ROAD TRIPPIN’
A 917-dressed homage to the 911 RSR.
Although all generations of the 911 share a common silhouette, near sixty years of model history delivers few common ownership threads. This is, after all, a broad church, where one enthusiast’s daily is another’s track toy, where an individual’s vision of concours perfection is the antithesis to another’s love of well-matured patina. A legacy, perhaps, of his career in media and advertising, Jon Gunderson will tell you a classic 911 is, in fact, all of these things and more: the proverbial blank canvas.
“Around fifteen years ago, I sold my business and started restoring Ferrari Dinos, primarily for fun,” he tells us. “When you’re working on vintage Ferraris, however, purity of design is everything. You have to match the exact colour the car was painted was in period, you have to observe the exact bolts used by Ferrari engineers at the car’s original point of assembly. I’m a creative guy, meaning I felt restricted by the boundaries I was being presented with. In contrast, when I became aware of Outlaw-styled Porsches, I realised there was a way for me to apply pretty much any design and specification to a classic car. With an old 911, I could do what I wanted and nobody was going to complain.”
Jon hadn’t latched onto Porsches on a whim. Now approaching his seventieth birthday, he’s owned 911s for almost as long as he’s been able to drive — he bought his first more than fifty years ago — and his affinity for the brand is stronger than the aforementioned detour from Italian metal might imply. It’s an affliction that’s seen him go as far as buying a Carrera GT, but now mostly revolves around his passion for classic 911 long-hoods. A steady flow of them, in fact, each meticulously reinvented as they pass through his RSR Rebel workshop in Escondido, California. Moreover, many of these cars feature hand-finished tributes to the vivid liveries punctuating Porsche’s motorsport heritage.
The distinctive green-on-purple ‘hippie’ livery holds a special place in that line-up, not least, Jon jokes, because he was a hippy when the car made a name for itself. Porsche had been jostling for an overall win at Le Mans for almost twenty years. Then, in 1970, battling with some of the worst weather and stiffest competition the race had ever seen, the brand not only achieved that previously elusive first-place finish, but edged every other manufacturer off the podium. It was, of course, the famous red-and-white Salzburg-liveried 917 shorttail driven by Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann
— as featured in last month’s issue of Classic Porsche
— which took top honours, but close behind was the Martini International Racing Team 917 driven by Gérard
Larousse and Willi Kauhsen. Completing just five fewer laps than the Salzburg Porsche come race end, the 4.5litre, long-tailed, flat-twelve-powered prototype (chassis 917-021) wore one of the most iconic liveries of any racing Porsche to date. It’s also one of the most difficult to get right when trying to replicate on a road car, as Jon can attest.
The car serving as the recipient of the Martini machine’s battle dress started life as a humble 911 T (the entry-level 911 offering in period) and rolled into RSR Rebel as a barely running ebay buy, bought for its solid body, which Jon considered a good basis for restomod treatment. With plans to restore, replace or upgrade every one of the car’s key components, the promptly stripped shell was blasted back to bare metal and rebuilt with serious attention to detail, quality workmanship and premium materials becoming the project’s hallmarks. Tap any panel and you won’t find fibreglass — the bumpers and Rsr-style arch flares are hand-fabricated from steel, the ‘frunk’ and ducktail-adorned decklid are formed from aluminium, while the livery is a work of art in every sense. “I don’t like stickers,” Jon confirms, running his finger along one of the flared wheel arches. “Everything you see is hand-painted, including the sponsor logos. R-gruppe co-founder and legendary automobile and industrial designer, Freeman Thomas, is a good friend of mine and worked for Porsche for many years. He was keen to be involved with my 911 project and took care of all preparation and templating for the paintwork.”
LEARNED COLLEAGUE
Freeman’s career is impressive. After graduating from Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, California, he worked as a senior designer for Porsche between 1983 and 1987, before joining Volkswagen of America, collaborating on design studies leading to the introduction of the next-generation Beetle, as well as the hugely popular Audi TT, A4 and A6.
Later, he became Vice President of Daimlerchrysler’s Advanced Product Design Studio, overseeing the development of many Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep series production models, including the new Charger, and also took up the role of Strategic Design Director for Ford, where he was responsible for the concept vehicle serving as the template for the current Mustang design, as well as various products for the Lincoln and Mercury marques. His passion for Porsche has always run deep, though, which is why he established air-cooled 911 enthusiast group, R-gruppe, with his friend, the late Crispin Huergas, in 1999.
“I told Freeman about my plan to replicate 917-021 body design on my custom 911 and he jumped at the chance to get involved,” Jon recalls. “I expressed frustration at being able to accurately depict the brilliant historic livery, but Freeman assured me he could get it right. Subsequently, he spent five evenings in my workshop, drawing out the design across the metal of the 911, applying masking tape, removing it, reapplying it, repeating the process time and again until he stood back and announced he was satisfied with the result.” The car was then transported to Speedzone Paint & Bodyworks in nearby Santee for colour and what ended up being seventeen layers of clearcoat, with sanding in between each application. “It was important not to be able to feel ridges between the different paint colours,” Jon adds.
