911 and Porsche Magazine
There were three generations of Porsches that led up to the
Porsche cars as we know them today. While the original Professor Ferdinand
Porsche (pronounced PORSH-ah, and never PORSH) was an engineering genius and
established the Porsche name in the automotive business in the early nineteen
hundreds, it was his son, Professor Dr. Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche,
who established them as automobile manufactures fifty years ago this past June
eighth. Then his son Ferdinand Alexander III (Butzi) who as the head of the Styling
Department from the beginning of the 1960’s until 1972 influenced the
appearance of the racing cars that they built in the 1960’s and was responsible
for designing the beautiful 904 and 911.
The original Professor Ferdinand Porsche was born on
September 3, 1875 in Maffersdorf Austria, near Reichenberg. At 18 he went to
Vienna and started working for Bela Eggar while attending the Technical
University part time. The Porsche name was already know to automobile history
from as early as 1900 when the front-wheel-drive electric powered
Lohner-Porsche, which was designed by Ferdinand Porsche with its front hub
mounted electric motors and built in Vienna, Austria. Porsche went on to work
for many prominent companies including Daimler of Austria, Daimler and
Daimler-Benz of Germany, Steyer, Auto Union and the design of the Volkswagen
Beetle.
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| Dr. Ferdinand Porsche |
Ferry Porsche was born on Sept. 19, 1909, in
Wiener-Neustadt, Austria. When Ferry was born his father was the technical
director for Austro-Daimler. Ferry was born on a Sunday and his father,
Ferdinand, was away driving in a hill climb near Vienna where he won his class
with an Austro-Daimler which he had designed.
In 1923 the Porsche family moved to Stuttgart, where the
senior Porsche was appointed Technical Director of Daimler-Benz, the
manufacturer of the Mercedes cars. With financial backing from some friends
Porsche started his own design company in 1930, with some work being done in
Austria the summer of 1930, then moving to Stuttgart December 1930. Ferry
Porsche started working with his father when the senior started his independent
design office. In March of 1931 Porsche started their own design firm in
Stuttgart as "designers and consultants for land, sea and air
vehicles". Their first project was the Wanderer automobile. The success of
which later led the Auto Union Company which incorporated the Wanderer to
appoint Professor Porsche as the designer of their Grand Prix car. The Porsche
design company’s first design number was 007 because they wanted to give the
impression that it was not their first project. By1938 the company had expanded
to 176 employees and moved to Zuffenhausen a suburb of Stuttgart. The family
also took over full ownership in 1938 restructuring the company to a limited
partnership which in Germany was called Porsche Kommanditgesellschaft, or KG.
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| Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche working on 911 design. |
The Design offices for Porsche moved from Stuttgart, Germany
to Gmünd Astria in 1944 because the Stuttgart area was under heavy attack
towards the end of WW II. The Porsche Design offices would remain in Gmünd
until 1950 when they moved back to Stuttgart in the spring of 1950.
Even before his father's death on January 30, 1951, Ferry
had taken control of Porsche operations. It was at his insistence that the
company started to build its own cars with the Porsche name in 1948, instead of
just designing vehicles for other manufacturers. The first automobile to carry
the Porsche name was the 356 roadster prototype, number 356-001, which was a
mid-engined design with a tubular spacer frame chassis and an aluminum roadster
body. Designed by Ferry Porsche himself and their Technical Director Karl Rabe
the 356 prototype was completed June 8, 1948. Chassis number 001 was a
mid-engined roadster which offered greater stability over the sport car designs
of the time. Testing of this first prototype were conducted in Austria in 1948
and the car proved to be a success. However, the market analysis that Porsche
did showed that there was only a limited market for an open two seat roadster
and as a result the mid-engined prototype was never put into production.
Instead a rear-engined derivative was put into production in 1949 that they
called the 356/2 and Porsche built 52 of the Gmünd cars before moving back to
Germany in 1950.
The 356 was put into production in Gmünd Austria in the spring of 1949 and first shown in Geneva, Switzerland during the spring of 1949. Fifty two of the original chassis were built some with coupe bodies and some with convertible bodies. All of the bodies of these original cars were built of aluminum.
In the spring of 1950 Porsche moved back to Zuffenhausen,
Stuttgart into space that they rented from the Reutter Body Works. The Reutter
Body Works built the bodies for Porsche and Porsche assembled the cars in the
5,000 square feet of space that they leased form Reutter. The bodies for these
cars were built of steel and welded to the chassis.
In 1963 Reutter sold their body company to Porsche KG so in
1964 the bodies would be built by Karmann and Porsche. The Reutter family
continued to build the seats and called them selves Recaro which was a
combination of their name Reutter and Carzozzerie.
The Porsche name has always been associated with racing and
Porsche won their first race with a car that carried their own name in a local
round-the-houses race in Innsbruck, Austria on July 11, 1948 with the 356
mid-engined prototype driven by Herbert Kaes, nephew of Professor Porsche and
cousin of Ferry. In 1951 they had a class win at Le Mans and since then their
name has been synonymous with success in motor sports. Porsche has won most of
the major competition events in the world: the World Endurance Championship in
sports car racing 14 times and the Le Mans 24-hour race a record 15 times.
Porsche 911s won the Monte Carlo rally four times, and the famous desert race,
Paris-Dakar in 1984 and 1986 with their all wheel drive sports cars based on
their 959 technology. Porsche and McLaren contested 68 formula one races
together, winning three world championships along the way. The Porsche McLaren
combination won 25 races together making the TAG turbo engine made by Porsche
the most successful German racing engine in Formula 1 racing since the World
Championship was established.
The old Professor Ferdinand Porsche had two children, Ferry
Porsche and his sister Louise Piëch who was five years Ferry’s senior and each
of them had four sons. When their father died, Ferry Porsche and his older
sister Louise Piëch each received half the shares of the Porsche company.
