Party crash @ Porsche Haaglanden last Fridaynight

D-day for no. 59 and lots of driving fun

Last Friday we made our first km's in the white racer (no. 59). With a lot of help from Jean Paul Verwiel (JP's Garage) and Franc Roes (Carsche Car Restoration) it looked like a real TopDog Racing team. Due to the wet track we could not run on our slicks and had to start using 10 year old road tires from Franc's Beetle. It turned out to be one big drift with wheel spin on every exit and locked wheels when braking before the corner. Looks like we need to sort out the wheels & tires for wet conditions first. The engine runs great, noise is within the tight limits, the car fits like a glove and it is like driving a giant kart.

 

At 12 the rain had stopped and the track got dry, time to change to racing tires, after refueling disaster struck, the gearbox broke down, we could not get it out of reverse.. Jean-Paul did his best to resolve it but it could not be fixed without dropping the engine..

Luckily I had Clockwork with me, so after clearing it with the HARC organization the race numbers (59 off course) were changed to that car and, with Patrick Verkerk (944 basic cup champion) as an instructor next to me, we changed the objectives for the day.  

We found out two things this day; A shakedown is to find problems and you are definitely going to find them & you can always find seconds by inviting a fast driver in your car.

It looks like still a lot of work before the next trackday... We had a great time with Jan de Boer and Bas de Rijk on the track. Also the support by Leonard, Gert, Lex and Marco helped us through the day. Wish it was a HARC trackday every day...   

Shakedown of no. 59 @ HARC trackday Zandvoort

After months of hard work we finally hope to drive no. 59, our IROQ RSR project at the Zandvoort track during a track day organized by the HARC. (Historical Auto Race Club) The car arrived in the Netherlands in January as a unfinished project.   Without engine, gearbox, wiring, fuel lines, brake lines, interior, gauges etc. Build with a gigantic 996RSR wing and other spoilers for the US supersport class. We changed the spoilers so the car resembles the IROC racers of the mid '70s. The car has a 934 undercarriage with full coil over system and welded-in role bars, spec's to be published later, for now let's start with an appetizer and start preparing for the shakedown tomorrow.

Time to start the Blog again...

Our last post was September last year!? Seems we have been busy without posting.... Oops! Time to catch up...  We will get some news online in retrospective. Sorry..   

TopDog Racing at State of Art GP Classic

This weekend was another State of Art GP Classic race weekend, organized by the HARC (Dutch historic car race association) at the beautiful track of Zandvoort.


Some pretty old cars were displayed, but not raced..

Training and qualification took place on Saturday morning and the races started that afternoon. The various race classes were HTGT (Historic Touring and GT), MG/Triumph competition and the Porsche 944 Basic Cup. The fields are well filled with competitive cars so it promised to be a spectacular weekend.


TopDog Racer Chris was present in his famous blue racer. A 1965 Porsche 911, powered by a 2.0L engine breathing through a pair of Solex carburetors. Unfortunately, the car got its first racing scars a few weeks ago so some repairs were dona at the Duel shop to made it look better again. Some last minute race preparations were done in the pits.

The blue Racer in the pits

The first race on Saturday took place in the Young Timer class, with a few fellow R Gruppers from TwinSpark Racing (driving in the yellow '73 RSR - Woodstock - and the green '74 RSR - the Hulk) and of course Ronald driving the white '73 RS.


Take a look at the action on the track..

The white '73 RS chasing the VW Golf

The Hulk in pursuit of a Ford Escort on the Zandvoort straight

The line-up for our class made an interesting selection of racers, including a Lotus Cortina, Renault Alpine and a few 911's of course

Line-up before getting on the track

Our race started at 15.45h and lasted for 25 minutes plus one lap with of course one lap to get some heat into the rubber and brakes. Chris started in the middle of the field and soon was in hot pursuit of a fellow 911 at the straight...

Hot pursuit on the Zandvoort straight at about 160 km/h

... and closing in right after the Tarzan bend.

Chris is closing in on the yellow 911

It was a great racing day for the TopDog Team, with no damage and decent lap times on the clock in dry weather. The image below is the perfect example that a Porsche is great on the track, but allows you to take the family home as well :)

Taking the family home after a day on the track :)

TopDog Racing now officially incorporated

Monday was an important day in the history of TopDog Racing. The three partners officially founded and incorporated the company at the Chamber of Commerce! We now exist, are registered as a company and unfortunately, at some point, also have to pay corporate taxes:)

Anyway, it only took 30 minutes to get the whole thing done with the help of a very efficient KvK (Chamber of Commerce) employee. Now we need to get our bank account sorted, put a financial administration in place and we are in business.

The team was off to Biesheuvel Racing shortly after, so much for a good celebration! But I guess that got compensated with plenty of racing goodies :)

TopDog Racing visits 911Motorsport

Last week, the TopDog Team and some R Gruppe friends visited 911Motorsport in Belgium for a Porsche 911R comparison. 

911Motorsport is well known for their large collection of original race Porsche 911's and were kind enough to show us around. Cars such as a 1973 RSR, 3.0L RS, 1974 RSR, 2.5 ST and SC RS are all around to admire. But the 'piece de resistance' is of course a 1967 Porsche 911R - the grandmother of all Porsche RennSport cars. A limited serie of 4 prototypes and 20 production models were build by Porsche Werks in 1967. 911Motorsport has one of the production cars in their collection.

The TopDog Team worked for almost 2 years building a 911R tribute car as you can imagine the pricing on the original cars has gone through the roof. An original 1974 RSR will look cheap! And what is a better tribute to all this work than to compare the 2 cars side by side ?

First the car needed to be fired up by the skilled engineers..

The 911R is an extremely lightweight Porsche 911. The weight has been brought down to just 825kg which was down a wapping 200kg from the original 911S in those days. The car was fitted with a half roll cage and polyester panels for anything that opens as well as the front fenders. The car is powered by a 901/22 engine which comes very close to a 906 engine with a re-enforced 5-speed 901 transmission. The 2.0L twinspark engine, breathing through 46 Weber carburetors produces some 210 bhp at 8000 RPM.

Our own car is based on a 1967 911T, which has been stripped to bare metal and re-build as closely as possible to the original. The empty weight of the car is only 850kg, a mere 25 kg more than the original car, most because of a full roll cage, a metal fuel tank and an aluminum case (901/3). It is powered by a 906 based engine with all original parts, such as centre lube 906 camshafts, a 906 cam housing, steel forged rockers with nitrated axels and a magnesium small fan and fan house. The engine produces a healthy 200+ bhp at 8000 RPM!

And then it was time for a side by side comparison. The TopDog Photographer picked a nice spot in the garage and captured these two beauties on 'film'.

We will run a full article on the build of this beautiful car and the history of the 911R on this blog so watch this space !