“I don’t want this to read like some PR whitewash over an error on our part,” Richard Tuthill insists. “We had a fully engineered, production-based solution to take the Porsche 911 RGT into WRC on the FIA’s table in May. We’ve tested the car over 120 kilometres on gravel, absolutely flat out. This car is fantastic on gravel and should be racing in Wales. But it won’t be, and we all know why.”
I understand Richard’s frustration. Less than a week before Tuthill’s R-GT Porsche was due to take the start of Wales Rally GB, the FIA decided to reject the car’s gravel specification for the Oxfordshire team’s home event, despite all of the planned modifications being fully described in plans submitted to Switzerland almost six months ago. Having sucked up a truckload of R-GT red tape already this year, this was one step too far.
Earlier this week, the R-GT was taken to Walters Arena in Wales, home of many gravel test sessions and identical terrain to the Rally GB gravel stages. In-car footage from testing shows the R-GT Porsche’s incredible speed: the 911 pulls two gears higher than Tuthill historic cars on the same stages and easily hits the limiter in sixth on the longest stretches of gravel.
‘The car was born to be driven on gravel,” says Richard. “It is well balanced, amazingly easy to drive and with the wonderful 3.8-litre engine and sequential six-speed gearbox, it is very, very fast. We experimented with the setup up throughout the day and will continue to develop certain areas, but I could not have imagined it could be so good from the very first KM. It’s more than ready to hit the stages, be they gravel or snow.
“Combined with the car’s performance on asphalt, this confirms that it is an all-rounder and can be used across the world in all regional championships, where the regulations follow FIA guidance.”
Tuthill Porsche FIA Rally GB
Lengthy discussions at FIA headquarters in Geneva could not move its technical department to approve the car for use on this weekend’s Rally GB. It’s a blow to Team Tuthill, the rally organisers who have headlined so much promotion with the R-GT Porsche but mainly to the fans; hundreds of whom were looking forward to witnessing the return of a Porsche 911 to WRC gravel stages.
Richard explains the impasse. “Within existing R-GT regulations, there is scope to allow modification to the suspension uprights that are fitted to the chosen base model. However, this only allows the fitment of gravel brakes. In the case of the 997 RGT, the upright is too big to fit within a 15 inch gravel wheel, regardless of the size of caliper and disc fitted. Understandably the FIA needs to review how this issue can be resolved and, not surprisingly, it is unwilling to allow complete freedom for modification on safety grounds.
“We found a solution from Porsche factory parts, which we tested to great effect. That solution, developed by our chief engineer who is one of the most experienced motorsport engineers in the world with thirty years of Le Mans, WRC and Dakar behind him, was still not enough to convince the FIA. While we fully accept that any new category will raise technical challenges that need open discussion and thinking to get around, I cannot hide my frustration at the way this decision has been made, given we started this enquiry in May.”
FIA Leadership through F1 Motorsport Crisis
Lately it seems that the FIA has given up on the ‘sport’ side of motorsport in the vested financial interests of its commercial manufacturer partners. With F1 in crisis and the governing body standing by motionless, will the FIA ever draw back those curtains of red tape and start listening to fans who only care about racing? Or does the inactivity reflect a lack of leadership as the FIA president works his connections to land a plum job at the UN: a theory I read on one of the leading F1 blogs last week? So much for a bright future.
More bad news via email recently, when I received these pics of a crash involving the ex-Sam Gassel 1973 Penske Sunoco Porsche 911 RSR recreation at the 2014 Coronado Speed Festival. Sam bought the project unfinished from Gib Bosworth of Kremer ST replica fame, and built it into a very fine replica of the Penske car. It’s distressing to see it take such a heavy impact, but these things happen in racing.
The Coronado Speed Festival is part of San Diego’s annual Fleet Week, which is held at the US North Island naval base in San Diego to open the base to the public and recognise the contributions of San Diego’s military community. It is the US Navy’s only open-house event on the US West Coast.
Not too much information about the crash online, but it looks like it all kicked off in the first five minutes of qualifying. The pics suggest a wide mix of cars on track, and it certainly looks that way to me, having seen some video of the session shot from good mate Mike Gagen’s ’88 IMSA GTO Camaro, which was on track amongst a bunch of prototypes and a few 914s too.
