Boxengasse Presents Oilcooled 2019

Photography: Dan Allard | Chris Newton    Words: Dan Allard | Chirs Newton

Boxengasse

Bo · xen · gas · se

Pit boxes in motorsport are the racing team garages that are located in the pit lane of a racetrack, where the drivers, mechanics and race cars come together; a rather fitting name for the new site.

Boxengasse presents the first Oilcooled event, a celebration of what's become one of biggest followings of a single marques of recent times, the air-cooled Porsche. Armed with a pair of 35mm film cameras that are older than the operators, we headed to the newly finished Porsche Mecca to see Frank Cassidy's vision in all its glory. 

Destination Porsche 

For the first time in a while, we knew there wasn't going to be a big mix of marques to wander around.  With multiple lifestyle brands turning their backs on their single brand following and events in order to please everyone and maximise profits we looked forward to geeking out and seeing what variants were there branded with the hallowed name Porsche badge, or in some cases associated with the brand.

Walking onto the set back 100 acre site, we took a walk around Frank's lake to see what the visitors had bought along for the weekend or just for the Sunday. The Oilcooled event wasn't just a Sunday gathering it comprised of a track day on Friday at Silverstone with the onsite Porsche specialist Autofarm, a drive in cinema evening and then the gathering on Sunday. The perfect weekend for us petrolheads?

Autofarm 

It's pretty obvious to see Frank is a massive fan and collector of Porsche, but Frank isn't your usual restore, collect and hibernate type of guy, Frank likes to put a stamp on his cars. So wouldn't it be ideal for him to have an on-site expert to help care for and help out the with the builds?

Welcome Autofarm, established in 1973 they set out to specialise in Porche from the word go, building up 45 years of experience in servicing, restoring and modifying. In the early part of 2019 they moved onto the newly finished Boxengasse site where they will further grow and gather plenty more years of experience.

The Boxengasse Den

With Frank being introduced to the Porsche brand at an early age, he has built up quite a collection of cars and memorabilia, from the Le Mans posters up on the walls, to the collection of wheels on the rack, waiting their turn to go on a car. We even saw the award we awarded Frank for his 993 from our event RH x BH up in the office taking pride of place on the shelf. We hope to take a visit before the year is out have a good chat with Frank and get up close and personal with some the his collection.

The Unlikely Subjects

Mixed in with the finest metal from Stuttgart were a few unexpected surprises.

Paris - Dakar 953

Sitting outside AutoFarms offices leaning up on a curb was one of the three Rothams 953 cars used in the 1984 Paris - Dakar Rally. 

Driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne in 1984 this 953 was very short lived and was replaced by the 959 in 1985. Nicknamed the 911 4x4 it used a development manually controlled 4x4 system that made its way onto the 959 the following year. 

Icon 917

At the centre of the courtyard was the Icon 917, from afar this may look like a genuine 70's racer but in fact this is a full ROAD LEGAL replica! We don't like the word replica as most attempts are quite, shall we say “disappointing” but this is the closest you will get to the real thing. After finding an original body shell on Pistonheads Dave and John the creators of 917RSK fired up CAD and got cracking. With the project complete the car attended the track day on Friday at Silverstone and then drove on the road to Boxengasse. 

The Icon story doesn't end there, with one car complete the next car will be started so Dave and John can drive off into the sunset together in their dream cars.

Schuppan 962CR

Designed by Mike Simcoe in 1991 and built between 1992 and 1994 by Australian racing driver Vern Schuppan, the 962CR is based on the legendary Group C Porsche 962c that took part in the Lemans 24 hours. The body panels and chassis were unique to the Schuppan, but the engines were taken directly from the Group C monsters and bored out to 3.3 litres from the 962s 3.0 litre displacement. 

The Schuppan 962CR is an illusive thing. With a price tag of around £830,000 back in 1992, it’s not surprising that not many were built. In fact only 6 were ever rumoured to exist, and now it’s believed that only 4 remain. We genuinely could not believe our eyes when we saw this thing in the flesh. A real unicorn. 

So that's a wrap for Boxengasse's Oilcooled 2019, We hope you enjoyed the slightly different photography style that film gives you. I know we have certainly enjoyed the process of joy and slight disappointment of the images that didn't come out as we wished, but that the excitement of film. 

Save the dates 22nd & 23rd for Oilcooled 2020.