996 GT3 Cup Car - please someone persuade me not to
Discussion
Hey so I thought I’d do a bit of an update on Jean-Luc the French 996 Cup, and post a couple of photos and a small video.
In short, nothing massive has happened in terms of progressing the car, as it’s been mostly in the graphics shop getting fitted for its original livery. Handily I was able to find a model of the car from its Carrera Cup days. The plan is to get it in period correct attire in time for Le Mans Classic, where I dearly hope not to embarrass myself in front of a probably knowledgable crowd when I do a testing style demo run with the good people of Global Endurance Legends.
We have done one outing, shortly after I got my ARDS licence, which was a test at Silverstone. That was basically all the nerves and feeling like a fish out of water that I felt ten years ago at my first track day. Pretty much everyone was faster. Perhaps most humbling were the Ginettas hurtling past me. Less power, I imagine, and probably also driven by 15 year olds. Well, I didn’t crash, and neither did my buddy Erik, and we both braved an animal invasion in the cockpit. I recorded brief highlights of the day in a hopefully not unentertaining video: https://youtu.be/KpLROBQ-9sQ
I should add that in getting kitted out for LMC and getting harnesses up to date etc for scrutineering I have been really helped by that guy Scott Mansell at Driver 61. The guy is a legend. All those free track tuition videos. He’s also been very helpful with advice one what race gear I actually need as opposed to what is superfluous or unnecessary to spend on. For a rookie it’s pretty useful and the guy just seems pretty chill and open. Don’t really plug people as a rule, but I think his approach is really sound.
Anyway, more photos:
The model:
Pre-test bravado shot:
Erik demonstrating his half Texan half German origins with both his t-shirt and his awkward posture:
So next outing will be a shakedown at Oulton once we’ve done some basics like an oil change and bleeding the brakes. We will then take off the Cargraphic silencer to unleash the fury at Le Mans. That silencer was an inspired recommendation BTW. Think Lemon Yella RS on here was the one who suggested it. It’s just over a year since I posted here asking for advice on whether to jump in with a Cup car and here I am. It’s been awesome. The car is a peach, it’s cost a lot less than it could have to keep well maintained, and it’s turned into a great and invigorating hobby, albeit a fairly all consuming one! Props to all here who completely unaccountably encouraged me!
In short, nothing massive has happened in terms of progressing the car, as it’s been mostly in the graphics shop getting fitted for its original livery. Handily I was able to find a model of the car from its Carrera Cup days. The plan is to get it in period correct attire in time for Le Mans Classic, where I dearly hope not to embarrass myself in front of a probably knowledgable crowd when I do a testing style demo run with the good people of Global Endurance Legends.
We have done one outing, shortly after I got my ARDS licence, which was a test at Silverstone. That was basically all the nerves and feeling like a fish out of water that I felt ten years ago at my first track day. Pretty much everyone was faster. Perhaps most humbling were the Ginettas hurtling past me. Less power, I imagine, and probably also driven by 15 year olds. Well, I didn’t crash, and neither did my buddy Erik, and we both braved an animal invasion in the cockpit. I recorded brief highlights of the day in a hopefully not unentertaining video: https://youtu.be/KpLROBQ-9sQ
I should add that in getting kitted out for LMC and getting harnesses up to date etc for scrutineering I have been really helped by that guy Scott Mansell at Driver 61. The guy is a legend. All those free track tuition videos. He’s also been very helpful with advice one what race gear I actually need as opposed to what is superfluous or unnecessary to spend on. For a rookie it’s pretty useful and the guy just seems pretty chill and open. Don’t really plug people as a rule, but I think his approach is really sound.
Anyway, more photos:
The model:
Pre-test bravado shot:
Erik demonstrating his half Texan half German origins with both his t-shirt and his awkward posture:
So next outing will be a shakedown at Oulton once we’ve done some basics like an oil change and bleeding the brakes. We will then take off the Cargraphic silencer to unleash the fury at Le Mans. That silencer was an inspired recommendation BTW. Think Lemon Yella RS on here was the one who suggested it. It’s just over a year since I posted here asking for advice on whether to jump in with a Cup car and here I am. It’s been awesome. The car is a peach, it’s cost a lot less than it could have to keep well maintained, and it’s turned into a great and invigorating hobby, albeit a fairly all consuming one! Props to all here who completely unaccountably encouraged me!
Ok, so the dust has settled after the latest round of antics in Jean-Luc, so here’s what’s been going on with the car.
We sent the car into a graphics shop to be put back to the original livery.
They did a good job, and the car really pops out now. First outing was a morning at Oulton Park:
We sent the car into a graphics shop to be put back to the original livery.
They did a good job, and the car really pops out now. First outing was a morning at Oulton Park:
The Oulton final session was scrappy to start with, with me trying a bit too hard from the off, but then I took a breather, relaxed a bit, and drove some nice smooth stuff before getting a puncture in the left rear. The tyres had done about 6 days, which is way more than a race team would let a single set go, but we hadn’t been chasing tenths here and there quite yet so that wasn’t such an issue. It did mean that they were far gone enough that it had to be a full set of Michelins we replaced them with. We got a great deal from the guys at Protyre, who had to get us sorted in time for Le Mans and managed to meet the deadline.
We also needed to get some parts at the last minute from both Parr Motorsport who do the Porsche Motorsport distribution and also from Porsche Bolton, who even let us do a cheeky team photo outside.
For the Le Mans Classic we did the full convoy leaving early on the Wednesday morning, which meant towing the car on the Woodford race trailer on the back of my A6 and various Porsches and other cars in the mix. It was less fun than we had hoped, given that the tow vehicle had to stay around 50 mph most of the way. Kudos to my buddy Verner and his missus Marge who did the towing while we horsed around in the stickered up convoy vehicles.
We also needed to get some parts at the last minute from both Parr Motorsport who do the Porsche Motorsport distribution and also from Porsche Bolton, who even let us do a cheeky team photo outside.
For the Le Mans Classic we did the full convoy leaving early on the Wednesday morning, which meant towing the car on the Woodford race trailer on the back of my A6 and various Porsches and other cars in the mix. It was less fun than we had hoped, given that the tow vehicle had to stay around 50 mph most of the way. Kudos to my buddy Verner and his missus Marge who did the towing while we horsed around in the stickered up convoy vehicles.
Standing proud with the local Porsche guys. Josh Morris (second from the right), who is the parts guy we were dealing with and used to work at my local kart track, helped us with car prep and in the end came along to Le Mans for the ride! Josh is currently leading the Porsche UK dealers’ Restorace championship with two races to go.
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