Made To Drive | S07 E18

The Porsche 718 Is A Living Legacy

How did an extreme competition car from the ’50s inspire Porsche’s latest roadster?

View Comments

Up Next

UP NEXT

Made To Drive

This Jeepster Commando Is Dauntless

A driver and his simple Jeep have already driven off-road everywhere in California

This Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 Has A Subtle Flair

Made To Drive

This Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 Has A Subtle Flair

It’s an under-the-radar performance car, and that suits its owner just fine

Made To Drive

This Nissan Skyline DR30 Is A Red Panda

Rarely seen in the U.S., it’s one often-overlooked car—unless you’re a child of the ’80s

Made To Drive

VIEW ALL

Porsche

Made To Drive

Rod Emory’s Porsche 356 RSR: The Outlaw’s Outlaw

This is what you get when you add a 964 chassis, custom bodywork, and two turbochargers to a cute little 356.

Made To Drive

Porsche 911 50th Anniversary

1970 Porsche 911 RSR Tribute: Pure And Simple

Made To Drive

1970 Porsche 911 RSR Tribute: Pure And Simple

Packing 3.8 liters of flat-six in the back.

Kenneth Geelhaar

I enjoyed watching Derek driving this incredibly unsafe car at seemingly high speeds around dangerous corners. It amazes me how video editing producers can romanticize driving cars from the past. Motor vehicle engineers today are so much smarter, when it comes to safety, than the engineers of the past. My advise to Derek is that the next time you take an antique speeding around corners at least make sure the vehicle has a shoulder harness, a roll bar, and new safer tires. He lucked out this time and life is a precious gift! Kudo’s to the producers for making a… Read more »

Northwest European

Superb film, another winner. Nicely done.

CruiseMulholland

‘infomercial’ – so what.
A potential award winner … video should make it to the big screen at the next Cannes Lions awards.
thank you for the preview!

James Wieler

Another Petrolicious triumph, loved the switching back and forth from archive film clips. Thank you

Alexandre Goncalves

Probable one of the best films Petrolicious ever did – loved the barbers – nice touch !

The scenery reminds me a lot of Portugal – still, could live without that red Boxster at the the end… Thank god it only appeared for less than a minute 🙂

yes the new Boxster almost ruined it

Scott Allen

Does anyone out there have a detailed history of the Silver paint used on early Porsches? This car looks like it has no clear coat. I have seen flat silver on cars in museums. I don’t expect a clearcoat…but when and when not did they have gloss or matt in the single stage paints? Was there a pattern to this?

Robert in LA

Do you know the story of the ‘Silver Arrow’ Mercedes, from the pre-WWII years. These cars are said to be the source of silver as Germany’s international racing colors? The bodies of the Silver Arrows had no paint, in order to save weight. The aluminum was simply buffed bright. Clear coating paint happens later, on commercial vehicles. My recollection is that it starts during the late 1980s. However, clear coating was often not used on performance and race cars, again with the objective of saving weight. A secondary objective in using a single stage paint was to provide a surface… Read more »

I loved many of the details; the reminder for instance that these cars did not have fuel gauges, and a wooden dowel was commonly used. For that matter they didn’t have a speedometer either. The care with which the door is shut at 1:18 is another example of how you handle a car that has become so very valuable. However, at 1:42, when the car is pushed out onto the track by hand, a member of the pit crew pushes the car by pushing at the top of the wind shield, which, on these cars, isn’t really structural. Perhaps it… Read more »

Richard Wrightman

Superb and congratulations Petrolicious! Would love to know the back story.

A Dias

Stunning documentary! Superbly done!

Robert Little

“It gave me shivers up and down my spine…” As one of the few Americans to ever work the Targa Florio…..a member of the Alfa Romeo Autodelta team in 1972…even after 44 years the quality of the video is something only one’s heart can adequately describe. And as odd as it appears at first glance, I am the proud owner of a new Boxster confirming everything that Mr. Bell said about the design of the 718. For those who are interested in witnessing the 1972 Targa Florio from purely personal standpoint, you are welcome to visit my worldwide historical site… Read more »

Riccardo

Hmmm… nice video (as always) but its just some rather desperate and cynical attempt by Porsche to try and associate the new 718 with the original one in the hope that people buy into its “heritage” which it doesn’t have! I suspected all along that the new 718 would be wheeled in at some stage, just hoping that it wouldn’t be so… but alas it was, which is when I stopped this silly “infommercial”!

Hated it.

Patrick Peters

You actually hated it?….. Riccardo you are a spoiled brat

bob knox

I loved the video and especially the original 718. The end exemplifies EXACTLY what is wrong with modern cars. Did you see how massive the new 718 looks compared to the original? What a joke. Strip it down to nothing with no reliability nightmare technology and I’ll consider buying one for the $20k it’s actually worth. Best driving cars in the world only for the 0.01\% (911R anyone??).

Derek Richards

nice film, thank you. The barbers was a nice touch. If I add my critical opinion (for what its worth), Bell was a bit repetitive and the music was cheesy and felt slapped on. Good sound on the engine though, lovely pics…. and DB is such a gentleman. Thanks again.

Steely

Nice one Petrolicious, really nice to see Derek Bell & the (old) 718 on the roads of the Florio, legends all three.

Bohemianracer

Excellent video, I’ll take the old Porsche. The new Porsche looks horrible with an automatic (PDK).

Matthew Lange

Loved it one of Petrolicious’ best films to date. As with the 250GTO film any chance of a raw version of just Bell at the wheel?

Christopher Gay

I was thinking the same.

Michael

I too was thinking of the Hill GTO as well while watching the short film. Very well done!

Lorenzo Gironzini

YEAH ! thanks Porsche for making this possible! amazing video and well done Petrolicious, with the top names backing you up now I really want to see what you could do next 🙂 !! After the MilleMiglia Mercedes now it’s the Porsche in Sicilia. For the next one can you make it a Jaguar in LeMans ?

Keith

I’m digging this idea!

Stephan P

Probably one of the best…..until the end.
I didn’t realize “in partnership” meant it was going to be an ad.
Small price to pay, I guess.

Hard to get much better than this!!! SPECTACULAR! Love the cinematography, the voice over, everything just came together perfectly in this video. Love it! Keep on rocking Petrolicious, love what you do.

Guitar Slinger

Beautiful cinematography , well edited and decent if a bit over emotive and out of context [ for the area and scenery ] music , But then with Porsche’s influence no doubt they go and ruin it all at the end by in any way trying to compare the original 917 to that asthmatic travesty now posing as a modern [ cough ] 917 . Still though Petrolicious .. one of your best by far despite the ‘ product placement ‘ … albeit not the best . That honor still goes to the Garage Novo video .

Ted Gushue

How hard did you try to edit your comment to correct your 917/718 confusion?

Clayton Merchant

Yeah, little tough to confuse those two.

JB21

I knew this was a TV commercial for new 718. But that’s okay, it’s great, great to see this car, and great to see Derek Bell.

Casual Observer

Nice edit.

Todd Torabi

Fantastic film, worth the wait!

KevinCamp

Well done! A favorite marque with a favorite driver at the wheel.

Join the Family

How was the drive?

Reset Your Password

The Porsche 718 Is A Living Legacy

Leave a Reply