Tag Archives: 962C

Championship Dinger UnStuck – Brands Hatch 1000 Kilometers

Thirty years ago this weekend give or take a day or two I found myself at Brands Hatch for the 1000 kms race, only the second Group C race I had seen, thanks mostly to the fact that my mate Sven was racing his Ford Capri in the supporting Uniroyal Production Saloon car race.

Jaguar XJ6, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

My pit pass from the support race got me into the pits prior to the start of the main event and I wasted no time taking pics of the leading runners from Lancia, Porsche and Jaguar who had locked out the first three rows of the grid in Noah’s Ark fashion during qualifying, above is the Tony Southgate designed Jaguar XJ6 driven by recent Formula One returnee Alan Jones who joined TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) regular Jean-Louis Schlesser in the leading TWR entry that qualified 5th, but retired from the event early with engine damage after the throttle jammed open.

Porsche 962C, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass qualified 4th on the grid in the #1 Porsche 962C seen above and finished second in the race experiencing only one problem, a faster than mandated refueling stop, which the team corrected by holding the car in the pits for an additional 10 seconds on the cars final fuel stop.

Lancia LC2 85, Wollek, de Cesaris, Baldi, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

The Lancia LC2’s with 800 hp qualifying motors, against Porsches 720 hp qualifying spec, locked out the front row with the #4 driven by Ricardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini on pole, but in the final hour when the Lancia’s were running 3rd and 4th team mate Andrea de Cesaris ran into the pack of Patrese’s car damaging the exhaust on the #4 forcing a quick stop for repairs to secure it again which left the #5 Lancia Andrea shared with Brilliant Bob Wollek and Mauro Baldi to claim 3rd one lap down on the leading Porsches.

Gebhardt  JC843, Adams, Taylor, Harrower, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

One car I had been particularly looking forward to seeing in the flesh was the super slippery Group C2 #75 Gebhardt JC843 seen above driven by Nick Adams, Ian Taylor and Ian Harrower, on this occasion the 3.3 litre / 201 cui Cosworth DFL car finished tenth, 46 laps behind the winning Porsche, from 15th on the grid.

Ecosse C285, Wilds, Mallock, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

Winners of the Group C2 class were Ray Mallock and Mike Wilds in the Ecurie Ecosse #79 Ecosse C285 which was similarly Cosworth DFL powered, starting from 14 on the grid Ray and Mike came home 6th, 19 laps behind the winning C1 car, but crucially 11 laps ahead of the C2 turbocharged Carma powered Alba AR6 driven by Martino Finotto, Almo Coppelli and Carlo Facetti.

Porsche 962C, Derek Bell, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

Starting from third on the grid thanks to the efforts of Hans Stuck was the #2 Porsche 962C he shared with local boy “Dinger” Derek Bell who crossed the line less the 12 seconds ahead of the #1 Porsche and in the process Hans and Derek more or less secured their first World Endurance Drivers Championship, this would become Derek’s first drivers championship ever in over 18 years as a professional.

My belated thanks to Sven who got me into see the show.

Thanks for joining me on this “Championship Dinger Unstuck” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be locking at a Formula One Toleman that nearly never ran for the want of a tyre contract. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Endurance Survivor – Porsche 911 GT1-98 #003

The Porsche 911 GT1-98 was the second evolution GT1 racer that Porsche contested the 1998 FIA GT1 championship with.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

While the front of the new car bears a passing resemblance to the Generation 2 996 version of the Porsche 911 the rest of the car was essentially a prototype fitted with a 600hp twin turbo Group C type 24 valve twin cam water cooled flat 6 of the same type as used by the Porsche 962C with the addition of a sequential gearbox.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 911 GT-98 was built around a tube frame and with carbon fibre bodywork. One road going example of the GT1-98 was built to meet the GT1 regulations.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Going into the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours race two normally aspirated 6 litre / 370 cui V8 Mercedes Benz CLK LM’s prepared especially for the endurance classic qualified 1st and 3rd. The fastest of three turbocharged Toyota GT-One qualified second with the Porsche 911 GT1’s 4th and 5th, the later car being chassis #003 driven by Allan McNish, Stéphane Ortelli and Laurent Aiello.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

During the race the specially prepared Mercedes Benz CLK LM’s both retired by lap 31 with engine failures while the fastest of the Toyota GT-One’s retired after half distance after an accident which left the two works Porsches at the head of the field.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The #26 shared by NcNish, Ortelli and Aiello crossed the line a lap ahead of the sister car driven by Jörg Müller, Uwe Alzen and Brilliant Bob Wollek.

As had occured many times in the past the Le Mans winners did not win the championship which was dominated by Mercedes Benz who clocked up six 1-2 finishes, but it is Porsche who is best remembered from the GT1 championship for surviving to win an unlikely 1-2 at Le Mans.

