After the successful introduction of the Porsche 944 Turbo (951/952) in the year 1985, Porsche started the development of a race car basing on the 951 which would then lead to the first one make race series in the history of Porsche. The car and the Cup were called 944 Turbo Cup.
The cup cars received a number of performance-enhancing modifications which were implemented into the serial production with the 944 Turbo S.
The turbo cup cars were undertaken a continuous optimization, power output was increased from 220 bhp to 250 bhp and to 290 bhp for French cup cars.
The Turbo Cup was carried out in Germany from 1986 to 1989 and in France from 1987 to 1990. While in 1990 in Germany the 944 Turbo Cup was taken over by the 964 Carrera Cup, the Turbo Cup in France was continued for one more year and saw the ultimate evolution of these cars.
The below information is referring to the French 944 Turbo Cup Cars:
The French Turbo Cup Cars provided a power output of an official 290bhp, effectively the cars put down 300-305bhp. This improvement was achieved by using a remapped Bosch Motronic, 3bar fuel pressure regulator, a modified wastegate and “colder” spark plugs.
Besides that, the Cup Cars were prepared as follows:
The engine was fitted an oil pan featuring increased capacity and an intake manifold both made from light weight Magnesia. In the engine bay, a strut brace was fitted and all unnecessary equipment (e.g engine bay lighting) removed.
The engine was able to breathe freely thanks to an open, de-catted “cup exhaust” which lead to better performance and a more spectacular sound compared to the German cup cars which were equipped with a catalytic converter allowing Porsche to get some good publicity for carrying out an ecologic race series and testing the newly developed technology under heavy duty conditions.
The interior was stripped out including the deletion of the rear seats, a “Matter” roll cage and Recaro seats including 5 point harnesses on the driver side were installed.
All comfort equipment such as AC, radio, stereo, central locking, electric windows and power-assisted steering was removed allowing the car to loose weight considerably.
The exterior was changed only slightly by fitting lighter cup mirrors, replacing the fog-lights by air intakes for cooling the brakes which were borrowed from the 928 S4 that used larger, drilled discs and race pads.
On dry tracks, the Cup cars were run on Magnesia alloys (8/9 X 16”) equipped with Slicks (245/255 ZR 16). The cars weighed in at 1160kg’s and put down 305bhp @ 5900rpm and 420Nm @ 3800rpm resulting in serious performance figures: The sprint from a standstill to 100 km/h (60mph) was done in only 4.4 s, a kilometer from standstill took 22.8s and top speed was 300+ km/h (The cars were clocked at 305km/h on the famous Hunaudières in Le Mans).
The history of the Turbo Cup Cars is unknown to many Porsche enthusiasts although the Turbo Cup was the first of the nowadays very popular one make race series that Porsche carried out and although the French Cup cars outperformed the 964 Carrera Cup cars which are extremely popular and getting more and more expensive nowadays.
For more detailed information on the 951 Turbo Cup please follow the link: http://www.asarus.com/
This page also features the most complete list of all Turbo Cup cars on the web: http://www.asarus.com/cup/recensement.shtml
