Ricci's Garage: uh oh, another tow truck pic... this time featuring the 911 GT3 RS

Internationally renowned photographer Mark has been working with TG for many, many years. When not taking photos he’s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world

Earlier in the week, a message from film master Neil Carey landed in my inbox, stating “I wonder how many tow truck pics you’ve got?” Despite not sounding particularly thought provoking, it did send me down a recovery shaped rabbit hole to find out just how many images we’re dealing with.

Neilo’s brain can be a fascinating place at the best of times, but there was a catalyst behind this message. One uploaded to my Instagram stories featuring a car I hoped wouldn’t be seen on a tow truck much, my 991.1 GT3 RS.

A few years ago I bought a 991.1 GT3 – the ones famed for having a slightly explodey engine which Porsche then warrantied for 10 years after. I bought this to replace some of the less reliable tat I’d spent years mucking about with, so inevitably the GT3 proceeded to crap itself 10 months into ownership. And a week after spending £2,300 on a major service for it. Thankfully it still had a warranty, so it was fixed and quickly part exchanged with a 991.1 GT3 RS just before interest rates rocketed in late 2022. The RS features a different engine altogether – 4.0 litres in displacement, a lower rev limit and many more revisions to combat the issues faced by earlier GT3s.

This ownership started a little bit shaky too. After picking it up from Porsche Wolverhampton, it had to be recovered 70 miles later because a tech slightly forgot to put enough oil back in the engine after its presale service. Then, a few months later, the oil level sensor decided to go on strike, forcing it into limp mode. Twice. This was quickly resolved, just in time for the tracker module to go haywire and completely lock the car down while 15 miles from home.

But after that, all has been good. Until last week. After moving it a full 10 metres from the road and onto my drive, a few spots of oil appeared underneath. Porsche Assistance kindly sent an AA tech out to inspect it, who was very nice even if he did conclude there was no visible leak and noted it was fine to drive. Which was a bit off because there was very real oil underneath it.

Fast forward 12 hours and, while driving down to Goodwood in the rain, I noticed a lot of spray behind the car. Unfortunately, it’d stopped raining about 30 minutes ago, and that spray turned out to be quite a lot of oil. The underneath now resembled a BP oil spill minus the seagulls and thankfully the black-tipped exhaust disguised the oil being ejected. The purple paintwork? Not so much.

Nine hours of waiting later, recovery number five was underway with the RS. The diagnosis? That’s currently unknown because nobody seems to know where the RS actually is. After being recovered at 5pm, I was told it’d go into storage over the weekend in west London. So, by the time it does arrive at Porsche Silverstone, all four wheels will be stolen, the headlights smashed and the roof covered in fox wee.

Now the important bit. How many pictures of tow trucks do I have? Tricky one, ’cos not all have been documented. There’s five from the current RS and three from the GT3 before it. My R34 GT-R might be in double figures now, and the various old Mercs I’ve owned recently won’t be far behind. But the winner? That’ll always be the late, great M5 Touring. A car which underwent £47,500 of warranty work in the five years I owned it and returned to BMW no fewer than 19 times before it eventually went into a full on protest and set fire to itself.

We can all safely assume it’s in a lot of tow truck pictures then. And if you need more proof, every year at Christmas I now get a nice card from Paps Recovery in Essex complete with an image of whatever car has been recovered the most by ’em in the past 12 months. Because nothing says season’s greetings like a friendly reminder of your terrible automotive choices.