911 AT 60: RENNSPORT
The past, present and future collided at Rennspor t Reunion, the 911’s official 60th bir thday party. We were there (with bells on)
Porsche people have come to Laguna Seca Raceway, California, from all over. Ron Nudelman has driven his 1965 Porsche 911 the 3000-plus miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Jakob Pospieszynski has trailered his 993 C4S from Ontario, Canada.
The car parks are packed with Porsches, mostly 911s, some stock, some lifted in the Baja style, some lowered for the track, many bearing number plates that double as shibboleths for Porsche engineering, model codes and eras – NEIN93, MEZGER6, SWB67S.
Rennsport Reunion 7 has drawn them here, a four-day shindig that’s owned by Porsche and this year honours both the 911’s 60th anniversary and the mothership’s 75th.
There’s racing from club level to pro, modern to historic, even vintage Porsche tractors duelling on track, plus music (the Doobie Brothers headline Saturday night), a retailer village and a constant procession of Cayennes climbing ant-like over a steep off-road route towards Laguna’s Corkscrew corner. It’s kind of Porsche motorsport does Glastonbury. (And you know rennsport means motorsport, right?)
California was a no-brainer. Stuttgart might be home and China the biggest market, but the golden state takes the biggest slice of sales in Porsche’s second largest global market – if it were a country California would be the fourth largest market alone. Add in the (usually) welcoming climate, the wealth and the racing scene that’s brought us specials like the 356 Speedster since the days of importer Max Hoffman, and where else are you going? Guangdong?
We arrive at dusk on Thursday just in time to catch Porsche unveil its latest 911 variant – the GT3 R Rennsport, a track-only special based on the GT3 R racecar, limited to just 77 units and priced at just over a million bucks before you start with special paint schemes and the like. Jörg Bergmeister laps it in the darkness, the 911 long gone but the blare of its flat-six and violent spits of sequential gearchanges still vivid and angry as we shiver in the pitlane.
THE GT3 R HAS LONG GONE FROM VIEW BUT THE BL ARE OF ITS FL AT- SIX IS STILL VIVI D AND ANGRY
Friday morning, 8.30am. Sun beats down as we scale rollercoaster access roads that hint at Laguna’s incredible topography and fast sweeping curves before you’ve so much as glimpsed the catch fencing – an instant reality check for anyone who thinks US racing is nothing but turning left.
Just about every significant Porsche and driver is here. A queue for ‘legend’
