In 1971 the first ever Starbucks coffee house was opened in Seattle, Washington. That same year, the fourth manned landing on the moon took place with Apollo 15, and Disney World, Orlando, Florida was opened. It was also fifty years ago this year that Porsche 917-053, the #22 Martini Kurzheck race car, shot across the start/finish line at Le Mans to notch up Porsche’s second … [Read more...]
Le Mans: The Official History 1970–79
This edition of Quentin Spurring’s fabulous series covers the 1970s in his well-known and valuable decade-by-decade history of the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race. The decade from 1970 to 1979, certainly saw some of the most memorable race cars in recent times take to the track. This ten-year period commenced with Porsche’s first victory in the French race (1970), and … [Read more...]
Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI – Laguna Seca 2018
It’s hard to know where to begin when writing a report on Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI. It was both an emotional and a sensory overload! A reunion with people not seen for a while, and the historical impact of all the rare cars. This was the sixth iteration put on by Porsche, and just when you think you had seen it all, Porsche improved it yet again. Rennsport was … [Read more...]
Porsche 917-021 The Fabulous Story
The fabulous story of this car’s life begins in 1970 with the construction of chassis #021, one of the first batch of twenty-five 917s to be built. In April 1970, the newly completed chassis #917-021 was sold to the Finnish AAW team, finished in the red and yellow colours of its title sponsor. The car’s first race, the Monza 1000km, served as an extended test session, … [Read more...]
Martini Porsche 917-042 – Le Mans record breaker
From 1964 through to 1969, Porsche lifted its game from being a class winner to setting international lap speed and endurance records that were beyond the reach of other manufacturers, by quite some margin. In May 2017, I was afforded the opportunity of photographing eight race cars in detail at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, and one of the cars on my list was the #21 Martini … [Read more...]
