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President’s Report

Andrew Anderson

June was a busy month for the Porsche Club, Susan and myself with us driving 2000km in my 997 to attend the Weekend of the Year and the 70th celebrations in Auckland. The WOTY was a very successful gathering in Whitianga despite the heavy rain from Saturday onwards and the following weekend was the 70th celebration of Porsche with Club outings in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch supported by European Motors and the Official Porsche Centres. I drove back via Napier to Blenheim and was home for just a few days before returning to Auckland for the 17th of June Driver Training at Hampton Downs.

Steff Chambers and Paul Davies organised this day and with Racing Ray as Chief Instructor, the 29 drivers who attended had an instructive day learning about the capabilities of their cars and themselves. All of these events were very successful and enjoyable for the Club and you will read about them in this issue.

With many of our members overseas at this time of year, the Club Facebook page is full of smiling faces and sunny skies. The Northern Hemisphere motor race season is in full swing. Already, the Le Mans 24 Hours has run and Porsche claimed a 1-2 victory in the GTE Pro Class, with the Pink Pig #92 RSR finally parked on the Le Mans podium, 47 years after this striking livery first appeared on a 917/20 at Le Mans in 1971 . The second placed #91 911 RSR was also decked out in 70’s Rothmans livery.

Porsche has recently broken their own 35 year old record at the Nordschleife with the Porsche 919 Evo, as part of their tribute tour. The previous record time of six minutes 11.13 seconds was set on 28th May 1983 by Stefan Bellof in a 620hp Porsche 956Cduring practice for the Nurburgring 1000km WEC race. The record was broken on Friday 19th June 2018, when Timo Bernhard drove the 20.832km loop in the amazing time of five minutes 19.55 seconds. The in-car video is incredible and I’m sure everyone reading this has already seen it. If not, you can find it at https://www.youtube.com/embed/PQmSUHhP3ug?autoplay=1. It is well worth looking up.

FYI, The Evo version of the 919 is the race winning WEC 919 with full development potential, unrestricted by the WEC regulations, with greater downforce and 1,160 hp. The Nurburgring record is the second one broken by the 919 Evo this year, the first being at Spa on 9th April when, with Neel Jani at the wheel, the 919 Evo lapped the track in one minute 41.770 seconds, which was faster than the 2017 Formula One record time of one minute 42.553 seconds held by Lewis Hamilton!

The 919 Tribute tour continues through the coming months. By the time you read this, it will have appeared at Spa Francorchamps and the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and will then be seen at Brands Hatch on 2nd September, with a final appearance at Rennsport Reunion 6, Laguna Seca on 26th-29th September.

Last Spiel, I mentioned the NZ based Porsche 962 that has gone to Europe to race at various classic meetings. With the Classic Le Mans coming up as I write this, I am looking forward to hearing how the car went at this amazing festival of historic race cars.

Le Mans is one of the few places in the world where you can hear historic race cars accelerating to full speed down a very long straight (Mulsanne), and I hope the meeting went well for our NZ team.

August has a good calendar of activities and then we will have the next Drive Your Porsche Day on Sunday 16th September. As usual, this NZ- wide event should see Club outings in every region and I hope we have a fine day for it. The Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI at Laguna Seca is also coming up fast. This iconic racing event runs from 27th-30th September, so you’ve still got time to book a flight and see some fantastic classic Porsche racing at one of the USA’s most famous race circuits. This sounds like a great trip and general admission tickets at US $150 for the four days are still available as of now (early July).

Back here in NZ, we have a full calendar of events and for me in particular, I will be attending the second Driver Training day at Timaru on Saturday 4th August.

This event always has a dinner in Timaru on the Saturday night after the day on track. It’s a great way to unwind and relive the day’s experiences over a meal and a few drinks. Ask anyone who has done a Southern DT, they are great fun and the safest way to get to know what your Porsche can do. Although Winter is now here, it’s still a great time to get out for a drive, so keep an eye on the events calendar and grab any excuse to drive your Porsche.

