Tribute Porsche 911 Rally Car More Than a Replica for Its Owner
Special Martini-liveried Porsche 911 tribute car serves as a lasting connection between father and son.
Gulf Oil. Rothmans. Martini. Sunoco. Marlboro. Miller High Life. All classic liveries to have graced many a Porsche over the decades, all classic liveries we’d love to drape over our own Porsches. The memories they invoke, real or imagined, are as timeless as the liveries themselves. And for one owner, the livery is only part of the story.
The Wall Street Journal (subscription req’d) sat down with Bruce Turkel, a branding consultant based in Miami who happens to own a 1983 Porsche 911 SC remade as a Group B-era, Martini Racing tribute rally car. That alone is badass enough, but the car is also a lasting connection to his late father.
Back in the day, Turkel says his father drove air-cooled 911s, whose glorious sounds prompted him to run down to the end of his street just to hear his father come home from work. Turkel’s father was also a rally driver, having won a few races in his career; Turkel has one of his father’s trophies on his desk to this day.
Like father, like son, Turkel bought a 2009 911 upon his oldest daughter graduating from college, but says it wasn’t the same as his father’s 911s due to being a water-cooled model. His mechanic, who worked for Turkel’s father’s mechanic, sent him a photo of the Martini Racing 911 replica with a note asking Turkel if the car was “[his] next toy.”
The replica was built by its former owner, a tribute to the model he raced for Martini Racing in the 1978 Dakar Rally. Its three-liter air-cooled engine is original to the car, and like everything else on it, has been rebuilt. Though Turkel was tentative about purchasing something as flashy as as this tribute, as soon as he heard the engine come to life, he knew he had to have it.
Turkel says he thinks of his father every time he drives the 911, and adds that he “would have loved this air-cooled Porsche.” We definitely agree.
