GUEST SPEAKERS
Manor Park Classics and Cape Sport.
If you’ve bought this magazine because you’re considering a restoration project, but are unsure whether to buy a Porsche or a sports car manufactured by a different brand, consider the huge amount of support owners of air-cooled 911s get from both the original maker of these cars and the aftermarket...
Since 1993, Cape International has been building classic cars designed to work in the real world — intelligently specified and exquisitely detailed. Concerned with Austin-healeys for many years, our objective has always been to exceed a client’s expectations. This focus is now expanding beyond the Austin-healey brand — as highlighted in the January 2021 issue of Classic Porsche, Cape Sport International has opened its doors to welcome owners of air-cooled 911s.
Our senior Porsche technician, Andy Tatlow, began his career with these great cars in the mid-1980s. During that time, he worked for leading Porsche specialists across the UK and in the Far East. As you’d expect, he knows classic 911s inside out. What his wealth of knowledge highlights is how fortunate Porsche owners and restorers are to be so well looked after by the original manufacturer of these cars. The strength of the aftermarket is also something to celebrate. We certainly don’t enjoy anything like this level of support when working on Austin-healeys — a relaxed attitude to what’s available, the efficiency of the supply chain and the quality of the supplied product is, sadly, the order of things. I’m not saying Porsche parts jump out of a box and fit themselves, but with Austinhealeys, we have to be self-sufficient and manufacture as much as we can in-house. It is for this reason Cape International became the biggest stockist of rare original parts and a manufacturer of upgrade kits, making the cars we look after and restore much safer, more reliable and able to deliver increased performance.
We have a reputation for assembling the best Austin-healeys in the world — our finished builds win concours competitions and are displayed by respected museums. We insist on the highest standards, but regardless of perfect panel gaps and paintwork, our cars are designed to be driven and enjoyed. Needless to say, the Cape International team’s artisan skills are perfectly at home within the classic Porsche scene, as demonstrated by the launch of our first bespoke build, the Cape Sport
911, and our second restomod project (another 911 coupe), which is currently in development. I can’t wait to see it finished.
The core of the Porsche brand is incredibly solid — these cars are as popular today as they’ve ever been. Moreover, movement in the market is good, encouraging specialists to invest heavily in the support of classic Porsches (both in terms of technician training and infrastructure) safe in the knowledge an old 911, 356 or any other air-cooled model enjoys massive popularity with successive generations of automotive enthusiasts. In other words, the customer base remains perpetually strong. The long-standing relationships between Porsche and its OEM suppliers is also something to celebrate — buying a fuel pump, ignition component or any other part for a classic 911 and it landing from the same manufacturer (often Bosch, but also chassis equipment from Koni, Bilstein and others) as it would have done when these cars were new is nothing short of fantastic. To put this into perspective, many of the replacement parts a Porsche owner might take for granted have to be custom manufactured in bulk when the same items are required for the output produced by many other marques, such as discontinued British brands, including (yes, you guessed it!) Austin-healey.
Expanding our business to cater for owners and enthusiasts of classic 911s (chiefly those in need of engine rebuilds, transmission work and, of course, customers interested in our bespoke Cape Sport 911s) was an obvious and logical progression. With decades spent turning out award-winning restorations, and with a team of highly skilled fabricators and engine specialists, our ability to deliver class-leading work has never been in doubt, but we now get to share it with a much wider group of enthusiasts. I couldn’t be happier.
THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PORSCHE AND ITS OEM SUPPLIERS IS SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE