Your article about the Ascari Ecosse brought back mainly happy memories of my time at Ascari Cars’ base in Banbury. I joined to take responsibility for sales and marketing activity for the yet-to-be-launched KZ1.
The team in the factory had been pulled from all parts of the automotive and motorsport sectors, and I personally had spent a number of years within the retail motor industry, latterly running MG Rover’s site on Park Lane (we were selling the SV and SV-R) as the flagship dealer.
Klaas Zwart was very focused on motorsport and as part of my interview process I flew to Spain, where Klaas took me at speed around the Race Resort Ascari track. I think collectively we did very well with what little we had and the KZ1 was a world-class product. However, when I joined the company it soon became clear that the KZ1 wasn’t going to be customer-ready for quite a while.
I concentrated on promoting the brand and getting it on the radar of high-net-worth individuals in the meantime. The factory was a perfect setting for tours, as one side housed Klaas’s Formula 1 collection, which included numerous Ferraris and the two-seater Arrows, while the road cars were on the other. Languishing in the corner here was the yellow ex-demo FGT — the car, later repainted blue, in your feature [above] — which was basically little more than a shell.
During one of the tours a Canadian chap called Kenny Schackter showed an interest in getting it back on the road and a price was agreed with a very ‘flexible’ delivery date — my first sale of a roadgoing Ascari! An immeasurable amount of time was spent on preparing it, helped by technicians who had worked on the FGT and Ecosse at Blandford Forum so knew the car intimately. The production Ecosse had a luxury leather-lined interior but the consensus between the customer and ourselves was that it should be more raw and track-focused. As I recall, Kenny was very happy with the finished article.
It was a real shame when it all came to an end as I do think we could have been another Wiesmann if we had sourced the KZ1 engines directly from BMW. The costs to build the car certainly exceeded its £235,000 ticket price, which ultimately finished off the road car product in Klaas’s eyes.
I’m not quite sure how the 996’s twenty-fifth anniversary has crept up on us. It only seems like yesterday the model was revealed as the bringer of a new era in Porsche production, not only for the 911, but for all models to wear the Stuttgart crest. And yet, here we are, celebrating a quarter-century of Porsche’s somewhat controversial water-cooled flagship, a model representing the most significant move away from the original 911 concept to date. I’m sure it’s not just me who views the 996 as a modern sports car. For insurers, parts manufacturers and even Porsche itself to label the model as a classic seems perplexing, considering the first water-cooled production 911 continues to exude an image of youth, vitality, excitement and adventure to this day. You only have to look at the Speed Yellow Carrera 4 pictured on this page to see this to be true. I understand calendar-based classification is at play, of course, and I welcome any move to protect Porsche’s legacy models, especially when it serves to generate additional interest in the marque and its bulging back catalogue, but to my mind, the 996 remains fresh. Granted, I’m not talking 992-levels-of-infotainment fresh, but the 996 has aged exceptionally well, with looks and performance as respectable today as they were when the model was first unveiled. This celebratory issue of 911 & Porsche World may have you kicking off 2022 with a look through the classifieds. If so, take a look at our 996 buying guide before parting with your hard-earned cash. I wish you every success with your search and, to all our readers, best wishes for the year ahead.
Selling the Ascari Ecosse
Your article about the Ascari Ecosse brought back mainly happy memories of my time at Ascari Cars’ base in Banbury. I joined to take responsibility for sales and marketing activity for the yet-to-be-launched KZ1.
The team in the factory had been pulled from all parts of the automotive and motorsport sectors, and I personally had spent a number of years within the retail motor industry, latterly running MG Rover’s site on Park Lane (we were selling the SV and SV-R) as the flagship dealer.
Klaas Zwart was very focused on motorsport and as part of my interview process I flew to Spain, where Klaas took me at speed around the Race Resort Ascari track. I think collectively we did very well with what little we had and the KZ1 was a world-class product. However, when I joined the company it soon became clear that the KZ1 wasn’t going to be customer-ready for quite a while.
I concentrated on promoting the brand and getting it on the radar of high-net-worth individuals in the meantime. The factory was a perfect setting for tours, as one side housed Klaas’s Formula 1 collection, which included numerous Ferraris and the two-seater Arrows, while the road cars were on the other. Languishing in the corner here was the yellow ex-demo FGT — the car, later repainted blue, in your feature [above] — which was basically little more than a shell.
During one of the tours a Canadian chap called Kenny Schackter showed an interest in getting it back on the road and a price was agreed with a very ‘flexible’ delivery date — my first sale of a roadgoing Ascari! An immeasurable amount of time was spent on preparing it, helped by technicians who had worked on the FGT and Ecosse at Blandford Forum so knew the car intimately. The production Ecosse had a luxury leather-lined interior but the consensus between the customer and ourselves was that it should be more raw and track-focused. As I recall, Kenny was very happy with the finished article.
It was a real shame when it all came to an end as I do think we could have been another Wiesmann if we had sourced the KZ1 engines directly from BMW. The costs to build the car certainly exceeded its £235,000 ticket price, which ultimately finished off the road car product in Klaas’s eyes.
I’m not quite sure how the 996’s twenty-fifth anniversary has crept up on us. It only seems like yesterday the model was revealed as the bringer of a new era in Porsche production, not only for the 911, but for all models to wear the Stuttgart crest. And yet, here we are, celebrating a quarter-century of Porsche’s somewhat controversial water-cooled flagship, a model representing the most significant move away from the original 911 concept to date. I’m sure it’s not just me who views the 996 as a modern sports car. For insurers, parts manufacturers and even Porsche itself to label the model as a classic seems perplexing, considering the first water-cooled production 911 continues to exude an image of youth, vitality, excitement and adventure to this day. You only have to look at the Speed Yellow Carrera 4 pictured on this page to see this to be true. I understand calendar-based classification is at play, of course, and I welcome any move to protect Porsche’s legacy models, especially when it serves to generate additional interest in the marque and its bulging back catalogue, but to my mind, the 996 remains fresh. Granted, I’m not talking 992-levels-of-infotainment fresh, but the 996 has aged exceptionally well, with looks and performance as respectable today as they were when the model was first unveiled. This celebratory issue of 911 & Porsche World may have you kicking off 2022 with a look through the classifieds. If so, take a look at our 996 buying guide before parting with your hard-earned cash. I wish you every success with your search and, to all our readers, best wishes for the year ahead.
Nice featute in new MB
Nice pre-Fiat era example of rear wheels drive Alfa big sedan!