Your all time favourite Porsche team & why ?

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Mirage M6

I´ve looked for info and was a incredible race (Regazzoni crashed with Adamowicz when they fought for the first place). As I said Piper had two 917K, one for Attwood-Charlton, and another for Adamowicz-Casoni).

Spyderman, you're very lucky too!


PS. Aysedasi, Syderman...some of you saw enviable things... I'm too younger

Thanks for the information Mirage!

Yes, we were very lucky!!

My most ardent desire is that some of that magic returns to sports car racing.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by neiltbag

To be honest, the Jags were so new and unproven that as a 9-year-old I didn't understand the significance. And let's not forget - at that point, their glittering career was still all in the future...

True enough, but seeing them race in British Racing Green instead of the subsequent Silk Cut livery was something not to be missed!

[The Badger]

missed the racing green cars , but I did see the Suntec XJR-12 at Le Mans and it did look smart .

Sad , that Group C had to disappear in such a way and leave a bad taste (Fia) in its wake .

They were special cars but , the modern proto's are more exciting to watch cuz of no ground effect . The Group C cars around Tetre Rouge looked kinda like they were running on train tracks . I miss them though .

My first Le Mans had works Nissan , Toyota , Mazda , Jaguar , Porsche , Benz and AMR ..... will that ever happen again , and 5 Irish drivers in 5 works cars .

Toyota-Watson 89CV
Nissan-Donnelly R89C
Benz-Acheson C9-89
Mazda-Kennedy 767B
Jaguar-Daly XJR-9LM ..... cant see that happening again for some time .

[neiltbag]

This thread got me scurrying over to the Racing Sports Cars page and looking at old Porsches.

Was wondering as I went through some of the Group C races where funding for these privateer 956/962 teams such as Obermaier, Kremer and Fitzpatrick came from. Was it a similar situation back then, with funded drivers, some of whom owned their own cars? Obviously guys like Stefan Johannsen, Klaus Ludwig, David Hobbs and Jan Lammers were all picked for their driving abilities, but names I'm not familiar with like DeNarvaez, Merl, Plankenhorn, Schornstein and Henn seem to me to indicate that they brought cash.

Then there's drivers I've heard of who I've never been sure what their status is, like Oscar Laurrauri, Harold Grohs, Jurgen Lassig, George Fouche, Rupert Keegan, Massimo Sigala etc.

[The Badger]

Plankenhorn,Schornstein,Henn owned their own cars .

Larrauri was a brilliantly quick Argentinian , was offered a works or Joest drive for 1990.But decided to stay with Brun.

Lassig was a gentleman driver , not a bad one either. 2nd at LM and a Daytona 24 hour win with Kremer .

Fouche was a decent South African , fun to go drinking with , but tight , and his manager !!! Had a weird scar on his face cuz a tractor wheel rolled over his head as a kid , from thehorses mouth.

Rupert Keegan was British and ex F1 .

Sigala was an Italian who was brilliant too .

Grohs was refered to as the fastest taxi driver in the world , he was supposedly an ex-taxi driver .

Hope this helps .

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by neiltbag

This thread got me scurrying over to the Racing Sports Cars page and looking at old Porsches.

Was wondering as I went through some of the Group C races where funding for these privateer 956/962 teams such as Obermaier, Kremer and Fitzpatrick came from. Was it a similar situation back then, with funded drivers, some of whom owned their own cars? Obviously guys like Stefan Johannsen, Klaus Ludwig, David Hobbs and Jan Lammers were all picked for their driving abilities, but names I'm not familiar with like DeNarvaez, Merl, Plankenhorn, Schornstein and Henn seem to me to indicate that they brought cash.

Then there's drivers I've heard of who I've never been sure what their status is, like Oscar Laurrauri, Harold Grohs, Jurgen Lassig, George Fouche, Rupert Keegan, Massimo Sigala etc.

Fitzpatrick was well funded by Skoal Bandit and jDavid (no idea what they made) Obermier was part funded by Hugo Boss, and Kremer had money from many places, kenwood, leyton house etc.

