It landed on my desk one day, unannounced and unexpected. The package was large and covered in stickers and labels, suggesting that there was something important contained within. Indeed, a frantic exercise followed to open the mystery package, and to my surprise it contained the book, Porsche 911 ST 2.5: Camera Car, Le Mans Winner, Porsche Legend, by authors Thomas Imhof, … [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 964 Carrera RS 3.8
Porsche’s roadgoing model line-up has seldom, if ever, been very far removed from the company’s motorsport programme. This thread can be traced back even to the early 356 and 356 Carrera days. The Porsche 964 Carrera RS 3.8 is a very different beast from the cars of old, but the same spirit of competition runs through the more modern car, as will be seen in the pages of this … [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 – It’s My World
Porsche – It’s My World: what is this book all about? Well, for starters, you won’t learn anything about Porsche’s cars, it doesn’t contain any technical specifications, and it has no narrative. So, you may well ask, what good is that to a Porsche enthusiast? And who is this guy, Stéphane Coradi, we have never heard of him? Also, his name doesn’t appear anywhere in the book, … [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...]
Roland Kussmaul
For many years, the éminence grise of Porsche’s competition department, but now in retirement, Roland Kussmaul seems busier than ever. He left Porsche officially at the end of 2008, but our attempts to meet him were thwarted for several years by his amazingly busy schedule. More recently, we were luckier: despite a programme still just as full, he found time to meet us at his … [Read more...]
Dick Barbour goes to Le Mans
Dick Barbour went to Le Mans as an entrant for the first time in 1978. He entered two Porsche 935s at the classic French Enduro. He had started racing in IMSA in 1977 after having bought one of the original ten Porsche 934.5 models offered by the factory for IMSA racing in 1977. He ran some of the IMSA races with mixed success in 1977. Towards the end of the season, he and Bob … [Read more...]
Porsche 936
There can be few people better qualified to write about a race car than those who drove that car in competition. When you add into the formula, the fact that the racing driver in question also worked in the motorsport department of the manufacturer responsible for building that car, then you have about as solid a source of information as you could wish for. Jürgen Barth, … [Read more...]
Jürgen Barth – A Profile
More books have been written about Porsche than any other car company so the publication in English of another tome is hardly headline news until you realise that the author, exceptionally, is a Porsche insider, but not just any insider. Jürgen Barth was at the epicentre of Porsche’s racing activity from the time he joined the Zuffenhausen payroll in 1966 until he retired four … [Read more...]
