TobaccoRoads - Carolinas Region Porsche Club of America (PCA)

Renngruppe tech session
by Jerry Forthofer
The Carolina Region of the Porsche Club of
America held a tech session at Renngruppe
Motorsports in Lexington, NC on June 9th.
Forty-six of the faithful gathered to drool
over the special cars. Most special to my
eyes was the Porsche 910, the first car one
sees upon entering the shop. While I was
in the Army in Germany in 1967, I attended
the Nurburgring 1000KM race that was
won by a Porsche 910. This was the first
race I had ever attended and I really did not
understand all that was happening around
me. However, I never forgot the car that won
that race and even have a 1/12th scale
model 910 in my small collection. Next to
the 910 was an equally special 906 Carrera,
the car that preceded the 910. What a
treat to see them together.
Next to them were various Porsche 911
race cars in various stages of repair/build.
Around the corner sat everything from 914s
and 944s to, believe it or not, 935s. The two
935s caught my eye as I had attended IMSA
races at Road America back in the late 70′s
and early 80′s when these cars were in their
heyday. Somewhere I have a photo of John
Paul Jr.’s 935 braking for turn 6 with huge
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flames exiting the exhaust. It was an interesting
time as drug money funded a number
of the cars with the Whittington brothers and
the Pauls – Sr. and Jr – receiving jail time.
But what great racing!!! The ultimate example
of how to make a car excel that, by many
estimates, should not have been that good
of a racing car.
However, the most interesting car may have
been the oldest. For a customer, Renngruppe
is building a 1953 Porsche 356 Outlaw
car. The stock VW based front suspension
has been replaced with double wishbones
with coilovers while the rear suspension is
all 993 based, as will be the 993 engine. A
1600 lb car with a 300+ hp motor will be
lots of fun for its new owner.
Renngruppe’s David Brown welcomed us
and related some information about what
they do. For more information on one of
their projects, he had Cameron Conover
tell us all about their involvement with
the VW Jetta Pirelli World Challenge cars.
Renngruppe was given two stock Jetta’s
and then prepared them to the series
rules. Jeff Altenburg and Tristan Herbert