STORIES & NEWS

The classic Porsches are often considered as vehicles only for the warm summer days, but this doesn’t need to be true. Winter driving has at least two challenges. One is driving the car on icy roads and the other one is the relatively modest heating of the cars. The first one would be a story of its own, but the solution is at least partly in good winter tyres and experience on driving on ice. The other one is easier to fix. That is the heating. The first generation of Porsche 911´s in 1965 had typically an additional Webasto heater in the “smugglers box”. This was not a standard part, but it seems to be an option which all of the customers have ordered. We have seen a lot of SWB Porsches and they all have had this heater. These old heaters have usually been abandoned in the smugglers box already decades ago. For our fully restored cars we have also restored these heaters and they are fully functional equipment and nice additional detail for collector’s cars.

For classic Porsches which are driven more actively we would recommend the modern Webasto petrol heater. These modern heaters can be installed in the “smugglers box” in a same way as the original ones, or they can be installed in some other place in the front of the car. The Porsche 911 and 912 take their standard heating from the heat exchangers which are part of the exhaust systems. In many Porsche 911s and in particular in the race cars we use direct exhaust manifolds without any heat exchangers and then you do not have any heating left. Our 911 race car has the Webasto installed in the front of the car for winter driving. We have test driven the car on ice track in below -20 C° and the heater is more than sufficient. The real beauty of this solution is that the Webasto works as a fresh air blower in the summer as well. Our Webasto trained mechanic install these heaters also for our customer’s cars.