by John Glynn | Dec 15, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
My friend Simon Kelly has just had his Porsche 911 SC repainted by Tuthills in a cool Alméras Frères tribute livery. I managed to get a few pics of the finished item before jumping on the plane to Gran Canaria.
Almeras won the 1978 Monte Carlo Rally with an SC in the famous Blue and Gold ‘Gitanes’ cigarettes livery: probably the high point of the SC’s motorsport career. Tobacco advertising is a sensitive topic in Europe nowadays and many owners modify tribute livery branding slightly, to ensure their cars do not fall foul of any rules. Simon also tweaked the design of his decals a bit, to be sure the livery would not upset the wrong people.
“I wasn’t quite sure what I would do regarding the tobacco thing and, in the end, I had a last-minute wobble. I did some reading about it and it’s a grey area with governing bodies, regulators and the media all having a different take on what’s acceptable. I didn’t want the tobacco ban causing problems for the car, so for a quite life I used the French spelling of ‘gypsy’ instead of the Catalan.
“The decals were made by our mutual friend, Rick Cannell at Highgate House, and are a lovely job. Rick made them the same way as the originals would have been done, using layered vinyl and not the printed vinyl which is more common nowadays. Your photos remind me that I need to send Tuthills some new number plates I had made in the proper style!”
Regular readers may recognise Simon’s car as one I did a feature on back in the day, when it was painted grey and red. Built by Tuthills using one of EB Motorsport’s first Group 4 Almeras-style arch kits, Simon bought the car in 2011, selling an RSR replica and 968 Sport to buy this one instead.
The car has been a regular at the Below Zero Ice Driving camp in Sweden every winter and is heading back again for 2017, hence the font and rear guards and towing eyes, to drag it off the snow banks. I think this is going to look great on a white background – here’s to taking many more pics!
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 15, 2016 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Motorsport.com reports that 2015 Le Mans winner, Nick Tandy, and three-time Audi Le Mans winner, André Lotterer, will join the 2017 Porsche LMP1 works driver lineup. Online reports also claim that Earl Bamber may also be moved to LMP1, with Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas said to look vulnerable amongst the current top flight of works pilots.
André Lotterer: Porsche Works Driver?
André’s arrival at Porsche would be a very interesting development. A long-time Porsche fan, André was born in Duisburg, just north of Dusseldorf, to a German-Peruvian father and Belgian mother, but the family moved to Belgium when Andre was three (hat tip Joe Saward). Andre’s dad, Henri, formed the RAS Sport team, which ran the famous red and white Porsche 911 SC RS Belga cars of Droogmans and co. back in the day and one of Andre’s earliest Porsche memories is a spin in that SC RS. His first full car pic on Instagram was the same SC RS: it clearly had a formative influence.
With a private car collection including a Porsche 964 3.8 RS, 2.7 Carrera RS and a Carrera GT, André has Porsche in his blood, so it’s easy to see how the chance of a Porsche driving WEC title, including perhaps a Porsche Le Mans win, would be irresistible. It may also be an indication of Formula E’s attractions, that such a highly successful single-seat racer and long-time Audi champ would rather stay on in sportscars with Porsche, than switch to full electric with Audi.
Porsche Works Driver Reshuffle
Tandy in the same car as Loterrer is a mouth-watering prospect for Porsche fans. Bamber with Tandy and Lotterer would be the icing on the cake. Given the current works driver lineup of more than sixteen full-time contracted pilots, Porsche has an embarassment of riches. It’s hard to second-guess Weissach driver decisions, but my instinct as a fan says they would probably not lose Bernhard or Hartley, so (assuming motorsport.com is correct) perhaps a sideways jump for Jani to join Timo and Brendon, with the three newbies and former Le Mans winners running together.
This would bring Lieb back to 911s, but the SC owner shouldn’t lose too much sleep about that. Next year sees an all-new RSR on track and Lieb/Lietz/Pilet/Estre would be an awesome 911 works driver lineup.
by John Glynn | Jul 11, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
The flag has just dropped on the 2016 Le Mans Classic. Figures released by the organisers show that the event was the most successful to date, with more than 120,000 attending the weekend to celebrate the history of the legendary endurance race.
My first Classic Le Mans was in 2006, when little brother and I took my old 911 SC Cabriolet down to Le Mans, in convoy with other 911s including a 3.2 Carrera and 964RS. With no more than 60,000 people attending the 2006 event, it was a really terrific weekend, apart from when we were bumped out of our hotel to a less salubrious location to keep the Aston Martin Owners’ Club happy. After that, I decided to rent a house and share it with friends in future. We did that in 2008 and for my most recent Le Mans Classic in 2010, and it proved to be the perfect solution.
2010 was a boiling hot year on track: the soles of my shoes were melting in the paddock. With 96,000 people and their cars attending that weekend, traffic was a nightmare all around the city. My Orange Carrera 3.0 arrived with no fresh air blower, having burned it out in the Alps a few days earlier, and Jamie’s Renault 8 also suffered from fuel boiling all weekend. It was still great to see so many friends, but a far cry from the relaxed atmosphere of 2016.
When the weather is not too hot, the atmosphere throughout a Le Mans Classic weekend is terrific – especially if you go down with a big group of friends – but the racing can be quite hard to follow, as the long lap spreads the field out and gives little impression of the battles taking place on track. The racing is closer at some of Europe’s many other historic festivals, including the Spa 6 Hours and Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix.
All things considered, I can understand why so many people return to the Le Mans Classic every two years. It is a great start to a touring holiday in France, and family men can just about get away with it if they rent a house nearby with a pool for the wife and kids to hang out in.
For me, three years watching the racing satisfied my desire to experience spectating at Le Mans for the racing eras I am most interested in. There are lots of other historic racing weekends across Europe with plenty of Porsche content and equally open access to the paddocks, where traffic jams and overheating engines are not the order of the day, so I have been to quite a few of those in the years since my last Le Mans Classic.
Did you go to Le Mans for LMC 2016? How was the weekend? Email your thoughts to mail@ferdinandmagazine.com.
