A Porsche 968 competing in the Britcar 24 Hours of Silverstone has raised thousands of pounds for the Children’s Heart Federation charity. It’s not to late to donate: see below.
Practice lap times placing the Porsche at the back of the field did not tell the full story. Starting towards the back of the grid, the twenty-two year-old Porsche beat faster cars that could not last the distance, eventually coming home twelfth overall and proving the virtue of staying power.
“Beating heart disease is all about teamwork, just like endurance racing,” said Jonathan Evans, a trustee of the Children’s Heart Federation and one of the 968’s four drivers alongside Ben Demetriou, Paul Follett and Alex Eacock.
“This satisfying result is testament to a great team of drivers, pit crew and sponsors. Each team member did their utmost to achieve the best result for a wonderful organisation that supports so many sick children every year. Prepared by EMC Motorsport, the Porsche ran faultlessly throughout the event, outlasting much quicker cars, including two 911s. We have much to be proud of today.”
The team is still taking donations in support of its efforts, with all proceeds going directly to the Children’s Heart Federation. Porsche fans can contribute at www.justgiving.com/team-chf500/. Do it today!
It’s now seven hours since Wolfgang Porsche’s official statement following the shock resignation of his older cousin, Ferdinand Piëch, as chairman of Volkswagen’s supervisory board. This is what it said:
Stuttgart, 25 April 2015. Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of the supervisory board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Stuttgart, comments [on] today’s developments at Volkswagen AG as follows:
“We have full confidence in the board of management of Volkswagen Group and we deeply regret the developments of the last few days. We thank Ferdinand Piëch for his decades of extraordinary and highly successful service to the Volkswagen Group. Our great loyalty to the Volkswagen Group and its 600,000 employees remains unchanged and we assume our responsibility as a principal shareholder.”
“Professor Dr. Ferdinand K. Piëch has resigned with immediate effect from his position as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and from all his mandates as a Supervisory Board member within the Volkswagen Group,” said the VW statement. “The members of the Executive Committee have unanimously determined that in view of the background of the last weeks the mutual trust necessary for successful cooperation no longer exists.”
Ferdinand Piëch quits Volkswagen
The VW statement seems to suggest that a vote was taken to oust the good Doctor, and that is how most media outlets are playing it, but those in the know say that no vote was held: 78 year-old Ferdinand walked away of his own accord. Piëch’s deputy, union leader Berthold Huber, will run things while a new chairman is elected.
“Ferdinand Piëch has made an enormous contribution to Volkswagen and the entire automobile industry,” said Huber. “The developments of the last two weeks led to a loss of trust between the supervisory board chairman and the other members, which in recent days has proven to be impossible to resolve. The uncertainty had to be ended today. The committee was and is conscious of its responsibility to Volkswagen and its many thousand staff.”
Following decades controlling Audi and VW, no doubt Piëch is also highly conscious of his responsibility to Volkswagen workers and to his own major VW shareholding. His departure clears the way for a seismic shake-up at Volkswagen, which could see current CEO Winterkorn taking the chairman’s job, with Porsche boss Matthias Müller moving up to head the entire VW group. This would throw a spanner in the works at Stuttgart, which has thrived under Müller’s guidance.
Whatever happens with Volkswagen, Piëch’s move marks the end of an era for Porsche, and the end of an era for Porsche fans. While Ferdinand Piëch is certainly “one of the most important people in the history of German business”, as one supervisory board member put it, he is a pivotal figure in Porsche mythology. Porsche without independence retained some credibility with Piëch at the helm. Porsche without Piëch says something else to enthusiasts of a certain age.
Life without Piëch: The Future
Labelling this as the end of Piëch would be clearly ridiculous. The Porsche-Piëch battle goes back to the start: this is simply the latest installment. Is Ferdinand right about Volkswagen’s problems? The Porsche side of the family doesn’t think so, but then it backed Weideking against Ferdinand Piëch. We all know how that ended up: 10 billion euros of debt, criminal charges and 50 million euros to get rid of Wendelin. And Ferdinand’s Volkswagen bailing them out.
Dale Lomas of the Bridge to Gantry blog has just shared pics of an un-camouflaged Porsche 991 GT3 RS at the Nürburgring, a visit coinciding with rumours of an attempt on the Nürburgring lap record this evening.
“We’ve all seen the new 991-based GT3RS,” writes Dale Lomas, a driving instructor with RSRNurburg, who hosted our most recent track day at Spa Francorchamps. “I’ve seen the camo-clad test cars, and recently the stationary show-queens at Geneva and New York. But there’s nothing like seeing a hot new car in the wild, undisguised. And that’s what happened tonight at the Nürburgring Nordschleife car park.”
Dale’s pictures show a GT3 RS in Silver arriving at the circuit just before the close, then taking to the track during what photographers call ‘Golden Hour’ for pictures shot in end-of-day light. As the Porsche 911 started its laps of the Nürburgring, the track management cancelled this evening’s public touristenfahrten sessions, marking the circuit as closed.
