Living The Legend
Ron Lang
Ashland, Oregon
@ronlangsport
Model 2.4S
Year 1972
Acquired 2018
Model 930 3.3
Year 1982
Acquired 2019
Model 964 CARRERA 2 REIMAGINED BY SINGER
Year 1991
Acquired 2018
Model 964 C4 SAFARI
Year 1991
Acquired 2018
Model 993 TURBO
Year 1997
Acquired 2015
Model 997.1 TURBO
Year 2007
Acquired 2020
Model 997.2 GT3 RS 3.8
Year 2011
Acquired 2016
Model 991.2 CARRERA 4S
Year 2017
Acquired 2017
Sometimes I go to the garage and focus on one aspect of the 911. Most recently, I had a nice visit with a focus on road wheels. You know how it goes, there is always some aspect of a 911 that is particularly striking, the road wheels in particular.
I have installed aftermarket wheels from HRE and OZ Racing to name a few, but the OEM Porsche road wheels are almost always quite striking. I have a particular fondness for simple wheels and I get a bit annoyed with unnecessarily complex designs.
Perhaps the angst comes from cleaning them, which for me is always the most time-consuming chore in a 911 wash. A simple wheel like the 993 Turbo Twist is a quick and easy clean. Fuchs-type wheels are a pleasure to clean too.
But then there are the more complex patterns with lots of sharp corners where brake dust and road dirt like to park themselves, often as somewhat permanent additions. I guess wheel designers rarely clean their own designs, else they would surely make their products simpler.
Why clean 10 or 20 spokes with 25 to 50 little crevices when a simple five-spoke wheel gets the job done? I don’t have the answer, but familiarity with some of these complex wheels sometimes breeds contempt for the designer. Oh well…
I also like an airy wheel design that provides a good view of the brakes. Not just the aesthetic aspect, but again the ability to reach the calipers to give them a good cleaning. The yellow calipers of Porsche carbon ceramic brakes need little attention because brake dust is almost non-existent. Steel rotors and pads work great, but do take more work to keep looking nice.
I’ve never avoided a 911 just because it was hard to keep its wheels looking nice, but the temptation is there from time to time. But I like the pedal feel of ceramics, I like the way they provide tremendous bite right at the top of the pedal, and ask for just the slightest brush of pressure to provide all the braking power required during a spirited road drive. Given the choice, I always go for ceramic brakes for that wonderful performance.
The Slate grey 997 Turbo has 53,000 miles on the odometer and the ceramic brakes look and perform as new. The same can be said about the ceramics on the 997.2 GT3 RS 3.8, bulletproof and terrific to use albeit at just 18,000 miles driven with gusto to date.
I’ve provided Editor Lee with five photos of 911 wheels, only one of which has steel rotors (being the 993 Turbo). It stops remarkably well too.
Even the 964 reimagined by Singer Vehicle Design has carbon ceramic rotors and special pads installed in ‘Big Red calipers’ that have been painted a light gold to complement that car’s colour scheme. Can’t see much of them behind the Harvey Weidman-built wheels, but that’s okay, the wheels are beautiful to me with their black centres and RS-style barrel finishes.
Another visual element is stance, as shown in this instance by the gap between the top of the tyre and the fender above it. I like that gap to be minimised and I’ve lowered a number of 911s just that right amount of an
