Ken Block’s Porsche 911 SC “Safari Rally” Car Is For Sale

This is the highly-customized Porsche 911 SC that was driven by Ken Block in the 2022 East Africa Safari Classic Rally. It was built by the globally renowned experts at Tuthill Porsche, and it’s now being offered for sale online.

It’s important to note that even though this vehicle was built as a safari rally car it’s 100% street legal, and it’s currently road registered in the United Kingdom.

Fast Facts – The Ken Block “Safari Rally” 911 SC

• Ken Block is undoubtably one of the best-known rally drivers in the world, having become a household name thanks to his popular Gymkhana series.
• Block has competed in a vast array of racing disciplines over the years, including rally, rallycross, hillclimbs, tarmac racing, and of course – safari rally racing.
• The Porsche 911SC in 1978 and it remained in production until 1983. It was fitted with a 3.0 liter flat-six capable of over 200 bhp in naturally-aspirated form, and today the model makes a popular target for conversion to rally specification.
• The car you see here started life as a standard 1978 Porsche 911 SC, it was completely rebuilt by the experts at Tuthill Porsche with a strengthened body, uprated suspension and brakes, a rebuilt engine design for rally, a limited-slip differential, and a motorsport spec interior.

The East Africa Safari Classic Rally

The East Africa Safari Classic Rally can trace its origins all the way back to the first Coronation Rally, held in 1953 after a conversion between amateur racing drivers Eric Cecil and his cousin, Neil Vincent.

Above Video: This is the official day one coverage of the 2022 East Africa Safari Classic Rally, it includes plenty of footage of Ken Block driving the car featured in this article.

At the time, the Langa Langa racing circuit had just been built near Nakuru, in Kenya’s Rift Valley and Vincent was entirely unimpressed with the concept of circuit racing:

“I can imagine nothing more boring than driving round and round the same piece of track, but if you will organize an event where we get into our cars, slam the door, go halfway across Africa and back and the first car home is a winner, I’ll be in it.” – Neil Vincent

This conversation led to the creation of the Coronation Rally, named for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth which had taken place earlier that year, on the 2nd of June 1953.

The cross-country Coronation Rally became an instant success, and in 1957 it was included on the international motorsport Calendar by the FIA. In 1960 the name was changed to the East African Safari Rally and by the 1970s the event was part of the official WRC calendar.

The car was rebuilt to a high standard by Tuthill Porsche specifically for safari rally competition. It now remains in as-raced condition throughout.

The rally was dropped by the WRC in 2003 however it’s defied the odds and continued on, even increasing in popularity since. Now named the East Africa Safari Classic Rally, the event is now the pre-eminent annual safari rally for classic cars.

The Porsche 911 SC By Tuthill Porsche Shown Here

The Porsche 911 SC you see here was built by Tuthill Porsche in the UK specifically to compete in the East Africa Safari Classic Rally.

The built started with a classic 1978 911 SC, it was stripped down to the bodyshell and the team at Tuthill then spent over 350 hours increasing the strength of the shell, adding in double-skin plating and reinforcements, including uprated mounts for the dampers.

The exterior bodywork was given a look reminiscent of the 911 SC/RS style, and full underbody protection was fitted – including safari “roo bars.” It’s riding on white 15 inch Braid alloy wheels with 205/65R15 Dunlop Direzza 86RW rally tires front and back.

The 3.0 liter 911 SC engine was rebuilt for racing, it now produces 280 bhp. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a rally-spec 5-speed gearbox and a limited-slip differential.

Inside the car you’ll find a full welded-in roll cage, racing seats and harnesses, plumbed-in and handheld fire extinguishers, a heated windscreen, a Monit G-series trip computer, and a wheel nut gun and other tools mounted in the door cards for easy access.

The 3.0 liter 911 SC engine was completely rebuilt to rally specification, with a slew of new performance parts including a rally specification camshaft. It’s mated to a rally-spec 5-speed gearbox and a limited-slip differential, and it produces 280 bhp.

To better handle the varied terrain of the event, the car was fitted with EXE-TC 5-way adjustable dampers and fully strengthened rear arms, with a safari specification steering rack.

As you may expect, the car does have some damage here and there from the rally, and it remains in original as-raced condition, meaning it’ll be up to the new owner whether it gets a wash or remains a little dusty.

