Juha G

Thought this might interest some of you.

Plan is to race my 2009 CUP in the Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring series i.e. VLN.
The season consists of 9 races in total, all of them 4h long except for one race that is 6 hours.


the car will be entered into the special category SP6 class. This means the engine displacement has to be reduced to 3500cc. With the original 3600cc engine the car would be in the SP7 class where there are much faster and newer cars operated and driven by professional teams and professional drivers.

In addition to the engine displacement change, there are a number of things we will be doing before the season starts.

- Full engine rebuild with custom made p&c for 3500cc
- Full gearbox rebuild with '12 gears
- Nordschleife shocks and springs
- Full suspension and wear item overhaul (all arms, joints, wheel bearings, driveshafts)
- Megaline paddleshift system installation
- Bosch motorsport ABS installation
- Traction control installation?
- Complete makeover of exterior (make it nice)
- All new plexiglass
- New wrap
- rebuild all 4 wheel sets (with gold centers)
- GPS (required by VLN) installation
- Pit communication radio installation
- Video Vbox hd installation

I will be posting some photos and info here as the work progresses.

First task was to take the car to Germany, we did a little testing on the Nürburgring GP track while we were at it:

Juha G

Car at the shop, engine, gearbox and the old wrap removed:





Opening up the box revealed what I had expected; nothing to save there:











Next is engine:

Juha G

Designing the new wrap:

pete95zhn

Nice wrap!

coryf

Going down in displacement is a very interesting concept. What other cars typically run in SP6? Is aero limited in that class? Are you going with a MS3 Sport ECU so you can tune and add TC?
Seems like a fun project.

Juha G

Cars typically running in SP6 are widebody BMW M3s, CUP Porsches etc. These are cars that have been modified from stock. They are run by amateurs (like us).
Problem with any stock car class is there are professional teams with professional drivers. No way to be competitive in those classes.
Aero is somewhat limited but you can do stuff for the CUP too.

With regards to the traction control, I haven't really investigated it thoroughly yet. Is it so that it cannot be installed with the stock ECU?

tkerrmd

sounds fun and expensive!

Juha G

It will be both...

After the build, we are in the 991 price category, BUT the decision to go with the 997 was quite easy after all;
Costwise it is about 50-60keur smaller initial investment but the real deal maker is the fact that the 997 is much easier to repair after a possible crash vs. a 991 which very easily turns into a re-tub project.
i.e. cheaper and faster repairs -> hopefully no lost races.

908/3fan

Sounds interesting! Love the new livery. I wish you best of luck and i'm looking forward to see it finished!

cgomez

Good luck running SP6! Its a fun diverse class and more grassroots; but it can be more expensive to run too.
Agree that the spec classes are ULTRA competitive in VLN. The pace in any of the CUP classes or GT3 (SP9; mostly factory drivers) and GT4 can be insane and unattainable for us mortals.
Let me know your race number / team. I should be doing 4-5 events with Blackfalcon (most likely GT4)

Juha G

Cool! I'll be running with Ring-Attack, will advise the start # once we have registered for the season.

Were you racing this season in VLN too? I drove VLN6, 8 and 9 in a 190hp BMW 325i. Got my license upgraded to grade A so I can race the CUP next season.


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koenig_roland

This 3500ccm approach was done by steam racing some years ago with 996/997. I was involved in an VLN champaign as a mechanic some years ago and steam was together with us in our box...
VLN became a tough challange these days.. :-)

dirk993

Hi Juha,

funny, that means we'll drive against each other in 2018. I will be one of the drivers on the #202 SP6 997.

Hope it will be a fun season!

Happy racing,
Dirk

cup997laurent

No tc with the Porsche Ecu you will have to move to MS3 sport gt3 cup ecu which is plug and play but open .

Juha G

Hi Dirk,

Awesome! Looking forward to racing with you next season. It will be a really cool season!

It turns out VGS in Germany can tap into the stock ECU and add the traction control. This is our plan at the moment.