Anyone with an Early-1960S' 911 Who Fancies a Back-To-Back Standoff With
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Duel 26/10/05 15:48 Page 96 Duel purpose Anyone with an early-1960s’ 911 who fancies a back-to-back standoff with one of Duel’s creations had better think very carefully. Ed Poland, proprietor of Dutch Engine Laboratories – Duel for short – has the tuning and race-preparation of these classic Porsches down to a fine art Story by Johnny Tipler; photographs by Peter Robain o hint of double Dutch here. Duel - Heerhugoward, 20 minutes north of Ed Poland started Duel in 1990, and has short for Dutch Engine Laboratories - Amsterdam, and specialises in P orsche spent the last 10 years of the 15 years since Nputs its money where its mouth is, engines, and flat-sixes in particular. It’s not then concentrating on 911s. ‘I like the old- preparing Porsche 911s for C&C Motorsport easy to miss: on arrival, a startling time Porsches,’ he enthuses. ‘They’re works (class winners in the Dutch Classic Touring psychedelic mixture of colours greeted of art.’ Before that he worked for a company Car series in 2004), while Duel’s boss, Ed photographer Robain and your that built racing engines for Formula Vee Poland, and his colleagues campaign a pair correspondent, with a bright-orange 914-6 racing cars. He takes a thorough approach of early 911s in European classic endurance and a silver 911S rally car staged in front of to car preparation. ‘I prefer to do the events. the firm’s bright-yellow and mirror-glass complete package,’ he said. ‘If you just Duel is based on an industrial estate at façade. build the engine and the car crashes, 96 December 2005 911 & PORSCHE WORLD Duel 26/10/05 15:48 Page 97 Dutch Engine Laboratories maybe the engine doesn’t emerge intact, time to restore a particularly special car it classic Porsches, which included a 2.4-litre and that’s a waste. That doesn’t work for was transported to Holland for Duel to 911S and a pair of short-wheelbase 2.0-litre me. If I prepare the whole car and handle the restoration. race cars. These were in addition to Ed something goes wrong, I can say it’s my In fact, this is the 911 driven by 1968 Poland’s ‘hobby’ cars: a couple of Lola own fault.’ European Rally Champion Pauli Toivonen T450 F2 single-seaters from 1976, and a Poland studied mechanical engineering (father of the late Henri - see sidebar). There Lola T390 sports prototype under to NTSC level at technical college. were two sister cars, one of which was construction. ‘We can’t earn a living from Everything else he’s learned from practical essentially a rally car for Toivonen, the other these,’ he jokes. ‘They’re just for having experience, and he’s upbeat about a circuit racer for Vic Elford (see the fun.’ Probably just as well: Lolas weren’t mechanical innovation. ‘If I want to try accompanying 1960s’ Brands Hatch even so much as a blip on the F2 radar that something new, I’m thinking about it day snapshot), with Waldegard and Larrousse season, dominated as it was by French and night figuring out how to make it better.’ also taking turns at the wheel. The Elford drivers in Renault-powered Elf and Martini The company grew out of Ed’s passion car, as far as Ed knows, is in the USA. We’ll chassis. for motorsport. ‘I started with Formula Vee return to the Toivonen car later. At the back of the garage is the rolling- cars - real racing cars,’ he says. ‘Then I Other Porsches come from Belgium and road, alongside which is the engine and began to work on Porsches. They Germany, but not, as yet, from the UK, gearbox workshop. This has the air of a performed well in the Dutch championships, although the four-hour crossing courtesy of college technical laboratory, with and many customers expressed interest in Stena’s HSS jetfoil shouldn’t be a disassembled flat-sixes and 915 having a similar car , so we started to disincentive. ‘W e’d like it if people did come transmissions on the benches or free- prepare cars for them, too.’ over from England,’ says Ed. ‘But there are standing trestles. Many of Duel’s clients come from several UK specialists doing the same sort Duel is one of the foremost exponents of outside the Netherlands, particularly of thing as us, like Autofarm and Francis Porsche restoration, engine rebuild and Scandinavia. In fact, the first customer came Tuthill, so there’s competition from them.’ race-rally preparation in the Netherlands. from Finland via the website, and went on to In Duel’s workshop was a Carrera 3.0 The company handles all aspects, from