Category: R Gruppe Europe

Last weekend saw the start of the historic racing season for team TwinSpark with a few thrilling races at Zandvoort. Our Dutch Historic Racing Championship 66-81 saw a field of 34 cars head into qualification and 25 cars finishing the weekend’s last race. Quite an improvement in numbers compared to last year.

We believe that more and more drivers are gravitating towards classes which insist on FIA homologation compliant cars and the fair competition to match. Our races could not have proven the point of fairness better, looking at the bumper to bumper battle yours truly undertook with a very similar car of Jan van Elderen and fights going on in the group of Escorts behind us. Everybody wins: participants, who feel they have really raced for their cups and spectators for seeing us slug it out as gentlemen. In our first race Jan headed for the lead from the rolling start, as the [...]

Today was one of those days where things come together. Due to work commitments I could not drive the Hulk on the GP Strecke of the Nurburgring today, but my mate Lex scored a 1:43 on the short track and took two P1’s overall. In those same races Gerd Rijper drove to a second place in his 74 RSR in the second race. Gerd owns the 1973 RSR prototype (see below in present paint scheme) that reached Niki Lauda as the first emergency vehicle after his infamous 1 August 1976 crash at the Nurburgring. It actually shows up, or at least an imitation of it, for about two seconds, in the movie I have just returned from.

I’m no expert on film making, but when the fundamental story is good the movie [...]

The R Gruppe continues to penetrate air-cooled Porschelore. Member Thorsten in Germany recently wangled a place in the Porsche Legends charge up the Solitude Hillclimb at last month’s Revival meet. Thorsten tells the story:

“I got in the group through my little tricked-out, good looking, good sounding car (as others call it) and my membership in FLB: Freunde Luftgekuehlter Boxermotoren (Friends of Aircooled Boxer Motors). It’s the internal Club for Porsche workers.

“The field was fast and it was pretty crazy, but I had a blast! Following a 356 Carrera, and Kurt Ahrens in the Dreikantschaber, or Herbert Linge in a ’67 911, being passed by a 910 and then a 904 while watching  Marc Lieb in the 718 F2 in my rear view mirror getting closer was awesome! What a great weekend!”