FVD BROMBACHER
Freiburg is famous for its historic Altstadt (city centre) and its green mountainous hinterland, the Black Forest. But for Porsche enthusiasts it is also the home of one of Germanyʼs best known Porsche specialists, FVD Brombacher
Kieron Fennelly drops in one of Germany’s biggest specialists
Willy Brombacher ʼs father had a business making wood fittings and furniture. Carmad Willy soon graduated to Porsches and he and some friends occupied a storage room at the back of the premises to modify a 911SC for the track. The SC proved noticeably successful yet it looked no different from any other of its largely standard 911 competitors. Willyʼs trick was to replace the flap air intake with a far more accurate air mass meter. Suitably mated with the SCʼS standard K-jetronic fuel injection, this enhanced horsepower and torque sufficiently to give Willyʼs car a critical advantage.
Fellow competitors were obviously keen to know his secret and, seeing a business opportunity, Willy formed FVD Brombacher to sell not just his air mass meter, but other upgrades, such as dampers and suspension parts. By 1989 he had moved to the premises at Umkirch just outside Freiburg and was offering to tune your 930 to 450bhp. His most ambitious project yet used the 964 C4 as a basis for a 959 look-alike. TÜV certification in 1992 of his 300hp power kit for the 964 endowed FVD Brombacher with a certain official credibility.
FVD is an old German term, Fahrzeugvertriebsdienst, which roughly means motorcar distribution service, but these now obsolete initials have helped to give a useful exclusivity to the companyʼs title. FVD Brombacher ʼs speciality has always been development, supply and fit, but Willyʼs own racing activity over the years also served as very effective advertising, especially in the late 1990s. It was then
“COMPETITORS WERE KEEN TO KNOW HIS SECRET…”
with his own 993 GT2 that Willy really came to the forefront: the return of GT racing heralded by the BPR series seemed made for the 911: the 964 RSR opened the batting, but the 993 GT2 was perhaps the most consistently successful participant over its six-year career, and an FVD Brombacherprepared GT2 would win the German championship three years running.
Porsche did not replace the competition 993 GT2, turning instead to GT3, but by 2000 Willy had already decided to hang up his helmet and devote his time to developing his business, in particular in the US where he travelled extensively promoting his brand, establishing a parts warehouse in Florida which remains his US base. North American sales today account for 20 per cent of FVD Brombacher ʼs turnover.
Today the company carries out rebuilds and restorations as well as preparing client race cars, though its parts sales covering everything from the 356 to date are a larger business. Besides supplying proprietary items such as dampers, FVD Brombacher also develops and tests its own parts. Sales manager Alexander Ben Mahmoud says the company also supplies parts to other tuners. When asked about the danger of assisting competitors he says generously that the market is big enough and it is a measure of the esteem of Willyʼs engineering that others turn to his company.
A typical popular aftermarket FVD Brombacher part is a
beautifully made bespoke 987 exhaust which, thanks to its less restrictive shape and modified manifold, boosts both the power and drivability of the standard 3.4. The FVD Brombacher 3.8 Cayman of 2006 was probably the first seriously tuned Cayman on the market anywhere.
But the ʻold timersʼ are not left out – far from it. The companyʼs catalogue shows thousands of parts ranging from software modules for the current 991.2 Turbo to components for Weber carburettors for the early 911s. FVD Brombacher insists that it has proven all its catalogue items. In terms of customer demand, Alex says that owners of 356s and early 911s are simply looking for restoration and maintenance; until a few years ago, the 3.2 was a popular candidate for modification but here, too, owners are now looking for originality in what has become a valuable car. Amongst the air-cooled cars today, a favourite for modification is the 964: ʻThe RS is now too expensive to risk on the track so people are looking for RS type mods to race them,ʼ says Alex, who believes the 964 is the finest embodiment of the traditional and ʻmodernʼ 911.
In the US, FVD Brombacher ʼs market is essentially parts for the water-cooled cars and the companyʼs strength, says its representative, is not only its by-return service, but its ability to identify and deliver the right item and advise correct fitting. ʻYou would be amazed how often we have seen cars in trouble with incorrectly fitted or simply wrong parts.ʼ He is also proud of FVD Brombacher ʼs expertise with classic parts. ʻWe have a local guy who can make factory-quality trims that have become almost unobtainable because he is working from the original factory specification.ʼ
FVD Brombacher remains a family company: Willyʼs daughter Franziska completed a law degree then decided to work for her father ʼs business and her two younger brothers, both currently finishing their formal educations, are poised to join her. With only 40 employees at Freiburg Unkirch, most of whom speak English and French, the company is able to be light on its feet and distinctly service-oriented; yet its workshop and long experience of engineering 911s for racing are a serious measure of its ability. Overall, FVD Brombacher comes across as an unshowy yet impressively rounded operation. CP
“BUT HERE, TOO, OWNERS ARE NOW LOOKING FOR ORIGINALITY:”