TIMEMACHINE

Editor Bennett peruses the archives of 911 & Porsche World from days gone by. What’s changed? That will be everything and nothing...

Journey through 911&PW’S past

So, what was happening 12-years ago? Well, plenty of course, as the 911&PW collective ventured forth to gather the usual eclectic mix of prime Porsche material for reader consumption. Perhaps the biggest story, and certainly the one that would resonate the most over the years, was in the news pages, where we devoted two pages to Autofarm’s all new Silsleeve process for Porsche’s M96 engine, plus its IMS bearing fix.

Silsleeve, as the name suggests, was the repair procedure for existing blocks that had suffered damage to the cylinder liners, with Autofarm effectively resleeving with a steel liner and saving the block from being scrapped. Autofarm were the first to find a fix for this problem and naturally were keen to pass on the good news. Keen also to try a Silsleeve engine out and to that end we fitted one to the magazine’s 996 C2 project car, together with Autofarm’s IMS bearing modification. It should be said that the engine in our 60,000-mile 996 was seemingly in good health, but prevention is better than cure and all that. The car is still around and mileage has climbed well into three figures now, and Autofarm, plus others, have fixed many M96 engines, while 911&PW has carved something of a reputation for its forewarned is forearmed coverage of the M96 engine and its foibles.

On the cover we posed the question: 911 Turbo or GT3? Well, decisions, decisions, but in the end we came down in favour of the 996 GT3 for sheer raw thrills.

Elsewhere we took a 997 to the Nürburgring; had some fun in a 912E; explored the fact and fiction of James Dean’s fatal crash in ‘Little Bastard’; took a drive in a Croation reader’s 964 and paid homage to one of Porsche’s earlier off-road designs: The Type 166 Schwimmwagen.

Slightly more amusing than the above worthy content, was air-cooled die-hard, Keith Seume’s journey into the world of Porsche and water. Not so much water-cooled, but more water-heated, as he admitted to being seduced by a Porsche Design kettle. Needless to say the relationship soon soured as the Porsche kettle suffered one water based failure after another.