Porsche has unveiled a triptych of new special-edition 911s celebrating three British racing drivers who have taken Porsche to the top step of the podium at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The British Legends series honours Richard Attwood, Nick Tandy and Derek Bell.
British Legends: Richard Attwood
Richard Attwood helped claim Porsche’s first Le Mans victory in 1970. Driving a theoretically outdated 4.5-litre 917 in the Porsche family colours of Salzburg Racing, Attwood and partner, Hans Herrmann, outlasted many other competitors including the newer 4.9-litre 917s to reach the finish first. Just sixteen of the original fifty-one starters took the chequered flag.
Herrmann – a Porsche factory driver from the early 1950s – had promised his wife that a Le Mans win would be his last ever race. After the race, he kept his word and retired, much to the surprise of his Salzburg team bosses. Attwood raced another 917 at Le Mans in 1971, finished second and retired at the end of the season. Attwood currently features in a Porsche 928 racing video.
British Legends: Nick Tandy
After a blistering early career in Ministox and single seaters (Formula Ford and F3), Bedford-born rockstar and Porsche tart extraordinaire, Nick Tandy, first blipped on Weissach’s radar with an exceptional Carrera Cup debut at Dijon for Konrad Motorsport in 2009. Despite no testing beforehand, Tandy finished second in this round of the highly competitive Carrera Cup Germany, so Konrad invited him back for the Abu Dhabi race, where he impressed them again and earned himself a full season Carrera Cup drive for 2010.
Tandy went from strength to strength in 2010, narrowly missing the title to Rene Rast, who was insanely quick: the pair were the class of the field. The championship was Tandy’s in 2011, at which stage he shifted to the world stage, ending up in Porsche’s LMP programme and taking his first Le Mans win for Weissach in 2015 alongside Earl Bamber and Nico Hülkenberg. He continues to be a key part of the Porsche works driver squad.
British Legends: Derek Bell
Born in leafy Pinner in 1941, Derek Reginald Bell went on to claim five wins at Le Mans – four of them with Porsche – and remains Britain’s winningest Le Mans racer.
Bell’s first Le Mans 24 was in 1970: the same race won by Richard Attwood in a Porsche 917. Driving alongside Ronnie Peterson in a works Ferrari 512S, the duo was forced to retire from the race, but Bell stayed on afterwards to help his friend Steve McQueen film the classic: “Le Mans”. The 512 used in the film caught fire with Bell in it, and he narrowly escaped with minor burns.
DB’s most memorable successes at La Sarthe came when teamed with Jacky Ickx. The pair claimed victory for Mirage in 1975 and then for Porsche in 1981 and 1982. Bell’s other Porsche Le Mans wins came in 1986 and 1987, alongside Hans Stuck and Al Holbert.
Carrera GTS ‘British Legends’
The ‘British Legends’ 991s are based on 991 Carrera 4 GTS models and come with options including LED headlights, Sport Design body styling and satin-finish mirrors, lots of carbon and a Union Jack badge on each car with the driver’s signature alongside. Porsche says:
“Using the design of the winning race cars as the starting point of each car, joint workshops between Porsche Cars GB and the drivers ensured their passion was built-in to each 911. The ideas were then taken forward by the design team at Style Porsche in Weissach and the craftsmen at Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur in Stuttgart.
“Each British Legends Edition is finished intricately by hand in the new Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur workshop. Special features such as the Satin finish black door mirrors, carbon floor mats with Alcantara edging and a steering column casing in Alcantara make their first appearance on this 911.”
The 911 Carrera 4 GTS British Legends Edition is on sale from 9 October, priced at £122,376 inc VAT for Attwood Red – add an extra £900 for Tandy White or Bell Blue paint. A bargain! Whatever about the cars, there is no doubt that all three drivers are proper Porsche legends so it’s great to see them get the hat tip of a special edition. Watch the video below – it has some nice archive stuff in it:
Porsche has decided to shut down its LMP1 programme from the end of 2017 and switch to Formula E from 2019. The 911 RSR GT programme continues and Weissach will focus on bringing the 911 back to the head of the field.
It is not a huge surprise that Porsche has canned its hugely expensive LMP1 programme after two back-to-back titles. The promotion value of the effort has already begun to tail off and, with France and the UK already planning to ban new sales of petrol engined cars from 2040, the motor industry focus is clearly on electric cars now. The next twenty years will see a revolution in motoring with autonomous cars, electric vehicles and further downsizing as more households run just one car, or no car at all.