If you’re thinking that a spread of cars from the 1960s to late ’80s on track at once is asking for trouble, you might be right. Regardless of fault in the incident, this is not a fun way to go racing. I can’t imagine that the car escaped lightly, which is very sad given how much work Sam put into this labour of love. Hopefully any damage caused to car and driver is entirely fixable (pic here from Flickr):
It was recently announced that America’s SVRA had been awarded stewardship of the Coronado Speed Festival from 2015. SVRA already organises some of America’s biggest historic motor racing events, so hopefully affairs like the RSR crash will become a thing of the past. Gagen reminds us of a famous saying amongst vintage racers: “your car already has race history, so the only history you can add is bad history.” ”
SVRA also oversees the popular Monterey Historics, so picking up Coronado and its sister events at Sonoma and Portland means that SVRA now runs all the major West Coast vintage racing events. Given some of the feedback on the cliquey-ness of certain race meetings, I’m not sure that is such a hot idea, but it is what it is. Hopefully my info is behind the curve and there will be room for everyone to take part. There is nothing quite like racing, California-style.
2014’s hottest Supercup hot shot has picked up a Porsche works drive for the 2014 Petit Le Mans. New Zealand’s super talented Earl Bamber is set to join Patrick Long and Michael Christensen in a factory 911 RSR.
Petit Le Mans is run at Road Atlanta in Georgia. A ten-hour race run to ACO regulations, class winners receive automatic entry to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Petit Le Mans is the final race of the 2014 Tudor United Sportscar Championship. The highest-placed Porsche driver in GT Le Mans is Michael Christensen (excellent) who is 30 points down on the leader, Jonathan Bomarito. Porsche boys Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil head to Georgia with a shout of taking the GT Daytona title, just four points behind leader Dane Cameron.
Porsche Works Drive for Earl Bamber
The drive is great news for Bamber, but as Sportscar365 reports, it has sadly forced the retirement of NGT Motorsport from Petit Le Mans for the second year running. Last year, the team pulled out following the tragic death of Sean Edwards while instructing on a track day in Australia.
The withdrawal of the Momo-sponsored NGT car takes away a fantastic opportunity to watch Bamber racing in the same team as his closest Supercup rival, Kuba Giermaziak, but gives Porsche a chance to see how Bamber handles the North American mayhem. Stuttgart is slightly under pressure for Petit, withdrawing one of its three-car entry as Richard Lietz is out with injury and altermative works pilots are committed elsewhere: Marco Holzer with the Falken Petit car and Fred Makowiecki in Thailand’s Super GT series.
Bamber has been absolute mustard this year, thrilling spectators with total commitment in Supercup. Despite stiff competition from established names like Giermaziak and experienced Porsche Junior, Klaus Bachler, it is Bamber on a Cup Scholarship drive who tops the points: five ahead of Giermaziak with two races remaining, both to be held in America. Earl has already stitched up the rookie championship, but is well placed to win the overall title. Brave money bets against him doing the job.
So far in 2014, Bamber has claimed two wins to Giermaziak’s three, but two fastest laps to Giermaziak’s one. Interestingly, the 991 Supercup has set no new fastest times in 2014: all the current fastest laps for tracks used prior to 2014 were set by earlier 911s. Who else would like to put Earl in a 997 RSR and see how much faster he could go around Spa, where he took pole and fastest lap this year? Awesome performance in a rookie season.
The current Porsche works driver line up is the biggest it has ever been. LMP1 squad has six members: Bernhard, Dumas, Hartley, Jani, Lieb and Webber. The GT squad has eight drivers: Bergmeister, Christensen, Henzler, Holzer, Lietz, Long, Pilet and Tandy. There are four Porsche Juniors: Bachler, de Philippi, Müller and Riberas.
Bamber is like a Kiwi barbecue, turning up the heat on illustrious names. Bamber/Tandy/Holzer in a factory RSR for 2015 – or maybe Bamber/Tandy/Lietz. Would be cool to see Christensen in LMP1 next year. Fantasy Porsche Works Team racing app anyone?
A mate sent me a great video of Colin McRae the other day, on the seventh anniversary of the former WRC champion’s death. I had never seen it before so I forwarded it to a few people, Richard Tuthill included. The Tuthill and McRae families are good friends so I know Richard would enjoy it, but I got more of a response than I was expecting.
“I’ve watched that more times over the last five years than any other in-car. It’s unbelievable – proper proper driving, he was incredibly good and I was so lucky to sit in an Impreza with him in Australia. Colin drove our blue car at Sweetlamb: within 600 metres, he was driving it quicker than I have ever seen a 911 being driven. He was a legend.”
No doubt all World Rally Champions display legendary talent, but many more drivers who never took a championship fully deserve the title of legend. Amongst the most legendary drivers still rallying is François Delecour (above): four-time winner in the WRC, and a man who has claimed many more wins in the hearts and minds of spectators.
Delecour is a legend: a tempestuous French maverick whose aura fluoresces with talent and passion. While Francois has picked up a reputation for crashing, the truth is that in thirteen years of WRC rallying from 1990 to 2002 (and six years of ERC before that), only twelve retirements were due to accidents. His pace is always scorching and his devotion to the Porsche 911 is unassailable: a prospect sure to arouse anyone with a hint of Porsche petrol in their veins.
