Words by Glen Smale / Images by Glen Smale & Corporate Archives Porsche AG The motorsport world woke up on Monday this week to learn of the passing of one of the sport’s greatest drivers. Vic Elford, or ‘Quick Vic’ as he was affectionately known, passed away on Sunday 13...
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There’s hardly a brand more connected to sports cars than Porsche. To this very day, the iconic Porsche 911 remains a benchmark sports car with nothing but a few formidable competitors in the vast and ever expanding industry. While only a handful of cars came to rival it, many more...
Hans Stuck at the wheel on the way to winning Sebring in 1986. His co-drivers were Jo Gartner and Bob Akin. (Porsche 962 chassis #962-113) The 2.6-litre Porsche 956 which raced in the 1982/1983 seasons in Europe, was not accepted for racing in the USA, and so the 962 was...
12 Hours of Sebring, 2017: Porsche 911 RSR #912, Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Richard Lietz in the GTLM class The 65th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring fuelled by ‘Fresh from Florida’ takes the green flag at 10:40 am (local time) on Saturday, March 18th 2017. The gates...
The #911 Porsche of Patrick Pilet, Dirk Werner and Frédéric Makowiecki speeds around the Sebring circuit at this last weekend’s race. They finished seventh in class Following their second- and sixth-place finishes at Daytona a few weeks back, the Porsche GTLM squad were understandably upbeat about their chances in the...
Sebring 12 Hours, 23 March 1968: #49 Porsche 907 KH driven by Jo Siffert (left) and Hans Herrmann, with Fritz Spingler (with hat behind car). Siffert and Herrmann were the winners in the #49 Porsche The 12 Hours of Sebring, the toughest and oldest sports car race in the USA,...
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Regarding 1950s Porsche Spyders, the sheer number of podium finishes reveal a tale of one the greatest sports cars ever built. Considered by many to be the most beautiful of all the Spyder variants, the Type 718 RSK won its class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours...
The Martini team run by Hans-Dieter Dechent had three cars, two to race, and one T-car. The #3 was driven by the two Austrians, Helmut Marko and Rudi Lins Some say this was the best Daytona 24 hour ever. It certainly was the closest finish up to that point in time....
When the idea came up of producing a series of race cars for the mainly-amateur racers who drove such GT vehicles in the early 1970s, the factory management was skeptical as to whether it would prove to be a profitable venture. After all, the factory had been in this line...
Background In the early 1970s, a new European Grand Touring Championship gave the competition 911s a fresh lease of life. This model almost completely filled race grids. By the Autumn of 1972, Porsche launched its new 911 ‘Carrera’ with engine capacity raised from 2.4 to 2.7-litres, and a batch of...
Daytona 24 Hours, 3-4 February 1973: The start 1973 Daytona 24 hours led by John Watson in the Mirage on pole 1973 saw a return to normality for the Daytona 24-hour race. The distance was set back at 24 hours, after running only a 6-hour length in 1972. Ferrari in...
More than a Carrera 2.7 RS The Carrera RS was introduced in 1973 and homologated for Group 4 GT racing, with only 55 examples of the legendary and ultra-lightweight racing variant Carrera RSR 2.8 produced (RennSport Rennwagen), with many special features, including the highly tuned 2.8L flat-six, 5cm-wider front and...
Ed note: The history of specific chassis used in notable races decades ago can be hard to verify but are significant to fans of Porsche and vintage racing enthusiasts. Information presented are the thoughts, data, and opinions of the author. Enjoy! This is the story of what happened to a...
In a garage full of legendary vehicles, one in particular stands out: the Porsche 935. The Porsche 935 was the first rear-engine race car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the occasion of the classic car’s centennial, we visited the 1979 winning vehicle in its current owner’s...
Porsche’s 1981 Daytona 24-Hour winning poster A lot of people have asked me over the years, what is it like to plan, prepare for and run a 24-hour sports car race. It has changed somewhat over the years from the days of the Porsche 935 at the 1981 Daytona 24...
Bob Akin’s 935, one of the major protagonists in the 1983 Sebring 12 Hour race. It was driven by Bob Akin, John O’Steen and Dale Whittington and finished second overall. (©Brian Cleary) The 1983 Sebring 12 Hour was an epic event. Back then the race was run on the ‘old...
