Sunday 13th April was Eggenberger Motorenbau's annual "Open House" day. Each year, they open the workshops up to let customers and enthusiasts take a look around and ask questions about the machines, dyno room, engine building room and the customer cars on display.
Unlike when I dropped the RS500 there a fortnight ago, the weather was great. Bright sunshine and very warm. There were some guys in a burger van dishing out the food and drinks, loads of different and quite unique cars in the car park but most importantly for me, Herr Eggenberger was there.
I arrived about 11h30, said hello to Lothar and René, the two guys that are looking after my car before checking the old girl over. They'd propped open the bonnet and rolled the drivers window down to let people have a nose round. I was going to take a microfibre and misting wax up there to give her a quick wax, but thought the guys would either take the mickey or get offended as if I thought they weren't looking after the car, so I didn't bother.
Lothar mentioned the car had got a lot of attention since it had been there. Aparrently, everyone that saw it asked roughly the same three questions :
1. Is it a real RS500...?
2. Where did you get it...?
3. Is it for sale...?
Nice to see the old girl was being enjoyed anyway. I chatted to a great bloke, Jon Oakley of Oakley Design - His company produces proper tuning parts for Porsches. When I say proper tuning, I mean properly developed, proven and homologated parts, not bolt on shite from China. His stuff is so good, Porsche are now contracting him to supply OEM for them...! Good lad. One of his development cars was there - a gorgeous 997 GT3 with all his tuning parts on.
After chatting to Jon for a couple of hours, I clocked Herr Eggenberger inside chatting on his phone by my car, so figured I'd wait till he'd done and go have a chat. As it happens I didn't get to talk to him until around 4pm. By this time, everyone apart from myself and my mate Nick (a fellow Cosworth owner - just had his EsCos restored and it looks superb) had gone home. I spent a couple of hours chatting with Herr Eggenberger about "the good old days". What can I say...? It was an absolute honour, the bloke is a gent. We had a great laugh and either he thought I was a complete nutcase coming up with obscure facts about his cars that even he had to think about, or that I was his company's biggest fan.
I learned a lot about not just the motorsport side of things, but also the homologation and creation of the RS500 and his involvement with Ford Motorsport and Stuart Turner. I won't regale what was said on a public forum as it's unfair but there's a few tales that were very interesting...!
The end result is he was genuinely thrilled to see the car there. Just look at his face in the pics - big smile. For those that remember seeing him on the old touring car videos, he doesn't change does he...?
One last thing. Lothar found the original Texaco "Works" pit crew overalls from 1987 in the basement. He gave me one to go with the car. Made my day...!
Anyways, enough of my waffle. Enjoy the photos...! Sorry some are a bit blurry, my camera battery was a bit dodgy and the flash didn't fire sometimes when it needed to, but you get the idea... :
On the way up the A1. Glorious weather.
Flags and tables outside and a good crown at 11.30am.
As Egmo now specialise in air-cooled, it's no surprise to see a lot of clean VWs and Porsches.
A bit variety of cars. Egmo do a lot of bespoke work for "Oldtimer" cars.
Plymouth something. Not sure what but it should be called the Plymouth Meat.
Jon Oakley's lovely 997 GT3. Serious, serious kit on this car.
Miss five-hundy gets attention.
Gratituous photo.
That lovely 911E from the previous thread is there still.
Out with the 2.0 litre, in with a 3.0 litre from an SC. Tidy.
You said it. You made us proud lads...!!!
Quite a few ricers there but with some very well engineered body work. It has to be good, else it won't get homologated so you don't get shite in Switzerland. Apart from that Pious.
A couple of tidy Golfs with cages and ICE.
Bright yellow 'scort with furry dice.
2.3S Capri
And again. Yes, the green was that bright...!
Alfa summat or other. Looks like a submarine...!!!
Caterfield and I think a Simca or an Alpine or something...???
They call him the ban-dit...
Indoor benches weren't needed - weather was baking.
That YBD again.
Won again...? Yep. Proper engineering is what it's about. Even made a frigging 240 Volvo go fast..
Dyno control booth.
Stripped YBD on the dyno.
Who's that git...?
Cool RS500 model. About three feet long...!
Austin Healey that's being restored.
Prepped YB head.
Just in case you weren't a Cossie fan...
That ruddy car again. Blah blah.
Tuned Evo.
Mean bike - Egmo did the engine tuning on it. Beautiful detailing on this thing.
YB cam covers anyone. Pick a colour...
More YB heads.
"The Wheel"
Smartie Blue Bug was very clean.
Back end of that Trans Am.
Plymouth Meat. Check the size of that rear glass...!!!
This was Odd. Its blatantly a VW Polo, but it's an Audi.
Very green Bug.
Is this a Kubelwagen...?
De Tomaso Pantera. Italian styling. American V8. Bliss.
Another clean Bug.
Pantera.
Clean 911 Targa.
Nick's lovely Escos WITH rear wing (very rare in Switzerland).
Nice isn't it...?
YBD number of the motor on the dyno.
Camilla. Herr Eggenberger's dog (I know, I am scraping the barrel here, but she's as cute a carpet shark as you ever saw)
WAIT...! Who's that fella there...? That's your money shot lads. Herr Ruedi Eggenberger with my car. Can't tell you how long I waited for that.
Me and my new bessie mate. Utterly utterly top bloke. Never stopped smiling and laughing. Massively enthusiastic about the RS500. Yes, I'm wearing my 20th Anniversary RS500 shirt with pride...!
On the way home following Nick in his Escos.
Light the blue touch paper and run like hell...
Bit fuzzy. Sorry Nick, I was driving, err allegedly, I mean, err, someone else was...
par Nick02 » 15 Avr 2008 22:57 
When I watch the videos on YouTube, the crowd always gives him a huge cheer. I think he is a rally hero in France for sure...!
