Porsche 911 50 Years

Journalists reported that the additional front-drive hardware imparted more feeling to 991 C4 steering. This addressed a sense some writers expressed that the new electronic steering lacked some of the feedback present in the previous hydraulic system. Porsche Archiv—Photo by Dieter Landenberger

C4 models were made for this, or for weather or surface conditions that were worse. Experience gained improving off-road capabilities of the Cayenne, as well as those managing the power and performance capabilities of the most potent Turbo models, improved all-wheel-drive hardware and software on the new 991 all-wheel-drive models. Porsche Archiv—Photo by Dieter Landenberger The engine for the 991 Carrera, still 3,614cc displacement, developed 350 horsepower at 7,400, while the S engine, at 3,800cc, turned out 400 at the same engine speed. Both the 991 coupe and cabriolet achieved their best acceleration times with the seven-speed PDK—making the 0 to 100 kilometer-per-hour run in 4.6 for the Carrera and 4.3 for the S. With Sport Chrono Plus, it was possible to shave another 0.2 seconds off each acceleration time. The new seven-speed manual, based on the seven-gear PDK, provided the greatest top speed potential, taking the S up to 189 miles per hour and the Carrera to an even 180. The cabriolet, introduced in the fall of 2012, provided equally sensational performance, achieving another of Porsche’s targets—to close the gap between closed and open car capabilities. Another target for Style Porsche staffers was to further improve the looks of the cloth top when it was raised. With this convertible, the look was nearly Speedster-like as the arc from windshield to rear deck lid was the smoothest—and most reflective of the coupe lines—yet. The tendency to use magnesium in the convertible top systems went further with this new system, as not only the front frame, but also the panel bows were die cast from the lightweight metal. Conscious decisions in spring and damper rates—meaning using exactly the same ones in the coupe and the convertible—provided slightly softer handling and slightly more understeer for the open car, a combination that Porsche learned over nearly thirty years of convertible production fit its open car buyers comfortably. Porsche followed along in its now-traditional path and introduced the Carrera 4 and 4S models at the end of 2012 for sale throughout the world as 2013 models. The carefully planned proliferation of models included 991 GT3 introduced at the Geneva show in March and a 2013 Fiftieth Anniversary model and Turbos throughout the year

Driver Jo Schlesser and navigator Robert Buchet won the final stage of the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally. They finished second in GT class behind another Porsche 911. Porsche Archiv

The 911 and the 904: On the left was the race-legal road car and on the right was a road-legal race car. Especially for international rallies, such as the Monte Carlo, these two models often competed together but in different classes. Porsche Archiv

RACING THE 911

It was inevitable. As soon as the new Porsche reached its customers, they felt the urge to test it, to compare it against the other makes out there. Neither the factory nor privateers wasted much time. Barely four months after production and deliveries began in September 1964, Peter Falk and Herbert Linge ran a factory-prepared 160-horsepower 911 on the Monte Carlo Rally, starting from Frankfurt on January 15, and finishing in Monaco on the 20th. From the start, they kept pace with another Porsche entry, a 904GTS, with Eugen Bohringer driving and factory racing mechanic Rolf Wütherich as co-driver and navigator. When the results were tallied, the Bohringer/Wütherich 904, No. 150, finished second overall and the Falk/Linge 911, No. 147, came in fifth, giving the new model its first international class win. Ferry Porsche liked his cars competing in rallies. The multi-day events usually drove through several countries and brought attention to the cars from spectators and newspapers. To anyone with doubts, events such as the Monte, the Liège (Belgium), Rome-Liège, and other long-distance runs demonstrated the versatility of these cars and their durability and tractability on hard pavements as well as on dirt, ice, or snow. The next year, Günter Klass and codriver Wütherich took first in the German Rally and first in the GT class on the Alpine Rally, and they finished well enough through the season to win the Group 3 European GT Rally Championship for 1966. Porsche 911s first appeared at Le Mans in 1966 as well. French distributor August Veuillet, founder of SonAuto, begged Zuffenhausen for cars to race and Ferdinand Piëch sent a prototype 911S for the 24-hour endurance run. Drivers Jean Kerguen and Jacques Dewez finished 14th overall, covering 2,369.3 miles averaging 98.7 miles per hour. They stayed clear of the Ford GT/Ferrari battles and won the under 2.0-liter class. Dewez drove it from Veuillet’s dealership in Paris to Le Mans and back after the race. To prove this was not some fragile prototype, Veuillet put it on sale in his 16th Arrondisement showroom on Rue Paul Valéry the following morning. The company had long supported hillclimbs as well, and since the inauguration of the European Hill Climb Championship in 1957, Porsche cars and drivers had won the outright title in either Sports Cars or GT every year since. These uphill sprints not only earned newspaper space, but also provided engineers opportunities to explore extremes of power development and weight reduction. Eberhard Mahle won the GT class championship in the seven-event series driving a factory-prepared 911 in 1966. Across the Atlantic, in early February at Daytona during the first race of the International Sports Car Championship season, Jack Ryan, Linley Coleman, and Bill Bencker finished 16th overall and first in two-liter GT class. This was the car’s first significant North American victory. They took second in class at Sebring six weeks later. In southern California, former Porsche racing mechanic Vasek Polak had become a Porsche dealer, but he never lost his roots in or love for competition. Polak teamed up with Jerry Titus, onetime jazz trumpeter–turned-mechanic-turned-racer-turned–Sports Car Graphic magazine editor. In 1966, Titus drove a Polak-prepared 911 to win the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) D Production national championship.

