996 GT3 Cup Car - please someone persuade me not to
Discussion
The stint itself was fairly short. They only gave us 20 minutes. We’re a new category and the idea is that this could develop into something bigger in the historic racing scene.
But short stint or not, this was a big step up from testing at Silverstone a few weeks before. The visibility from a race car isn’t great at the best of times, but as you hit 260 kph on the long straights before braking for the chicanes, it’s harder to remember to keep looking around you for prototypes. Once when I did see an LMP2 car barrelling into Tertre Rouge, or think I’d seen one, I have no idea why I cautiously left a bit of extra space in case there was something else passing. It turned out to be a wise call. There were in fact three prototypes and a quick GT car. Funnily enough, writing this now, it occurs to me that was the corner where Anthony Beltoise, the original owner of the car I was driving (on that day in a Ferrari GT car) failed to see McNish overtaking his team mate, causing that terrible rollover accident. Anyway, I had no pretensions to serious speed so my lack of aggression served me well.
Towards the end of the stint, I did realise that a few of the GT cars were taking it a bit easy and I went through on the inside a couple of times. Did those moves count as overtakes? In my opinion, most certainly. At least on the level of the best of Daniel Ricciardo, and possibly Zanardi’s effort back in the day into the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. My opposite lock and border line tank slapper moment on exit the second time was just a bit of showmanship for the spectators.....
And there it is. I went from being a trackday driver to almost a racing driver, of some description I guess, in a little over a year, and by fluke or sleight of hand ended up on the greatest racetrack in the world, surrounded by pros and legendary cars.
Now back to real life...
But short stint or not, this was a big step up from testing at Silverstone a few weeks before. The visibility from a race car isn’t great at the best of times, but as you hit 260 kph on the long straights before braking for the chicanes, it’s harder to remember to keep looking around you for prototypes. Once when I did see an LMP2 car barrelling into Tertre Rouge, or think I’d seen one, I have no idea why I cautiously left a bit of extra space in case there was something else passing. It turned out to be a wise call. There were in fact three prototypes and a quick GT car. Funnily enough, writing this now, it occurs to me that was the corner where Anthony Beltoise, the original owner of the car I was driving (on that day in a Ferrari GT car) failed to see McNish overtaking his team mate, causing that terrible rollover accident. Anyway, I had no pretensions to serious speed so my lack of aggression served me well.
Towards the end of the stint, I did realise that a few of the GT cars were taking it a bit easy and I went through on the inside a couple of times. Did those moves count as overtakes? In my opinion, most certainly. At least on the level of the best of Daniel Ricciardo, and possibly Zanardi’s effort back in the day into the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. My opposite lock and border line tank slapper moment on exit the second time was just a bit of showmanship for the spectators.....
And there it is. I went from being a trackday driver to almost a racing driver, of some description I guess, in a little over a year, and by fluke or sleight of hand ended up on the greatest racetrack in the world, surrounded by pros and legendary cars.
Now back to real life...
Great write up. Shame i missed you in the paddocks , was actively looking but missed a few it seems.I did find another friend in one of the Global endurance pits who was driving his GT3 R. Would like to put mine back to original livery too. How on earth did you get that model ? I guess Beltoise would have been a fairly well known driver? Glad the exhaust has been of help.
Funny you got a puncture at Oulton , did the same in mine at the RS day in 2016. My cars is now on Cup 2's
Not used my car at all this year. Might manage a day in the next couple of months, will see. Have fun. Keep with the updates
Funny you got a puncture at Oulton , did the same in mine at the RS day in 2016. My cars is now on Cup 2's
Not used my car at all this year. Might manage a day in the next couple of months, will see. Have fun. Keep with the updates
Having neglected the thread a bit I thought I’d give an update as to how we closed out the season and the plans for next year.
So the plan had always been to try to do something with the local kids in the community as part of ownership of the car and using it properly for the maximum fun score! My brother is the secretary of a local youth club called Salford Lads Club which is a really important institution in the community just outside Manchester and the kids there really benefit from the sports including and football and boxing that the club puts on, and the trips the kids get to go on. Anyway, as a first step we did a track day at Oulton with a number of the kids where we explained to them some of the cool things about the car, they got to help prepare the car in the morning, check tyre pressures between stints, and then got some passenger laps. One of the cool things was that they seemed even more keen to help with car prep than actually get in for laps.
First I did some laps with the lads, and then Josh Morris who just one the Porsche Boxster Restoracing Championship came along and showed them how it’s supoosed to be done, which of course predictably blew their minds.
We’re going to repeat the experiences with the lads at the beginning and end of next season. They really got into it and one of the coolest things was that some of the driving instructors and track office staff came over to hang out and talk to the kids about motorsport and the track. The management at the track also helped with making sure that we had all the right consents with parents and stuff, and were just really supportive.