Louise agreed to let Ferry run Porsche, but she insisted that her own children
be given as much chance as Ferry's sons to take the helm when the time came for
him to step down. Two of their children appeared to have both the talent and
drive necessary to eventually take over the family business: Ferry's son
Ferdinand Alexander (Butzi) and Louise's son Ferdinand Piëch who worked
together at Porsche to create the 911. Butzi was responsible for the body
design while his cousin Ferdinand was responsible for the mechanicals including
the brilliant air-cooled six cylinder 911 engine.
During the sixties several of the family members from both
branches of the family were involved in the direct management of Porsche and
although both sides of the family wanted their family owned company to succeed
the competitiveness between the family members of the Porsche and Piëch
families was causing decisions to be made that were not in the best interest of
their business. The family members presence was also effectively blocking the
rise of others within the company who may have been better qualified to
administer the companies future.
In 1971, because of the great competitiveness between the
Porsche and Piëch families, Ferry Porsche asked the family members to consider
stepping down from their positions within Porsche. The Porsche and Piëch family
members withdrew from active management in 1972 and retreated from their
positions on the management board to the supervisory board. As members of the
supervisory board they still had decisive influence over approving management
board positions and Dr. Ferdinand Porsche assumed the post Chairman of the
supervisory board. At this time they hired Ernst Fuhrmann to be their chairman
of the management board and the company was converted from a limited
partnership (KG) to a stock company, an Aktiengesellschaft or AG.
In 1972 Porsche opened their Weissach research and
development facility. Weissach is world famous for research and development for
both themselves for their Porsche automobiles and other auto makers. Weissach
has helped to support Porsche AG during some of their lean years and 30% of all
work there is done for other manufacturers, governments and NATO. On April 25,
1984 one third of the Dr. Ing. hcF Porsche AG stock was offered to the public
in the form of non-voting preferred stock.
Ferry Porsche was awarded and honorary doctorate by the
Technical University of Vienna in 1965 and was awarded the honorary title
‘Professor’ in 1984 on his 75th birthday. Unfortunately Professor Ferry Porsche
passed away this past Spring on March 27, 1988 at the age of 88 at the family’s
vacation home in Zell am See, Austria and did not live to see his namesake car
turn 50 on June 8, 1998.
The oldest sons, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche and Ferdinand
Piëch have both gone on to be very successful in their own right. Ferdinand
Porsche (Butzi) Created the Porsche Design company in Stuttgart to do
industrial design work. Designing any number of significant products including
his very popular watches and eye glasses. Ferdinand Piëch has progressed up
through the VW-Audi organization to become the CEO of Volkswagen turning around
the fortunes of this once failing company.
Fifty year Celebration
My wife and I started helping Porsche with their Fifty Year Birthday celebration by going to France and cheering the Porsche GT1 cars on at Le Mans June 6th and 7th. Next we helped with the Palo Alto Lions Club Concours on June 28th.at the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. This Concours d’Elegance of 250 cars featured Porsche as their marque and had 100 Porsches on display. The factory provided five cars for this display, the 1951 Le Mans class-winning Gmünd 356 SL, RS 60 Spyder, the Le Mans-winning 1987 Rothman 962 coupe, a Targa Florio 908/03, and the 935/78 Moby Dick long-tail. Many of these car had never been in the US before this visit. Dave Morse also had part of his collection at the Palo Alto show including his 917/30, his 936/001, his 959 and his 911ST. Bruce Canepa brought his beautiful 1979 935, and Joe Wong brought his beautiful all original 934. There were a number of wonderful 356s ranging from the Factory’s 356SL, Chuck Forge’s 356SL, which had been modified in the early fifties and Jim Barrington's lovely Gmünd coupe, just to mention some of the exquisite cars there.
My wife and I started helping Porsche with their Fifty Year Birthday celebration by going to France and cheering the Porsche GT1 cars on at Le Mans June 6th and 7th. Next we helped with the Palo Alto Lions Club Concours on June 28th.at the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. This Concours d’Elegance of 250 cars featured Porsche as their marque and had 100 Porsches on display. The factory provided five cars for this display, the 1951 Le Mans class-winning Gmünd 356 SL, RS 60 Spyder, the Le Mans-winning 1987 Rothman 962 coupe, a Targa Florio 908/03, and the 935/78 Moby Dick long-tail. Many of these car had never been in the US before this visit. Dave Morse also had part of his collection at the Palo Alto show including his 917/30, his 936/001, his 959 and his 911ST. Bruce Canepa brought his beautiful 1979 935, and Joe Wong brought his beautiful all original 934. There were a number of wonderful 356s ranging from the Factory’s 356SL, Chuck Forge’s 356SL, which had been modified in the early fifties and Jim Barrington's lovely Gmünd coupe, just to mention some of the exquisite cars there.
Next on my list of fifty year celebrations was the 356
Holiday at Steamboat Springs Colorado. This event was held, July 17 – 19, the
weekend before the forty third Porsche Parade. The factory supported the 356
event by providing the 1951 356SL that raced to 20th place in the 1951 Le Mans
race. The next week, also in Steamboat springs, was the Porsche Parade where
Porsche joined in the celebration by providing the same cars that had been at
Palo Alto.
The state of Colorado was a wonderful site for these events,
this was my fourth Colorado Parade. We have had two in Colorado Springs, one in
Aspen and this Parade in Steamboat Springs since I have been in the Porsche
Club of America. The 43rd Parade was sold out with over 750 registrations and
well over 1400 Porsche fans attending. The Porsche family was represented at
the Parade by Hans Peter Porsche and Oliver Porsche. Peter is the son of Ferry
and Oliver, his nephew, the son of F.A. (Butzi) Porsche. Oliver is now the
president or Porsche Design studio replacing his father in that role a couple
of years ago. Fred Schwab president of PCNA and his wife Dotty were also with
us at Parade again this year.
Monday was the Concours d Elegance and this was the largest
we have had in years with over 150 Porsches entered, 142 cars to be judged and
an additional 41 cars for display.
