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Highlights 962-010’: the very last works chassis to be used by the factory team Driven to 2nd place at Le Mans by Derek Bell, Hans Stuck and Klaus Ludwig Impeccable ownership history since sale by Porsche in 1989 Amazing time capsule condition, untouched since her last race Background Few cars...
The number 6 Porsche 963 from Porsche Penske Motorsport finished the 24 Hours of Le Mans in second place. In a highly exciting battle for overall victory, Matt Campbell, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor were just 14.084 seconds behind the victorious Ferrari. After 387 laps, the other two identical hybrid...
With 19 overall and 111 class victories, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in Le Mans history. The 24-hour race is one of the biggest sporting events globally, attracting over 325,000 fans annually. For the 93rd edition of the endurance classic, Porsche has set ambitious goals. The Porsche 963 aims...
Background The original 917 was developed by Porsche beginning in 1968 in anticipation of changes to FIA homologation rules allowing low-production prototypes to contest the 5.0-liter class of World Sports Car Championship competition. The flat-12-powered 917 claimed back-to-back victories at Le Mans while helping Porsche claim the 1970 and 1971...
In the second race weekend of the 2024/2025 Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), Manthey again demonstrated strong performance with their two Porsche 911 GT3 R. After a nearly one-hour race interruption in Saturday’s race, Ryan Hardwick (USA), Richard Lietz (Austria), and Riccardo Pera (Italy) secured their second ALMS podium finish,...
Le Mans, the movie This Porsche 917K was immortalized as the race winner in Steve McQueen’s 1971 film Le Mans, and was the Gulf-Porsche works entry for Mike Hailwood and David Hobbs in the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours. An icon among icons, this 917K is an incomparable example of...
Photography by Matty White Media. A supremely promising early phase of the World Endurance Championship in 2024 shone favorably on Porsche, where their Factory Hypercars were performing well. Customer Hypercars in the hands of Jota and Proton were dominating, and the GT3 entries run by Manthey were the toast of...
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...
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...
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 undisputed King The Porsche 917, conceived in the late 1960s, emerged from Porsche’s strategic intent to conquer the World Sportscar Championship, particularly the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This ambition materialized through exploiting a loophole in the homologation requirements, allowing the creation of a vehicle with unprecedented speed and...
Porsche Penske Motorsport will once again field three Porsche 963 race cars at the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans in the 2024 season. The organizer, ACO, confirmed that the Porsche works team will campaign a third car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. French works driver Mathieu Jaminet...
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...
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...
One of the most colorful episodes in the history of Porsche was their 13th Le Mans victory in 1994 with the racing version of a road car derived from a racing car. This hubris served the car company well and less so a participant. This was the car that Porsche...
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....
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...
#19 Porsche 919 LMP1-Hybrid, winner of the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans. Even just the name evokes memories of classic races, unbelievable tragedy, and some of the fiercest battles ever fought over an 8.5 mile (13.6 KM) stretch of road known as “le Circuit de la Sarthe.” These hallowed grounds are where Porsche ultimately proved their...
The No. 8 Toyota (closest to the camera) leads the Hypercar class across the start line
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...
Official group shot of the cars showing the full starting grid at Le Mans 24H
Without doubt, this race is recognised as the most important, the most charged and the one that everyone who is anybody in endurance racing wants to drive in or watch from the stands. In particular, this year, being the 99th year since its inception, there are great expectations and high...
Brian Redman standing next to Porsce on track at Targa Sixty Six
Endurance racing legend Brian Redman is once again hosting Targa Sixty Six, a vintage race car gathering he founded in 1991 where owners can “properly exercise” their sleek machinery in a controlled atmosphere. This year’s event will be held from February 11-13 at the 10-turn Palm Beach International Raceway just...
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...
Mr. Le Mans: Tom Kristensen by Tom Kristensen with Dan Philipsen © Glen Smale The interesting thing about racing is that nothing is certain. You can prepare yourself and the car perfectly, but then another car hits you or pulls out in front of you, and there is little if...
Movie star and racing driver Steve McQueen had an idea to make a film based on the Le Mans 24H racing. He had a personal Porsche 908 K Flunder Spyder (chassis 908-022) in which he had scored second in 1970 Sebring 12H. For the Le Mans the car was converted...
The Porsche 936 was a racing car introduced in 1976 by Porsche as a delayed successor to the Porsche 908, a three litre sportscar prototype which was retired by the factory after 1971. Its name came from using a variant of the Porsche 930’s turbocharged engine, as well as competing...
The 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 26th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 21 and 22 June 1958. It was also the fifth round of the 1958 World Sports Car Championship. Ferrari had 10 cars start the race with only two finishing but one, a...
Porsche at Le Mans
Porsche at Le Mans – The Ultimate Guide to Every Year & Every Result Circuit de la Sarthe is situated 130 miles/209 km west of Paris beside the city of Le Mans in the Sarthe county. The circuit is mostly a combination of country roads closed for the race, but...
This feature, the fourth in our mini-series, picks up where we left off last time (Part 3: 2013-2016) and highlights the continued growth and success of the evergreen Porsche 911 on the UK and European motorsport scene between 2017 and 2019. 2017 Silverstone 6 Hours, 16 April 2017 The Silverstone...
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) revealed just yesterday, Tuesday 9 March 2021, the 62-strong entry list for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. Announced recently too was the revised date for this year’s race, this being at the later than usual start time of 16h00 on 21-22 August. What will...
