I've wanted to drive a Cup Car car for years, probably since I was a teenager and first saw videos of young up-and-coming drivers mixing it up with legends and invited celebrities in equally matched 964s on the best tracks in the world. Chuckwalla is a great track with a variety of low-speed technical turns, high-speed banked sweepers, elevation, and a couple long straights. It may not have the cachet of Spa or Hockenheim, but I'll get the full experience of the car.
"See those brightly colored Skittles all over the steering wheel? You don't need to push any of them. Seriously, don't push any of them." That was basically my technical briefing before driving Porsche's latest generation of 911 Cup Car. Even as a longtime Porsche fan, I still find it surprising just how many six-figured 911 road cars are sold. It's even more surprising just how many of these purpose-built race cars the motorsports department can move. Since 1990, more than 3,500 owners have taken delivery of true, turnkey, track-only race cars based off of the 911[post_ad].
This is one of, if not the first 991-generation 2 Cup Cars delivered in the United States. Its normal driver and car owner, Tom Haacker, is generous and trusting enough to let me get behind the wheel on his very first test day. Haacker runs in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama Tires and apparently has to remember all of that every single time he talks about it. He's only been doing this a handful of years but managed several podiums in this series, along with a Second place in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, America's least-appreciated around-the-clock event.
[post_ad] Here's the thing: If you're a person who has always been into tuning and never driven an actual race car, you probably aren't impressed right now. This is why I think anyone who plans on modifying his or her car should be required to spend time in a real race car, on a racetrack, before buying a single performance part. The Dairy Queen parking lots on car get-together nights would look drastically different.
While the Cup Car's interior is stripped and most of the space, both physical and visual, is dominated by a rollcage, it is still recognizable as a 911. The dashboard is factory-ish, and the driving position is slightly lower than a standard 911 but feels largely the same and outward visibility nearly as good. Obviously, the seat is far more supportive than even the Full Bucket Sport Seat offered in the GT3 and makes me contemplate something like this in my own road cars. Although there are huge side impact beams from the rollcage X-ing out the door opening, the car is still not much more difficult to get into than a Lotus Exige or Alfa Romeo 4C.
The hot shoe of the day is Daytona 24 Hour and Petite Le Mans winner Kelly Collins. It was Collins giving me the rundown on what not to touch inside the cockpit. It has three pedals, but all the shifting of the six-speed sequential gearbox is done with paddles. You use the clutch pedal to get it going in First gear, sometimes with varied success, but that's the only time you use it. So all of you militantly anti-shift-paddle types wouldn't like a Cup Car, I guess.
The gearbox sits in front of the engine; yes, the Cup Car is still rear engine if you're thinking about the RSR. The 4.0L naturally aspirated flat-six is an all-new engine that shares technology with the 991.2 GT3 road car. For the first time, the Cup Car gets direct injection. Also like it's street-legal variant, it uses pistons with a 102mm bore and a crank with an 81.5mm stroke. The 991.1 GT3RS road car redlines at 8,800 rpm, while the Cup Car revs to a mere 8,500. The road car also makes 500 hp at 8,250 rpm, while the race car, saddled with racing regulations, makes just 485 hp at 7,500 rpm.
The non-user-friendly clutch pedal has barely an inch of travel. Race cars don't like their very expensive clutches slipped. I've had that drilled into my head every time I get behind the wheel of anything with paper-thin friction discs, a feathery flywheel, and just enough software coding to barely keep it idling. VROOM, SChruuumpf. Yeah, I'm that guy; I killed it leaving the pits. Another unsuccessful try and one of the crew tells me these require some slip, "like a regular car." Ahhhh—true knowledge is gathered right after it would have been useful.
Race cars are built for acceleration, either in the direction of travel or in the opposing direction of travel—braking, or laterally—cornering. They absolutely don't like traveling at a constant speed, especially at something like a lowly 35 mph, like during photography. We did a few laps with me following the camera car to get rolling shots. This is an indignant way to get to know a race car, like a first date suffering from stomach flu. The car bucks and spits as I try to convince it to match the speed of the Volvo wagon in front of me. My arms strain as we wrestle back and forth getting pushed around by bumps and sticky tires grabbing any directional imperfections in the track. My body is tensed up trying to counteract the jostling, and it's getting hot inside here in fast. The car is louder than ever, and the engine's grumbling is complemented by shrill gear whine and the metallic clanging of every component in the driveline loading and unloading—that part in particular grates on every ounce of mechanical sympathy in my being. Mercifully, after just a couple of laps, the camera's memory cards are stuffed with new Porsche-shaped electrons. The Volvo pulls in as the suffering Porsche is about to get a reprieve.
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As you may have guessed from the title of the series, these particular Cup Cars run on Yokohama racing slicks mounted to center-lock 18-inch wheels. Apparently, nobody has told the racing community how uncool 18s are these days. The meaty tires warm up surprisingly fast and seem to do so at the same rate front and rear, a sign of good chassis dynamics.
I've had the conversation with many a car owner, PR guy, and professional driver: How fast do you drive a car in a situation like this? The consensus is generally—as fast as you can, well within your limits. I've had PR guys give a verbal nudge to the ribs in the form of, "Look, I didn't bring you all the way out here to mope around the track. Get in there and get the real experience. But, you wreck the car and it's the last thing either of us ever does. OH, and have fun." No pressure.
CAR AND MOTOR MANIAC
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