Weekly Motor Fix: air-cooled madness

4 April, 2016

I’m not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, to make a song and dance about the price of air-cooled Turbo Porsches, but something extraordinary has just happened.

Yesterday, I searched 911 Turbos for sale in New Zealand by highest price. Sitting atop this list was a very tidy-looking 1997 993 911 Turbo listed earlier that day — for $299,990.

Yep, $300,000 for a 19-year-old car. Next car down, for the same price, was a 2013 991 Turbo S. Faster, newer, and, quite simply, better.

I logged back on this morning just to make sure my eyes didn’t deceive me, but the car was gone — no longer listed. Maybe I’d dreamt that the asking price of these fabled air-cooled Porshes had popped up to this simply ridiculous level? Luckily, I’d taken a screenshot of the listing to post on Facebook.

Check out the comments in the post we published on New Zealand Classic Car‘s Facebook page here: 

Ummm, wow.

So I figured the dealer must have made a mistake and listed the car for $150,000 too much. I scrolled down through cheaper cars until I hit a purple Boxster trying to convince people it had something in common with a 911 Turbo. Still nothing.

So I called the dealer. The. Car. Had. Sold. For very close to asking price, within 12 hours of being listed.

I’m off to have a lie down.

Merry Christmas from NZ Classic Car magazine

The Classic Car magazine team is taking a few weeks’ holiday from the work computer and heading to the beach for some kickback time.
Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful summer holiday to all our readers, followers, and fans. Enjoy this special extra time with the family. We will be posting archive articles again in mid to late January.
Have fun, be good and be careful out there.

Two engines instead of one?

Popping two motors into a car is not only complicated, it doesn’t always end well. Donn Anderson recalls early attempts, including John Cooper’s ill-fated original Twini Mini built 58 years ago

For a boost in performance, better traction, and perhaps improved handling to some, two motors seems an obvious solution. It would also eliminate the need to develop a larger engine replacement from scratch, but would that outweigh the not inconsiderable technical difficulties?
The idea of using a pair of engines dates back at least 86 years to the Alfa Romeo Bimotor single seater racing car that was officially timed at 335km/h, or 208mph. Taking a lengthened Alfa P3 chassis, the Italians fitted two supercharged straight eight 2.9-litre and 3.2-litre engines, one in front of the cockpit, and the other behind the cockpit.