“Ever since driving a round of the 2011 British Historic Rally Championship in one of our classic 911 rally cars, François has been part of the Tuthill Porsche family,” says Richard “He has a deep affection for the Porsche 911, and his exhilarating driving style will excite every rally fan watching the stages. All of our team is delighted to welcome him back in a Porsche.”
Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT earns a Million Views and Shares
France will be the second WRC event for the Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT, which captivated rally fans on its German debut. WRC website data reveals that features on the Tuthill Porsche RGT car have since enjoyed more than a million views and shares across the web and on social media.
“We knew that rally fans would embrace our RGT Porsche and the return of GT cars to the world rally stage,” says Richard. “With the fans so enthralled by our car, its time to put a world-class driver and co-driver into the Tuthill Porsche 911 RGT and take that excitement to the next level. We’re confident that François is the best man to do this, and we know the fans are just going to love it!”
Essex legend and friend of Ferdinand, Dave Dennett, recently debuted his 935 K3 replica at the Porsche Club national event. The 935 was on track at Brands Hatch amongst a plethora of Porsche Rennsport machinery, where Gary Hand Motorsport Photography got some excellent photos.
The 935 came to Dave’s DSD Motorwerks a while back, in a part exchange deal against a 964 race car. Then painted black, the shell had started life as a left-hand drive 1986 3.2 Carrera with 45k miles on the clock, imported to the UK from Japan in 2011.
With a single turbo flat six making 650 bhp and a dog box G50 with 80% LSD, it’s an obviously complex machine. The body uses mostly DP Motorsport parts but, under that skin, the rust free shell has been comprehensively modified.
935 running gear needs a lot of space, so the rear panel was cut and replaced with an engine brace and rear frame, allowing room for the giant turbo. The front end lost all of its roadgoing parts, to be replaced by a single-piece 935 K3 clamshell. A custom rollcage makes it stiffer: much needed when you stick 650 horsepower through a production 911 bodyshell almost thirty years old.
The engine spec is interesting. 930 crankcases were gas flowed and shuffle pinned. The 930 std/std crankshaft was fitted with Carrillo rods with 22mm little ends for Omega 935 CTR pistons. Capricorn barrels mate to 930 heads, ported and twin plugged. Schrick cams run Motorsport rockers, as Dave tells Jürgen Barth here:
The inlet is modified 3.2 Carrera with ‘big’ injectors. Turbo is a Garrett ball race GT45, with a Turbosmart wastegate and bespoke intercooler. An Omex 710 ECU controls the motor, which breathes out through a custom exhaust. “You can’t buy these pipes from Kwikfit, Derek,” says David.
Originally built by Ninemeister, the engine was subsequently rebuilt by CTR and tested at 600bhp on the Judd engine dyno. Dave has since made a few more modifications and the latest dyno run produced 650bhp. I’m hoping to attend some test sessions with the car in the near future: should be a lot of fun, as there is never a dull moment with Dave in the house!
So much for more time for Ferdinand after last weekend: this week has been even madder than last. Much activity has centred on the WRC debut of the Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT car.
Originally intended to debut on the Ulster Rally, the schedule did not allow for transport to the first test to Germany on the following Monday: Germany is too far away at 53 mph in the race truck. So it is straight off to Germany today, to arrive on Sunday. There follows a week of full on activity with testing, recce, shakedown and then the rally proper.
I had a look through the WRC event paperwork with Richard this morning and it’s amazing what they give the teams to get their heads around, even before the co-driver paperwork. Speaking of which, Stèphane Prévot is co-driving with Richard next weekend, and that is another delight.
Stephane started with Bruno Thiry in European rallying before moving to WRC in 1993. He then partnered Francois Duval, Stèphane Sarrazin and now runs with Subaru/Hyundai WRC pilot, Chris Atkinson. The pair are not racing again until Australia, so Prévot can partner with Tuthill. Stèphane is well known to the team, as he often sits alongside Glenn Jannssens, Tuthill’s Belgian Historic championship winner.
An unbelievable amount of work has gone into the 997 development and launch, so opportunities to really enjoy that achievement have been few and far between. Richard took the car out to bed in new brakes last night and said that the nicest surprise was the smile that appeared on his face half way around our local test route. “The 997 GT3 might look big, but it doesn’t feel big once you get moving,” said Richard. “Our aim in Germany is just to enjoy being back in a WRC paddock, with what we think is the coolest car.
“We’ll be looking for reliability as it’s not an easy car to service and we still need to understand the best approach to that side of things. It is so exciting and there is a huge amount of interest in what we’re doing. I’ve got to shut that excitement out, find some space and just focus on the road.” The enormity of a Porsche 911 in full-on FIA WRC rallying makes me nervous just standing next to the machine, so I am super excited for the team.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
