Porsche

Porsche & Indy – The Tale of Two Worlds (Part 1)

Between 1987 and 1990, Porsche forged a remarkable path in American motorsports, with one of its most memorable moments being the team's short-lived, yet intense, stint in CART/IndyCar. Join us in the first part about the story of this adventure, as the Zuffenhausen-based company tried to establish itself in the competitive scenario of the premiere American open-wheeler single-seater category.

Avatar photoLorenzo Baer

Editor’s Note: This feature was reproduced with permission from our companion site SportsCarDigest for our Stuttcars readers.

EARLY TRIES (AND A COUPLE OF FAILURES)

Porsche’s relationship with IndyCar is marked by a strange chain of events, which for years went unnoticed by the Zuffenhausen-based manufacturer. Thus, although the renowned 1987 initiative is officially recognized in Porsche’s books as the manufacturer’s first participation in the category, other names deserve credit for attempting to foreshadow the German manufacturer’s arrival in the series.

Avatar photo
Lorenzo Baer
Passionate about motorsport from the 60s and 70s, Lorenzo has a special affection for the sub-Formula 1 categories, such as F2, F3 and F. Junior, which are, at the same time, the 'ugly ducklings' of these decades, but are also the categories that better represent the essence of motorsport during this period. He holds a deep appreciation for drivers like Clark or Rindt, who dominated the premier category of motorsport, returning sporadically to their origins in F2, to compete and, simultaneously, teach new generations of what single-seater racing was all about. Lorenzo believes this was a time of innocence in motorsport, without a doubt, where the most important thing was to race.
Related
Members only$29 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

Sports Car Digest Membership is for people who'd rather spend an hour with one chassis number than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • 5,000+ members-only stories

    Concours, auctions, race history, driven classics and the full archive.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • The market, every week

    Auction results and classic-car values from the people who were there.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every Sports Car Digest shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join Sports Car Digest — Keep Reading

$29 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY. Your membership keeps a small independent team of historians, photojournalists and racing drivers doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $29/yr