May 2022 Featured Car

The Legendary Porsche

There is a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR (RennSport Rennwagen or Rallye Sport Racer) owned by Chris Banning. Banning is a serious, intellectual type who lives near Mulholland and built his own racer after deciding that the fastest production Porsche wasn't fast enough to make him King of Mulholland. With advice and consultation from the Porsche Works in Weissach, Germany, where he laid out $25,000 for competition parts, Banning turned a 1973 Porsche Carrera into a 165-mph racecar.

This car is no ordinary 1973 Porsche 911. In fact, it is gone through extensive modifications to become the legend it is. The chassis mods include lowering the center of gravity by dropping the roofline and tilting the front windscreen back for less aerodynamic drag and a better drag coefficient. Being rear-weight biased, the rear shock mounts were cut and extended, which lowered the ride height and provided suspension travel for Mulholland’s undulations. The car was modified to the short hood configuration around 1975. The top was chopped (and a lot of other body mods) by Arnie Verbiesen. Banning started buying RSR bits and pieces and got it to the point it is today.

“Arnie did some of the bodywork. However, he had someone working with him that was a metalworking genius, I think Don was his name. As I recall he is the one that replaced the fiberglass flares with Porsche steel ones and did the laid-back roof. It's really not a chop top since it takes a stock windshield. Cuts were made at the cowl panel and roof line and the roof was simply pushed back. This effectively lowered the roof line 2 inches. Also, the drip rails were cut making for much smoother lines and the rear window was brought flush for aerodynamics. The front and back were clipped to accommodate the later style bumpers making it look like a 1976 modified Turbo Carrera somewhat. The whole body was acid dipped to remove about 400 pounds of metal, sound deadener and undercoating. Less weight, faster car. Many more modifications were done”.

Banning spent a year on designing and building a high-capacity dry-sump oil cooling system with sensors to open and close external radiators to maintain constant oil temperatures under all conditions, the fabrication of a full roll cage and chassis stiffener of space-age aluminum compound, the installation of brakes from the legendary 917 racecar and 9-inch wheels in front and 11-inch wheels in back. The tires are made of racing rubber that wears out after three or four runs on the street. Porsche engineers only wish they had built this car.

Banning was introduced to readers of The Times in 1982. He was 26 and known as the King of the Hill. “My dream was to build the fastest car on Mulholland,” Banning had once said and with a hand-built, acid-dipped Porsche 911 Carrera — roof chopped and lowered for greater aerodynamics and an engine that could grind out almost 180 mph — he achieved his dream. James Dean is said to have tested his silver Porsche 550 Spyder on these curves before driving it to a race in Salinas that he never made.

"I'll take on anybody in anything on Mulholland with this car," Chris says with the pride of a father of newborn twins. "There are cars that can go faster on a race course but nothing that could go faster on Mulholland than this. I designed and calibrated the suspension — the shocks, the torsion bars, the stabilizer bars, everything — for this road. I don't use it for anything else. It's really just a toy." A $40,000 toy to play with two or three times a month.

"I'll never stop for the police in my car," Chris says. "Not if they're after me with the militia. There are people out there who work for the city who want to get me, but there's no way anybody can catch me in this car. I wouldn't stop if they set up a barricade. If they caught me, they'd impound the car and mess it up. I'd kill myself if anything happened to this car. I love it more than anything."

Just a few of us drove like we wanted to tempt fate, "to the ragged edge" I always liked saying. Another was, "If I die then I die but make no mistake, I'll die with my foot on the gas and not on the brake", or "If in doubt, go flat out!"

