Porsche at Le Mans

Porsche and Le Mans are synomous – no other constructor comes close to the number of outright wins achieved by Porsche – to date, 19. This is a great video charting those Le Mans years. There are interviews with Norbert Singer, Chief Engineer on the first 9 Le Mans wins, and Dieter Landenberger, Porsche Archivist.

The first win came on the 14th June 1970 in a 917KH driven by Hans Herrmann / Richard Attwood. Porsche also came in second and third – Gerard Larrousse / Willi Kauhsen in a Porsche 917L and Helmut Marko / Rudi Lins – Porsche 908/2LH – both cars sponsored by Martini. This race is also famous for the racing scenes that appeared in the classic Steve McQueen film, “Le Mans”. Enzo Ferrari famously declined to allow the works cars to feature because the script had a Gulf-Porsche victory.

Porsche first appeared at La Sarthe in 1951 and scored a class win with a 356SL. Until the late 60’s, Porsche concentrated on the smaller classes in which it achieved a lot of success. In 1969 it was time to race for overall honours and Porsche were beaten by just 75 metres or 1 second – the closest Le Mans finish ever. John Wyer’s Gulf Ford GT40 driven by Jacky Ickx / Jackie Oliver beating the Porsche 908LH of Hans Herrmann / Gerard Larrousse. The Ford was powered by a 4.9 litre V8 and the Porsche a 3 litre flat 8.

The racing world took note, and for the 1971 race, of the 49 cars on the grid, 33 were Porsches setting a record that has never been beaten. The victories came thick and fast. Porsche won in 1971 with Gijs Van Lennep / Helmut Marko in a 917KH. In 1974, Porsche introduced the 911 Carrera RSR 2.1 Turbo...however the first ever victory for a turbo car did not come until 1976 with the Porsche 936 Spyder...the same car also won in ’77.

Through the 80’s Porsche were unbeatable....the 936 Spyder, 956, and 962C all notching up victories. In 1983, nine of the top ten finishers were 956’s, and in ’84 and ’85, Porsche provided eight of the top ten.

In the 90’s the 962 was still able to win, with the car being developed by Dauer coming first in 1994. For ’96 and ’97 victories followed for the Porsche developed TWR WSC Spyder. The decade finished with the appearance of the Porsche 911 GT1 and victory in 1998 – a great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of receiving an operating permit for their first sports car – the 356 “No. 1” Roadster.

Between 1999 and 2018, Porsche developed race versions of the 911 and supported the privateer teams running those cars. A total of 11 Class victories were achieved during this period. For 2014, Porsche returned to hunt down overall victory again with the ground breaking 919 Hybrid. It was the only hybrid harvesting electrical energy from both the brakes and exhaust gases from the V4 Turbo. From 2015 to 2017, Porsche achieved a hat trick of wins.

The record stands at 108 Class wins and 19 overall victories as at 2020.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0lQLPUTFa8