2013 Porsche club Championship

[MarkK]

Got email from the PCGB Motorsport team this afternoon,final Regulations are promised for early next week,whilst the whole calendar for next season is not complete,Saturday 6th April at Donnington is confirmed as the opening round.
The first meeting is going to be televised live on Motors TV!!!!

 

[spyderman]

Awesome. I'll be there, providing it doesn't clash.

 

[Mike_Pollock]

Good place to start! Pencilled in already.

 

[MarkK]

Not long till the Regs are announced!

 

[MarkK]

Any minute now....?

 

[bazhart]

That's a long minute Mark! Baz

 

[MarkK]

[]

 

[MarkK]

Just applied for my 2013 Competition License[]

 

[paulf968]

Well as I have an International 'C' Race Licence every 2 years I have to undergo a stress ECG. Just had it done and am very relieved to say I passed. They raised me to a heart rate of 160 bpm on a walking treadmill, monitoring heart activity all the way. Then afterwards they monitor you for 10 minutes to see how your heart recovers, this is an important feature of the test. Anyway I am now £371 poorer, that includes the normal annual medical as well. On top of that there is £178 for the new licence so there is no change out of £500 - even before you actually get anywhere near a car! pssst, a little secret.......... I have a drive in the Dubai 24 hr race on Jan 11/12th in a BMW Z4M, so all this licence stuff is a necessary hurdle to a period of intense enjoyment. NB See car 61 here: http://www.24hdubai.com/Entry-list-24h-Dubai-2013 ps ..... my prediction is that we will have the new draft Regs by the end of this week..... but what do I know, this is pure guesswork! If it is like previous years the Regs will not be finally approved until the MSA do their stuff, usually later in Jan.

 

[spyderman]

Congrats on the 24 drive, Paul. I upgraded to an A for 2013. Am looking at doing the base ARDS level in 2014.

 

[MarkK]

Mr F!-Looking forward to following your 24 hr Dubai race on the internet!Would love to be able to do that one day! My Comp License arrived for 2013 wahoo![]

 

[paulf968]

guys and girls, how about joining the 'The Porsche Club Championship' facebook page and give it a 'like' linky here: http://www.facebook.com/PorscheClubChampionship?ref=stream there are almost 100 people connected to that page, I am sure we could get it up to 200 very quickly ........ please take the time to do that. I am a bit of a luddite and only just joined fb today myself ....... wooooaaaah scary!!

 

[paulf968]

likes now up at 102, keep them coming. http://www.facebook.com/PorscheClubChampionship

 

[Neil Haughey]

You should have all received the draft regs. Just finished reading them and as a 944 S2 driver to say I am happy is an understatement, a 35Kg adjustment compared to the 968 will make a big difference. Still though it likely means more motorsport units to Kevin in order to get the cars weight down. I was 30Kg over weight for Brands last year even at the old weight []. Oh well. Really good decision to move the 2.7 Boxster into class 2, as you all may recall I proposed this idea several months ago. Interesting to see the Cayman, who are these ppl that want to race a Cayman? Interesting as well to see alternative liners in the regs for the modern water cooled flat 6 motors. Bit of an inevitability that one.

 

[MarkK]

Are you raring to go in 2013 then Neil?? Two Silverstones and two Donningtons!! With a few extra kilos more tyres and brakes for me this year !

 

[Neil Haughey]

I guess I am, both the regs and the calendar are a bonus for me. 5 races at Silverstone GP and 4 at Donny is right up my street as I really really like both circuits. Still though unlike last year I won't be committing to anything until I am confident I have both the car/driver bit sorted and the budget secure.

 

[Andy97]

ORIGINAL: Neil Haughey You should have all received the draft regs. Just finished reading them and as a 944 S2 driver to say I am happy is an understatement, a 35Kg adjustment compared to the 968 will make a big difference. Still though it likely means more motorsport units to Kevin in order to get the cars weight down. I was 30Kg over weight for Brands last year even at the old weight []. Oh well. Really good decision to move the 2.7 Boxster into class 2, as you all may recall I proposed this idea several months ago. Interesting to see the Cayman, who are these ppl that want to race a Cayman? Interesting as well to see alternative liners in the regs for the modern water cooled flat 6 motors. Bit of an inevitability that one.

