Anatole Lapine, 1973 Anatole Lapine who was in charge of styling at Porsche under two disparate CEOs, Fuhrmann and Schutz, looks back on quite a CV: Chevrolet Corvette, Opel GT, Porsche 928, Porsche 964. But there is a lot more to this designer whose career spans two continents and most...
Molly ready for the Peking to Paris rally in 2007 © David & Julie Harrison She was manufactured in 1958, and much of her early life is unrecorded. But in 2004, a customer of Gantspeed Engineering, Lincolnshire, England, asked the workshop’s owner, Robert Gant, to find him a right-hand drive...
Obviously these two attractive models from the lingerie manufacturer Triumph (München) like this Porsche 914/6 – Rutesheim Athletics Club, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (1969) Very different from previous production Porsches, the 914 was an attempt by Zuffenhausen to introduce a lower cost model. Commercially it was only a moderate success, but it’s...
Porsche 906 (chassis #906/108) takes turn 1 on its way up the Hill at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed One of the motoring highlights of my 2016 season, if not of all time, has to be driving a fabulous Porsche 906 on the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb. The...
1981 Porsche Kremer 935 K4 – chassis #K4-01 In the mid-1970s, Porsche developed the 911 for racing, and in the process, it created the all-conquering 935. In 1978, Norbert Singer was responsible for building the ultimate factory 935, the Moby Dick 935/78, and although this race car had a very...
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...
Kremer Porsche 935 K3 – chassis #930 890 0021 The Porsche 935 was the Stuttgart manufacturer’s answer to the FIA’s Group 5 class regulations, making it eligible for the World Championship of Makes. The first Porsche car in this so-called ‘Silhouette’ series, was introduced for the start of the 1976...
Invitation to race from Charles Faroux Charles Faroux was a car enthusiast, a racing official, a leading French motor-publication editor at La Vie Automobile and a charmer. Europe’s major automobile manufacturers entrusted their engineering secrets and newest models to him in hopes of a favorable review. Everyone respected his opinions....
Sir Stirling sits back and relaxes at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed after being interviewed by the author It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Stirling Moss over the Easter weekend. He died on 12 April 2020 in Mayfair, London, England at the age...
If you were lucky enough to visit Rennsport Reunion 7 in Monterey, California, then chances are you gazed at one of Mark Morgan’s illustrations without even realizing it. An illustrator based in the U.K., Mark has mixed his passion for Porsche and his artistic talents to yield some truly exciting...
Mark Webber being interviewed at the Geneva Motor Show 2014, on the occasion of the world debut of the Porsche 919 Hybrid Porsche’s return to the top category of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) was announced by Wolfgang Hatz, Porsche AG Board of Management Member for Research and Development, on...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 14-15 June 1975: Porsche 9083 in the paddock ahead of the race (copyright Yves Ronga) When I’m not helping to sell the occasional old race car, or visiting old race car meetings, I’ve usually got my head down, researching various projects for clients, usually to do...
When discussing breakthroughs in sportscar technology, the Porsche 959 merits its own chapter, if not a book. Introduced in the mid-1980s, this genuine supercar emerged as a spearhead of innovation, vastly surpassing the technology Porsche had developed to date. While the standard 911 was not short on performance or prestige,...
Porsche 935-78 Moby Dick (chassis 935/78.006 ), photographed at the Porsche Warehouse in May 2017 Group 5 rules offered manufacturers a great deal of freedom to modify their cars in the Silhouette class. At Porsche, Norbert Singer pushed the rules to the limit, and gave us the Porsche 935/78 Moby...
Lined up in the pit lane before the 1994 Le Mans 24-Hours, is from the left: #36 962 Dauer Le Mans GT driven by Mauri Baldi, Yannick Dalmas and Hurley Haywood; centre is the street-legal 962 Dauer with rather appropriate Boeblingen region (Weissach) registration plate ‘P 962’; on the right...
Four originals: Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, his son Ferdinand, and two Porsche 550 Spyders on the Großglockner High Alpine Road – a mountain that figures prominently in Porsche family lore. What a panorama: At an altitude of 2,571 meters, the Edelweißspitze offers a magnificent view of the Großglockner, Austria’s highest peak....
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...
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...
Arno Bohn at Weissach with the 968 Cabriolet (1991) Arno Bohn was managing director of Porsche from 1990-92. An outsider who came from the computer industry, he arrived at a company seared by falling sales and riven by internal division about future direction. He left a Porsche which though still...
The 1977 #40 Martini Porsche 935/2.0 Baby (chassis #935 2 001) photographed at the Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany in May 2017 Ernst Fuhrmann’s requirement to develop a significantly updated GT race car in 1977, would present a number of challenges for the Porsche race department. Just to make things interesting,...