I had a wonderful trip home from Steamboat Springs, Colorado
in a new Boxster that I borrowed from Porsche for the trip home. Although I
would have preferred a new 996 for the trip the Boxster is wonderful! The trip
was uneventful and marvelous. From when I left until I got home I drove 1284
miles. I did a lot of looping around looking for fun places to take photos. We
just may have to buy one of these cars, too bad that I don’t have a real job to
make it easier. The car was arrest me red, and I almost got arrested in Nevada.
I got stopped for doing 80 in a 65 zone and we talked for awhile and he turned
me loose. He was in a SUV going the opposite direction. Up until he stopped me
I had mostly driving about 30 miles per hour over the speed limit. Fortunately
when he found me I was lost and somewhat off the pace.
After being stopped in Nevada I dropped my speed a bunch,
but it had been fun while it lasted. I was really pretty careful in California,
only had it over 100 mph a couple of times. The Boxster I had was a five-speed
and I found that it will do 120 mph comfortably in fourth. And I ever did get
it up to top speed, 140 mph was my tops in Utah. They are really comfortable
high speed cruising cars, I would love one. The more you drive these new
Porsches, both the Boxster and the 996 the more you like them. The 996 is even
more fun, they are just wonderful cars... 50% more power than the Boxster – you
can’t help but love them. That is if you don’t get arrested. At the late press
introduction in Washington/Oregon, Keith Martin, who had just purchased a new
to him 1968 911, came up to me after our first full day of driving the 996s and
said that now he really appreciated his 1968 because he could scare himself at
75 mph and it took 140 mph to scare himself in the 996.
I judged in the Steamboat Springs Parade Concours d’Elegance
to practice up for the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach a month later where
I would be Chief Judge for the Porsche 356 class they would be having. We had a
lot of fun with our friends, the cars and the people from Porsche. We even had
lunch one day with Peter Porsche. Peter is partners with his brother Butzi (Ferdinand
Alexander Porsche) in Porsche Design. Butzi’s son Oliver was also at Parade for
a few days, he seems to be a really great guy. He is now president of Porsche
Design.
I gave a presentation on Tuesday at the Porsche Parade that
was supposed to have been based on a slide show, but unfortunately I forgot my
slides. I told them that I had sat down the night before and realized that I
had left my slides home. so I was going to have to describe them to them. Then
I started out by making a clicking sound with my mouth like the slide changer
and described the first slide, which was the Finish Air plane with a large
Santa Klaus painted on the side. Then I went on and talked about the trip last
December to Finland and Stuttgart and the Boxsters and 996s that they were
building then. I also told them about my getting to drive the 996 a couple of
months ago and then comparing it to the older cars. I also told them about Le
Mans and the new Porsche GT1 cars that placed first and second over there. All
in all it went well, but I missed my slides. I had spent quite a bit of time
preparing the slides for the presentation, too bad that I forgot them. Must be
a sign of old age.
Our Monterey Historics began a week before the Monterey
Historic Automobile Races with the 356 Registry West Coast Holiday at Monterey.
This years 356 West Coast Holiday was a really special with 636 paid entrants
and additional 381 paid co-entrants for a total of 1017 entries. Friday August
7, 1998 Klaus Bischof, the Porsche Factory Museum Director, gave a great
presentation on the 356 origin and history. Bischof told the session that
Porsche number 1 had been damaged in shipment by the airline in Chicago and
would not be at the event for its birthday. The damage was so extensive that
number 1 had to be sent back to the factory for a restoration. He made the
point that if you were going to take the chance to play with these cars that
you have to take the risk that they could be damaged. His presentation was to a
huge crowd that included Dr. Wolfgang Porsche and his wife Susanne Porsche.
Susanne Porsche and Roman Kuhn have produced a beautiful video and booklet on
the 50 Years of Porsche 1948 – 1998 that was on sale at various events over the
weekend. The video gives a great history of the car from its beginnings through
the current production models and is a must for any Porsche enthusiast.
After Klaus Bischof‘s presentation my brother, Clark and I
gave a Tech Session for the Registry on the Pan American races held in Mexico
and Hot Rod Porsche 356’s that was well received. We shared the Pan American
races and Clark went on alone with his Hot Rod 356 portion of the pesentation.
The Pan American races presentation was based on a couple of cars that we
prepared for a friend in Mexico, Sam Bardor, and then helped him run in the Pan
Americana races. Our presentation covered the preparation of Bardor’s two 356s
back in 1988 for the first year of the reinvention of the Carrera Pan American
races and the running of the event for several years. We showed a number of
slides of the various competitors and explained the preparation necessary to
compete in this event. Clark went on to show a presentation of building street
rods from 356s that was also well received.
Saturday and Sunday at Laguna Seca was what they call
"The Prehistorics", a practice event for the Monterey Historic
Automobile Races the following weekend. While The Prehistorics were underway on
Saturday the 356 Registry had what was the largest Literature Swap Meet that I
have ever attended. It was obvious that the people putting on the 356 Registry
Holiday had greatly underestimated the significance of Porsche Literature and
Memorabilia to Porsche enthusiast for the Regency Ballroom-Peninsula Terrace at
the at the Hyatt Regency Monterey was far too small to be up to the task of
housing the buyers and sellers at this event. My wife, Stephanie, and I got so
enthused that we even bought some memorabilia ourselves from a couple of
notable sellers, Marco Marinello of Elevenparts AG, and long time friend and
father of Olaf Lang, Paul Lang.
The Prehistorics gives the competitors and would be
competitors the opportunity to sort out their cars for the following weekends
event. We went down to the Prehistorics because I wanted to see how some of my
friend‘s cars had worked out after they had completed their restorations. I had
been following the restorations of both Morspeed‘s cars and Bruce Canepa
Motorsport‘s cars. Morspeed had restored 917/30 004, driven by Porsche’s Olaf
Lang, 936-001 driven by Chris Morse, 936-004, driven by Dave Morse, a G roup 4
934 driven by Mark Morse and a Le Mans 924 GTR, driven by Kerry Morse (a
friend, not a relative of the other Morses).
