John Fitzpatrick
He may not have forecast the classic car market’s surge, but John was quite capable of managing boost on a Swiss Alps switchback
Porsche has always been my favourite marque and I have been lucky enough to own and drive several models. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the foresight to know which would become a classic? My first new Porsche road car, a 1971 911E, recently sold at an RM Sotheby’s auction for £110,000 and the 2.7 Carrera RS that I bought could be worth £1m now. I didn’t keep either for very long.
In those days, the early Seventies, the classic car business had barely taken off, being reserved for Cricklewood Bentleys and the like. In 1983 my sponsor in San Diego gave me a Porsche 356 Carrera four-cam that I later sold to Reinhold Joest for $15k. It would be worth $500k+ today.
When the 3.0-litre Porsche 930 Turbo was announced in 1975 I couldn’t wait to get one. I managed to get on the list early and collected my left-hand-drive car from the factory. I seem to remember it costing around £7000. It was the first turbocharged road car I had driven and it was a revelation – 260bhp, 155mph and a 0-60mph time under six seconds. That was sensational for a road car at the time.
After picking the car up from Stuttgart, I drove down to Switzerland to play in the Pro-am prior to the Swiss Open. I had ambitions at one time to become a golf pro and had struck up friendships with many of the young pros in the Seventies. The Swiss Open was played at Cranssur-sierre Golf Club, about 1500m above the Rhone Valley. It is like playing golf on the top of the world. Access from the main road in the valley is by a very winding road up the side of the mountain consisting of hairpin bends joined by short steep straights. In fact, it would make a fantastic hill climb course. Even uphill the Turbo could reach 80-90mph between the hairpins – with no guard rails to stop a plunge down into the valley. Downhill was even more exciting.
I arrived at the golf club and bumped into several pros I knew, including Ryder Cup player and now renowned course architect, Clive Clark. He was, and still is, a real car enthusiast and was a Ferrari owner at the time. He was fascinated by the Turbo and I gave him a no-holds-barred trip down to the valley and back up again. He was very impressed and very soon spread the word around the other golf pros about the fantastic Turbo.
I spent most of the rest of the day giving rides up and down the hairpin-strewn road at high speed. The reactions of the guys differed enormously. Being a left-handdrive car, on the way down they were sitting on the side nearest to the 1500m drop. Some wanted to go faster, others had their feet dancing around the footwell searching for the brake pedal. Some emerged from the car elated and others had to be lifted out, their legs refusing to function. Most of the guys were real car enthusiasts but had never experienced anything like it before. Not many of them made the cut that week.
John Fitzpatrick began his racing career in the British Saloon Car Championship, winning it in 1966. He was European GT Champion in 1972 and 1974 and became a team owner in 1981.