On behalf of the Club I would like to welcome Steff Chambers to the National Committee. Steff is a strong contributor to the Club and we look forward to working with her.

Editorial

Peter Stewart

The Porsche Club of New Zealand is a very good place to be. I for one, am still smiling since driving on Rod Millen’s Leadfoot hill climb that many of us who were fortunate to experience. Thanks to Richard Opie and his mate Gareth Davis, the moment is captured below. The wet experience of the Sunday drive was equally exciting whether fording streams or following Paul Davies. No Porsches dissolved that day or the next. Seventy years have passed since No 1 was registered so today we can continue to enjoy the wonderful experience gained from driving the sportscars that have evolved from No 1. Together we celebrated as we drove across the Auckland Harbour Bridge, across the Rimutaka Range and the Canterbury Plains thanks to the joint energy of Porsche New Zealand and PCNZ. I know I enjoyed the spectacle of 200 Porsches of all ages and models at the Viaduct Event Centre. The racing of Porsches is always happening somewhere around the world whether it be at Classic Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps or here in New Zealand. Drivers are preparing for our 2018-2019 Pirelli Porsche Series and will welcome members whether they want to start in the Boxster Spec class or come with your family to meet the drivers and watch the action. The calendar for the North Island and the South Island events are listed on the inside back cover so please add these dates to your diary.

 

 

SPIEL 197 CONTENTS

70 Years of Porsche Sports Cars at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Porsche Presents the New Macan
Blue Sky Returns BY GRAHAM LISTER
CLICK TO READ ARTICLE
Paul Higgins’ Brun Porsche 962 C plus 356 Carbriolet Update BY DAVID HIGGINS
70 Years of Porsche Celebration in Auckland BY ASH POWELL
70 Anniversary Run BY PAUL ALEXANDER
German Precision Connecting the World BY DAN REEVES
WOTY 2018 BY ANDREW ANDERSON
The Thrill of the Hill Climb CAPTURED BY RICHARD OPIE AND GARETH DAVIS
Organising the WOTY 2018 Lunch Drive BY PATSY POIRIER
Julian’s 911T to RSR Story BY JULIAN IIOTT
Petrol Head in Training BY ELISE BUTTENSHAW
Driver Training Experience BY KATY NEVILLE
International Track Day BY TONY REID
My path to Motorsport BY STEFF CHAMBERS
Brunch Run BY PETER MCARTHUR
Garage Crawl Tuakau BY TONY MONTELEONE
Porsche at the Podium BY JAMES NIMMO
Porsche 356 Coupé “Ferdinand”
Lunch at The Olde Creamery BY JOHN NIMMO
Kid in a Candy Store BY GAVIN & SHARON NAUSCHUTZ
Paul’s Country Cruise and Kaiteriteri Lunch BY ANDREW ANDERSON
Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Takes Record in the “Green Hell” 
Introducing the Harmonic Damper BY MALCOLM FLEET
Driver Profile: Brian McGovern BY MARK O’LOUGHLIN
Pirelli Porsche NZ Championship Spec Boxster BY EHRIN WARDLOW

The Club’s affairs are managed by a Committee of volunteers elected each year at our annual general meeting. As all Committee Members are volunteers email is our preferred method of communication. Private phone numbers are not listed on this website for privacy reasons. Members are welcome to contact the Committee - a Contact Directory is published in Spiel Magazine.

Committee Members

President Andrew Anderson
Vice President Paul Miller
Treasurer Michelle Neville
Secretary Ashley Powell
Spiel Editor Peter Stewart
Club Administrator Teresa Conway
Committee Tim Boys
Committee Roger Carter
Committee Steff Chambers
Committee Chris Fleury
Committee Gavin Nauschutz
Committee Michael Neville
Committee Dan Reeves
Committee Andrew Ryan
Committee Malcolm Thompson