After a great start for Porsche in the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona, heavy rain, 17 full course cautions and a collision forced the pole-sitting RSR back down the field to eventually be classified fifth overall. The sister car qualified fifth on the grid and enjoyed an eventful race. It was eventually classified third overall.
Porsche put great effort into Daytona, finishing the 911 and 912 machines in a great Brumos livery and piling drivers into the GT Daytona class in the new 911 GT3R. Nick Tandy took the pole in an RSR set up for dry running at top speed on the straights, and he and co-drivers Pilet and Fred Mako held the lead well into the night. When heavy rain moved in, the car was outpaced and started to struggle.
The sister car of Earl Bamber, new dad Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet lost four laps repairing a splitter mounting defect early on but made up places as the race progressed to finish fourth overall. A fuel stop penalty for the third placed GT40 of Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon saw them demoted to fourth, putting Porsche up to third.
Westbrook and F1 retiree, Fernando Alonso, both described the conditions towards the end of the the race as “ridiculous”, with Westbrook describing the rain as the worst he had ever seen in racing. Alonso along with team mates Kamui Kobayashi, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande eventually came home first overall, but Alonso had been calling for a safety car or a red flag while running in second, as cars drove with close to zero visibility at more than 200 mph.
“I called a lot of times when I was second, over the radio, that the safety car was necessary,” Alonso told Sportscar 365. “I think the last five or seven laps were not right for anyone on track. The visibility was nearly zero. We could not be flat out on the straights. The cars… were coming in sixth gear at 200 mph. There were parts of different cars at different points of the track because people were losing the bodywork here and there.”
“To achieve a podium result under such difficult conditions is a great effort,” said Steffen Höllwarth, Porsche IMSA Program Manager. “We led the field over long stretches, we coped impressively with a setback for the 912 car and we regained lost time. Now we’re looking ahead with optimism to the next race in Sebring. We are keen to repeat our victory there from last year.”
Last year’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship experienced the biggest format changes since the series began in 2003. Chief amongst these changes was the introduction of reverse grids.
How reverse grids work in Carrera Cup GB
Porsche Carrera Cup GB weekends are run as part of the support package for British Touring Car Championship rounds. Drivers are split into three categories based on pace and experience: Pro, Pro-Am and Am. There is an additional Rookie class for drivers new to the series. Reverse grids affect the Pro category.
There are two races in each Carrera Cup GB weekend. The start order for race 1 is set by the qualifying times: fastest man starts from pole. However, the start order for race 2 is determined by a combination of the finish order of the first race and a ball picked at random on the race 1 podium.
The podium balls are numbered 4, 5 and 6. The number selected dictates how many of the leading pack will have their grid positions reversed for the start of race 2.
The first race of the 2018 season was held on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in early April. The weather was wet, making conditions interesting for the drivers, including the sole non-Brit, Cypriot Tio Ellinas, who started the season with Slidesports Engineering/DVF Racing. Ellinas qualified fourth overall, behind polesitter, Dino Zamparelli. As a mark of just how tight this series is, the top fourteen cars were separated by less than one second.
Ellinas passed George Gamble and Lewis Plato in the race to come home second overall. So the top six finishing order for race 1 was Zamparelli, Ellinas, Plato, Gamble, Orton, Wrigley. Three of the top six positions were claimed by cars from Joe Tandy Racing.
On the podium, Zamparelli chose the number 5 ball, which reversed the order of the top 5 race 1 finishers for the race 2 grid, giving a start order of Orton, Gamble, Plato, Ellinas, Zamparelli and Wrigley. Ellinas again made it from fourth to second just ahead of Zamparelli at the chequered flag. Zamparelli came away from round 1 as series leader with Joe Tandy Racing leading the teams.
Porsche Carrera Cup GB 2018 results
After one of the tightest championships in recent history, it was Ellinas who emerged as 2018 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion. The Cypriot won only one race, but finished every race of the season in the points and claimed podiums in 13 out of 16 races. Joe Tandy Racing took the team championship.
