Chris Harris Drives The Tuthill Porsche 911K - THE ASTONISHING 11,000RPM LIGHTWEIGHT MACHINE

foreigner I don't usually start driving a car and have to stop, but this time I had to because this is actually quite silly. I'm here with Richard Tuttle, who created this thing called

911k

. We start with a basic 911. They call it a long hood car and the goal was to create the lightest 911 possible or was it 11,000 RPM that you needed first 11 or lightness, you know me pretty well, there wasn't much thought that went into this, okay, but I've never driven a motorcycle on the road and I thought it might be something we could experiment with so we could see it as a four-wheeled motorcycle.

Okay, that's a good start. I've had some experiences where you get out of a car. and you don't know why it's special, yeah, and then you weigh it and it makes a big difference, it's number one, carbon panels, carbon rear bulkhead, titanium cage, if it were steel, and we thought we could get away with it in carbon. that's what we did, if it was a mechanical thing then we went with titanium, they are carbon in the shell structure no, it's a 1972 base chassis so the floor panel is all steel, yes ok, quite complete. I have a point on things now I'm going to say carbon fancy material or steel good game carbon oh carbon really carbon are you kidding door carbon roof carbon are you kidding no no not yet no kidding carbon wheel carbon brake disc carbon trunk lid carbon so give me a weight, uh, 846 kilos sitting here before you get on, ready to ride, okay, that's what we call wet weight, it's ready to go 8 46.

The thing about all this carbon is that I don't really I like carbon. I like the look of it, so the wheels for example are painted, so it should be something that you can park on the street and have everyone drive by. It's a beautiful early 911. That's the thing, so the interior, the seat, it's super light, yeah, that's right. our own seat made for this car, uh, I think it weighs around eight kilos, the seven or eight kilo steering wheel looks elegant, yes, it is inspired by a rsr 2.8 rsr steering wheel, so we reduced the diameter because they are quite large and then we did it. linen and carbon and I think it's a pretty nice finish, so you can see it looks a little bit like 80's Kevlar, okay, the engine, so 11,000 RPM.

I've been doing this for a while. I haven't driven a highway car engine that revs to 11 before and I just had a brief blast down the highway and thought it would be scary how big 3.1 is, it seems like a lot. I thought you'd go for two and a half. or something like that, why 3.1, well, there was a concern that we wouldn't talk enough and I've seen that actually there is a lot to talk about, we have a lot to talk about, we've actually given too much away in the conversation and a little less at our peak . power, but one thing I don't think you need in this car is more power, so we thought 350 horsepower, yeah, so 350,846 kilograms, that's a good mass, isn't it, four valves per head, yeah , and it is double in head. cam web camshaft yes and it's still air cooled completely air cooled no there's no water other than the washer bottle in this car and when I first drove it it got to six and a half seven I thought well that's good , that's enough, then you try a little more and get to nine, you think it's going to explode, then you get to 10 and it keeps pulling and you think okay, that's stupid now, you're just taking everything to a place where it hasn't. been before.

Yes, but I think I still come back to the fact that you can in sixth gear the gearbox that we haven't mentioned. Yes, in sixth gear you can cruise at 2000 RPM. Yes, you could, okay, talk about the gearbox. I think this is the lightest. The weight of the Porsche six-speed gearbox is based on a 1972 magnesium box and yes, first of all I took out the reverse gear, yes, and created a six-speed box, yes, and then I thought: "Okay , this will be a problem, we have to go back and We find a way to put a little reverse gear to make sure you're in neutral and pull this lever up that has the R for Richard on it and then when you're done you put it down again and then you're I'm going to put it in first gear, it works great, it's a really cool solution and for those who are interested it's the old heater lever, so you're not actually putting the heat on there. driving is a little offset as it is in the nine eleven, that's your own rally pedal box, isn't it?

Yeah, spaced accordingly. Crunchy pedal box that you can just hit the gas pedal really nice. covered the speedometer because it is not finished yet. You will understand why. They're in the movie, obviously, apparently it's a road car, right? It's to be enjoyed on the road, but still be very fun on the track, pretty fair, absolutely fair, and it's to be driven, it's to be driven hard and it's to be driven in English, so they were Highways A and B, between 40 and 80 miles per hour. I'm not sure there's anything better out there, actually it's okay, I better go and find out because I actually packed it myself the first time.

So if you don't mind, I'm going to drive it now. What is the road like? I won't experience anything I've driven. It is a general assault of all the senses on every muscle. It's an exercise when something is driven like that. I normally call it an animal this is not an animal it's a gun alien psychopath 11,000 RPM the noise just fills your body it hardly

drives

like a 911 because I've never driven one that requires so much attention What have they done here? You have to recalibrate what your head is doing because it's so fast, but it's more of a sensory overload.

When you focus on the speed at which you're covering ground, it's not as fast as you think, but you're moving. Riding that fast is more like riding a Superbike because you accelerate so high that you get pretty close thanks to the intermediate gear ratios. What is the engine, the car is so light, 846 kilograms when you put it up, that's with fuel, but think about it, 846 kilograms, I mean. I think there are nine letters that weigh twice as much as that new 3.1-liter 911 engine, about 350 horsepower through the mass. It's all carbon fiber. It feels agile and light for being an old 911.

Everything sends me information, but you know what almost happens. to be too much information it

drives

wonderfully those big thick side walls it's wonderfully dams many people will say how it is compared to a singer. I know they look vaguely similar being old forms of 911, but they are totally different. This is just a car that wants to punch you in the face, it wants to understand why someone made it, what emotions drove those decisions and with this, I honestly think someone thought why not, no one has done that before, but you're hanging on. of this, it's pure driving, just me an 11,000.

RPM, what would Ferry Porsche say, the man who drew the first 911, probably in the late '50s and early '60s, they showed us the first car in '63. Look at that six and a half rev engine, what would you say if you saw a car just like it? The way he actually told me is the one he first drew that accelerated to 11,000 RPM. It's an I'm in heaven. Fantastic. You've already seen. Ultimately, it is a road car. This is a car for hitting the road. Remove the cobwebs, not only will you remove the cobwebs, you will remove part of your DNA and maybe half of your personality as well.

That's for you to decide to enter a circuit and really get up, didn't we find out what that is? like when it starts to move because that can't be done here thank you very useful advice thank you very much sir it will do 120 the risk that's how we like it let's go straight before we do it here we go then no I think I've ever driven a car with so little power in relationship with modern cars that intimidates me so much that we have now gone through it. You know all about the technology and obsessive attention to detail that replaces a small test track up north. from England is also complicated, it's tight, it's technical and I have 11,000 RPM to play with.

It takes a little bit of initial steering and it's positioned to get the car to turn, the steering wheel is quite off center but it really wakes up when you're in the corner so let's lift it from the shoulders, job, don't forget it's an old 911 , so we have a rear trailing arm, we have some nice shocks, that turn noise is 6000 RPS, another five is missing, that's not right, it has really commits to the pedal, what a car, it says, it's not a car track, but it lights up the circuit, wow, now we're talking, he's made a monster, he's made an absolute, there's not much else like this, so much information because all the control. the services are moving away it's spinning my head is being loved thank you baby okay i think you can sound quite like that to exercise your arms and pumping heads pumping adrenaline once again you can't buy this stuff in any other format it's just driving like that's just a Absolute quality dope, a British German madness about to create some of the 11 reference, then take the weight off and give you a driving experience that acts as a more impactful sense and knocked it out of the park.

I know he is my partner and I would do it. Say it, but hey, Richard, here, um, I don't have tomorrow to get used to this, but he's pretty good at driving these nine elevens. Richard, there's no better way to end a day than sitting with your body driving like an idiot, come on. and pick it up, put it in the driving scene, we can just laugh our way through the day. I guess I didn't break down anyway, you know what we say about the end of the day, just laughing, I want to get home, right?

I've done a lap yet no one no one cool cool yeah, it's good, yeah sure, you could drive a little bit, you might be an absolute finish, but you can drive a little bit, it's fun, isn't that what I think you've done? Have you seen this? yes, hydraulic handbrake, second, yes, first, Richard, yes, yes, that's great, good morning, foreigner.