Sabine Schmitz will drive a Porsche 962 at the 2013 Silverstone Classic, which runs this Friday to Sunday at our home track here in Northamptonshire.
Since first appearing on Top Gear and thrashing Clarkson around the ‘Ring in a Transit van, Sabine Schmitz has carved an unassailable niche as totty of choice for the discerning Porsche racing fan. The 1995 and 1996 Nurburgring 24-Hour winner will share a Porsche 962 with Klaus Abbelen in the Group C showdowns at Silverstone.
“The Porsche 962 is such great car for the purists – I just love driving it,” said Sabine Schmitz. “With all the downforce in the fast sections, racing the 962 is going to be a fantastic experience, if a little painful on the poor old neck muscles!”
This year’s Group C grid includes six Porsche 962s, with ex-F2 racer Herve Regout the predicted pacesetter. Others worth watching include Japanese Katsu Kubota in his Nissan R90C – a winner at the 2011 Classic winner – plus the 1989 Mercedes C11 ‘Silver Arrow’ shared by Gareth Evans and triple FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix champion, Bob Berridge.
The Group C race through dusk on Saturday was a blast last year. Here’s hoping for more of the same! When we’re not watching the action, you’ll find us in the paddock with EB Motorsport, racing in FIA Masters this weekend. Stop by and say hello if you’re passing.
Jersey Porsche mate Jamie sent me this pic a while back and I am well overdue in sharing it. It’s his 1972 911S, now running as an ST. Originally Viper Green, the car runs a 2.9-litre flat six built by Bob Watson, so goes well enough.
Jamie hillclimbs the car on the island: you’ve got to do something with a car like this on an island with a blanket 40 mph limit! Given that it’s 911-50 year, the most recent Bingham hillclimb as part of the Jersey Motoring Festival had a significant Porsche focus, so no doubt his beautiful car turned a few heads.
“We had 30-plus 911s from the 1970s to date, including RS 4.0, original RS and various 993RS etc all doing parade sprints. Healeys were over in force from the UK, so there were a lot of very nice, very quick cars taking part. We had our work cut out for us versus the 450bhp race-prepped Healeys, but we gave it a good go! Just nice to be out in the car, having fun with like-minded people.”
Original Viper Green 1972 911S running as ST. Is there any finer expression of the roadgoing early 911? That 76 912E shell I’ve got in the USA is heading in this direction.
Jamie’s car appears in this video from the 2012 event. His 2013 entry led to fourth in class and lots of Porsche fun. Good job mate!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QGSUjDebFQ
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Love this photo of current Belgian Historic Champion, Glenn Janssens, back in action this weekend in his Almeras-style Tuthill Porsche. Glenn returns to action following his super scary crash at over 100 mph in Haspengouw.
Car and driver are running in this weekend’s Ypres Historic, Belgium’s most storied event and an unmissable part of the European classic rally calendar. Anyone who has been to Ypres will know the town, the atmosphere and the territory around this unique part of Europe. It’s a proper setting to rally through, and we wish Glenn all the best for the weekend.
The car has had quite a bit done to it over the months it’s been at Tuthill Porsche in Wardington, Oxfordshire. The Tuthill boys have repaired the damage suffered in the mega-shunt and added a few chassis tweaks here and there. The transmission is all new – an evolution of the Tuthill Porsche dog ‘box – and the engine has been refreshed.
Belgian driver, Mats Myrsell, was recently asked for his best memory of the Ypres Historic by an interviewer. His reply was “that gorgeous waitress I met in a cafe off the square”. Hopefully this year, a few people will leave with the best memory of Glenn Janssens’ fire-breathing 911, en route to victory in 2013.
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The Australian Formula 1 pilot Mark Webber has signed a contract with Porsche that extends over several years. From the 2014 season he will compete in Porsche’s new LMP1 sports prototype at the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the sports car World Endurance Championship WEC. The 36-year-old Australian has already raced at Le Mans twice. In 1998 he finished runner-up in the FIA GT Championship at the wheel of a sports prototype. Over the course of his Formula 1 career from 2002 until today, Webber has achieved 36 podium places, nine race victories and has started from pole position eleven times.