Carrera Cup GB changes in 2019
For 2019, the reverse grids stay but there is a further refinement to the grid system to allow race 1 non-finishers to start behind the last finisher in their category, as opposed to starting at the back of the grid. Fastest race lap earns a point for the drivers in each category.
Carrera Cup GB prize money and bonus Porsches
Teams and drivers compete for a prize fund totalling almost £350,000 through the season, with additional prizes for the winningest teams. The series champion wins £40,000, with the top rookie coming away with £35,000. Points are weighted in favour of the race 1 result (winner gets 12 vs 10 points) and the prize money is weighted in a similar way. A win in race 1 nets £1700, while a win in race 2 earns £1300.
Winning drivers in each category get the use of a Porsche for a year, while the team champions get the use of a Cayenne for a year. This will help them get to the events spread all across the UK with an additional race weekend on Europe. Last year’s European round was held at Le Mans, while the 2019 euro road trip will be to Spa or Monza, sometime in May.
It is interesting that the drivers and team managers are required to pass an online test at the start of each season, and drivers are selected at random to do more tests throughout the year. There is also random breathalyser testing through the year, with zero tolerance enforced. More of my motorcycle touring pals have been reporting early morning random roadside breath testing in effect across Europe also: a good thing, in my opinion.
Mobil 1 The Grid did a nice piece on Nick Tandy’s work to keep Joe Tandy Racing at the sharp end of the grid in Carrera Cup GB including interviews with Nick, Tio Ellinas and Lewis Plato (no relation to Jason). Watch that below:
Porsche has just announced a multi-year deal with Puma to kit out its race teams and develop a range of motorsport merchandise. It has also shared the first photo of the 2019 Porsche Works Drivers.
In November 2018, Porsche announced an apparently similar multi-year deal with Hugo Boss. The Boss logo is clearly visible on the race suits and there are a lot of Porsche products on the Hugo Boss site, so one assumes that the two will co-exist as premium vs standard product tiers.
Puma will develop, sell and market a range of Porsche Motorsport replica and fan wear products including clothing, footwear, headwear, accessories and bags aimed at Porsche Motorsport fans and motorsport enthusiasts.
“Puma has a long and successful tradition in motorsport,” said Fritz Enzinger, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “The innovation and creativity of Puma, one of the world’s leading sports lifestyle companies, fits in with our team and our brand, so we are pleased to welcome Puma as a new partner of the Porsche Motorsport Teams.”
Puma will equip all twenty-four Porsche Works Drivers, Juniors and Young Professionals as well as all pit crews of the Porsche factory teams with the latest fireproof motorsport clothing. In addition to equipping the Porsche Formula E and factory GT racing teams, Puma will supply shoes and travel luggage for the whole Porsche Motorsport division.
News of the Puma deal is accompanied by a group shot of the 2019 Porsche Works Drivers. This first mention of the forthcoming Porsche motorsport season is always a good start to the year. Here’s a list of the drivers that will compete for Weissach this year.
Porsche Works Drivers 2019 (including Juniors and Young Professionals)
Back Row L-R: Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet, Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber, Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen, Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz, Frédéric Makowiecki
Middle Row L-R: Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani, Patrick Long, Jörg Bergmeister, Timo Bernhardt, Brendon Hartley, Romain Dumas, Sven Müller, Dirk Werner
Front Row L-R: Matt Campbell, Matteo Cairoli, Dennis Olsen, Jaxon Evans, Julian Andlauer
I supplied an agreed insurance valuation for a nice 1982 Porsche 911 SC yesterday. It was a bittersweet moment for the owner: the valuation was for more than he was thinking, but our valuation discussion was a precursor to the impending sale of the car later this year.
The owner had spent a small fortune on the car in the last two years, including £8k with Historika on replacing the suspension and brakes, plating and powder coating the parts that would be re-used and fitting a lot of new parts. He spent over £2k plus materials on the usual rust repairs and then another £2k with Autofarm on a service plus underbody steam clean and waxoyl rust inhibitor treatment.
Add another £2200 on a gearbox rebuild, a bit more on SSIs and you’re getting up for £15k spent on the SC in recent years, so the car is now just about done and in better condition than the average SC of a similar age. Having done all that work, why sell now?
