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Back to July 2011 Motorsports News Archive
| 22-07-2011 at 09:00: Le Mans Meets Winton | |
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Along with the veterans, two rare Porsche Carrera GTs, built 44 years apart, will be on the circuit all the way from the Porsche Museum on Wheels in Stuttgart as part of Porsche’s 60th Anniversary in Australia celebrations. The hero car of the Porsche quartet is the much-decorated Porsche 962C sports car that won the 1987 Le Mans 24-Hour race. It was the middle of a purple patch for Porsche, as their 956/962 took victory in the world’s most famous sports car endurance race seven times between 1982 and 1994. The year 1987 was a particularly good one for the 962C, which also won the Daytona 24-Hour race, the Sebring 12-Hour and the Suzuka 500 and Fuji 500 endurance classics in Japan the same year. Regarded as the most successful sports racing car of all time, the 962 is powered by a mid-mounted flat six-cylinder 2994cc water-cooled boxer engine that with twin turbochargers produces 582kW at 8200rpm – enough to propel the car at speeds in excess of 340km/h. Also from the Porsche Museum on Wheels and a Le Mans veteran is the even more spectacular Porsche 935 Coupe that finished eighth at Le Mans in 1978. Nicknamed ‘Moby Dick’ because of its extended aerodynamic bodywork that allowed it to reach 366km/h on Le Mans’ Mulsanne Straight, the unique coupe was the ultimate development of the 911-based 935 coupe that was the most successful customer-racing car produced by Porsche in the 1970s. Porsche 935 coupes won the 1976 and 1977 World Sports Car Championship and dominated the 1978 season, thanks to their 3.2 litre rear-mounted flat six-cylinder air-cooled boxer engine with its single large turbocharger that developed up to 630kW at 8200rpm. Just as spectacular as seeing and hearing the car on the track will be its periodic ‘striptease’ in the paddock, with the nose and the entire rear section including the mudguards coming off to reveal its naked race chassis and power train. Winton FOS visitors will also be treated to the rare sight of two Porsche Carrera GT models on track from two different eras – a 1959 356A Carrera GT powered by a rear-mounted 1588cc quad camshaft four cylinder engine producing 86kW at 6500rpm and the Carrera GT supercar from 2003 that features a mid-mounted 5.7-litre double overhead camshaft V10 engine developing 456kW at 78700rpm. Until recently the Carrera GT was the fastest-ever road going Porsche, capable of 330km/h and sprinting from 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds, but such is the pace of development at Porsche that its top speed can now be matched by the latest 911 GT2 RS, while it can be out-accelerated to 100km/h by a standard 911 Turbo coupe. The four cars from the Porsche Museum on Wheels will be one of the paddock and track highlights of the Winton Festival of Speed, which will also feature the 20-lap Shannons Rose City Touring Car Trophy mini-enduro for Historic Touring Cars, along with events for Formula 5000 racing cars. |
A touch of Le Mans is heading to Central Victoria over the August 13-14 weekend with two famous veterans of the Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans taking to the Winton long circuit during the Victorian Historic Racing Register’s second annual Festival of Speed.^ Back to top ^
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