A journey back in time to 1999 begins with a roll-out on the Weissach Development Centre test track. The LMP 2000 was originally designed to take victory at the Le Mans 24. However, midway through the development, the company decided, for budgetary reasons, to discontinue the project after the car...
When Porsche wanted to build a 911 2.7 RS for the 1980’s, it came up with the Carrera 3.2 Club Sport, a car which much like an RS has gone on to become a sought-after classic. In common with its RS predecessor, the key to the Club Sport is weight,...
There isn’t much Karl Kainhofer hasn’t done in over 50 years of involvement in motorsports, from motorcycle racing in Austria to being Porsche’s man in the USA, to his involvement in virtually every facet of Penske Racing. Born just before the Second World War in Vienna, Austria, Kainhofer became involved...
Derek Bell initially made a name for himself, racing in open-wheeled cars including Formula 2 and Formula 1. However, it is long-distance sports car racing, particularly in Porsches, where Bell forged his legacy as a champion with five overall victories at Le Mans, three victories in the 24 Hours of...
To the rest of the world he’s Paul Newman the renowned actor. In the world of racing, he’s Paul Newman, CART team owner and accomplished sports car racer, with four SCCA National Championships and a class win at Daytona to his credit. In this exclusive interview, he sat down with...
The Kremer Brothers, Erwin and Manfred, have been in the racecar preparation and construction business for nearly 40 years. Their names are virtually synonymous with Porsche racing machines, and they have won races and championships in GT, sports, prototype, IMSA, Group C, Porsche Cup and many other series over that...
Last month, European Editor Ed McDonough spoke with Vic Elford about his first Formula One encounters, and his Ford and Porsche days in rallying. This month the story continues, and Elford talks about the legendary Porsche 917 which he drove at Le Mans and Sebring, where he won in 1971....
American racer Jim Busby started his racing career, like most California k3ids, in hot rods and drag racing. However, in the coming years he would make the rare transition to road racing and would go on to become a two-time winner at Le Mans. Casey Annis recently spoke with him...
The history of American sports car racing is rife with talented individuals that raced at the highest levels of national and international competition, yet have been largely unrecognized by history. Californian Dave Jordan is one such driver whose decade-long career includes successes in production cars, international endurance racing, and Formula...
From gas station owner in 1954 to leading Le Mans in 1967, sports car racer Scooter Patrick enjoyed an amazing career. Perhaps best remembered for his prowess and speed at the wheel of Otto Zipper’s many Porsches in the ’60s, Patrick also enjoyed racing success in a wide variety of...
For this special Porsche issue it was only right to interview the man who, in real terms, helped to put the Porsche name firmly in motor racing record books as a marque to be respected and feared. In 1970, together with Richard Attwood—some would say a most unlikely pairing—and from...
In the days before data logging transformed our sport into a science, the judge of all things was the simple stopwatch. This meant that the men in the cockpits could still make a difference in the performance of their cars, and George Follmer was one of those men. The Phoenix-born...
Porsches have scored a record 16 overall victories at Le Mans, 14 similar triumphs in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and eight 12-hour wins at Sebring, and upon all of them can be found the fingerprints of Norbert Singer. A 30-year-old graduate engineer with a Masters in Mechanical Engineer, Aviation...
Starting his career in the early ’60s behind the wheel of a Mini, John Fitzpatrick quickly worked his way to the top echelons of the endurance racing world. From winning the British Saloon Car Championship, Fitzpatrick went on to factory rides with Ford and BMW, as well as notching up...
The 12-Hours of Sebring remains the oldest established sports car endurance race to be held in the United States, although with a partly glorious, somewhat patchy history. Always a popular spring break destination, Sebring enjoyed an oftentimes ÒwildÓ party atmosphere in the Ô70s-sometimes on a par with Watkins GlenÕs infamous...
For some, motor racing is an inevitability. It is a passion that they are born with and it is just a matter of time before they slip behind the wheel of a racing car. For these chosen few, this inborn factor elevates them to a level above the rest of...
The Can-Am Porsche 917 The Can-Am Race Series, held from 1966 to 1974, helped propel professional sports car racing to new heights of popularity in the United States. The series was governed by an open and simple set of rules, which created an environment that brought the most powerful and...
It was created by Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferdinand Porsche and a handful of his close associates in 1937-38 and, despite the hideous wartime destruction, is still alive and well today, a distinguished septuagenarian. Yet important though it is, not much has been seen or heard of the Type 64 or,...
Looking Back on a Brilliant Career… One Photographer’s Personal Recollections of the Most Successful American Endurance Racer of All Time This photo montage shows (clockwise from bottom) Haywood in Bruce Leven’s Porsche 956, at Porsche-palooza in 1981, all smiles after his third victory at Le Mans in 1994, and celebrating...
