The first race of the brand new 2.0L Cup was held at Peter Auto’s Spa Classic event last weekend. A grid of almost forty pre-’66 2-litre 911s took to the circuit to do battle in an exciting first race, which ran for an hour (twenty laps) until torrential rain brought out the red flag.
Porsche Classic has joined the fray with Porsche GB’s 2-litre race car, which was last used in the 911 50th celebrations during 2013. The 1965 911 has an extensive programme of events ahead this season, with the Spa Classic just one of eight outings this year. The rest of its calendar looks like this:
- May 18 – 20: May Peter Auto Spa Classic, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
- June 17: HSCC Guards Trophy, Silverstone, GB
- July 6-8: Le Mans Classic, Le Mans, France
- July 20-22: Silverstone Classic, GB
- August 10-12: OldTimer Grand Prix, Nurburgring, Germany
- August 25-26: HSCC Guards Trophy, Oulton Park, GB
- September 2: Porsche Classic Trophy, Brands Hatch GP, GB
- October 21: HSCC Guards Trophy, Silverstone, GB
Anthony Reid paired up with former Porsche Carrera Cup GB Champion Josh Webster in the PCGB car for the 2.0L Cup race, but the duo were forced to retire on lap nine. Regular 2.0 racers Historika, Tuthill Porsche and EB Motorsport finished on the podium in that order after a great race. Led initially by the Duel Motorsport car, which set a top speed of over 203 km/h on the Kemmel Straight, the rest were 5 or 6 km/h slower on the Kemmel, but the fastest lap of 3:02.586 was set by Nigel Greensall in David Huxley’s Brumos Porsche-liveried 1965 911.
[metaslider id=20983]
“Thanks to both David and Richard Tuthill for such a terrific weekend,” said Greensall in an email with a link to the video below. “We have a really great team.” A proper 911 driver who has claimed many excellent results in SWB cars, the video shows a terrific scrap at the front from Nigel’s in-car camera.
Porsche 2.0L Cup racing costs
The technology involved in 2-litre Porsche 911s may look simple and the homologated spec is very straightforward, but getting these cars to run competitively and finish well is not easy or cheap. Proper 2-litres are expensive to build and expensive to run: a rebuilt set of the mandatory Solex carburettors costs twelve thousand pounds and a full-spec, plug and play 2-litre engine including carbs and exhaust leaves little change from £85k.
It’s good to see Porsche fielding a 911 prepared by its approved classic specialists amongst the 2.0L Cup cars. Looking back at the 911s results from 2013, Robertson/Horne finished third out of three 911s in the 2013 Brands Hatch Masters and their fastest race lap at Silverstone Classic was some five seconds slower than Greensall’s best of a 3:02.267 en route to coming home as first 911 in the International Trophy for pre-’66 GT cars.
Next event in the four-race 2.0L Cup is the Grand Prix de l’Age d’Or at Dijon from June 8-10. With Dijon some 600kms from the coast. I decided to save the miles on the RT and do something else instead, but let me know if you’re going.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
Can’t beat the feeling of missing a shift on your new 2.0 engine fresh from the builder!
Haha – my imagination is feeling the pain of it already so I cannot imagine what the real thing is like!