Is a vintage Porsche any good at rallying? Are you silly? An old Porsche drives great at normal everyday speeds, but it really comes into its own at full send, opposite lock, sliding sideways. Porsche wasn’t convinced that the 911 would ever be a proper competition car when it was first built in 1964, but after a couple short years of development the now-legendary car won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1968, and the rest is history. That should answer your question, but in case you still had some reservations, check out this video from Team O’Neil’s incredible “Will It Rally?” series.
Now, obviously this Tuthill-built Porsche is seriously modified well beyond anything the factory was doing in 1968. In addition to having a full carbon-fiber body, the car carries a much later 3-liter engine making some 300 horsepower. Yeah, I’d say that’s going to be a pretty potent combination. I’ve run small-scale low-grip rallycross in vintage Porsches before, including my own (though none with as much power as this one) and there’s truly no other experience like it.
This particular car was built to compete in the East African Safari Classic Rally, though it’s up in New Hampshire doing some winter weather testing ahead of a run to the Rally With No Name in Sweden next spring. Based on this short video, I’d say the car should probably do pretty well. You know, depending on driver skill.
And for an extra dose of in-car goodness, you can watch the full Team O’Neil Rally Course run from the driver’s point of view above. Do you think you could handle this monster of a car on the packed white snow/ice messy not-good grip course? Don’t threaten me with a good time.