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The International Passion for Speed 2020 – a remarkable win for Peter van Der Spuy

“During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the intensity of eight weeks of serious racing and fun, gave birth to the life-long friendships that continue to convince many international racing drivers to compete at Zwartkops and Killarney at the beginning of every year. David Piper and Mike Knight are instrumental in bringing the show back to South Africa.

This year, the racing took place at Zwartkops on 1 February 2020 and at Killarney on the 8th February 2020.

The quickest historic cars of the weekend were the Pre-1974 International Sports Racing Prototypes (ISP’s). This event is the one that Peter van der Spuy has always wanted to win in his road registered and licensed 1974 Porsche Carrera RSR Turbo tribute.

Peter has podiumed at almost all the previous 8 events, but never achieved the outright win. His goal was to win both the Zwartkops event and the Killarney event, which are a week apart.

Podium contenders included Larry Wilford (Genie Lola T70), Colin Ellison (Chevron B19), Andre’ Bezuidenhout (Porsche RSR Turbo), Jonathan du Toit (Chevron B8), Peter Bailey (Porsche 917), Keegan Campos (Porsche RSR), Mark du Toit (Lola T70 Spyder), Neil Lobb (Lola T70), plus Swedish visitors Janne Kling (Ford GT40) , Brent Andersson (Lola 212) and  Kenneth Persson (Ford GT40), to mention but a few.

Having some time in hand, Peter, determined as ever, decided to refresh his Martini Porsche and service the car to give him the power and the reliability to win.

Being a 40 plus year old car, this job became tedious and finicky, and required the best race engineering minds out there. 

The car was stripped down, and the work began some 6 months before the first Passion for Speed race meeting at Zwartkops. 

Tasks undertaken included:

Complete engine strip down, inspection, replace all worn parts.

Corrected cams to reduce excessive fuel flow.

Overhaul cylinder heads and reset all timing to run on normal 95 pump gas.

Change and match the turbo to run a reduced back pressure ratio.

Increase oil cooler to match original period Le Mans car, and re-plum the oil system to cope with additional cooling

Renew clutch to heavy duty specs to cope with Hill Climb standing starts

Installing a newly overhauled G50 gearbox with additional gearbox oil cooling system, to cope with the additional heat generated from the additional power and torque

Retired all the Motec ECU wiring to Aviaiton spec to increase reliability. 

Installed a new direct injection water cooled system

Installed an ethanol capability system and variable boost control.

Complete brand-new heavy-duty brake system throughout.

All these mods and upgrades were designed and tuned to closely match the original performance specifications of the original 74’ Le Mans car, that being 500 BHP and with a curb weight of 900 kg’s. As Peter’s car weighs in at 1200 kg’s, the engine power needed to be increased to make up for the 300 kg’s weight delta.

Zwartkops Race 1:

With experienced racing drivers to compete against, Peter had to be well prepared if he was going to take on “the giants” at Zwartkops. The first heat saw Peter work his way up from 13th on the grid, up to second overall, and first in class B. The second heat did not go that well. He changed front brake pads between races and then battled with the brake bias during the race.

Van der Spuy was victorious with Peter Bailey in his monster Porsche 917 in a close second.

Killarney Race 2:

The Pre 74 ISP race was combined with the “bang up to date” Sports & GT supercars. This presented a unique opportunity as Peter’s 48 years old Porsche also qualified to race in this category. 

The race was tense and not only did Peter have to contend with the monster International Series Prototypes or ISP’s, but had to concentrate on the local current 991, 997 and 996 Porsche Cup cars who were racing with him in class B, with local drivers Martin Prins, Gary Kieswetter, Andre Brink and Ryan Buda. 

The result was remarkable in that Peter comfortably won the Historic ISP category and then beat all the Porsche Cup cars to win Class B as well.

Peter achieved his race career goal and it could not have been done in a more spectacular way. It’s perhaps the first time two first-place trophies were awarded to a single driver in a Porsche in the same race.


08/02/2020