Canepa had restored his own 1979 935, our old Sachs
sponsored 1980 Kremer K3 935, the GELO 917/10 and the Repsol 962 for the event.
All of the Morspeed cars checked out fine at the Prehistorics. Canepa had
completed two of his cars, but he had not yet completed the other two. Bruce
Canepa did not have the Repsol 962 or his GELO 917/10 as he was still working
on that at his shop in nearby Santa Cruz, but both his 935 and the Sachs 935
checked out fine. The Sachs Porsche Kremer K3 935 was the same car that we
prepared for the 1980 season for team owner Dick Barbour and drivers John
Fitzpatrick, Dick Barbour and Brian Redman. John Fitzpatrick won the IMSA
Championship 1980, the prestigious Porsche Cup 1980, Sebring 1980, Daytona 250
mile 1980, Mosport 1980, Norisring 1980, Sears Point 1980, Riverside 1980,
Portland 1980, Laguna Seca 1980 with this and its sister Porsche Kremer K3
935.. Dave Morse’s 936 001 was used in the wind tunnel at Volkswagen to develop
the body shape to influence the lift and drag characteristics for the 936s. 936
001 was also used for most of the development work for the 936s, a second car
936 002 ran most of the races in the Sports car World Championship series
except the first race of the year Nürburgring and Dijon where 936 001 was used.
From the second race, at Monza, the cars were painted white with red and blue
Martini racing trim instead of flat black with the red and blue trim. Only one
936 was raced in all of the Sports Car Championship races in 1976 and the only
place where Porsche raced both cars was the non championship Le Mans 24 hour
race. At the seasons first race at Nürburgring the 936 001 suffered a jamming
throttle cable which would be its only serious malfunction of the season.
Fortunately Reinhold Joest won the race with a turbocharged 908/03 saving the
day for Porsche as Stommelen placed fifth in the new 936. In the remaining six
races in the Sports car championship the 936 reliability was exceptional and
the 936s proved to be unbeatable and won all of the remaining races.
For Le Mans 1977 Jünrgen Barth and Hurley Haywood were to
have driven 936 001 and early in the race it had an injection pump failure
which put it a half hour behind. Soon after that the other factory car, 936 002
went out with a failed connecting rod, so Porsche added Jacky Ickx to the
drivers lineup in 936 001. With Ickx, Barth and Haywood in 936 001 the three of
them brought the car back into first place after eighteen hours of driving. But
at 3:14 with just 36 minutes left to race 936 001 had a head gasket fail and
Hurley, Haywood came in with the car only running on 5 cylinders. Fortunately all
of the real challengers were out of the race by then or so far back that they
could not catch 936 001 even if it sat in the pits for the rest of the race. So
that was what it did with the exception of the last two laps so that it would
qualify as a finisher .The team disabled the fuel and ignition to the one bad
cylinder and at the end of the race Jürgen Barth took 936 001 out for two slow
laps and Porsche's fourth victory at Le Mans.
936 001 was updated in 1978 with an engine with water cooled
heads and different body work. 936 001 was run in 1978, 1979 and 1981 but never
won Le Mans again after 1977. This is one of two 936s that Dave Morse owns.
The Morspeed 936 004 was the fourth 936, which was built for
Joest Racing for the 1980 Le Mans race where it was driven to a second place
finish by Reinhold Joest and Jacky Ickx. The Joest 936 was a copy of the 1977
version of the 936; but it was not originally called a 936, but instead it was
called a 908/80. The car was entered by Joest and sponsored by Martini Racing
for Joest and Jacky Ickx to run in the 1980 Le Mans race. Their reason given
for the car being called a 908/80 was that the car was built as a replacement
for the 908/3 and the new car for Joest was originally built as an updated
908/3 using a 936 chassis, chassis parts, transmission, engine, fuel and oil
tanks, pedals etc. Therefore a new 936 was built and the only difference was
that for tactical reasons it was called a 908/80 because Porsche did not want
to be in the business of selling 936s to customers and did not want to be
pressured by their other racing customers. Later they allowed Joest to call
their car 936 004 and provided the Joest and Kremer teams with all of the
drawings and data necessary to duplicate the 936s and the Kremers built 936 005
and the Joest team built their 936 C coupe. to run in group C races.
The Morspeed 917/30 004 was to have been the new car for the
Penske team for the 1974 season, but when the Can-Am rules were changed
effectively eliminating the Turbo Porsches from the series it was never
delivered to the Penske team. The main difference between 917/30 004 and the
earlier cars is that it has a five-speed transmission and they had but a
four-speed gearbox. The car was originally sold to Allan Hamilton the Australian
Porsche importer. In the 1980s Australia put a very high import tax on imported
cars and Hamilton’s business failed and Porsche took the car as a partial
payment for the new Porsches that they had sold to him. A few years ago Dave
Morse was able to buy the car from Porsche and add it to his collection.
The Bruce Canepa 917/10 was a car that belonged to Georg
Loos GELO PORSCHE RACING Team and run in the Interserie in 1973 by Georg Loos.
Bruce Canepa’s 1979 935 0090029 was the last 1979 935 delivered to the US.
Canepa ran this 935 in an number of IMSA races in the US. Canepa’s other 935
was a Kremer built 935 K3 0000023, one of the two Sachs sponsored 935 K3s that
were run by Dick Barbour Racing in 1980 for British driver John Fitzpatrick who
won both the IMSA Championship in 1980 as well as the much revered
"Porsche Cup". These were cars that I helped to prepare and was a
member of the crew for during the 1980 season.
