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by John Glynn | May 8, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
I spent the bank holiday weekend with Mark and James from EB Motorsport at the Donington Historic Festival. The boys were racing their 3-litre cars in FIA World Sportscar Masters, and also debuting the Tuthill-built 1965 2-litre Porsche 911, so plenty to see and do.
The first surprise of the weekend came on arrival at Donington Park racetrack. Paved circuit perimeter roads! Been a long time coming but this on its own should convince you that changes are afoot at Castle Donington. Walking in the paddock gate, the new building for Formula E – the FIA’s all-electric single seater championship – is coming together nicely.
Donington’s car park was buzzing and there was no shortage of spectators inside. Over 46,000 people attended on the Saturday and Sunday, which is a great testament to the power of Donington: still my favourite UK race circuit to drive. Arriving at lunchtime on Sunday, I settled in to the EB garage and caught up on some news before walking out on track with the camera.
First race of my visit was pre-war cars, fun to watch but as one driver put it on Donington FM, “half the battle is getting the old cars to the finish”. Some very fast machinery has attended, but a few needed time out in the pits half way through, before coming back out on track towards the end. Meanwhile, the lighter equipment kept doing the laps in perfect vintage “drift me” style.
After the pre-war cars came pre-’66 touring cars – saloons like the Lotus Cortina, BMW Tisa and a number of Alfa Romeos. Mini Coopers also race in touring cars and look great fun to drive. The leading Tisa seemed super fast compared to the Lotus Cortinas which dominated in period. Texting an historic preparation mate to enquire, he suggested slightly looser regulations might be favouring the BMW. Eventually, an Alfa made it to the front and some Lotus Cortinas also found their way forward. It was excellent racing to watch.
Maserati Trophy was next, which was a close scrap for the win between a Birdcage and something else. Not a huge Maserati fan so I relocated back to the Craner Curves and Old Hairpin for the FIA World Sportscar Masters.
At 5pm, the sportscar race started and the Lola T-70s were immediately flying. One slid off at the hairpin and backed into the gravel. The marshals pulled it out and got it back on track. In Pescarolo class, the Corvette was out in front, about a second faster than the yellow EB RSR. The Corvette owners reckon that is now producing 900 horsepower, but I’m not sure what the FIA papers status is. We’ll see what happens with it through the year.
As the race wore on, the Corvette hit problems, retiring after 30-odd laps. This brought EB’s RSR back into play. The mandatory pit stop was soon followed by a second one, as there was some concern on the EB pitwall that they might have missed the official pit window. Forty seconds or more was lost on that misunderstanding, but with the Corvette failing to hit the minimum number of laps required to classify, Mark squeaked ahead of his rivals and took maximum points from the race. We think he now leads the FIA Masters championship, but are waiting for official results to be posted.
James’ Red 1974 Porsche 911 3.0 RS came home behind the yellow car, but now starting his second season in the 911, James’ lap times were a good deal quicker than last year. This brought a few smiles, as James gave Mark quite a hard time when the previous champion emerged from the pits behind his brother and tried to get past. Looked great on the in-car video!
My next post will share the 2-litre Porsche breaking cover on Bank Holiday Monday, but was already a top weekend at the end of Sunday night. I headed for my hotel in Derby and had a few beers before hitting the sack. The faithful Cayenne was with me as always.
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by John Glynn | May 4, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
I’m vintage Porsche 911 racing at Donington Historic Festival this weekend with EB Motorsport and the team’s now three vintage Porsche 911 race cars.
The ’74 3.0 RS and RSR pair are about to head out on track for their qualifying session in FIA Masters Historic Series: World Sportscar Masters, with a race this evening at 6pm.
Other than getting fans in early and making them stay all day, I have no idea why the schedule is set out like that. It’s a long day for the EB boys, getting up at 6am to drive from Yorkshire then hanging around until the evening for track time. Plus the potential to qualify dry and race in the wet. And there’s no practice sessions: it’s assumed you will test there during the year.
