by John Glynn | May 9, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
Despite the time, money and technology invested in modern Porsche cars, including the Porsche 918 and 919 LPM1 Hybrid, the Porsche 917 is still the model most frequently seen at the top of “ultimate Porsche” lists. But which is the ultimate Porsche 917?
Porsche built circa 60 variations on the 917 theme, including 917/10 and 917/30 Can-Am models. Iconic liveries included Gulf, Martini and Kremer “Hippie” cars, but the most famous 917 must be the red-and-white short-tail painted in the family’s own Porsche Salzburg dealership colours. This is chassis number 917-023: the car that claimed Porsche’s first Le Mans victory in June 1970.
Legend has it that, like all good race cars, the winning Porsche 917 was sold in the car park after the race, to pay for the next round of racing developments. In fact, 917-023 stayed with Porsche for the rest of 1970 before selling to the Martini Racing team, and then on to famous US collector and engineer, Vasek Polak. It passed through the Matsuda collection and also lived with an American doctor before current owner, Carlos Monteverde, bought it for racing. Much of Monteverde’s collection apparently lives quite near my house, but that’s another story.
Richard Attwood Porsche 917 Le Mans 1970
Richard ‘Dickie’ Attwood drove the car to victory in Le Mans 1970 and was never surprised that Porsche sold the car soon after the win. “Le Mans did not have the same cachet in 1970 as it does now,” Dickie explained to his local paper. “There are more significant races for drivers, but it’s tremendously important for manufacturers.
“1970 was a landmark win for Porsche because it was their first, but my win there was lucky. We only qualified fifteenth fastest – it was more a case of other drivers losing rather than my winning. But, having been leading by six laps in the previous year with three and a half hours to go when the transmission broke, I deserved a bit of luck.
“Winning Le Mans unquestionably helped me in later life. The hero worship of sports stars has now reached stratospheric levels and the significance of that victory seems to grow stronger with the passing of time.”
Despite claiming Porsche’s maiden Le Mans win and being one of the few people who have owned a Porsche 917, Attwood was not the Porsche 917’s greatest fan at the time, noting that Porsche would pay double money to convince drivers to race the “no good” 917 rather than the proven 908, which was still well able to claim the winner’s purse at most races. When Porsche asked their driver what format of 917 he wanted to race in June 1970, Attwood chose a slower 4.5-litre, short-tail car with the 4-speed gearbox on the basis of reliability. He adopted a similar approach to his team mate.
Having raced alongside Vic Elford in 1969, Attwood felt his team-mate had cost them a win by driving the car too hard, breaking the gearbox with three hours to go while the car was six laps in front. For 1970, Dickie chose to drive with Hans Herrmann: one of the factory’s most famous drivers, but a man in his early forties who had already decided to retire.
The pair did no testing before the event: Le Mans was Attwood’s first drive in the car. Qualifying way down the field, a win should have been impossible for Porsche 917-023, but then the rain fell and history was made.
The full story of Porsche 917-023 has now been committed to print in a book by former Silverstone press officer, Ian Wagstaff, which will be released on June 1st. The book tells the story of chassis 023, including hundreds of period pictures, interviews with all surviving drivers of 917-023 and input from one of the most experienced 917 mechanics of the era. Pre-order the book here.
by John Glynn | May 6, 2015 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche driver, Mark Webber, had every reason to be disappointed after round two of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps. From a dominant qualifying performance, where Porsche claimed the first three grid positions for the start of the race, Audi outraced the Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrids to take its second win of the 2015 season.
“Ultimately there were too many own goals that put us on the back foot, like the problem with the rear suspension that cost us two and a half minutes,” Webber told Motorsport.com at the finish. “But that’s how it should be. The level is so high now and the championship is red hot; we don’t want to be gifted any results having not performed at a high level. A two-three for Porsche is good, but we leave here a little bit disappointed.”
Despite disappointment for Porsche fans, Spa was another incredible race. The 919 Hybrids stormed off the grid, setting a strong early pace. In the all-new number 19 car, Nick Tandy outran highly regarded F1 teammate Nico Hülkenberg, clocking the car’s fastest race lap on lap 5 with a 1:58.052. The following lap, the LMP1 cars caught the GTs, who were also enjoying some speed. Enter confusion for Porsche.