Sunday August 9, 1989 was also the Concours d’Elegance Day
for the 356 Registry at Quail Lodge. This was an awesome event with 387 entries
parked on the lawn at the Quail Lodge for the Concours. I have never seen this
many 356s together in one place. In addition to the multitude of 356s of all
sizes and shapes, there were also Peter Dunkel’s beautifully restored Porsche
Tractor, a 550A Spyder, a 906 and a Abarth Carrera. There were over thirty four
cam Carreras at the show at Quail Lodge. The car awarded the Best of Show
trophy was Cheryl Dunkel’s Silver GS/GT Carrera Speedster, while Kenneth Ward‘s
Stone Gray 1959 Cabriolet won the Judges Choice award as well as the Peoples
Choice award.
Monday August 10, 1998 was the Track Day for the 356
Registry where the entrants were all allowed to tour the track at Laguna Seca.
Monday evening was the gala banquet at the Monterey Aquarium on Cannery Row.
This was a wonderful event where the participants were able to eat fish while
the live fish in the tanks looked on. This is a wonderful Aquarium and a great
place for a Porsche Banquet. Tuesday was the last day to the 356 Registry
Holiday with a large Swap Meet at the Monterey Peninsula College.
Wednesday afternoon/evening was the opening event for the
Porsche Club or America at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. Registration
and nibbles were offered at MY Porsche, the local dealer, in nearby Seaside
California. This event allowed all of the Porsche enthusiast from all over the
country to meet up and get acquainted. There were a number of Porsches on
display ranging from three new 996s with the aero kits to John Clever’s
unrestored, very large, Porsche Junior Tractor. After this PCA warmup event my
wife and I went to a special car event referred to by some of the attendies as
"Cigars and Cars at the Airport". This event was actually Gordon McCall’s
MOTORWORKS "A Celebration of Style in Motion". Although there were
all sorts of cars and planes on display the main focus was the more than thirty
various different Porsches on display at the event including a 1958 RSK in bare
aluminum facing off with a P51 Mustang fighter also in bare Aluminum. There
were Carreras, Spyders, 904s, 906s and a 917 all on display. The main sponsors
for this event were Meguiar’s, Robb Report and Monterey Airplane Company.
Thursday night there was another dinner at the Aquarium for
some of the Porsche elite, but I don’t know anyone who was invited. Instead we
went out to dinner with Rafiel and Annie Vasquez and our friends from Puerto
Rico and Judy Boles the president of the Porsche Club of America and her
husband John Boles.
The Porsche Club of America’s big banquet for the Monterey
Historics weekend was held at the Monterey Mission on Friday evening. This was
the biggest event of the week with over 1500 in attendance.
The Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca were
on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and they were really why most of us were in
Monterey for the weekend. We were not alone celebrating Porsche’s 50th
anniversary and the crowd for the races was estimated at more than 65,000
people over the weekend, which is a record for this event. Saturdays crowd was
huge and it was said that it was the second-largest single day draw in the
history of the Track. This was also the 25th anniversary of Steve Earl’s
Monterey Historic Automobile Races. Earl said that he would celebrate their
25th anniversary next year with a retrospective of the past 25 years with all
of the winners of the Monterey Cup.
Monterey Historics organizer Steve Earle let 124 Porsches in
for his historic races and while they didn’t win all of the races Porsches so
that almost every model was represented at Monterey. And while the Porsches
didn’t win every race where they were entered in, they did win their fair
share. There are seven races each Saturday and Sunday and the Porsches did win
seven of the nine races that they were entered in. The cars ranged from a 1949
356SL, and a 1951 prototype Sauter Roadster, to a 1955 Continental and five of
the very rare Carrera Abarths. There were actually six Abarths on the Monterey
peninsula for the weekend the sixth was for sale at one of the auctions. There
were more Spyders than were could count, probably more than twenty, mostly in
silver both on the track in Porsches display and just there to be there. There
were also 904s, 906s, 910s, 907s and probably ten 908s and another ten 917s in
various body configurations ranging from the long tail version to the
turbocharged 917/10s and 917/30s. There were some 914 racers, one that Hurley
Haywood put on a great display with just beating Jürgen Barth in their hotly
contested race. There were 934s, 935s and 936s, there of the four 936s that
Porsche built were there.
Porsche brought cars over from their museum in Stuttgart and
created both a display and what appeared to be working pits for the 1922
Sascha, 1947 Cisitalia Grand Prix car, 1951 356 SL, 1954 550 Panamericana
Spyder, 1960 RS 60 Spyder, 1960 718 Formula 2 car, 1962 804 Grand Prix car in
which Dan Gurney won the 1962 French Grand Prix,1964 Porsche 904 coupe, 1970
908/3 Spyder, 1970 917 Le mans winner, 1971 917 Long Tail, 1972 917/10 Can Am
Spyder – RC Cola, 1974 911 Carrera RSR Turbo, 1977 936, 1978 Porsche 935 Moby
Dick, 1986 McLaren Tag Formula 1, 1986 Porsche 959 Paris Dakar Rally car. 1987
Porsche 962 C, 1988 959 Street car, 1989 March Porsche Indy Car, 1989 Porsche Panamericana
Concept car, 1994 Dauer 962, 1996 Porsche 911 GT1 and 1997 Porsche 911 GT Most
of these cars were in working order and driven around the Laguna Seca track for
all to see by some of the Porsche racing heroes past and present as wells as
Porsches own dignities and by some journalists.
Also held on Friday was Concours Italiano, a relative
newcomer at 12 years compared to The Monterey Historic Automobile Races at 25
years and the Pebble Beach Concours at 48 years. This year they paid tribute to
Alfa Romeo as their featured marque, with cars like a 1934 Alfa Romeo P3, the
winner of the 1934 Mille Miglia. They also had other Italian exotica such as a
Maserati 500 GT Prototype designed by Frau, a 1957 Maserati A6G Frau Spyder, a
Maserati Tipo 124 Prototype and a 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport.
