SEE THE VIDEO HERE:

Source: Youtube

Part 2 of RWB Manila! Finishing the 993 and 964, Victoria and Akira!

Rauh Welt Begriff  (RWB) has recently expanded to Manila in the Philippines and our friends over at Car Porn Racing have put together this great video documenting RWB’s latest build “Victoria” a purple 993 series 911. We recently brought you part 1, and this is part 2 of the video which also includes the 964 build named “Akira” after the man.

What once began as a one-man show has now evolved into a full on production team. And although Nakai San is still very involved in each RWB build, it seems as if his helpers are doing more and more. You can see in this second video, one of Nakai’s helpers actually cutting the metal fenders for the fender flares. It will be interesting to see how many more cars can be built now.

SEE THE VIDEO HERE:

Each and every Porsche model incorporates numerous technologies. The expertise and experience of the Porsche engineers go into every detail of Porsche design. Their performance-oriented approach allows them to consistently implement new design, technologies and functionalities. Along with all of that technology comes newly developed systems and functions that improve driving and safety. But what happens is that the technology name is so sophisticated that it requires it to be shortened to an acronym.

Some of the more popular technologies such as Porsche Stability Management  (PSM)  and Porsche Communications Management (PCM) are well known by enthusiasts. But what about the others?

Porsche has a solution for that. I recently stumbled onto the Porsche Technology glossary online and was very impressed on how well the technology is explained. In the Porsche Technology glossary, you can visualize each of the functions by vehicle or you can search using the search box provided. For some technology, there are even videos that help explain things further.

Now you can look-up a particular model and see the integrated technology and click on it for a description or you can search the database for something and see what it is. It’s easy to use and fun to learn or research these technologies.

Photo: Porsche

The Ault Park Concours d’Elegance is a nationally recognized car show that highlights some of the most spectacular automobiles and motorcycles of all time. Ault Park in Cincinnati Ohio, offers one of the most unique settings for a Concours in the country. Cars are displayed in the formal gardens of historic Ault Park, with a classic pavilion overlooking the show field.

The 2013 Concours d’ Elegance included thirteen classes of classic, vintage and exotic automobiles, and motorcycles. Held every year for the last 36 years in June. This year Porsche was the featured marque, with Porsche of the Village being the FEATURED MARQUE SPONSOR.

Best of Show Concours d’Elegance Esprit de Sport award winner Robert A. Ingram from Durham, N.C. with his 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder.

For more photos of this event, please visit 9Magazine or Porsche of the Village on Facebook.

Photos: Jim Mohrfield

Successful rollout for new Porsche LMP1 sports prototype

The new Porsche LMP1 sports prototype, which will compete in the sports car World Endurance Championship (WEC) and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2014, successfully completed its first rollout today on the Porsche test track in Weissach. Before the eyes of the entire Board of Porsche AG, Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard took his new ‘wheels’ through its initial function check.

The LMP1 racer turned its first laps on the circuit several weeks earlier than originally planned. “We are well on schedule,” says Fritz Enzinger, Head of LMP1. “Our newly formed team has worked with utmost concentration on getting this highly complex vehicle on the track as soon as possible. This allows us a few additional weeks for more testing and further development. From 2014, the regulations are primarily based on efficiency. This makes the competition amongst engineers more interesting and presents us with completely new challenges.”

Since the decision in mid-2011 to return with the LMP1 racer to top motorsport as a works effort, the Motorsport Centre at Weissach has grown significantly. A workshop and an administration building were built and accommodate around 200 employees who are responsible for the design, assembly and deployment of the LMP1 car. From the 2014 season, the racer will be fielded by a Weissach-based works squad.

“I was involved in the development of the new car right from the outset,” says Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard. “I’m very proud that I was the one to take our baby through its first paces today. Already now the car feels great. I look forward to testing the vehicle in the coming weeks and months with my friend and colleague Romain Dumas.” Bernhard (32) and Dumas (35) are the first two regular drivers in the LMP1 project and will carry out the majority of testing on various international circuits.

“During the development of our new LMP1 vehicle, we faced the same challenge as in the series production development of our road legal cars,” says Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “Our aim was to achieve the best possible efficiency without compromising performance.”

Matthias Müller, Chairman of the Executive Board at Porsche AG, particularly emphasises the benefits customers will enjoy from the development of the high-tech race car. “The engineers were able to start with a blank sheet of paper in the design of the new LMP1 car that was out here today on the Weissach race track for the first time. Hence, they were able to apply many new technologies within the framework of the regulations that will also benefit the customers of our road legal automobiles in the future. After all, there’s a race car in every Porsche.”