On the Rossfeld hillclimb in 1966, Eberhard Mahle drove this 166-horsepower 911 to victory. At season end, he placed first in the European Hillclimb Championship. Porsche Archiv

Porsche provided a 911R for Nurburgring medical crews to use during the 1,000-kilometer race. With its four tires off the ground, it’s likely the M-car driver was Porsche racer and test driver Herbert Linge. Porsche Archiv THE 911S AND THE 911R Two new models arrived for 1967 that sharpened the competitive edge for many 911 racers. The S entered dealer showrooms as a high-performance production model that many buyers took out and raced, and a much smaller run of 911R models established a pattern for special racers to come from Zuffenhausen for the next half century. Ferdinand Piëch, who ran the company’s versuchabteilung, or experimental department, developed the R (for rennen, or race) to determine 911 performance maximums and weight minimums, similar to hillclimb cars but constructed and tuned for endurance events. Compared to the fully equipped 911S, the R weighed 502 pounds less, at 1,764 pounds. Compared to the standard S 160-horsepower engine, the aggressively massaged R engine developed 210. Piëch was less interested in producing the car than learning from it, but racing and press chief Huschke von Hanstein imagined broader enthusiast interest and he worked to convince marketing and sales that Porsche could sell as many as 500 of these cars. They never agreed. After working through a series of four development prototypes during 1967, Piëch commissioned 20 preproduction cars from Karosseriefirma Baur, Karl Baur’s body manufacturing operation in Stuttgart with a reputation for uncompromising quality. Baur and Piëch left the basic 911 steel unibody unmolested, recognizing that its inherent strength was crucial for any race car’s handling. But Baur skipped body undercoating. It replaced steel body panels with thin gauge fiberglass for the front fenders, front and engine deck lids and bumpers, and doors. Baur used aluminum hinges on doors and deck lids. The exterior door handle was plastic, as was the T-handle used inside. Side and rear windows were extremely thin Plexiglas, and the windshield was half as thick as a production version. Dozens of other tiny features differentiated the R from production S models. For months racing mechanic Rolf Wütherich had a full-time job drilling holes everywhere to eliminate extra grams of weight. Once the car was lightened, the engine was the next crucial element. Frustration with the performance limits of the twin-fan Typ 745 flat six led engineers Hans Mezger and Piëch to develop the production 901/01 engine and its racing version 901/20 that used a magnesium crankcase and saw most use in the 906 race cars. The engineers evolved a special version for the R, 901/22, using aluminum cases and feather-light titanium connecting rods on its forged steel eight-main bearing crankshaft. To create the 1,991cc displacement, Mezger specified 80 millimeters bore and 66 millimeter stroke. A dual-spark plug ignition helped achieved the high horsepower output. Engineering choices for high-speed racing gave the engine radical camshafts with extensive lift and overlap between intake and exhaust open and closure. Another choice, the large Weber 46 IDA 3C carburetors, used short throttle arms that made accelerator pedal throw extremely quick. The car was meant for flat-out driving. Weissach finished assembly of the 20 Rs in fall 1967, making them 1968 models with appropriate serial numbers. Because “preproduction” and production ended with the 20 cars, it remained a prototype during its competition career so the company used it most in rallies and endurance events where its rarity was no drawback. In August 1967, drivers Vic Elford, Jochen Neerpasch, and Hans Herrmann won the 84-hour Marathon de la Route around the Nurburgring in a 911R with the Sportomatic transmission. The Marathon relocated the former Liège-Rome-Liège rally off public roads as speeds grew too high to ensure public safety. Two months later, a marathon of a more private sort engaged factory driver Jo Siffert and three colleagues, Dieter Spoerry, Rico Steineman, and Charles Vogele. The four drivers launched an officially FIA-authorized distance record attempt in a long-tail 906 that Siffert and Spoerry owned, circling the oval track at Monza. But the old concrete surface on the high banks broke their race car’s rear suspension, and when they called Zuffenhausen for help, Piëch dispatched 911 R-001 and 002 to the rescue. Loaded with spares, 002 went on ahead while engine chief Paul Hensler, chassis boss Helmuth Bott, and testing director Peter Falk supervised a few changes and upgrades to 001, including replacing the engine and fitting two identical fifth gears, one in the fourth cog position anticipating that days of wear might fatigue the other.

Codriver Jochen Neerpasch settled into one of the three 1968 911R models that Porsche entered in the 1967 Marathon de la Route at the Nurburgring. He shared driving duties with Vic Elford and Hans Herrmann to win the 84-hour trial in this R equipped with the Sportomatic transmission. Porsche Archiv

Around and around they went, four Swiss drivers challenging a collection of distance records in October 1967 on Monza’s banked oval circuit. With extensive factory support, Jo Siffert, Dieter Spoerry, Charles Vogele, and Rico Steinemann set five world and 11 European records in an already-tired 911R. Porsche Archiv

The Tour de Corse in November 1966 was Vic Elford and co-driver David Stone’s first experience rallying in a 911. They adapted well, winning the under 2.5-liter GT class. Porsche Archiv