. And it even has PCCM plus classic on it.

No, that can not be any better. That is, I can't, I cannot fault it. I'm looking on the marketplace,

I'm trying to find it. I see the C4S, but it's manual, not Tip Tronic. So I was looking at that,

which is also at Williams Crawford and has all-wheel drive and has PCCM. So similar thing to

you, but to be honest, yeah, I think, I think your choice because that comes in at £27,000

for 64,000 miles on the clock. But yeah, I completely agree. A Turbo S Tip Tronic

is such an exquisite daily driver. Ah, yes, you've sent me the link. Thank you for that.

Beautiful. So that looks like basalt black on black interior as well. So like nice and easy

wearing inside, slipping in and out of every day. Yeah, that's beautiful, Mark. That's it.

That has got to be Gem of the Week, surely. It's a good choice, isn't it, from what's on there?

It's a great choice. Yeah, it's literally £40,000 or £39,995, 53,000 miles on the clock.

You mentioned as well, Metzger engine, pure reliability. I've also said in this podcast

previously that Tip Tronic suits the turbocharged 996 and 7s really nicely.

I think that's the perfect, perfect daily driver. Great choice, Mark. Great choice.

I would love that thing. Yeah, yeah. Honestly, what a place to be. What a place to be.

And again, we did a video on it earlier on in the year. It was a Turbo S Cabot,

Philip Rabie we were driving at the time. But the reason stands up here still that

it's a bit of a left-field choice as well as a daily. It's enough to kind of,

I think, maintain intrigue and interest for you, but also others as well. A bit of a conversation

starter. Not the de facto kind of choice of, say, none on 1.1 Carrera or something,

which might otherwise be in that price bracket. So yeah, it's a really worthwhile Gem of the Week.

It's at Williams Crawford and you can view all details on that and the host of other cars

on the Nineworks marketplace at Nineworks.co.uk.

Lovely job.

Amazing. I guess any other business.

I'll do a collective update. First up is Chris Deardon, new member of the collective.

You've got some history with Chris Deardon, haven't you?

Yeah.

He lives in Basin Stoke, currently driving a 991 Cab.

And I think he pretty much personifies Driven Not Hidden, doesn't he?

He certainly does. Yeah, with his wife, Iris.

Yeah, so great to have you aboard.

Yeah. Yeah, it's worth sharing with Chris. So Chris is very prone to jumping in his 9-11

every summer and going to all the far-fung places around Europe and sometimes even further.

So he absolutely is the very personification of Driven Not Hidden.

It was he really that certainly inspired me to drive around Norway in a 9-11.

He did it years ago in a feature for Tottenham 11 magazine and again approached us and said,

I'm going to Norway. We're taking a camera. Chris is a long-established journalist written for

T911 The Times and other outlets for years. So he said, yeah, I'm going on a road trip.

Would you like the assets from it? We said, yes, please. And what was delivered in both

words and pictures was so inspiring. It inspired me to head for Norway.

And from that, we've then gone there with the collective, you know, 10 years later getting

on for. So that all stems from Chris. And again, it was Chris that pointed his 9-11,

9-1.1 year cab, as you said, Andy, that was purchased from Paragon, I might add.

So a supercar. He went to Sicily in the Targa Florio. And again, so we've gone there and

Chris has done a really cool trip somewhere else in Europe this summer and is happy to share the

details with us with the view to that becoming a future DNHC road trip. So what a guy Chris is,

what a guy and a very welcome addition to the collective. Absolutely.

Okay, Bill Whales based in Rutland. Do you know where Rutland is?

Yeah, it's near Leeds, isn't it, Andy? Yeah, it's a county.

I'd like a tiny little county. I'd never heard of it before. I think it's about three people

living in it, including Bill. He drives a 997.2 3.8 PDK, along with a BMW X3 as his daily.

Welcome to the collective. Yes, welcome, Bill from Rutland, definitely.

Yeah, tiny Rutland.

Tiny Rutland, yeah.

James Hunter joins us from London near Burrison-Erdsman's. He is currently driving a

986 Boxster S, which he says he's very happy with at a given price point. Previously had a 996 CSR

from RPM a few years ago. He also drives a couple of interesting cars. He's got a Mark 1 Cortina

and an Alpha Spyder race car. He's definitely got petrol running through his veins.

Definitely. That's a great car history, a great current car garage in regards to the 986S.

Some might say that's the connoisseur's choice, Mark.

Mark's.

As you alluded to earlier.

Absolutely. Lastly is Nigel Gore, who he says he's all over the place.

Antigua, London, Bournemouth, Paul and Swanage, everywhere.

Met Lee many years ago when he was that 9-11 guy, apparently.

What's he currently driving? He says, quite a lot. Focusing on air called now.

So I think he's driven a few of Nigel's cars. I've been very fortunate to, and you have as well,

Lee. So yeah, but he's focusing on air called, narrowing the field.

Which is great. You've got to follow your passion. If you're not getting the kick out of a car,

it's not the car for you. Nigel's been pretty honest about it and said, I love the air called

stuff. He's got some super cars. He's a super dude. He's a top DJ, among many other talents.

So yeah, it's great to have you on board, Nigel. Welcome to the Collective.

Indeed.

I'm thinking about it actually. Nigel has been on the podcast before when we did that.

He has.

50 years of turbo chat with PP last year. So people would have heard of Nigel previously.

So yeah, he's finally on board with the Collective. So yeah, welcome along, mate.

I think it was his tech ludditeness that's prevented him from becoming part of the DNHC.

I finally managed to step in through it.

Guided him through the process.

I did.

Did you have him pinned up against the wall at the time or was it?

No, nothing that bad.

Yeah, excellent.

Yeah, great stuff. Great stuff. Do you mind if I just say as well, just it's a collective themed.

So sold the 40th basically, which is news to everyone. Yeah.

It's staying within the Collective, which is fantastic. I don't really want to say a lot

more than that currently because it's not for me to say it's up for that person to say they've

strapped on the buying boots. So yeah, let's leave it there. We can have a bit of a game until

next week when he'll join us on a podcast on handover day to talk through his purchase.

But yeah, for now in the Collective on WhatsApp, we can play a guessing game.

Who is it?

Who's Eucastodian of the 40th? Yeah, all registered and done and dusted.

Does that person are they eligible for some buying boots t-shirts?

A buying boots t-shirt?

What is in from previous purchases?

No, no, from buying from you.

I'm not a dealer on the marketplace, unfortunately.

Yeah, I certainly owe him a beer for buying it so effortlessly.

Yeah, and unseen. But yeah, other than that, it's great territory, isn't it, that one?

Yeah. But if you have bought a car by the marketplace in the last couple of years,

then give us a shout because we're giving out some free t-shirts, the buying boots t-shirts.

So yeah, do give us a shout. We've got a good list of people that have

bought off of there and I'll be ordering the t-shirts next week.

Amazing. So it's been a popular endeavor that.

It has indeed.

Which has been great. It's great to see so many people buying quality cars off of that marketplace.

So as exactly as Andy said, please do get in touch and let us know about that.

And yeah, Mark, you surely must qualify for one at some stage or another.

I'm sure he's on the list.

Well, congratulations to you and also to the new custodian of your beloved 40th.

I hope they have a fantastic time with it as well as you did.

I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will.

Yeah, so we'll cover that next week. That wraps up this week unless there's any other business.

Super. Well, that was really great to answer some questions, throw some opinions out there,

and also hear your really well-judged, well-considered and well-delivered thoughts, Mark.

Thank you for joining us on the podcast. Please do come back.

It was a lot of fun. Thank you.

Great stuff.

This week on Our Mate's Radio, thanks very much.

See you guys.

This episode is brought to you by the Driven Not Hidden Collective.

If you'd like to join the DNHC and unlock unique new experiences with your Porsche,

visit NineWorks.co.uk or slash join.

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