Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness

How to drive a 911, part XIII

Here's a simply awesome video of Dirk Werner piloting his ALMS Porsche RSR around Lime Rock.  The exhaust note of this RSR has a crisp, banshee quality to it, and the car is phenomenal under braking.  You can see how hard Werner is working the wheel in and out of corners; driving this 911 -- as with all of the breed -- is about total commitment.   

In the parlance of Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness, this is actually a Commento del Pilota, but since Mondays are all about the art and science of driving a 911, we're rolling it now.

Things get really good at the 4:41 mark.  Pump up the volume!

How to drive a 911, part XII

The great Derek Bell talks us through a corner in a Martini 911.

How to drive a 911, part XI

Pointers on driving a 911, as seen from the cockpit of a well-driven Honda S2000.

And yes, he does get the 911 at about 5:36.  Patience is a virtue.

How to drive a 911, part X

Great sound on this one; the combination of gear whine and motor wail is quite gnarly.

Sound is an essential part of gnarlyness.  Again, it is an aspect of designed objects that is only apparent while they are in use.  As such, it is often overlooked.

How to drive a 911, part IX

This one starts out a bit ho-hum (am I becoming jaded to 911's with the tail hung out? egads), but gets good. 

All four wheels off the ground?  Check.

Lurid mud-to-pavement transitions?  Check.

Doing a great impression of a whale in a wheat field?  Check.

How to drive a 911, part VIII

How to drive a 911, part VII

At night.  In the rain.  Traction control via your own two feet.

Gnarly.

How to drive a 911, part VI

Watch as 911-meister Walter Rohrl (you've seen his fast hands before here) takes two passengers for quite a ride in a modern 911.  On some very wet pieces of track.  Holding a 911 with those big, fat rear tires at such big slip angles in the wet -- with one hand, no less -- is the mark of a genius. 

Does anyone reading this speak German?  I swear one of those fellows is inquiring as to the location of his spare pair of underpants.  Gnarly, indeed.

How to drive a 911, part V

A few teachable moments involving the art of driving a 911 in the rain.  And a Stratos or two, too!

Above all, this video reminds me how much I want a Fiat 131 Abarth rally car.  I want one so bad it makes my teeth ache.  Did you hear it go "blat blat blat" through that corner at 1:32?  Does it get any better than that?  I bought a Tamiya kit of one when I was a lucky kid, age 12, driving through Andorra with my former rally driver uncle in a SEAT Panda.  I never built it; it must still be sitting in a closet in my parent's house: 



Every kid should have an uncle who was a rally driver.  Uncles like that are good for the soul, and lead to blogs like this.  It's more than partially his fault.  Thanks, Tio Val!

How to drive a 911, part IV