Between 1970 and 1998 Porsche won Le Mans 16 times. As Porsche returns to La Sarthe this weekend for the famous Le Mans 24 hours, we look back at the most famous cars, race directors and drivers who helped create the Porsche legend.
We interviewed the team’s most famous drivers and engineers ahead of Le Mans in the June 2014 issue of CAR magazine. Here we reproduce a selection of their memories.
Norbert Singer: a Le Mans legend. Part of Porsche’s Racing Department his whole career, Singer played a role in all 16 victories between 1970 and 1998
‘Fresh from university I made an air-cooling system for the 917’s gearbox. Then, after we won Le Mans, my boss told me to take the car into the wind tunnel and I increased the downforce.
‘We developed the 936 in parallel with the 935 – I mainly worked on the 935, but I took over the 936 the first time it came out of the museum in ’79. And when we took it out of the museum for the second time in ’81, the rules allowed for a bigger engine: we took the 2.6-litre from an old Indy project that never raced, plus the gearbox from the 917 Can-Am, and Ickx won.
‘When Group C arrived in 1982 we had a reliable engine, but everything else was new. I am most proud of the 956. It was our first monocoque, we’d never done one before, and we had absolutely no idea. We knew ground effects were in F1 with Lotus and it looked easy, but we quickly realised it wasn’t. And yet we never changed the monocoque, we found the aero balance within weeks, and it was just nine months between starting work on the car and its first race. These new LMP guys have been working for over two years…
‘The 962 was not much different to the 956, just a longer wheelbase, and the TWR project was stopped when it was 2-3 seconds off the pace at the official test. Reinhold Joest raced it in 1996 and beat our GT car, and won again in 1997.
‘For the GT car the FIA said you Germans are doing funny things with your TÜV department and getting cars homologated for the road which aren’t really allowed. So with the GT1-98 we decided to build just one road car, but get full type-approval, like any 911, so there could be no discussion about ‘funny things’.
‘Then I developed the LMP2000 for the new regulations, but four weeks from the end of the project it was stopped. Only two years ago did I find out why – it was because Porsche needed the money to develop the Cayenne. As a racer you don’t want that, but now it’s the backbone of Porsche and we’re going back to Le Mans.’
Richard Attwood: Partnered Hermann to victory in 1970
‘In 1969 the 917 was totally unsorted. After a double-stint I was deaf from the exhausts, had a blinding headache, my neck ached and I was already resting my head on the bulkhead. At 180km/h it was all over the place, and it would do 235km/h. It was the worst time I ever had in a race car, and when it broke with three hours to go it was total relief.
‘In February 1970 [motorsport boss] Helmut Bott asked what configuration I wanted for Le Mans. I asked for a short-tail and the 4.5-litre engine, which were proven, and Hans because he’s a steady driver.
‘Come the race the 5.0-litre was proven, our four-speed ’box meant we were losing three seconds in each corner and I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. But after 10 hours, ridiculously, unbelievably, we were in the lead. It was a totally uneventful race, which was how you won Le Mans.’
Helmut Marko: now of Red Bull fame, was victorious at Le Mans in 1971
‘Two years ago I was in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, and when I saw how fragile the whole construction was I can’t believe we did 400km/h at Le Mans. There was an internal rivalry – we were the Martini team and the other was the Gulf team, and we were racing each other. We were both miles ahead of the Ferrari, and I asked Ferdinand Piëch [now VW Group overlord] about team orders, but he said no, the best car will win. I think it was Dick Attwood in the other car and we were racing until the very last lap.’
Hans-Joachim Stuck: A legend in the 962, won in 1986 and 1987
‘I knew from my friend Stefan Bellof that in 1985 he would have a Formula One contract that would prevent him racing for Porsche, so I phoned Helmut Bott and said I could make myself available. We met the next morning at Weissach and within half an hour I had a three-year contract. Mr Bott asked who I should race with: Ickx, Mass or Bell? We agreed on Derek because he was more experienced than I was, and it was the best decision because we had so much success together.
‘At Le Mans our car was close to perfection – at Porsche everything worked and I was amazed at how easy it was. We had a special version for Le Mans with a longer tail, different wishbones so it was more stable on the straights, and a synchro gearbox – it was a slow ’change but you didn’t have to nurse it. It was a huge pleasure to drive. And Norbert Singer knew exactly what we were doing – I came into a perfectly working team.
‘In 1987 it was a totally different target: I wanted to get pole position and I got it – that was cool. The race was more relaxed, we had a great team and it was definitely less exciting. But before the race it was the other way around. I was the only driver who lived closed to the factory so I did the shakedown work. I had a crash at Weissach because I was going too fast, so for Le Mans we had to use an older car that had done a few races. Derek didn’t say anything when I told him, yet you could see it on his face that he wasn’t a happy man. But the old car didn’t have a problem.’
Jacky Ickx: ‘Monsieur Mans’, six-times winner Ickx won on his debut in 1969 (beating Porsche) but won for them in 1976, ’77, ’78, ’81 and ’82
‘The 936 was an exceptional car, and through the ten years I raced at Porsche the 956 was developed continuously, so it was a leading car for many, many years. Even today I’m amazed at how powerful the 936 was, how efficient it was, how easy it was to drive, so secure and comfortable.
‘More so than the cars, for the public my most memorable race will be 1969, starting from last [in protest at the traditional Le Mans start, that was subsequently abandoned for 1970] and then finishing first.
