Richard Lambert bought his Carrera 3.0 in November 1990 and after 17 years of action-packed ownership, including a huge amount of sporting success, finally sold it in 2007 to an Italian Porsche enthusiast. This is the story of Richard's ownership of his C3.

Carrera 3.0 Registry number 89 (chassis number 9117600492) was first registered in Germany in November 1976 and after passing through the hands of four German owners was imported into the UK in May 1990. Richard bought the car shortly after it had been imported - the C3 was still in its original factory spec, painted in Grand Prix White and sporting Carrera side stripes. It looked great and it was a fantastically cool car for a 24 year old young man to own. In fact, it was Richard's only car and he enjoyed using it on a daily basis, doing about 12,000 miles a year for work trips and on driving holidays.

The Carrera was also used for occasional track days and, after reading an article in the Porsche Club magazine describing how you could race a Porsche for £5000 a year, Richard decided to have a go at something more serious. As always, though, there was a hitch (hitches are usually expensive when it comes to 911s!) and he soon discovered that he would need about £10k to convert the C3 into a race car - so the plan was abondoned.

As luck would have it, though, a few months later, whilst Richard was driving home from work, a guy who'd had a few too many drinks at the local golf club pulled out in front of him from a side road - and the resulting accident wrote off the car. Richard didn't feel the damage was too bad, though, so he bought the Carrera back from the insurance company and the agreed valuation pay out was enough to meet the cost of getting it built up as a race car.

Despite the new funding, there wasn't enough cash available to have the engine and gearbox rebuilt, so most of the race preparation work was centred around the body and chassis. The first season's racing was a big learning curve for Richard and with the car finishing last in nearly every race, it was clear that it needed some mechanical attention. For the next season the C3's engine and gearbox were rebuilt, and instead of the 170 bhp the car had been producing it started to put out a good 210.

Over the years Richard became a better driver and was able to develop the car more and more. He never had the money to pay for a team to look after him at the circuits so he maintained the car himself. A major chassis overhaul by Parr Motorsport in 1999 cost a fortune but it made a big difference to his times - and confidence - in the car and after that he found it much easier to drive the Carrera competitively.

Richard and his Carrera 3.0 nearly won the PCGB championship overall in 2003 and then, finally, won it in 2004. By now, the Carrera had been resprayed in Blood Orange and Richard remembers what a great feeling it was to win, especially as the prize for winning the championship was a fully paid-for race in the Porsche Cars GB supported GT3 Cup car. It was a fantastic experience and he still wishes he could afford the £125k a year to race one properly!

Anyway, back in the real world, and having won the championship, the pressure was off and Richard could continue racing the Carrera for fun. The Carrera 3.0, though, is a Class 2 car in the Porsche Championship and whilst he was continuing to finish in the top 5 (and beating most of the Class 1 cars!!), he'd never managed to cross the line first and take the chequered flag - something which he'd always wanted to achieve. So Richard decided to sell his C3 and buy a Class 1 964 Carrera 2 in its place.

Richard was very sad to see the Carrera 3 go as he'd owned it for 17 years and had had lots of fun with it, but he's glad that it's been bought by a Porsche enthusiast in Italy who he believes is going to use it as a rally car. He comments that, now that he's sold it, the values of the cars will probably soar but he thinks that there's no point in him keeping a car unless it's going to be used as it should be - and in Richard's case that means racing. He's still waiting for his new race car to arrive from the States but he'll be out at Spa Franchorchamps in it in October, getting ready for a full season's campaign in 2009.

Postscript - Creating a Championship-Winning Car

Over the years Richard's Carrera 3 has had a considerable amount of work carried out on it to turn it into a winning machine - work that will stand it in good stead in its new life as a rally car.

Apart from a full glass-out respray, the car was initially race-prepared by removing the interior and fitting a roll cage, and by updating the suspension and brakes. This was followed a few years later by a complete body and chassis overhaul and later still by the fitting of new torsion bars and new brake calipers.

Mechanically, the car had a full engine and gearbox rebuild, an LSD and extra oil cooling fitted in 1995, followed by another gearbox and top-end rebuild in 2004. The engine had a further rebuild in 2006, when a new competition clutch was fitted at the same time