1990 Porsche 911 Carrera Cup

model history

Porsche would not be Porsche if a new model were not suitable for motorsport as well so the 964 generation Carrera 2 was tuned in the racing department at Weissach for the brand new Porsche Cup series. An aluminium bonnet was fitted along with lightweight glass, rear bumper and door panels. The rear seats were deleted as well as interior panels, carpets, sound deadening, central locking and A/C. These changes made the car 170kg lighter than standard. Numerous other changes were made to the chassis including the fitment of more streamlined mirrors and a roll cage.

The car was lowered and fitted with Bilstein ‘Cup’ shocks with racing tyres and a modified braking system with switchable ABS. The 3.6-liter flat-six engine from the Carrera 2 were specially balanced and blueprinted to produce 265hp, 15hp more than standard. The G50/10 manual gearbox was fitted with competition ratios, a LSD, short shifter and lightweight flywheel.

Eventually, in 1992, Porsche used many of these Cup car modifications to create the 964 Carrera RS, making 1,500 of them over a 2-3 year period. The RS went on to become a legendary homologation special, bridging the gap between Porsche’s motorsport expertise and their road cars.

this car

This car, number 33 of 50 produced for the 1990 season, was sold new to the veteran German driver Rolf Rosenkranz in February 1990. Rosenkranz, who raced with Uwe Alzen finished 20th of the 50 cars that season. Rosenkranz continued to race the car in 1991 competing in Porsche Cup at the British and Belgian Grands Prix though the car’s racing highlight was in the 1991 24 hours of Nürburgring where it finished 3rd in class and 4th overall, narrowly being beaten by the 964 of Uwe Alzen.

Rosenkranz sold the car in 1992 to a collector in Germany before it was sold to Philip Harris in 1998 who imported the car to the UK and was very successful behind the wheel of it in Porsche Club and Intermarque races. In 2001, the car was sold to Ben Rapp who continued to race it. The previous owner bought the car in 2013, and with the help of Rolf Rosenkranz totally restored it to original specification. The car retains its matching numbers engine and gearbox and is accompanied by an extremely substantial history file documenting the cars’ racing career and restoration.