Whoopsy

Not my first time inside a Cup car or driving one, drove one earlier in the year in Finland on ice, but it's another level to drive it on dry tarmac, then later even in rain and snow. More on that later. Takes a lot to support Cup car with endless boxes of supply and tires.

Had a peek 'under the hood', not much to see outside of an over sized air cleaner.

Whoopsy

Timo is on hand to personally setup each Cup car for us before the session starts.

In the background one can see a film crew. Porsche actually had someone filmed the whole 2 day session, I think they will be using it later for promotion purposes for their driving school. And yes, even us participants got interviewed too, at times right after we finish a session and climbing out of the Cup car, trying to take off the gear, sort of like what we see on TV during races.

Whoopsy

The first day was of a cloudy day, a bit windy but not too cold, and the rain held off.

The second day was a mixture, started off wit ha cold sunny morning, then the cloud came, first rain, then snowed, then rain again and then sunny again.

Like real racers, we did drove the slicks on a slightly moist surface, before switching to rain tires then back to slicks again. Your's truly even had a 'race' pitstop moment. I just went out on the rain tires but the track was drying up very fast, they radioed for a pitstop and when I came it, instead of going back into the garage, they were lined up on either side with airguns and tires ready. On with the air hose to raise the car on air jacks, zip zip zip zip, off came 4 rain tires and zip zip zip zip on goes 4 slicks, bleed the air jack and I am back on the ground. While I don't have footage of that moment as I was inside the car, the film crew had recorded the whole thing on video plus quite a few Leipzig visitors were around to take pictures. Very cool moment.

Whoopsy

Driving the Cup car around the track was of course the highlight of the trip, but driving the GT3RS on the same track was also immensely fun. Doing drifting on the handling circle in the GT3RS is another highlight.

Whoopsy

This course was extremely educational. The GT3RS was a very capable car on the track, the Cup car is simply on another level. Maybe it was the setup, but the Cup car wasn't as much of a hand full as I was expecting, the limit is very high, and I am not even close to probing it yet. Much to learn. The driving position was also surprisingly comfortable, not a bad office to be in for extended periods of time. The brakes are so powerful it's seems almost unreal. That and the very grippy slicks are what gives it a 5 seconds a lap advantage on the Leipzig course over the GT3RS.

Having said that, someone within our group still managed to wreck one. They had to go to the backup car. As it happens, they were sharing the same car, one of them went off course twice on the first day, damaging the rear bumper in the process, nothing too major and the car was repaired overnight and drivable the next morning. The other driver in the same car finished the job the following morning. Spin it out of a corner exit and retired the car for good, at least for the course.

neanicu

That is a great experience! Thanks for sharing. It's funny to see the 996 GT3 style oil cap on the 991 cup cars...

<3mph

Thanks for posting! Looks like fun! I wonder if they'll give you a copy of some of the film footage. Gonna get a cup now?

jo_ker

the surprising professional pit stop would be for sure also a moment for me which i would keep in mind for the rest of my life!

looking at your pics - i miss my 997.1Cup - such rawness - all the more the hand operated sequencial gearbox in the 997´s with cabel throttel blibbing via a guide-pulley

thank you for sharing! feeling happy for you to have got the possibility for such an professional experience in the course of par excellence center europe April-Weather.

Robert Linton

I am very sorry I did not read this thread several years ago. Even though, for several reasons, I am not, and have not been, allowed to drive, had I seen your beautiful car, I would have ordered one. Frank Walliser did a brilliant job leading the LMP2 effort, the 918 is a great success and now he brings his leadership, future thinking and engineering talents to Motorsport.

Whoopsy

Porsche has 6 campaigns outstanding for the 918. Some are minor software updates, but one is a major one that needs the car to be stripped down to gain access to the firewall, and drill and bond a stud to re-route a coolant hose.

Robert Linton

With all its new and complicated technology and systems and the relatively short development time, I'm candidly amazed it's not more. Having said that, it's a great car even though being an early adopter can be a bit painful.

Whoopsy

Yes we will have a copy of the footage.

But no, I am not getting a Cup car, but I am getting a GT4 Clubsport

tcsracing1

The 918 experience just keeps on getting better!

Again, thanks for sharing!

Whoopsy

As Porsche won't certify winter tires for the 918, I have resort to hacking it myself with information I gathered in Finland during Ice-Force.

First step was to check fitment of the 20" front wheels on the rear.

It fits, barely clearing the backing plate.

The 265 tires looks comical compared with the original 325

Whoopsy

Just for kicks, the rear 325 will also fits the front, just that it sticks out maybe an inch or so.

The perfect look for a drag racing Civic!