The star attraction of the GP Ice Race for air-cooled Porsche enthusiasts will almost certainly be Otto Mathé’s Fetzenflieger single-seat race car with its spiked tyres and succession of Porsche racing engines.
If there was a top ten list of people who embodied the “cult of Porsche” concept, Mathé would be close to the top. His name has popped up on this blog more than once and I never get tired of dipping into Mathé’s history and imagining what life must have been like for this true-blue Porsche enthusiast.
Period photos of Mathé (and his story as a whole) calls the late John Surtees CBE to mind. Surtees was the only man to ever win world championships on both two and four wheels and Mathé’s early life involved racing motorcycles. An accident in 1934 caused the loss of his right arm and motorbikes were out from then on. Rather than being chased away from motorsport, Mathe turned his considerable engineering ability to other forms of racing.
Mathé owned a filling station and was fascinated by lubricant development. As World War 2 drew to a close, Mathé developed an additive that improved the performance of racing engine oils. At a time when Porsche recommended oil changes every 3,000 kms, Mathé is said to have ran his engines for 100,000 kms without changes. Mathé passed his lubricant business on before his death in 1995 and Mathé Universal Lubricant products are still available to buy today.
1952: Fetzenfleiger is born
Switching from two wheels to four after his accident, Mathé’s car racing career went from strength to strength until, in 1952, he unveiled the car which would cement his place in history. Built to Formula Two regulations of the time, the car raced on asphalt circuits, sand and ice, and it was the latter where Mathé truly established his legend. In 1952, Mathé’s special won twenty out of twenty races and he claimed the Austrian championship.
Otto Mathé’s special features handmade bodywork on a tubular frame chassis. Constructed from Porsche, VW and Kubelwagen parts with a super-low centre of gravity, the car weighed less than 400 kilograms. Sources differ on the original power unit: some say 1100cc, others 1500cc, but they agree the engine was Porsche. Mathé mounted the engine in front of the rear axle, fitting a left hand gearshift to overcome his disability, changing gears in corners by moving his body and holding the wheel with his torso.
Fans soon christened the car “Fetzenflieger”. This is hard to translate into English directly, with various attempts relating to Scrap Flyer or Spark Flyer. The nickname comes from the spectacle of the car’s textile side engine covers, which would burn from the flames spitting out of the exhausts, sending sparks and embers flying. It must have been an incredible sight.
Quickly coming to terms with his creation and taking it to win after win, Mathé later upped the ante by fitting a 550 engine with Spyder wheels and brakes in 1955. Some historians believe that this car was subsequently run at Silverstone in 1956 fitted with a JAP engine. Whether or not this is true, it certainly got about, running as an “intertyp” in both Formula and Sport Car events with various parts added or deleted as appropriate.
The Otto Mathé collection at Hamburg Automuseum PROTOTYP
That Mathé managed to race after losing an arm is one thing. That he managed to race and win is another, but to outperform everyone – literally single-handedly – is something truly inspirational. The “Ice King” and his racer went on to win four of the “Prof. H. c. Ferdinand Porsche Memorial Race” events, in 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1959. The car was towed by a spectacular collection of Porsches, many of which were also raced. Mathé’s collection can now be seen in permanent exhibition at the Automuseum PROTOTYP in Hamburg.
The collection includes the MA-01 “Fetzenflieger”, the Cisitalia D46 race car, with which Hans Stuck won the first official German circuit race at the Hockenheimring in 1947, the Delfosse DVD electric racing car, Mathé’s VW T1 “Bulli” as well as the Porsche Type 64 (No. 2) “Berlin-Rome-Wagen”, rebuilt by the Automuseum PROTOTYP on original parts, his DKW Monoposto and his JAP F3 car. Anyone looking for a road trip destination this year would do well to add Hamburg to their list!
photos courtesy of Automuseum PROTOTYP and Porsche AG via GP Ice Race
Last year’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship experienced the biggest format changes since the series began in 2003. Chief amongst these changes was the introduction of reverse grids.
How reverse grids work in Carrera Cup GB
Porsche Carrera Cup GB weekends are run as part of the support package for British Touring Car Championship rounds. Drivers are split into three categories based on pace and experience: Pro, Pro-Am and Am. There is an additional Rookie class for drivers new to the series. Reverse grids affect the Pro category.
There are two races in each Carrera Cup GB weekend. The start order for race 1 is set by the qualifying times: fastest man starts from pole. However, the start order for race 2 is determined by a combination of the finish order of the first race and a ball picked at random on the race 1 podium.
The podium balls are numbered 4, 5 and 6. The number selected dictates how many of the leading pack will have their grid positions reversed for the start of race 2.