The car is now being offered for sale in a live online auction by Collecting Cars out of Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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For Sale: A Rare Early-Production 1966 Meyers Manx

This 1966 Meyers Manx is said to be one of the earliest “pre-tag” Manx 1 bodies known, and one of the first 200 Meyers Manx buggies that were manufactured.

The Meyers Manx was developed by Bruce Meyers in the early 1960s. He designed a fiberglass body that was fitted to a shortened VW Beetle floorpan, creating a highly capable dune buddy that would go on to win the first ever Baja 1000 (then known as the Mexican 1000) in 1967.

Fast Facts – The Meyers Manx

• Bruce Meyers was an artist, surfer, boat builder, and self-taught car designer who invented the concept of the fiberglass-bodied dune buggy in his garage in 1963.
• VW Beetles were a dime a dozen at the time, so he took a Beetle floorpan, shortened it, and then designed a monocoque fiberglass body that bolted onto the VW platform.
• This design was called the Meyers Manx, after the bobtailed cat from the Isle of Man. It became an icon of the 1960s and a dominant off-road racer, setting a new Ensenada – La Paz run record, winning the Mexican 1000 (later named the Baja 1000), and a slew of other races.
• The car you see here is one of the earliest known “pre-tag” survivors, it was built in 1966 on a 1959 Beetle floorpan, and it remains in remarkably original condition throughout.

Bruce Meyers

Long before Bruce Meyers made a name for himself as the designer of the Meyers Manx beach buggies he was experimenting with the use of fiberglass to build lightweight sail boats. As a surfer he had also seen fiberglass being used to transform the world of surfboard design and manufacturing.

The spartan interior of the Manx helped keep weight low, and it made it nice and easy to clean out all the beach sand that would inevitably collect inside.

With all of that in mind it probably shouldn’t be surprising that he would turn to fiberglass as his material of choice when he set out to build an off-road racing dune buggy.

The vehicle he created became a global phenomenon, instantly recognizable to countless millions of people around the world as the “beach buggy.” He also became possibly the only amateur car designer in history to design a true automotive icon – on par with the Mini, the Beetle, the Jeep, the Land Rover, and the Porsche 911.

It wasn’t long before copycats started ripping off the Meyers design, he had patented it but a judge controversially rescinded his patent claiming it was unpatentable. This decision has been widely panned in the years since, as the Meyers design was entirely unique and clearly needed patent protection.

The B. F. Meyers & Co. would cease operations in 1971, unable to keep up with the slew of cheap copies flooding the market. Fortunately the story doesn’t end there, in the year 2000 Bruce Meyers revived the company and reentered the market with a number of upgraded models.

Above Video: This episode of Jay Leno’s Garage features Bruce Meyers himself discussing the history of the Manx and its importance for car culture.

Over the next 20 years he would reestablish the company as the preeminent beach buggy kit manufacturer and when he passed away in 2021 he left behind a thriving company that is now pursing updated designs and even a 100% electric Manx.

The Meyers Manx

The Meyers Manx is likely one of the easiest kit cars to build in history. It requires a shortened Beetle floorpan with its engine and suspension intact, onto this you bolt the fiberglass body and its parts, then you add the interior and the car is essentially done.

This simplicity coupled with the incredible off-road ability of the Manx made it a wildly successful vehicle in the 1960s, particularly when you consider the fact that it was all being operated as a small business out of a relatively small facility in California.

The cleverness of Bruce Meyer’s original design has been studied for decades, he used a lightweight fiberglass tub that was designed with compound curves to offer good rigidity.

The large wheel arches allow larger wheels and tires to be fitted as well as plenty of suspension travel, the open back ensures the air-cooled engine has enough air flow, the low nose gives excellent visibility of the terrain ahead, and the doorless open-topped design makes it easy to get in and out of.

The rear-mounted VW Beetle engine is both simple and lightweight, making it ideal for this application. It also keeps the weight over the rear wheels to assist with traction when off-road.

In the 1960s you could order your own Meyers Manx kit for just a few hundred dollars, you’d then buy a cheap Beetle, shorten the floorpan, and bolt it all together. The Manx became beloved by everyone from surfers and boulevard cruisers to desert racers and off-road explorers.

The Meyers Manx Shown Here

The Manx you see here is considered highly collectible as it’s one of the earliest “pre-tag” Manx 1 bodies to have survived, and amazingly it still has its original gel coat from 1966.

