Good friend Justin just sent me this interesting slide from Australia, showing the first RHD Porsche 911 Targa being produced. Here’s the story behind it:
“I found a whole lot of my late father’s slides that I had digitally scanned a few years ago. This one is the first RHD targa going down the production line in September 1972.
“As my father told it, we were on the factory tour and the tour guide was talking about Targas. Knowing there were some English and Australians on the tour, it was mentioned that there were no RHD 911 Targas until the following year (i.e. 1973).
“You were still able to take your camera back then and Dad saw a Targa shell being rolled towards us that looked somehow different: initially, he wasn’t sure how. He took a shot of it quickly and then walked past it. On the build sheet of the car, he saw erste rechts (1st right), so we can assume it was the first production RHD Targa for the 73MY. It was mid-September 1972 my parents tell me.
“The tour guide realised and, rather than seizing Dad’s camera, asked him not to do anything with the picture until after the official embargo (which was early 1973). I assume the car was being shown somewhere – Earl’s Court , Birmingham, South Africa, Hong Kong? Dad complied with Porsche’s request, which was perfectly reasonable. I wonder where the car is now – or if indeed it still survives?
“As a side note, there are 2 73S Targas (both RHD, and both English) awaiting restorations in Sydney (where my green L was done) – one Sepia, and the other Signal Yellow. They’ll be done in about two years.”
Love getting presents from overseas and this was a really good one! Thanks, Justin 😉
I hadn’t planned on two weeks of radio silence following Porsche’s win at Le Mans, but such was the time absorbed by Le Mans and my schedule at this time of year. Having helped eldest offspring through some important exams, restarted a garage & office building project and completed a surge of Porsche insurance valuations, two weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. Suddenly it was time to go to Belgium for the legendary Ypres Rally: round two of the Delecour/Dumas rally Porsche battle.
Round one was the Monte Carlo Rally last January. There’s no love lost between these French drivers, so bundles of needle was brought to the Alps. Dumas’ advantage with the lighter, more powerful 4-litre 997 GT3 RS over Delecour’s 3.8-litre GT3 Cup was negated on the cold icy roads of the mountains around Monaco, and it almost came down to who took more risks.
At the end of three days, Delecour emerged as the winner, but not on great terms with his rivals. Despite more than five months to go round two, there was absolutely no way that things would calm down in the interim. So it was that Team Tuthill arrived in Ypres last Monday, with a dry weather forecast and an opponent keen to redress the balance.
Imagine the tension before the rally got started, and you’ll still be nowhere near how knife-edge it was over two days of racing. Delecour is mercurial: completely electric to be around. A proven rally winner, but always in the background lies that legendary temper. Dumas is also an exceptional talent: a world-class endurance racer with pitch-perfect poise in a rally car.
These guys are at the very peak of driving ability, so watching them literally go to war in two 911s across a rally stage is incredibly powerful. FIA rally radio revelled in each driver’s desperation to know the times at the end of a stage.
In qualifying, Dumas went quickest. This gave him a nice early slot in the running, out of harm’s way amongst the ERC front runners. But as the rally got started, it was clear that running up front was a double-edged sword. Dust and gravel strewn across the roads was not being cleared quickly enough for the wide 911s.
Running straight on at a junction on stage three wiped out Romain’s early advantage and handed the lead back to François. Dumas was apoplectic on radio at the end of the stage: not the sort of talk your mother wants to hear. Delecour set a quicker time on stage four, but after that it proved impossible to stay the four-litre. Delecour dropped back down to second, and Dumas claimed the overnight lead.
With four R-GT cars entered in Belgium, Ypres was the strongest round yet for the fledgling GT rally car series. Former Ypres Rally winners, Patrick Snijers and Marc Duez, had also entered R-GT Porsches. Snijers had not been able to test his car ahead of the event, so made a slow start, but his skills soon freed up more speed.
Day two was ten stages: one hundred and seventy kilometres of rallying. The pace was absolutely flat out: none could have made those cars go any faster. On the first stage, Dumas went straight on at a junction: advantage Delecour. Until the stage end, where we found out that François had done precisely the same. The stage times were identical.
Delecour then had another small off, and Dumas stretched his lead. Then disaster for Delecour: the Porsche cut out mid-stage and could not be restarted. Eight minutes passed before Delecour and co-driver Dominique Savignoni used the proper reset sequence to get the car going and finish the stage.
Delecour in Tuthill Porsche R-GT
Victory was now out of the question, but all was not lost in the championship. The FIA R-GT Cup has the same points structure as all FIA series’ including Formula 1, so there was still plenty to fight for. R-GT leader Delecour had to keep going. Francois returned with his war colours on, chasing Marc Duez for third position. Snijers was more than three minutes ahead, but Duez could be caught with some luck.
