Greatest Racecar? Norbert Singer’s Porsche 956

The 1982 Porsche 956 was a car that we started with a clean sheet of paper. Everything was new, the monocoque, aerodynamics—which included “ground effect” completely different to that of a Formula One car, the gearbox, everything except the engine, which had proved to be very reliable and no need to change it.

This was the first time we had built a monocoque car and we had to learn fast, we had to learn how aerodynamics and ground effects worked on a sports car. Yes, Formula One was already doing it in those days, but that was entirely different to what we wanted to do—we knew because we tried to copy what they had done and it didn’t work. So, since there was no point in talking to Formula One people, we had to talk to aerospace people in Germany. In no more than two hours our meeting was complete, and work started on the new car immediately. Time was our enemy too, we had little time to waste, it was a great pressure, but only when looking back. I think we were all so involved in the design process we just got on with the job and did our best. The first race we had with the new car was at Silverstone, just nine months after we had first begun working on the car.