Cup Archives

Ride onboard with Ryan Gates for a lap around Road Atlanta in the 2008 311RS Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup #underthelights.

For the third year in a row, Driving Club RA has hosted track time for their members following the annual 10hr Petit LeMans race at Road Atlanta, complete with all the lighting equipment to allow for night lapping.

Adam and the rest of the crew at Driving Club RA put on an amazing event. This would be our second time attending but first time participating, and my goodness we could not have been happier to be there. A huge thank you to member Leh Keen for the invite.

With us for this trip was our 2008 997.1 GT3 Cup. Prior to heading on track, we made a pit stop with our partners at Goldcrest Motorsports. The car was due for a fluid flush and a once over after our test at BIR the weekend prior.

The stock rubber bushings in the suspension were found to be past their prime, which meant we had an opportunity to replace them with factory Porsche Motorsport solid mounts throughout. A significant upgrade that improves driver+car connection thus reducing lap times.

Fresh from service at Goldcrest, we arrived at Road Atlanta and were greeted by glorious Georgia fall weather, a welcome reprieve from the snow that was falling up north in MN when we left.

A pair of 997.1 GT3 cars – it doesn’t get much prettier than that for us. Leh Keen brought out his modified 2008 997.1 GT3RS for the event. The car is sick.

We were very much looking forward to seeing the Frog.0 light up the evening sessions.

It’d been years since we last run dry laps around Road Atlanta. In fact it was 2008, we were in town with the new Evo X running with NASA in the TT-A class. Good times!

With newfound sharpness to the car, it was only a few laps before we were up to speed. The car felt amazing, alive, and very quick. Lap times during the first day time sessions averaged in the mid-1:26s with traffic.

We’ll have to come back another time to make a run at a fast lap.

Before we knew it the sun had begun to set. The “modern classic” beauty of the 997.1 was on full display during golden hour. It seems 997.1s are hardly aging, still looking contemporary nearly 12 years on.

The purity of the 997.1 GT3 Cup is something special.

Leh’s 997.1 GT3RS takes it a step further. The widebody shell of the GT3RS becomes especially evident during golden hour. Look at how those GT2RS side skirts are soaking up every last bit of sun light.

We don’t have much in the form of photos from our time #underthelights, however this image does a nice job of conveying the serene nature of driving on track at night.

The headlights essentially force the driver to focus solely on what’s happening immediately in front of the car and nowhere else. With nothing more than a narrow path visible to the driver, it makes for an intense yet peaceful driving session.

We’ll have more footage from our time at Road Atlanta up on YouTube here soon. For now, turn down the lights and ride along for a lap around Road Atlanta #underthelights.

Ride along with Ryan Gates as he and his father, Bruce Gates, spend the final session of 2020 lapping BIR together.

Ryan is driving the 311RS Motorsport Porsche 997.1 GT3 Cup and Bruce is driving the 311RS Motorsport Porsche 991 GT2RS Clubsport.

Neither car was running fresh tires so this was all about having fun together and enjoying the gorgeous fall weather at BIR. By the 4th lap you’ll see Bruce fly past down the front straight in the GT2RS Clubsport. You can almost feel the power.

-Drivers: Ryan Gates & Bruce Gates

-Cars: Porsche 997.1 GT3 Cup & Porsche 991 GT2RS Clubsport – both prepared by 311RS Motorsport

-Track: Brainerd International Raceway

-Fastest Lap: 1:35.3 (997.1 GT3 Cup)

“Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” The saying that has driven race programs since the 1950s still drives us today.

We race using components from the same technical partners we offer to our customers. Below are a few examples on the 311RS Porsche 997 GT3 Cup.

We’ve ran with Girodisc since 2006 and proud to continue this with a set of their lightweight two-piece brake rotors, seen here though a set of our gold BBS Motorsport E88s.

We’ve ran JRZ Suspension single, 2-way, and 3-way adjustable dampers throughout our 11 year partnership with JRZ. For the first time however, we’re running a set of 4-way JRZ Motorsports on our 997 GT3 Cup.

We’ve got them dialed in with support from Goldcrest Motorsports and engineer Bryan Hise.

There are no words to describe how proud we are to see the 311RS logo inside a factory Porsche 911 race car.

Look further inside the 311RS Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and you’ll find our signature Black Watch Tartan covering the cushions of the driver’s seat.

We took delivery of the 2008 GT3 Cup earlier last year, with the original 2008-dated seat still intact.

To comply with PCA Club Racing rules, we installed a 2019-dated Recaro Pro Racer HANS – an affordable option from Recaro to get us going before upgrading to their 1300 GT seat in 2021.

Schroth Racing provides every factory Porsche 911 race car that leaves the factory with 6 point harnesses. And it’s easy to see why, they are lightweight, durable, and easy to operate.

We upgraded to 2019-dated Profi II harnesses in black with custom silver patches for a clean look.

Overseeing day to day operations, Lucia continues to run a tight ship for us here at 311RS. Below are a list of products featured in this week’s round up.

–BBS E88 wheels

–Girodisc brake rotors

–JRZ Suspension dampers

–Recaro seats

–Schroth Racing harnesses

With the first PCA Club Race weekend under our belts, it was time we begin developing this stock 2008 997 GT3 Cup into a 311RS unit.

The plan was to introduce two of our long term partners, JRZ Suspension & Girodisc, into the program before heading to the PCA Road America Challenge over Labor Day weekend.

First up, the chassis was in desperate need of attention – the OEM Sachs dampers appear to be original to the car with no record of rebuild that we can find. Rules for GTC4 (the class we race in with PCA) allow for the dampers to be upgraded, without restriction.

The answer for us came in the form of a set of freshly rebuilt JRZ Motorsport 4-way dampers tuned to our driving style by Bryan Hise. We’ll be utilizing the factory Cup springs to baseline the setup.

We’ve ran JRZs on each 311RS platform dating back to 2009. The quality of control JRZ dampers provide has always treated us well.

With these motorsport 4-ways, control comes in the form of low-speed & high-speed Rebound and Compression adjustments, as well as gas pressure control on each corner.

Our next area of focus was to increase capability of the braking system. Heading into Road America, this was particularly important.

Partners since 2006, Girodisc knows how we like our brakes – lightweight and fast. The combination of their lightweight, two-piece rotors along with a set of Raybestos ST43s, creates a consistently quick braking package for the Cup.

We wrapped up the setup with a visit to Imola Motorsports to make use of their state of the art Hunter alignment rack.

The chassis setup was geared towards the fast corners and extreme braking zones of Road America – a bit conservative to keep the rear in order.

And here’s a look at the finished product.

We’re proud to see the car performing well in it’s first season with us. Good bones, as they say.

Here’s a quick walk around video of the car before we packed up for Road America. It may or may not be clear, but we love this car.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the program thus far, we are looking forward to bringing home even more victories together in 2020.