A lack of testing proved to be the downfall of the Porsche-Lola T600 in the 49th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1981. But let us not get ahead of ourselves... The 1981 season had started out well for the Garretson team. The team was preparing the cars for Cooke-Woods Racing, which comprised Ralph Kent Cooke and Roy Woods. Ralph Cooke was the son of Jack Kent Cooke, a … [Read more...]
Yesteryear
What is your favourite Porsche Le Mans livery?
In the week leading up to the Le Mans Test Day, Porsche announced their new liveries for the 24-hour race on 15-16 June. In response to this announcement, we ask you, the reader, what your favourite Porsche Le Mans livery is. It might be the current crop of cars, or it might be one from the ‘70s, it doesn’t matter, just let us know which is your favourite. In the early … [Read more...]
Never a dull moment – the career of Toine Hezemans
One of the Netherlands’ most successful racers, Toine Hezemans is part of a motorsport dynasty that began with his father who raced Porsches in the 1950s. This family tradition continued with Toine who began racing 911s in the late ‘60s, but after his own career ended, his first son Mike, then picked up the baton and raced 964s in the early years of the Porsche Cup. Speaking … [Read more...]
How a Porsche survived at Le Mans on Coca-Cola
When you were last with Richard Wiley, we were hurtling around a damp La Sarthe in 1988 with Stuck in the Shell Dunlop 962, trimming the grass and setting up great plumes of spray as the Porsche barked its flat tones in a relentless but ultimately fruitless pursuit of a howling Jaguar V12 which was on the brink of grinding to a halt with no gears but which somehow survived to … [Read more...]
It’s been a long journey – the Norbert Singer interview
Norbert Singer must rank as one of the most successful race engineers in Porsche’s long and glittering motorsport history. Porsche Road & Race spoke to him about his four-decade career with Porsche, the race cars he helped develop and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “It’s been a long journey,” Norbert Singer said with a smile, and how right he was. Growing up in the 1950s and … [Read more...]
Porsche 911 GT1 – The Grand Touring Meister
Porsche 993 GT1 chassis #109 was one of just nine customer racing Porsche 911 GT1s built between 1996 and 1998. The 911 GT1 became the Grand Touring Meister when it triumphed in the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours, but its route to success was not an easy one and at one point, the whole GT1 project looked in jeopardy. How did the 911 GT1 come about Porsche is accustomed to adapting … [Read more...]
A Sting in the Tale
In Part 1, Stories from Le Mans – with a Porsche flavour, our intrepid scribbler who hails from that beautiful part of South Africa, the Western Cape, shares with us some hilarious and revealing stories from his many trips to Le Mans. Richard Wiley, a lifelong motoring journalist, has always loved Le Mans, Group C and especially the Porsches of that era. A sting in the tale, … [Read more...]
Taking the Porsche 919 Hybrid around the world – Logistics Part III
Following a fifteen-year absence from the top tier of prototype racing on the world stage, Porsche officially returned to the LMP1 class in 2014 with the 919 Hybrid race car. Preparing a race car like the Porsche 919 Hybrid at Le Mans was no simple task, and so we have explored what was needed in this feature, Logistics Part III. The way the WEC was set up when the … [Read more...]
Porsche 956/962 at Le Mans – Logistics Part II
In 1982, Porsche introduced the Type 956, the race car manufacturer’s entrant in the newly created Group C racing series which commenced that season. The new car scored a second place on its debut at Silverstone that year, and followed this up a month later with a clean sweep of the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The rest, as they say, is history as the 956 and its modified … [Read more...]
Porsche at Teloché, Le Mans – Logistics Part I
Porsche has been represented at the Le Mans 24 Hours every year since 1951, in both an official factory capacity and by privateer entries. No other manufacturer can boast such a long unbroken record of runs at Le Mans since their first race in this classic French endurance race. For Porsche, their attendance from 1951 to 2018 amounts to 68 consecutive races at Le Mans, and this … [Read more...]
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