Patrick Long Has Never Serviced His TAG Heuer Carrera

When two-time Le Mans class winner Patrick Long invited me to drive one of his air-cooled Porsches in the canyons overlooking the Malibu coast, I cleared my schedule. Just ahead of Luftgekült 12, which debuts near Atlanta on October 10, the champion race driver and Luft founder reached out to offer me seat time in one of four of his tantalizing P cars: a 1957 356, 1966 912, 1972 911 RS Carrera tribute car, or 1996 993 Carrera 2.

I was born in ‘72, so the choice was easy. Long’s 2.7 RS tribute car happens to be the most intriguingly altered pick of the air-cooled bunch. The meticulously modified 911 has been transformed into a potent, race-worthy road car that emulates the four RS mule prototypes that lacked the final product’s ducktail spoiler. Its 2.4 liter engine was bored to 2.7 RS spec and it produces some 220 hp— more than the RS it emulates, complementing a package that packs higher performance components while staying true to the original’s spirit. Long worked assiduously with experts in the field to fine tune its suspension into just the right combination of sharp-edged and livable, and my drive was peak air-cooled perfection. Here are highlights from my drive with racer and Luftgekült founder Patrick Long.

Crown & Caliber: What are we driving today, Patrick?

Patrick Long: This is my 1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS tribute car. It was originally [Flying Lizard racing founder] Craig Watkins’s, who found it in a classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. I bought it in 2016 from [racer] Johannes van Overbeek, who was inspired by the prototype 2.7 RSs which were mules for the Carrera RS. It was originally a 911 T but has Carrera [rear fender] flares and weighs in the low 2,000 pounds. Because there weren’t really impact bumper regulations up until the end of ’73, you just can’t subtract weight like that any more.

It’s Aubergine, which is like a PTS [Paint to Sample] color back in the day before PTS was a thing. It’s like a deep purple; in low light it looks black, and the highlights look purple or something in between.

C&C: And what’s on your wrist?

PL: I brought two TAG Heuers with me today: The Carrera was just my first little mini splurge when I was a works driver. I finished my first season in 2004 and this watch had just come out. I just liked its size and I liked sort of the timeless classic band. And I liked its price point. I think it was like $1,800. And I've never serviced it, I've never done anything to it; I just wear the shit out of it and love it. And now obviously it's a great fit because we’ve been working together with Luft and TAG Heuer for a few years.

My other TAG was a gift from Patrick Dempsey when we were racing together. We raced at Le Mans in 2013, 2014 and 2015. And then in 2015 we traveled the world in WEC; he’s a TAG ambassador, and this was a gift.

C&C: I noticed you’re wearing it on your right wrist. Are you a lefty?

PL: No, I’m right handed! I always just wore watches on the right. I’m always reaching into overhead bins or working on motorcycles, and my watches get banged around. Yeah, I've sent a few back for repair [laughs].

C&C: I can't help but smile as you're telling me this. I'm listening, but it’s so pleasurable to drive this 911.

PL: Yeah, there's a little bit of backfire popping and spitting. We work a lot on the kinematics and the geometry of how cars that I'm involved with handle. I think they should be responsive yet compliant and they have to have a connection. I mean, I often talk about roll connection and racing. That's what I always worked for in my day job: how does the front and the rear work together?

C&C: There's a weird duality of it that feels flat, but it feels compliant. You don’t have to drive a car very fast to know its character. And I’m getting so much character at, like, 30 miles per hour.

PL: Yeah. I think that that's the essence of why I love vintage cars, is that you don't have to be ripping into 8,000 RPM to feel the emotion and the connection to the road. This car is period but performance based, so I would almost liken it to a [911] GT3 Touring of today. So a little stiffer, a little lower, but still a car that you could comfortably drive a thousand miles and it wasn't going to beat you up.

I put period seats in it, things of that nature, but I’m really just kind of the next caretaker. And yeah, it's basically everything that I believe a 27 RS could be with what we know today, custom gear ratios, all the technical stuff, hand valve dampers, et cetera, but not more power. So it's not a big monster EFI 3.6 [liter engine] like a lot of people do with restomods. It really should give you the spirit of a ’72 Carrera mule, if you will. So 2.7 Carrera Plus.

C&C: How much of that do you want people to see when they walk up to it?

PL: All my cars are sort of sleepers. So they should look period. And you could believe if you walk up to it that this came out of a dealer in 72 and that always sparks conversation and memories. I don't really want to rewrite history. I just want to tweak on it and enjoy these cars. I let the normal wear and tear exist on the car. The front is PPF [Paint Protection Film-coated], so I can drive it hard; I can drive this thing a thousand miles. I don't treat it like a show car. I drive it hard.

It's the original Bosch MFI [mechanical fuel injection], which gives you a different sound. It's not as crisp as EFI, but it's period and it's tricky to tune. A lot of people got rid of them back in the day. But otherwise it's got a little bit bigger brake, a couple of cheater items, a little bigger brake caliper. The diff is a little more tweaked. You'll feel it's a little bit more race-esque, it’s got hand valve dampers, custom sway bars. So yeah, it's meant to be something that you can daily drive, but if someone comes up behind you and you want to get away from them, you should be able to.

C&C: Speaking of air-cooled, tell me about Luft. How’d that get started?

PL: Luftgekühlt is essentially a translation of air-cooled, and it’s a celebration of a period of time where Porsche was building these cars that were cooled by oil and air. Back to the driving experience, they were very lightweight with very limited metal parts. The idea of Luftgekühlt was to drive and experience these cars. And just you and I today— how many times has someone driven by and made a comment or asked a question— these cars spark up so much conversation and curiosity.

I realized that a lot of people just wanted to know more about Porsche's history. So I decided in 2014 with the help of a few friends to throw a car party from the perspective of how to share these cars as art, but also how do you create an experience that if you're not a car enthusiast is still enjoyable. If you’re not into art but you go to a gallery cocktail reception, is there enough there for you to keep you engaged? It’s grown a life of its own.

Luft 12 is coming up October 10th in the Atlanta area; that’s 13 years for us with a pandemic pause. Part of it is finding a venue that is completely immersive and tells an experience and gives the attendees something beyond the cars. Again, it's all about cross pollinating and opening up people's eyes to these amazing cars, both race-prepared and daily-street driven cars.

C&C: I’m fascinated by the regionality of Luft [past Stateside locations have included Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Durham; international destinations have included the UK, Germany, Poland and Japan]. What can we expect from Atlanta that we haven't seen in other areas?

PL: The town of Trilith is south of Atlanta, outside of Fayetteville. It's 27 sound stages where a lot of the Marvel movies have been shot recently. Atlanta is a huge center for cinematography and filmmaking. And with that, we found an area that's entirely a makeshift pop-up town in the middle of rural Georgia, and it just hit all the boxes for architectural diversity. There's a high street, movie theaters, a hotel, residential and it still has sound stages and container yards and some of that grit that you would expect from Georgia, but in such a polished and decadent way that it was just too perfect for us to pass up.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.