My Classic Garage

31/10/2024

Driving off into the sunset

05/03/2018

"Late one Friday in 1969 the telephone rang. Hello Frank, this is Husche (von Hanstein). We would like you to drive our new car at the Nurburgring 1,000 kilometres this weekend. I said I was busy and recommended he call Brian Redman. 'Brian has had a crash, and is in hospital.' Jo Siffert was my next suggestion. 'Jo has had a crash and is in hospital.' 'What the bloody hell is going on there?' Our new car is not easy to drive, Frank' - and he wasn't kidding!
"Porsche came to us because there was a shortage of drivers but the money was good so David Piper and I decided to take it on.
"These first cars had alloy tubular chassis, which was gas-filled to detect cracks. There was a big guage in the cockpit, which measured the gas pressure. If the guage zeroed, they said it meant that the chassis has started to crack, and they said I should drive home 'mit care'. I told them, 'If the needle zeroes I'll park the ******* there and then and walk back, pick up my Deutschmarks and go home'.

"The chassis flexed so much that the position of the gearchange was never the same twice in a row. You'd reach out for the lever and it wasn't there anymore. I was asked to drive it at Le Mans, the money was great too, but I told them 'I never wanted to be the quickest bloke in motor racing - just the oldest- and that Porsche was going to interfere with my plans.

"Then there was the engine. You had about 300 horsepower at 5000 revs, and then between 5000 and 6000 you picked up another 300! So it was a bit of delight, really, and it was on narrow nine-inch rims all round. The computer had said that nine-inch rims would make the car very quick in a straight line, but the computer wasn't strapped in the bloody seat up in the Eifel mountains, where you tend to get the odd corner...

"David did one lap at the Nurburgring and said he was too young to die. It snowed and poured, the car was snapping sideways and aquaplaning at the same time. It was one of the few times I extended my concentration levels above and beyond what I possessed, but we finished 5th".

- Frank Gardner, on the Porsche 917

03/03/2018

17/02/2018

Art in its finest form

Brian Tanti Curator and Coach-builder at the Fox Car Collection, Melbourne Docklands, demonstrating the hand fabrication of a 1956 Mercedes 300SL Roadster do...

27/01/2018

- Porsche 917K

23/01/2018

The endless loop of driving's evolution.

19/01/2018

07/01/2018

At MyClassicGarage not only can you bring the parts you can also do the work - we supply the tools and the space.

31/12/2017

19/12/2017

This young couple restored their 1981 Alfa Romeo GTV6 in the garage of their apartment with no experience in building or painting cars.