by John Glynn | Sep 29, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
2014’s hottest Supercup hot shot has picked up a Porsche works drive for the 2014 Petit Le Mans. New Zealand’s super talented Earl Bamber is set to join Patrick Long and Michael Christensen in a factory 911 RSR.
Petit Le Mans is run at Road Atlanta in Georgia. A ten-hour race run to ACO regulations, class winners receive automatic entry to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Petit Le Mans is the final race of the 2014 Tudor United Sportscar Championship. The highest-placed Porsche driver in GT Le Mans is Michael Christensen (excellent) who is 30 points down on the leader, Jonathan Bomarito. Porsche boys Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil head to Georgia with a shout of taking the GT Daytona title, just four points behind leader Dane Cameron.
Porsche Works Drive for Earl Bamber
The drive is great news for Bamber, but as Sportscar365 reports, it has sadly forced the retirement of NGT Motorsport from Petit Le Mans for the second year running. Last year, the team pulled out following the tragic death of Sean Edwards while instructing on a track day in Australia.
The withdrawal of the Momo-sponsored NGT car takes away a fantastic opportunity to watch Bamber racing in the same team as his closest Supercup rival, Kuba Giermaziak, but gives Porsche a chance to see how Bamber handles the North American mayhem. Stuttgart is slightly under pressure for Petit, withdrawing one of its three-car entry as Richard Lietz is out with injury and altermative works pilots are committed elsewhere: Marco Holzer with the Falken Petit car and Fred Makowiecki in Thailand’s Super GT series.
Bamber has been absolute mustard this year, thrilling spectators with total commitment in Supercup. Despite stiff competition from established names like Giermaziak and experienced Porsche Junior, Klaus Bachler, it is Bamber on a Cup Scholarship drive who tops the points: five ahead of Giermaziak with two races remaining, both to be held in America. Earl has already stitched up the rookie championship, but is well placed to win the overall title. Brave money bets against him doing the job.
So far in 2014, Bamber has claimed two wins to Giermaziak’s three, but two fastest laps to Giermaziak’s one. Interestingly, the 991 Supercup has set no new fastest times in 2014: all the current fastest laps for tracks used prior to 2014 were set by earlier 911s. Who else would like to put Earl in a 997 RSR and see how much faster he could go around Spa, where he took pole and fastest lap this year? Awesome performance in a rookie season.
The current Porsche works driver line up is the biggest it has ever been. LMP1 squad has six members: Bernhard, Dumas, Hartley, Jani, Lieb and Webber. The GT squad has eight drivers: Bergmeister, Christensen, Henzler, Holzer, Lietz, Long, Pilet and Tandy. There are four Porsche Juniors: Bachler, de Philippi, Müller and Riberas.
Bamber is like a Kiwi barbecue, turning up the heat on illustrious names. Bamber/Tandy/Holzer in a factory RSR for 2015 – or maybe Bamber/Tandy/Lietz. Would be cool to see Christensen in LMP1 next year. Fantasy Porsche Works Team racing app anyone?
by John Glynn | Sep 26, 2014 | Porsche People, Race and Rally
A mate sent me a great video of Colin McRae the other day, on the seventh anniversary of the former WRC champion’s death. I had never seen it before so I forwarded it to a few people, Richard Tuthill included. The Tuthill and McRae families are good friends so I know Richard would enjoy it, but I got more of a response than I was expecting.
“I’ve watched that more times over the last five years than any other in-car. It’s unbelievable – proper proper driving, he was incredibly good and I was so lucky to sit in an Impreza with him in Australia. Colin drove our blue car at Sweetlamb: within 600 metres, he was driving it quicker than I have ever seen a 911 being driven. He was a legend.”
No doubt all World Rally Champions display legendary talent, but many more drivers who never took a championship fully deserve the title of legend. Amongst the most legendary drivers still rallying is François Delecour (above): four-time winner in the WRC, and a man who has claimed many more wins in the hearts and minds of spectators.