Meanwhile, a suitably lairy powerplant was being prepared to join the swollen bodywork. Drawing on his recent experience producing a Gulf-liveried RSR replica, Jon commissioned Jeff Gamroth, head of air-cooled engine specialist, Rothsport Racing, to prepare a 3.5litre flat-six for action. Based on a Carrera 3.2 case, but featuring a GT3 crankshaft, twin-plug ignition, Moroso leads, and a sonorous, ultra-responsive RSR 2.8 highbutterfly throttle system, the engine is managed by a MOTEC standalone ECU encouraging the release of 350bhp. Linked to the boisterous boxer is a 915 gearbox featuring Euro-spec ratios, a dedicated oil cooler (natch) and a Wevo short shifter topped by a 917-style wooden gear knob, further paying tribute to Porsche’s historic racing machines. As this addition suggests, form and function live side by side. “The engine benefits from a minor wire tuck and, though it’s running electronic fuel injection, is dressed to look exactly like a flat-six running a mechanical setup, giving the illusion of originality,” Jon grins. “It’s very ‘stealth’, and I have great fun watching people try to work out what they’re looking at when they encounter the car at shows. From a practical perspective, however, aside from improving reliability, the advanced fuel system and MOTEC electronic brain vastly improve driveability.”
The same can be said at the vast list of complementary upgrades tasked with supporting the car’s newfound turn of speed — during the previously mentioned bare metal bodywork stage of the build,
Jon’s team added Rsr-style reinforcements to the rear suspension mounting points, while Rennline dimple-tied tower brace supports and a Tarett Engineering anti-roll
THE ROTHSPORT LUMP UPS THE ANTE CONSIDERABLY, AIDED BY KERB WEIGHT A SMIDGE UNDER 997KG
bar kit bring the front up to the same specification. The rear trailing arms and the entire braking system are based around items lovingly borrowed from the 911 Turbo (930) parts bin, and the track-ready stance is the result of Elephant Racing Von shocks configured with fast-road geometry and chassis tuning.
UNDER THE ARCHES
With plenty of bodywork to fill, Jon opted for Braid BZ lightweight staggered fifteen-inch wheels (eleven inches of width at the rear, nine at the front) finished in satin black and wrapped in massive Michelin TB 15 black circles for an authentic 1970s race vibe. Two engine oil coolers are also present, but you’ll have a hard job finding them — one is located inside the right-hand wheel arch, while the other is tucked away behind the front bumper. A small battery is housed in the ‘smuggler’s box’. As you can see, the finish is flawless, but this air-cooled 911 deals out a sensory assault reaching much deeper than the swirling paint job. “It’s a blast to drive,” Jon beams. “There’s way more horsepower on offer than Porsche provided this car with at the point of production.” That wouldn’t be difficult, what with the base model T remaining the lowest output model variant in the 911’s near six-decade lifespan. Even so, the Rothsport Racing lump ups the ante considerably, aided by kerb weight Jon has recorded as being a smidge under 997kg. “The revised power to weight is more in keeping with a modern RS,” he laughs. “This car is super-fast, really light and a huge amount of fun to be in charge of.”
As a homage to the RSR 2.8 as much as a tribute to the 1970 Martini 917 long-tail, there was plenty of
headroom for Jon to reinterpret the Group 4 911’s visual hallmarks, demonstrated by vapour blasting taking the hinges and brightwork back to a purposeful satin finish, matching the drilled door handles and custom-made caps for the 100-litre fuel cell (with Motometer sender) and oil filler. Behind yellow-tinted glass, European H4 headlights clean up the front end and take the guesswork out of night driving.
The cabin strikes a similar balance between roadgoing hot rod and classic racer — there’s a rollover bar where the rear sears once were, and Jon tracked down a four-spoke RSR steering wheel to go with the paredback door cards, though he’s let his creative juices flow by relocating of the sliding heater controls (“out of sight to allow a cleaner, colour-coded dash pad topped with Alcantara to reduce glare”), by adding a Heuer-branded chronograph in the five-gauge dash and by appointing a body-matched ignition barrel.
INSIDE STORY
“I’m delighted with the interior,” he says, proud of a job well done. “It follows the classic lightweight RSR look. Even the seats are period correct, featuring the necessary adjustments to meet Group 4 regulations, as well as cool side-mounted adjuster mechanisms.
They really look the part, but I couldn’t resist giving the centres a makeover with purple fabric. I mean, why not?!” Rennline aluminium pedals and footrests, lightweight carpets and leather trimming around the roll bar add to the aesthetic. It’s the perfect blend of road and race for an attack of the canyon roads on Jon’s doorstep. “It took a full year to transform the car from what I bought to what you see here, but the finished 911 has settled into its new identity with hardly any additional tweaking or fine-tuning required,” he reveals. “I’ve gone looking for teething problems. You can never be too sure what surprises an old car like this might throw up when returning to the road with such drastic modification, but I’ve covered hundreds of raucous miles touring the local scenery and this air-cooled restomod has proved itself brilliantly reliable and addictive enough to sideline my GT3 RS!” High praise indeed.
Jon had a clear idea regarding the 911 he wanted to end up with. He knew exactly how he wanted to configure the car and how he was going to achieve his goal. Back at the workshop, there’s another blank canvas getting the RSR Rebel treatment — bound for a friend of Jon’s living in New York, the latest exclusive build in the company’s portfolio of Porsches will be propelled by a 3.8-litre flat-six built by Jae Lee at air-cooled tuning specialist, Mirage International, and pairs race-bred styling and performance with a calmer, Albert Blue paint job. Despite their common silhouette, these two Porsche projects prove there are many ways to get a 911 restomod just right.