It’s based on a 1959 Beetle floorpan and power is provided by a 1.6 liter, dual port, flat-four Volkswagen engine that has been converted to 12 volt electrics. It’s riding on period correct widened steel Volkswagen wheels with chrome VW logo hubcaps, which are fitted with raised white letter General Grabber all-terrain tires.

The car is accompanied by Meyers Manx registry authentication documentation, and it’s due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s on June 1st with a price guide of $40,000 – $50,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Bruce Meyers, the creator of the Meyers Manx. Image courtesy of Volkswagen.

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Full Documentary: The Story of the Routemaster

The Story of the Routemaster is an almost hour long documentary about what is arguably the most famous bus in the world – the legendary Routemaster built by the Associated Equipment Company from 1954 to 1968.

Typically painted in bright red for their duties on the streets of London, the Routemaster was later voted one of Britain’s top ten designs, along with the Concorde, Mini, Supermarine Spitfire, London Tube Map, World Wide Web, and the K2 Telephone Box.

This documentary goes into a fascinating amount of detail about the Routemaster bus, from its original design to its upgrades over the years. It takes a deep dive into the engineering and the design of the engine, transmission, chassis, braking systems, and body.

This documentary gives a fascinating look back at the history of London busses, and a deep dive into the history and engineering of the Routemaster.

Of the 2,876 Routemasters were originally built it’s believed that 1,280 are still in existence, mostly in private hands of course however a small number of Routemasters have been retained by London Transport for use on special occasions.

So iconic was the original Routemaster that in 2007 the project to develop a modern version of it began, headed by the then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson. This bus, named the New Routemaster for obvious reasons, entered service in early 2012. There are now over 1,000 of them plying the streets of London.

If you’d like to read more about this history of the Routemaster bus you can visit the official website here.

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Unusual Project Car: A Brazilian Volkswagen SP2

The Volkwagen SP2 was developed by Volkswagen do Brasil specifically for the Brazilian market as a locally produced sports car. This was critically important as Brazilian automotive imports were all but banned at the time, and sports cars were in short supply.

The SP2 is based on the Brazilian Volkswagen 1600 Variant, with power coming from a rear-mounted 1.7 liter air-cooled flat-four capable of 65 bhp. It wasn’t a particularly fast car, but many owners have since applied modifications or even swapped in new engines in search of better performance.

Fast Facts – The Brazilian Volkwagen SP2

• The Volkwagen SP2 started out as “Project X” in 1970. It was developed to be a sleek sports car that would revolutionize the somewhat boring reputation VW had in Brazil at the time.
• The development budget was low, as a result they used as many pre-existing VW parts as possible including the use of the Volkswagen 1600 Variant platform and the famous VW flat-four engine with its matching transmission.
• Over the course of the 1973 to 1976 production run just over 10,000 SP2s were made, they’re now highly prized in Brazil as classics, and a small number have been exported.
• The car you see here needs some work to get it back into fine fettle, it’s currently based in the Netherlands and it has just 23,678 kms (14,712 miles) on the odometer.

Volkswagen do Brasil

Volkswagen do Brasil Ltda. is a subsidiary of the main Volkswagen Group, it was established in Brazil back in 1953, just eight years after WWII.

The styling of the VW SP2 has been winning it accolades for decades, that long front end contains plenty of useful trunk space too.

The company would quickly become the largest and most important automaker in Brazil, initially building the Volkwagen Beetle (Type 1) from parts kits sent over from Germany.

For 24 years VW had the highest sales of any automaker in Brazil, they sold over 20 million examples of the Type 1 and it became a common sight on the streets of Brazilian towns and cities.

Today the Brazilian VW subsidiary remains one of the biggest automakers in the region, supplying everything from small compact cars to large 4×4 pickup trucks for the local market.

The Volkswagen SP2

In the late 1960s Rudolf Wilhelm Karl Leiding took over as CEO of Volkswagen do Brasil, one of his changes was to launch “Project X” to develop a locally-designed sports car for the Brazilian market.

The budget was limited so pre-existing parts were used where possible, the platform of the Volkswagen 1600 Variant was used (also similar to the VW Type 3), along with the slightly larger 1.7 liter flat-four mated to the VW 4-speed gearbox.

