by John Glynn | Dec 3, 2016 | Porsche People, Race and Rally
It was not the biggest surprise in motorsport this week, but Porsche has finally confirmed that André Lotterer will race as one of its LMP1 works drivers in 2017, alongside Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. Weissach has stopped short of putting the new kids/three Le Mans champions in a car on their own: instead, Neel Jani will race with Lotterer/Tandy, while Bamber joins Bernhard/Hartley for the season.
Romain Dumas returns to GTs with new colleagues
The news was announced at the 2016 Night of Champions, along with some other surprising appointments. Romain Dumas returns to the works GT roster, but his next race seat was not announced this evening. Instead Porsche announced two new GT pilots for next year: Dirk Werner and Laurens Vanthoor. Werner is a name most Porsche fans will know, as he raced 911s for a fair while (2004-2009) before heading off to race with BMW in North America. As well as being the 2006 Carrera Cup Deutschland champion, Werner is a two-time Grand AM GT champ and also claimed the Porsche Cup in 2009.
Vanthoor is a proper GT legend. Still only 25 years old, he’s already won the Macau Grand Prix, won the FIA GT championship and won the 24 Hours of both Spa and the Nürburgring. Two weeks ago he won the FIA GT World Cup in Macau (albeit in somewhat controversial circumstances) and he has also won the 12 Hours of Sepang and the 24 Hours of Dubai. When you think that newly-promoted Sven Müller is just one year younger than Vanthoor, it makes you wonder what Müller’s been up to. Then you remember that he’s just won Carrera Cup Deutschland and Supercup titles in the same year, so there’s every reason to look forward to seeing what Müller can do in the new RSR.
Robert Renauer wins 2016 Porsche Cup
The main award at the annual Porsche motorsport prizegiving is always the Porsche Cup, given to that year’s most successful Porsche privateer. The 2016 Porsche Cup winner is Robert Renauer from Germany, who scored an impressive 7,355 points this year driving Porsches in ADAC GT Masters, European Le Mans and the 24-Hour International Endurance series. Wolfgang Porsche presented Renauer with his prize: a 911 Carrera worth €120k. Runners-up Christian Ried and Spain’s Daniel Diaz Varela win €30k and €25k respectively.
Porsche 911 RSRs chase FIA GT and IMSA titles
Porsche has committed to a two-car assault on the first FIA GT manufacturers’ title, but so far has named only three drivers for the two GTE-Pro RSRs: Michael Christensen, Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz. Two of this trio will spend some additional time in America, Lietz and Fred Mako teaming up with the IMSA pairings of Pilet/Werner and Estre/Vanthoor for longer events such as Daytona and Sebring.
The full list of factory drivers is below and seems a good combination of youth and experience. Hats off to the team chiefs for some interesting choices: here’s to a great year ahead.
LMP1 – 919 Hybrid #1
Neel Jani (32) Switzerland
André Lotterer (35) Germany
Nick Tandy (32) Great Britain
LMP1 – 919 Hybrid #2
Earl Bamber (26) New Zealand
Timo Bernhard (35) Germany
Brendon Hartley (27) New Zealand
GT Works Drivers
Jörg Bergmeister (40) Germany
Michael Christensen (26) Denmark
Romain Dumas (38) France
Kévin Estre (28) France
Wolf Henzler (41) Germany
Richard Lietz (33) Austria
Frédéric Makowiecki (36) France
Sven Müller (24) Germany
Patrick Pilet (35) France
Patrick Long (35) USA
Laurens Vanthoor (25) Belgium
Dirk Werner (35) Germany
Young Professionals
Matteo Cairoli (20) Italy
Mathieu Jaminet (22) France
Porsche Juniors
Matt Campbell (21) Australia
Dennis Olsen (20) Norway
Thomas Preining (18) Austria
Photo Credit: Brittany Tandy @brittanymx
by John Glynn | Nov 16, 2016 | Race and Rally, New Models
Porsche has finally unveiled the new 911 RSR. Debuting at the Los Angeles Motor Show, the new 911 race car will make a few more public appearances before its racing debut at Daytona in January. The new RSR will be seen at nineteen events during the 2017 season, with two works entries each for the WEC GT and IMSA championships.
Built “to the full breadth of the Le Mans 24 Hours GT regulations”, the new RSR runs a 991-derived four litre, 510 horsepower flat six in a mid-engine layout. This fundamental change to the 911 concept has allowed the designers to run a mahoosive rear diffuser working with a huge rear wing, designed using lessons learned on the 919 LMP1 car. This makes the RSR much more efficient.
“This is the biggest evolution by now in the history of our top GT model,” said Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser. “For the 911 RSR, we deliberately focused on a particularly modern and light normally-aspirated engine, as this gave our engineers immense latitude in developing the vehicle. Apart from that, in principle, the LM-GTE regulations stipulate the absolute equality of various drive concepts, as the torque characteristics of turbo and normally aspirated engines are aligned.”
Interestingly, Weissach has gone with what it says is a new safety cage concept and a new, rigidly-mounted racing seat. With the seat fixed to the chassis, the pedals are moved and adjusted to fit each driver. Also fitted is a collision avoidance system, which warns the drivers of incoming LMP cars. The dashboard looks utterly mental – good luck to the drivers of this one.
The new RSR made its track debut in March 2016 and has since covered more than 35,000 kilometres in testing across Europe and North America. All that testing has given Porsche plenty of time to design a photogenic livery (including PD logo and Porsche Design mentions) for the one-and-a-quarter tonne racecar, but all we want to know is: can it kick arse? And who’s going to drive it in WEC? All will be revealed.
by John Glynn | Nov 13, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
I’ve been a bit of an air-cooled 911 accessories shopping guide of late! My friends at KW Suspension in Germany have just released a new suspension kit (and reminded me of an older one) for impact-bumper Porsche 911 models and I promised I would share.
