Porsche Universe

Canyon Racing at its Extreme

The adrenaline is picking up as I enter my playground of Canyon Racing. I am driving at Larch Mountain Highway in green old western Oregon. A twisty highway surrounded by a gigantic pine tree rainforest. The trees are so high; the sun does not make it to the road half the time. The fun begins after I pass the last few country houses. After that I rarely see a car. Like a deserted road. The speed picks up as my red 80’s Porsche accelerates. I feel my heart starting to beat harder as I try to remain calm pushing the gas pedal. I reposition myself in the seat relaxing. As I hear the old Porsche engine revving through the RPM, I can’t help it but be nervous, because I don’t know what to expect next. The first few turns I take it easy while keeping the transmission in third gear with my sweaty palm on the warm vibrating shift knob. I remember some of the turns that lie ahead.

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The Carsport Holland Corvette team took a dramatic victory in a rain-affected Spa 24 Hours after their race-long rivals in the No. 1 Vitaphone Maserati spun away the lead with just over an hour to go.

Corvette quartet Marcel Fassler, Jean-Denis Deletraz, Mike Hezemans and Fabrizio Gollin had battled for the lead with Michael Bartels, Thomas Biagi, Pedro Lamy and Eric van de Poele in the Maserati for the majority of the event, but it seemed the Vitaphone crew had secured victory as the race entered its closing stages.

But van de Poele put the Maserati car into the Stavelot gravel as the 23 hour mark approached, just after the charging Fassler had got the Carsport Corvette back on to the lead lap. The Belgian’s incident cost Vitaphone a lap, and handed the win to Carsport Holland.

The No. 5 Carsport entry had pulled away early on, having emerged from a three-way battle with the No. 33 JetAlliance Aston Martin and the No. 3 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette.

Kudos: Autosport.com 

Porsche repeats last year’s success

Stuttgart. For the second time in succession the Manthey Racing team won the 24 hour race on the Nürburgring. With a one-lap advantage the Porsche works drivers Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb together with Marcel Tiemann beat more than 200 competitors with their new Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The success at the 35th edition of the long distance classic marks the eighth win for a Porsche in front of 210,000 spectators. Ranking third behind Zakspeed Racing’s Dodge Viper came a 911 GT3 RSR run by Land Motorsport.

Right from the start the four Manthey Racing drivers set the pace at the front after starting from pole. Despite the most challenging weather conditions with heat, rain and fog, Bernhard, Dumas, Lieb and Tiemann put in an impeccable drive. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, developed and built in Weissach, also finished its first outing at the Nürburgring 24 hour race without any technical problems.
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Here is an amazing bit of footage displaying the amazing physics involved in racing and quite clearly in a car with the dynamics of a Porsche 911. Driving on a thread of balance does include it’s dangers.