Thanks for joining me on this “Endurance Survivor” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a car that is ‘not a green Audi’. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Musical Spares – Porsche 962C #006

The Porsche 962 was built in two specs, the original was the 1984 IMSA GTP spec which was a variation of the dominant Group C Porsche 956 sports car first seen in 1982. The 962 differed in two important aspects from it’s Group C cousin. First the 962 had a longer wheel base so that the drivers feet were behind the center line of the front axle and second IMSA mandated a single turbo while the Group C 956 ran more powerful twin turbo’s.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

For 1986 the FIA mandated that Group C cars should follow the lead set by IMSA and have the drivers feet behind the the center line of the front axle line while making no changes to the engine regulations so the more powerful Porsche 962C came into being sweeping all before it much as the 956 and 956B had done. Derek Bell became the first driver to successfully defend his World Sports Car Drivers Championship won driving a 956B in ’85 and 962C in ’86. In 1986 Derek also won the Le Mans 24 hours for the forth time sharing his 962C with Hans Joachim Stuck and Al Holbert, Derek was also awarded the MBE for services to motorsport, a Royal honour which even Porsche AG noted on the door of Dereks #17 car as seen above at Le Mans in 1987.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

Going into Le Mans 1987 Derek Bell and Al Holbert were on a roll of three consecutive 24 hour race wins going back to Daytona ’86 where they shared an IMSA GTP 962 with Al Unser Jr. As mentioned above Bell and Holbert followed that up at Le Mans winning with Hans Stuck and made it a three peat of 24 hour victories at Daytona sharing Holberts Löwenbrau Porsche 962 with Unser Jr and Chip Robinson. Only a complete idiot would have bet against Bell, Stuck and Holbert claiming victory at Le Mans in 1987. The #17 chassis #006 seen in the rain above qualified 2nd on the grid by Hans Stuck next to the #18 chassis #008 which Bob Wollek qualified on pole.

Derek Bell, Hans Joachim Stuck, Le Mans, France

But the fourpeat of consecutive 24 hour victories very nearly did not happen, things started to go wrong for the works Porsche team a week before the race when Hans Stuck tested all the Le Mans cars at Porsche’s Weisach test facility. Stuck experienced a puncture while driving the car designated for his team mates Jochen Mass and Brilliant Bob Wollek. As a consequence Mass and Wollek were given the car designated as the race car for Stuck, Bell and Holbert chassis #008 while the ’86 winning trio took over the car designated for Vern Schuppan, Kees Nierop and Price Cobb chassis #006, today’s featured car, and the Schuppan, Nierop, Cobb combination were given the older chassis #002 which had been designated as a spare. Bell and Stuck are seen above returning from the new chicane an hour before the start of the race.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

The next problem for the Porsche team occurred in practice when Price Cobb had an accident which wrote chassis #002 off during the first day of practice so that there were now only two works entered cars to challenge for the win, but as designer Norbert Singer observed ‘only one of them can win’. Schuppan, Nierop and Cobb all found rides in other cars.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

An hour into the 1987 race it looked as if Jaguar who were at least 3 seconds slower than the lead Porsche in practice might pull off a remarkable win as they held first third and fifth. The Porsche cars were falling like a chain of domino’s with engine failures, something in the fuel was causing the latest in Bosch (ECU) electronic management systems to run the Porsche engines much too lean which resulted in engine failures for the pole sitting works car; 2 Joest Porsche 962C’s and a Kremer 962C.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

Fortunately the #17 had managed to get into the pits to change to an older ECU before any permanent damage was done and 2nd placed Bell, Stuck and Holbert proceeded to pursue the lead Jaguar at break neck speed until midnight when it took the lead for the final time as the four 7 litre / 427 cui V12 Jaguar XJR 8LM’s started to fall by the wayside with a puncture, an accident, a cracked cylinder head and a missed gear change respectively.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

The punctured #5 Jaguar driven by Win Percy had required an 80 minuet safety car period to clear up the debris in the dead of night as the Jaguar had been pitched at 200 mph into the barriers of the Mulasanne straight ripping off the gearbox and engine, Win Percy unlike his helmet was completely unscratched. The relentless pace at which the #17 Porsche had been chasing the Jaguars meant that Bell, Stuck and Holbert were way over their fuel allowance as the safety car period started but right back on schedule once the mess created by the Jaguar had been cleaned up.

By the end of the race Bell, Stuck and Holbert were 20 laps to the good; from the private Primagaz Competition 962C of Juergen Lässig, Pierre Yver and Bernard de Dryver; as they recorded their fifth, second and third Le Mans wins respectively, their second consecutively as a winning Le Mans trio and Bell and Holberts 4th consecutive 24 Hour race win. Porsche also recorded their seventh consecutive Le Mans win in 1987.

The following year things would not be so easy as Jaguar, who won the 1987 World Sports Car Championship and who’s driver Raul Bosel won the 1987 World Sports Car Drivers Championship took the fight even more convincingly to Porsche at Le Mans.

Chassis #006 was driven at Spa in 1986 by Jochen Mass and Bob Wollek on it’s debut where it was qualified third and finished 7th it’s only other race start was at Fuji where Holbert and Pescarolo started from 12th and retired with transmission problems. Prior to the Le Mans 24 hours #006 had primarily been used as a spare car at Jarama, Jerez, Monza and Silverstone in 1987. #006 was driven by Bob Wollek and Canadian Kees Nierop for the ’87 Le Mans test weekend where carrying the #17 it recorded the 2nd fastest time. After the 24 hour win in ’87 #006 returned to Le Mans in 1988 as a spare that was briefly used by Micheal Andretti in practice before it was retired for good.

Thanks for joining me on this “Musical Spares” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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