In their twelve short years Concours Italiano has grown to
be a major car event. In addition to their wonderful Italian cars they have
also included a display of Porsches and this year there was an amazing display
of over 300 Porsches, organized by the Porsche Club of America, Zone 7. To
conform with proper Italian grammar in the future the name of this even will be
officially changed to Concorso Italiano in 1999.
Saturday night was Porches official 50th Anniversary
Celebration Dinner in the Porsche Experience Pavilion at Laguna Seca Raceway.
This was a magical evening with the whose who of Porsche in attendance. Such
notables as Dr Wendelin Wiedeking, Dr Wolfang Porsche, Sterling Moss, Jack
McAfee, Sam Posey. Prestoen Henn, Davey Jones, Herbert Linge, Harm Lagaay,
Peter Falk, Fred Schwab, Jeff Zwart, Vick Elford, Ernst Schuster, Joe Buzzetta,
Jerry Seinfeld, Denise McCluggate, Jurgen Barth, Hans Herman, Gijs van Lennep,
Bob Wollek, John Fitzpatrick, and Hurley Haywood, just to name some of the
great in attendance. The entertainment for the evening included presentations
by Sterling Moss and Sam Posey covering the history of Porsche Racing with some
great video presentations and introductions of the drivers. And, yes, Stephanie
and I were there too. It was a Magical evening indeed and we are not likely
ever to see such a gathering of Porsche cars and Porsche people again.
Sunday dawned early on the Pebble Beach Concours where they
too helped us celebrate Porsches fifty years of making cars. This was Pebble
Beache’s own 48th anniversary, they will celebrate their fiftieth in the year
two thousand. This event continues to grow in stature and it was claimed that
this year they had a record 15,000 people in attendance. Porsche cars used to
be regular participants at Pebble Beach in the bygone days, I even won my class
there in 1971 with my 1964 Porsche 356 SC GT coupe. Soon after that, in 1973,
Pebble Beach went upscale and excluded the post war Sports Car clases where the
Porches had competed. Since then we have only been invited back in 1982 when
Porsche was the featured Marque at the Monterey Historics and again this year
when Porsche was again the featured Marque. I have been fortunate to judge both
in 1982 and again in 1998 when I was Chief judge for the Porsches.
As Chief judge I picked five of my most critical friends and
we used the Porsche Club of America Concurs rules as our guide to selection of
what we felt was the best car in the 356 collection on display. It was a very
close battle between John and Donna Paterek with their beautiful 1952 Gläser
America Roadster, which ultimately placed second and Stephen and Dorthy
Heinrichs 1954 356 Speedster prototype who won the class. This car was the
third prototype Speedster and it had been made by Porsche like three other
prototypes by extensively reworking a 356 Cabriolet model. It was surprising
how much this car looked like the later production Speedsters considering how
it was produced. There were six 356s in the Porsche 356 class. There were also
an additional thirteen cars ranging from a 1922 Austro-Daimler Sascha Racer to
Jerry Seinfeld’s last air cooled 911 sold, which was a 1998 C4S. In between
there were a 1951 356SL which was the first Porsche raced at Le Mans, a 550
Spyder, a 550A Spyder a 904, a 906 a 917/10, a 962, a 959, the Panamericana
Cabriolet, a 911 GT1 and Jerry Seinfeld’s first 911.
 |
| Ilse Nädele Porsche Club Coordinator and Pebble beach Concours de Elegance judges left to right Dennis Frick, myself, Dale Miller, Mark Smedley, Weldon Scrogham, and Kirby Hollis. |
Seinfeld has the book ends of Porsche 911s with the first
911 and the last air cooled 911 sold to a customer. The first car was actually
not the first 911, but the first car called a 911 and was originally owned by
Professor Ferry Porsche when it was new. The 901 as it was called when
initially introduced at the September 1963 Frankfurt show. Porsche built 232
cars through the end of 1964. The reason that the 901 was renamed, or
renumbered from, 901 to 911 was that the French auto maker Peugeot had
registered the use of three digit numbers where the center digit was a zero in
France. Without making the change to 911 Porsche would not be able to sell
their cars in France. This car that Jerry Seinfeld has, chassis number 300049,
was built on November 10,1964 and was the first car called the 911.
Seinfeld bought this car from a private party in November of
1996 in what he described as a less than pleasant transaction. In April of 1997
he made a deal with Porsche to have them restore the first 911 for him as well
as arranging for him to buy the very last air cooled 911 which was built March
31, 1998. The last air cooled 911 is a Mexico blue Carrera 4S. Incidentally he
also has the last US specification 993 but it was not on display. When asked
about what the first 911 cost to restore they said that it was about what it
would cost to buy two new 911s, which seems quite reasonable for such a
beautiful piece of Porsche history. Their goal was to have their first and last
air cooled 911s at the Monterey Historic Weekend, a goal that they achieved in
spades.
Some Porsches sneak on the field at Pebble Beach almost
every year in the form of the Pebble Beach Cup and Road and Track awards for
the cars that are selected at the Historics at Laguna Seca and invited over to
Pebble beach for Sunday. This year Dennis Aker won the Pebble Beach Cup with his
1953 Pooper (Porsche/Cooper) and Bill Perrone won the Road and Track Award with
his 1955 Porsche Spyder.
Double Fifty at Watkins Glen: The Double Fifty at Watkins
Glen in New York was continuation of Watkins Glen’s anniversary of road racing
and Porsche’s fifty years of building cars. Brian Redman put this event on and
gave a wonderful birthday party for both Porsche and Watkins Glen at Watkins
Glen the weekend of August 27-30. The weekend was filled with Porsches that
have won races from their class win at Le Mans in 1951 to the present time as
well as a long list of world famous drivers who drove those cars.
Post war sports car racing in the united states started in
Watkins Glen on October 2, 1948. The original Watkins Glen Course was 6.6 miles
and ran through the Watkins Glen village of 3,000 people and on the outlying
roads through what is now a park. The Stone Bridge once a famous landmark on
the original course is still part of this road through the countryside.
