As a club tradition, the Classic Car Club of Hong Kong (“CCCHK”) has its monthly morning drive every first Sunday of the month. Normally, the variety of cars that attend the morning drives varies, but Alfa Romeos, Mercedes, Porsches, and American muscle cars are always popular. The July 2020 morning drive, however, was different. Having been affected by the pandemic like the rest of the world, the CCCHK morning drives have been cancelled since March 2020. In July, we were blessed with low COVID counts as well as weeks of dry and sunny weather, so members of all sorts brought their variety of pride and joy out and the attendance was amazing.
For the usual suspects, we had 3 SL Pagodas from Mercedes Benz alone, a wide range of Porsche models from a G-series Speedster to a 991 GT3 (and everything in-between, including some very special models, detailed below), and from America we had a C3 Corvette, 1965 Mustang GT350, and a Mercury Cougar. There were also some iconic modern classic Japanese cars such as the Mazda RX-7 and Nissan 300ZX. A personal favorite was a classic Mini which was a complete replica of Mr. Bean’s – including the number plate and external door lock!
The highlight for me though, was definitely the 1962 Ferrari 250GTE brought out by our Vice Chairman, Carl. In a beautiful maroon colour and left-hand drive form, you immediately notice the large size of the car. Not a surprising factor, however, as the 250GTE was Ferrari’s first mass produced 4 seater Ferrari. I say ‘mass produced’, but that term certainly applied differently in 1962, where in fact only 955 250GTE’s were made, making it a rather rare car. The 250GTE is even rarer now as many were chopped to make 250GTO or 250SWB replicas throughout the years. The reason for this was because throughout history, 4 seater Ferraris were always less popular than 2 seaters (also true today, note second hand prices of the Ferrari 612 and FF). This unfortunate discrimination by buyers meant the 250GTE’s value have always been relatively low for years and therefore it was used for silly projects. The good news is this makes original cars like the one we have today very rare, and values have risen in recent years, making this a multi-million dollar (HKD) car today. Rightly so, as after all, the car can’t be that bad when it was Enzo Ferrari’s personal ride back then (rumor has it that he liked it since it could accommodate his driver, wife, and dog).
Then came a very special Porsche – possibly one of Hong Kong’s most famous Porsche – the Kaege Retro Porsche – a.k.a. the “Joker”. I first heard of the name Kaege Retro from a Petrolicious episode, where Kaege Retro founder Roger Kaege proudly presented his own retromodded 993 project. In that video, Mr. Kaege made it sound like his car was a homemade retromod out of his shed, as he could not afford a Singer. This was clearly not the case when we saw the Joker in the metal today, or should I say “in the carbon”. The first thing that I immediately noticed was that most of the car’s panels, like the front wings, rear fenders, boot cover and engine cover, etc., all had visible carbon fibre weaves under the paint – just like the Ferrari F40 and F50. Bill, the friendly owner, explained that while the donor car was a 993 Carrera from the 90s, the entire car we have today is completely new, down to every single wire. Clearly not a homemade retromod from a garden shed then.
From the outside, every panel, every light, and every wheel is new and not from the 993. Same goes for what’s inside – the boot under the front bonnet is predominantly carbon fibre, with a thick and sturdy-looking tower bar running across it, anchored on top of the two front suspension. The interior is also completely new, with new seats, new steering wheel, and a tailor made ignition switch with Joker cards design painted on. Unlike the Singer, the petrol cap remains on the front wing and not on the front bonnet (which, having spoken with a Singer owner before, is something that is preferred as one can imagine the chances of having petrol dripping on your expensive bonnet by reckless fuel attendants every time you go for a fill up). What is interesting, however, is a second filler cap that is visible on the driver’s side rear wing – which turns out to be the engine oil cap.
According to online articles, all these modifications meant the original 993 donor car shredded 160KG in weight, which is spectacular! Engine-wise, the capacity was increased and so was the power – now with a healthy 300HP. The cost of all this? Around HK$3 million according to online reports – so no longer the DIY project founder Roger made it sound like in his debut video on Petrolicious. The good news is, apparently, many of the car’s parts are OEM Porsche parts and not custom made like the Singer, therefore parts sourcing is apparently easier. Whatever it is, no doubt the Kaege Retro Joker is a very special and famous Porsche in Hong Kong – especially considering we have about 20 Singer’s in this small city (which is insane), but only one Kaege Retro…for now.
As if one special Porsche was not enough – we were treated by two today. A rather subtle looking Porsche 928 where most would miss what is special about it the first time they walk pass. Look carefully, and one would see that this is a convertible 928 – which was never produced by Porsche. This manual 928 with a fully automatic soft top is no replica or chop shop project; it is the only 928 cabriolet in the world to have been commissioned by Porsche themselves. In the late 80s, Porsche was toying with the idea of producing a 928 cabriolet. VOLL, which made the BMW 1602/2002 cabriolet, got the mandate to produce a prototype for Porsche. At the time, however, the 928 was selling so well that Porsche was unable to provide a donor car to VOLL. The founder of VOLL therefore used his wife’s 928 S4 as the donor car and created the beautiful car we have here today. By the time the prototype was completed in the early 90s, 928 sales started to drop and Porsche decided not to go ahead with the cabriolet version. Normally, Porsche retains their prototypes but since the donor car belonged to VOLL and not Porsche, they did not have legal grounds to buy the car back. Fortunately for us, this very special 1 of 1 car was able to be sold privately throughout the years, before finally landing in the hands of a Hong Kong collector, who brings it out regularly.
I hope you enjoyed this post as well as the YouTube video coverage of the morning drive. As I am writing this, we are on COVID semi-lockdown again and all CCCHK morning drives have once again been suspended. Not sure when we will be able to have one again, but given the ‘driving starvation’ we have to go through again, I am confident the next morning drive will once again be full of amazing cars, which I thoroughly look forward to!
View the video from the day here:
Thanks to the production team for making this review possible:
Alex (http://www.taipanmedia.com)
Dave (Email: david@lemonadeandgiggles.com)
Icy J (IG: @icyj95)
Adhiraj Rathore (IG: @supercarsofhongkong)
Hugo (IG: @hugochow)
Alex C. (IG: @nofishshark)
Dominic Temple (IG: @mysteriouscarman)