The 924 That Finished Sixth at Le Mans

Nobody takes a 924 to Le Mans expecting to beat anything. That was more or less the received wisdom in 1980, when the idea of Porsche’s entry-level sports car mixing it with 935s on the Mulsanne Straight would have earned you a pitying look in any paddock bar. Which is what makes that June so much fun. The #4 924 Carrera GTP of Jürgen Barth and Manfred Schurti started well down the grid, in the back half of the field. It finished sixth. Overall.

And it wasn’t some lone fluke, either. Porsche brought three of them, dressed each one in a different country’s colors like a small rolling United Nations delegation, and got every single one to the flag. So how did the Porsche everyone loved to sneer at pull it off? Mostly patience, partly the weather, and a bit of marketing cunning from an unlikely corner of the company.