This highlights another differance between now and then, those companies, back then at least, were pretty much 'A' list. If you add in Rothmans, martini, Silkcut you can see the huge change now where there are maybe 3 or 4 fully funded teams with A list names behind them.

Massimo Sigala, I think he family own a coffee maker company?
Keegan, his dad owned BEA an airline.

[Mirage M6]

Originally Posted by neiltbag

This thread got me scurrying over to the Racing Sports Cars page and looking at old Porsches.

Then there's drivers I've heard of who I've never been sure what their status is, like Oscar Laurrauri, Harold Grohs, Jurgen Lassig, George Fouche, Rupert Keegan, Massimo Sigala etc.

Larrauri was a very good driver: He won European F3 championship (81 or 82?), tested for Ferrari, and started to race in endurance racing in 1984, with a private italian team (I don't remember de name) with an old Lancia LC1; he raced very good, and the next year raced for BRUN...until 1991 with succes.
He also drove in F1 with Eurobrun, BRUN's F1 team.

With the answers we can edit a book about 80s endurance racing.

[Aysedasi]

Good stuff guys - I like the idea of that book.......

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Nordic

Fitzpatrick was well funded by Skoal Bandit and jDavid (no idea what they made)

Skoal Bandit was like a nicotine t-bag that you sucked ..... made your lips fall off after awhile , and J.david was an American real estate company .

[The Badger]

I also loved the way you didnt know who in hell was going to sponsor a car at a perticular race meeting , cuz they changed so much .

Brun had , Torno,Guffanti,Jagermeister,Eterna,Scholler,Gaggia,Lui,Rexona,Repsol,Hydro aluminium,Warsteiner,Froma,Alpha,Scheisser,Memorex,Rial,FATurbo,Fortuna,Locatop,JSK,Takefuji,Camel,C olloni,Orsi,Marlboro,Momo as major sponsors ..... all beuatifully presented in eye catching color schemes .

Did I miss any out Ayse ?

[ss_collins]

Longtail 917 (Salzburg) 1970 Le Mans - Elford.

[Nick49]

Hello

I have to say that being an old Lotus fan I like green and yellow cars BUT looking at my model collection it seems that I like Porsches in blue and white as I have the Rothmans, JDavid (956 & 935 versions) and Schiesser cars. Mind you I have the yellow and black "Newman" Porsche in Starter 1/43, Tamiya 1/24 and Slot.It 1/32 scale so that livery really caught my eye.

Another livery I liked was the Interscope Racing black and pink car as raced by Danny Ongais.

Nick

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Did I miss any out Ayse ?

Blimey! Who am I then - the Memory Man?

Sounds like you must have most (if not all) of them there.

Skoal Bandit was like a nicotine t-bag that you sucked

Jeez - like who wanted to suck a nicotine t-bag? Sounds absolutely revolting......

[The Badger]

Yeah well ..... its those strange people from across the pond again !!!

[Spyderman]

O.K. guys, I just remembered this episode (sorry, I think its an "age" thing)
I returned to Africa for a brief 2 year period between 1982 and 1984, and as expected I went to see the 9 hours of Kyalami (I think it was 1982)
At about 4 in the afternoon, as is common during the summer months in the Johannesburg area, it began to pour with rain ( the usual brief , but intense down pour). The track was flooded and it caught many of the teams completely off guard. Many of the cars remained on slicks thinking that the downpour would be brief (and they were right) but not expecting the intensity.
As a result, one of the 956's came flying into Sunset corner (a fast right hander) and went straight off the circuit and into the barrier (quite a bit of run off room) and came to rest in a type of ditch. About 20 seconds later a second 956 came round the same corner and repeated the exact same trajectory and landed up partially on top of the first 956. To everyone’s surprise, a third 956 came round, and he too did the exact same thing, also landing up partially on top of the second 956.
The next day, one of the news papers headlines was as follows: THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE SANDWICH.

