The term “car porn” gets thrown around quite a lot these days.
Indeed, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to read any literature about a pristine vintage classic, or a top drawer contemporary super car, without being made to stomach some ridiculously oversexed implication that the author desires to make the beast with two backs – and four wheels – in some vulgar display of man-on-machine paraphilia.
In describing this car, such statements would just seem… disrespectful. Chris Harris’ old green Porsche 911 rally car is an entirely different class of animal. It has standards. It has self-respect. It’s the car you could only dream of one day taking home to meet your parents.
This video isn’t car porn; it’s “car romance.” It would play quite well with Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
The Porsche 911 rally car in-question is one commissioned by Chris Harris himself. The automotive journalist wanted to create what was, to his sensibilities, the “perfect” 911. He sought the help of Richard Tuthill, an expert on restoring the Porsche 911 and 356 for use in rally racing, road trips, and just about any other usage.
The result, says Harris, is “Kermit:” the journalist’s perfect sports car. Starting with a rigid Porsche 911 rally car shell – reportedly stiffer than even the then-new Type-997 – Tuthill dropped in a hand-built 320 HP, 3.4-liter flat-6, swapped the wheels for some 8-inch and 9-inch wide Fuchs alloys, and sourced a set of dampers from XTC. Oh, and some cosmetic things happened.
The result is an absolutely competent rear-engined Porsche 911 rally car that weighs under 1,000 kg, and in 2008, could blast through the quarter-mile quicker than Harris’ then-new BMW M3. We like to think of it as sort of a German pro-tourer.
Sadly, Chris Harris was forced to sell the car, which he did some weeks after shooting the video. But happily, we can all still enjoy it vicariously through the computer screen:
No Comments yet