win no fewer than 30 rallies in a row using and a Carrera 2.7 RS, along with a more mechanicals to bodywork, sourcing and Duel-built engines. The car was sponsored modern Carrera 3.2. Tucked away in the supply of parts, and provides at-circuit by Porsche Finland, so logically when the inner sanctum was a treasure trove of support for customers. It also specialises in 911 & PORSCHE WORLD December 2005 97 Duel 26/10/05 15:48 Page 98 Caption to go here Caption to go here Caption to go here Caption to go here Caption to go heCaption to go heCaption to go heCaption to go here Deferential wine the Xxxxxxxx xxxx edition. Call 01737 Appropriately enough Duel’s racing 911s 814311 to order back issues.) He spun off are backed by Bernardus ‘Ben’ Pon, who on oil and was thrown out of the cockpit, comes from Amersfoort in Holland and is luckily without injury. the son of the original Volkswagen Thereafter he raced sports and GT concessionaire in the Netherlands. Porsches including a 911 and Carrera 6 for Pon was a highly successful P orsche Racing T eam Holland until he retired at the sports-car racer in the early 1960s and end of 1965 to concentrate on his wine drove a works-loaned four-cylinder Porsche business. Pon represented Holland in clay- for Count Carel Godin de Beaufort’s Ecurie pigeon shooting at the Olympic Games in Maarsbergen team in the 1962 Dutch Grand 1972, but today he’s best known for his Prix at Zandvoort. (More on de Beaufort in Bernardus W inery in Carmel, California. tracking down hard-to-find race or rally Duel system is supplied in open-exhaust upshot is that the engine and gearbox have parts, particularly for rare vehicles like the format, with the silencer and all bracketry a longer lifespan, a bonus for endurance 911R, RS, RSR and ST . ‘W e keep a certain needed to install it. racing. amount in stock,’ says Poland, ‘and if we Another key area where Duel has found For road use Duel will happily install haven’t got it on the shelf , we will certainly scope for improvements is in carburation. bigger valves and enlarge the intake ports, find it.’ Early 911s used what were effectively six finding another 20-30bhp, bringing output Duel has developed several special parts separate Solex carburetors. ‘It was a hell of up to 220 or 230bhp. But for competition for older Porsches, notably an exhaust a system,’ says Ed. ‘It didn’t last for even a work - within the regulations, at least - the system. Designed for the 2.0-litre engine, it year, though, and very quickly Porsche went cars have to run with normal-size ports and lifts the power band from between 3000 and over to Webers.’ valves. For long distance events like the 6000rpm to 5000 and 8500rpm. Nothing Drivers of Historic pre-1965 P orsches Spa 6-Hours they also run with 100-litre fuel much happens below 5000rpm, concedes soon became aware of the inefficiencies of tanks. Poland, but the system releases an extra the Solex carburettors, and on race and It’s not just the 911 driveline that Duel 20bhp. It’s claimed to work brilliantly , and rally engines they’re notorious for resulting has tackled. F or better handling the forms an important part of Duel’s business. in excessive fuel consumption. Duel company has developed a fully adjustable In response to decreasing noise modifies the carbs and intake manifold and, suspension-damper kit to fit 911s from 1965 tolerance at European circuits, Duel also in conjunction with the exhaust system, the to 1975. These are available for race and designed the exhaust so the car can be result is claimed to be a very broad power rally, or simply street use. Says Poland: ‘We driven either with or without a silencer - to band. make them here ourselves. A short- be truthful, it’s more of a shroud - which still ‘W e now run our competition engines on wheelbase 911 is quite tricky through long, produces more power than the megaphone- full-race camshafts without sacrificing power fast corners. You can adjust the damper based systems favoured by the factory. in the mid-range. And because of the broad settings so it drives like a long-wheelbase ‘At certain points on the graph our power band we get better fuel consumption. car , and you can change the settings from exhaust showed a power increase of 35 per Crucially , the cams produce 20bhp more at circuit to circuit. W e also make longer units cent against the best of the silenced race 5000 rpm, which continues to build as the for rallying because the car’s ride height is cans or after-market exhausts we’ve tested revs rise to 8000 or 9000rpm.