I’m staying up at Donington overnight and then tomorrow we have the debut of the team’s 1965 2-litre Porsche 911. First time on circuit for the Tuthill-built 911, so it will be interesting to see how qualifying and the race goes for the new boy. I followed it bring driven hard on the road a few days ago and the Cayenne needed working to keep up: the beauty of power-to-weight ratio.
Donington likes a light, slidey car: I’m expecting some driftworks on track. Will it be flat through the Craner Curves hairpin?!
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by John Glynn | May 3, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
No podium places in the Porsche 991 LMP1 Spa challenge today, as the number 14 hybrid failed to capitalise on its pole position start. That is not to say the race was disappointing! It was great racing all the way, with strategies right through the field playing out in the closing stages.
Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid Sets Early Pace
The first hour of racing was electric. Porsche works driver, Neel Jani, set his fastest lap early on: a 2:01.898, the fastest lap number 14 would achieve over 360 minutes of racing. With the chasing number 8 Toyota unable to close the gap, Jani double stinted, while Toyota pulled an early stop, putting Sebastian Buemi in the car.
Handing over to Marc Lieb in the lead, Buemi had been logging very quick laps, but was not close enough to take the lead with a clean Porsche pit stop. However, a problem in the stop caused a hiccup for the 919 on exit, allowing Buemi through.
Buemi Toyota shows untouchable pace
Once in front, the former Red Bull junior brought his A game and took off. The Toyota was soon almost half a minute in front, but Porsche had already decided to switch strategies, putting the number 14 on a fuel save and double-stinting tyres. Toyota’s game was drive it flat out: a driver swap to Anthony Davidson brought fastest lap of the race: a 2:01.3.
Behind the 14 car, Timo Bernhard’s sister Porsche hybrid was spending more time in the garage. Early in the race, the number 20 Porsche LMP1 car had a rear suspension problem which brought it out of pit lane two laps down. There followed a series of front end interventions, costing Porsche a lot of time: down 22 laps at one stage.
Number 20 Porsche Hybrid Reliability Problems
As the race rolled on, the Audi LMP1 cars were surprisingly slow on the straights, but came into play as the race rolled on. Both Toyota and Porsche advised their drivers to stay off the kerbs: apparently some driveshaft issues for the 20 over hard kerbs at Eau Rouge and Raidillon.
We live tweeted the event, which proved to be a lot of fun, as US followers searched web feeds and Romain Dumas struggled with electrical problems on the 14 car, dropping it a lap and a half at much-reduced pace. We were following pictures on Motors TV with commentary by radiolemans.com. A tweet of their comment “Porsche’s decision to leave Romain Dumas out and press every button he could reach has paid off” brought a few smiles.
When the chequered flag fell, Neil Jani took fourth, one lap down in the number 14, while the always-awesome Patrick Pilet in 911 RSR number 91 had hunted down some GTE Pro Ferraris and nabbed class second: fourteenth overall. With one car on the podium despite a 25-kilo penalty, the GT championship rolls on to Le Mans.
Le Mans test will follow Spa Francorchamps
LMP1 glory was never going to come easy. While Porsche leaves Spa with some work left to do, there was good early pace in the hybrid. Some gossip shared online suggested the Porsche 919 leaves the garage with a fully charged energy store, but that energy can never be fully replenished on track. How true that is is anyone’s guess.
Next month is Le Mans. The pre-Le Mans test day will be covered by radiolemans.com, and who knows how Porsche will fare in France. This is the culmination of their ‘return to racing’ promo: can the LMP1 project retain public attention post Le Mans?
It will be a huge shame if it doesn’t, as the car is clearly rapid. It should have winning potential when reliability is sorted and they start to get the max from the power train. The battle with Toyota is fascinating and those Audis won’t stay slow forever.
Are you following the LMP1 car? Share your thoughts on Spa in the comments.
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by John Glynn | May 3, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
The Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid has taken pole position for the 2014 FIA WEC Spa 6 Hours. The race is being run today (Saturday) and will be shown on Motors TV from 1PM UK time.
Wet Qualifying for Porsche at Spa
Spa Francorchamps 6 Hours is the second race for the LMP1 Porsche prototype. Qualifying took place on a drying track: unprepared for in a wet practice 1 and dry practice 2. The number 14 919 of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb will lead the field off the grid after Jani set a time of 2:00.334: 2.5 seconds faster than the number 20 sister car.
