The 2012 Midnight Sun Rally starts today. Three days of flat-out action with the cream of Scandinavia is about to begin, and Tuthill Porsche is in the thick of it.
This running of the Midnight Sun is dedicated to the late Ove Andersson, so has attracted even more rally stars than usual. Toyota Team Historic has four-time World Champion, Juha Kankkunen (1986, 1987, 1991 and 1993), Hannu Mikkola (1983) and the brilliant Mikko Hirvonen, who is getting ever-closer to his first World Championship.
Team Tidö, led by David von Schinkel, has supplied the Tuthill-prepped cars for Björn Waldegård (1979), long-time Porsche hero Åke Andersson and Stig Blomqvist, the 1984 World Rally Champion.
“ It will be great fun to meet Kankkunen and Mikkola again,” said Björn. “These few days should be most enjoyable, and the rally will be very interesting to watch for the spectators.”
“With so many great names competing, the spectators will all be winners,” agreed Åke Andersson, celebrating fifty years in the Midnight Sun Rally. Åke came second in class on his 1962 debut, and his plan for this year is to chase the top honours. Given Ake’s Porsche CV, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be in the hunt!
I’ve got the batphone set for Sweden and am hoping to get regular news from this terrific event. If I wasn’t snowed under with other stuff to do, I’d be up there myself, enjoying the craic. Instead, I’m at a specialists tomorrow, sampling their full Hunter chassis set up and alignment rig (above) on my recently refurbed BMW M3 and then at Silverstone Classic all this weekend.
Mark and James from lightweight Porsche parts specialist, EB Motorsport, are racing in World Sportscar Masters at Silverstone, so we’ll be out there in force with the cameras, hoping for sun and tracking their Masters Historic title defence – going very well so far.
Remember our Ferdinand Facebook page is seeing plenty of energy at the minute, so follow that page for your regular Porsche news fix! I hope that time for regular Classic Porsche Blog action will return when we’ve got that operation up and running.
The original 911 Turbo was a revelation. Introduced in 1974, the first 930 models had a 3-litre engine, producing 260 horsepower at just 5,500 rpm with relatively soft levels of boost and a 6.5:1 compression ratio.
The first journalists to sample the 911 Turbo were literally blown away. ‘To be shoved so hard in the back that you need highback seats to keep your head on, yet neither to feel nor hear anything more than a muffled hum, is a very odd sensation indeed”, wrote Roger Bell back then.
In 1977, the 930 grew to 3.3-litre engine capacity, and got some decent brakes. The addition of an intercooler took power to 300 horsepower, with 303 lb/ft of torque. 60 appeared on the speedo around 5 seconds after take off, and 160 would appear in short order: if you kept your foot in.
On paper, the 930’s big turbo and leggy four-speed gearbox is hardly ideal for use as a rally car, but that has not stopped Richard ‘Project’ Tuthill from picking one up in Eastern Europe and putting it through a rebuild process at Tuthill HQ in Wardington, just down the road from Ferdinand.
The car has been through a strip and interior tidy, with new seat rails and fire extinguisher install. The engine and transmission are out for an overhaul, the car is being completely rewired and made ready to rally in anger. It has also just had brand new Turbo brake calipers, straight from Porsche.
“One challenge is having the fastest car in a straight line,” says Richard. “But also, there’s more to rallying than the British Championship. Some great events take place in Europe, where Turbos are highly regarded. I think this will strike a chord with the fans: the few miles I did in it before we took it to pieces were amongst the craziest I’ve ever done in a rally car!”
I’ve driven a lot of Tuthill cars over the years but this lightweight Turbo off-roader is a whole other kettle of fish. I can’t wait to try it out!
The Talented Mister Rast continued his current Porsche winning streak today with a resounding victory in Carrera Cup Deutschland at the Norisring.
It’s a great result for the capable and entertaining German, always a delight to watch at speed in a 911. Rast stormed off a simmering 35-degree grid from pole position and never looked back. Steering clear of a first corner incident, the winner led Siedler and Edwards across the finish line.
The win puts 2008 champ Rast back on top as we head into race 9, which Porsche says will stream live on their website at 9:05 German time tomorrow morning.
“That was a relatively easy race for me today,” said René. “I got away cleanly and I saw the mayhem behind me in the rear vision mirror. This gave me a major advantage and all I had to do was bring it home. The only problem was the heat.”
Porsche owns the top three GTE AM slots at the 90-minute point in the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours. Leading the class is Flying Lizard’s number 79 RSR, followed by the Matmut car and then Prospeed. All cars have made one stop. Patrick Pilet is building a great lead in the category.
P4 in the class is Gunnar Racing’s Gunnar Jeannette in the number 58 Ferrari and he’s going well – his team manager has just been called to race control regarding his team mate. I’m following the race using Radio Le Mans commentary (big Porsche thread going at the minute) and watching the Le Mans live pictures (on mute). Means I can be at the office while the race heads into the night.
Here’s the situation in GTE Pro: Aston leads Corvette leads 911 RSR. The pace is pretty tight: Porsche is two minutes back but their best laps are two seconds apart. Remember we have over 22 hours left, so there’s a long way to go.
Up front, it’s Audi, Audi, Toyota, Toyota. More news as it happens.
We’ve been keeping a low profile on Porsche at Le Mans, but all that’s about to change. The weekend should see Ferdinand Mag glued to TV coverage of the event, so I’ve been clearing the decks to allow that to happen.
Got a few more bits to get out of the way, so keep yourself busy by watching this glory day throwback: 956s running and winning the 50th Le Mans in 1982. Current-day Porsche makes almost no sales hay from historic Le Mans Porsche achievements, but it’s great to see golden-day videos shared on the Porsche Cars Youtube channel.
You need 13 minutes to watch all this film. Make sure you’ve got them before you click play!
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