These trends are still in their infancies, but as momentum grows behind renewables of all sorts and the exploding global population requires an ever-cleaner world in order to survive, manufacturers will not wish to be seen as irrelevant in the clean air/electric car landscape. While the racing in Formula E is nothing to get really excited about right now, the series offers a reasonable option for brand positioning (many Porsche competitors are already there), not to mention the cross-R&D advantages to those who need to train a bunch of engineers and maximise the development curve of renewable drivetrains.
Porsche says that the shift from FIA WEC to Formula E is “derived from the direction set out for the company in Porsche Strategy 2025, which will see Porsche develop a combination of pure GT vehicles and fully electric sports cars, such as the first fully battery-powered Mission E road car”.
“Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E,” says Michael Steiner, head of Research and Development at Porsche AG. “The growing freedom for in-house technology developments makes Formula E attractive to us. Porsche is working with alternative, innovative drive concepts. For us, Formula E is the ultimate competitive environment for driving forward the development of high-performance vehicles in areas such as environmental friendliness, efficiency and sustainability”.
The 2017 Porsche Supercup season kicked off in style during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. Although experienced Supercup racer, Michael Ammermüller, took the win in both races, it was perhaps Norwegian Porsche Junior, Dennis Olsen, who set out the most exciting challenge for Supercup honours in the opening round of the championship.
Barcelona has a long downhill run from the grid to turn 1, so race starts here are always exciting. Olsen’s fellow Porsche junior, Matt Campbell, had seized pole position, but wrong-footed the start and almost stalled the engine when the lights went out. Ammermüller had no such issues and made a blistering getaway, with the track to himself on arrival in the braking zone.
Had the German time to study his mirrors, he would have enjoyed a chaotic scene, as cars took to the grass and well into the pitlane exit to avoid tripping over each other. None of the lawnmowers seemed to lose too much time, and many had literally made progress ‘through the field’ by the end of lap one. Lap two brought the safety car out when Berton got beached in the gravel. While the stricken car was removed, Ammermüller worked his 911 hard to keep heat in the tyres.
The aggressive manoeuvring paid off: Ammermüller got the jump on his rival at the restart. As the leader focused on stretching the advantage, a queue of cars formed behind Cammish, with Olsen at the front. The 21 year-old calmly held position for five or six laps but, once the race passed half-distance, he began to distract with his car in that irritating way that only a precocious youngster with a factory drive seems capable of.
Watching Dennis race was a joyous experience. A phenomenal kart driver, he started karting at six years old and has claimed titles including several Norwegian kart crowns, the prestigious German KF3 and KF1 titles and the World SuperKart Cup Final KF2 title. From 191 kart race starts, Dennis has claimed 90 wins. He has uncanny control, particularly over the front of his car, being able to place it with absolute precision. It was this skill that ultimately got him in front.
After harrying Cammish for lap after lap, darting around at the end of the straight and with a few cheeky nudges to boot, he stuck to the left and forced Cammish into braking super-late to defend. As Cammish locked up and ran slightly wide, Olsen bolted right, picked up the inside and shot into P2 on three wheels. It was pure karting brilliance. They held this order to the finish.
Round 2 was held on Sunday. I haven’t yet seen the race, but Ammermüller again finished first with Olsen in hot pursuit and much closer at the chequered flag. Campbell and Cammish came home third and fourth with Dylan Pereira in fifth (above: another young talent with kart pedigree). This puts Ammermüller ahead in the championship, but Olsen is going to have a very interesting season. I look forward to watching him racing at Monaco and trying some kart lines there too.
I’ve been eagerly anticipating Olsen’s first Supercup season since the thrilling reports of his debut Carrera Cup Germany season last year. The young Scandi has also started this year’s Deutschland season in style, winning both races at the recent Hockenheim double header. Watching Olsen race a Cup Car is reminiscent of Kevin Estre’s finest moments: no doubt that a successful sports car career lies ahead if Olsen sticks with good management.
Here’s a video of the full race without commentary. These things normally disappear within a few days, so it lasts as long as it lasts!
The 2017 Morocco Historic Rally has been a true rallying roller coaster so far, with an epic battle for the lead overshadowed by the sad loss of a great competitor in his Porsche 911.
