The Le Mans winner’s trophy for the 24 Hours of Le Mans has found a new home at the Porsche Museum. After three overall victories in a row in the toughest long-distance race in the world, Porsche has now earned the right to keep the challenge trophy forever. The Le Mans winners and Porsche 919 Hybrid works drivers Timo Bernhard (2017), Neel Jani (2016) and Nick Tandy (2015), … [Read more...]
Works Porsche 962-006
The Porsche 956 and its successor the 962, are widely and justifiably regarded as the most successful sports racing prototypes of their era, and quite possibly ever. Over a period of some twelve years, this model racked up 232 international victories on every continent in the world. This included the World Sportscar Championship, IMSA, Japanese Sportscar Championship, DRM, … [Read more...]
Mike de ‘Udy and the Carrera Six
The Carrera Six, as Porsche officially called the 906, was a radically different car from its predecessor, the 904 GTS. The 904 was a sleek glass fibre bodied racer penned by Butzi Porsche, and it took over as Porsche’s competition model following such illustrious forebears as the RS 718 and RS 61 which brought the Stuttgart manufacturer so many victories in the early sixties. … [Read more...]
Porsche 550A Spyder heads to auction
A rare and iconic ex-Le Mans Porsche 550A Spyder will come under the hammer at Bonhams’ Scottsdale sale on 19 January 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. Chassis #550A-0145 is the second-to-last 550A built and is a veteran of four world championship races while being campaigned as a works entry by Porsche in 1958, and is believed to be the only 550A to compete in a Grand Prix. The … [Read more...]
Jean Behra – Porschiste
Staring out of period black and white photographs, Jean Behra’s handsome, but battered face tells its own story: a combative soul who seemed to thrive only when living on the ragged edge and for whom an exploit was either going to work or it wasn’t: “Ou ca passe ou ça casse.” The British press used to talk about the ‘fiery’ Frenchman while L’Equipe would refer to his … [Read more...]
Proton Competition – steeped in Porsche race cars
Located in the town of Ummendorf, approximately 130km south east of Stuttgart, Proton Competition has been working on Porsche race cars for twenty-one years. Motor racing started in the family when Gerold Ried, father to Michael and Christian, began racing with some friends in 1994 and 1995 with a Porsche 964 RS. It was after the first two seasons of racing that Proton … [Read more...]
New look WEC for 2018
There has been much chatter on the Internet and on various social media platforms recently as to what would happen to the WEC in 2018. Well, to some extent, the wait is over as the FIA/ACO issued a press release last Friday at the Mexican round of the championship in which they revealed some of what the new look WEC for 2018 will consist of: The President of the Automobile … [Read more...]
The Old Warhorse
This is a story of the incredible career of Porsche 935 009 00030, one of the most amazing race cars ever, or as someone once said, the car of a thousand faces. Also known as the ‘Old Warhorse’, Porsche 935 009 00030 is one of the most storied cars ever to race. It has a long and distinguished history, racing in IMSA and World Championship events from 1979-1987. It has won some … [Read more...]
Rolf Stommelen – a driver for all circumstances
Rolf Stommelen was one of Germany’s leading racing drivers for over a decade and if as the title (above) of his biography implies, he could drive anything anywhere, this was largely true. Although his Formula 1 career with mediocre teams was patchy, in production cars he was reliably top class. But it was with Porsches that Stommelen was at his best, from amateur wins in his … [Read more...]
