In June of 2014, Porsche will return to Le Mans with a newly designed LMP1 racing machine. With 16 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the pinnacle of endurance motor racing, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in the race’s history. Their last win, though, was back in 1998 with the 911 GT1, so Porsche has labeled this endeavor as “Our Return” and “Coming Home”.
Sports Car Digest continues its series of photo retrospectives drawn from Porsche’s Le Mans archive. After profiles of Porsche at Le Mans in the 1950s, Porsche at Le Mans from 1960 to 1968, Porsche at Le Mans from 1969 to 1973 and Porsche at Le Mans from 1974 to 1981, the fifth installment looks at Porsche’s successes from 1982 to 1987.
On March 27th, 1982, a revolutionary race car turned its first test laps in Weissach. It was the Porsche 956. Designed to comply with the technical regulations, this was the first race car from Weissach to feature an aluminium monocoque chassis which was 80% stiffer than the frame of the 936. The body proved revolutionary in the sports car world: inverted wing profiles in the sidepods and the shape of the underbody generated enormous downforce through the aerodynamic ground effect. After intensive research, Porsche modified the principle used in Formula 1 and implements it in its sports car.
The regulation-complying 800 kilogram 956 was powered with the same 2.65-litre twin-turbo engine as the 1981-winning 936. With the exception of the 620 hp (456 kW) engine, everything else on the vehicle was new. On 20 June, Porsche celebrated a triumphant triple victory at Le Mans with the 956: Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell won from pole after a faultless race in front of Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan as well Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert and Jürgen Barth. The race analysis showed that, thanks to the sophisticated aerodynamics, the new-comer used considerably less fuel at higher average speeds than the 936.
Porsche made the 956 available for customer teams in 1983 and Le Mans turned into a festival of the innovative car from Weissach. Nine of the top ten that reached the finish were 956 models. Only the ninth spot was occupied by a Sauber-BMW. The superior 956 vehicles provided plenty of race action on the track: After a battle of mammoth proportions with 25 changes at the top in 24 hours, Al Holbert, Hurley Haywood and Vern Schuppan swept to victory in the works-956, just 64 seconds ahead of fastest qualifiers Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell in the second factory-run 956. Mario and Michael Andretti joined forces with Philippe Alliot to bring home third. But on their way their victory, Holbert, Haywood and Schuppan faced a nail-biting situation: on Sunday afternoon, the 956 lost a door while out on the track, which disrupted the air flow to one of the radiators and caused the temperature in a cylinder bank to rise to an unhealthy level. In the final phase, the engine intermittently cut out. Holbert managed to salvage a close victory over Bell who was chasing hard behind. The engineers all agreed, his 956 would not have survived another lap.
It was true that in 1984 Alessandro Nannini set the fastest race lap in a Lancia LC 2-84, but after 24 hours on the Circuit de la Sarthe the superiority of the “wing cars” from Porsche was irrefutable. Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo won in a 956 of Joest Racing over six other Porsche 956 – all campaigned by customer squads. The battle for prestige among the customer teams turned the race into a real thriller. The statistics show eight different leaders, with the Lancia matching the high speeds over a long distance, until gearbox failure relegated the Italians down the field. In protest against a short-notice rule change concerning fuel consumption and weight, the factory did not compete: the world sports federation had announced a 15% reduction in the allowable fuel consumption. Hence, Porsche took great pains in optimising the 2.65-litre engine. Then in mid-March – too late to find another workable solution – the World Federation “FISA” rescinded the decision.
The works teams from Porsche, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lancia and Peugeot made up a formidable field in 1985. Porsche competed with the 962 C as the successor to the 956. The front axle of the new race car was moved forward by twelve centimetres to comply with the regulations of the American IMSA. The wheelbase, extended to 2.77 metres, changed the front overhang making a revision of the overall aerodynamics necessary. Due to the mandatory narrower tyres, the “Venturi” channels under the car were now five centimetres wider. In qualifying, Porsche opted for the water-cooled, three-litre turbo that made around 700 hp (515 kW). Hans-Joachim Stuck turned the fastest lap ever in Le Mans. His time of 3:14.80 min. corresponded to an average of 251.815 km/h. With this, he trounced the standing record of Jackie Oliver, who had achieved 250.475 km/h in 1971 at the wheel of the mighty 917 long tail. But in the race, Joest Racing’s 956 was in a league of its own. Klaus Ludwig, Paolo Barilla and Louis Krages (“John Winter”) churned out a blistering pace, in spite of the further reduction of stipulated fuel consumption. The trio led for 23 hours and brought home an unchallenged win. Only Richard Lloyd’s 956, driven by himself as the owner as well as Jonathan Palmer and James Weaver, initially seemed to have an answer to the Joest-Porsche, and eventually finished second in front of the factory-962 C with Bell, Stuck and Ickx. With their tenth overall victory, Porsche ousted Ferrari from the number one spot on the winners’ list. Joest Racing caught up with Ford (1968/69) and Bentley (1929/30) with two wins in a row for one chassis (No. 117).
1986 heralded another fabulous year for Porsche, despite increasingly tough competition most notably from Jaguar and Sauber-Mercedes. Derek Bell, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Al Holbert clinched overall win number eleven with the works-962 C ahead of the 962 C fielded by Brun Motorsport and a 956 of Joest Racing. Again, nine Porsche finished in the top ten: amongst them, the first and only all-wheel-drive race car to see the flag at Le Mans. It was the 961, the racing version of the ground-breaking 959 with all-wheel drive, a sequential turbocharged system and a raft of other cutting-edge technological features. With René Metge and Claude Ballot-Lena at the helm, the high-tech racer achieved seventh place overall and won the IMSA/GTX class. This marked the first time a Porsche tackled Le Mans featuring the Porsche Doppelkupplung gearbox. Alas, the works-962 C with the starting number 3 retired when a screw loosened on the main shaft between the engine and gearbox. The race was overshadowed by the fatal accident of Austrian Jo Gartner, whose 962 C of Kremer Racing went off the track during the night.
The fight for race honours in 1987 was predicted to be between the Porsche 962 C and the Jaguar XJR-8LM. The British race cars proved virtually unbeatable in the World Championship. But Le Mans was a whole other story. Derek Bell, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Al Holbert won – although this success had a somewhat dramatic prequel. It began with the tests at Weissach when Hans-Joachim Stuck destroyed Jochen Mass’s vehicle. Mass then got Stuck’s car at Le Mans. Price Cobb threw another of the Porsche fleet away in practice when he wrote the 962 C off on a barrier. Just 30 minutes after the start, Jochen Mass glided to a halt with engine failure caused by tainted petrol – a fate that would afflict many Porsche customer cars. Stuck/Bell/Holbert continued with recalibrated electronics, but the work cost them time in the pits. In the night, Stuck cranked out three stints in a row, setting a murderous pace and handing his Porsche to his teammate the next morning leading the field. When a puncture resulted in a crash and a head gasket blew, two Jaguars were out of contention. The third steered into the pits for a new gearbox. The works-run 962 C continued without problems. Victory was safe. Second place also went to a Porsche – the 962 C fielded by the Obermaier team with Jochen Lässig, Pierre and Bernard de Dryver.
[Source: Porsche AG]