“Since I got it I’ve poured money into it, just short of full restoration, but I’m a new dad with another on the way and thought I could be one of the young IB crowd that could keep the car through kids. Turns out it’s harder than I thought.
“Recent new car seat rules are the killer: Rear facing to 15 months and then some sort of booster until they are quite old. I’m heading towards two kids under two: the SC is a third car and the Mrs wants something she can enjoy also.”
Kids and old Porsches go together like cheeseburgers
Having been through this whole thing when my kids were little, I did the same thing any 911 guy would do and told him to keep the SC and get a Polo or something to run the kids around in. I kept my 911s right through having little kids and wouldn’t dream of selling an air-cooled car just because kids came along, albeit I would be lying if I said it was always easy.
I’ve done the daily school run for at least one child over the last eighteen years and the 911 was always a popular choice when my kids were small. Many nursery pickups were done in the SC despite the mums’ cautioning that “the Porsche will have to go now you have three.” Err, no. I just bought a 5-door Polo and ran that when I didn’t want feet scratching the SC’s leather seatbacks. ‘Shoes off in dad’s car’ was the order of the day.
Child seats in the 20th Century
When I was a kid in the 1970s, there were six children in my family (Irish) and my aunt lived nearby, with three kids and no car. We had a Peugeot 504 Family estate: three rows of seats and not a belt to be seen. All thirteen of us would regularly pile into the Peugeot to head off to my grandmother’s.
Years later, I had my own kids and the child seat laws were a little more rigorous. I did my best to fit proper Porsche seats into the 911 SC Cabriolet I had at the time and the best option was the Porsche Prince seat: a drop-in insert that fitted coupe rear seat wells but struggled with the Cabriolet’s more upright seat backs. Eventually, I either took just one in the front in the Prince or on a Porsche booster, two in the back using the normal lap belts, three using a combination of both or they all stayed at home. My wife has never been one for old Porsches, so no need to take her along…
EU/UK Child Seat Laws 2019
Don’t take the following as full legal advice, as I am not an expert and I accept no liability for you not doing your own research! However, according to a quick look at RoSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) and the RAC, the current child seat laws seem to break down like this:
Children must use a rear-facing seat until they’re 15 months old. Rear facing seats must not be used in front if there is an active airbag on the passenger side of the car.
Once your child gets to 15 months old, their neck is deemed strong enough to go in a front facing seat, which must be mounted using ISOFIX mounts or a diagonal seat belt. Kids aged 12 or older or those who are taller than 135cm do not need to use a child seat. Children under 12 years old or shorter than 135cm must use a child seat.
Kids over 12 years old or more than 135cm tall must wear a seat belt. Those weighing more than 22kg and taller than 125cm can use a backless booster seat. For smaller children, a high-backed booster seat (like the Porsche ‘Plus’ below) is recommended, as a booster cushion alone will not protect them in a side impact. A child aged three or older may use an adult seat belt if making an ‘unexpected but necessary journey’ over a short distance.
Child Seats versus older Porsches
There are EU requirements laws relating to seat approval which apply to seats made after March 1, 2017 and you should read up on these. Seats manufactured before this date can still be used based on the previous legislation, so let’s assume that your actual seat ticks all the legal boxes.
The only option if your child is fifteen months or younger is a rear facing seat. My experience says that there is no hope of safely fitting one of these into the back of a Ferry-era Porsche, therefore it has to go in the front and the car has to be fitted with no active airbag.
If you have an air-cooled 911 (964 or 993) with a non-switchable airbag, then you need to take the bag out (good luck with that) or you are using another car. Anyone in pre-airbag models is sitting pretty: none of my three Porsches have airbags. 996 and later 911s have a bit more space to play with so most solutions should be OK in there, but you may still struggle with rear legroom/footroom.