Road racing had several starts in the US with the first road
race being held outside Chicago in 1895 on Thanksgiving day. Although road
racing had been very popular in Europe there was little tradition for road
racing in the US with the exception of the Vanderbuilt Cup races held early in the
century, from 1904 through 1916 and revived again for 1936 and 1937 at
Roosevelt Raceway in NY to attract European cars and drivers to America.
Both World Wars killed road racing in the US. Following the
first World War road racing had a brief comeback in the early thirties when the
Collier Brothers: Sam Collier and Barron Collier Jr., and some of their friends
helped to develop road racing in the United States in the 1930s. As teenagers
in 1929 the Collier brothers and friends started their own club the Overlook
Automobile Racing Club, built a road racing track around their dads summer home
in Upstate New York and raced their home built cars with motorcycle engines. In
1933 this interest in road racing evolved into the Automobile Racing Club of
America (ARCA) and they started racing real sports car on road courses. Their
first race was on a course designed by Miles on their father‘s land in Pocono
Hills. The ARCA lasted six years until the war and had 136 members.
After the war the Collier brothers, Charles Morgan, George
Rand, Briggs, Cunningham and their friends helped organize the Sports Car Club
of America (SCCA) in February 1944. This group ran some road races over estate
and country roads in the eastern part of the US, but the real renaissance for
road racing began at Watkins Glen on October 2, 1948 when Cameron Argetsinger
talked the people of Watkins Glen into having a road race through Watkins Glen.
At that time Watkins Glen was a little resort village of about 3000 people on
Lake Seneca, 250 miles from New York City. He convinced the towns people that
they could extend their tourist season by having a race through town they week
after "Labor Day Weekend" a US holiday that was traditionally the end
of their season.
Road racing at the Watkins Glen was infectious and it spread
over the US. Races were held at Pebble Beach, Sebring, Golden Gate Park and the
American road racing renaissance was under way. Before permanent road courses
were built races were held at airports and fairgrounds all around the US. As
with all of these early "make do" type racing circuits using public
roads the original Watkins Glen course was too dangerous for both the drivers
and spectators and a permanent race track was ultimately built. The Watkins
Glen course moved from being an open road course first through the village of
Watkins Glen from 1948 to 1952 and then later from 1953 to 1955 near the town
of Dix, 5 miles south west of Watkins Glen to a permanent road course in 1956
where it is now.
The Porsche factory and museum director Klaus Bischof
provided six cars from the museum at Stuttgart for the Double Fifty
celebration; the Gmünd 356 SL that was the first Porsche to race at Le Mans in
1951, a RS 60, a Gulf 908/3, a 917K, the fabulous "Moby Dick" 935/78
and 1987 Le Mans winning Rothmans 962.
There were over 350 cars entered including the exhibition
cars. When I asked the James Redman how many entries they had he said that they
could be creative and say 600 "race" entries, but that really
translated to about 340 cars as most had entered both the sprint races and
endurance races.
Those cars entered ranged from the: 550, 55A, RSK, RS60,
RS61, 904, 906, RSR, 907, 910, 908 Long Tail, 908/2, 908/3, 917K, 917 PA,
917/10, 917 Interserie, 956, 962 and the ex Rohr GT1 car. The list of factory
drivers to go with these cars included: Richard Attwood, Jürgen Barth, Joe
Buzzetta, Vic Elford, George Follmer, Hurley Haywood and Porsches newest
recruit from the US, David Murray. Other drivers there were Milt Minter, Elliot
Forbes, Bob Akin, Walt Bohren, and Michael Keyser. Most of these drivers along
with Brian Redman were available at lunch time to sign autographs and the lines
spread around the paddock.
Fred Schwab, President and CEO of Porsche Cars North
America, Inc. was the Grand Marshall for the event and handed out all the
trophies. As an added duty Fred drove one of the Spyders around the track in
the exhibition runs.
For me the weekend started Tursday afternoon when we arrived
at the circuit and I went to the photo opportunity in the Esses were the
organizers lined up most of the 350 cars and drivers so that we could
photograph them. Friday was a practice day for all of the groups of cars.
Friday evening after practice and qualifying there was a cocktail party for all
of the drivers and their family and crew in a large tent behind the pit
grandstand. The Friday evening party was sponsored by Porsche Cars North
America, Kelly-Moss Motorsports, Amalfi Racing, Klub Sport and Brumos Porsche.
Both Saturday and Sunday were filled with races for the
various classes of cars. Their were four PCA Sprint Races Saturday for the
various classes use in PCA Club Racing. There were also two vintage sprint
races Saturday. Sunday their were four one hour endurance races for both the
PCA and Vintage cars. All of the races were named after a person or event
related to Porsche. The first race was Arnage Trophy sprint race with 37
entrants. The Arnage Trophy, named after the famous corner at Le Mans was won
by Keith Komar with his 2.7 1974 911 in class G, second was Robert Scotto with
his 1988 3.2 liter Carrera in class F, and third was Henk Westerduin with his
1988 3.2 Carrera in class F.
The second race was the Bruce Jennings Trophy sprint race
with 37 entrants. The Bruce Jennings Trophy is named after a famous US racer
who won more races with a Porsche than any other driver in the world between
1959 and 1969. The Bruce Jennings Trophy was won by John Jacobs with his 1974
914 in class GT5R, second was Dick Howe in his 1980 924 in class GT5S, and
third was Wade Herren in his 1975 914 in class GT5S.
The third race was the Gmund Cup sprint race with 46
entrants. The Gmund Cup named after the home of the first Porsches was won by
Brian Redman in Miles Collier’s RS61 in class 3X, Bob Snodgrass was second in
his 914/6 in class G3, Weldon Scrogham was third in his 356 Speedster in class
G2 and Vic Skirmants was fourth in his 1959 356. in class G2. Brian withdrew
from the results moving the second through fourth place cars up one space. He
said that it would look bad if the organizer won, so he declared himself
ineligible.