More than five decades ago, Porsche tested the exhaust turbocharger in motorsport. Shortly afterwards, the turbocharger was introduced into series production. 17 of the 19 overall Porsche victories at Le Mans were won with turbocharged engines. In 2024, the company celebrated ‘50 years of Porsche Turbo’ in series production and...
The name Porsche is synonymous with the world’s toughest endurance race, the 24-Hours of Le Mans, boasting an unbroken run of 65 years. During this time, they have amassed 18 victories. This is Part I of their story… The Veuillet/Mouche 356 SL proved reliable on its Le Mans debut in...
Overview Mountain championships, endurance races, Formula 1, Spa, Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans after Le Mans – no matter what series, no matter what track – Porsche’s racing victories formed the bread and butter of Erich Strenger’s work. As a freelance graphic designer from 1951, he designed sales catalogs, driver’s...
In the vast design world, few names resonate with as much acclaim and distinction as Porsche. While many associate this name primarily with high-performance cars, there’s another realm where the Porsche legacy thrives: product design. This evolution commenced with Porsche Design, founded by Prof. Alexander ‘Butzi’ Porsche in 1972. FA...
Alois Ruf Porsche Newsroom: As a teenager, Alois Ruf sees an early predecessor of the Porsche 911 on the autobahn, which ultimately ignites a lifelong passion. And what sounds like fiction is, in fact, actually true: around 50 years later, he discovers the car in Enamel Blue in his own...
9:11 Podcast In the current episode of the 9:11 Porsche Podcast, Dr. Wolfgang Porsche talks about the company’s history, the current anniversary year, and his 80th birthday. Dr. Wolfgang Porsche embodies ‘75 years of Porsche sports cars in a very special way. He has witnessed the entire history of the...
Rallye Paris-Dakar 1984: Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 4×4 (Type 953) – driven by (from L-R) #175 Jacky Ickx, #176 René Metge, #177 Roland Kussmaul For many years, the éminence grise of Porsche’s competition department, but now in retirement, Roland Kussmaul seems busier than ever. He left Porsche officially at the...
Goodwood Members’ Meeting to celebrate 75 years of Porsche with spectacular on-track demonstrations Goodwood is delighted to announce that the 80th Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport will host a spectacular on-track demonstration celebrating 75 years of Porsche. Just as Stuttcars has covered previous Porsche outings at Goodwood, we’ll be...
Follmer with Vasek Pollack in 1976.
Follmer was born in Phoenix in 1934, though effectively he became a Californian as his family moved to Pasadena before he was two years old and it was in this northern suburb of Los Angeles that he grew up and raised his own family. He was, he says, a reasonable...
Le Mans 24 Hour, 13-14 June 2015: Lined up prior to the formation lap are (from L-R) – the #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Marc Lieb/Romain Dumas/Neel Jani (finished 5th); #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley/Mark Webber (finished 2nd); #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Earl...
Mont Ventoux, 18 June 1967 – Rolf Stommelen won this hillclimb driving a Porsche 910/8 Bergspyder 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...
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...
Autosport 1000 km, Silverstone, 14 September 2008: In the fifth and final round of the 2008 Le Mans Series season, the #34 Porsche RS Spyder was driven by Peter Van Merksteijn and Jos Verstappen and finished first in the LMP2 class and fifth overall, ahead of a brace of LMP1...
Roland Kussmaul
Except perhaps at one or two retirement parties or other formal occasions, no one ever saw Roland Kussmaul wearing a suit and tie. Racing or workshop overalls, Porsche’s pit lane uniform perhaps, even a mere pair of grubby shorts in those shots of the sweltering Dakar where he raced during...
Corsica Rally, 1967: Vic Elford and David Stone driving a Porsche 911 2.0 R Not a company to stand still for long, Porsche was constantly looking for ways to improve its engines in the ‘60s. Somehow the Type 916 twin-cam 6-cylinder engine always seemed to miss the limelight…not anymore! The...
Porsche 911 991.1 GT3 RS
Jean Behra following his accident at Caracas 3 November 1957 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...
If you think post-war sports cars or muscle cars from the late 1960s are the staple of the collector car industry, it’s time to broaden your horizons. 80s and 90s enthusiast cars have recently forged their own niche in the collector car world, and appreciation of the period’s shining stars...
Rothmans Porsche 962C (chassis #006) 1987 Le Mans 24 Hour winner photographed at Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, May 2017 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...
Factory recommissions the famous Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar The recommissioning has been carried out over the past few months by the Porsche Heritage and Museum team together with their colleagues from Porsche Classic. A car that can survive 8,700 miles in the deserts and savannahs of Africa can go anywhere in...