The latest EB Motorsport Porsche race car build – a reproduction of the 1974 911 RSR – enjoyed a successful debut at the recent Brands Hatch Masters Historic Festival. Racing in FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars, Mark and James Bates took the newly-built RSR to a qualifying time some two seconds quicker than their previous fastest RSR qualifying lap.

“We’re still waiting for the FIA Historic Technical Passport to arrive for this new RSR, so we raced in the invitational class,” said James. “Ours was the only 911 on track, so there was no one to beat. We approached the weekend as more of a test session and experimented with setup changes on every session. The fastest time in qualifying was just two-tenths outside the magic 1:40, so there’s a sub-1:40 lap time in this chassis for sure.

“With much wider track and lower weight thanks to our all-new 1974 RSR bodywork, many re-engineered and optimised parts and exceptional brake performance from our brand new RSR Endurance brake calipers, the new car is terrific to drive. We’re looking forward to trying it at more favourite circuits later this year.”

EB’s 2-litre 911 was also in action at Brands Hatch, racing in Stena Line Gentlemen Drivers. Mark and set the fastest SWB 911 times of the weekend, qualifying on a 1:52.946 and setting a fastest race lap within four one-hundredths of a second of that benchmark, but the car was forced to retire when the splines were stripped from one of the rear hubs.

“The 2-litre is being raced hard again this year,” said Mark. “It’s already been out at Goodwood in MM76, where it came home as first 911. It took another podium at Spa in the first-ever 2.0L Cup race and now we’ve pushed it to the max at Brands. It is probably the most raced 2-litre FIA car in Europe and we learn more about it every time we race it.”

EB Motorsport’s 1965 911 and the 1974 RSR have plenty more racing ahead this year. The 2-litre is back out in June for the 2.0L Cup race at Dijon Grand Prix de l’Age d’Or, followed by July’s Silverstone Classic and the Nürburgring Oldtimer GP and Zandvoort Masters weekends in August. September has the Spa 6 Hours and accompanying Masters Historic rounds, before the season ends with Dijon FIA Masters from October 12-14.

I went to Zandvoort last year and wrote a feature about the weekend for GT Porsche magazine. Not sure which ones I will get to this year but any of these weekends are great fun to attend. Silverstone is next door to me, so I should make that one at least.

Learn more about EB Motorsport Porsche racing and the firm’s vintage Porsche parts and projects at eb-motorsport.co.uk.