The first kit is an adjustable damper upgrade for G-model 911s which works with the torsion bar system. Part of the KW Suspension “Classic Range”, this KW Variant 3 setup is a complete car set of compression and rebound adjustable shock absorbers. The kit does not require a conversion to coilovers, but instead retains the car’s torsion bar system. The mild steel damper bodies are galvanised for longer life.
KW Suspension Coilovers for Torsion Bar Delete
Further up the price scale is the Clubsport 2-way coilover kit, which allows torsion bar deletion. KW recommends this lighter system with aluminium damper bodies primarily for motorsport use, but check your competition regs carefully before committing to the spend. Supplied with adjustable aluminium monoball front top mounts, the upside-down front dampers are adjustable for both rebound and compression.
Rebound is adjusted at the piston rod end and provides sixteen clicks of adjustment. Compression adjustment is carried out via a 12-position adjuster on the upper damper housing. “Increased rebound forces ensure tighter handling and a significantly reduced rolling of the body,” say KW. “At very high speeds, the steering precision is improved at the driving dynamic limit, while on the uneven and wavy road surfaces, a lower rebound stage is advantageous.”
Both kits are TUV approved for use on the roads. The Variant 3 kit costs £2062 plus VAT in the UK and is available from KW dealers. No price on the 2-ways: I expect you might need to be sitting down for that one 😀
by John Glynn | Nov 11, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
My friend Guy Allen has released a new Porsche print. An atmospheric rendition of the SWB car in flight, it’s another great example of why Guy is one of the UK’s busiest illustrators.
Guy’s previous Porsche work is all over Ferdinand. I’ve commissioned him a few times for impactbumpers t-shirt artwork and we’ve also released prints of this work together. Those prints all sold out long ago, and I would not be surprised to see this one sell out just as quickly.
The SWB 911 has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. Once ignored as the runt of the litter due to the twitchy handling and smaller engines, contemporary Porsche fans now rightly regard its Germanic purity and unique driving experience as a pivotal step in Porsche history. The SWB cars were the original lightweights and the thread of their lineage must be carefully picked through the model lines – some 911s follow the founding philosophy much closer than others.
My first proper experience of a SWB car came while I still lived in Ireland. A friend’s dad was a keen rally driver and also owned a garage. He had a SWB car in for some work and I would see that driving around quite a bit. It was LHD and may even have been something famous once upon a time, but I never got close enough for a proper look. Years later, when Jamie and I shot a well-known piece featuring two SWB 911s on our first trip to California (Short but Sweet: read it here), I remembered that early rally car and thought how well it would have slotted in with Bob Tilton and Chris Nielsen’s rally inspired R Gruppe machines. I should have bought a SWB project car then, but I missed that particular boat – they are now well out of my reach.
Experience the SWB cars in depth and you gain a unique understanding of the original 911 ethos, but race a SWB car hard and win with it, and you enter another dimension of 911 folklore. The UK saw a huge jump in SWB enthusiasm when the 73rd Goodwood Members’ Meeting featured the Aldington Trophy: a race for pre-’66 SWB 911s only. Mark Bates raced the EB Motorsport SWB 911 at Goodwood among a select group of its peers and spent most of the lap going sideways in some very close battles. Mark finished on the podium after a great hour of racing and people still talk to me about that mental race – a fine day in the SWB story.
Away from the circuits, SWB 911s make highly prized road cars, but finding original interior parts and trim is now perhaps the hardest part of a SWB restoration. There is plenty of choice as to who restores your SWB car but, with waiting lists as long as they are at the very best workshops, it might be quicker to learn the skills to restore it yourself! Plenty of Porsche fans are doing just that and, as a DIY diehard, I think that is brilliant.
Guy’s SWB Porsche print is produced on archive quality heavyweight paper. It is a limited edition of 200 large-format A2-sized prints (A2 is 420 x 594 mm). The prints are signed and numbered and you can take a closer look at them here.
by John Glynn | Nov 4, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Art and Books
As classic Porsches assume the air of treasured possessions such as fine art or jewellery, so more artful representations of the cars arrive on the market to remind us of our passion. Many artists have produced representations of the classic Porsche 911 and 356 models, but these recent sculptures from Rotterdam artist, Stefan de Beer, really caught my eye.
The former car restorer and trained artist has created his Porsche studies with long-time creative partner, Brigitte Broer. The shapes speak for themselves, but I really love the concept of louvred sections, which call to mind the cooling fins on an air-cooled Porsche engine.
“After a successful career as a racecar designer, I returned to my early love for art and architecture,” says Stefan. “Long ago I started my education at the Academy of the Arts, after a few years I switched to car design at TU Delft, the Polytechnisch Bureau Arnhem and the Art Center College of Design in Switzerland. After twelve years as a car designer and engineer, I sold my business and returned to the Academy to start all over again and study art and architecture. Since 2007, I have found a perfect balance between art, architecture and old sportscars.”
Each of Stefan’s sculptures begins with 3D laser scan of a full-size car. CAD techology then is employed to generate a digital representation, at which point the artist select his sections, and transfers those dimensions to a pattern-making machine.
The laser pattern cutter transfers the profiles to high quality acrylic and wood materials for just the right effect. Each sculpture is then assembled by hand. The shapes can also be fitted with a lighting attachment, and even engraved with custom registration plates. The last bit might be a step too far for me – less is more, after all. Every piece comes with a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’, bearing the unique number of the sculpture and the signatures of the makers.
We’ve seen lots of other louvres on classic Porsches this year but none have felt as fresh and airy as these. Order direct from the partnership here.
