by John Glynn | Feb 8, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars, Race and Rally
Just had these pics through from our mate and Japanese Historic racing champion, Tetsu Ikuzawa, of his immaculate short wheelbase 911 fitted with lightweight Porsche doors made by Yorkshire’s EB Motorsport.
Now the Japanese distributor for EB 911 parts, Ikuzawa’s car also runs a bonnet, deck lid, bumpers, polycarbonate headlight lenses, side and rear windows and lightweight engine tins from the EB classic Porsche 911 parts catalogue.
Lightweight fibreglass or ‘glass fibre’ panels on Porsche once conjured up images of ill-fitting parts that failed to inspire. EB literally broke the mould on junk fibreglass: all the EB panels I’ve seen have been of superb quality. EB Equipment has been making composite parts for the agricultural and food production industries for more than fifty years, so those boys know their stuff. And they are great fun to hang out with.
Ikuzawa’s car must be super-light now: I’ve asked him to weigh it for us. Here’s some video of Tetsu in action in a Porsche 906. Stick with it, as the early close-crop madness gets better.
Tetsu Ikuzawa drives Porsche 906 (video)
by John Glynn | Jan 26, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Porsche has claimed a richly deserved victory on the maiden event of the 2014 Tudor United Sportscar Championship. Running the 24 Hours of Daytona with a two car works RSR team, Stuttgart combined trademark reliability with masterful pace when it mattered, to bring the lead 911 home just seconds ahead of its closest competitor and take its 76th class win at the high-speed Florida circuit.
I don’t know who called the driver mix of Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy, but the chemistry could not have been better. Running anywhere from P1 to P4 over the course of a hard day’s racing, the trio were supreme against the SRT Viper race cars, which had looked unassailable in qualifying. Not to mention the mighty space-framed GTLM Corvette race car, which seemed to have ultimate speed for much of the race.
Many incredible stories reared their heads across twenty-four hours of racing, but the most exciting came in the final three minutes, when Joey Hand’s BMW Z4 got within touching distance of the number 911. My heart was in my mouth for the last two laps, as TV cameras focused instead on a titanic scrap in the GT Daytona class. When the cameras swung back to the Porsche, it was Pilet crossing the line for the win.
I am in meltdown: that was incredible. If this is a sign of things to come in 2014, we are in for a memorable season. Now we need more factory racing posters!
by John Glynn | Jan 26, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Porsche number 912 has retired from the Daytona 24 Hours. Crankcase oil pressure woes sent the Long/Christensen/Bergmeister car Porsche back to the garage, not to re-emerge.
Meanwhile, the number 911 911 continues to lead the GTLM class, 20 seconds up on Liddell’s Corvette. Patrik Pilet is still behind teh wheel and has been keeping well clear of other peoples’ accidents. While other 911s are waist-deep in duck tape, number 911 is caked in race dirt but not a lot else.
Pilet’s team mate Richard Lietz was just interviewed by the TV crews on how Porsche race engineers might modify their strategy, given the 912 RSR’s issues. His comment was just what we want. “The engine is running strong so, though we might have some nerves, we need to stay racing. As others are driving flat out, and so are we.”
Patrick Pilet with Richard Lietz
Quizzed on the difference from here to Le Mans, Leitz was transparent. “Here you have banking, Le Mans does not. We’ve worked on setting the car up for this and now we go quicker here. Also, when you win at Le Mans, you don’t get a watch. We just need to stay flat out and get the right amount of luck to win.” And a Rolex!
by John Glynn | Jan 25, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Three hours into the first race of the 2014 IMSA Tudor United Sportscar series, the works Porsche 911 RSRs are on full pest control duty at Daytona 24. Briefly running P1 in GTLM, Patrick Pilet’s now closing on that pesky Viper from P2 in number 911, with Michael Christensen P3 in RSR 912.
Fastest lap in class so far goes to Patrick Long, with a 1:45.624. Tandy follows with a 1:45.9. As I type, the Viper has just clocked up its fastest lap of the race so far on a 1:45.873, so bang goes what I was going to say next. Pilet trails the snake by less than a second, and there’s a long way left to run.
The GTD 911s have come good on race pace, with three 991s in the top four. Connor de Phillippi holds a strong P2 in the number 73 Park Place car. Though Flying Lizard’s Spencer Pumpelly is the fastest man in class so far on a 1:48 (Audi R8), the 911s seem happier to run in the sub-1:50s than the rest of the field, lead 458 Italia excepted.