Then, as so often happens in motorsport, the wrecking ball swung away from the chaser and back to the leader. On the penultimate stage, Dumas’ Porsche overshot a junction and went head-on into a wall of hay bales, causing immediate retirement (video below). All Delecour now had to do was finish to earn fifteen points towards his championship lead. In the end, there was no stopping François, who powered past Duez to second.
“Hats off to Romain Dumas for a lion’s drive this weekend,” said Tuthill team boss, Richard Tuthill. “We would rather have won head-to-head, but survival is all part of rallying. Second place is a good result for the R-GT championship. Our cars have taken wins in both Ypres historic rallies, so we leave here satisfied.
“Now we look towards round three: WRC Rallye Deutschland. Tuthill Porsche brought the first R-GT car to this rally last year, and we’re delighted to see R-GT growing, with four cars fighting in Ypres. This series has just started and the energy this weekend has been incredible.”
While much of the Porsche glitterati rested on its laurels in Goodwood, polishing museum exhibits and reminiscing past winners, the diehards were racing. Dumas, Delecour and the Tuthill Porsche team were flat out in Belgium. Tandy, Bergmeister and co were on the US campaign trail, and the Falken Porsche RSR claimed another Porsche win in a series it departs this year.
Winterkorn’s Volkswagen may build, sell and discount all the new Porsche luxury it can produce, but the root of this Porsche cult is in competition. That will never be lost while the real racers stick with it. Ferdinand Piëch personnifies this connection, just as his uncle did, as do Delecour, Dumas, Tandy, Enzinger and so many more. Kudos to the motorsport brethren: you are the heartbeat.
Here’s some Delecour in-car video: watch the eyes.
Following an incredible day of absolutely flat-out racing at the historic Le Mans circuit, Porsche claimed an emphatic win in the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours. Perhaps most incredible of all was that the winning drivers were the three LMP1 rookies: Nico Hülkenberg, Nick Tandy and New Zealand’s Earl Bamber.
Hülkenberg was the man who took the chequered flag for Porsche. As rain descended upon the Circuit de la Sarthe for the final fifteen minutes of racing, hearts were held in mouths as we waited to see if the rain would increase sufficiently to require pitstops for rain tyres.
In the end, the most extreme precipitation came only from the eyes of works drivers, Porsche Racing team personnel and Dr. Wolfgang Porsche himself, who had joined Porsche CEO, Matthias Müller, in the 919 garage. Rounding Arnage with less than a minute remaining, Porsche number 19 slowed to a crawl to prevent another lap at racing speed in the mist, crossing the line in first place after 24 hours and 24 seconds of racing.
The emotions hit home as 919 LMP1 Hybrid number 19 rolled underneath the chequered flag to claim Porsche’s 17th overall win at Le Mans: Hülkenberg breaking into tears of joy over the radio in a moment that obviously resonated deeply for the F1 driver who had stuck his reputation on the line this weekend.
“I am speechless right now to be honest,” said Hülkenberg. “To come here on my first attempt and end up on the top step: I am super super happy and also very happy for Porsche. We are incredibly proud that Porsche is back at Le Mans. We couldn’t expect to come here on our first time and win this: the car was reliable, we made no mistakes and that is what got us the top prize this weekend.”
“I couldn’t think of two guys I would rather share this car with,” said a tearful Nick Tandy in the winners’ arena. “We’ve run here not just for 24 hours but we’ve done the test here, two weeks ago we did the complete practice; we haven’t put a mark on this car, all the guys have not made a single mistake.
“We’re stood here talking to you guys (Eurosport) because we’ve just won the biggest race in the world. I could retire from racing tomorrow and I could look back on today and I’m sure I’d be happy for the rest of my life: I can keep this video for all my family forever. Many people don’t get a chance to race in this event, let alone get a chance to come here and win. I’m very, very happy.” Tandy’s expression started wobbling here and I was starting to go also. What huge emotion and what a mega drive.
Earl Bamber, Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy took their victory exactly 45 years to the day after Porsche’s first win at La Sarthe. This was a 1-2 for Weissach, as Bernhard, Hartley and Webber took second place in the number 17 919. Further behind the LMP1 cars, Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried took second place on the podium in GTE-Am: an extraordinary achievement for the team.
“It’s hard to put into words what this means,” said Pat Dempsey, also welling up before getting on the podium. “What the effort was and the support we got from everybody to make it possible to be here. The team did a great job in all the pitstops, and Patrick and Marco drove beautifully through the whole race and into the night when it was really tough.
