While diplomats and cartographers may technically show the roads around Le Mans as French soil, Porsche has laid claim to the winding bit of pavement that comprises the race track and especially victory lane. Since 1951, when a silver Porsche 356 clocked up its very first class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the German manufacturer has gone on to score more class and outright … [Read more...]
Yesteryear
Anatole Lapine
Anatole Lapine who was in charge of styling at Porsche under two disparate CEOs, Fuhrmann and Schutz, looks back on quite a CV: Chevrolet Corvette, Opel GT, Porsche 928, Porsche 964. But there is a lot more to this designer whose career spans two continents and most of the second half of the twentieth century, and who for thirty years, was close to Ferry Porsche. Son of … [Read more...]
Porsche and the Triple Crown of endurance racing
There are three Sports Car endurance races that have been run over the past sixty-plus years that have been referred to as the ‘Triple Crown’. Arguably, some can say other races should also be included, but these three have withstood the test of time, and they are the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours, and the Daytona 24 Hours. The Le Mans 24 Hours started in 1923, … [Read more...]
Porsche 956/962 remembered
The decline of Group 6 and the growth of Group C saw the emergence of what is today widely regarded as the most entertaining and successful era in modern motorsport. Group C ran from 1982 to 1992, a decade that saw some of the most innovative and exciting engineering solutions to race car development imaginable. In this feature, Porsche 956/962 remembered, we look at some of … [Read more...]
Porsche 917 turns 50 years in 2019
The world has become obsessed with anniversaries or facts that you can leverage, in order to bring your message across. And that is also true to some extent about this account of a legendary race car, but in 2019 the Porsche 917 turns 50 years, and that is a significant age in anyone’s book. Without any question, the crown of long distance racing in the world of … [Read more...]
The Legendary Porsche Spyder
With Porsche celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2018, it would be appropriate to revisit the humble beginnings of this inspirational car manufacturer, to see how their early race cars helped to shape the company it is today. Porsche’s grass root racing endeavours, from the early 1950s, saw them form a strong bond with the Glöckler brothers, who dominated the European racing … [Read more...]
Jägermeister 934 – the Professional Hunter
The Jägermeister 934 is one of the most recognisable liveries in the world of motor racing. It adorned the bodies of some of the great race cars in the 1970s and 1980s, and irrespective of whether the car won a race or not, it was usually the crowd’s favourite. The 1970s was a period of great experimentation and innovation, both in the road car sector and in the racing … [Read more...]
White Lightning!
The origins of the 1998 Porsche 911 GT1 Le Mans winner can be traced back to a roadgoing version of the Group C 962 launched five years earlier. In order to homologate the 911 GT1/98, the FIA required a single street legal version of the race car to be made. You could call it ‘White Lightning’ because this road legal version of the race car had a top speed of 193 mph (310 … [Read more...]
Hairy monsters – the Porsche 917/10 Can-Am Spyder
Jody Scheckter was born in East London on the east coast of South Africa, a sleepy seaside town that actually carried the honour of being the country’s motorsport centre up until the early 1960s. In 1973, Scheckter, by then a 23-year old fast-climbing motorsport star, had moved ‘overseas’ and had been criss-crossing the Atlantic between England and America, competing in … [Read more...]
World’s longest motor race
The Marathon de la Route, an 84-hour epic endurance race run between 1965-1971, was an event that pushed both car and driver to breaking point. With some really unique rules, this race must go down in history as the world’s longest motor race. It was certainly one of the most demanding motor sport events ever, and yet so little of the race is known. Broken down into its … [Read more...]
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