Mega Gallery and Report: The Stunning Spa Classic 2019

Submitted by Marcel Hundscheid on May 28, 2019

By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica

Peter Auto hosted the ninth edition of the glorious Spa Classic recently, which attracted a record entry of 339 historic race cars. Read on, enjoy the mega gallery and let’s take a look back at the event.

Held at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, one of the world’s most beautiful race tracks, situated in the Ardennes region or known in the Walloon area as Hautes Fagnes, the event attracted more than 20,000 spectators over three days. Fans of historic motorsport headed to the Ardennes rollercoaster to watch and explore the different racing series from touring cars, GTs and sports prototypes from the ’60s into the ’90s.

One of the many highlights during the 9th edition was the Heritage Touring Cup, a series with a particular emphasis on touring cars from 1966 to 1984 to celebrate the legendary 24 Hours of Francorchamps.

An impressive grid of more than 50 cars entered the two races that were scheduled over the weekend. Amongst these iconic cars were six different makes (10 models) including the BMW CSL, BMW 635CSi and BMW 2002, Ford Capri, Ford Escort, Ford Mustang and Alfa Romeo. The race held on Saturday evening took drivers and spectators back to the 24 Hours of Francorchamps.

New to the programme were the sportscars and GTs gathered into Endurance Racing Legends, which raced for the very first time at Spa.

Amongst the participating cars were a Ferrari 333 SP and a Dallara SP1 driving in the prototype division. The GT category saw former winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on track, such as the Chrysler Viper GTS-R, Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, Aston Martin DBR9 and Porsche 996s to name just a few.

Classic Endurance Racing provided two grids, sportscars and GTs, from the ’70s and ’80s. The two grids put 59 and 31 remarkable cars on track, including a Porsche 917 in Gulf-livery, a McLaren M8C powered by a Cosworth engine and two Lola T600s. Besides these were several Lola T70s, Ford GT40s, different Chevron and Lola models not to forget the different Porsches and two very welcome BMW M1s.

Other grids that saw action during the packed three days were the iconic classics gathered into The Greatest Trophy – Sixties Endurance featuring 65 historic touring cars and GTs such as the Shelby Cobra, Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 356, Porsche 911 and many, many more.

The 2.0L Cup, open to classic Porsche 911s, attracted 38 entries. In Group C 18 prototypes found their way to Spa, including a Peugeot 905, several Porsche 962s, Spice SE89 and SE90s, Jaguar XJRs etc.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the remarkable cars that were on track during the event.

A Porsche 917 in racing condition is nowadays an unique experience as there just a few available in the world. The splendid 917 pictured above in Gulf livery ran in this year’s Spa Classic.

The car is chassis 008, which was entered by the Porsche factory in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced by Vic Elford and Richard Attwood. Due to technical problems the car didn’t finish the race, but Porsche went on to use it as a test bed and in this way it became the first 917K. During the ’80s and ’90s it was restored by Manfred Freisinger and nowadays it is kept in a private collection in Monaco.

Another remarkable car that caught the eye of your correspondent was the McLaren M8C pictured above. It was not powered by a big block Chevrolet V8 as used in the CanAm-championship, but by a 3-litre Cosworth DFV.

A closer look uncovered it as chassis 70-01, in fact the only M8C built with a Ford Cosworth DFV. According to the records it only raced during the early ’70s initially in Europe and later in Argentinia. Nowadays the car appears in historic racing events.

The Lola T600 was developed for the American IMSA GTP class in 1981. Brian Redman drove the car to victory at its first outing at Laguna Seca. The T600, fitted with a small block (5,736 cc) Chevrolet V8, became a huge success and Redman was crowned champion.

Pictured above is chassis HU2, delivered to the Cooke-Woods team. This car was entered by the Cooke-Woods Racing team for the Le Mans 24 Hours, fitted with a Porsche turbo engine. As Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman failed to qualify the car, the team focused on running the T600 fitted with the Chevrolet engine. After being displayed in a museum for almost 20 years this car has been brought back to historic motorsport events.

This splendid Porsche 962 CK6 hasn’t been seen at historic motor racing events in Europe for several years. Chassis CK6 01-2 is a Kremer-built Porsche 962 raced by Bruno Giacomelli and Kunimitsu Takahashi in the 6 Hours of Suzuka in 1988.

Kremer’s CK6 was actually their own development of Porsche’s 962C. Manfred and Erwin Kremer developed a chassis that was built by Thompson with a new short tail body. Chassis CK6 01-2 was originally built for the Japanese Sportscar Championship.

The Alfa Romeo TZ with chassis number AR15011 750033 pictured above was constructed by Alfa Romeo in May 1964.

The original Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ, also called TZ1 because of the later TZ2, was developed in collaboration with Autodelta, a company led by former Ferrari engineer Carlo Chiti. The TZ was characterised by a 1570 cc twin cam engine and other mechanical parts shared with the Alfa Romeo Giulia. It carried a 105 series chassis number.

With the use of a tubular space frame chassis with a full aluminum body, the Alfa Romeo TZ was a lightweight coupé of only 650 kilograms with a top speed of 216 km/h. The TZ was built for both the street and the circuit, with the race versions delivering 160 HP.

Characteristic, was the sound produced by the Ferrari 333 SP that was entered for the Endurance Racing Legends.

Back in 1993 Ferrari surprised with their first prototype in two decades, intended for participation in the IMSA championship. Ferrari used the V12 engine that was developed for the F50 road car, downsizing it for use under IMSA regulations. The 333 SP scored several victories including the IMSA championship in 1995 and the 1998 Daytona 24 Hours. Pictured here above is one of the 40 cars built, chassis number 034.

The 9^th edition of the Spa Classic surpassed itself both in participating cars, the excellent programme and the more than 20,000 spectators that found their way to the track. Please bookmark your calendar for the 10^th edition of this great event to be held in the spring of 2020.