Neil Can you give those of that are non PCGB racers (but are still interested) a precis of the changes and does this answer the performance concerns that Baz had in 2012 please?

 

[bazhart]

I am preparing a comprehensive response to the regulations for 2013 but in a precis what is clear is that the weights have been adjusted to make the power to weight ratios more fair but it has been done in such a way that the cars that benefitted by what we now know was an unfair advantage in 2012 - remain almost exactly the same weights while all the other competitors with models other than a 993 and particularly a 996 - who could not compete with them - will have to find ways to shave off about 40 to 55 kilos before the paper advantage can be practically achieved. This is not easy or cheap and the competitors who previously had all their cars well and fairly balanced and enjoyed racing older models competitively will have to replace steel panels with plastic/composite ones and/or removing the roof (both of which reduce impact crush resistance and increase danger to the drivers). This penalises the competitors who previously raced with equality and benefits those that already had a seasons racing with an unfair advantage in 2 classes and as a result won both and the overall championships. Meanwhile 2 new models have been introduced in mysterious circumstances (apparently following pressure by un-named members) while other equally valid and similar models have not. For example the 3.4 Boxster S was introduced at the same time as the 3.4 Cayman S but has not been included (despite it being a model already raced in a smaller engine'd version) and the 928GTS is hardly a common car that others could find and has by far the greatest power to weight advantage of any of the other cars. Meanwhile can I just point out that the published figures for power to weight ratio are actually all wrong (having taken the engine power instead of the rear wheel power) and on top of that two of the simple figures resulting by dividing one number by another - are also wrong and neither the right answer using engine or rear wheel power. Apart from the 993 and 996 - the figures are almost the same as those published with the 2012 regulations - so it takes a year and months of deliberations to simply correct the error made and pointed out before the 2012 season started and then they cannot even get the figures right! My own views are too raw right now to publish but it is clear to me that my various representations to correct the unfair errors last season and my pressure not to add weight to the majority of competitors cars (and instead simply add the same difference to a 993 and 996 - which would cost peanuts) has been completely ignored. It seems no one cares about the costs being imposed on the majority - simply to make the racing fair - when such a small cost could put it right dome the other way around. My representations to the main Club about all this have obviously fallen on deaf ears - and it seems that the Motorsport division carry on just exactly as they always have with impunity. What do you guys think of all this? Baz

 

[Neil Haughey]

I would have preferred not to have to take weight out of the car Baz. The only way I can get that much out is to gut the doors i.e. no factory crash bars and cut away the inner panel etc. and cut more metal out elsewhere around the front (if possible). New back end already had all the non-required brackets and mounts drilled out in the rebuild. Similarly on your Boxster you're probably looking at things like removing the front bumper cross bar or replacing with a lightweight version like some of the Americans do. All of this stuff makes the car less safe. Carbon door cards, pattern 968CS mirrors, aftermarket battery cable, probably have to do all this stuff to get every Kg out possible. Still though it will look more racey I guess and I won't be able to wind everyone up any more with me leccy windows []. Easiest thing for me to do and is first on the list is to strip out the window mech on the passenger side and pin up the window. I will be doing that myself and then see where I am as that and the crash bar is several Kg alone. Still though it is technically possible to get a 944 down to a much much lower weight than the old PCGB regs, even with factory glass work, but its neither cheap and it is questionable going this route in terms of safety. Some of the 944's that have been competing in CSCC for example are way lighter than us. I wish we could race with a perspex rear screen for example as the factory glass screen does nothing other than put 25 odd Kg of weight high up in the car.

 

[bazhart]

I would also be interested to see what others think about moving this type of discussion to the "Motorsport" section as it is clearly not just about 968's anymore and needs further exposing. Baz