1991 Koenig-Specials C62 One of the more notorious tuners is Koenig Specials. As the focus of the company has been to offer body parts, and conversion-kits, Koenig has made some truly outrageous show cars. It is hard to decide which is their most radical, because among the top cars is...
On the 2010 Le Mans starting grid before the race was the (foreground) #76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by the familiar trio of Raymond Narac/Patrick Pilet/Patrick Long. The #76 car qualified in sixth place in class and 41st overall out of 54 starters. The #97 BMS...
The #912 works Porsche 911 RSR GTLM driven by Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Richard Lietz being prepared ahead of the start in the 2017 Rolex Daytona 24 Hours The 2017 Daytona 24 hours has an interesting field and mix of cars, especially in the GT class. Although I have...
All lined up and ready for the group shot on 3 June 2017 on the occasion of the 24 Heures Du Mans Test weekend. The #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid will be driven by Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley Held on the weekend of 3-4 June 2017, the test...
Mexico 6 Hours, 3 September 2017: The #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid leads the pack into the first corner The Porsche LMP1 team scored the perfect result in Mexico at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with a 1-2 finish for the two 919 Hybrids. In the GTE Pro class, Richard Lietz and...
24 Hours of Daytona, 28/29 January 2017: Patrick Pilet, Frederic Makowiecki and Dirk Werner finished second in the GTLM class driving their #911 Porsche 911 RSR At the ten-hour Petit Le Mans race contested on the tradition-steeped Road Atlanta racetrack last Saturday, the new 911 RSR scored its first two...
#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley, 6 hours of Nürburgring 2017 What a wave of jubilation must have swept through the pit garage of the #92 Porsche RSR of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre when they realised that they had secured pole position...
Round 1 WEC, Silverstone 6 Hours, 14-16 April 2017: #92 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre leaves the pit garage It was a long time in coming, or so it seemed, but when the 2017 Porsche 911 RSR was unveiled at the LA Auto Show on...
The cars proceed into Spa city during the 2017 Spa 24 Hour drivers’ parade The Total 24 Hours of Spa, a round of the Blancpain GT Series, gets underway this weekend on the famous Belgian circuit. This round is also the second in the four-race Intercontinental GT Challenge which is...
WEC Spa 6 Hours, 4 May 2018: #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE Am driven by: Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker and Alexander Davison The first race of the season, the 2018 6 Hours of Spa, is almost upon us. Thursday saw Free Practice 1 and 2 (FP1 and FP2) and...
Dawn parade – photographers and enthusiastic race goers break the skyline at the Mount Panorama circuit ahead of the Bathurst 12 Hour race The Bathurst 12 Hour race serves as the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. First held in 1991, the Bathurst 12 Hour initially catered for production-based...
California 8 Hours, Laguna Seca, 30 March 2019: The #911 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R was driven by Romain Dumas, Sven Müller and Mathieu Jaminet Dirk Werner, Matt Campbell and Dennis Olsen clinched victory in the opening round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge at the twelve-hour race...
Kyalami 9 Hour, 21-23 November 2019: #09 Team Perfect Circle Porsche 911 GT3 R On 23 November 2019, the sound of approximately 15,000 bhp will break the long silence that has persisted over the famous Midrand circuit as twenty-eight top GT3 race cars tear down the start/finish straight in the...
Michelin is now the track sponsor. Their brand-new tower which has just opened, is 100 miles up the road from their US headquarters in South Carolina IMSA of course has several Marquee events, including the Daytona 24-hour, Sebring 12-hour, Watkins Glen 6-hour, and the Petit Le Mans. The Petit Le...
The two factory Porsches approach Turn 1 which leaves the oval. The immensity of the grandstands can be seen behind. The factory cars ran well, given that they are brand new cars. Driver line-ups are slightly changed from last year: the #911 will have Nick Tandy, Fred Makowiecki and new...
Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: Some of the Porsches do a publicity shot at the ROAR I first came to this race in 1971, so this would be my 50th year at the Daytona 24 hours. It is an interesting exercise to look back at what has changed...
HSR (Historic Sportscar Racing) held its now annual 24- hour historic event at Daytona on November 5-6. The 24-hour is formatted the same way as the Le mans Historics. Cars are divided into groups (7 total) and each group must complete four “1- hour” sessions. Note, groups C & D...
Located just half a mile from the sandy beaches of Monterey Bay, CA, the Porsche Monterey Classic on Monday night has become the Monterey Car Week “Starting Line” for many who make the annual pilgrimage. Last night’s gathering was the fifth iteration of the Classic, which started as a celebration...
