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...]
Yesteryear
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...]
Porsche’s fabulous 968 Turbo RS
The story of the fabulous 968 Turbo RS, one of Porsche’s sweetest front-engined racers, might be full of ‘what ifs’ and ‘if only’ but it is also certainly a story of lost opportunities. The end of the 1992 motor sport season saw the curtain fall on Group C racing, which was quite possibly one of the most lively, innovative and spectacular decades in motor sport in recent … [Read more...]
961 – Porsche’s forgotten jewel
The Porsche 961 was a special racing car. Based on the roadgoing technical showcase, the Porsche 959, the Type 961 showed that it had the stamina to go the distance in endurance racing on both sides of the Atlantic. Sadly though, its competition life was restricted to just twelve months, and as such, it is often regarded as Porsche’s forgotten jewel. Even though the Type 961 … [Read more...]
Kremer Racing mixes with the big players
In motor racing, the performance margin that separates the winners from the losers is often so small that it is mere determination that helps a driver to cross the line first. But that determination must come from confidence on the part of the driver and a belief in the race car, which may all sound very philosophical, but both of these factors can be very strong weapons in … [Read more...]
Porsche racing in Southern Africa – Part II
Porsche used its racing exploits around the globe not only to gain exposure and media coverage, but also to improve the performance and reliability of its road and race cars. Here we look into the second part of our two-part mini-series covering Porsche racing in Southern Africa. The premier event in Angola, the Grand Prix of Angola was run over the Circuit Luanda on 19-20 … [Read more...]
My first race as a crewman – Sebring 1978
In the early to mid-1970’s I had been working part time (race weekends) as an IMSA tech inspector at some of the races, mainly the ones that I could fit into my work schedule of my day job as an engineer. At some point, I had decided that eventually I wanted to race myself, but that I should work with some team to learn what was required to actually go racing and so my first … [Read more...]
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