As Tandy piled in some increasingly fast laps, fellow Porsche “newbie”, Kévin Estre, was flying in the number 91 RSR. Locked in battle with the Astons, Estre clocked the highest top speed of the GTE-Pro class for the entire race on lap 6, hitting 266.7 km/h (165.71 mph) along Spa’s Kemmel Straight. As the two groups descended the hill towards Pif-Paf, Tandy spotted the hint of a gap between Estre and the apex, and squirted 19 straight towards it.
By the time he arrived, it was gone. The two cars collided with disastrous consequences. Porsche’s LMP1 chief, Fritz Enzinger, described it as “an unlucky accident”, but the stewards thought differently, hitting Estre (below) with a penalty. “Totally undeserved” was the verdict amongst the racers watching the race on my iPhone in the Donington pit lane.
As the race continued, more issues befell the Porsche racers. Brendon Hartley – again the quickest man in Porsche’s LMP1 squad – set the fastest lap of the race early on: a 1:57.972 on lap five. Audi would later come very close to beating that, but Hartley’s early speed would not last forever. Losing the brakes into the final chicane and heading deep into the runoff, Brendon took a sweet little shortcut back to the track, but unfortunately ran too close to the marshals for the race director’s liking. A stop and go penalty with subsequent damper failure put the leading car out of contention.
All hopes then landed on Marc Lieb’s shoulders. The master of understated speed soaked it all up and drove some incredible laps. Now in his sixteenth year as a Porsche driver, Lieb’s early pace proved better than Tandy’s: 1:58.025 on lap 3 was just a few hundredths short of Hartley’s best effort. But the 919 was not kind to its tyres, which Lieb would later point out.
Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid Spa: a story of tyre wear
“Because of regulations limiting the supply of tyres, we did a double stint, but it didn’t quite work out with the tyre wear,” said Lieb. “It was a great battle with Ben Tréluyer and quite a moment when he hit me in the rear going down to turn nine, but that’s racing. To strike back we have some work to do in terms of tyre management.”
When the chequered flag fluttered, Audi number 7 (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) crossed the line in front of Porsche number 18 (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) by less than a quarter of a minute. Audi number 7 had spent a total of 7 minutes 36 seconds in the pits, with Porsche 18 clocking 8 minutes 12 seconds across the same distance. The 919 had shown more than 10 km/h top speed advantage in FP3, but the Audi was sweeter on its tyres, holding on for two and half stints towards the end of the race.
Aston Martin took overall GT victory, but (surprisingly in the dry) the Porsche 911 RSRs matched their top speed and were close on ultimate lap times: fastest 2:19.189 for the winning 99 Aston was just two-tenths ahead of the number 92 911. The Porsche needed one extra pitstop, spending 23 seconds more on pit lane for the race, and losing by just less than 30.
Two Porsches finished on the LMP1 podium, and two more finished in the GTE-Pro top three, but no doubt the winners deserved it. The Macdowall/Rees/Stanaway Aston was on awesome form and what can one say about that Audi, its incredible trio of drivers, a brilliant revised aero package and the supreme race strategies of engineer Leena Gade.
Porsche at Le Mans 2015
While the Porsches lost speed as the race wore on, the Audis set their quickest laps later in the race: lap 49 was number 7’s fastest tour. It was a similar story at Le Mans last year: Porsche’s quickest time was set on lap four, while Audi’s best came on lap 317. The Porsche team will need to find some endurance if it wants to win in France.
by John Glynn | May 3, 2015 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
Had a great day at Donington yesterday with Mark and James Bates of EB Motorsport, who were racing their 3.0-litre Porsche 911 RS in the Donington 1000kms event. It was not the best day ever for Porsche motorsport on the whole (Spa 6 Hours thoughts to come), but we did enjoy an exciting, well-organised race at a great venue.
Historic racing is an expensive business. Forget about buying and building the cars for a moment: just to take part in a decent event costs upwards of £1000. This covers the entry fee for a car and one driver, but does not always include a second driver, garage space or catering. It does not cover tyres and fuel, it does not cover insurance and it definitely does not include wear and tear or breakages, which on older cars can be highly significant.
The Donington 1000kms was part of the 2015 Donington Historic Festival. Organised by the Swiss-based Historic Motor Racing, the race is one of a series of endurance events run by the company all over Europe. As the EB brothers are putting in a shorter race season this year due to work commitments, more Porsche projects and a new baby for James, the 1000kms schedule of ‘qualify in the morning, race in the afternoon’ was perfect: they could rock up early, get the car ready, qualify and chill out for a bit, then have two and a half hours of racing before heading home.
