What, a story about a Porsche? Well, Porsches are the Editor’s first love, and when journalist Peter Münder submitted this great story about Doc Brandenburg, we couldn’t resist…You’ll enjoy.
Story and photos by Peter Münder
Erik Brandenburg, a 45 year old Hamburg proctologist, is certainly a very particular type of weightwatcher: While he is preparing his 36 year old Porsche 911-Safari for the African Eco Race from Morocco to Dakar/Senegal (December 27th-January 8th 2012), he seems to balance a pair of scales in his mind. The safety cage consisting of fat white steel tubes (over fifty yards worth!) is of course fairly heavy. But, then, he reckons, the new carbon fiber- doors only weigh six pounds, and by stripping the interior carpets, back seats and the insulation foam, the 911 lost even more weight. Now the car is down to only 2200 pounds including two electric winches with remote control and a pair of spades fixed on the roof.
Erik Brandenburg has rebuilt and bought various 911 models, he owns around a dozen and uses this one as a test car to prepare for difficult terrain similar to the Africa Eco race.
Brandenburg further believes that the 4WD SUVs he is competing against in the Africa Race will weigh twice as much and will consequently get stuck in the desert sands very soon after take off. Despite running an ancient Porsche, he has already won several trophies in the Camel and Marlboro-Races and showed a bunch of brand new factory supported Porsche Cayenne SUVs in the Russian Trans-Siberian-Race from Moscow to Mongolia (a stretch of 4500 miles) who is the ‘Offroad King.’ Brandenburg does not plan to get stuck. He has just installed a small fire extinguisher instead of a large heavy one to save more weight; the new gear box with a low ratio is in good shape. He raised the chassis to a ground clearance of 31 cm. “I’ll take the chain saw along which was so useful in Siberia and then I just have to wait for the delivery of the special American anchor,” he explains. An anchor for the African desert? “If you are stuck in these areas where you can´t fix the winch to a tree, you just drop the anchor, attach the winch and off you go!” Aha!
The 6 cylinder air-cooled engine, 265 HP: It´s as simple, solid and reliable as a classical Beetle engine. The only difference are two additional cylinders and (alot) more power, claims the Doc.
Erik is a keen racer, hunter and collector. In several huge barns near the Baltic Sea he keeps several other 911s and also more than a dozen Motocross motorbikes (Maico, Puch, BMW) which he raced as a teenager. He started fixing bikes and engines when he was twelve and rapidly moved on to Motocross races. When he was 18, he borrowed 8000 German marks from his father to buy a damaged 911 from a scrapyard to restore the engine and the body. “But then I had an almost fatal accident, crashing into a concrete pillar doing 8o mph.
Erik meets up with a neighbor at his storage barn near the Baltic Sea who is a German Rallye champion and also a 911 owner.
“Not using the safety belt resulted in a nine day coma and severe speech impediments. It was a miracle I survived this idiotic adventure.” It took him several months to recover and undergo successful rehabilitation. No wonder he appears to experience a “carpe diem” feeling: Couldn’t any day be his last day? Shouldn’t he get his maximum kicks out of all these exciting races and try to push everything to the limit?
The blue-white Martini-Porsche (left) is the actual racing Safari which the Doc uses in the Africa Eco Race, the Land Rover at the rear is owned by the photographer Robert Kranz who has joined the Doc carrying spare parts.
He knows all the nuts, bolts and screws of his 6 cylinder, 3 liter, 260 HP Safari 911 (max. speed 145 mph) which he restored with the help of his co-pilot Wolfgang Starkloff. He pits his old Porsche against brand new fully equipped factory supported SUVs like the 500 HP Cayenne. Erik is not a Hi-Tech nerd. “I believe in repairing, restoring and doing it all myself. I can certainly do without these modern gimmicks like ABS, ESP, airbags, rain and light sensors and all that,” he states categorically and points out that “…a Porsche 911 is very similar to a VW Beetle and just as simple and reliable. The major difference is the two additional cylinders.”
During the grueling Siberian race in 2007 he crashed on to primitive gravel paths after flying across a wide river at full speed. When he had to repair and exchange both axles, he managed this within one hour. Erik also had to drift across rivers using special wheels on the 911 or by building his own raft. And yet after the event, he only changed the oil. “The engine is unbelievable! I didn´t even have to check the valves preparing for the Dakar-Race.”
In Camel-Trophy and Marlboro-Rallies in South America and Colorado Erik became an experienced adventurer, learning how to cross rivers on a self-constructed raft or drifting through jungles on barely visible paths. And he saved the lives of two British drivers who nearly drowned when they crashed into a river and could not open the doors of their submerged Land Rover. Erik had noticed the accident when driving right behind them and didn´t hesitate to jump into the river, dive down and pull as hard as possible to open the doors.
Erik follows the Land Rover and parts car on the autobahn from Hamburg to Lübeck and the Baltic Sea.
During our various test drives around the countryside near Hamburg we, drove through forest paths and huge craters in remote gravel pits; we climbed mountains surrounded by really dense reed which covered all the windows and started to smoke and burn since it got stuck in the rear covering the engine. “Ah, what a great smell!” Erik exclaimed enthusiastically. “This is a perfect spot for environmentalists like me— just inhale this perfect touch of nature!”
Off Road Testing: High hills, huge reed, rough underground: ideal conditions for the 911 Safari.
Eventually we ended up in his storage barns near the Baltic Sea, where Erik collected a hunting rifle and a Magnum 357 which he wants to take along to Africa. “You never know what the rebels and terrorists in Mauretania are up to these days,” he said.
I could see why Erik got the nickname “Crazy Doc“ when he wanted to demonstrate the special advantages of his heavy duty Michelin tires with special metal inlays. Doing around 60 mph on a country road he suddenly swerved at right angle directly into a tough kerb marking the footpath. A tremendous jolt, yet nothing happened. No damage done to the steering or the suspension “Isn’t it fantastic what tremendous shocks these tires can absorb? Any other car would have turned over! Incredible, isn’t it?”
Approaching the Autobahn access for the northern lanes to Lübeck, Erik chose to accelerate and head straight for the bushes and trees on the shoulder and to race around the trees as if we were on a real Safari. All the time this master of perpetual multi-tasking is on the phone talking to sponsors or the medical staff from his practice or sipping a Cafe latte from a paper cup.
Odin the African eagle is taken for an hour's flight every day- in a custom made wooden box fitting into the 911.
When we finally reach his house, he disappears into a huge wooden hut which serves as a cage for his magnificent African eagle Odin. “I have to take Odin for his one hour flight around the forest now,” he explains. “He needs his flight and I need my walk around the forest- we are both craving for some intense natural experiences.” Then he stuffs Odin into a custom made wooden box fitting perfectly into the Porsche and off they roar into a well known nature reserve on the outskirts of Hamburg. What a guy! What a car!
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Peter Münder is a journalist based in Hamburg who freelances for Spiegel Magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Berliner Zeitung and the Youngtimer Car Magazine Abgefahren. He received a Ph.D. in English Literature from Hamburg University and published a biography of the British dramatist and Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter. As a student he delivered second hand cars (mostly Peugeot 504 and Mercedes 220s) for Iranian car dealers driving overland to Teheran, then traveled on to India and to Kathmandu/Nepal. He is still fascinated by fast cars but so far has never raced any.
wow how does one get to communicate with doc brandenburg?
gabriel valdes
philippines