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by John Glynn | May 9, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
It’s the Mini Britannia this weekend and there’s plenty of Porsche content racing. Tuthill Porsche has prepared three 911s for the event: the mega hot 3.5-litre Porsche 911 with dog box of Glenn Janssens, a Tuthill 3.0-litre arrive-and-drive rally car for Howard Redhouse, and the very pretty RSR-style Porsche 911 of Cate and Duncan Buck.
Buck’s blue beauty will be new to many of you. Previously running an SC on the Tour Britannia, this car and the last one both feature Porsche body panels from the EB Motorsport catalogue. I had a good look at the new 911 in preparation at Tuthills and, with the improvements made at Wardington, it should be a lot of fun tomorrow.
Howard Redhouse is a very experienced race and rally competitor and has previously raced at the 24 Hours of Spa and Zolder endurance. Howard’s grey Porsche 911 SC mount looks good: preparation included a refresh in the Tuthill bodyshop after a season on the frozen lakes of Below Zero Ice Driving.
Glenn Janssen’s Porsche needs no introduction. His fire-breathing 911 featured in a Chris Harris Drive video before it won the Belgian Historic Championship. It then suffered a huge 100mph crash on frozen ground and was fully rebuilt back at Tuthill Porsche. The car won the last Belgian championship round at Rallye de Wallonie and will be fighting hard to reclaim its Belgian title.
About Mini Britannia and full Tour Britannia
Precursor to the full Tour Britannia, held over three days (August 7-9, 2014), Mini Britannia lasts just one day and comprises competition and regularity events under the one banner.
While Tour Britannia is based around North Wales and Cheshire, Mini Britannia is held down south, around Surrey. Scrutineering takes place today at the Royal Automobile Club’s Woodcote Park and is followed by an evening briefing.
Competition starts tomorrow at 8.15am. Rally competitors depart Woodcote, destination Dunsfold Park: home of the Top Gear TV show. From Dunsfold, the cars go to Brooklands, where they can explore the historic banking before heading back on track at the Mercedes World centre.
After lunch at Brooklands, the cars return to Dunsfold for on track laps and some special tests. The final stage of the day is back at Woodcote, before prizegiving.
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by John Glynn | May 8, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
I spent the bank holiday weekend with Mark and James from EB Motorsport at the Donington Historic Festival. The boys were racing their 3-litre cars in FIA World Sportscar Masters, and also debuting the Tuthill-built 1965 2-litre Porsche 911, so plenty to see and do.
The first surprise of the weekend came on arrival at Donington Park racetrack. Paved circuit perimeter roads! Been a long time coming but this on its own should convince you that changes are afoot at Castle Donington. Walking in the paddock gate, the new building for Formula E – the FIA’s all-electric single seater championship – is coming together nicely.
Donington’s car park was buzzing and there was no shortage of spectators inside. Over 46,000 people attended on the Saturday and Sunday, which is a great testament to the power of Donington: still my favourite UK race circuit to drive. Arriving at lunchtime on Sunday, I settled in to the EB garage and caught up on some news before walking out on track with the camera.
First race of my visit was pre-war cars, fun to watch but as one driver put it on Donington FM, “half the battle is getting the old cars to the finish”. Some very fast machinery has attended, but a few needed time out in the pits half way through, before coming back out on track towards the end. Meanwhile, the lighter equipment kept doing the laps in perfect vintage “drift me” style.
After the pre-war cars came pre-’66 touring cars – saloons like the Lotus Cortina, BMW Tisa and a number of Alfa Romeos. Mini Coopers also race in touring cars and look great fun to drive. The leading Tisa seemed super fast compared to the Lotus Cortinas which dominated in period. Texting an historic preparation mate to enquire, he suggested slightly looser regulations might be favouring the BMW. Eventually, an Alfa made it to the front and some Lotus Cortinas also found their way forward. It was excellent racing to watch.