Over fifteen months, you can get them in forward facing seats. If you have an older 911 coupe, then there are a few options for forward-facing seats in the back. The Maxi-Cosi Rodi XP has worked well for some and the Porsche Prince is one I recommend. The Prince was made by Britax Römer for Porsche (I had both Römer- and Porsche-badged examples) and works with a seat back and detachable “table”, pressed into the seat back using the seat belt.
Now for a cautionary note. You will love the Prince as it opens up a whole world of car fun with the kids and seems to look cool in situ: it has a very Porsche-like appearance. The table top is also a great place for their head to lie on when they want to have a sleep. However, I had two kids in Prince seats and I can’t say either of them were overly enamoured with them.
Orla G in a Porsche Prince child seat (911 SC Cabriolet)
The Porsche Prince seat is a bit claustrophobic – especially in the back of a Cabriolet – and a right faff to fit with anything other than diagonal inertia-reel seat belts, which my Cab did not have. Be prepared for your kids to hate these seats and keep your cool if that is the case. You don’t have to sit in them and mum’s/dad’s “other car” is quieter with better seats and probably decent air con too. Don’t expect miracles straight away.
A tired Ciara G about to have a snooze in the SC at the Stamford Hall VW Show
I occasionally used these seats without the table when my kids were bigger and they were happier like this but, while the Prince variants worked quite well, they were not perfect. A hardback Audi front-facing seat (pic above) that also had a lap table, which I used in the front of the SC, had height-adjustable clips on either side of the backrest to take the shoulder belt at a nice angle and all three daughters were happiest in this. I was perhaps happier with the risks of using a less than optimal seat than you might be – I never went flat out anywhere with the kids in the car – but it will be up to you to decide whether it fits your comfort zone.
Child Seat Summary
The upshot is that, if you only have one child to move, then anything is possible and it should not be too much of a problem. If you have two to move, then it gets interesting: especially if the Mrs wants to come too. That said, if your old Porsche is a third car and either of the other two work for moving kids, then I don’t see why the Porsche has to go. Kids don’t stay kids forever. Note also that whatever cash you get for your Porsche car will disappear in a heartbeat and getting back into one will be a lot more expensive down the road. “Don’t sell your dream,” as my friend Leonard very wisely told me.
I understand why the SC owner is putting his car up for sale, but I still think it’s a mistake to sell due to kids. Macan and Cayenne took off because they are great for moving kids if you simply must have a Porsche badge, but they are no substitute for the old ones. I did 50k miles including countless school runs in my Cayenne S. I eventually sold it, but still have the classics.
What about you: how are you moving your brood? Let me know in the comments – happy to add any appropriate pics to the piece.
Featured photo courtesy of Greig M – many thanks!
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
The February 2019 issue of 911 and Porsche World magazine has just arrived, with a front page featuring a muted mention of the brand new Porsche 992. This seems in tune with a rather reserved reception to date for the latest 911.
The new model still has some sports cred on paper. The improved 3-litre turbocharged engine will shove the 1.5-ton Carrera 2 Coupe with Panamera 8-speed PDK to 191 mph where allowed, reaching 60 mph from a standstill in just under four seconds. The car is bristling with technology, including an all new ‘Wet Mode’ and a carbon footprint tracker.
“With the new 992 generation, the 911 has surely completed its journey from compact sports car to capacious grand tourer,” says 911&PW. “The new interior doesn’t exactly communicate unadorned functionality, either. And consider all the newly added technology that has nothing to do with what Porsche refers to as a ‘puristic’ driving experience.”
The magazine goes on to recommend celebrating the 992 as “still incredibly faithful to the original 911’s ethos given the limitations of modern motoring.” This is similar to how Autocar’s James Attwood viewed the new car following a passenger ride around Hockenheim.
“That impression is of a car that is at once a step forward, while also remaining reassuringly familiar,” notes James in an Autocar piece describing the car as “a welcome evolution”. “There’s an added sheen of comfort with the development of the touchscreens and displays in the interior, and with the addition of new driver assistance systems. Yet those systems appear to have been developed to give those who want to exploit its considerable performance the freedom to do so.”
