mechanicd seals factory Innovation, 19 victories have defined Porsche’s half-century of success in the world’s greatest sports car race.
Most recently, the 2017 all-wheel-drive hybrid 919 can no longer be removed from the frightening 917 (a race car with a top speed of 246 mph) if only basic aerodynamic performance is required, but Porsche’s victory is These eras are like stitches in Le Mans history.
Richard Attwood (Richard Attwood) and Hans Herrmann (Hans Herrmann) won the 1970 Le Mans Grand Prix. Attwood remembers that almost everyone with a driving phobia felt scared in the first 917s. “There are no factory drivers who are willing to drive in the Nürburgring, it is almost like a strike. I don’t want to!” said the 80-year-old British. However, Attwood achieved impressive results with Vic Elford in 908-the 917 eight-cylinder engine-when Elford asked Attwood to ) When driving with him at Le Mans in 1969, his fate was sealed.
“Vick said he likes 917,” Atwood said. “I don’t know if this is an exaggeration, but the first time I drove it on the Le Mans circuit, it wandered horribly. The test has already been carried out on the airstrip and I don’t think they will reach the terminal at a speed of 185 mph. If you look in the mirror in the pit lane, you will see a good view, but in Mulsanne Straight, you can see nothing.”
In 1969, Attwood and Elford retired 6 laps after a 21-hour lead, but Porsche worked with the JWA Gulf team to resolve the accident. This development led to the 917K for Kurzheck or Shorttail, whose truncated swept rear wing complements the low drag Longtail.
When Porsche allowed Attwood to choose his co-pilot and 917 configuration in 1970, he chose Herrmann and Shorttail, the latter equipped with the lowest power 4.5-liter Flat-12 engine with 500 bhp instead of the new 5.0-liter. The power exceeds 630 bhp. After all, the gearbox failed in the previous year, so why put more pressure on it?
Qualifying for 15th place seems to be a disastrous decision, but the bad weather and impatient mood put the game into trouble.
“Three Ferraris (512s) are out in one go. This is one of the wettest races ever-today you will have the starting blocks and the red flag. When I am not driving, I just want to take a break because I have mumps. Milk and bananas feed me, so when I returned to the garage, I was scared to learn that we were leading.”
A Martin Racing 917 Longtail was asked to take second place after 14 hours, but Attwood still remembers that it was a challenging race. He said: “Cycling at a reduced speed sounds simple, but it’s easy to lose a small part of your attention and you leave.” “Due to the limitation of the situation, the car caught fire. A lot of water skiing. I grew up on a plane. Dangling. It’s all irritable, but I think I am walking too slowly.”
Herman won the final championship and flag, and immediately withdrew from the competition. Attwood had to finish second in 1971, Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko won the 917 Le Mans Martini The final victory of the team. Van Lennapp said: “I participated in 22 races in 917, more than anyone. This is one of my favorite cars.” “I never crashed it, I never worried about any understeer Or oversteer, and because it has a 100% limited slip differential, you can drive it at amazing speeds, but I was lucky to not drive it in 1969!”
Van Lennep is not well known. He will drive a new magnesium chassis racing car in 1971-the first chassis broke down in the test three or four hours later, and the Porsche only Weissach tested the experimental vehicle for only 12 hours. Van Lennapp said: “I am not angry at all after discovering that magnesium is magnesium. If Porsche says you are participating in a race, then I will not be angry.”
Braking issues may win van Lennep and Marko, rather than chassis stress fracture. “Six hours before the end of the race, about five hours, we had more or less no brakes. We considered changing the brakes, but we were two laps in front of the John Vail Bay (917) team against Martini The race is a bit dependent on the bay. We know that if we change the brakes, we won’t win, so we decided to bring it up early and don’t brake too much. Fortunately, it stays together. This is the first time we drove drill brakes. Detail of the disc in the Porsche Museum cracked.”
After winning in 1971, the new rules banned the 917 in Le Mans and successfully carried out a new turbocharged chapter in Can-Am, but van Lennep in Le Mans in 1976 (Le Mans) won again, driving a Porsche 936 with Jacky Ickx.
This new open cockpit model has a space frame chassis and a turbocharged flat six-cylinder engine. Although the exhaust manifold is damaged (and therefore the turbocharge is lost), the team has built 11 laps at one point This allowed the team to pay 30 minutes of pitstop time. Van Lennapp said: “The mechanic burned his hands even with his gloves, everything became very hot, but after stopping we were still three laps ahead.” Van Lennapp said that he almost caught up. Andre Haller had a fatal crash in Datsun 260Z. “It was at the corner of the straight road, and it immediately lit a flame. I was 500 yards behind it, but if it were 200 yards, I might have been in the same fire. He died immediately. He died when I passed him. Sitting on the steering wheel with hands crossed, it was a terrible sight, and then 200 yards later, we got the green flag and we had no time to think.”