‘For me though, the most satisfying was the ’77 race in the 936 when we had to battle against Renault, who were faster. My car stopped, so I joined the second car, 12 laps behind, but we won the race. We drove flat-out, no rev limits, at the limits all the time. It was an incredible job – we were motivated by loss, and it was the type of win no one believed was possible. But you always have to believe, because in racing anything is possible.
‘However, these legendary cars are the mirrors of the people behind them. The results show the quality of a group of people, from the owners, engineers, mechanics. Whatever their different motivations, they share a passion and are a dream team.
‘I really insist on this. The point is not really that any car gave me the biggest joy. It’s always good and nice to succeed in a challenge, to build up a team, and a car, and race with winning results, but all these successes, these legends and stories, are a question of people. People make the success.
‘Unfortunately, what remains is the car or the driver, but the drivers are only part of the success, there to finish the job, the same for the cars. But at the start, there’s only the team.
‘Cars don’t win races, the people behind the cars win the races.’
Derek Bell: Together with Ickx he dominated in the 936 in 1981, the 956 in 1982, and then won in 1986 and 1987 with the 962
‘When I got to the 917 it was wonderful, it never felt unstable. At the Le Mans test weekend, Norbert Singer asked what revs I was doing on the Mulsanne. I said 8100rpm. He told me that was good, because at 8200rpm it would blow up. With his clever slide rule, allowing for tyre growth, he told me I was doing 246mph.
‘With the 936, I never saw the car until it turned up in the pits at Le Mans, and then I drove the fastest lap I ever drove. The car was so quick, and the victory was as good as my first win in ’75 because we drove fast, whereas back then we were trying to make the Mirage’s Cosworth engine last.
‘I went to the factory in December 1981and [motorsport boss] Helmut Bott asked me if I wanted to drive for them in Group C. I didn’t even know what Group C was. He told me they were going to build a monocoque chassis, which they had not done before; and a ground-effects car, which they had not done before; and a horizontally opposed engine, which no one had done before. I felt like I was going to be a guinea pig, but Mr Bott said they’d never been wrong before…
‘We did a helluva lot of testing, and we won at Le Mans. But before that I was asked to Weissach. I drove my no.1 car for 10 laps, the engineers looked at the back, wheeled it away. I did the same with no.2, and the no.3. I went to the workshops and they said the wheel bearing was leaking grease and drying out. But two hours later it was fixed and we finished 1-2-3.
‘Initially there was not much difference between the 956 and 962, but over time we developed it with a bigger engine, bigger wheels and more ground effects. Yet my most memorable race was ’83 when we came second. Jacky got dinked on the first lap, had to pit, we got lead back at 6am, and then had a brake problem.’
Alexander Wurz: With a car not quick enough for Porsche, won in 1996
‘It was a Ross Brawn-designed car, originally a Jaguar XJR-14, but TWR just cut the roof off to meet the WSC regulations. Porsche originally wanted it as its factory entry, then decided to build a GT1 instead, so Team Joest fitted a Porsche engine and gearbox, and developed it in-house – Porsche had nothing to do with it after that.
‘We beat the factory team because they thought they knew our fuel consumption, but we’d done our own mapping and work on efficiency. Porsche congratulated us after, even though we beat them. At 22 I was the youngest ever Le Mans winner.’
Allan McNish: Scotsman’s first victory, and Porsche’s last, was in 1998
‘I was quickest at the pre-test, by a smidge to Martin Brundle in the Toyota and Bernd Schneider in the Mercedes, but in the race everyone else took a step forward. We kept banging out consistent lap times, while Merc went out quite early, and Toyota was very fragile. It allowed us to take the lead from 9pm, through the night, but even though it was drizzling it was not enough to switch off slicks so we had to be very cautious.
‘At 6am I saw our sister car bouncing through the chicane, gravel spewing out from its tail, so at that point we were one lap ahead and in control of the race. Then one lap later the water temperature started to rise, 90, 95… Perhaps it was my naivety, but I was hoping it was a sensor failure, but we had to come in to change the water pipe. The sister car was up in the air alongside us, and it was the most humble feeling I ever had in racing – we felt like we had it under control, and then bang, it hits you.
‘After that we had a pretty good battle with the remaining Toyota, until it packed up an hour from the end. It showed that you might be quick or consistent, but when you have a problem, whatever it is, you have to keep fighting back. That win changed my career, the same for my teammates, but we were puppets to Norbert Singer, who dictated how it all went, not saying anything, just standing at the back of the pits, looking over his glasses. Experience at Le Mans is so important.
‘Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking cancelled the Le Mans programme for 1999, which was a bit of a shock. Herbert Ampferer [Porsche’s head of motorsport] came to me and said, okay, it’s been cancelled as you know (at the Christmas party!) but we want to do a three-year deal with you, because in 2000 we’re coming back, and next year [1999] we’re developing the car.
‘We ran the LMP2000 on a bloody cold November or December evening at Weissach. Bob Wollek did the roll-out, blasted round; then I got in the car, blasted round. I did about 30 laps – it was quicker than the GT1. We had the Porsche ritual of pouring champagne over the Porsche crest… and then the car went back in, never to be seen again. It was canned, which put me in limbo, because I’d signed a three-year deal to drive the bloody thing! I looked at other teams, at Audi, and decided that’s where I wanted to be…’