Delecour is a legend: a tempestuous French maverick whose aura fluoresces with talent and passion. While Francois has picked up a reputation for crashing, the truth is that in thirteen years of WRC rallying from 1990 to 2002 (and six years of ERC before that), only twelve retirements were due to accidents. His pace is always scorching and his devotion to the Porsche 911 is unassailable: a prospect sure to arouse anyone with a hint of Porsche petrol in their veins.
“Ever since driving a round of the 2011 British Historic Rally Championship in one of our classic 911 rally cars, François has been part of the Tuthill Porsche family,” says Richard “He has a deep affection for the Porsche 911, and his exhilarating driving style will excite every rally fan watching the stages. All of our team is delighted to welcome him back in a Porsche.”
Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT earns a Million Views and Shares
France will be the second WRC event for the Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT, which captivated rally fans on its German debut. WRC website data reveals that features on the Tuthill Porsche RGT car have since enjoyed more than a million views and shares across the web and on social media.
“We knew that rally fans would embrace our RGT Porsche and the return of GT cars to the world rally stage,” says Richard. “With the fans so enthralled by our car, its time to put a world-class driver and co-driver into the Tuthill Porsche 911 RGT and take that excitement to the next level. We’re confident that François is the best man to do this, and we know the fans are just going to love it!”
WRC Rallye de France runs from 3-5 October. Get more details at www.rallyedefrance.com or via the WRC website at www.wrc.com.
Back to the start: here’s the McRae video I was talking about. He was the ultimate. These photos are by Andre Lavadinho, who is also rather special.
by John Glynn | Sep 24, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
Essex legend and friend of Ferdinand, Dave Dennett, recently debuted his 935 K3 replica at the Porsche Club national event. The 935 was on track at Brands Hatch amongst a plethora of Porsche Rennsport machinery, where Gary Hand Motorsport Photography got some excellent photos.
The 935 came to Dave’s DSD Motorwerks a while back, in a part exchange deal against a 964 race car. Then painted black, the shell had started life as a left-hand drive 1986 3.2 Carrera with 45k miles on the clock, imported to the UK from Japan in 2011.
With a single turbo flat six making 650 bhp and a dog box G50 with 80% LSD, it’s an obviously complex machine. The body uses mostly DP Motorsport parts but, under that skin, the rust free shell has been comprehensively modified.
935 running gear needs a lot of space, so the rear panel was cut and replaced with an engine brace and rear frame, allowing room for the giant turbo. The front end lost all of its roadgoing parts, to be replaced by a single-piece 935 K3 clamshell. A custom rollcage makes it stiffer: much needed when you stick 650 horsepower through a production 911 bodyshell almost thirty years old.
The engine spec is interesting. 930 crankcases were gas flowed and shuffle pinned. The 930 std/std crankshaft was fitted with Carrillo rods with 22mm little ends for Omega 935 CTR pistons. Capricorn barrels mate to 930 heads, ported and twin plugged. Schrick cams run Motorsport rockers, as Dave tells Jürgen Barth here:
The inlet is modified 3.2 Carrera with ‘big’ injectors. Turbo is a Garrett ball race GT45, with a Turbosmart wastegate and bespoke intercooler. An Omex 710 ECU controls the motor, which breathes out through a custom exhaust. “You can’t buy these pipes from Kwikfit, Derek,” says David.
Originally built by Ninemeister, the engine was subsequently rebuilt by CTR and tested at 600bhp on the Judd engine dyno. Dave has since made a few more modifications and the latest dyno run produced 650bhp. I’m hoping to attend some test sessions with the car in the near future: should be a lot of fun, as there is never a dull moment with Dave in the house!
by John Glynn | Sep 21, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
When the Porsche 911 SC Cabriolet was released to the public in 1982, it was an instant hit. The first fully convertible Porsche for 18 years since the 356 Roadster, build slots sold out and the cars changed hands for well above list price once in the open market.