“I had a very special relationship with Charlie, no not that kind! We crossed paths both on Mulholland and at his shop where he helped me sort out my SCCA Camaro A Sedan. We knew who we were, and even after many hours of talk, neither of us brought up the subject of Mulholland. It was a special understanding we had. Charlie was the reason, the only reason that I built a custom-built Porsche racecar made just for Mulholland. One night in 1974, I was racing along Mulholland with my sidekick Bruce in my silver '73 911S. I loved to drive by Grandstands and goad those folks out to race to improve my racing skills. One night right in front of Grandstands, a dark old pickup passed me without headlights. I never saw him coming. I immediately pursued, but this guy was all over the road, making it impossible to pass. I saw a beer can go out the driver’s window just before lower Coldwater. Finally, in European Straight, I began to make a pass. This guy was not going to let me in, I had to complete the pass entering the first left hander, I think the little Porsche went up on 2 wheels as I barely, and I mean barely recovered the car. Bruce was punching me as we passed Brando's house because he thought that there was no way of making that alive. I was barely able to make ground in the next half mile. just enough to escape and disappear just as he had appeared without headlights on. When I hear that Mulholland Charlie (and don't forget HE IS the legend) was never beaten on Mulholland, even in his pickup, I just smile and remember that after that evening I realized that there was no way to compete with the best with only a 911S to bring to the table. Hence the reason for the Mulholland Carrera RSR. By the way, I thank the Lord that Charlie and I never raced our big racecars. It would have ended up with at least one fatality, and that would have been unacceptable for him or myself.

Let none of us forget those that have gone, we especially want to give tribute and remembrance to the legend of Mulholland, Charlie Woit, may his lore last forever”.

“I almost died on Mulholland in 1979 when I came out the closed window of my Z28 at about 90 mph when I hit an oncoming car. At the point of impact, I was pedal to the metal at 85 mph with no seatbelt. It was the first and last time that I went flying without any wings or blades. I believe the spirit of Mulholland saved me that morning”.

Chris Banning’s infamous 1973 Porsche Carrera 911 RSR Mulholland Drive Racer.

This photo was taken in about 1979 before an evening of fun on Mulholland. I had taken a flat out run to the San Diego Freeway and was coming back when I stopped at Horseshoe. Horseshoe was the circular turn opposite the 99 Fire station where some would hang out when Grandstands was too hot with Police patrols. This circular drive was in fact the old Mulholland as it was in the 60's before they made the big wide straightaway between Benedict and Beverly Glen.

I pull into the circular drive and park to talk to some of my friends. All of a sudden, a Police car pulls up fast to the curb on Mulholland opposite where I'm parked. They put a searchlight on and start scanning the area. They see my silver Porsche, and the light goes off. They then accelerate into the drive. Steve B. says to me, "Chris, you better get out of here". Without thinking, I get into my car and close the door as the cops were opening theirs. They came up to my car on either side with flashlights on pointing into my interior. They had to stoop since my car is very low to the ground with a lowered roof. I had my left hand on the ignition key, my left foot into the clutch, and my right foot depressing the throttle to the floor. The officer leaned down to look into my drivers open window. We had eye contact... I engaged the key. The car was already hot and it sprang to life. At about 6000 rpm, I dumped the clutch and the Blue Streak tires grabbed asphalt. The headlights went up into the air as the little 911 did a wheelie.

I was so scared that I never let off the gas. As I exited the circular drive, I dented the front valence and blasted home going east. By the time the cops got back into their car and onto Mulholland, I was passing Deep Canyon at 120mph. I got home, covered my car, and watched Mulholland as more cops showed up all over the place.

Now, every night for about 2 weeks these same cops were coming up to Mulholland to look for the guy with the silver Porsche. They harassed just about everybody looking for me. That is why you see my RSR parked inside my living room. I had to keep in the house for six months until I felt it was safe to put it back into the carport outside again.

If any law enforcement is reading this, I want you to know that those days are gone and you don't have to come looking for me.

This is a better-quality photo of the Porsche RSR in the living room. Next to me is Bruce K. He was my racing sidekick in the mid-seventies when I was driving a 1973 911S on Mulholland. When the Carrera was done in 1976, he stopped riding with me. He said that it was too stupid and dangerous to be my passenger. That's when I began to hang out with the “regulars” thanks to John H.

If you look carefully, you can see some of the body modifications. Cut drip rails, turbo body style, large whale tail, 9- and 11-inch alloys with Goodyear racing tires, and of course the famous sloped roof. You will also notice a silver colored roll cage. That is T6 alloy, twice as strong as steel in compression strength, with one-fifth the weight. It was designed and built by John Mason Engineering at quite a cost. The roll cage extends from the rear of the car to the front and forms a kind of tubular chassis.

The cage is gusseted to all chassis members such as the rear deck, the four window pillars, floor mounts and integrated into the entire dashboard.