Who of you want to sit here and cling around with your hand this fancy OMP rally steering wheel? We guess everyone of you with high octane in your veins!
Three-time ALMS GT and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Patrick Long stops by the garage with his brain-child, a 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera that he transformed into an East African Safari Rally car and Jay is ready to put it through its paces.
If your eyes recognize the all-terrain tyre at the roof you know this Porsche 911 isn’t a ordinary Carrera of some ones car collection. The so called #LUFTAUTO is the #LUFTGEKÜHLT interpretation of a rally-style 911, designed in form and function to be both a daily driver as wells as a capable off-roader. LeMans race driver Patrick Long and Howie Idelson are the masterminds behind the #LUFTGEKÜHLT events. A brand founded initially as a series of automotive-themed events featuring a tightly-curated list of historically significant or interesting cars – both race and street.
In association with RM Sotheby’s, the car sold at live auction during Luftgekühlt for $275,000 with all proceeds benefiting the Autumn Leaves Project, a charity dedicated to funding pancreatic cancer research.
#LUFTGEKÜHLT had a dream team of collaborators involved in this project, all helping to execute the vision that Patrick Long and Howie Idelson had for the car. Joey Seely at Emotion Engineering led the way on the overall build, mechanical upgrades and suspension overhaul.
Rod Emory of Emory Motorsports headed up the design, fabrication and fitment of the rally-style bumpers and underbody skid plates. We supported the project with developing a KW Rally suspension.
We also build for legendary Porsche models tailor-made KW suspensions even for Rally cars! The full adjustable (rebound and compression) KW coilover kit have in its base setup the same valving, spring rate and suspension travel like the drop dead beautiful and awesome Rothmans 911 SC RS from the 80ies.
John Benton and the team at Benton Performance led the charge on electronics and wiring, with Carby Tuckwell of Deus Ex Machina on point for custom details. Pelican Parts lent their DIY expertise, knowledge and resources for all things Porsche parts.
Special thanks are due to Tom Ridings for transportation and race driver, multiple Pikes Peak champion, cameraman, photographer and director Jeff Zwart for help in development and testing.
On the trip to SEMA Show in Las Vegas and have you spotted the car at our KW booth?
An amazing list of suppliers is involved too, including KW Suspension, Pirelli, BRAIDusa, Recaro, ERP Suspension, WEVO, Rothsport, Tarett Engineering, SWEPCO and Rennline.
Video / Photos Jeff Zwart, #LUFTGEKÜHLT, Emory Motorsport, Will Roegge, KW, Jay Leno’s Garage