Zee Germans made a solid showing this morning as well. Several of the rarer beasts from deep in the Black Forest are shown. Unfortunately none of the rarer Audi’s or Mercedes were in attendance, but nevertheless there were some amazing treasures there.
While cruising the countryside, Jon’s wife snapped these of a GT3RS in the wild.
You frequently see these cars pictured online, which gives an artificial feel to how rare they actually are. This appears to be an MK1 best I can tell. Those were sold in 2007 and 2008. According to the GT3RS Registry there were just 413 total MK1 cars brought to the US; orange was the “most popular” color with 149 brought to the US. Rarified air indeed.
I’m a Porsche-phile, I admit it. I’ve never owned one, but one day, I hope to. No other car I can think of has had as much success in worldwide motorsport. Since I never can seem to leave a car stock, part of what makes Porsche such a desirable marque to me, is the range of tuners worldwide that specialize in turning them from excellent to exceptional. Manthey Racing is one such firm. While they are not as well known to the mass public as Gembella, Techart, or RUF, they represent among the pinnacle in Porsche tuning.
Manthey Racing began in 1996, as the brainchild of Olaf Manthey. He began his racing career in a variety of sports sedans and coupes including Ford, BMW, Mercedes and Rover. While campaigning his race cars on the weekends, he still kept his day job as a truck driver during the week! In 1990, he was asked to run for a private team in the Porsche Carrera Cup. He’s commented that he actually was not impressed with the 911 initially, as he found it insanely tail happy, and it simply would not do what he asked it to. However, racing was in his blood, and this team was literally begging for him to run the car for them. He continued in his stint for the privateer team through the season, honing his skills on the 911, eventually taking home the Carrera Cup Championship that year. He had continued success in the next several years, and in doing so, caught the eye of Mercedes DTM team. In 1992, he was offered a factory drive position as well as being the technical manager for the team as well. The truck driver was now a full fledged race car driver, and the rest is the stuff dreams are made of. The DTM ride lasted for a few years, at which point he decided it was time to strike out on his own. Manthey Racing was formed in 1996, to prepare cars for the Carrera Cup Series. Success continued for the Manthey group, culminating with an outright victory at the Nurburging 24 Hour Race in 2006, 2007 and 2008 in their GT3. They are the only team in the event’s history to win 3 years in a row. Not too shabby for a former truck driver! It’s worth mentioning that 2006 was his 25th attempt at victory at this event, including his efforts as a privateer, and driver for other outfits. Admirable determination to say the least!
As their racing success continued to grow, customer demand grew. He was now being asked to not only prepare race cars, but street cars as well. The Manthey approach is more focused than many other tuners out there, especially in the Porsche he world. Nowadays, it’s very shiek to say that your modifications were honed at the Nurburgring. For Manthey, the ‘Ring is literally their backyard – it represents far more than just a fancy sticker and a few laps through the forest circuit. They simply do not believe in modifying something that will not improve the overall performance of the car. One small example of this is the 997 GT3. This is the first 911 that Porsche developed with ‘zero lift’. As such, Manthey feels there is no point in them allocating time and resources towards aero modifications. Instead, they have focused their efforts on taking the experience they have honed with the Cup Car program, and making it available to all their customers, even those with standard street cars. Huge effort was spent on weight reduction and weight distribution with the 97 GT3. So Manthey’s program includes Forged Magnesium wheels, titanium exhaust (50 lbs lighter than stock), and full KW suspension. Other options include carbon doors, and rear and side windows made of Makrolon. Narrowly focused mods, by obsessive compulsive gearheads – very cool stuff.
Hope you enjoy some of these cool Manthey projects, and make sure you check out the in-car video from the ‘Ring.
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Kwame
Z1 Performance
Jonathan
Corner Balance 