The fourth race was the Jacky Ickx Cup sprint race with 65
entrants. The Jacky Ickx Cup was named after the only six time winner of Le
mans and perhaps the best long distance driver ever. The Ickx race was won by
Hurley Haywood a pretty spectacular long distance racer in his own right
driving his Brumos 962 in class GTP, second was Donald Stiles in his 962 in
class GTP, and third was Michael Schrom in his 1987 3.4 liter 911 in class
GT1R.
The fifth race was the Salzburg Cup sprint race with 46
entrants. The Salzburg Cup was named after the Salzburg team entered by Ferry
Porsche’s sister Louise Piëch in 1969, 1970 and 1971. The Salzburg Cup sprint
race was won by Joe His with his 924 in the GT4S class, second was Chris
Musante in his 2790 cc 1974 911 in the GT4S class, and third was Michael
Trombly in his 1984 911SCRS in class C.
The sixth race was the Eifel Trophy sprint race with 44
entrants. The Eifel Trophy race was named after the Eifel Mountains of Germany
where the Nürburgring track is. The Eifel Trophy was won by Henry Payne IV in
his 1969 908/2 in class E6, second was Henry Payne III in his 1967 907 Long
Tail coupe in class E5, and third was Art Pilla in his Kremer K5 935 in Class
E6.
Saturday night after the track activities Brian hosted a
dinner for all who wanted to attend. Apparently plenty wanted to attend and all
of the dinner tickets were sold out. The factory drivers all gave short, and very
funny talks about their most memorable moment in a Porsche at the dinner. There
was also an auction for a Porsche 917 lightweight crankshaft, the original art
for the Poster by Tim Berry, a leather bound special proof copy of the Double
Fifty program and a copy of a Battle of the Titans limited edition poster
signed by 25 drivers from the 1970 24 hours of Le Mans. All brought good prices
for The Vasek & Anna_Maria Polak Charitable Foundation for Cancer
Research.. Fred Schwab bought the leather bound proof copy of the program for
$4000 and then donated it to the Watkins Glen Motor Racing Research Library.
Fred Schwab also gave the Watkins Glen Motor Racing Research Library a check
for $10,000.
Sunday’s races were all run under a one hour endurance race
format with one mandatory five minute pit stop. Driving could be shared between
two drivers or one driver could drive the whole race, but the 5 minute pit stop
applied either way.
The first race Sunday was called the Weissach Cup endurance
race with 72 entrants. The Weissach Cup race was named after the R&D and
Test Center for Porsche. The Weissach Cup was run by Jack Gaggini and his
co-driver Elliot Forbes-Robinson with Gaggini’s 2.7 liter 1970 911 race car in
class GT4S, second was Lad Sanda and co-driver David Murray in Sanda’s 1993
964RS in C, and third was Vince Suddard with his 2.7 liter 1970 911 race car in
class GT4S.
The second race Sunday was called the John Wyer Cup
endurance race with 31 entrants. The John Wyer Cup was named after John Wyer
who ran the Porsche factory effort in 1970 and 1971 helping to earn two
consecutive manufactures championships with the fabulous 917s. The John Wyer
Cup was won by Richard Howe with his 1973 914 in class GT5S, second was Peter
Overing with his 1969 911S in class GT5S, and third was Wader Herren in his
1975 914 in class GT5S.
The third race Sunday was called the Daytona Cup with 58
entrants. The Daytona Cup was named after the famous Daytona International
Speedway in Florida. This was probably the most exciting race of the weekend
when Brian Redman built up a big lead of 20 seconds over Hurley Haywood both in
962s before Brian turned his car over to Richard Attwood. Attwood was not
familiar with the ground effects 962s which put him at a disadvantage and
allowed Haywood to catch up with him. About the time Haywood caught him Attwood
was getting the hang of the ground effects cars and they had a great race for
several laps before Haywood finally got ahead of Attwood for good, winning with
his 1987 962 in class GTP, Brian Redman and Richard Attwood were second with
Mike Amallfitano’s 1988 962 in class GTP and third was Michael Schron with his
3400 cc 1987 911 race car.
The Haywood 1987 962 was the last of four customer cars
built by Al Holbert. The car was jointly owned by Brumos, AJ Foyt and
Copenhagen and was raced at Daytona, Sebring and Miami in 1987, 1988 and 1989.
This car was raced under the IMSA rules which required air cooling, a single
turbo and single ignition. The Redman/Attwood 1988 962 was which was re-tubed
in 1989 using one of the Team Schuppan carbon fiber tubs. This car was rebuilt
as a cooperative effort between the Porsche factory and Vern Schuppan. This car
was sanctioned by the factory and retains the original chassis number 138. The
result of the stiffer carbon fiber tub was a more responsive 962 chassis with
out the terminal low-speed understeer that all 962s had. The car features a
1.71 Motronic Porsche water-water engine.
The fourth race Sunday was the Targa Florio Cup with 65
entrants. The Targa Florio Cup was named after the fantastic race through the
mountains in Sicily where Porsche won eleven times. The Targa Florio Cup wsa
won by Steve Southard with his 1983 935 in class E6, Second was Art Pilla with
is 1980 Kremer K3 935 in class E6 and third was Bob Jordan in his 1969 905/2 in
class E6. Steve Southard‘s 935 was the car commissioned by Bob Akin and built
by Dave Klym of FABCAR and called "The Last 935". Bob Jordan’s 908/2
was significant in that this particular car was the 908 that it had belonged to
Steve McQueen and that he raced to a second place overall at Sebring in 1970.
Next the McQueen 908 was equiped with a camera and used for the filming of the
movie Le Mans and driven by Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams.
The event was a great success and although they have no
official figures for spectators the track said that the Double fifty drew more
spectators than any other event at Watkins Glen this year. The event shirts
were sold out by 4:30 Friday! The Programs sold out on Saturday, dinner tickets
for Saturday night sold out and track touring on Sunday also sold out.
See all photos.
See all photos.
