The other day I received an email from Josh of some super, super old slide scans from back in the day. We're talking VW scene circa 1993. It may as well be an art exhibit this stuff is so cool. Vintage, amazing, awesome stuff. BUT he made me promise not to post any of it until he is done scanning all of them.
So, I decided to dust off my scanner and finish doing a job I started a few months back, which is scanning in the remainder of the pictures I took at the 2000 Daytona 24 hours. Some of these I had scanned in and posted about previously, but many I had not. Some of those pictures which I already posted I have re-scanned and uploaded to Flickr in a larger size. There are still some left behind, but not many.
Before...
After...
For this round I concentrated on the Porsche pics, as this race was an extremely significant one with regards to modern Porsche race cars. This was the big introduction of the 996 GT3R, the first water cooled customer GT from Porsche, and one which started the championship winning tradition of the GT3 R / RSR which is still going strong today.
Before...(remember this car when you see the last picture)
Although Porsche did take first through third in the GTU (aka GT2) category, it was not without casualties. Renowned for their reliability, most of the new GT3R's were anything but. Apparently the new sand-cast crankcases were not cleaned before assembly, resulting in sand running through the engines' cooling systems and clogging various key passageways and waterpumps, causing failure, after failure, after failure. Some managed to escape, but not many. To say they most all looked the worse for wear is an understatement...
Robert from Lufteknic was crewing for the number 81 G&W Motorsports car, with an all-star driver line up they were over 10 laps ahead up until around 7:30 am, when the old engine went boom and that was all she wrote.
Before...
Diagnosis...
Prognosis...
Robert is also the man behind GT3R.com, which will continue to grow into a reference for years to come. After all, these old 996s are practically vintage now and it would make sense to begin a chassis database to track where all these incredible machines have ended up.
One of the prototype GT3Rs was in attendance, (Number 7 Redbull sponsored) and made it through the night without any serious problems, at least not from the engine. This model used a prototype 3.2 liter unit, essentially a 962 / GT1 motor but with high compression and optimized for a non turbo application. Obviously this one avoided the sand issue.
For me, this is almost the ultimate example of a true GT racer. Highly modified for the track, yet still retaining many of the clues from the street car which it is based upon. And perhaps best of all, no "driver aids" as they call them.
No sequential gearbox, no ABS, and no traction control. This is a car which took real skill in piloting around the banks of Daytona at 175mph. With everyone looking to make racing cheaper these days, how about that? Take off all the fancy electronics and the let the drivers duke it out with real skill.
Anyways, like I said all the new uploads are over in the Flickr account in mondo-size, so please feel free to go over and take a peek at some of Porsche Motorsport history....
Wolfsburg Rennsport FLICKR set.
_WRS
After....
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