We have finally arrived in the week of Le Mans Classic 2018, where my friends at Tuthill Porsche are supporting five 911s in the 2.0L Cup as part of the Porsche 70th anniversary celebrations. For those who cannot make it in person, the organisers have just announced unprecedented online coverage of this remarkable event.
Le Mans Classic will feature its biggest ever live and free online streaming during July 7 and 8, when sixteen cameras will broadcast for sixteen hours, covering twelve races which can be followed live at www.lemansclassic.com. The cameras wil share the action from the entire 13.6km circuit, and the broadcast is managed by AMP Visual TV: the organisation behind coverage of the Le Mans 24 Hours for the last thirteen years.
Live coverage of Classic Le Mans 2016 attracted more than 300,000 online spectators worldwide, and this should easily be eclipsed in 2018. Bruce Jones, Jim Roller and Martin Haven, will provide the English language commentary.
I don’t yet know when the coverage starts or how long it lasts daily, but the race schedule at the circuit for the two days is as follows – it is reasonable to assume that the cameras will not be showing some of the night sessions:
Timo Bernhard has claimed an all-time Nürburgring lap record in the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, with a staggering lap time of 5:19.55 outpacing the great Stefan Bellof’s Nürburgring lap record of 6:11.13, set in qualifying for the 1983 Nürburgring 1000kms.
Bellof’s lap record had been regarded as almost unbreakable, as it was set on a shorter circuit: a section having been bypassed to avoid construction of the new grand prix circuit. While today’s Nürburgring Nordschleife is 14.2 miles (20.8 kilometres) long, the ’83 circuit was a smidge under 13 miles in total. Adding almost 1500 metres to the distance had made the record almost unassailable.
Race car engineering has enjoyed substantial advancements in the intervening years, with hybrid power, four-wheel traction and modern tyre technology bringing incredible mid-corner speed and acceleration into play. That said, you still need a nut behind the wheel and Porsche chose 37 year-old works driver, Timo Bernhard for the job. It was a solid decision.
“This is a great moment for me and for the entire team,” said Bernhard. “It is the icing on the cake for the 919 programme. I’m pretty familiar with the Nordschleife, but today I got to learn it in a new way. Thanks to the downforce, you can stay on full throttle in places I never imagined. For me, Stefan Bellof is and remains a giant; today, my respect for his achievement with the technology available back then increased even more.”
So, approach to Schwedenkreuz was 344kmh, took crest at 322… VMAX on Dottinger was 369kmh, lap average 233.9kmh. Holy. Fuck. #919tribute
Dickie Meaden was at the circuit to see the lap record, with access to the speed data from the record-breaking run. “So, approach to Schwedenkreuz was 344 km/h, took crest at 322. VMAX on Dottinger was 369 km/h, lap average 233.9 km/h” tweeted Meaden, who last year made his own attempt on Bellof’s record in the Toyota LMP1 simulator.
The 919 continues to demonstrate just how much excitement electric power can bring to road cars. The other side of this is that it’s hard to imagine manufacturers and lawmakers allowing tomorrow’s hybrid performance cars to run completely unrestricted on public roads, given their seemingly unlimited performance potential.
The Pink Pig Porsche 911 RSR race car has won the 2018 Le Mans 24-Hour. The winning driver line up of Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen delivered a commanding performance, holding the lead in the 92 car for most of the race and finishing on the top step of the podium after 344 laps of flat out racing.
The sister car of Richard Lietz, Frédéric Makowiecki and Gianmaria Bruni completed a one-two victory for Porsche in GTE-Pro. The result has helped Porsche to extend its lead in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ standings of the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“It was an incredible race,” said Christensen. “The car was fast right from the start. We had a little luck during a safety car phase and we managed to pull clear of the field a little. From that point on, we focussed on extending our lead. In the final third of the race, we simply tried to avoid taking any risks to bring the car home in one piece. This worked perfectly.”
“This double victory is fantastic for Porsche and our team,” said Bruni, who claimed pole for the Rothmans-tribute RSR 91 with a terrific qualifying lap of a 3:47.504. “We had a great race and a great fight with the 92 car. We tried everything but our colleagues made no mistakes. They deserve the win.”
With two rounds of the 2018 WEC now complete, Porsche leads Ford in the manufacturers’ championship by 96 points to 50, with Ferrari, Aston Martin and BMW not too far behind. Estre and Christensen top the drivers’ table with 56 points ahead of Billy Johnson, Olivier Pla and Stefan Mücke in second with 48 points. Lietz and Bruni lie third on 40 points each.
This season has another year left to run, however, as it continues until after the 2019 Le Mans. Many more miles lie ahead before anyone can claim ultimate victory in the longest-ever endurance racing championship.
The AF Corse Ferraris and BMWs worked their hardest, but were let down by penalties and technical issues that cost them time in the pits. Aston Martin Racing debuted two new cars at Le Mans and both made it to the finish, which will give the team every confidence for the rest of the season.
The latest EB Motorsport Porsche race car build – a reproduction of the 1974 911 RSR – enjoyed a successful debut at the recent Brands Hatch Masters Historic Festival. Racing in FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars, Mark and James Bates took the newly-built RSR to a qualifying time some two seconds quicker than their previous fastest RSR qualifying lap.