RIP Gérard Brianti
Gérard Brianti was a passionate rallyiste and described by many as one of life’s gentlemen. Well known in historic rallying circles, Gérard’s greatest success was victory at the Monte Carlo Historic rally in 2013, driving his Group 4 Alpine A110. A popular member of the Automobile Club of Monaco, he also held the vice-presidency of ASM, the football club of the Principality. Gérard was 64 years old and his premature departure leaves many good memories with the rallying community. We extend sincere condolences to Gérard’s family and friends. Photo courtesy of Jérôme Didier.
The loss of Gérard and concern for the injuries suffered by his co-driver, Freddy Delorme, led to the Bernard Munster Automotive team’s retirement from the rally, as a mark of respect for their team mates. The retirees included Gregoire de Mevius and co-drive Alain Guehennec, who had been enjoying a close battle in their Porsche 911 RS against Philippe Gache and Stéphane Prevot, in the Mazda RX7. When Gregoire’s car lost a wheel on one stage, Gache and Prevot seized their chance.
Morocco Historic Rally standings
At the end of SS23 and heading into the last day, Gache continues to lead, more than three minutes up on the Sunbeam Lotus of Barrile/Chiappe. Gache is one of the favourites on this year’s East African Safari Classic Rally in Kenya and Tanzania – which I should be travelling out for again – and the third-placed car is another confirmed Safari Classic Rally crew: Jorge Perez-Companc and Jose Volta in the Ford Escort RS 1800, prepared by Phil Mills at Viking Motorsport.
In fourth place, just two minutes behind Jorge, is the hard-charging Porsche 911 RS of Belgium’s Joost van Cauwenberge and Steven Vyncke. Joost’s car hails from the Tuthill Porsche stable and my good friend Francis is out with Joost in support. The 911 took overall victory on last year’s Rally of the Incas and is certainly challenging for a podium finish.
Accompanying the sadness of losing a competitor on an event, there is often a sense that the competitors fight on in memory of their comrade. No doubt all those who live and breathe rallying are fiercely determined to give passionate rally competitors a memorable send-off. With crews now doubly motivated and racing in honour of Gérard, it will be thrilling to follow the rally’s last day.
It’s great to see a mix of machinery at the front of the field and so many other interesting cars down the order, including the Citroen SM Bandama which is confirmed to rally in Kenya this year and a wonderful Lancia Stratos which may also be seen on the Safari Classic: one of the last proper marathon-stage historic events remaining.
RIP Steve Troman
I must also pay tribute to another popular Porsche rallyist and 911 collector, as Steve Troman sadly left us recently. Always ready to talk Porsche at the drop of a hat, Steve had a beautiful collection of cars and was a great help to me personally at one stage, when he shipped my 912E home from the west coast with some of his own cars a few years ago.
When I say Steve’s collection included some of the very best 911s ever made, I mean exactly that, without exaggeration. He was a connoisseur of modified 911s and had exceptional taste in the machines. He will be deeply missed by a great many people. RIP Steve.
Steve’s brothers have set up a Just Giving page here. Please take a look, as it is supporting a very important charity. Main photo is of Steve in action on Safari Classic 2013 – credit McKlein.
The talented Gianmaria Bruni has called time on his 11-year career with Maranello and signed to race with Porsche for the second half of the 2017 season and beyond.
I hadn’t been keeping tabs on works drivers since the shakeup before normal Ferdinand service was interrupted by some French lawyers and assumed Dr Walliser was done with his reshuffle, but, at the end of last year, John Dagys at Sportscar 365 had suggested that Bruni was as good as strapped in a Porsche seat.
Walliser apparently mentioned to Dagys in December how well Bruni would fit within Porsche’s GTE-Pro squad. The story on Sportscar 365 is that Ferrari finally agreed to release Bruni from his contract last week, but only if he would not be racing against his former team – AF Corse – in WEC this year. Porsche has therefore confirmed him on an IMSA deal for the second part of 2017, following an introductory testing programme in June.
What happens after that could be very exciting for Bruni, who is still only 35 but has been super successful through a glittering GT racing career to date, with three Le Mans wins to his credit, as well as two GTE-Pro titles and more wins at Sebring and Spa.
“We’re delighted to welcome Gianmaria Bruni, one of the world’s top GT pilots, into our squad,” said Dr. Walliser. “He fits perfectly into our strong circle of works drivers and will join us for the second half of the season.”
This is exciting news for the Porsche driver lineup: Forza Weissach, indeed.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