We’re hoping that next year we can invite some of the kids to help out doing the car prep in the days beforehand so start to get get real mechanic experience.
Plan for next year is to do Spa Classic and the Hungaroring Classic with Global Endurance Legends in the summer, and also hopefully do some gigs with the rock band the team has formed. We mostly sing songs about the renegades of motorsport history - Whittington Bros, Hunt, Eddie Irvine etc. We are much less crap than I thought we would be.
So the plan had always been to try to do something with the local kids in the community as part of ownership of the car and using it properly for the maximum fun score! My brother is the secretary of a local youth club called Salford Lads Club which is a really important institution in the community just outside Manchester and the kids there really benefit from the sports including and football and boxing that the club puts on, and the trips the kids get to go on. Anyway, as a first step we did a track day at Oulton with a number of the kids where we explained to them some of the cool things about the car, they got to help prepare the car in the morning, check tyre pressures between stints, and then got some passenger laps. One of the cool things was that they seemed even more keen to help with car prep than actually get in for laps.
First I did some laps with the lads, and then Josh Morris who just one the Porsche Boxster Restoracing Championship came along and showed them how it’s supoosed to be done, which of course predictably blew their minds.
We’re going to repeat the experiences with the lads at the beginning and end of next season. They really got into it and one of the coolest things was that some of the driving instructors and track office staff came over to hang out and talk to the kids about motorsport and the track. The management at the track also helped with making sure that we had all the right consents with parents and stuff, and were just really supportive.
We’re hoping that next year we can invite some of the kids to help out doing the car prep in the days beforehand so start to get get real mechanic experience.
Plan for next year is to do Spa Classic and the Hungaroring Classic with Global Endurance Legends in the summer, and also hopefully do some gigs with the rock band the team has formed. We mostly sing songs about the renegades of motorsport history - Whittington Bros, Hunt, Eddie Irvine etc. We are much less crap than I thought we would be.
Lemon yella RS said:
Great write up. Shame i missed you in the paddocks , was actively looking but missed a few it seems.I did find another friend in one of the Global endurance pits who was driving his GT3 R. Would like to put mine back to original livery too. How on earth did you get that model ? I guess Beltoise would have been a fairly well known driver? Glad the exhaust has been of help.
Funny you got a puncture at Oulton , did the same in mine at the RS day in 2016. My cars is now on Cup 2's
Not used my car at all this year. Might manage a day in the next couple of months, will see. Have fun. Keep with the updates
Hey mate. Just got lucky with getting the Beltoise car really. In France it got quite a bit of attention although he’s not so well known in the UK I guess. Having the old school livery is fun although of course it means I can’t customise that much other than having our names on the window. Consider Spa and Hungaroring next year!Funny you got a puncture at Oulton , did the same in mine at the RS day in 2016. My cars is now on Cup 2's
Not used my car at all this year. Might manage a day in the next couple of months, will see. Have fun. Keep with the updates
Thou said:
Just remembered this thread and thought I’d dig it up - did those 2019 plans ever come about in the end?
Hey Thou. In the most negligent of thread maintenance attempts, here's a bit of an update. Someone in Australia who has a 996 Cup told me he'd read the thread and enjoyed it back in the day so I felt it should get a bit of an update.In short, 2019 ended up being more about the band than the driving. The guys are in Austria - the drummer races in the Porsche Sprint Challenge series around Europe and has some pretty cool cars himself, including a 991 GT2 Racecar. I played some small gigs in 2019 at Le Mans but 2020 Covid put paid to the possibility of the band doing the full stadium gig at the 24. We’ll see about 2022 I guess.
Meanwhile the band recorded an album during 2020 and not much driving happened. We did the Rennsport Collective track day which was epic as always but understandably not quite as busy as the year before.
This year we’ve been to Silverstone, despite a last minute panic over a throttle cable - Dan at werk-1.com managed to get one couriered over last minute from Porsche Motorsport and fitted by his buddy Matt at Fearnsport who is, it turns out, a legendary Porsche mechanic, as those who know will quickly say.
Silverstone was epic. It was very wet and very good fun. Here’s a short clip. https://youtu.be/WTvAW5sXoDY The car really is phenomenal in the wet with full wet tyres. It was scary and visibility behind cars non existent, but very rewarding.
Brands hatch planned for this Tuesday, then probably focus on the ring and the CSL for the summer if Covid allows, before back to track days in the UK in the Cup for the Autumn.
I promise not to wait so long to update next time!
Found this after a search, someone who knows I’m looking for a 996 GT3 road car offered me a 996 Cup Car suspiciously cheap!
Having towed cars to track days in the past I’m not exactly averse to the idea but I’m not convinced I’d not miss taking it out on local roads every now and again.
Having towed cars to track days in the past I’m not exactly averse to the idea but I’m not convinced I’d not miss taking it out on local roads every now and again.
Gassing Station | Porsche General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff