We Spoke To Magnus Walker About NFS, Car Culture, And His Massive Porsche Obsession

Darren Cassey: So you’re working with the guys at EA on the new Need For Speed, what interested you about the project and what made you want to get involved?

Magnus Walker: What interested me about the Need For Speed project, ultimately, was it was something I hadn’t done before, you know, it was a new chapter in my journey. Ultimately what sealed the deal was the realism of the game; I’m aware that it’s a virtual world, but it was almost impossible for me to tell the difference when they came to visit me and showed me early footage, probably a year ago, of simulated driving scenes, and it was really hard for me to tell that it wasn’t actual driving footage.

I’ve received a lot of support from the Speedhunters team over the past couple of years, and it just seemed like the natural, organic next step, so that’s why I was excited to work for the team and really excited for myself to be in the game. [I was] probably more excited to have my favourite car in the game - the car I’m most associated with, car number 277, my 1971 911 Porsche.

So for me it’s one of those ‘pinch yourself’ moments, like "how did I get here?" kind of thing. None of this was planned, I don’t have a plan or a journey or a benchmark of what I want to do, things just evolve organically for me, and this was a perfect example of that.

DC: You’re well known in the car culture scene, but where do you see that going? Modern cars are becoming so complex that people can’t really work on them themselves, and with driver aids arguably taking away the skill and thrill of driving, can you see car culture adapting, or will it die out? (Question by Joe Labasz)

MW: I think this will answer that for you: Literally three days ago I was in North Carolina doing a track day, and it was a Porsche-only event. But I got an invite over to the American Ariel Atom facility, which is located at the race track, and I got to drive their turbocharged, 260-horsepower, 1350-pound Ariel Atom, which is a street legal modern car with no driver aids. As you can imagine…it gets your attention.

So you can still find cars that require driver input, that don’t have all the numbing, sensory deprivation of driver aids, those cars are still out there, it’s just a matter of picking your poison. I think car culture is moving forward as technology comes in, driver aids are kind of taking away from the sensory overload that early cars give. For me, nothing beats an early manual car, where you are in control with your two hands and your two feet, your balls and your brain decide how fast you go down that road…you can still find an old car to have, I mean I don’t own a new car.

DC: What turned you from being just some guy who liked Porsches, to someone who sold all of their other cars to become a collector of only Porsches?

MW: Well, truth be told, I’ve owned a lot of cars over the years, I’ve always been a Porsche guy, that angle of my story is pretty well known. But back in the 90s we weren’t solely just Porsches…back then it was more about variety. We had the European sports car angle covered, I had the iconic American muscle car, so back then it wasn’t purely Porsche.

When I joined the Porsche owners’ club I took my street driving to the track, and about a dozen years ago I realised that all the other cars paled into insignificance from a performance point of view compared to the Porsche - each was maybe good at one thing, but the Porsche was good at everything. So over a five year period, we got rid of almost everything, and the last non-Porsche car we kept was a 1967 E-Type Jag, which we’d owned for 16 years and we finally sold in 2011 when E-Type celebrated it’s 50th anniversary. So for the past four years we’ve basically been purely Porsche, but the Porsche passion has really been there for the past 35 years. So for me it was always about experiencing variety, but Porsche has always been my ‘go to’ marque.

DC: So you’ve talked about old and new cars there, which brings me nicely on to Jack Aylward’s question. He’d like to know if you prefer the 959, Carrera GT, or the 918 Spyder?

MW: That’s a great question. I recently got to drive all three of Porsche’s supercars. The 959 is a spectacular car, but that car is actually 30 years old today, so the bang and the flash that car made 30 years ago, is a little bit different today. Driving a 959 under 4000rpm isn’t all that different from driving any other 80s Carrera, so that acts like an old car when the boost comes on! The 918 is obviously very technologically advanced, and probably an easier car to drive and ultimately a faster car. But I think the real hero car is the Carrera GT.

DC: Do you like what Porsche is doing at the moment, or does the new stuff not really interest you? (Question by MeiyullSlowV6)

MW: Yeah I mean, I like variety - I’m known as being an early air-cooled guy, but I like everything Porsche has put out there. I’m expanding my own Porsche collection now, the new goal is to have one of each model category, so I’m up to 964, then obviously progressing I’ll have the 993, 996, 997, and maybe a 991. I’m also looking at front-engined water-cooled cars, where I’ve already acquired a 924 Turbo and Carrera GT, and the next car in my front-engine, water-cooled quest is a 944 Turbo S, and then also 928. So the new goal is variety, to experience everything Porsche has to offer - I think one of my favourite recent cars I drove was a 996 GT3 RS…and to me that was just a real exciting, intoxicating streetable track car, in essence. I’m excited about the Cayman GT4…you know, I’m not such a purist that I’m gonna say "air-cooled only" - I don’t own any water-cooled cars, but that’s not gonna turn me off water-cooled ownership. It’s all about variety, which I keep coming back to!

DC: Thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us, and good luck in your quest to expand your collection!

MW: Thanks!