The first race of the 2018 season was held on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in early April. The weather was wet, making conditions interesting for the drivers, including the sole non-Brit, Cypriot Tio Ellinas, who started the season with Slidesports Engineering/DVF Racing. Ellinas qualified fourth overall, behind polesitter, Dino Zamparelli. As a mark of just how tight this series is, the top fourteen cars were separated by less than one second.
Ellinas passed George Gamble and Lewis Plato in the race to come home second overall. So the top six finishing order for race 1 was Zamparelli, Ellinas, Plato, Gamble, Orton, Wrigley. Three of the top six positions were claimed by cars from Joe Tandy Racing.
On the podium, Zamparelli chose the number 5 ball, which reversed the order of the top 5 race 1 finishers for the race 2 grid, giving a start order of Orton, Gamble, Plato, Ellinas, Zamparelli and Wrigley. Ellinas again made it from fourth to second just ahead of Zamparelli at the chequered flag. Zamparelli came away from round 1 as series leader with Joe Tandy Racing leading the teams.
Porsche Carrera Cup GB 2018 results
After one of the tightest championships in recent history, it was Ellinas who emerged as 2018 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion. The Cypriot won only one race, but finished every race of the season in the points and claimed podiums in 13 out of 16 races. Joe Tandy Racing took the team championship.
Carrera Cup GB changes in 2019
For 2019, the reverse grids stay but there is a further refinement to the grid system to allow race 1 non-finishers to start behind the last finisher in their category, as opposed to starting at the back of the grid. Fastest race lap earns a point for the drivers in each category.
Carrera Cup GB prize money and bonus Porsches
Teams and drivers compete for a prize fund totalling almost £350,000 through the season, with additional prizes for the winningest teams. The series champion wins £40,000, with the top rookie coming away with £35,000. Points are weighted in favour of the race 1 result (winner gets 12 vs 10 points) and the prize money is weighted in a similar way. A win in race 1 nets £1700, while a win in race 2 earns £1300.
Winning drivers in each category get the use of a Porsche for a year, while the team champions get the use of a Cayenne for a year. This will help them get to the events spread all across the UK with an additional race weekend on Europe. Last year’s European round was held at Le Mans, while the 2019 euro road trip will be to Spa or Monza, sometime in May.
It is interesting that the drivers and team managers are required to pass an online test at the start of each season, and drivers are selected at random to do more tests throughout the year. There is also random breathalyser testing through the year, with zero tolerance enforced. More of my motorcycle touring pals have been reporting early morning random roadside breath testing in effect across Europe also: a good thing, in my opinion.
Mobil 1 The Grid did a nice piece on Nick Tandy’s work to keep Joe Tandy Racing at the sharp end of the grid in Carrera Cup GB including interviews with Nick, Tio Ellinas and Lewis Plato (no relation to Jason). Watch that below:
Porsche has unveiled its new Cayman GT4 Clubsport, which features a small amount of natural fibre bodywork. The move is in tune with Stuttgart’s aims to increase the use of sustainable, renewable materials following a 2015 Sustainability Report which showed Porsche had increased its use of fossil fuels and electrical power through the year.
Porsche says that 718 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport is the first ever production race car to feature body parts made of natural-fibre composite material. Both doors and the rear wing are made of an organic fibre mix, sourced primarily from agricultural by-products such as flax or hemp fibres and feature similar properties to carbon fibre in terms of weight and stiffness.
Three panels on a car doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a start. The technology obviously exists to do more, as demonstrated by Swiss firm BComp, whose partnership with the Electric GT sustainable racing project was announced back in 2017.
Bcomp’s proprietary material is a high-performance, cost-efficient product that can replace or reinforce carbon fibre and other engineering materials. It is said to cut up to 40% weight with no change in performance. The natural fibre composite bodywork developed by Bcomp can also be embedded with LED lighting to act as an information screen while the cars go around the circuit.
Bcomp’s powerRib and ampliTex reinforcement fabrics have been used throughout the sports and leisure markets, in products such as skis, snowboards, surfboards, canoes and guitars. Bcomp has also collaborated with the European Space Agency ESA on the development of lightweight space applications.
Porsche Cayman GT4 Trackday model not available in the UK
The Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport comes in two versions ex-works: the Trackday model and the Competition variant for national and international motor racing. The Trackday edition is not available in the UK.
Costing £130,000 (plus 20% UK VAT), the 718 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport Competition model weighs 1,320 kilograms and is powered by a 3.8-litre flat six producing 425 bhp. This is 40 bhp more than the previous model, but it didn’t stop Porsche selling 421 examples of that one over the last three years.
The transmission is a six-speed PDK with mechanical rear diff lock. Suspension is from the GT3 Cup and the bias-adjustable brakes are steel discs all round measuring 380mm in diameter. Air jacks and a fire extinguisher system are fitted as standard. The car comes with a 115-litre fuel tank for endurance events and lengthy Nurburgring sessions.
