Porsche Carrera World Cup at the Nurburgring
Porsche officially launches the 2011 Carrera Cup GB Championship at the Autosport International show at the Birmingham NEC (January 13-16) and will announce that a race at the world-famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany will be on the calendar for the first time.
The 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship also marks the debut of the all-new 911 GT3 Cup race car, which has led to a record entry this year to the UK’s fastest single-marque GT racing Championship.
The Porsche Carrera Cup GB goes into the new season in the best possible shape, with a capacity entry of 32 cars. This has increased from the 28 of 2010, with 32 being the highest number that can be accommodated at all the circuits visited, as part of the support to the British Touring Car Championship.
Porsche will also showcase its ground-breaking 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car and demonstrate the breadth of its Human Performance sports science consultancy with body hydration tests on Stand 2540 in Hall 20.
Porsche Carrera World Cup at the Nurburgring
The Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship features a race at the Nurburgring on June 25, the first time the calendar has included a round outside the UK and Ireland. This will be a Carrera Cup race with a difference, however, for the Porsche Carrera World Cup will be the largest ever 911 race, and will showcase both the Carrera Cups and GT3 Cup Challenges (for 911 GT3 Cup race cars from 2007 – 2010) from around the world. It is anticipated that up to 200 Porsche drivers will compete in this remarkable six lap 100 mile event.
The Porsche Carrera World Cup is the key support race to the 2011 Nurburgring 24 Hour race (June 25-26), an event that counts as one of the greatest motor sport events in the world. Consequently, an estimated 250,000 spectators will watch the Porsche Carrera World Cup, with many more tuning in to view on television.
The Porsche Carrera Cup GB will continue to support the British Touring Car Championship by having two races at all BTCC race weekends with the exception of Croft, which has been replaced by the Nurburgring round on the schedule.
With such a large entry, the starting grids for the Porsche Carrera World Cup will be separated into three groups based on qualifying lap times and these will start at pre-determined intervals. There will be a ‘race within a race’ for Carrera Cup GB competitors based on the established Pro, Pro-Am1 and Pro-Am2 class structure – and while the Nurburgring race will attract the same points as a single round of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship, double prize money will be on offer. In addition to being a round of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, there will be an additional class for invited GT3 Cup Challenge competitors from the UK, with an invitation offered only to drivers who race at the three rounds prior to the Porsche Carrera World Cup; April 9 Brands Hatch, April 24 Croft, May 15 Donington Park.
The Nurburgring is considered by many drivers to be the ultimate race circuit, and at 16 miles long and with over 120 corners, its reputation is well-deserved. Porsche Cars GB will be working with all Carrera Cup GB drivers participating in the Carrera World Cup to ensure they are given every opportunity to ‘learn’ the track prior to the race.
Since the first Nurburgring 24 Hour race in 1970, Porsche has recorded an unrivalled tally of ten outright victories and in line with the Porsche ‘track to road’ philosophy successive generations of Porsche road cars have been tested and developed around the challenging circuit.
New 911 GT3 Cup on the grid for 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship
The new 911 GT3 Cup race car that will make its debut in the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship is the latest edition of the best-selling racing car of all time, having been built in a production series of more than 1,400 since 1998.
The latest 911 GT3 Cup racer is based for the first time on the 911 GT3 RS, and is powered by a 3.8-litre flat-six engine driving the rear wheels through a sequential six-speed manual gearbox and limited slip differential. The power unit is largely identical to the production engine in the 911 GT3 RS – and offers the same output of 450 hp and identical maximum engine speed of 8,500 rpm.
Being based on the 911 GT3 RS, this is also the first 911 GT3 Cup car to feature the distinctive 44mm wider rear body, which provides increased space for even larger wheels and slick tyres. Wider front wheel arches cover similarly bigger front wheels/tyres which, combined with other evolutionary changes in the areas of aerodynamics and chassis design, has enabled the dynamic performance of the latest car to reach new heights.
