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Thanks very much Spiller! I gather you are based in oz? All I can say is I'm glad the early cup cars didn't make their way to Australia (very very few of those early cars made) otherwise this road registrable nutmeg of a car would never exist.
Yes I am in Adelaide. That’s very true about the early cups. I know of a few around the place but not many. The nations cup cars have their own place which is great. Your car looked great in the seal grey colour but I agree the original livery is more belonging. Did they actually repaint it back to the Falken colours or vinyl? Also did they manage to fit back the actual engine and box that was in the car when Fitzgerald raced it? Very neat if so. No idea how one would manage to street drive a 997 sequential!! I wouldn’t have thought that would be much fun (or very good for the clutch/box!).
Yes I am in Adelaide. That’s very true about the early cups. I know of a few around the place but not many. The nations cup cars have their own place which is great. Your car looked great in the seal grey colour but I agree the original livery is more belonging. Did they actually repaint it back to the Falken colours or vinyl? Also did they manage to fit back the actual engine and box that was in the car when Fitzgerald raced it? Very neat if so. No idea how one would manage to street drive a 997 sequential!! I wouldn’t have thought that would be much fun (or very good for the clutch/box!).
Grear that there's another ozzie on here. Actually I've been off the forums for a fairly long time and only just coming on again. The car was repainted back to race colors with vinyl for the logos. Interestingly, it was one of five iris blue metallic cars originally brought into Australia. You are totally right a sequential would have been a nightmare on the streets. The car was reunited with the original fitzy engine and transmission thought the engine was rebuilt. So much more Street friendly now.
Thanks so much mate. I really bought it primarily because of the history of the car and what it means to me as a result. Don't think there's much market for old race cars in Australia at the moment, but that doesn't bother me. I just love seeing it in the garage and watching the videos when it used to be in the heat of battle.
^^^ I met Peter’s son Christian at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in 2017 when he ran his dad’s 944. Harold you should consider entering this in the 2019 event, the car would fit in well. I will be there in my 996 cup again, hopefully with it’s original Glenfords Tools livery.
Wow very cool to see your car back to its original livery mate. Will have to look into the Festival and thanks for the heads up on it my friend. Actually a dream would be to enter it and have fitzy drive it at the sprint A reunion of sorts for him and the car. If me I would just do the leisurely tour haha Will explore. ..
great car with great story, drive her in good health
Thankyou so much mate. Slowly getting her sorted for road registration. To date the authorities are asking for the full roll cage to come out, the Motec dash, installing of airbags and removal of the collapsible steering column, removal of the plastic windows and the air jacks. Hoping not more needed to come out for road approval.
Thankyou so much mate. Slowly getting her sorted for road registration. To date the authorities are asking for the full roll cage to come out, the Motec dash, installing of airbags and removal of the collapsible steering column, removal of the plastic windows and the air jacks. Hoping not more needed to come out for road approval.
Seems like removing all these items off the car kind of defeats the purpose as it will severely devalue the provenance of the car and you will be left with a ragged out barely street-able track rat. Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the car as is for track use and just get another clean GT3 for street use?
Wow very cool to see your car back to its original livery mate. Will have to look into the Festival and thanks for the heads up on it my friend. Actually a dream would be to enter it and have fitzy drive it at the sprint A reunion of sorts for him and the car. If me I would just do the leisurely tour haha Will explore. ..
Unfortunately as of yesterday, the 2019 Adelaide Motorsport Festival has been cancelled due to government pulling their funding . Absolutely gutted. They are still doing the Adelaide Rally which your car would be eligible for but not dice for cup car sadly. Sounds like they’re putting you through the ringer to get rego. Removing air jacks is a pretty big job if they want you to get rid of the chassis mounts too. Hope you put it all back after!
Unfortunately as of yesterday, the 2019 Adelaide Motorsport Festival has been cancelled due to government pulling their funding . Absolutely gutted. They are still doing the Adelaide Rally which your car would be eligible for but not dice for cup car sadly. Sounds like they’re putting you through the ringer to get rego. Removing air jacks is a pretty big job if they want you to get rid of the chassis mounts too. Hope you put it all back after!
Very sad I heard the same mate.
Have decided to leave the car as is and just get rally rego for it mate.
An update some years down the race track....Harold (thanks mate) handed custodianship of the car to me during Covid around Feb 2020 - and I've slowly embarked on getting it back as new/as raced in it's first seasons. It's now complete.
This GT3- for us in Australia at least- was the last of the road registerable Porsche race cars before the Nations Cup and Carrera Cup series in 2004 moved to LHD purpose built Cup Cars.
Fitzy, it's first owner assures me it was the first GT3 registered in Australia as he collected it from the wharf and drove it straight to the registration authorities to get it on the road as soon it was disembarked from the ship.
The car was 2nd in the 2000 Nations Cup season to another GT3 raced by Jim Richards (the yellow GT3 in the image following), and was 3rd in the 2001 season (behind Jim again and the 2nd placed Lamborghini Diablo GTR in the following pic) having won a few rounds along the way. Here is some recently uploaded footage of a Nations Cup race from 2001 at Sandown.
So, some years down the track the restoration of the ex-Fitzgerald Nations Cup GT3 is now complete. Thanks to James @porscheplatz on instagram- give him a follow - for the great detail-correct restoration work.
James got all the little things right like sourcing the M003 CS only manual rear view mirror adjusts, the relocation of the Motec display unit and the livery - and many other little things that bring the car back to it's as raced originality.
For roadability we've added back the factory air cond, I've added comfort hard backed seats to replace the perlon CS seats, the front cage is out (a rego requirement) and the interior is back in. All parts have been kept aside- I even have the original Recaro race seat Fitzy used, several sets of Oz and original rims and we even found the original as raced bonnet at the Fitzgerald workshop with the all important VIN/Option decal intact and the Iris Blue (the car's factory colour) duco underneath.
James lastly updated the livery by adding detail touches which we researched from old images, so the car looks to be as raced.
I've not driven it yet after all these years- James says its quite a weapon but as of 1 Jan under a '25 year old rule" our rego system here allows us to register the car as a historic vehicle which simplifies the rego and insurance for owners, it's a great scheme.
Finally, James reintroduced the car to Peter Fitzgerald at a recent club day at Sandown in Victoria (the track in the video above) - fabulous to reunite the two .
My thanks to Harold and James, and the Fitzgerald family.
04-25-2019, 02:47 AM
. Absolutely gutted. They are still doing the Adelaide Rally which your car would be eligible for but not dice for cup car sadly. Sounds like they’re putting you through the ringer to get rego. Removing air jacks is a pretty big job if they want you to get rid of the chassis mounts too. Hope you put it all back after!