The interior was a step up compared to many of VW Brazil’s other offerings, with a woodgrain dash and gear knob and a sporting rally-style steering wheel.

Suspension is independent at all four wheels, as it is with the Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3, and the car has drum brakes at all four wheels.

Although the 1.7 liter engine is a little larger and more powerful than the 1.6 liter unit, it’s still far from a high-output engine. It produces just 65 bhp which resulted in a 0 – 60 mph time of 17.4 seconds and a top speed of 161 km/h – just over 100 mph.

As one of very few sports cars available in Brazil at the time, the SP2 was popular in spite of its relatively low performance.

A cottage industry sprang up to help improve the car’s performance, Brazilians had already been racing Beetles for years by this point and they knew how to extract every ounce of performance from the air-cooled flat-fours.

With total sales of 10,205 between 1973 and 1976 the SP2 wasn’t a huge sales success for VW, and although a more powerful prototype Volkswagen SP3 was developed it was never put into production.

Above Video: This short film tells the story of a passionate Volkswagen SP2 owner in South Africa. It includes plenty of driving footage to give you a good idea of what the car is like to drive.

Today the VW SP2 is widely beloved in Brazil and they’re considered highly collectible. A small number have been exported and they’re major sources of interest at car shows – most people have never seen one or even heard of the model before.

The 1975 Volkswagen SP2 Shown Here

The car you see here is an SP2 from the penultimate year of production, 1975. This vehicle is finished in red with matching red wheels, and it has a black and red cloth interior with black carpeting throughout.

With 65 bhp the 1.7 liter VW flat-four wasn’t a powerhouse, but on the plus side it’s remarkably easy to get spare parts for it.

Although the car runs and drives it does now need some restorative work, there are a couple of small rust patches and other areas of the body that need some attention, and the interior needs work too.

Although it doesn’t look like it needs a full restoration it is a project car that will need work, and any bidders would be clear eyed and ready to get the tools out should they win the auction.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual Volkwagen or register to bid you can visit the listing here on Car & Classic. It’s currently being auctioned live online with plenty of time left to bid.

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Mike Hailwood’s Iso Grifo Is For Sale

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Harry Fisher, a new Silodrome contributor from South Africa. You can read more about him in the author box under this post.

The Iso Grifo combined Italian design flair with rugged – and powerful – American V8 power. This particular example was built in 1967 and imported to the UK and made an appearance in The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film before being sold to motorcycle racing legend Mike Hailwood.

By the mid-1960s, the aura around Italian supercars was firmly entrenched. Designed and built by small factories with passionate workforces, they were the epitome of Italian design flair and mechanical superiority. While the likes of Ferrari and Maserati and, later, Lamborghini, built the whole car, including engines and gearboxes, there were other Italian manufacturers who chose a different, but no less impressive route.

Fast Facts – The Iso Grifo

• Iso started out making motorcycles after the second world war before moving on to the Isetta bubble car and later large road cars, always powered by American V8 engines. The first production models appeared in 1962, powered by a 5.4 litre (327 cubic inch) Chevrolet small block V8 driving through a Borg Warner four-speed manual gearbox. Power output was 300 bhp.
• Production output was small, even by Italian standards. Between 1963 and 1974, less than 2,000 Isos of all types were manufactured.
• The ISO Grifo appeared in 1963 and, with its stunning looks and huge American power, was an immediate success. This particular example was imported into the UK in 1967 and bought by motorcycle Grand Prix legend Mike Hailwood for his personal use.
• One of those was Iso, which started life as Isothermos of Bolzaneto, an engineering company making electric heaters and chillers. Bought by industrialist Renzo Rivolta in 1939, after the war he turned the company to making small motorcycles, which provided cheap transport for a war ravaged Italy.
• In the 1950s, he conceived and produced the Isetta bubble car. It was not a success in Italy so he licensed production to France, Brazil and most famously, to BMW in Germany, who went on to produce over 160,000 of the diminutive vehicles.

Mike Hailwood with his Iso Grifo, the same vehicle you see pictured here. Image courtesy of Silverstone Auctions.

The First V8s

In the early 1960s, Rivolta introduced his first ‘proper’ car, the ISO Rivolta IR300, which was powered by a V8 engine from the Chevrolet Corvette, the ‘300’ referring to the horsepower output.