Behind the 919 are group of winning cars and drivers. Led by Davidson, Lapierre and Buemi in the Toyota, the third place Audi and fourth place Toyota will all be chasing hard, as will Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
“Brendon Hartley did improve his lap time as well but had no time left for a second lap,” said Andreas Seidl, Porsche’s LMP1 Team Principal. “What the team did today is just amazing. This result is a great reward for a very tough job.
“We made all the right calls in difficult conditions. It was clear that the track would improve and that is why we decided to get those drivers back in the cars who were running on intermediate slick tyres in the beginning. Their lap times had the biggest potential for improvement.”
“In qualifying I stayed out for a bit too long so there wasn’t enough time left for Brendon to do two flying laps, said Timo Bernhard. “Nevertheless it was a great qualifying. Congrats to the guys of car number 14 – we will keep working to improve our car for tomorrow’s race.”
TV Coverage of the Spa 6 Hours
Motors TV will cover the race with more than 7 hours of airtime scheduled. There is huge potential for proper motorsport drama so get yourself to a comfy chair and enjoy! We will live tweet highlights and updates from our feed at @cultofporsche: Ferdinand Magazine’s motorsport twitter feed.
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by John Glynn | May 1, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Project Cars, Race and Rally
Our fourth post from EB Motorsport this week features these brand new Porsche 911R rear quarter panels, tooled up and ready for delivery from the Doncaster-based historic Porsche superstars.
A direct replacement for original steel panels, the lightweight rear wings bond to your steel shell. It goes without saying just how much weight these lighter composite panels save over solid sheet steel, plus of course you can save the steel rear quarters you take off and refit if the fancy takes you in the future.
Anyone fitting these panels will be aiming at an authentic recreation of the super-lightweight SWB Porsche 911R race car, and already have a full multi-point FIA or similar level roll cage fitted.
Full Range of Porsche 911R Conversion Parts
The 911R rear quarter panels are part of a complete range of 911 R replica conversion parts now offered by EB Motorsport: everything from lightweight Porsche 911R front wings with built-in sidelights and indicators, to deep 6 and 7R Fuchs wheels and all parts in between.
The boys have just taken delivery of another ’68 911 shell and are going for the ultimate lightweight 911R build. I am totally into this plan! Will share build pics along the way.
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by John Glynn | Apr 29, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Tuthill Porsche customer and former Belgian Historic Champion, Glenn Janssens, has taken his first win in the Rallye de Wallonie, round three of the 2014 Yokohama Belgian Historic Rally Championship.
Three Days of Hard Charging
Chased hard from the start by Raphael Borman’s Escort, Janssens could not relax when the Ford hit trouble. Right behind Borman was long-time rival Dirk Devereux in another Escort, closely followed by Patrick Mylleville in a Tuthill-fettled Porsche.
When the chequered flag fell after three days of flat-out action, it was Janssens and experienced co-driver Stefan Prevot who crossed the finish line first, and on top of the championship leader board. The Tuthill Porsche team could not contain its excitement following another strong European win.
Tuthill Thrilled to Win
“The Belgian Historic championship is a true test of rally machinery,” said Richard Tuthill. “This country may look flat, but the courses demand tough cars and precision driving. Glenn excelled with this win and rightly takes the championship lead.
“Nothing excites Tuthill Porsche more than great competition. Glenn is a great competitor and a pleasure to work with. The championship runs to November, so we’ll be working flat out to keep the car on song, ensuring Glenn and Stefan get the support and equipment required to fight for victory. A second Belgian Championship title for a Tuthill 911 would be an amazing achievement.”
“This weekend, we used three different brands of tyres,” said Glenn. “I started on Dunlop but found more grip with the new Pirelli tyres we used on Saturday afternoon. On sunday I switched to Michelin rubber, which was most effective in this excellent weather. I’m really looking forward to the next round of the season.”
Round 4 of the 2014 Belgian Historic Rally Championship is the Sezoens Rally, starting on May 16th. Here’s some video of Glenn Janssens in action last weekend:
