Nice to see this superb Porsche 993 GT2 race car tucked away in the pits at Donington on St Patrick’s Day. Even nicer to see it exit the pits and head out on track, driven by ‘Take That’ vocalist, Howard Donald.
I was at Donington with the former Formula 1 driver, Mike Wilds, and Dave Summers’ Porsche 997 GT2 built to celebrate Mike’s 50th year in motorsport, when I spotted a familiar wheel-rim-meets-front-arch shape peeking out of garage 1. Not too many 993s in the world running BBS Motorsport wheels so I hopped straight on pit wall for a look.
Call me surprised to see the Champion Motorsports-liveried Porsche 993 GT2 EVO parked in the garage, very low key. With some “do not disturb” body language from the mechanics and driver, I kept my distance but enjoyed watching the car do some laps through the day. My type of music is more alternative than modern-day pop charts, so I learned the driver’s identity later on, courtesy of the Donington media chief.
A previous ad for this Porsche for sale tells how it started life as a 993 Turbo S factory race car, running in the IMSA Supercar Championship of the early 1990s. John Wood drove the car in 1992/1993 before it changed hands, selling to Champion Motorsports.
Porsche 993 GT2 Evo history
With the help of Andial, Mike Colucci and Porsche Motorsport North America, the new owners converted the car to GT2 EVO spec, competing in the GT1 category of IMSA’s Exxon Supreme series. Champion brought in some superstar drivers including Hans Stuck, Brian Redman, Derek Bell and Dorsey Schroeder, taking a class win at the 1996 Sebring event before the 993 GT2 was sold into private hands.
I don’t know what engine the car is running now, but Andial built a killer motor for it back in the day: a 962-style flat-fan 3.6-litre running over 700 bhp, depending on mapping. Sounds pretty juicy. This 993 GT2 EVO had cockpit-selectable maps, which wasn’t too common back then. The chassis was apparently pretty lightweight for an IMSA turbo car with the NASCAR-style cage, thanks to carbon & kevlar panels. Power delivery is reported as more predictable than a 934 or 935: not that this would be difficult.
Here’s a short video from Ferdinand Porsche Magazine on Youtube of the Porsche 993 GT2 EVO leaving the pit garage at Donington. Subscribe to our Youtube page for more Porsche videos in the future.
Classic Porsche racing parts specialists, EB Motorsport, scored an emphatic result at Goodwood last weekend, finishing second in a unique race for pre-‘67 Porsche 901 and 911 racers.
Twenty-two Porsche 901s and 911s took to the grid for the Aldington Trophy, honouring Porsche GB founder, John Aldington. Following an exciting twenty-minute race, former BTCC champion Andrew Jordan came home first overall, with EB’s Mark Bates just twelve seconds behind at the flag. Yorkshire’s two-time Masters Historic champion was over the moon with his podium finish in the beautiful Light Ivory 1965 SWB 911 race car, built by Tuthill Porsche.
EB Motorsport 1965 Porsche 911
“With a short practice, short race, and so many proper racing drivers on the grid, I wasn’t sure where we’d end up,” said Mark. “Our 1965 911 has done well in endurance events for FIA cars, like the Spa 6 Hours, but this was a sprint race, and our first time at Goodwood.
“Andrew Jordan is a touring car champion and exceptionally quick: we’re pretty pleased to be best of the rest. 2015 is the first full season for our short wheelbase 911, so we’re still on a learning curve. We’re running a brand new Tuthill Porsche two-litre engine, and an all-new exhaust developed in-house, so it was good to test the package in racing conditions.”
Tuthill Porsche Historic Race Preparation
“This is a great validation of Tuthill Porsche preparation and build quality,” said Richard Tuthill. “The Porsche 2-litre flat six is a beautiful engine, and one that our team enjoys decades of experience with. We made some last-minute tweaks to carburation before the car left for Goodwood on Friday, and were delighted to see them pay off. The chassis and engine package comes together perfectly on track at the hands of a highly talented driver. Well done Mark: roll on the next event!”
The next outing for the EB Motorsport 911 is at the Donington Historic Festival, from May 2-4. Follow all EB Motorsport race news at www.eb-motorsport.com.
I walked into a Porsche showroom on Monday and found an old friend waiting to greet me. Not unusual to find friends in Porsche showrooms, but surprising to find this 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera tribute for sale, as part of me thought the original owner would never sell it.
I first met this Porsche 911 at Tuthill Porsche in 2008. The owner, Oli Wheeler, had bought a very nice silver E-reg G50 Carrera Coupe base from Chris Harris, and then started talking to Richard Tuthill about building a tribute car. He was besotted with a feature I had written for 911 & Porsche World magazine, entitled “Citrus Carreras”.
The story revolved around my own 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 in Continental Orange, versus good mate Nigel Watkins’ Lime Green 1975 Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera, which he had used to win the Curborough Sprint Championship. My car is called Orange, Nigel’s was called Limey: hence all the title stuff etc.
To defend his racing crown, Nigel had put Limey on a bit of diet, fitting carbon fibre bumpers and spending a fortune on an engine rebuild and re-cammed mechanical injection pump, amongst other things. However, when he went to go racing back at Curborough, his composite bumpers put him in the same class as a full-carbon Lotus Elise and the like. The shine went off the 2.7 and he sold it to build a 964 RS (replica) for more sprinting, which he managed to sort quite successfully after first buying a real 964 RS, which he found too hard to go racing in. Oh, the conversations we had about that…
Anyway, Limey had gone in part exchange on the RS to another good guy: the charming Neil Dickens at The Hairpin Company. Neil sold it to one man, then bought it back, then sold it on to someone else. In between all his moving it around, he met me and photographer Matt Howell at Bicester for a day out, where we shot the feature that would captivate Oli Wheeler some time later.
“Oli wants to build one of these cars, but he’s not sure which to go for,” said Richard on the phone in 2008. “He loves your Orange, and loves Lime Green: can you bring yours down for him to look at?” In the end it was not needed: Oli went with Lime Green (Gelb Grün) as the colour for his build, in homage to Limey. Jamie and I later shot Oli’s car at Wardington for another 911&PW feature.
Oli’s car was built to a sensible budget. He’d just sold a Ferrari 430 and had a few quid to spend, which went on things like:
Bare metal respray with some backdate cues: rear bumperette delete etc
Engine fettle with Jenvey throttle bodies, Omex ECU
SSIs and Dansk rear pipe
Tuthill billet brake calipers
Suspension overhaul
Recaro Pole Positions trimmed in leather
I drove it for a day and enjoyed how the Jenvey ITBs had improved the driveability. Seats were just perfect, car rode a treat but I didn’t like the 16″ Fuchs that had been left on the car. It needed 15s. Oli had it for a few years before emailing to say he had traded it for a 996 Turbo plus cash, which surprised me then and still surprises me now.
Whoever had the car after Oli fitted the 15″ Fuchs it deserved in the proper daisy petal finish, and now the 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera tribute is for sale, priced at just under £70k. I’ve not had a close look underneath it, but being around this car still makes me smile.
It was good to swap some emails with freelance graphic designer and classic Porsche artist, Arthur Schening, this week. Arthur sent me some examples of his work that really caught my eye: distinctive and evocative renditions of classic Rennsport racing cars. I knew there had to be a theme at work, so I asked him to elaborate. Arthur’s response struck a familiar chord!
Porsche Art by Arthur Schening
When I was very young, my older brother took me to see Steve McQueen’s movie, Le Mans. At that time, the only racing cars I was aware of were American stock cars. The movie cars were different. They were very cool, and exotic, and the sound they made was fantastic. And the Porsches were the good guys – at least that was the way I saw it – battling against the vile Ferraris to ultimate victory. I have been a Porsche man ever since.
Sometime later, I discovered the Porsche 911. It was not beautiful, nor particularly powerful. It was small and odd looking – a bit like me. But there was something about that shape. It was clean and simple, and it looked purposeful. And it fought heroically against the bigger, prettier Ferraris and Corvettes – another villain in my mind. I grew up to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of the Ferraris, and admire (although never love) the Corvettes. But they are not Porsches.
Being a freelance graphic designer and illustrator is not lucrative. I was born to a middle-class family. I am not wealthy, and I will never be able to afford the cars that I desire. But my occupation does give me the ability to create a likeness of the things that I love. If I wanted a Porsche 906 or 910, I would have to create it for myself.
I started working on this series of historic racing car illustrations in my free time a few years ago, when I was not working on client projects (a benefit of working for myself). I never intended to illustrate more than a few cars that I wanted to hang on my walls at home. But with each illustration I complete, the list of cars that I covet grows. I suppose this project will continue on for a while longer.
Visit Arthur Schening’s Online Gallery
Arthur Schening is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator living in Arlington, Virginia. His work is available to purchase as prints from his website featuring an online gallery of classic endurance racing sports cars. I am quite taken by his style: expect to see more of it on Ferdinand Magazine in the future!
The John Aldington Trophy race for pre-1967 Porsche 911 SWB racing cars at Goodwood next weekend has gathered an impressive entry list. More than twenty-five 1965 and 1966 short wheelbase 911s are shown on the official entry list for the 20-minute race, with a plethora of well known drivers appearing on the grid.
Thirty tail-happy old 911s on the fast and flowing Goodwood circuit will make for some interesting accidents if the rain comes down. The cars are tricky enough to drive in the dry on regulation tyres, let alone if it gets wet. However, the first big challenge for the cars is to get through scrutineering.
Porsche 911 Goodwood Aldington Trophy
The race is open to pre-1967 2 litre Porsche 901 and 911 models conforming to the FIA Appendix K regulations for Grand Touring cars built between January 1962 and December 1965. All competing cars must have a Historic Technical Passport, and the circuit will insist upon a specific standard of aesthetic vehicle presentation, involving appropriate period livery and detailing.
This means no out-of-period wheels, lights, wing mirrors or dashboard gauges. No windows of an inappropriate material featuring out-of-period ventilation holes or flaps. No advertising, logos or graphics may appear on any vehicle unless these formed part of the car’s original livery during racing prior to 1966.
Minimum weight is strictly 1002 kg. Cars below this weight at scrutineering will not be allowed to race. All cars will be weighed prior to qualifying, with random cars weighed and fuel adjusted post-race. The cars must run aluminium crankcases, Solex carbs, single plug, solid discs, 14-16mm front anti-roll bars (16mm rear), 1380mm front track and 1350mm rear. Minimum ride height is 100mm.
“We shouldn’t have any problems with scrutineering,” says Mark Bates of classic Porsche parts reproduction specialist, EB Motorsport. Bates’ 1965 Porsche 911 raced very successfully at the 2014 Spa 6 Hours (above) and will carry number 6 in the race. “This race at Goodwood could be a bit of lottery, though, given the short qualifying time and the number of cars on track.”
The brief race is named after the legendary John Aldington, son of the famous H.J. Aldington of Frazer Nash dynasty fame and a former MD of both AFN and Porsche Cars GB. Tickets for the weekend are priced at £130 general entry per head, add £76 for roving grandstand per head. Yes, you read that right. I won’t be there, but hopefully we can share some in-car footage after the weekend.
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