It all started back in early March of 2020. I had a trip planned to visit the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, to conduct another extensive photo shoot expedition. The afternoon before I was due to leave, at 15h15 to be precise, I received a call from Porsche to say, “Don’t come!” I was speechless, but managed to stutter a garbled, “What do you mean don’t come? I am leaving … [Read more...]
Whittington’s #009 0004 rises from the ashes
The phone rang, it was my old friend Carlos de Quesada. “I’ve just bought a 935 to restore,” he told me. “Great,” I replied, “which one?” “#009 0004,” announced Carlos. Chassis #009 0004? I had been researching and writing about 935s for twenty years, often in close touch with the factory archivist, but I had never heard this number before. “Where did you find it?” I asked. … [Read more...]
A very different Le Mans 24 Hours
The 2020 motor racing season will undoubtedly go down in history as the most unusual and disrupted year on record. Only twice has the Le Mans 24 Hour race been rescheduled from its traditional June slot, to a later date in September, the first being in 1968 when the race was run on 28/29 September due to ongoing unrest in Paris. The second occasion was this race just finished, … [Read more...]
Preparations for the 88th Le Mans 24 Hours underway
Under unseasonably hot conditions for late September, the 88th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours is finally a reality. Postponed from its traditional mid-June date, the world famous endurance race fell victim to the global Corona virus pandemic, but at least we have a date for the race, and so its all systems go at Le Mans. In many ways, this running of the 24-hour race … [Read more...]
Video: Porsche Triple Victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1982
With the dawning of the 1982 season, the introduction of the Group C era ushered in a new breed of closed race cars that conformed to an 800kg minimum weight requirement amongst a host of other dimensional and fuel consumption regulations. In many ways, Group C which rand for more than 10 years pioneered technical and aerodynamic developments that saw lap speeds rise and times … [Read more...]
The many lives of the 935 K3/80 Red Baron
In the mid-70s, Porsche developed the 935 model, a race car homologated on the 930 road car and aimed at the Group 5 ‘silhouette’ series created by the FIA for the 1976 season. As the records will show, the 935 was a formidable race car and it quickly dominated the Group 5 class, becoming the weapon of choice for numerous privateer teams. Because of the flexibility of … [Read more...]
Twice Around the Clock: The Yanks at Le Mans
Over the years, there has been a lot written on the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, a race which has earned the reputation as one of the most challenging endurance races on the international motorsport calendar. The 24 Heures du Mans enjoys the reputation as the world’s oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, and has been held annually since 1923, with the … [Read more...]
Ferrari 333 SP
I first caught sight of the Ferrari 333 SP at Kyalami in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 1998. It was hot, as Johannesburg is at that time of the year, but the track action was even hotter with no less than four Ferrari 333 SPs in action. It was the final round of the ’98 International Sports Racing Series (ISRS), and the media briefing room was packed, as the local … [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...]
Hans Mezger: 1929 to 2020
It was with great sadness that the motoring and motorsport world learned last week of the passing of Hans Mezger, Porsche engineer extraordinaire. He died at the age of 90 years, having grown up and lived near Stuttgart all of his life. His contribution to Porsche’s engineering prowess was nothing short of exceptional. Hans Mezger was born on 18 November 1929 in … [Read more...]
