Sep 26, 2023 9:18:52 PM
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996FourEss
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Sep 30, 2023 1:48:08 AM
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Whoopsy
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Oct 5, 2023 2:44:16 PM
- Jim_in_Iowa
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Re: RennSport
I enjoyed it. More 917s on track than RS Spyders, which I found odd. There were at least four 9R6 evo's there last time. The Cup car racing was a great addition.
Saturday was cool (15C) and wet (enough drizzle to keep the pavement wet), not fun sitting on aluminum bleachers, so in the A.M. visited Bruce Canepa's shop:
Museum-grade restorations, really amazing work in many marques of cars. There were at least a half dozen 959s being worked on, an F50 was apart with the transmission and one head off it, gullwing and pagoda Mercedes there, and many more, really impressive. I was interested to see he's a dealer for Gordon Murray Automotive, though there were no cars there, but the toolbox for a T.50 was in the shop.
Laguna Seca itself was overloaded. Lines for the Porsche gift shop were nuts, 90-120 minutes to get in, hundreds of people queued up. They ran out of parking on Saturday and Sunday. It took 35 minutes to get food. There are only three fixed bathrooms, everything else was porta-pottys. I know they know this, but the facility really needs some upgrades; Monterey County owning it complicates matters. The track has been repaved recently, I heard at IndyCar's requirement.
I don't expect future Rennsport Reunions to ever move, since the Laguna Seca weather is usually good (Saturday was an exception), but I'd love to see it at Road America or Road Atlanta.
Oct 5, 2023 3:32:42 PM
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Whoopsy
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Re: RennSport
There was far more 917s made than RS Spyders. For the RS Spyder, my friend bought the 5 car, which had some issues as it was sitting for too long before and limited its run time. Think it ended up getting on track twice only, once driven by himself and the other time by Timo. The factory owned 6 car got more run time, that one I sat in a couple Rennsport ago, extremely tight cockpit foot well, I won't fit with my runners on.
A few of my friends were checking out 959s, but they would not touch a Canepa molested 959 with a 10 ft pole. So they will be off to Europe to find untouched cars. They however, have T50 on order with him.
Never say never, Penske has expressed interest in doing Rennsport at his track, Indy. He might get his wish. The key criteria to hosting Rennsport is to have a big accessible infield. Problem is Indy is not a historic road course, it's only a historic oval.
This year Rennsport is more chaotic than the last few behind the scene. Turf war between PCNA, PCA and Laguna Seca itself. PAG isn't happy and might do something about it, hence they entertained the idea of heading to Indy. Quite a few Porsche VIPs were denied access to things and it actually got heated. One example was the All-Access badge/wrist band for some PAG VIPs, they had a scheduled meet and greet with Patrick Dempsey, in the Drivers Lounge. The Laguna Seca hired security guard deny access to the group, because they don't have the Driver's Badge. Ended up with the circuit manager coming over and giving the guard a dress down. Another was the parade laps. PCA had arranged to have paid laps, $65 each, at 7:30am each day before the official program starts. PCNA also has their own scheduled parade laps at 8am but it's signed up differently than the PCA and it's by invite. PAG believe it or not actually confused between the two and most of their VIPs, didn't get a chance to have their cars out on parade laps, myself included. There was a special parking area for CGT/918 last Rennsport, this year PCA decided to charge $800 for a parking pass at that area so most of the nice cars are scattered all around all the parking lots. You can find random Dakar, 918s everywhere. Needless to say, PAG isn't happy also. My 918 was at the Historic area, can't believe a 918 is considered historic now.
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Re: RennSport
Over 32,000km 20,000 miles on the clock. This last road trip was 3500km 2200 miles long, the car averaged 26mpg, 9.1l/100km. Drove another 50km after filling up so the car will do over 800km almost 500 miles on a full tank.
Enough luggage room for 2 guys for 10 days also.
And this thing can do the Ring in under 7 mins?
10 years later, there is still no equal.
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Oct 5, 2023 10:34:32 PM
- Jim_in_Iowa
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Whoopsy
Re: RennSport
What a mess.
The queues for the gift store were self-inflicted. They should have planned better for that volume, which they knew in advance. I would have liked to have seen what was inside, but I'm not going to wait >90 minutes to get in.