“It’s an honour for me to join Porsche at its return to the top category in Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship and be part of the team. Porsche has written racing history as a manufacturer and stands for outstanding technology and performance at the highest level,” says Mark Webber. “I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. Porsche will undoubtedly set itself very high goals. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world.”
“I’m very pleased to have secured Mark Webber for our LMP1 project as one of the best and most successful Formula 1 pilots of our time,” says Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “Mark is without doubt one of the world’s best race drivers, he has experience at the Le Mans 24 hour race and on top of that he’s been a Porsche enthusiast for many years.”
“I learned to appreciate Mark’s qualities when we were both involved in Formula 1,” says Fritz Enzinger, Head of LMP1. “He is one of the best pilots I could imagine for our team. I’m absolutely delighted that we have such an experienced and fast regular driver onboard from 2014.”
Competing in the new LMP1 car alongside Mark Webber are the two long-standing Porsche works drivers Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) as well as the ex-Formula 1 test driver Neel Jani (Switzerland). Bernhard and Dumas already joined forces in 2010 to bring home overall victory from the Le Mans 24 hour race. In the years 2007 and 2008, they secured the American Le Mans Series title at the wheel of the RS Spyder LMP2 sports prototype. Neel Jani has contested the LMP1 class since 2010.
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The Porsche 991 RSR came good today, winning the GTE-Pro class at the 2013 Le Mans 24-Hours.
The victory came at Aston’s expense, when the number 97 car was held up by a pit lane red light in the final safety car period. 2013 had twelve safety cars: most safety car periods ever.
Aston and Porsche had been neck-and-neck up to that point, and Dumbreck, Turner and Stefan Mucke drove their hearts out, so to be robbed of their chance by something so petty was horrible. But, that’s racing.
Aston’s loss was Porsche’s gain and the Manthey/Porsche AG 991 RSRs took first and second in GTE-Pro. When the safety cars pulled in and Aston’s bad luck was fully revealed, 97 stood no chance of catching the Porsches. The pace settled into a groove to the flag, with only Sebastian Buemi’s move to unlap his P2 Toyota worth mentioning in the last fifteen minutes.
This result bodes well for 2014 and Porsche’s return to LMP. It was good work to run reliably and keep the 911 out of trouble but, were it not for that safety car break, things might not have worked out so well for Stuttgart.
Nevertheless, a win is a win and we should be delighted that the racing 911 is right back on form. On to the next one!
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Today was a good day, spent hanging out at Tuthills watching the finishing touches going on a brand new Safari car.
This 911 is destined for Kenya in November, but the Swedish owner will run the car at in the 2013 Morocco Historic from May 13-18 as an African ice breaker.
Tuthills have three cars in this year’s Moroccan event: all three will go on to race the Safari. They have all just been prepped for North Africa at the Wardington workshops, and this is the first to depart. Driver Phil trailered this one to Calais today, where the owner will take over moving it to Morocco.
We often think of 911s as soft little flowers: those slender side pillars and sculpted door handles imbuing a sense of finesse. Tuthill Safari cars retain those classic 911 motifs, but are the hardest Porsches I know.
Eight hundred hours or more goes into every Safari shell to ensure it’s stiff and strong. The suspension is bespoke – none of your revalved Bilsteins here. Engines are built from powerful, reliable components, most run MFI and are tuned to over 300 horsepower. Transmissions are custom built, with specially calculated ratios to suit the modified gearing and tall wheel/tyre combinations.
Inside is a workspace. Nothing surplus: all is function. Under the front is the oil cooler pipework, a custom fuel tank and a pair of full-size spare wheels, each ready to be changed in under a minute if you know what you’re doing.
Now costing £160,000 plus VAT a piece to build, Safari cars are easily my favourite 911s. I never get tired of looking at, listening to or riding in them. The ultimate do-anything Porsche!
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