A part of that multi-pronged effort, was in the typical and beloved Porsche method; motorsport. Given the nifty name of Carrera Cup, a control series of Weissach built and mildly modified, stripped out road cars, was a big hit with Porsche fans and dealers. The Carrera Cup formula was refined and rolled into the 993 era, further improved and refined, before rolling towards the new century and a new, radical leap for Porsche;
The Porsche Water Cooled era is attributed to the 996 cars of post 1998, but in reality, it started way before the road cars made the ‘big leap’. For at least 30 years prior, Porsche, in true Porsche fashion, had been testing various forms of water cooling in the greatest way possible; Le Mans 24Hr. Combinations of air and water cooling were finally merged, into plain old “wasser” cooling in the mighty 962 era. For all of our love, for all things “luft” cooled, Porsche conceded in the late 80’s that wasser was how you efficiently keep 600Hp cool for 24hrs of abuse. It was the rigours of the “ultimate test”, the Le Mans 24Hr that forced Porsche’s hand and created the start of a new, exciting and successful era.
The basis of all the various RS, RSR’s, Supercups etc, for that successful era was the “GT3 Cup”, to use its correct title, of which the road going 996 GT3 homologated. Hand built by Weissach; a batch of production 911 bodyshells would go to Matter, where a cage would be welded in and unnecessary brackets removed. The shell would then head back to Stuttgart for painting, then back to Weissach for final assembly. The engine used to power the GT3 cup was an enlarged, naturally aspirated variant of the Le Mans winning 911 GT1, designed by Hans Mezger. Combined with a tweaked G50 gearbox, sourced from the 993 GT2 and a suspension system very similar to the road going GT3, but with stiffer springs and custom Bilstein dampers.
The double championship winning GT3 Cup we have for sale is a 2004 variant, which featured a host or GT3 RS type modifications, including a refined, more powerful variant of the 3.6 Mezger engine, putting out an impressive 390 Hp and 390 Nm. The 2003 and 2004 MY’s were also mildly tweaked in liquid capacities and cooling, to allow owners the option of entering the cars into endurance races, like the extremely popular VLN Nurburgring 24Hr and the Bathurst 24Hr. Weighing in at a scant 1150Kg, with the uprated power, tweaked gear ratio’s and factory homologated to compete in both the Carrera Cup and endurance racing, the 996 GT3 Cup was applauded by competitors and media globally. Indeed, talk to any competitor from that era and the performance of the gated manual GT3 Cup is lauded for its user-friendly, but exciting nature at 9/10ths and technical prowess needed to maintain pace at 10/10th’s, in comparison to the later sequential and “Flappy-Paddle” only variants.
Along with the 2003-04 MY multi-use capabilities, our car has an entirely unique and impressive race history, with the following notes expertly compiled, by fellow enthusiast Aaron Noonan:
– Driven by Alex Davison to win the second-ever Porsche Carrera Cup Australia (PCCA) championship in 2004.
– Driven by Alex as the #77 Glenfords car run by Greg Murphy Racing in 10 events that year: the non-championship Albert Park F1 support event (at which he won two races of the four) and 9 PCCA rounds.
– Won 6 of the 9 rounds held that year, including the first five in a row at Adelaide, Eastern Creek, Hidden Valley, Barbagallo and Queensland Raceway. He also won Round 8 at Bathurst.
– It’s the equal most round wins in a season of PCCA history, matching Jim Richards’ mark from 2003 and joined in later years by Fabian Coulthard (2005 in the same car) and Craig Baird (2008).
– Alex and the car finished on the podium in 8 of the 9 rounds – was 2nd at Winton and Sandown. On the Gold Coast at the last round, he finished 6th overall for the round.
– He won 15 of the 27 championship races that year (2 of those 27 were No Results, not enough laps were completed for an official result to be declared).
– Those race wins came at Adelaide (3), Eastern Creek (1), Hidden Valley (3), Barbagallo (2), QLD Raceway (2), Winton (1), Bathurst (2) and Gold Coast (1). The only round he didn’t win a race at was Sandown, where he finished 2nd in both races to Jim Richards.
– Set fastest lap in 12 of that year’s races.
– Scored 5 of the 9 pole positions that year – Adelaide, Eastern Creek, Barbagallo, Queensland Raceway and Gold Coast. He also qualified on the front row, 2nd, at Hidden Valley, Winton and Bathurst, so he qualified on the front row for every round bar Sandown that year.
– Alex won the championship scoring 1344 points to Jim Richards’ 1146 and Fabian Coulthard (who drove another Greg Murphy Racing car with Braun backing) finishing on 1071 in his rookie year in the series.
Pretty impressive right? Well check out what she did in 2005:
– Driven by Fabian Coulthard to win the third-ever Porsche Carrera Cup Australia championship in 2005, making it the first chassis to win the title twice.
– Driven by Coulthard in the non-championship Albert Park F1 event and all 9 PCCA rounds.
– Won 6 of the 9 rounds that year – Adelaide, Barbagallo, Queensland Raceway, Oran Park, Bathurst and Gold Coast.
– Finished on the podium in 8 of the 9 rounds – also finished 3rd at Sandown and 2nd at Phillip Island – the only round he didn’t finish on the podium at was Rd 3 at Eastern Creek (finished 9th).
– He won 17 of the 27 PCCA races held that year.
– He won at Adelaide (2), Barbagallo (2), QLD Raceway (3), Oran Park (2), Sandown (1), Bathurst (2), Gold Coast (3) and Phillip Island (2). The only round where he didn’t win a race was Eastern Creek.
– Set fastest lap in 10 of the 27 championship races that year.
– He took 3 of the 9 poles in 2005, at Barbagallo, Bathurst and Gold Coast. Also qualified on the front row at QLD Raceway and Oran Park.
– Won the championship with 1275 points to Jim Richards’ 1125 and Jonathon Webb’s 878.
In those 2 years of championship wins, this 996 GT3 Cup Car won 12 PCCA rounds, 32 races, had 8 poles and 16 podiums from 18 round starts. Additionally, it also won 2 non-champ races at Albert Park F1 support races (Alex in 2004).
The chassis was then sold to new privateer Shaun Juniper, who campaigned it a few times and eventually sold it on, to race 997’s in PCCA and 997 RSR’s in endurance races around the world (Nürburgring, Spa, etc). In circa 2017 Mr Juniper saw his old Cup Car for sale on our good friends MY105.COM website and jumped at the chance. Having owned it for a period, with minimal use, Mr Juniper commissioned us to get the car wrapped back into its glory days, which we decided had to be a 50/50 split of its 2004 and 2005 livery. A striking combination, that has given birth to the brand FUComet, so has essentially paid for itself.
This is a unique opportunity to buy a factory-built racing Porsche, with an entirely unique, perhaps even poignant, race-history, at a relatively low price point. If you were to buy this and enjoy it at club race, sprint and hillclimbs, you could easily envision experiencing the very real joy of driving a great chassis fast and then enjoying reaping a financial return at some time in the distant future. My crystal ball is a bit dusty, but I don’t think it’s a big stretch.
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