I’m not sure that Porsche would try a speed record in the evening: early morning light and that cold, damp air would make for a better chance of breaking the Nürburgring lap record, if the track was dry enough. Maybe they want to do some more pictures: the evening light is superb for that. Either way, Dale’s pictures are exciting, showing the Porsche 991 GT3 RS in a normal, run-of-the-mill public situation.
Porsche 991 GT3 RS build slots selling over list price
Of course the Porsche 991 GT3 RS is already sold out. Preferential purchase options went to Porsche 918 owners, many of whom seized the option to buy. The cars that were left quickly sold out, and my Facebook feed has thrown up a few Porsche 991 GT3 RS buyers unsure of what colour to go for.
I have steered clear of discussions on what colour to order for maximum residual value, as that sort of stuff drives me nuts, but no doubt those buyers lucky enough to nab a build slot have already done well for their money. Slots that came available just after launch were changing hands at something like £20k over list price, but I now hear that some slots have been making more than £100,000 over list. Nice work if you can get it.
Edit 23/04/15: just spoke to a guy who has sold his for considerably more than £100k over. Ridiculous.
Porsche Racing had a disappointing run at yesterday’s Long Beach Grand Prix in California. Racing in the Tudor IMSA series ‘showcase’ at Long Beach, the 100-minute street race left little time to fight back from a low starting position.
While Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet initially went well in qualifying, running P2 and P3 early on and driving the wheels off their Porsche 911 RSRs (see the video below), the cars started the race further down the field. The tight and twisty street circuit is tough for overtaking, so when Lietz put a move on Oliver Gavin’s Corvette at the start, there was no room for error. Sod’s Law, that is what happened.
“An accident at the start is something you can really do without, particularly on a street circuit like Long Beach,” said Lietz. “You know that the race is short and that overtaking is difficult, so you try everything to make up positions at the start. That didn’t work this time. I didn’t expect the Corvette to swerve towards me. I couldn’t avoid him and ended up in the wall.”
Looks more like he ended up in the Corvette (above), but Pilet made the most of his team mate’s misfortune, to come home in fourth place. “I was lucky in the first corner after the start. While Richard’s car was forced into the wall, I just managed to scrape through. Our car wasn’t easy to drive in the first laps, but it improved over the course of the race and the balance got better. In fact, we weren’t far off the top with our times. Still, on this narrow circuit it was impossible to overtake.”
IMSA Porsche Racing California
The number 911 RSR eventually finished eighth overall, with local driver and polesitter Bill Auberlene on the top step in the BMW Z4. No surprise to see a win from pole on this super short race. If you’re wondering why teams put all that time and money into racing an almost nonexistent event, look at where Long Beach is situated, just south of Los Angeles central. It’s the easiest place to market to those who won’t come to a circuit.
Not done the maths yet, but I think this keeps Porsche at the bottom of the championship table in the GT Le Mans class of the Tudor IMSA series. Next round is Laguna Seca at the start of May: another short race of just 2 hours 40 minutes, but with more room to get past the rest. We’ll have to see how things pan out with Michael Christensen in the number 911 RSR, while some of the boys come home for Spa WEC.
Watch the IMSA Tudor Sportscar Showcase Long Beach qualifying on video here:
Watched some Variant 1 KW Suspension going on a Grand Prix White Porsche 964 Targa earlier this week. It was interesting to follow the Porsche project as the rusty old factory dampers came off the 911, to be replaced by KW kit.
When it comes to upgraded Porsche suspension, KW kits are amongst the best available. The German brand with a penchant for finding fine detail on its ex-Formula 1 hydraulic test rig is a favourite of many winning race teams, particularly in the exhilarating VLN championship, so it’s no surprise that KW Suspension Variant 3 kits are common on Porsche cars used for fast road and track days.
The new three-way KW Clubsport adjustable coilover kits are one of my favourites amongst the firm’s 997 GT3 RS track day crowd, but the cheaper V1 and V3 kits are an affordable, quality upgrade for worn-out original suspension.
With prices starting at just over £1,000, the KW Suspension Variant 1 coilover kit is hard to beat. The struts are made from stainless steel, with corrosion resistant springs and bump stops. They also come with the top mounts, which are usually ruined on old 911s. This saves a few quid.
Variant 1 is TUV-approved, so maximum lowering is restricted to no more than 70mm: not that you would want to go quite this low in a classic 911, assuming you were serious about driving. Experienced suspension tech Ricky (above with old and new) carefully set the ride heights before fitting the kit, but the rust-resisting trapezoid thread and composite collar will move freely at any stage in the future, so a new owner could easily raise or lower the car using the supplied KW toolkit.
KW Suspension says that each Porsche suspension kit has been specifically tuned for the car in damper setup and spring rate. The new dampers reduce body roll when the suspension is in compression and give much sharper handling than anything fitted to 911 road cars as standard.
It probably sounds like I have swallowed the KW blurb on this, but I’ve road tested quite a few KW cars and no doubt they feel better to drive. One interesting comparison would be the Bilstein setup fitted to the 964RS I lived with for a few months. That was special, but there seems very little in it when the cars are on track.
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