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bodywork, sills mainly. Then one day a client asked if
I’d like to help him race his Porsche, so I built an
engine and prepared the car in the evenings in my
spare time. We’d go racing at the weekends and be
back running the business during the week. I didn’t
get paid for this but he let me put my name on the
car in return for the work. That’s how PARR
Motorsport and everything we do today started.”
PARR Motorsport soon outgrew its original five-car
workshop in Old Coulsdon, Surrey and, in 1994, the
setup moved down the road to Godstone, primarily
to allow the motorsport side of the business to have
its own workshop, such was the level of involvement
the company now had in this area. “At one point we
were running GT1s in the British GTs, 993 GT2s at
Le Mans and in the BPR series, as well as running a
number of club racers,” Paul explains. But he’s keen
to point out the motorsport side of things has only
ever been one aspect of the company: “There was a
time, and in some people’s eyes there probably still
is, a feeling that we are first and foremost a
motorsport team but I’ve never stopped the service
side of the business and in many respects it’s the
most important thing we do. We’ve met some great
people through the servicing side of the business,
and in recent years it has really taken off.”
However, it was the motorsport connection that
allowed PARR to establish itself as one of the leaders
in the field of the 911 GT3. It’s suspension and brake
modifications and setups have made it one of
Europe’s number one ‘go to’ firms for the GT3 track
driver. “A GT3 driver is very knowledgeable about the
car and what they want to get out it. Yes, we get the
odd one that would be better off with some driver
training instead of sending their car to us, but the
majority of owners you can sit down with and they’ll
provide you with the feedback we need to set the
car up the way they want it. If needs be, we can also
go to the track with them to find those last few
tenths they are looking for, but that rarely happens,”
Paul elaborates.
Yet it’s not just in creating GT3 setups for banzai
laps of Brands Hatch, Spa or the ‘Ring where PARR
utilises its resources and skill set. “The road car side
of the business has been the busiest this year than
in any other,” says Paul. “We haven’t done anything
different but we are now getting a much broader
selection of Porches through the workshop. Most
recently we’ve had a Boxster that need servicing and
a Cayenne with piston failure that needed a new
engine.” Ah, the thorny subject of Porsche reliability.
Having worked with Porsches for over a quarter of a
century, and having run Porsche Cars Great Britain’s
VIP cars in the Carrera Cup GB for a number of
years, Paul is as good as person as any to ask about
Porsche’s recent reliability woes.
“When we started it used to be 944s owned by
the city boys that kept the workshop busy. They
never kept an eye on the oil level and the number
two cylinder would go. We were up and down to
London collecting ‘44s seemingly everyday. We
couldn’t move for them,” laughs Paul.
“Air injection and valve guides on early 911
engines aside, you could carry out a rebuild at
150,000 miles for £2,000 and not see the car again
until it had done another 150,000 miles. They were
remarkable engines. The quality of the engineering
that went in to them also meant that if anything else
went wrong it was always repairable and never that
expensive. Today it’s a different story.
“With the 996 engine, the problem is that no one
actually knows what the problem is! Two identical
cars could live the same life and one will have an
engine failure and the other won’t, and the customer
can’t understand this. Neither can we! Porsche
obviously know it’s a problem because they will
PARR Motorsport
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