Porsche Off the Pace Words: Kevin Ehrlich. Photos: Martin Raffauf, Porsche No Subscription? You’re missing out Get immediate ad-free access to all our premium content. Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
Photos by Chuck Andersen In a fiercely competitive and action-packed manner, the eighth installment of the Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Classic Sebring 12 Hour unfolded on a Sunday afternoon at Sebring International Raceway. No Subscription? You’re missing out Get immediate ad-free access to all our premium content. Get Started Already...
At the start of this month, Historic Sportscar Racing hosted one of the most anticipated races of their season: The HSR 24 Hours of Daytona. Much like the real 24 Hours of Daytona that kicks off the WEC and IMSA season each year, this event had cars of all classes,...
Held at the Sebring International Raceway, this year’s HSR Spring Fling brought together racing enthusiasts, competitors, and spectators to celebrate the essence of historic sportscar racing. This year’s event highlighted the following races: No Subscription? You’re missing out Get immediate ad-free access to all our premium content. Get Started Already...
On March 15, the all-Porsche championship’s weekend featured its second 40-minute race, showcasing 43 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars competing for dominance on Sebring International Raceway’s 3.74-mile track. The initial two rounds highlighted victories by first-time race winners in the top Pro class, as well as seasoned champions reclaiming...
Words and Images by Kevin Ehrlich and Martin Raffauf An endurance race around the clock can pivot on the events of seconds. The margin at the finish of the 2024 Rolex 24 was only two seconds. Porsche’s Filipe Nasr outlasted Tom Blomquist to claim Porsche’s 19th overall win as a...
The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team’s Daytona-winning Porsche 963 has finished the 12 Hours of Sebring on the podium. After a thrilling race in Florida, the works drivers Felipe Nasr (Brazil), Dane Cameron (USA), and Matt Campbell (Australia) crossed the finish line in third place with the No. 7 race...
The 15th Targa California rally recently concluded with most drivers logging 1,000+ miles over the roads “less traveled” of California’s central region. Porsche has a long history of naming their cars after yesteryear’s most grueling events (e.g. the Carrera Panamericana and the Targa Floria), and while this rally is by...
Five thousand fans and dozens of historic, priceless and deeply cool cars come together in Zell am See for the fifth F.A.T. Ice Race – a modern event that’s already a generation-spanning tradition. It’s winter, it’s cold, and at the weekend that meant one thing: time for the F.A.T. Ice...
Porsche Junior Theo Oeverhaus has won the 2025 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup opening round in Imola. After an action-packed race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, where the first Supercup race in history was contested in 1993, the young German clinched victory ahead of Israeli Ariel Levi and Dutchman...
Photography by Chuck Andersen. The 34th annual Brian Redman Targa 66 returned to its home base at Homestead-Miami Speedway, bringing together vintage race car enthusiasts for a weekend of high-revving excitement and camaraderie. Held in mid-February, this non-competitive event allowed participants to push their classic and modern race cars on...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 19/20 September 2020: The #57 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR GTE Am driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Felipe Fraga and Ben Keating waits on the starting grid ahead of the race The Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) revealed just yesterday, Tuesday 9 March 2021, the 62-strong entry...
Race day dawned with a blanket of morning mist covering the area. It was a crisp morning as I departed my accommodation to the east of Le Mans at around 07h15, and making my way towards the circuit, the pockets of mist became more sporadic. Approaching the airfield which lies...
Proven through competition Engineering, design, innovation; while the list is long for what describes the Porsche name, it can be distilled into one word; racing. Even before the days of cars that would bare his name, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche believed competition was the ultimate test for proving excellence in design...
The winning drivers from Porsche’s first Le Mans 24 Hour victory on 14 June 1970 (from L-R) Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood (2019) Today, Porsche can boast a total of 19 overall victories together with countless class successes in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most respected and...
#92, Porsche GT Team, Porsche 911 RSR, LMGTE Pro, driven by: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre at FIA WEC Spa 6h 2019 on 04.06.2019 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium Our second trip to Spa in the 2018/2019 Super Season takes place at a time when the teams, across all four classes,...
Porsche has unveiled the 911 Carrera GTS Le Mans Centenaire Edition, a special version of the iconic 911 . This exclusive model celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and pays tribute to Porsche’s history at the renowned Circuit de la Sarthe. Inspiration The 911...
