Stephen Radcliffe pauses for a moment, then gives his verdict. “I have to say,” he begins, his broad Yorkshire accent leaving no ambiguity regarding which part of the world he hails from, “the 964 was never really a particularly good race car, especially when you compare it to the abilities of its successor, the 993.” This is an intriguing observation from somebody who not only has bucketloads of experience campaigning Porsches in the crucible of motorsport, but was also dead set on upgrading his 964 Carrera 2 into specification matching that of same-age Cup cars.
He bought the air-cooled classic in January 2006, but began competing with Porsches more than a decade earlier. “I raced a Carrera RS 2.7 back in 1992. The car was prepared and run by Chris Mellors, head of Mellors Elliot Motorsport.” A well-known name on the British rallying scene, Mellors was often sideways in a variety of formidable four-wheelers, most notably the mighty Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and MG Metro 6R4, which he made good use of in the 1980s. 911 & Porsche World readers might also know the Mellors name from our November 2023 issue, where we showcased the 987-based 914 restomod developed by Fifteen Eleven Design, a subsidiary of Mellors Elliot Motorsport, which has twelve FIA World Rally Championship titles to its name and is currently running Proton’s works rally team to great effect.
“I was very successful with the RS,” Stephen tells us. “I was competingfirst privateer 968 race cars, certainly in the UK, and was instantly successful. The 968 really is an amazing Porsche. I won a handsome number of events that season and scored first-in-class. Again, Chris Mellors was taking care of vehicle preparation. For 1995, however, I ditched the 968 in favour of a 964.”