Maserati Trophy was next, which was a close scrap for the win between a Birdcage and something else. Not a huge Maserati fan so I relocated back to the Craner Curves and Old Hairpin for the FIA World Sportscar Masters.
At 5pm, the sportscar race started and the Lola T-70s were immediately flying. One slid off at the hairpin and backed into the gravel. The marshals pulled it out and got it back on track. In Pescarolo class, the Corvette was out in front, about a second faster than the yellow EB RSR. The Corvette owners reckon that is now producing 900 horsepower, but I’m not sure what the FIA papers status is. We’ll see what happens with it through the year.
As the race wore on, the Corvette hit problems, retiring after 30-odd laps. This brought EB’s RSR back into play. The mandatory pit stop was soon followed by a second one, as there was some concern on the EB pitwall that they might have missed the official pit window. Forty seconds or more was lost on that misunderstanding, but with the Corvette failing to hit the minimum number of laps required to classify, Mark squeaked ahead of his rivals and took maximum points from the race. We think he now leads the FIA Masters championship, but are waiting for official results to be posted.
James’ Red 1974 Porsche 911 3.0 RS came home behind the yellow car, but now starting his second season in the 911, James’ lap times were a good deal quicker than last year. This brought a few smiles, as James gave Mark quite a hard time when the previous champion emerged from the pits behind his brother and tried to get past. Looked great on the in-car video!
My next post will share the 2-litre Porsche breaking cover on Bank Holiday Monday, but was already a top weekend at the end of Sunday night. I headed for my hotel in Derby and had a few beers before hitting the sack. The faithful Cayenne was with me as always.
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by John Glynn | May 4, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
I’m vintage Porsche 911 racing at Donington Historic Festival this weekend with EB Motorsport and the team’s now three vintage Porsche 911 race cars.
The ’74 3.0 RS and RSR pair are about to head out on track for their qualifying session in FIA Masters Historic Series: World Sportscar Masters, with a race this evening at 6pm.
Other than getting fans in early and making them stay all day, I have no idea why the schedule is set out like that. It’s a long day for the EB boys, getting up at 6am to drive from Yorkshire then hanging around until the evening for track time. Plus the potential to qualify dry and race in the wet. And there’s no practice sessions: it’s assumed you will test there during the year.
I’m staying up at Donington overnight and then tomorrow we have the debut of the team’s 1965 2-litre Porsche 911. First time on circuit for the Tuthill-built 911, so it will be interesting to see how qualifying and the race goes for the new boy. I followed it bring driven hard on the road a few days ago and the Cayenne needed working to keep up: the beauty of power-to-weight ratio.
Donington likes a light, slidey car: I’m expecting some driftworks on track. Will it be flat through the Craner Curves hairpin?!
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by John Glynn | May 3, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
No podium places in the Porsche 991 LMP1 Spa challenge today, as the number 14 hybrid failed to capitalise on its pole position start. That is not to say the race was disappointing! It was great racing all the way, with strategies right through the field playing out in the closing stages.
Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid Sets Early Pace
The first hour of racing was electric. Porsche works driver, Neel Jani, set his fastest lap early on: a 2:01.898, the fastest lap number 14 would achieve over 360 minutes of racing. With the chasing number 8 Toyota unable to close the gap, Jani double stinted, while Toyota pulled an early stop, putting Sebastian Buemi in the car.
Handing over to Marc Lieb in the lead, Buemi had been logging very quick laps, but was not close enough to take the lead with a clean Porsche pit stop. However, a problem in the stop caused a hiccup for the 919 on exit, allowing Buemi through.
Buemi Toyota shows untouchable pace
Once in front, the former Red Bull junior brought his A game and took off. The Toyota was soon almost half a minute in front, but Porsche had already decided to switch strategies, putting the number 14 on a fuel save and double-stinting tyres. Toyota’s game was drive it flat out: a driver swap to Anthony Davidson brought fastest lap of the race: a 2:01.3.