Visitors to the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed enjoyed another stellar celebration of motoring and motorsport, with a variety of Porsche models from the new 992-generation 911 to the all-electric and Taycan Turbo GT drawing large crowds across the long weekend in southeast England. Inspired by Motorsport: innovative performance hybrid...
Proven in the dirt Porsche has a rich history of competing in various rally events, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. Some highlights include: 1. Monte Carlo Rally: Porsche succeeded considerably at the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally. In 1968, the Porsche 911 T driven by Vic Elford won the event...
The Gerry Judah sculpture at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed featured six Porsche cars mounted on a 52-metre-high star-shaped structure. This event celebrated both the 25th Festival of Speed as well as Porsche’s 70th anniversary I have always wondered, what the Goodwood FOS (Festival of Speed) was all about....
Spa 24-Hour, 2 August 2008: The #160 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S was driven by David Loix (B)/David Dermont (B)/Franz Lamot (B)/Jan Heylen (B) Over the years, we have attended many motor races and seen first-hand how the performance of the evergreen Porsche 911 has improved. This feature,...
Mille Miglia 2019 I have been an avid follower of the Mille Miglia for over a decade, with a bucket list dream to be there and experience the spectacle of the cars as they were being prepared to leave the start line for the four-day return journey from Brescia to...
Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR has been given a special jubilee design Project 1 may be a new team on the block in WEC, but this year, the team celebrates its 25th anniversary in motorsport. This season is certainly its biggest commitment to date as 2018 will see the team...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 31 May-1 June 1986: Start of the race – Porsches dominate the lead group In Part 1, Stories from Le Mans – with a Porsche flavour, our intrepid scribbler who hails from that beautiful part of South Africa, the Western Cape, shares with us some hilarious...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 19/20 September 2020: The pre-race grid was a busy place despite the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic – note the empty grandstand The 2020 motor racing season will undoubtedly go down in history as the most unusual and disrupted year on record. Only twice has the...
With Stuttgart neighbor Mercedes on the rampage, Porsche had trouble on the track in the late 1990s GT1 era. But when it was essential to pull out a win at Le Mans to celebrate Porsche’s 50 years of making cars, the GT1/98 had what it took. Planning for Le Mans...
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Boasting the largest starting grid of the weekend with 201 qualifiers, the ADAC 24h-Classic race was always going to be a busy event. Also, the wide spectrum of cars and the performance differential between the front and back of the grid, was huge. Despite this, the field was about as...
I have worked at many race tracks in the UK and Europe over the years, but the Nürburgring has always escaped my schedule due to other commitments. What an introduction this year on my first visit there, when despite the forecast saying that there was only a small chance of...
Long Beach, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, 14 April 2018: #912 Porsche 911 RSR of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber bounces over the kerbs during the race The efforts of the factory Porsches over the weekend came to naught, as the two 911 RSRs finished well down the order in the...
Porsche Carrera Cup France, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 30 September/1 October 2017: The cars await their chance to enter the track before Friday’s practice Over the last week-end of September/first of October the competitors in the Carrera Cup France and GT3 Cup Benelux (35 drivers in a total) were at Barcelona,...
Born: 19 November 1981 Where: Duisburg, Germany Lives: Tokyo, Japan Height: 1.84m Although it is his first year as a Porsche LMP1 works driver, German-born André Lotterer needs little by way of an introduction. Lotterer, it seems, was born to race, having attended races with his father from a young...
The new Porsche 911 RSR (2019) What better way to introduce a new race car model, than to do so as the 2018/2019 Super Season World Champions? This weekend, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Porsche launched the 2019 Porsche 911 RSR with 4.2-litre engine, the largest engine to power...
There are only a few annual auctions that have built the reputation of having prestigious and quality lot as Bonhams, The Monaco Sale spring event. On May 13, Bonhams is set to deliver as a number of distinguished vintage automobiles in different categories will be put on the block ready...
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Over a hundred years ago, Ferdinand Porsche designed an extraordinary race car, the Austro-Daimler ADS-R, in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Today, Christophorus and 9:11 Magazine brings the former Targa Florio class champion, whose nickname is Sascha, back home. Following a vigorous turn of the crank, the gas pedal is applied ever...
