MEET THE TEAM – GULF RACING
Milton Keynes, some 40 miles north on London is home to the UK’s newest WEC team: Gulf Racing. The racing operation is a remarkably compact affair, with less than ten full time employees, but one look at the facility will quickly show a visitor that the team is both professional and extremely serious about what it does.
As well as a spotless race workshop, that also houses and prepares for ongoing track use, some of team co-owner Roald Goethe’s ROFGO collection of works Gulf race cars, the facility also houses the admin offices and a full physical preparation centre, which includes a state of the art race simulator.
THE PORSCHE 911 RSR GTE
The car chosen for last season was a full factory specification Porsche 911 RSR GTE, which is one of a handful of such cars sanctioned by Porsche to run in top line endurance racing.
The 911 RSR GTE competed in the GTE Am category, which means that it is configured in the specification used by the GTE Pro cars in 2015.
At the heart of the 911 RSR GTE is the road-going Porsche 911. The GTE has been specifically designed to compete in championships running to the Automobile Club De L’Ouest GTE regulations.
The chassis is taken directly from the 911 road car. Into this, Porsche integrates an aerospace specification steel roll cage built to FIA standards. With the exception of the roof, the bodywork is manufactured from lightweight carbon fibre and features an advanced aerodynamic package with carbon fibre splitter, flat floor and diffuser, and a carbon fibre rear wing designed using the latest computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques.
Perhaps the most demanding test of any lubricant is one conducted on a racetrack. Gulf has continued to promote the brand worldwide through sponsorship of a number of major racing events and top teams, which has created and maintained international exposure. Gulf is proud to have partnered Aston Martin Racing since 2008 and the company now uses and endorses Gulf products. In 2013 Gulf again renewed its partnership with the Aston Martin factory team, signing a new agreement that linked the two companies until the end of 2015.