In 1965 came the Grifo, a car in the true Grand Turismo tradition, with styling by Giorgetto Guigaro and the mechanical side taken care of by Giotto Bizzarini.

Again, American V8 power was used, in the form of General Motors engines of 5.4-74 litre capacity. Taking this route not only saved huge amounts of development money but also gave these exotic machines more than sufficient power and, more importantly, rugged reliability.

Mike Hailwood’s Series 1 Iso Grifo

The Grifo up for auction here has led an interesting life. It was finished at the Iso factory in Milan on August 28, 1967 and fitted with a small-block Chevrolet 327 (5358cc) V8, driving through a ZF 5-speed gearbox and 3.31 differential.

The Iso Grifo is powered by the 327 cubic inch V8 from the Chevrolet Corvette, producing 300 bhp and allowing the car to attain a speed of 110 km/h (68 mph) in first gear.

The UK importer, Trojan Ltd (which also built McLaren Can-Am cars under license) invited renowned journalist John Bolster from Autosport magazine to travel to the factory and drive the Italian-registered car back to the UK. Bolster was very impressed and wrote favourably about the car.

The Grifo then made a brief appearance in The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film before being sold to motorcycle Grand Prix legend Mike Hailwood, then at the very peak of his fame. Between 1961 and 19671, he was the yardstick by which all others were measured and was as popular off-track as he was invincible on-track.

A nine-time world champion, he won 76 Grands Prix races, four consecutive 500cc world titles and 14 Isle of Man TT races. In 1968, he was effectively paid by Honda, who were pulling out of racing, to not ride for anyone else.

Hailwood returned to Formula One, in which he had dabbled in 1963. Driving for John Surtees’ eponymous team, he showed that he was just as skilful on four wheels as on two. He never won a race but came close on several occasions and raced successfully in Formula 2 (European Champion in 1972) and sports cars, finishing third in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1969, driving a Ford GT40.

The interior of the Grifo was beautifully appointed, it was designed to be a sporting grand tourer that could compete with the likes of Jaguar, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Lamborghini.

In 1974, he moved to the McLaren Formula 1 Team as team mate to Emerson Fittipaldi but a bad crash at the Nurburgring smashed his ankles and effectively ended his career.

George Medal For Bravery

If he was skilful, then he was also abnormally brave. During the 1973 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, Clay Regazzoni crashed and was trapped in his burning car. Hailwood dived into the flames to try and get the unconscious Regazzoni out but his overalls caught fire.

After dousing them, he dived back in and succeeded in freeing Regazzoni. For his actions, Hailwood was awarded the George Medal, the second-highest gallantry award that a British civilian can be awarded.

Hailwood had a passion for fast and exotic cars and had owned examples of Ferrari and Maserati cars and in the 1970s would go on to run the Maserati-engined Citroen SM.

But the late 1960s was the time for more Italian exotica and the Grifo fitted the bill perfectly with its thunderous performance, Mike choosing to travel by car to many races on the European continent.

The elegant styling of the Iso Grifo was penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro who was then working at Bertone.

In 1969, Hailwood had the yellow Grifo shipped to South Africa for him to use as transport while he raced in the Springbok series, which included the Kyalami 9 Hours race in Johannesburg and the Cape Three Hours in Cape Town.

Incident With a Cow In South Africa

After retiring from the Cape race, Mike and team mate Peter Gethin (who would go on to win the fastest-ever Grand Prix, the 1971 Italian GP at Monza at an average speed of 150.75 mph) were traveling back to Johannesburg absolutely flat out in his thundering Grifo when, cresting a rise, they saw three cows standing in the road.

Mike chose the smallest of the three to hit and when the dust had settled, there was blood everywhere and a horn through the seat where Gethin was sitting: he had ducked just in time.

Gethin was understandably shaken but Mike just sat in the car, dripping with blood and, with his usual impatience, told Gethin to get in: he was wasting time!

The car was eventually repaired and was sold in 1972, Mike moving on to the Citroën SM. In 2009, the car was fully restored to its present condition and spent the next ten years or so in private collections before being offered for auction once again.

Being one of only 26 RHD examples of the Series 1 Grifo built, this is a very rare car, to say nothing of its impeccable provenance.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual classic or register to bid you can visit the listing here on Silverstone Auctions. The price guide is £300,000 – £340,000 which works out to approximately $374,000 – $424,000 USD.

Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions

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