Based on the 911 SC Targa, which had been the only open-top 911 for many years until the 911 Cabriolet model was developed, SC Cabriolet shells had few changes over the rigid-glass sibling. The main changes were reinforcements to the bottom of the b-posts and changes to the top of the latch panel where the Targa bar would normally sit, replaced by the Cabriolet roof mechanism. The small differences mean that Targa-to-Cabriolet conversions are quite straightforward, and not that rare.
Porsche friend David bought this Porsche 911 SC as a Cabriolet conversion from a 911 SC Targa. “I rescued it from a barn, where it had languished for fifteen years. It came with big bills for new brakes and lots of injection work to get it running but it had a broken headstud or two and some crappy paint.
“It was already non-original (colour, cab conversion, seats, etc) so it was a perfect subject for a bit of hot-rodding – weight loss and backdating being main aims to get a car that (to me) looked good, sounded great, handled well yet was still comfortable enough for a long day in the saddle.
“Having removed or swapped bumpers, front and rear lids, sill covers, stereo, heating, door cards, seats and more I dropped a total of 135kg (~300lbs). This affected the ride height, particularly on new Bilstein Club Sports all round. This had to be sorted, so I was ready for the next step – to re-bush with Polybushes, fit late 3.2 ARBs and sort the ride height and alignment.
“I limped around in it for a few months until biting the bullet for the inevitable engine rebuild. I took the opportunity to remove the heat and go with bare headers. John Holland at Unit 11 did the rebuild, and it works very well. Elsewhere the bodywork is tidy: a few minor issues to look at, but otherwise it’s a strong and solid classic 911.”
The Cabriolet conversion is less obvious than the other big change over standard: a backdate to early-style front end and bumpers from the solid aluminium impact bumpers. Advantages with the backdate conversion include the lower weight – David estimates he has dropped almost 150 kilograms or about 10% of the Targa’s original weight. It’s the equivalent of two people in the car so quite a lot to lose.
All of the parts to backdate came from our friends at EB Motorsport: bonnet, bumpers and the new wing infill lights, which fix straight to the impact bumper front wings and match to EB front bumpers. The normal fitment involves filling to match the wings but David is a dad on a budget, so has kept it good enough to use and enjoy. To me it is everything you want in a hot rod: 911s are all about driving and this aspect is top of David’s list.
Here’s some video of the car in action: sounds terrific.
by John Glynn | Sep 21, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog
Porsche has announced a concentrated programme of dealer recruitment for its Porsche Classic brand of parts and restoration services. The company plans to increase the current handful of Classic-approved service partners to a total of more than 100 over an unspecified period of time.
Joining current Porsche Classic franchisees in France, Germany and Thailand will be branches in Japan, USA, South Africa, Australia, Colombia, Great Britain Italy, the Netherlands and more. Customers can look forward to “the complete range of services of Porsche Classic” including access to over 52,000 original spare parts, servicing and repairs as well as complete and partial restorations.
How many classic Porsche owners will switch to Classic-badged dealers to have their old Porsches attended to? Your guess is as good as mine. Adding one hundred old Porsche specialists to an already well-stocked specialist landscape will certainly cause some excitement.
I can’t imagine that many grass roots guys will be tempted away from their current providers, with the best established doing a consistently excellent job of keeping old Porsches together. What little I heard about the recent programme of dealer restorations for the 911’s 50th anniversary won’t have too many UK restoration specialists worried about the future.
The 356 Roadster and Porsche 912 Coupe seen here are both currently undergoing full restoration at Tuthill Porsche by a team of guys who share hundreds of years of restoration experience between them. That sort of experience takes more than a few training courses to pick up, so the planned expansion of Porsche Classic past one hundred specialist partners, all producing work of a consistently high standard, and at a price to compete with the established specialist network should be interesting to follow.
That is not to say that Porsche Classic in Stuttgart does not have a team of highly committed craftspeople working on site. I have seen some of their work and it is fully up to scratch. But, as many of my restoration friends know only too well, the highest quality does not easily scale. Hence five-year waiting lists for the best restorers.