First job of the day was to scrutineer the car. Slight issue there, as someone forgot the Porsche 911’s FIA Historic Technical Passport. We had a word with the people in charge and, as the car still had its barcodes from the last event, the engine was FIA sealed and the 911 was running in an invitational class and would not score points, we were allowed to take part.
Porsche 911 3.0 RS vs Prototype Racers
Qualifying went well. On a grid packed with prototypes, the single exception – EB’s 911 – went 14th quickest on new post-historic tyres that have only been tried on the team’s yellow 911 RSR for a couple of races so far. While the compound might be a bit slower than previous rubber, the tyres are huge, so the increased width gave excellent grip. We were still almost ten seconds off the pace of the leading Lola T70.
Racing is a very social affair, so there was plenty of craic in the paddock between quali and the race. Our garage was shared with a Chevron B8, Elva Mk8 and a Lola T70 Mk3B. A Lola T70 for sale must be £750k now, Chevron B8 for sale would probably be £200k and similar money for an Elva. Despite there being well over a million quid parked in our garage, the atmosphere was just the same as if all were in cheap track day specials. People dropping in and chatting, bit of banter from previous track outings and one or two compliments for Mark, following his performance in EB’s SWB car at the 73rd Goodwood members meet. He will henceforth be known as “The Sultan of Slide”.
The race was slightly delayed, which gave time for the weather to change and the rain to move in. The boys split the race into two equal parts: James took the start on a slippery circuit and had brought the car up to seventh by the time of his pitstop. With 100 litres of fuel in the tank at the start and the lack of grip keeping speeds and fuel consumption lower than expected, Mark decided to gamble on that being enough to finish the race, avoiding the mandatory 3-minute minimum time for a fuel stop.
As Mark started his stint, the rain stopped and a dry line began to appear. The pace hotted up: 911 lap times falling from the high 1:30s in the wet to an excellent 1:17.9 at one point: quicker than qualifying. Ambient temperatures were very cold, so the rest of the track stayed damp and slippy, leaving a treacherous no-mans-land for anyone who had to go off line to make progress. After two and a bit hours of racing, Mark had no choice: he pitted for fuel and the three-minute stop to go with it. This cost us the best part of two laps and we were out of the top ten.
As the race entered its final lap, we had news that, while fighting for the lead, our garagemate – the beautiful Lola T70 (above) – had passed a backmarker on the damp part of the track through the fast downhill Craner Curves, lost traction and hit the wall at high speed. When the car was brought back, it was not the best sight, but owner/driver Leo was safe and well. At times like this, no one worries where they’ve finished: it’s just good to get home in one piece and live to fight another day.
by John Glynn | May 1, 2015 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche 919s dominated LMP qualifying at Spa Francorchamps this evening, eventually claiming the first three grid positions for the 2015 Spa 6 Hours. Bernhard/Hartley took pole position in the number 17 car with a stunning 1:54.767 pole time, three seconds quicker than the previous fastest lap for an LMP car at Spa.
Tandy/Hülkenberg set the second quickest time in 919 number 19, 1:55.025. Marc Lieb/Neel Jani brought up the rear, just two tenths behind on a 1:55.024. The next closest car was Lotterer/Fassler, eight tenths behind the lead Porsche. It was a masterful show of performance from the 2015 Porsche 919 Hybrid.
LMP lap times are worked out on aggregate. Two drivers set their quickest laps, with the average of both lap times counting. Porsche 919 number 17 scored a 1:54.779 from Hartley and a 1:54.755 from Bernhard to go first overall on .767. Number 19 had a 1:55.1 from Hulk with a 1:54.9 from Tandy, giving 1:55.0. Finally, a 55.2 vs 55.3 from Jani and Lieb meant the three 919s were split by just six-tenths of a second. Good going, especially given this is some drivers’ first LMP weekend.
As ever, the times don’t tell it all. “Of course the team is very happy with the qualifying result,” said Marc Lieb. “I lost four-tenths in the first corner of my fast lap because of a slight mistake. That’s why I’m a little bit upset. But the number 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid was unbeatable today.”
Porsche 911 RSRs qualify slowest of the GTE-Pro runners
Down the field, the 911 RSRs suffered as they always do when Spa is dry. Fernando Rees in the GTE-Pro Aston Martin did a magnificent job, taking pole with young team-mate, Richie Stanaway. Behind them, it was Ferrari-Aston-Ferrari-Aston-Porsche-Porsche.