ACO Museum, Le Mans 16 September 2020: As it was the 50th anniversary of Porsche’s first win at Le Mans, a special display was set up featuring several of Porsche’s winning cars In 1971 the first ever Starbucks coffee house was opened in Seattle, Washington. That same year, the fourth...
Porsche 904/8 (chassis #008) photographed in the Porsche Museum, September 2020 F.A. ‘Butzi’ Porsche, the eldest son of Ferry and Dorothea Porsche, joined the family business in 1958 having shown great interest in the field of industrial design. Working under the direction of Erwin Komenda, F.A. Porsche set about learning...
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...
DBR 9 – The Definitive History by Christoph Mäder and Thomas Gruber © T.A.G. Motor Books GmbH At Porsche Road & Race, we receive many books for review, and these include books on all manner of high performance roadgoing sports cars and motorsport. So, when the Aston Martin book, DBR...
It all started back in early March of 2020. I had a trip planned to visit the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, to conduct another extensive photo shoot expedition. The afternoon before I was due to leave, at 15h15 to be precise, I received a call from Porsche to say, “Don’t...
The 2020 motor racing season will undoubtedly go down in history as the most unusual and disrupted year on record. Only twice has the Le Mans 24 Hour race been rescheduled from its traditional June slot, to a later date in September, the first being in 1968 when the race...
Under unseasonably hot conditions for late September, the 88th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours is finally a reality. Postponed from its traditional mid-June date, the world famous endurance race fell victim to the global Corona virus pandemic, but at least we have a date for the race, and...
#23 Porsche 917 KH 580 hp at the Le Mans 50 years victory celebration at the Museum on 13/14 June 2020
More than 4.75 million visitors have passed through the doors of Porsche’s Museum in Stuttgart since the company officially opened its doors to the public on 31 January 2009. There is no question, the road and race cars on display make for fantastic viewing, and when compared to the old...
Ferrari 333 SP – A Pictorial History 1993-2003: by Terry O’Neil © Dalton Watson Fine Books I first caught sight of the Ferrari 333 SP at Kyalami in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 1998. It was hot, as Johannesburg is at that time of the year, but the track action...
Le Mans: The Official History 1970–79 by Quentin Spurring © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale This edition of Quentin Spurring’s fabulous series covers the 1970s in his well-known and valuable decade-by-decade history of the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race. The decade from 1970 to 1979, certainly saw some of the most...
Porsche mourns the death of Hans Mezger – this photo was taken in 2007 It was with great sadness that the motoring and motorsport world learned last week of the passing of Hans Mezger, Porsche engineer extraordinaire. He died at the age of 90 years, having grown up and lived...
As the weekend of the original 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours approaches, 13-14 June, we take a look back at some of the events that took place during the race week in 2019. Had things been running normally in 2020, we would have been on the ground at Le Mans...
SportErfolge: by Tony Adriaensens – page photographs by © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale Simply titled, SportErfolge (English: Success in Sport), this book came my way quite by surprise. It is not a book I knew anything about until I spotted it on the internet, and decided to look for a copy....
Gérard Larrousse (2017) Former Porsche works driver, Gérard Larrousse, celebrates his 80th birthday on Saturday 23 May 2020. Gérard Gilles Marie Armand Larrousse was born in 1940 in Lyon, where his father ran a textile factory. “I was fascinated by motorbikes and sports cars from a young age but my...
This feature, the third in our four-part mini-series, picks up where we left off last time (Part 2: 2010-2012) and highlights the continued growth and success of the evergreen Porsche 911 on the UK and European motorsport scene between 2013 and 2016. Having benefitted from full media and photographer access...
California may seem like the ideal place on earth to live, with its legendary beaches, surf and laid back lifestyle, but they too are feeling the effects of the Coronavirus outbreak. This, though, is not the time to be hitting the beach or catching a few waves, it is a...
ENDURANCE is a look back at the two greatest endurance races that the Porsche GT Team faced on back-to-back weekends in 2019: the Le Mans 24 Hours and the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It covers driver interviews explaining the highs and lows, including a look behind the scenes during both...
PORSCHE ROAD & RACE caught up with the amiable Jörg Bergmeister, to ask him how he has been dealing with the Coronavirus lock-down. With all major motorsport activities on hold or cancelled, and with no end to the Coronavirus outbreak in sight, there is no way of knowing when things...
PORSCHE ROAD & RACE has been out looking for some of the Porsche drivers and finding out what they have been up to during the Coronavirus lock-down that has affected most countries around the world. With all major motorsport activities on hold or cancelled, and with no end to the...
After the music had died down, and the last of the revellers had left the party that had just a few hours earlier welcomed in a new decade, little thought was given to life much beyond the next day or perhaps the next week, at best. And yet here we...
Porsche Sport 2019 – © Gruppe C Motorsport Verlag The 27th publishing of this superb edition of Porsche Sport 2019 by Gruppe C Verlag, opens with this paragraph, “The year 2019 marked exactly half a century since a new competition sports car from Porsche was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show....
Le Mans 24 Hour, 16-17 June 2012: The #55 JWA-Avila Porsche 997 GT3 RSR driven by Paul Daniels, Joël Camathias and Markus Palttala gets the full attention of the team in the pits. This car would finish 33rd overall and eighth in the GTE Am class This feature, the second...
Le Mans: The Official History 1960–69 by Quentin Spurring © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale This edition of Quentin Spurring’s fabulous series covering the Le Mans 24 Hours decade-by-decade, concerns the 1960s. Many will agree that the decade, 1960 to 1969, saw some of the most innovative race cars, and with relatively...
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...