Chassis control systems and freedom do not always make the best bedfellows, so it will be interesting to note how road testers describe the dynamics when they eventually get to try it in person. With a wider track, longer wheelbase and 55 more kilos under its belt, it’s probably reasonable to expect further endorsement of this perceived shift from sports car to grand tourer ahead of the first production hybrid 911 in a few years.
Update 11/2/19: these units are now available to order. There are many happy new owners! Scroll to the end.
I spotted some teaser pics of the updated Blaupunkt Bremen from Evo-Sales in Hamburg on Instagram last week. Details and images are thin on the ground right now, but I thought it was worth a share all the same.
Finding a period radio for a classic car has become an expensive business in recent years, with original Blaupunkt head units particularly pricey to source. I had a nice Blaupunkt Toronto SQR46 on the shelf for my 1981 Porsche 924 Turbo, but it turned out to have no sound. I sold it on eBay and bought a fairly plain Sony unit with DAB and iPhone hookup instead.
I rarely if ever listen to music in the car these days, so what’s in the dash is not a big issue for me most of the time. When I do want to listen to something, my main priorities would be to have DAB radio for BBC 6Music and the ability to stream from the Worldwide FM app on my iPhone. Currently, I run a double-DIN Kenwood DMX-7017DABS with Apple Car Play in the CR-V to handle that or the factory Subaru (Kenwood) integrated audio in my BP5 Outback streams iPhone apps through a mini-jack hookup.
Both sound well through a custom amplifier/speaker setup, but neither is single DIN size or suitable for an old 944 or 911. The new Bremen seems to have my simple needs covered in single DIN size straight out of the box and with a retro look that will suit anyone running a late ’80s or ’90s Porsche.
Matthias Wagner at EVO-Sales tells me that there are no actual pics of the unit installed in a dashboard as yet, but the unit is so reminiscent of Blaupunkts of old that anyone my sort of age will have no problem imagining what it might look like in situ. The styling is super period and all used within the rights to Blaupunkt production, sales and marketing for car, marine and caravan applications held by Evo-Sales since February 2016.
To make it even more attractive for Porsche folks, the head unit is expected to retail at just €449/£400 when it launches later this year. This makes the updated Blaupunkt Bremen SQR46 a much nicer price than the Porsche Classic radio with sat nav, which current retails at £1,000 or so here in the UK. I prefer to use a separate GPS or Google Maps on my iPhone and that should be easily doable with this unit. All things considered, the Bremen is well placed to be a strong contender in the ‘classic retrofit’ market.
Specs are below: headline items include Bluetooth, DAB, USB in and 4 pre-outs with 4×50 native power for those who do not run external amplification.
Radio
• CODEM IV High-End Tuner
• Integrierter DAB/DAB+ Tuner
• DAB Band III/L-Band
• Service Link (DAB-DAB, DAB-FM, DAB-DAB-FM)
• Diensteauswahl nach Ensembles
• RDS (AF, CT, EON, PS, PTY, REG, TA, TP)
• Travelstore
• Comfort Browsing
Bluetooth
• Bluetooth 2.0 mit EDR für Freisprechen und Audiostreaming
• Profile: HFP, PBAP, A2DP, AVRCP, SPP
• Integriertes Mikrofon und Anschluss für externes Mikrofon
Media Player
• Wiedergabeformat: MP3, WMA
• Wählbare Anzeige Modi (ID3-Tags, Ordner, Datei)
Datenträger
• USB 2.0
• SDHC (bis zu 32 GB), SD, MMC
Eingänge
• Front USB (Standard A-Typ)
• SDHC/SD-Kartenslot
• Front Aux-In
• Eingang Steuerung-Lenkradfernbedienung
I received an email from Matthias at Blaupunkt advising me that these units were now available to pre-order. He has sent no other information other than this so do not shoot the messenger!
Dear Ferdinand,
The BREMEN SQR 46 DAB has passed the long-term test very well. The devices are now being produced and will be delivered in March / April 2019. If interested persons want to pre-reserve then here: info@car-akustik.de best regards,
Matthias Wagner / Blaupunkt Car-MULTIMEDIA
SHARE • EXPLORE • SUPPORT
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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.
