Tractive joins Porsche Classic Boxster Cup for 2022

For 2021, Porsche Club Great Britain’s motorsport team revived the Pirelli Porsche Classic series, which ran for several seasons during the 1980s. Relaunched as the 911 Challenge, the competition comprised three classes for air-cooled 911s (up to and including 993) and took the shape of a series of one-hour races across six rounds hosted at Donington Park, Snetterton, Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, with two twenty-five minute races held at Silverstone. Star cars included a 964 N/GT and a Daytona-seasoned Carrera RSR 3.0.

Early on in the season, suspension manufacturer, TracTive, joined the series as title sponsor. The brand is no stranger to Porsche Club Motorsport, not least thanks to cars in the Petro-Canada Lubricants Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli running TracTive equipment. “Paul Simpson’s 986 Boxster finished the 2021 season second in Class 2 with the assistance of TracTive semi-active ACE dampers,” smiles Steve Bennett, TracTive UK’s Managing Director. “James Coleman’s Cayman is making use of ACE dampers in Class 1 of the same competition,” he adds, before revealing TracTive’s involvement in 2022 will ramp up with the development of a new alternative and regulated Class 3 controlled damper.

“Whereas Class 1 and Class 2 welcomes a mix of Porsche race cars, Class 3 is exclusively for the 3.2-litre 986 Boxster S, which is why the series is more commonly known as the Porsche Classic Boxster Cup,” Bennett continues. “For 2022, TracTive will be offering a new one-way damper for all participants, with new series regulations stating fresh entries to Class 3 will need to run this exciting new product as a condition of participation.” Custom-made and designed specifically for this application, each TracTive Class 3 damper set features inverted struts, 55m casings, 43-38 inserts, twenty clicks of rebound and compression adjustment and Eibach racing springs. Lightweight, vacuum filled and dyno tested to guarantee quality and consistency, the product is supplied with or without motorsport top mounts and has been extensively tested and approved by Stuart Wallace at Porsche race car preparation outfit, SW Engineering. A Wallace-prepared Boxster secured the overall championship win for 2021 with a huge points haul in Class 2.

“Stuart put this new damper design on the 986 Boxster for racing at the Festival of Porsche,” Bennett tells us. “The car achieved pole position with a significant half a second to spare.”

Available exclusively through SW Engineering, TracTive’s regulated damper for Class 3 will benefit from full build and service history. “Every damper carries its own serial number.

This means comprehensive documentation for the lifetime of the product will be available to competitors.” Considering race cars change hands from time to time, this is good news for those buying a TracTive-equipped 986 Boxster motorsport machine in the future, as well as those fitting the company’s products in the present. “Owners will be able to take advantage of a dedicated damper service centre in the UK, making life as easy as possible for any competitor,” Bennett confirms.

Porsche Classic Boxster Cup cars are more standard than the models competing in Class 2, with Class 3 entries running on Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R road tyres, as opposed to slicks. Each race meeting consists of a twenty-minute qualifying session and two twenty-five-minute races, all filmed and presented on motorsport.tv. To register your participation for 2022, visit porscheclubgb.com/motorsport/race. For TracTive product data, visit ttsuspension.co.uk.