Van Lennep (Van Lennep) retired after that victory, but Ickx (Ickx) will become the most successful driver of all 936 drivers, also won the championship in the 1976 and 77 seasons, and retired in 1981. Win again in the year. “The 936 car is so good, so it maintains a good balance, so it’s easy.” said the 75-year-old Belgian. “For me, the most special victory was in 1977. I was driving with Henri Pescarolo, but we had an engine problem, so I changed the second car with Jürgen Barth and Hurley Haywood. We received Renault Alpine’s Opposing, always leading, we don’t know how many laps behind. I drove out and we did very well under very difficult conditions and pushed them very hard until there was a mechanical failure.”
When the 936 dropped to 5 cylinders, the fairytale comeback was almost a nightmare. Ickx was too nervous to hide, staying in his RV until Barth boarded the flag.
When Ickx achieved his final 936 victory in 1981 (after the unexpected 1-2-3 of the 911-based 935 in 1979), it was equipped with a 936 that could run the new 2.6-liter engine and was pressure tested. The coming 956 years. In the C 956 group, Eckx participated in the Le Mans final with Derek Bell the following year, and won six consecutive years of victories for 956 and closely related 962. This will be ended by Hans-Joachim Stuck, Derek Bell and Al Holbert won in 86 and 87 respectively.
Stark has been driving extensively in Formula One, but he described driving 956 and 962 as the pinnacle of his driving career. “The 956 car is the best car in my career. I have been promoted to a new level professionally. I really enjoy working with great people like Norbert Singer, like Father-son relationship with Peter Falk.” Stuck
Stark was the only factory driver in Weissach in less than two hours. He drove the most difficult test of the time and even knocked down a Porsche customer car. “You don’t have to worry about engine or gearbox failure, you can focus 100% on driving the 962,” Stuck said. “The perfect combination of horsepower, aerodynamic downforce and tire width makes this car so unique. Due to the ground effect and the usually unachievable turning speed, you are under tremendous downforce and I have to change my driving style. Force yourself to do it.”
“The combination of horsepower, aerodynamic downforce and tire width, it is this mix that makes this car so unique”
As his first victory, the victory in 1986 was the most special, but at the same time his friend Jo Gartner was killed in the game. “I was in the car when the accident happened, and they called me and told me, I said,’I don’t drive anymore.’ Peter said, you have a contract and you must drive. After the race, the funeral has always been in my heart, but I Never thought of stopping driving,” said Stark, a 69-year-old German.
When the three drivers teamed up again for 1987, their victory marked the end of Porsche’s winning streak.
In the following years, Porsche won two less-than-expected victories: In 1994, Porsche once again exploited the 962 loophole to develop a mandatory road law model (Dauer has placed a license plate on the 962), WSC-95 (1996) Years and 1997) was a redesigned Jaguar XJR-14 operated by Joest Racing and powered by Porsche, which allowed Tom Kristensen to taste Le Mans Champagne for the first time.
The 911 GT1 is the next dust-free paper design. It is manufactured in accordance with GT1′s new rules, which stipulate that racing cars should be based on road cars, although Porsche has effectively reverse-engineered road cars and is a specially manufactured mid-mounted engine racer. GT1 was originally based on the steel 911 body shell matched with the rear end of the mid-mounted engine 962, and will evolve into an all-carbon fiber racing car called 911 GT1-98, heralding the age of LMP prototypes.
GT1 won the Le Mans championship only once, driven by Stéphane Ortelli, Allan McNish and Laurent Aïello, and defeated the most competitive with GT1-98 specifications One of the fierce Le Mans racing cars-Toyota GT-One, Mercedes CLK-LM, Nissan R390 and BMW V12 LM are all fighting for victory.
Ortelli recalled: “I loved the GT1 since the first time I drove it. “I have never been under such down pressure. I like the story of Norbert Singer-this is the last time it was drawn by a man Car instead of the car with the direction indicated by the computer. ”
Ortelli is still a close friend of McNish, and he attributed his 1998 victory and lasting friendship to McNish’s crash of the GT1 early in the 1997 Le Mans season. “Our boss Herbert Ampferer asked if I could play against Allan again. I said he had a second chance and we hope to win together,” the 50-year-old Monegasque recalled.
Aïello was the last moment of the puzzle in 1998, drafted after Yannick Dalmas had a serious car accident in Spa, and has become good friends with McNish and Ortelli.
GT1 is not tied for the fastest car. Ortelli recalled: “It is more conservative than the competition, but we hope to increase this ratio by 120% and know that this car will continue to be used.” “But the competition is so fierce that the two Zakspeed GT1s failed the prequalification. .”
The factory cars did this, but due to doubts about reliability, their speed was compromised when Porsche switched from the “dog” gearbox also used by Toyota to the synchronous gearbox in the warm-up on Saturday. “We are super slow, super frustrated, we can’t pan, and the shifting distance is four times longer. Porsche said, you will hurt your hand and feel frustrated, but you will have a car to push.” ​​Ortley said.