Porsche has just announced a multi-year deal with Puma to kit out its race teams and develop a range of motorsport merchandise. It has also shared the first photo of the 2019 Porsche Works Drivers.
In November 2018, Porsche announced an apparently similar multi-year deal with Hugo Boss. The Boss logo is clearly visible on the race suits and there are a lot of Porsche products on the Hugo Boss site, so one assumes that the two will co-exist as premium vs standard product tiers.
Puma will develop, sell and market a range of Porsche Motorsport replica and fan wear products including clothing, footwear, headwear, accessories and bags aimed at Porsche Motorsport fans and motorsport enthusiasts.
“Puma has a long and successful tradition in motorsport,” said Fritz Enzinger, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “The innovation and creativity of Puma, one of the world’s leading sports lifestyle companies, fits in with our team and our brand, so we are pleased to welcome Puma as a new partner of the Porsche Motorsport Teams.”
Puma will equip all twenty-four Porsche Works Drivers, Juniors and Young Professionals as well as all pit crews of the Porsche factory teams with the latest fireproof motorsport clothing. In addition to equipping the Porsche Formula E and factory GT racing teams, Puma will supply shoes and travel luggage for the whole Porsche Motorsport division.
News of the Puma deal is accompanied by a group shot of the 2019 Porsche Works Drivers. This first mention of the forthcoming Porsche motorsport season is always a good start to the year. Here’s a list of the drivers that will compete for Weissach this year.
Porsche Works Drivers 2019 (including Juniors and Young Professionals)
Back Row L-R: Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet, Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber, Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen, Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz, Frédéric Makowiecki
Middle Row L-R: Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani, Patrick Long, Jörg Bergmeister, Timo Bernhardt, Brendon Hartley, Romain Dumas, Sven Müller, Dirk Werner
Front Row L-R: Matt Campbell, Matteo Cairoli, Dennis Olsen, Jaxon Evans, Julian Andlauer
Porsche Motorsport recently ran a one-make event for Cayman GT4 Clubsport models at the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Eight invitation-only places were handed out to various celebrity drivers and Porsche customers to compete on the 12.4-mile hillclimb course up the side of America’s 53rd tallest mountain.
First run more than 100 years ago in 1916 as the Penrose Trophy, Pikes Peak is one of motorsport’s best-known time trial events. The 4,700-ft ascent with 156 turns was a well-kept secret amongst US racers until 1984, when the first European teams arrived. Michèle Mouton with the Audi Quattro blitzed the all-gravel course, setting a new record in 1985.
The promotional value of Mouton’s Quattro on full boost in the Rockies surrounded by endless blue sky was not lost on Audi’s World Rally Championship competitors. Peugeot soon entered the contest and the French brought unprecedented attention to the hillclimb in 1989 with the release of ‘Climb Dance’: a film by Jean-Louis Morey following Ari Vatanen’s attempt on the course in 1988.
Manufacturers have been pilgrims ever since, using the event as a marketing metaphor for man and machine overcoming nature’s most extreme obstacles. The succulent irony here is that the mountain takes its name from explorer, Zebulon Pike, who failed to make the summit and the whole course was tarmac’d in 2011. But of course the hillclimb is an amazing event and no small achievement to take part.
The eight entrants of the 2018 GT4 trophy race included legendary mentalist, Travis Pastrana (above), who I worked with as part of the Race4Change effort on the 2011 Safari Classic Rally. Driving a Porsche for half the Safari, co-driven by Fabrizia Pons (who had co-driven Michèle at Pikes Peak), Travis was excellent fun and pretty quick, too: complaining that he needed a sixth gear on the long flat-out straights. The car soaked up some serious punishment over the three days that Travis was driving and was somewhat reluctant to go much further at speed when Pastrana jumped out after three days.
Other drivers in the Cayman group included IMSA Porsche regulars, Mike Skeen and Till Bechtolscheimer, former baseball player turned Porsche dealer principal, CJ Wilson, and Indycar driver, JR Hildebrand. Eight-time Pikes Peak class winner and Porsche fanatic, Jeff Zwart, was brought in as a consultant to advise the drivers on what not to do, but Pikes Peak left its mark on Skeen and gentleman driver, Nick Kwan, both of whom experienced unplanned high-speed contact with the scenery through the weekend.
To cover the event and derive some cool content, Porsche Motorsport North America partnered with Porsche Design, Yokohama and Mobil 1. Mobil 1’s Youtube channel, The Grid, recently released a nice video feature on the event – watch it below. Click through to Mobil 1 The Grid on Youtube to subscribe to this Porsche-friendly channel. The pics in this piece are from the Yokohama Tyres Facebook page. All good stuff.
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