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A-zug, Austro Daimler, B-zug, C-zug, Ferdinand Porsche, M17-80hp, Rabe, Zugwagen M12 In July 1906, 30-year-old Ferdinand Porsche, who had previously worked for the small Austrian company Lohner, joined Austro-Daimler as chief engineer. He brought with him his development of the so-called “mixed or hybrid drive”—the Mixte: an internal combustion engine...
The front door of Autobau, which is built inside a turn of the 20th century alcohol storage facility There is a collection of cars that every racing and car enthusiast should see. It is at the Autobau, located in Romanshorn, Switzerland. On the southern shore of Lake Constance, the Autobau...
Circuit Paul Ricard, La Castellet, southern France After racing at Spa, Zandvoort, Dijon, Magny Cours and Barcelona, the Porsche teams and drivers went to the south of France for the season finale. The 2018 season of the Porsche Carrera Cup France ended last week at Le Castellet – Paul Ricard...
WEC BAPCO 6 Hours of Bahrain, 18 November 2017: #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley The curtain came down on the 2017 WEC after the Bahrain 6 Hour race this last weekend, and although the winner of the 2017 WEC LMP1 class was...
All four of the Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 935s line up in the pits ahead of the 1979 Le Mans race, each with the Stars and Stripes draped over the rear wing. From left to right: #73 935/77 (934½) – John Hotchkiss, Bob Kirby and Bob Harmon; #72 935/77 –...
Total 6 Hours of Spa‐Francorchamps, 4 May 2019: The #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR being prepped in the pit garage ahead of practice on 2 May Project 1 burst onto the World Endurance Championship (WEC) scene at the start of the 2018 Super Season. We covered their arrival on...
Two of the world’s greatest endurance races for GT vehicles within eight days on back-to-back weekends show how Porsche Motorsport and its customer teams faced this extraordinary challenge during the 2019 season. Endurance, a stunning Porsche documentary available on YouTube and Amazon Prime, takes the viewer behind the scenes at...
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Development of the 1979 Kremer-Porsche K3 Kremer Racing, headed up by the two brothers Erwin and Manfred, from Cologne, Germany, had been heavily involved in racing 911s since 1965 for their customers. They used various factory racing 911s, such as ST, and RSRs as a starting point and they started...
From 19-21 February 2021, Brian Redman will again host a superb gathering of top-notch high-performance sports cars and race cars at Palm Beach International Raceway. The exclusive Targa 66 event is open to invitees and their customers over the weekend and this year, Brian will also be celebrating the 30th...
Race to the clouds The Brumos Collection and Brumos Racing announced today that they will compete for the second straight year at the 101st running of The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, brought to you by Gran Turismo, on June 25, 2023. Also known as The Race to the...
Introduction Having watched this particular car race at the age of ten, you can imagine the excitement I felt when given the chance to fully document it for its current owner. Much time was spent tracking down period photographs of its debut at the Sebring 12 hours in 1977. Then,...
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Le Mans 24 Hours, 14-15 June 1969: On the final lap, the No. 64 Porsche 908 LH of Hans Herrmann/Gérard Larrousse swapped places with the No. 6 Ford GT40 of Jacky Ickx/Jackie Oliver as many as five times. The two cars were so evenly matched that what the Ford lacked...
The short answer—yes. The simple answer—it really depends. The sweeping answer—keep reading below. If you’ve made it this far into the article, either your curiosity has been piqued, or you’re in the mood to partake in some fact-checking (in lieu of a debate made possible only with face-to-face dialogue). There...
75th Anniversary The Stuttgart marque took center stage at this year’s Festival of Speed to pay tribute to the 75th anniversary of Porsche. The iconic Central Feature in front of Goodwood House showcased the evolution of Porsche cars through the ages, with six iconic vehicles arranged on the structure, from...
Porsche honored As the honored marque of this year’s Festival of Speed the sportscar manufacturer showed off with different actions. “We’re delighted that Goodwood gave us this brilliant opportunity to share our passion with enthusiasts, Porsche fans and owners here in the UK,” Krishan Bodhani, CEO, Porsche Cars Great Britain,...
12 Hours of Sebring, 17 March 2018: The #912 Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Gianmaria Bruni during the race Changes to the Sebring 2019 schedule were announced during the week which will benefit all endurance racing fans. Following a recent meeting between the FIA World Endurance...
A mid-engine twin-turbo that weighs only 1,000kg and aims for an overall win The last time Ken Block ran the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, it was back in 2005 in a Group N rally car. Back then he never fought for the overall title, the single most prestigious win...