[Mirage M6]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

O.K. guys, I just remembered this episode (sorry, I think its an "age" thing)
I returned to Africa for a brief 2 year period between 1982 and 1984, and as expected I went to see the 9 hours of Kyalami (I think it was 1982)
At about 4 in the afternoon, as is common during the summer months in the Johannesburg area, it began to pour with rain ( the usual brief , but intense down pour). The track was flooded and it caught many of the teams completely off guard. Many of the cars remained on slicks thinking that the downpour would be brief (and they were right) but not expecting the intensity.
As a result, one of the 956's came flying into Sunset corner (a fast right hander) and went straight off the circuit and into the barrier (quite a bit of run off room) and came to rest in a type of ditch. About 20 seconds later a second 956 came round the same corner and repeated the exact same trajectory and landed up partially on top of the first 956. To everyone’s surprise, a third 956 came round, and he too did the exact same thing, also landing up partially on top of the second 956.
The next day, one of the news papers headlines was as follows: THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE SANDWICH.

Must be in 1983: in 1982 Kyalami 9 hrs was a non championship race, and there were only two Porsches 956 (works Rothmans Porsche) drove by Ickx-Mass, and Bell-Schuppan. And was sunny. In 1984 Porsche AG didn't race, and I think that was only a private Porsche, Lancia won, Patrese-Nannini, and was sunny.
In 1983 was a little rain, and raced Porsche AG with some Porsche's private teams.

[Mirage M6]

I think I've got the info: At Kylami 9 hrs race classification I've seen and accident almost in the same lap between three Porsches:

Fitzpatrick Porsche 956,T. Boutsen-D. Hobbs, lap 47
Brun Porsche 956, H. J. Stuck-M. Sigala, lap 48
Joest Porsche 956, B. Wollek, C. Serra, lap 48

[Mirage M6]

-S. Bellof-D. Bell, Porsche AG 956
-R. Patrese-M. Alboreto, works Lancia LC2 (Martini Racing)
-J. Ickx-J. Mass, Porsche AG 956
-D. Schornstein-"J. Winther"-B. Wollek (after the accident ), Joest Porsche 956
-J. Lammers-J. Palmer, Lloyd Porsche 956
-S. Van der Merwe-T. Martin-G. Duxbury, Fitzpatrick Porsche 956
-L. Von Bayern-S. Brunn-K. Grögor, Joest Porsche 936C
-J. Winther-L. V. Jensen, Winther BMW M1 (1º Group B)


I'm very envius!

[Spyderman]

Thanks Mirage!
So 1983 it was then.
P.S. Don't be envious, you too will have many events and stories to tell when you get to my age.

[Nick6]

Andial, built the greatest 935 of all.

[Martin Haven]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Blimey! Who am I then - the Memory Man?

Sounds like you must have most (if not all) of them there.



Jeez - like who wanted to suck a nicotine t-bag? Sounds absolutely revolting......

Skoal was indeed a major manufacturer of tobacco packs, which, when placed between top front teeth and gum, deliver a huge nicotine rush...

Sadly for them, the absence of all those nasty inhaled carcinogens did not make them as healthy as seemed to be the case initially. A spate of mouth cancer cases pretty much hobbled their sales in the States.

However, the same basic things are still HUGE in Scandinavia (called Snus - pronounced snoos) in fact a major sponsor backed Alx Danielsson to last year's World Series title.

In their day, GpC siponed off only a little of Skoal's budget - NASCAR accounted for much more, with the Burt & Hal's team (as in Reynolds of Smokey and the Bandit and hairpiece fame - allegedly - and Needham - his producer) and Harry Gant's no33 car...

see here... http://autospeak.com/kcmpic10.jpg

I still have a bright green shiny very early 80s Burt & Hal's blouson somewhere...

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Martin Haven

I still have a bright green shiny very early 80s Burt & Hal's blouson somewhere...

I bet you don't wear that down the High Street very often these days Martin.......?