The Lost Summer And Magnus Walker Porsche Fan

This has been an unusual summer for me.  A blur since June 29th when I received a call while in New York from my neighbor.   It had been a rewarding day that started at 4:00AM when I got up to head for Watkins Glen as this was the day I'd been waiting for.  It was the running of the Sahlen Six Hours at The Glen IMSA sports car race.  You have seen several of my photographs from that day in recent posts.  It was a triumph in the sense I got the photos I had hoped for and despite an overcast day the lighting was good for some really nice shots. I also came away with one of my photos of the year- a works Porsche on two wheels rounding the chicane at the end of the long front straight. Nice!

It was 4:00PM and I had just climbed out of my car headed up the steps walking into the kitchen to say hi, I'm home, to my wife, Diane.   She could not reply as she was on the phone, which she handed over to me in an instant. It was Larry from next door on the line and I'm wondering why he would call me on a Sunday afternoon?   He was calling to say my house was flooded and he had just shut off the water to the toilet.  The supply line had leaked and the entire house had an inch of water on the floor.  By 5:30 PM Diane and I were in the car driving back to Florida. At 1:30 PM on Monday after driving all night we arrived back in Seminole to find our house swarming with men drying out the place.  Thanks to Paul Davis Restoration of Pinellas, their guys were on it within an hour of my call the night before.

Despite the disaster, we have been slowly getting back to normal but my blogging activity has been running on 6 of 8 cylinders ever since then.  We were lucky that we caught it right after it happened and the Paul Davis Restoration people have been our heros.

So what to do while we wait for our home to get fixed?   I'm now staying in a condo in Indian Shores and here on the second floor make shift office  I am surfing the web for some interesting content to add to the blog. I received the latest Grassroots Motorsports magazine and I was immediately drawn to the article `Magnus Walker: Ultimate Porsche Fan'.  In the article by Dan Scanlan there is a reference to a 32 minute video by Tamir Moscovici.  I checked it out and found it something every Porsche fan should see.  Magnus describes in sensory terms why he loves Porsches and why Porsche fans are in love with the Porsche brand.  I highly recommend you take the time to see this and if you can, check out the Grassroots Motorsports article too.

Tomorrow is Saturday and I can't wait to fire up the Boxster and hear that engine as I head down Gulf Boulevard along the beach. 

Disaster:

Wet Porsche Poster


Recovery Underway:



Beautiful New Hardwood Floor

RELAX

Look At How Magnus Walker Relaxes:

Great Cars, Great Music- Watch The Video!

URBAN OUTLAW

Learn More About Magnus Walker

 

Saturday Morning Ride Is Calling

 



Tribute To The Porsche 918 Spyder And Jules Bianchi

Here's something for you-  a tribute to the Porsche 918 Spyder.  The last one has been built and it promises to be a classic.  I told my staff it was my favorite sports car, so what did they do for my birthday?   Take a look at the only Porsche 918 Spyder cake in existence at this moment- but not for long. It will be gone by the end of the week.  And not to be outdone, my daughter knows how much I like my Porsche, so she had Porsche cookies made for me.

The cake came from Publix and the cookies from a friend of hers that is incredibly talented as the picture shows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Porsche Cake and Cookies- For The Man Who Has Everything

Except a 918 Spyder.

 

 

Here's a video that demonstrates how a 818 is 'born' and another video that shows how this work of art performs- stunning!

 

Click below for two videos worth watching.

 

Craftsmen and women at work

 

Fresh out of the factory- a race car or a luxury sports car?

 

 

 

On a more somber note, Jules Bianci died the Friday before the Hungarian Grand Prix.  It was a wild race with Ferrari and Vettel winning.  See this excellent 4 minute recap of the race and the emotional tribute to Jules.  Sebastian Vettel dedicated his win to Jules on his cool down lap.

 

Recap and Tribute - Hungarian Grand Prix

 

 

 

More Pictures From The Glen

Here are a few more shots I took at the Six Hours at The Glen:

Call 911

The Corvette Boys



Alien Space Ship?

Low Air Diffuser

Cresting The Hill

This Viper Will Catch You

World Famous Glen Motor Inn

Clean Corvette Prototype

Misty Rains

Going To The 'Office'

Crowded Highway

Corvette Racing's 'Jake'

The Taylor's - Always Willing To Sign Autographs For The Fans

Watkins Glen- Wine Country- Sports Car Racing Country

 

VisitFlorida.com Racing Wins Watkins Glen Six Hour

A wet Six Hours at the Glen was won for the second year in a row by Richard Westbrook's VisitFlorida.com Racing car number 90.  I think they might put a I Love NY sticker on the car after this!