On top of all this, WEVO Hayden is also working at Daytona this year, engineering the number 57 Krohn Ferrari , shared by our mate Peter Dumbreck. Peter had never seen Daytona before this weekend, but still managed to post a time acceptable to get through to qualifying and the car looks balanced on track.
With almost a day left to race, we’re in with a good shout at this one. Forza RSRs: keep pushing, boys!
Edit: just as I published this, the race went full course red following a heavy shunt for Memo Gidley. Looks nasty – hope he gets out of it.
by John Glynn | Jan 23, 2014 | Porsche People, Race and Rally
Looks like England’s Nick Tandy is again Porsche king of the ovals: all those years going round and round in Ministox paying off!
The Tandy/Pilet/Lietz RSR finished Daytona qualifying in P2: leading 911 and just seven one-hundredths of a second behind Marc Goosens in the SRT Viper.
Top GTD Porsche was a P9 in class for Supercup regular, Norbert Siedler, less than half a second off the Audi R8 of Christopher Haase. Good result for Norbert – well up on the rest!
Nick Tandy’s first Daytona as a Porsche works driver last year ended in a Daytona GT-class pole. Starting behind a Viper isn’t such a bad place to be: just grab it by the neck and twist. For 24 hours.
I told you these boys were fast. Borrowed the timing screen shots from LiveScoring.us. Great service from their site: go there.
Post-Qualifying Daytona Porsche Quotes
Hartmut Kristen, Porsche Head of Motorsport: “The GTLM class qualifying result underlines just how close the competition is in this category. Only seven-hundredths of a second separate the first and second spot. That’s pretty intense and it promises an action-packed, tough race right to the flag. Teams and drivers can’t afford to make the slightest mistake and the technology needs to work perfectly so that the cars are completely operational for the final one or two hours. I’m very pleased with the qualifying.”
Nick Tandy (#911): “We’ll start the race on the Michelin rubber that we used in qualifying, so we had to be careful not to overtax the tyres today. That wasn’t easy, because with the cool weather they took relatively long to reach the right temperature. So we had to find a good compromise. The car ran well and this qualifying was a great start into the new season. I’m happy.”
by John Glynn | Jan 23, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche People
Stuttgart must have booked every hotel room in Florida for the busload of Porsche works drivers it’s sent to race at this year’s Daytona Rolex 24 Hour endurance race.
Stuttgart has a two-car works team competing in the 2014 Tudor United Sportscar Championship. In 991 RSRs numbered 911 & 912, fast boys Patrick Pilet (above), Nick Tandy (below) and Richard Lietz pilot #911, while the relentless Patrick Long, Jörg Bergmeister and recent works appointment, Michael Christensen, share #912.
Porsche Works Drivers in customer race teams
In the GTD category, Marco Holzer runs with Alex Job, Mark Lieb is with Patrick Dempsey (nice), newly-nicknamed Hasselhenzler (Wolf Henzler) is with Magnus Racing and Timo Bernhard drives for Park Place Motorsports. Brendon Hartley adds Kiwi colour to the Dinan BMW-powered Starworks prototype. Note the drinks tube, as Brendon needs feeding up! Of course I have an old BMW, so there’s my excuse to cheer for him.
The Porsche Juniors are also out in force. Klaus Bachler drives for Dempsey (why is there no one called Makepeace on the grid), Alex Riberas is with Alex Job and man to watch, Connor de Phillippi is with Timo in the Park Place car. The new RSR livery for Daytona looks good:
Winner of the €200k Porsche Supercup Scholarship prize, New Zealand’s Earl Bamber, was signed up to drive the Mühlner Motorsport 911 on the strength of his Porsche pace to date. “We managed to put something together for Daytona at the end of December,” said Bamber. “There was no time for a New Years party, as I had to get to Florida and start practicing.
“We did a three-day test at Daytona: incredible. The banking makes you dizzy the first few times around. Driving on an oval is spectacular and you’re holding on pretty tight doing 300 kmh through the steep banking, tilted right over on your side. It’s a special place.”
It’s my birthday this weekend, so I have organised peace and quiet and an Internet stream. Also got a meeting to discuss a book deal tomorrow. It’s all kicking off!