I did see the Fayence Yellow CGT (no plates, Ascot interior) parked in a very strange location, along the side of the access road, east of the Purple parking areas on Friday afternoon. Saturday, it was in the big tent east of the Cup car tent. Glad to see you're driving your 918. Sitting isn't good for cars.
The mess with VIP access, that I didn't hear about, not being a VIP. That points to a lack of organization. PAG will no doubt want changes to avoid the missteps. Penske's organization and detail-orientation may weigh in more next time.
Some things LS does really well, such as parking and flow in and out, ticket scanning, etc. The lack of toilets, that's not good. I can only imagine how difficult the permitting and construction process would be for a new septic system in California. Not being able to feed people, also not good. It took me 20 minutes to order, another 15 to get the food, and that was Thursday. The Corkscrew would be a great viewing location, but unless you have a groundcloth, there's really no place to sit. The main straight grandstands--nobody seems to sit there. Most people were at the turn 4 grandstand, if seated. Being able to hear the PA is hit-or-miss.
There was a rumor that Canepa wants to buy Laguna Seca and improve it, but the Monterey County Board has changed their minds a lot. Now they apparently want a 50 year lease, instead. Plus there are the usual complaints about noise from the locals. For sure, it needs significant investments in the infrastructure.
Indy would be an easy drive for me, and their infrastructure is quite good. The infield track itself, nothing special--pretty boring, really. No Porsche history, as you note. Weather could be great, could be wet, and it's a long way from the customer density that's in California.
Road Atlanta is close to PCNA HQ, and the track itself is better than LS. I can't speak to the infrastructure. There have been deluges at Petit LeMans, so much so that Wolf Henzler beat the prototypes in a 997 RSR one year, winning overall, IIRC. A deluge like that would ruin a Rennsport Reunion.
Road America would be my biased pick, superb track, good facilities, nearly impossible to run out of parking. Early October weather would be a crapshoot, though, could be so nice, could be 15C and raining steadily. Their last big event is mid-September. Hotel availability not as good as Indy, and a long drive from either coast. Holding something during race season would limit current driver availability.
I've sat in an RS Spyder that was set up for Cooper MacNeil, which means the leg room was at maximum. I couldn't reach the pedal box, so I can't comment. Cooper said that if he were any taller, he couldn't drive it, as the wheel (yoke) hits his thighs as it is, in most turns. Sascha Maassen was the main development driver, so anyone much taller will have some issues.
Jim
Oct 6, 2023 4:02:55 PM
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Whoopsy
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- Loc: Vancouver,BC , Canada
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Re: RennSport
Toilets, yeah. Near the PCA 'peninsula' there are a few permanent stalls, and ONE permanent one at the red Porsche hospitality building. The yellow one has a toilet trailer to be shared by everyone inside.
The toilet park works, not great, but it works, wait time is not too bad.
THE thing at the shop was the Rennsport runners. Not the greatest of style so you aren't missing much. The signature Rennsport t-shirt was sold out by 9am Thursday and they never restocked, so you also didn't miss much. Those guys were lining up at 5 am. Outside of those, it's the Rennsport blue full zip jacket, 1/4 zip pullover and synthetic fibre t-shirt and some other Porsche Design items. And some posters.
The track will also needed some work, drainage mainly. When it was raining Saturday morning, the water pooled at the pit exit after turn 2. It was a pool of water, not a puddle. During the Cup car practice, the first car didn't know and come around and almost lost it in the pool. The next car was more cautious after seeing that. But it was funny as hell seeing these race cars going through like 6 inches of water, splashing everywhere.
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Re: RennSport
Whoopsy:
Over 32,000km 20,000 miles on the clock. This last road trip was 3500km 2200 miles long, the car averaged 26mpg, 9.1l/100km. Drove another 50km after filling up so the car will do over 800km almost 500 miles on a full tank.
Enough luggage room for 2 guys for 10 days also.
And this thing can do the Ring in under 7 mins?
10 years later, there is still no equal.
Talking about fuel consumption, I went right back to Portland over the weekend for a shopping trip, in the Panamera. Hard as I tried, I still ended up at 9.7l/100km. Can't even match the 918's.
The drivetrain in the 918 is simply amazing.
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