Copyright © 1999

Porsche Club of America Out For A Spin August, 1999 Bruce Corwin Bruce968@PorscheNet.com

For some time now I have been considering purchasing a Porsche racecar. Many people choose to build their own, starting with a street car, then stripping it out, adding a roll cage, fuel cell, racing seats and such, but the economics of this strategy are questionable. A quick browse through the “For  Sale” section of Panorama or Autoweek will reveal most racecars of this type with comments like “Over $80K invested. Will sell for $30K OBO.” In fact you can easily spend over $100K to put together a real nice car (and I know many people who have.) The best option in my opinion is to buy a racecar that is already built, preferably factory-built. These are likely to be well engineered, sorted out and less apt to depreciate in value.
 
As usual, the club turned out to be a wonderful resource in fulfilling my Porsche dreams.
While browsing one day on the 968.net web site (created by PCA member Ray Starbird), I came across an ad for a 93 Porsche 968 Turbo RS racecar for sale in Germany. The price seemed very reasonable at $42K and the car appeared to be in great condition. A quick call to Prescott Kelly (expert in all things Porsche) confirmed that the 968 Turbo RS was a very advanced and quick car, superior to the 944 Turbo Cup cars and much more rare. He said the 944 Turbo Cup cars sell for the same amount and are often in mediocre condition. He was also able to tell me which company is best to deal with for shipping. When new, I think this car sold for somewhere in the $132K to $165K range.
 
Only 12,776 Porsche 968s were ever produced. Of these, the factory made just fourteen Turbo S cars. My car is the racing version, called the 968 Turbo RS (Race Sport) and only about 4 of these were built. The engine is basically a 968 3 liter alloy block with an 8 valve 944 Turbo head mounted on it and produces 337 HP, although by removing the restrictor plate and increasing boost, you can easily tune it to over 400 HP.
 
The car was built by Porsche for Joest Racing for the German ADAC GT-Cup, a popular race series at the time. Since the weight was limited to 1,350 kg they built a special cage instead of add-on weight. Mine was the only RS built this way, with the cage connecting directly to both the front and rear suspension mounting points, making it 70% stiffer than a “normal” RS.
 
At the first or second race, (Nürburgring) driven by Manuel Reuter, the car started from the pole. After 200 meters it was pushed by a 911 RS 3.8 and crashed hard in the front end. Roock Racing then bought the car and according to Gerd Schmid in the Porsche Racing Department (Germany), the factory rebuilt the car and it is now 99% perfect. After that it was raced only a few times by a private driver, Mr. Bobach, who is now about 60 years old.
The man selling the car, Tim Seidel, emailed me pictures of the car and was really helpful in handling the overseas transaction. I later learned what a very honest man he is. He sold me the car at the agreed upon price, turning down offers from other potential buyers for almost twice what I paid!
 
To ship the car here cost about $5K by sea, but the scheduling wasn’t good so I spent an extra $600 to send it by air. My first drive of the car was at the July autocross, and you can read about the results from this event elsewhere in this issue of the Nor’easter. If you are interested in learning more about these cars, the September issue of Panorama will be featuring a story on the 968 Turbo S and RS. Now if I can just learn to read German, I’ll know what to do when the “BREMSFLUSSIGKEIT” light comes on!