“Gregg, Peter (FA),” was filed between “Greenwood, John” and “Gregory, Masten.” The file, dog-eared and stained with the outline of a coffee cup, showed its age; it dated back to 1970. I recognized the handwriting, it was mine; the (FA) did not stand for Formula Atlantic. This brought a smile...
We have partnered with Sports Car Digest to bring amazing Porsche content from the SCD archives to Stuttcars. This piece was originally published on February 2, 2015 and is here for Stuttcars members to enjoy! The first efforts with the 924 rally car involved a non-turbo version, the Monte Carlo...
Motor racing has always involved risk for the drivers, and sometimes for spectators too, as was seen to horrific effect The chaotic scene just after the #88 car of Huhn/Schwarz crashed at the Nürburgring in 1970. Photo: Porsche Werk in the disaster that occurred at the 1955 Le Mans 24...
As Rolf Stommelen climbed behind the wheel of the front-running Andial/Meister Porsche 935K3 after co-driver Derek Bell had pitted to refuel and take on four new tires, rising American star Bobby Rahal found himself leading Mid-Ohio’s $50,000-to-win “all-comers” Lumbermens 500 in the Group 6 Red Roof Inns Ralt RT-2 he...
We have partnered with Sports Car Digest to republish some of their Porsche-centric mcontent on Stuttcars for our members to enjoy. This piece was originally published on May 11, 2021 on Sports Car Digest. In many circles, the term airhead applies to someone who is silly or lacking in intelligence....
The 1960s was an important period for the automobile industry. In the States, the classic muscle cars were in the so-called golden phase, bursting with oversized engines and raw horsepower. On the other side of the Atlantic, German carmaker Porsche was also riding a wave, building the blocks for lasting...
Bob Wollek and Darren Brassfield drive the rebuilt chassis 108 to 14th overall at West Pam Beachin 1987. Mauro Baldi in the B.F. Goodrich 962 during the Daytona 24 Hour race of 1988.Photo: Lee Self The Porsche 962, which first saw the track in 1984, is one of the all-time...
In 1977, Porsche’s “improvised” Type 936/77 took on the full-court press of four Renaults at Le Mans. Retirements and technical troubles suggested that winning was out of the question. But neither its drivers nor Porsche number 4 believed that. Against strong opposition from Alpine-Renault and Alfa Romeo, Porsche took the...
I couldn’t quite pinpoint why, during the research and writing of this profile, that I kept hearing the Lennon/McCartney hit “Come Together” somewhere in the back of my head. I have often used the metaphor of how some of the most interesting motor racing tales are based on an almost...
For the burgeoning Formula Two category for 1½-liter cars, French star driver Jean Behra based a new racing car of his own on Porsche components. In 1959, it showed its class by beating the factory Porsches in the year’s biggest F2 race. Built in Modena, Italy, in 1959, for French...
Porsche 356A Modern automobile manufacturers would tell you – if you ran the Porsche history past them without putting a name to it – that it couldn’t possibly be true. A father and son leave allied prisons after WWII and set up a small design firm. One of their projects...
For better, and sometimes for worse, corporate culture and business strategy have historically played a significant role in motorsport. Over the years, racecars and racing programs have been created and eliminated for no other reason than to satisfy marketing strategies and brand positioning. While many of us tend to view...
In the current era of Grand Prix and sports car racing, there is virtually no such thing as a new model racing car from a team or manufacturer and, at least on the surface, the 2003 F1 Ferrari looks like the 2002, which looks like the 2001, etc. However, it...
The original idea for this “special” feature had been to do a test on Porsche’s famed Moby Dick…the 935/78 long-tail beast from 1978, the company’s first racecar with water-cooled cylinder heads. However, that particular machine was on tour in China and not due back at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart...
The terms Porsche and racing have now become virtually synonymous. In no small part, this is due to the German manufacturer’s stunning 19 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans—more than any other manufacturer. However, the keen enthusiast will know that it took Porsche almost 20 years to...
Accused of sandbagging at Daytona, two WSC-95 spyders were in storage until called to duty by Team Joest. Porsches by adoption, they took two straight victories at Le Mans in 1996 and ’97 in some of the company’s most improbable successes. “Buoyed by our success at the 1994 Le Mans,”...
The book “Great Marques – Porsche” starts with this paragraph by Dr. – Ing. h.c. Ferdinand (Ferry) Porsche in the Foreword: “Since the beginning of car manufacture, people have wanted to own and drive sports and racing cars above all. Car enthusiasts delight more in the sporting success of ‘their’...