“Patrick’s been pushing me and coaching me all year and putting me in every kind of crazy car I could get into. It makes a big difference to be here and now, to be up there (eyes podium) is definitely a dream come true. This is what we were focusing on all year.”
This is all just sinking in at the minute: no doubt more details will emerge when the drivers get a chance to tell their stories. Can’t wait to hear from our heroes but until then, well done to the entire Porsche Racing team! This is a dream come true for us all. Here’s a Porsche video from the start of the race: who would have thought that the rookies could do it?!
Twelve hours into the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours, Porsche holds the overall lead thanks to Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. Good job too, as the Porsche team had begun to look ragged following a fire and retirement for the 92 911 RSR, retirement of the 88 911 and a stop-and-go penalty for the leading 919.
As night fell at Le Mans, Hülkenberg was first to hit the front with stunning lap after stunning lap. Tandy retook the lead after his pit stop and stuck seconds per lap on Audi’s, Andre Lotterer. The cooler temperatures of the evening seemed to suit the number 19 car, as Tandy began to set laptimes within a tenth of a second of his qualifying pace, in marked contrast to the car’s early pace.
Number 19 had started third on the grid but, as the race found its feet, the car was passed by not one but two Audis, much to the delight of the Audi team. Keeping in touch with the pack, the team eventually modified 19’s strategy to fit with a series of safety cars. At the nine-hour stage, the LMP rookies in number 19 were fourth overall.
Big Red, the number 17 919 LMP1 of Bernhard/Hartley/Webber ran out front from the start, but eventually picked up a one-minute stop/go penalty for passing under yellows. The other 919 had a rather disastrous first half of the race due to a problem with braking: Romain Dumas getting quite agitated with his engineers over team radio.
The call came for Romain to brake later in corners to heat up the front brakes after he went straight on through a run-off section at the end of the front straight. As the braking seemed to get progressively less effective, Dumas eventually flew off the track, clouting a wall at Mulsanne. The car was pushed back out on track, only to run off the track at Arnage later on, needing recovery by a hydraulic loader.
At time of writing, it is Porsche-Audi-Audi-Porsche-Audi-Porsche. Fastest race lap so far is a 3:17.647 from the number 9 Audi. Fastest Porsche time is a 3:18.674 from the Tandy 919, so one second slower than the Audi. There is still a long way to go and these cars are racing flat out, putting huge stress on the mechanicals. It’s hard to believe that the Audis can be beaten, but stranger things have happened. No doubt this is already a classic Le Mans.
The Porsche Racing team has claimed pole position in LMP1 in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans: the first works Porsche pole position since Hans Stuck in 1988. Across the three two-hour qualifying sessions for this year’s race, all three 919 LMP1 Hybrids set blistering times that could not be matched by the competition.
Neel Jani laid the gauntlet down early, with a new record lap of the current Le Mans course in the first fifteen minutes of Q1: a 3:16.887. The Jani/Dumas/Lieb number 18 car will start from pole on Saturday, leading team mates Bernhard/Hartley/Webber in number 17.
This evening, Nick Tandy in the number 19 car set a time roughly half a second quicker than his best lap of yesterday, coming good on his promise to go faster today after some holdups in Q1, but third place was where he would finish, driving with Bamber and Hulkenberg.
Bamber was amongst those who had notes home from the stewards on exceeding track limits, but it made little difference to laptimes. All this was huge relief for Jani (below, centre with Dumas and Lieb), who confirmed to reporters at the end of qualifying that he had been expecting to fight his teammates for pole on day two.
“We thought today that we would have to go back out and defend our pole, but it was a good thing that we didn’t have to. I think it would have been a large fight at the end, but I’m happy with that lap record: we’ll take that.”
Porsche’s 1-2-3 quali times, well ahead of arch-rivals Audi, allowed the 919s to focus on race setup through the second day’s sessions. Tyre tests of day and night compounds obviously went well given Tandy’s improvements in pace, but the big question for the 24 Hours is reliability. After that comes tyres and fuel consumption.
“We have speed, but that’s not everything,” said Romain Dumas. “We are better than Audi on fuel: they are better than us on tyres.” “The Porsches are too fast,” said Audi’s Andre Lotterer. “There is no point chasing them in qualifying: we must think about racing twenty-four hours.”
No one seemed too downbeat at Audi when qualifying came to an end. The team has claimed Porsche scalps twice already this year: no reason to believe that La Sarthe cannot be the same. It’s going to be an exciting day’s racing, and that’s not including what happens behind LMP1.
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