After Ortelli and his teammates repaired the leaking pits and dropped from first to second, his decision was to pay dividends in the game. Altley said: “A friend called me on the corner of Indianapolis and said that Toyota made funny noises when downshifting. Because of this information, we have been pushing them and putting pressure on them. , And then they collapsed.” “I think we were the youngest Le Mans champions at the time, with an average age of 28. People say that I invented selfies on the podium. This is our spirit. And Porsche has spent 50 years, Wo Wolfgang Porsche came to the top of the podium. The whole story is very special.”
Porsche left for more than a decade to gain Audi’s superior dominance, competing with the RS Spyder for certain periods of LMP2, but when it returned in 2014, it once again set the benchmark. The 919 is one of the most advanced racing cars ever built, with a compact 2.0-liter turbocharged V4 engine, all-wheel drive and the most efficient hybrid system on the grid.
Timo Bernhard participated in the 1999 Porsche Carrera Cup (Carrera Cup) in Germany, and the GT1 program ended. “The plan is always to win the championship with Porsche at Le Mans. I was only 18 years old. This is still possible. I just don’t believe it takes that long!” The 39-year-old German laughed.
Bernhard achieved the Le Mans goal for the first time at Audi in 2010, but he has been involved in the 919 from the earliest stage in 2011-testing the components on the RS Spyder, and even Help set up the vehicle structure and provide feedback on the seat cushions.
“This is the most technical project I have ever participated in,” Bernhard recalled. “I have completed the racing settings of the tires and shock absorbers, but he is the next level, part of the new hybrid era, and Porsche is returning to Le Mans. The earlier generation set the standard so high and had the same success.”
Bernhard has achieved impressive results on the 919 car (including winning the 2015 World Endurance Championship), but due to possible engine failure, he won due to engine failure in the 2014 Le Mans debut race After the retirement of Le Mans, the victories in the following two years proved to be elusive, while the sister 919s won.
In the 2015 Le Mans race, Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy defeated Audi and Toyota teams, the first since 1998 Times.
“For everyone else in the paddock, we are the third car, but we have the same opportunity, and we know we can do it.” Tandy told Auto Week shortly after that historic victory. “I first thought that we could win before midnight. Nico was in the car and we were wasting time. I thought “it’s time to turn the switch.” I drove for three and a half hours, leading by a healthy advantage.
“The victory is incredible-I just made my first attempt with Porsche (a manufacturer with an incredible history) and won the biggest race in the world. This is the most exciting of my entire career. The moment is the culmination of all my wishes.”
After Bernhard and teammates Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley took the lead in the game, they had to finish second in 2016, leaving Romain Dumars. (Romain Dumas), Neel Jani and Marc Lieb’s sister car, snatched the victory from Toyota when Toyota’s TSO50 famously slipped to a stop at the beginning of the last lap .
With teammates Brendon Hartley (Brendon Hartley) and Earl (Earl Bamber) intensified preparations for the 2017 Le Mans event, Bernhard knew this might be his last chance. He said: “Maybe I have been under more pressure myself. There are rumors that LMP1 may develop in a different direction. There are rumors that this may be the last Le Mans of the 919, but I don’t want to consider this.
Toyota is currently the only other LMP1 competitor. The Japanese won the championship in one fell swoop. The Japanese re-established their position after retiring from the leader in the last lap of 2016. “Toyota has the upper hand in some places, but we still have the best team, strategic and operational capabilities, so we know we can win.” Bernhard said. But after only three hours of the game, the dream was shattered and the front axle problem took 62 minutes. He said: “People tell us that if we don’t take all measures, then its strategy will fall to the last ten minutes and just get on the podium.”
If this seems like an impossible hope, then Le Mans sales in 2017 will be more surreal. All other LMP1 participating cars ranked eighth, and Toyota did not even compete for the podium. It forced Bernhard to catch up with Jackie Chan DC Racing’s LMP2 Oreca, who unexpectedly took the lead. He remembered: “This is a push since the last three hours.” “I opened my door first and finally passed the LMP2 car. In the last hour of the problem, I continued to push, and then in the last 15 minutes. Slow down. I don’t think about anything until I cross the finish line!”
Bernhard vividly recalled driving on the crowded pit lane with his 919 teammate. “Winning the championship with Audi is beyond my dream, but this is the pinnacle of my career. To achieve the goals I set, there is no day you can make better progress long ago,” he said.
The staff who won the Le Mans Award went on to win the last race of the 2017 World Endurance Championship in Bahrain and won the championship. It was Bernhard who played a vital role in the development of the car and won the 919 final.
So far, 919 ends the book about Weissach’s extraordinary achievements in the automotive field. The book has surpassed people’s imagination in the past 50 years, but if it remains the same in these times, it is The humility of the Porsche winning driver. All of these are similar to Autoweek, but perhaps Jacky Ickx sums it up best.
Aix said: “Behind the award-winning car, you have the talents of Porsche: engineers, mechanics, passionate people, they do their best with 100% effort, but they have no glory. “Drivers are only a small part of success. All those who drive are honored to be members of this unique company.”
Porsche is likely to return to the new LMDh era, but no matter when, the past 50 years have told us that it is only a matter of time before Porsche will add another seat in the 19 Le Mans races.