By the time the Dick Barbour Racing team arrived in Portland for the Rose Cup IMSA race in August of 1980, we were in good spirits. The week before at the Sears Point IMSA event, the team had finished 1-2 with two 935s driven by John Fitzpatrick and Bobby Rahal. The Portland race was of the 100-mile sprint variety, just as it had been the prior week at Sears Point in … [Read more...]
RM Sotheby’s Petersen Museum auction 2018 finale
Christmas shoppers in Los Angeles on December 8 had a special selection at the Petersen Museum as RM Sotheby’s hosted its last auction of 2018. The RM Sotheby’s staff assembled 68 vehicles and 56 items of memorabilia and nostalgia for the auction. The automobiles on offer spanned many marques and vintages. This was not a single marque auction but rather an assortment of … [Read more...]
Powered by Porsche – The Alternative Race Cars
With a company like Porsche developing powerful and efficient race engines, it was inevitable that other body and chassis builders would plant a Porsche engine into one of their own creations. With so many builders doing this, it was therefore inevitable too, that an author would sooner or later pick up on this and produce a book about this side of Porsche’s history. With … [Read more...]
Porsche’s road to Le Mans
Sixty-six years ago, on 24 June 1951, the first Porsche was pushed tentatively onto the starting grid of the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hour race. The lone, diminutive 356 SL would finish in a remarkable twentieth place overall. Fifty-one years ago, on 19 June 1966, the first Porsche 911 would see action in the 24-hour race, and finish in a commendable fourteenth place overall and … [Read more...]
Dick Barbour Racing at the 1980 Le Mans 24 Hours
Le Mans in 1980 was in kind of a transition. The Porsche 935 K3 had won the prior year. Kremer built on the success and sold quite a few customer cars, and kits to update older cars. Dick Barbour had bought a brand-new car to start the season, and was running for the IMSA championship with John Fitzpatrick as lead driver. The Porsche factory had stopped the 936 program, as … [Read more...]
Porsche at Norisring 1980
The Race for the Pork Cutlets… The end of June 1980 was a busy time at Dick Barbour Racing. We had just run at Le Mans with two Porsche 935 cars, chassis 009 00030 and 000 0023. Car 000 0023 was a brand-new Kremer K3 that had just been picked up the week before in Germany. Chassis 000 0009 sat in the paddock as a spare/parts car the whole week in France, as it had run the … [Read more...]