I made the 1300 mile trip to beautiful upstate NY with my ever capable Chevy Impala, averaging 29MPG for the trip and assisted by a little drafting behind the Core Motorsports car transport up RT 81!  Here's a review in pictures and a link to the race recap.


http://www.foxsports.com/motor/tudor-series/story/tudor-championship-watkins-glen-race-recap-results-062815

CORE Motorsports on the way to the 'Glen'

The Winning Prototype- Florida Visits New York!

Ricky and Jordon Taylor - Future Superstars

Chip Ganassi's Team

Falken Tire Team Giving The Works Porsche Tough Competition

Wayne Taylor Racing- The Taylor Boys

Porsche On Two Wheels

'Jake'

Rush Hour

Viper Ready To Strike

CORE Motorsports

Nice Sampling of Prototypes

Yes It Is Loud!

Headed Home In The Rain

Watkins Glen And A Heavy Duty Curiosity

As I was packing bags for my annual trip to Watkins Glen I took in one last car show at du Pont Registry yesterday in St. Petersburg, FL.  This month's show had a special entry from the Pinellas County Sheriff's department- an MRAP Armored Utility Vehicle.  If you wanted to see big tires and suspension parts, this qualified.  On the other end of the spectrum, if you wanted to see artistry and speed, there was a Porsche 918 Spyder.  Another great car show with something for everyone's tastes.    Take a look:    Porsches- Something old, something new, something GT-2!

   Following the pictures is a wonderful series of stories from IMSA's web site about the six hours at the Glen race on June 28th.    

 

 

 

Watkins Glen Review:

 

History of Watkins Glen

 

Le Mans Winning Corvette's Next Stop Watkins Glen

 

 

Action Express Looks to Maximize Points At the Glen

 

 

Viper leads Ferrari by Three points Going to Watkins Glen

 

 

My Next Post will Cover the Race!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mission Accomplished Porsche Wins LeMans They Returned!

 

My Boxster - Backdrop For Porsche 'Mission' Poster

Screen Shot At End of Radio Coverage

 

 'Standing Tall' on the winning car.

 Screen shot of Porsche drivers celebrating.

 

 

Mission Accomplished Video:

 

History Is Made - Porsche Returns

 

 

This is good news for the  FIA World Endurance Championship  series. Porsche took France by storm with three new 919 Hybrids.  Result -Car #19 winning and car #17 coming in second while car #18 placed 5th.  This is Porsche's first LeMans overall win in 17 years. New cars and more competition is good for the sport and this is only part of the story.


Ford announced it is returning to LeMans for 2016 with a state of the art Ford GT that will be developed in partnership with Ganassi racing.   See link below: but one more piece of good news.


Ford GT Aims For 2016 LeMans

You Have Got To Check Out The Video On This Link- What A Race Car!



Happy days America.  One of the two Chevrolet Corvette works entries survived the weekend and placed first in class.  It was a huge win for the team and driver favorite, young Jordon Taylor.  Only 24 years old, from Orlando Florida, Jordon and brother Ricky race in the IMSA series here in the states for their father's team, Wayne Taylor Racing.

It was an exciting race all around and the advances made in the cars over last year are short of massive. During the race a new lap record of  3.17 was set by the Toyota with an average speed of 154 MPH.  Many laps were run by several different cars at speeds above last year's pole winner.  Hard to believe for a race track run partially on public roads. That is the allure of LeMans, it is a special place for 250,000 spectators. 

I'm off to Watkins Glen to capture some great shots for you.

IMSA Drivers Drive At LeMans

Tune in this weekend to watch some of our IMSA drivers race at LeMans.  It is nice to know some of your favorite IMSA drivers will be at LeMans this weekend.  LeMans is one race known around the world and is one of the most important of all motor races held anywhere.  A win at LeMans means you go into the history book of racing and it can be the pinnacle of a driver's career, not to mention the prestige and bragging rights it gives the manufacturer. 

Here's a few of the IMSA racers from Sebring and Daytona that I saw this year to give you a glimpse of the awesome hardware (IMSA style)  provided by the top manufacturers for this 24 hour battle.  Although the cars at LeMans will be slightly different and modified for that track, this gives you a sense of what it will be like.
And check out the attached video interview of some of the IMSA drivers that will be there and their story of what it takes to compete at LeMans.

Click here to see video:

IMSA Drivers Going To LeMans

 

 

No, I will not be flying to France for the race.  Sorry, no pictures to follow, but I will be driving to Watkins Glen for the June 28th  Sahlen's Six Hour IMSA race. I'll return with some special pictures for you.