Source: Porsche

Team’s pair of GS Porsche Carreras looking for first win of year,  GX Porsche Cayman looks for its third

After a few weeks off, BGB Motorsports’s pair of GS-class Porsche Carreras that compete in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will be back in action at this weekend’s Diamond Cellar Classic at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

 While the CTSCC has been off since April, BGB Motorsports has stayed busy with the Rolex Series race in Detroit as well as a recent test with its GS cars at Watkins Glen. Both cars -the no. 83 BGB / MOMO / TFR Racing Porsche Carrera driven by Dr. Rod Randall and Ken Wilden and the no. 38 BGB / CalciumPro Porsche Carrera driven by Dr. Jim Norman and Spencer Pumpelly- enter the weekend in a strong position in the GS-class championship. Dr. Jim Norman sits fourth, while Dr. Rod Randall and Ken Wilden are sixth in the GS Driver Championship after four of the eleven rounds of the 2013 championship.At a track that suits the strengths of the BGB Porsches well, and on the back of strong runs for both of the cars at Road Atlanta, hopes are high amongst the team for the weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“The BGB Motorsports guys have really hit their stride over the past few weekends,” said Randall. “The car they have given Kenny and I has been incredibly good, and we’ve had great pit stops and strategy to help us out. It’s a real thrill to watch Kenny charge at the end of a CTSCC race and as strong as we’ve run lately, I really think we have a shot to be on the podium.”

Norman’s teammate, Pumpelly, is a former GS class winner at Mid-Ohio.

“Mid-Ohio is a track that I really enjoy driving at and one that I’m really looking forward to driving the BGB Porsche at,” said Norman. “Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of each car in the series, we are excited to be racing in Mid-Ohio because it’s a track that our Porsches should be very good at. Spencer has won here before and if I can give him the car in a good position, you can’t ever count him out for the win. Luckily I get to share a car with him twice this weekend and I know after Detroit, he is as motivated as ever.”Rebounding from losing the GX race at the Detroit Grand Prix in the closing stages, drivers Norman and Spencer Pumpelly have extra motivation to get the no. 38 BGB Racing Porsche Cayman back on top of the podium for Saturday afternoon’s Rolex Series race. Norman enters the weekend as the championship leader while BGB Motorsports leads the Team Championship. 

“We are heading to one of my all-time favorite tracks and truly one of North America’s great spectator venues,” said John Tecce, BGB Motorsports team owner. “The folks in that region love their road racing and its rich with history. It’s a one lane track though, and we need to deliver our drivers cars that handle well and we need to avoid the typical Mid-Ohio mid-race crashes and chaos and get our GS cars on the podium. We haven’t had a GS win since New Jersey 2008, and the monkey on my back is growing into more of a gorilla. As for the GX race, we need to win and sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who keeps believing we can! While some don’t think the Cayman will do well here, it was really the only track in 2010 that suited the Cayman’s disadvantage, turning it into an advantage. If we keep our heads down and eyes up, I think we can deliver.”

Source: BGB Motorsports

Rauh Welt Begriff  (RWB) has recently expanded to Manila in the Philippines and our friends over at Car Porn Racing have put together this great video documenting RWB’s latest build “Victoria” a purple 993 series 911.

In the past couple of years, Nakai-San’s Rauh-Welt Begriff has gone from being a small Japanese tuner to a world-wide sensation producing cars that command respect in the industry and tons of admiration from Porschephiles across the globe.

This video is Part 1 of the build so stay tuned for Part 2 as we will bring it to you as soon as it becomes available.

EDITORS NOTE: If you look closely at 0:37 sec into the video you can see the 9Magazine decal on Nakai-San’s trademark suitcase. He’s a Fan!

SEE THE VIDEO HERE:

Dempsey Del Piero Racing and All-American team drivers Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long put in a productive day of testing Sunday at Circuit de la Sarthe in preparation for the 90th annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, June 23 – 24, with recent team addition Long posting the third fastest GTE-AM lap of the test in the team’s No. 77 Dempsey Del Piero Racing with Proton Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

Dempsey, Foster and Long are the only All-American driver lineup among the race’s 55 entries and are quickly developing a national following as #TeamAmerica.  Long’s top lap of 4:04.006 trailed only the leading Aston Martin Vantage V8s that swept both of the top spots in the GTE-AM class.