The 911 GT3 Cup race car is designed by the same team based in Weissach, near Stuttgart, Germany, responsible for the iconic Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS road cars. In keeping with the lightweight, race-bred credentials that are synonymous with Porsche RS models, the road car weighs 1,370 kg. As befits its single-minded motor sport purpose, the 911 GT3 Cup race car tips the scales at 1,200 kg, resulting in even sharper performance on the circuit.
Winners of the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship look forward to the new season
Two British racing drivers whose motorsport careers are definitely stepping up a gear in 2011 are Benji Hetherington and Kieran Vernon, who have been selected from six young racing driver finalists as the winners of the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship. Eighteen year-old Benji (Hulme Walfield, Cheshire) and 20-year old Kieran (West Chiltington, West Sussex) were selected from six finalists after two days of intensive evaluation.
The two winners of the coveted prize, now in its third year, each received £50,000 from Porsche Cars GB to use as a significant element of their budget for the 2011 Carrera Cup GB season. A prime element of the Scholarship programme is the mentoring Benji and Kieran will receive from the Porsche Human Performance Centre at Silverstone.
911 GT3 R Hybrid
Developed as a spearhead for the technology and a ‘racing laboratory’, the stunning Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid made its race debut in the VLN Championship on the Nurburgring in Germany early in 2010 and stunned on-lookers by leading the gruelling Nurburgring 24 Hours in May for eight hours before its retirement. The car subsequently raced with success at Road Atlanta in America and at Zuhai in China in the autumn, gathering further data about the performance and durability of its alternative energy resource with every lap.
Making its UK debut at the Autosport International show, the unique 911 GT3 R Hybrid is a perfect example of Porsche Intelligent Performance1. The car features an electrical front axle drive with two electric motors each developing 80 hp (60 kW), which supplements the familiar 480 hp (353 kW) 4.0-litre flat-six ‘boxer’ petrol engine at the rear. Consequently, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid has four driven wheels, offering even greater traction and agility.
A further significant point is that instead of the usual batteries of a conventional hybrid-powered road car, this 911 features an electric flywheel power generator – mounted inside the cockpit beside the driver – that delivers energy to the electric motors on the front axle.
The flywheel generator itself is an electric motor – with its rotor capable of spinning at speeds of up to 40,000 rpm – and stores energy mechanically as rotation, or kinetic, energy. The flywheel generator is charged-up whenever the driver applies the brakes, with the two electric motors reversing their function on the front axle and acting themselves as generators.
The driver is able to call upon this extra energy from the charged flywheel generator at his command for competitive advantage, such as when accelerating out of a bend or overtaking. The flywheel generator is slowed down electromagnetically in the generator mode and able to supply up to 120 kW to the electric motors. This additional power is available to the driver after each charge process for approximately 6 – 8 seconds. Energy formerly converted into heat, and thus wasted, upon every application of the brakes is now converted highly efficiently into additional drive power.
Depending on racing conditions, hybrid drive is used in this case not only for extra power, but also to save fuel. This again increases efficiency and, accordingly, the performance of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid, by reducing the weight of the fuel tank or making pit stops less frequent, for example.
Porsche Human Performance Centre at Silverstone
The Porsche Human Performance Centre offers a number of services bespoke to a sports science laboratory. Whether analysing an athlete’s performance in hot weather conditions using its dedicated heat chamber, or testing peripheral vision and reaction times with top of the range equipment, the expert staff at the Silverstone facility can tailor their consultations to suit the wellness of all clients.
As a part of this, the team will demonstrate the ‘sweat composition check’ service to visitors to the Porsche stand at Autosport International on January 13 - 14. For £49, drivers looking to find out exactly what they are made of can book this check that provides an overview of specific body hydration levels. Andy Blow, Director of the Human Performance Centre, commented; “As most drivers know, dehydration reduces your endurance, slows your reactions, causes cramping and negatively affects your performance. This is just as important in everyday life, as remaining properly hydrated is proven to aid concentration and general well being for anyone.”
