Every so often in the world of rallying something a little different comes along.
While fields over the years have been dominated by cars of different eras – Ford Escorts, Mazda rotaries, Subaru’s, Mitsubishi’s, Datsun’s, Toyota’s – to name a few, the appearance of a Porsche on a rally is not unheard of but it is rare.
There will be two when the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland, Round 3 of the Brian Green Property Group NZ Rally Championship, takes place on Saturday (18 July).
One, built by the Paddon Rally Group in Cromwell, will be debuted in the event by Andy Martin of Tauranga and the other will be driven by Ari Pettigrew of Ohoka who sits fourth in both the NZ Rally Championship and Mainland Rally Series.
Pettigrew’s car came from a 911 GT3 Cup Car from Highlands Motorsport Park which couldn’t be road registered so a flood damaged 997 was purchased and the engine, electrics and sequential gearbox were taken from the race car and installed in the road car.
Ari admits the Porsche is not really designed for rallying and a lot of engineering has gone into it. It took one year to build.
“It is definitely a lot of fun,” he says. “I don’t know where the limit of the car is but we are already past where I expected it to be,” says Ari.
Ari has never done a Wyndham Rally from which many of the early stages of the rally this weekend are derived from but he says, “new roads are exciting. It is fun for us these days. That is the main reason why we do it. Roads we have never been on before are exciting.”
Cars leave Wyndham on Saturday 28 July 2026 at 8.30am before tackling seven high speed Special Stages before the event concludes at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill at 3.45pm.
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