“We’re still waiting for the FIA Historic Technical Passport to arrive for this new RSR, so we raced in the invitational class,” said James. “Ours was the only 911 on track, so there was no one to beat. We approached the weekend as more of a test session and experimented with setup changes on every session. The fastest time in qualifying was just two-tenths outside the magic 1:40, so there’s a sub-1:40 lap time in this chassis for sure.
“With much wider track and lower weight thanks to our all-new 1974 RSR bodywork, many re-engineered and optimised parts and exceptional brake performance from our brand new RSR Endurance brake calipers, the new car is terrific to drive. We’re looking forward to trying it at more favourite circuits later this year.”
EB’s 2-litre 911 was also in action at Brands Hatch, racing in Stena Line Gentlemen Drivers. Mark and set the fastest SWB 911 times of the weekend, qualifying on a 1:52.946 and setting a fastest race lap within four one-hundredths of a second of that benchmark, but the car was forced to retire when the splines were stripped from one of the rear hubs.
“The 2-litre is being raced hard again this year,” said Mark. “It’s already been out at Goodwood in MM76, where it came home as first 911. It took another podium at Spa in the first-ever 2.0L Cup race and now we’ve pushed it to the max at Brands. It is probably the most raced 2-litre FIA car in Europe and we learn more about it every time we race it.”
EB Motorsport’s 1965 911 and the 1974 RSR have plenty more racing ahead this year. The 2-litre is back out in June for the 2.0L Cup race at Dijon Grand Prix de l’Age d’Or, followed by July’s Silverstone Classic and the Nürburgring Oldtimer GP and Zandvoort Masters weekends in August. September has the Spa 6 Hours and accompanying Masters Historic rounds, before the season ends with Dijon FIA Masters from October 12-14.
I went to Zandvoort last year and wrote a feature about the weekend for GT Porsche magazine. Not sure which ones I will get to this year but any of these weekends are great fun to attend. Silverstone is next door to me, so I should make that one at least.
Learn more about EB Motorsport Porsche racing and the firm’s vintage Porsche parts and projects at eb-motorsport.co.uk.
The first race of the brand new 2.0L Cup was held at Peter Auto’s Spa Classic event last weekend. A grid of almost forty pre-’66 2-litre 911s took to the circuit to do battle in an exciting first race, which ran for an hour (twenty laps) until torrential rain brought out the red flag.
Porsche Classic has joined the fray with Porsche GB’s 2-litre race car, which was last used in the 911 50th celebrations during 2013. The 1965 911 has an extensive programme of events ahead this season, with the Spa Classic just one of eight outings this year. The rest of its calendar looks like this:
May 18 – 20: May Peter Auto Spa Classic, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
June 17: HSCC Guards Trophy, Silverstone, GB
July 6-8: Le Mans Classic, Le Mans, France
July 20-22: Silverstone Classic, GB
August 10-12: OldTimer Grand Prix, Nurburgring, Germany
August 25-26: HSCC Guards Trophy, Oulton Park, GB
September 2: Porsche Classic Trophy, Brands Hatch GP, GB
October 21: HSCC Guards Trophy, Silverstone, GB
Anthony Reid paired up with former Porsche Carrera Cup GB Champion Josh Webster in the PCGB car for the 2.0L Cup race, but the duo were forced to retire on lap nine. Regular 2.0 racers Historika, Tuthill Porsche and EB Motorsport finished on the podium in that order after a great race. Led initially by the Duel Motorsport car, which set a top speed of over 203 km/h on the Kemmel Straight, the rest were 5 or 6 km/h slower on the Kemmel, but the fastest lap of 3:02.586 was set by Nigel Greensall in David Huxley’s Brumos Porsche-liveried 1965 911.
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“Thanks to both David and Richard Tuthill for such a terrific weekend,” said Greensall in an email with a link to the video below. “We have a really great team.” A proper 911 driver who has claimed many excellent results in SWB cars, the video shows a terrific scrap at the front from Nigel’s in-car camera.
Porsche 2.0L Cup racing costs
The technology involved in 2-litre Porsche 911s may look simple and the homologated spec is very straightforward, but getting these cars to run competitively and finish well is not easy or cheap. Proper 2-litres are expensive to build and expensive to run: a rebuilt set of the mandatory Solex carburettors costs twelve thousand pounds and a full-spec, plug and play 2-litre engine including carbs and exhaust leaves little change from £85k.
It’s good to see Porsche fielding a 911 prepared by its approved classic specialists amongst the 2.0L Cup cars. Looking back at the 911s results from 2013, Robertson/Horne finished third out of three 911s in the 2013 Brands Hatch Masters and their fastest race lap at Silverstone Classic was some five seconds slower than Greensall’s best of a 3:02.267 en route to coming home as first 911 in the International Trophy for pre-’66 GT cars.
Next event in the four-race 2.0L Cup is the Grand Prix de l’Age d’Or at Dijon from June 8-10. With Dijon some 600kms from the coast. I decided to save the miles on the RT and do something else instead, but let me know if you’re going.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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