Sven Müller and Kévin Estre outqualified regular works drivers Lietz and Fred Makowiecki by one-tenth of a second on aggregate. The 911 laptimes don’t make for great reading – 2:18.0 for the lead 911 versus 2:16.8 as a pole time – but the RSRs will likely race better than they qualified.
“The result [for the 911s] corresponds to what we expected,” said Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “It was clear that we wouldn’t be up the front on this track. We used these laps predominantly to prepare more effectively for the race.”
In GTE-Am, Patrick Long set a 2:19.9 versus team-mate Patrick Dempsey’s 2:26.0, to qualify P14 overall in GT. I was surprised to learn that this is Dempsey’s first outing at Spa: one might have expected some pre-event testing here in race test days or similar. This means I have currently done more laps than Dr. Dreamy in Belgium.
Spa is a huge track with lots of time out there to lose, so eight seconds off GTE-Pro pole seems OK for a new boy. A number of drivers had fastest quali laps cancelled for running outside of track limits, but Dempsey did better than that.
All is not lost in GTE-Am, as the number 88 911 of Christian Ried, Khaled Al Qubaisi and Klaus Bachler managed third overall in the category, following a sizeable shunt through Pouhon in free practice three. The car looked good out on track: very impressed that they managed to fix it so quickly, as that corner has claimed many Porsche badges that were not resurrected.
The race is TOMORROW, starting at 14:30 CET. I’m at Donington Historics with EB Motorsport – Mark and James racing the 3.0 RS in the 2.5-hour 1000kms tomorrow evening – so will be watching Spa on the FIA WEC app from a trackside position.
by John Glynn | Apr 28, 2015 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
German F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg debuts for Porsche Racing at Spa this weekend: part of a three-car Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid line up that is sure to generate serious presence on track and contribute to a very interesting race.
Driver lineups for the 919s numbered 17, 18 and 19 are arranged as follows:
- Porsche 919 Hybrid #17: Bernhard/Hartley/Webber
- Porsche 919 Hybrid #18: Dumas/Jani/Lieb
- Porsche 919 Hybrid #19: Bamber/Hülkenberg/Tandy
Adding a third 919 to the squad creates a huge logistical task for the Porsche WEC team, which has really been racing in its current form for just over a year. Add the massive power boost that comes with the move to an 8-megajoule powertrain and the additional stresses and strains this puts on the race car and there is a lot for the young team to deal with, running three prototypes and a pair of 911 RSRs in a six-hour race at the world’s greatest racetrack.
The power now developed by the 8MJ 919 Hybrid exceeds most other racing cars, including Formula 1 cars and all other prototype racers, but I have it on quite good authority that the primary challenge for the drivers is not just the huge amount of power available, but also how the 919 delivers that power. Four hundred horsepower arriving at the front wheels in one press of the throttle is tough on drivers and on tyres: we’ll have to see how the cars have developed since Silverstone when they get to Spa Francorchamps.
“The speed of the second generation of the 919 Hybrid was convincing at the season’s opening race at Silverstone,” said Fritz Enzinger, Vice President of Porsche’s LMP1 group. “The third 919 Hybrid for Spa is an entirely newly built car for Earl, Nick and Nico. Handling three such complex cars and nine drivers will be challenging. All three 919s will compete in the same aero configuration as raced at Silverstone. Regarding the demands of the hybrid management in the 8-megajoule class, we are constantly learning. Generally speaking, Spa’s track layout should favour our car.”
Putting the threat from Toyota aside for a moment, the biggest issue for Porsche race pace at Silverstone was the corner speed shown by the Audis. If they take a bit of downforce off to try and stay close to the 919s along Spa’s Kemmel Straight, they will slow down in the bends. Audi has already confirmed it will run a variety of aero packages across the three R18 e-tron Quattro prototypes at round two of the World Endurance Championship, but its biggest weapon may take the shape of Rene Rast: awesome former Porsche racer and now number 9 Audi boy, driving with Filipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi.
Rast has two 24 hour Spa wins to his name, and debuts in LMP1 at the same race as Hülkenberg, Bamber and Tandy. No doubt all three have a huge learning curve ahead of them, but they are supremely talented racing drivers: absolutely amongst the best in the world. This race will be properly mega, so do not miss it! Fox Sports 1 shows WEC live in most of its territories, with Motors TV your friend in the UK. Eurosport will also show part of the race towards the end, or you can watch it via the excellent WEC app.
