Famous sports cars head for Phillip Island Classic
A 30 minute race for the world’s fastest sports cars from the 1970 and 1980 is the feature event of the 2011 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 18-20.
The race will see at least three Porsche 956/962 sports cars, up to four Porsche turbocharged six-cylinder 935 coupes, a V12 ‘Silk Cut’ Jaguar XJR-9, a V12 Matra 670S, a V8 Sauber-Mercedes C9, and a number of V8-powered Lolas from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s compete over 20 laps of the 4.55km Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.
Victorian Historic Racing Register President Ian Tate promises it will be the most potent line-up of world-class sports cars ever seen in Australia, potentially eclipsing the field that gathered for the two World Sports Car Championship rounds at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway in 1984 and 1988.
A number of famous Le Mans and Group C era sports cars are amongst around 35 special vehicles coming from Britain, Europe and the United States to compete at the meeting.
Notable sports cars from the US include Bert Skidmore’s potent Lola T286 DFV and Ed Swart’s Lola T163, powered by a 685HP big block Chevrolet, while from the UK there is an ex-Le Mans JCB Chevron-Cosworth V8 and a C-type Jaguar once owned by five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
The big banger sports cars will be amongst an expected entry of over 500 cars at what has become the Southern hemisphere’s greatest classic motorsport festival.
Along with the celebration of sports cars, the meeting will also mark the 40th anniversary of Australia greatest Ford racing car – the Falcon XY GT-HO – with around 20 of these iconic models on display.
The 50th anniversary of the E-type Jaguar will see a display of up to 50 of these iconic sporting Jaguars, while the 60th anniversary of Porsche in Australia will see a flotilla of significant sports cars spanning three decades coming out especially from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
Other races on the program will include events for Historic Group N and the later Group C and Group A touring cars, an event for sports 2000s, and races for historic racing cars.
The 2011 Philip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport is organised by the Victorian Historic racing Register and will again be supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and Penrite.
More meeting details can be found by visiting www.vhrr.com