Behind the 14 car, Timo Bernhard’s sister Porsche hybrid was spending more time in the garage. Early in the race, the number 20 Porsche LMP1 car had a rear suspension problem which brought it out of pit lane two laps down. There followed a series of front end interventions, costing Porsche a lot of time: down 22 laps at one stage.
Number 20 Porsche Hybrid Reliability Problems
As the race rolled on, the Audi LMP1 cars were surprisingly slow on the straights, but came into play as the race rolled on. Both Toyota and Porsche advised their drivers to stay off the kerbs: apparently some driveshaft issues for the 20 over hard kerbs at Eau Rouge and Raidillon.
We live tweeted the event, which proved to be a lot of fun, as US followers searched web feeds and Romain Dumas struggled with electrical problems on the 14 car, dropping it a lap and a half at much-reduced pace. We were following pictures on Motors TV with commentary by radiolemans.com. A tweet of their comment “Porsche’s decision to leave Romain Dumas out and press every button he could reach has paid off” brought a few smiles.
When the chequered flag fell, Neil Jani took fourth, one lap down in the number 14, while the always-awesome Patrick Pilet in 911 RSR number 91 had hunted down some GTE Pro Ferraris and nabbed class second: fourteenth overall. With one car on the podium despite a 25-kilo penalty, the GT championship rolls on to Le Mans.
Le Mans test will follow Spa Francorchamps
LMP1 glory was never going to come easy. While Porsche leaves Spa with some work left to do, there was good early pace in the hybrid. Some gossip shared online suggested the Porsche 919 leaves the garage with a fully charged energy store, but that energy can never be fully replenished on track. How true that is is anyone’s guess.
Next month is Le Mans. The pre-Le Mans test day will be covered by radiolemans.com, and who knows how Porsche will fare in France. This is the culmination of their ‘return to racing’ promo: can the LMP1 project retain public attention post Le Mans?
It will be a huge shame if it doesn’t, as the car is clearly rapid. It should have winning potential when reliability is sorted and they start to get the max from the power train. The battle with Toyota is fascinating and those Audis won’t stay slow forever.
Are you following the LMP1 car? Share your thoughts on Spa in the comments.
by John Glynn | May 3, 2014 | New Models, Porsche News
A pressure group formed by UK 911 GT3 owners has won compensation from Stuttgart in the Porsche 991 GT3 fire scare, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Denied the use of their all-new Porsche sports cars following the failures which led to fires on 991 GT3 models, group leader Sunil Mehra says owners who received their cars will get a £5,500 lump sum from Porsche, with a further £1,500 payable per month until the cars are returned to working use.
Buyers who ordered cars that have arrived in the UK but not yet been delivered will be refunded £4,000, as well as being paid £1,500 a month while their cars are off the road. Ferdinand Magazine has already been in contact with owners who have returned their GT3s to Porsche for a full refund.
Inconsistent Compensation
“I wish it had happened sooner,” Mehra told the Telegraph, while sharing tales of inconsistent treatment for owners whose cars have not yet left Germany. “I’ve heard from two members of the same family, one with a car here and the other with a car in Germany, and only one of them is getting compensated. It’s grossly unfair.”
The Telegraph claims that owners in other countries are receiving more money than those in the UK. The paper has been shown emails from Dubai Porsche 991 GT3 buyers receiving £12,000 back in compensation payments.
About Porsche 911 991 GT3 Fire Scare
Porsche is replacing all engines on the brand-new 911 GT3 model. In February, two cases of engine fires destroying 911 GT3 cars led to a full investigation by the Stuttgart manufacturer, which eventually decided that con rod connectors were to blame. The suggestion is that con rod bolts fail, leading to engine internals breaking through the crank case and spraying hot oil onto the exhaust. This then sets fire to the rear of the car and quickly spreads to the whole 911 bursting into flames.
