The Way of the Future

While I was in the BMW pits at the 2010 Petit Le Mans, I happened to wander down near the Porsche pits and ran into JF Musial of Tangent Vector while he was shooting video for Porsche of North America (or just Porsche). I spoke to him briefly about his camera rig and it turns out he was using a Canon 7D to shoot the video listed below.



This Porsche GT3 R Hybrid is of particular interest to me as it bucks the trend of the normal, battery-based hybrid in favor of a fly wheel-based system. While at the race, I was aware that Porsche had run the GT3 R Hybrid as a bit of a test bed from all they've learned from the Williams KERS system( incredibly much like the one they were co-developing with BMW during their F1 partnership days!) but I wasn't very aware of the technical prowess this car manages to sport. While the hybrid system apparently only weighs an additional 103 lbs. ( a relatively small weight) it can return up to 163HP in additional power when charged up to the 4 motors Porsche fixed to each wheel. From my understanding, Porsche fixed the 4 motors to the wheels as a way of letting them add torque vectoring to the GT3 R Hybrid. Thus, they can now somewhat regulate how much power is focused on specific wheels to help increase cornering speeds and straight-line acceleration.

Overall, the GT3 Hybrid did OK for its first outing on the track in the United States by placing 18th overall in the race. Pretty impressive considering it was leading the 24 hours of Nurburgring when it has major mechanical issues. As a hybrid, the GT3 R is fairly innocuous towards motorsport fans. When it passed me numerous times at my perch on the track all I could perceive was the sonorous sound of of a Porsche flat-6. That's all I wanted too, so if this is the way of the future, I think I could be onboard for that. Check out this great technical write-up of the Porsche GT3 R Hybrid as they go into much better detail of how the GT3 differs from a Prius hybrid.

Why Don't More People Mention This?!

RUF CTR3, originally uploaded by StephenHall.

I'm surprised I don't see more of this car.

It's a specially made mid-engined sports car made by the extremely reputable Porsche tuner Ruf. Ruf is a smaller, family-owned tuner based out of Germany(of course) and has a history of taking standard Porsche models and bumping them into the extremes with cars like the Yellow Bird based off of the 930 and the 993-based CTR2. The Yellow Bird managed to topple competitors such as the F40 and 959 back in it's day - while maintaining the reliability of a standard 911.

The CTR3 should be turning more heads. It spits out a mind-bending 700HP from a twin-turbocharged 3.8L flat-6, keeps the engine amidship and holds a lower weight of just under 3,100 lbs. Power is regulated via six-speed sequential 'box and the interior is comfortably built from a 911 (along with nose).

It's an interesting car - two parts 911, one part Boxster and a dash of Carrera GT plus one of the best Porsche tuners you can find. Why don't more people acknowledge this car? Ruf is (like Alpina) essentially a manufacturer in its own right under German law.

One more to add to the wishlist. Quick video below of some rolling shots and exhaust notes - difficult to find high quality video of this car.

How did I miss this? Porsche - A Company of Race Cars

Not sure how I missed this last year when it appears to have been released but it's a great video nonetheless. It's a promotional video first and foremost but interesting to see the behind the scenes support that Porsche lends to customer cars such as the GT3 RSRs, etc.



Cool video of Weissach and a glimpse of some of their most important cars like the 917k, 904 and 550 Spyder. In watching this I get the feeling that its a sort of precursor to this commercial - which is probably one of the best, most poignant of any automobile manufacturer I've seen lately.

RUF Yellowbird Storms the Nurburgring

Running a modified 3.2L flat-6 tuned to 469HP, lightened body and revised gear box - the 1987 Ruf CTR was all balls. It was affectionately nicknamed the Yellowbird - and it set all sorts of top speed records and managed to show up the ultimate production Porsche of the time: 959 with its lowly 444HP.

Here we see what happens when Ruf decides to take its ultimate car of the 1980's and put it around the ultimate track of all time: der Nurburgring. Enjoy the full tail-out joy of a light weight, near 500HP, rear wheel drive Porsche.

(Sorry for the poor quality - this has been on the net for a while and is a recording of the original VHS of the lap that was released by Ruf)

Top Gear Sunday Brunch

I like to get up early on Sunday mornings and catch a few episodes of Top Gear via YouTube while I make breakfast. It's just a good way to start off the last day of the weekend.

Anyway, I thought I would start of a series of doing this with the second half of the Brits vs. zee Germans, it's the better half of this feature. In just under 10 minutes they managed to show two Mini Cooper S's dueling on the legendary Zolder track, two Bowler Wildcats going head to head and then a race with Captain Slow against Tim Shrick in an Aston DBRS9 and Porsche GT3RS. It's got a lot of great content in one nice, neat little package. Check it out.