JET951

Wakefield Park last Saturday , 3 hours inland drive from Sydney NSW Australia , round 4 of the PCNSW Supersprint series for 2015

Wakefield park is a relatively small track & is very well suited to smaller cars and particular good handling normally aspirated smallish cars with better than average power to weight ratios , where as traditional Porsche turbo cars are at the mercy of corner after corner and dealing with the turbo lag coming out of the next corner & the slight disadvantage of having less engine braking as well as compared to a high compression NA car

So in this light it was interesting to watch two great competitors battle it out lap after lap ( for three different track sessions) & it looked as if these two Porsches were connected by a large elastic band , neither had the overall advantage & each would excel at different parts of the track , so one would accelerate away for a moment( 951) & within seconds coming into the next bend the Porsche behind ( 997 GT3) would catch up under deep braking

These two Porsche's were Sean Buchanan's 1986 951 3.0L 16V E85 and the other was Mark Croudace in his 997GT3 , both these different century Porsche's had no clear advantage on this small track & both were on "R" spec tyres & when one thinks about it they could not have of been more different in concept

It was great to watch & both these two competitors get on well, on & off the track , when I think of it, Sean's 951 is the quickest Porsche in the club that is an every day driver , its main mission in life is transport to work for Sean 6 days a week & being that its eclipsed by technology of around 25 years , its amazing what it ( his 951) and Sean can do with it as a road car on the track

Quickest lap of the day was ]

996GT3RSR ( Racing Slicks ) = open class NA
962 replica ( Racing Slicks ) = open class NA

Here are the best 10 lap times for Porsche's at the Supersprint that were on "R" spec tyres ( "R" spec = road legal tyres)

Mark Croudace 997 GT3 Class 2 ----------- 1.04:6788
Sean Buchanan 1986 951 Class 1-------------1.04:9976 ( split second)
993GT2 ( Racing slicks ) = open class-----------NA
991 GT3 class 1--------------1.05:6660
991 GT3 class 1--------------1.05:7961
996 GT3( Racing Slicks ) = open class----------- NA
987 Spyder class 3A-------------1.06:4482
997 / 2 GT3 class 1---------------1.06:9314
987 Cayman RS 4.0 class 2--------------1.07:3130
997 Turbo class 2---------------1.08:3838
996 GT3 class 2--------------1.08:4702
987 Cay S class 3A-------------1.08:7583

Sean has put on youtube his latest in car video clip , and in it Sean catches up to a 991 GT3 & the 991 GT3 driver gets a bit too exited by the 951 catching up and runs wide and looses it on a corner , I think the sight of a 25 year old 951 being where it should not have been in the rear view mirror was a bit too much

Regards
Bruce Buchanan
Buchanan Automotive

Paulyy

Sean, you gotta give the others a change, I'm getting tired of seeing "JET951 wins again"

I'm only kidding mate, Good stuff!

Voith

Congrats, well done!

Amazing what an old street driven poor mans porsche will do to unsuspecting top of the range race cars.

333pg333

Always good to read of another 951 success story. Bear in mind that when you see these descriptions as above, it's not Sean writing, but of his proud and very well Porsche credentialed Father, Bruce.

It's much of Bruce's 'Fault' that my car is what it is today. He inspired me more than anyone to walk down a David vs Goliath path and show the world what these little cars are capable of. Bruce is factory trained and knows most Porsches inside and out but has a particular fondness for the 944 variant. Bruce and Sean often have half a dozen examples in their compact yet comprehensive shop at any one time. They're also recognised as 928 experts too. Well worth dropping past if you're ever in Sydney on a Saturday morning.

Sean's continued positive results aren't surprising. You couldn't meet a nicer bloke and always happy to help out anyone struggling with their car. He has won many of our local Porsche club titles and continues to do very well each year. Congratulations to the Buchanans for their ongoing success.

Also great to see Mark C doing very well in his new to him GT3. Mark is a very good driver also and is prepared to push his car up to and beyond the boundaries where most would back off. In his extremely well prepared 968CS he can push Sean very hard on the tighter tracks. I believe this new modified GT3 is a very well setup too. Looking forward to more battles (and videos) between these two guys! Note, this isn't Mark C in this video. It's of another member in a brand new 991 GT3. These cars are clearly very fast straight out of the box now!