Changing wet and dry conditions drew a number of top competitors into accidents but the Dempsey Del Piero Racing trio never put a wheel wrong during the test.  Dempsey’s longest stint on track run was nose-to-tail with Larbre Competition Corvette driver Ricky Taylor and the duo steadily climbed the GTE-AM order during the 10-laps.

“It’s great to be back, we are really thankful to be here, and I forgot how much fun it is to be at Le Mans,” Dempsey said. “It was fun running with Ricky Taylor, Patrick Long is such a talented driver and Joe has worked so hard just to get us back here, he has really stepped it up, and is always there for us.  Really, this is just a celebration of just being here.”

Dempsey and Foster are making their second-career Le Mans appearance after a ninth-place finish in 2009 in a GT2 AF Corse Ferrari F430 but had their first true experience of Le Mans in the rain on Sunday.

“I could feel my experience from 2009, but it was a little challenging at first in the rain, to relearn the track, but it was also really important to have that opportunity in the wet,” Dempsey said. “The last time here I didn’t really have any time on a wet track.”

Foster used the sketchy weather as an opportunity to see how the team’s proven Michelin tires, both dry and wet fitments, performed in the tricky mix of conditions.

“It rained most of the day,” Foster said. “There was a tiny bit of dry running near the end but we each got like two dry laps, literally.  It really rained all day but we didn’t put a foot wrong and didn’t touch anything, nothing hard any way. It gave us a chance to try some tire stuff with the Michelins and some experimental setups and that was very valuable.”

Long is America’s only factory Porsche driver and a two-time GT winner at Le Mans. He won in his debut in 2004 and picked up a second class victory in 2007.  “Watching Joe and Patrick Dempsey work together this weekend, they have formed a partnership and a friendship and I am happy to offer my experience in the 911 RSR,” Long said. “This being my 10th time here at Le Mans for the race, anything that I have learned is an open book to these guys. We have really clicked and jelled quickly and that and this test has us really confident for the race.”

In addition to the productive on-track day Sunday, Dempsey and his pair of co-drivers participated in a full agenda of media and promotional activity on Saturday. The schedule included the team’s and Dempsey’s only official press conference of the 2013 Le Mans event that attracted a full house of international media.

“We are the only All-American driving team and I think that means a lot to all of us,” Dempsey said. “The history and heritage of that is so impressive and hopefully we can leave a mark and make a contribution in that great legacy.”

The Dempsey Del Piero Racing Le Mans entry is being fielded in a partnership with the experienced and proven Proton Competition racing team from Germany.  Among the small group of American personnel working this year’s Le Mans campaign is longtime Dempsey Racing team race communications strategist Jim Jordan who was also part of the 2009 effort.

Long was asked by team principal and lead driver Michael Avenatti to take his place less than two weeks ago when several non-racing commitments emerged in the last month.  Avenatti stepped out of the Porsche in favor of Long but remains committed to the remainder of the 2013 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season in the GT Challenge (GTC) class.

Avenatti and Dempsey are lead drivers in Dempsey Del Piero’s two-car Tully’s Coffee Porsche 911 GT3 team in ALMS where Avenatti partners with Andrew Davis and Dempsey co-drives with Andy Lally.

Dempsey Del Piero Racing with Proton will now shift its focus to the start of race week activities which begin with the traditional scrutineering, June 16 – 17, followed by practice and qualifying on June 19 – 20.  The 90th Anniversary 24 Hours of Le Mans goes green Saturday June 22 with live flag-to-flag coverage on SPEED and SPEED.com.

Source: Dempsey Del Piero Racing

A lot has changed since Porsche first premiered the 918 Spyder concept car at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Porsche has recently announced that the 918 Spyder’s 4.6-liter V-8 engine and two electric motors will produce combined output of 887 hp, up from a previous estimate of 770 hp. The car has a top speed of at least 211 mph and can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds and up to 18 miles of gas-free driving.

In this video, Automotive Journalist Chris Harris gets to drive the 918 Spyder prototype along with Dr. Frank Walliser, overall project leader for the 918 Spyder.

You can see firsthand how the 918’s hybrid drive system works as Harris runs through the course of driving on both gasoline and electric power. This is a superb video and great entertainment for your Saturday morning. Enjoy!

SEE THE VIDEO HERE:

Source: Youtube