Daily Slideshow: 906 Carrera 6 is Ups for Grabs

A Proper Introduction

The Porsche 906/Carrera 6 was introduced in January of 1966.  Designed by Ferdinand Piech (Grandson of Ferdinand Porsche), it was the successor to the 904.  The model only needed 50 examples to be built to meet the homologation requirements for the FIA's Group 4 Sports Car category.

The 906 replaced the boxed steel structure of the 904 with a tubular space frame, another major change between the 904 and 906 was the manner in which the body was built.  With the 904 the body was fiberglass but it was also used for additional structural strength, whereas with the 906, the body was an unstressed fiberglass body allowing for extra weight savings.  Between the frame and body changes the 906 came in 250 pounds lighter than the 904.

In its debut year, the 906 was quite successful.  First, it came in 6th overall at the 24 Hours of Daytona but won its class beating the Ferrari Dino 206. At the 12 Hours of Sebring, the car came in fourth overall and won it's class again.  The 906 also scored class victories at the 1000km of Monza, Spa, and Nurburgring.  And while the mighty Ford GT40 Mk II's took the 1,2,3 at Le Mans, the 906 came in right behind them in 4, 5, 6, & 7 besting the Ferrari V12 P's.  

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With That Out of The Way

With the history lesson over, let's move on to this particular example. According to historiccars.fr this car was purchased new by Mike Grace de Udy and comes with quite a story of its own.  Porsche Cars GB imported two Carrera 6's, and both were sold to Mike Grace de Udy.  They were chassis numbers 906-101, and 906-129.  He ended up parting ways with chassis 906-101 and kept 129 until 1969. Chassis 129 was raced extensively throughout Europe including the Targa Florio in Italy, the Zeltweg 500 in Austria, and the Trophy of the Dunes at Zandvoort.

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Engine History

The cars were regularly fitted with 901/20 flat-six cylinder engines that put out 220hp at 8,000 rpm, though the factory team had a few examples fitted with 8 cylinder engines. Chassis 129 was originally delivered with engine 906-122, but that was replaced with engine 906-156 after 122 gave up the ghost at Silverstone. 906-156 has the distinction of being the last 901/20 engine to come from the factory with a carburetor.

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Post Race Life

In 1969 de Udy had the car sold to Carl Richmond out of New York.  Richmond, his brother, and later on Tom Richmond ran the car in SCCA events until about 1974.  At that time it was sold on to a Bruce Tuffli in St. Louis.  Tuffli was the first to start the restoration efforts for the car as, by the time he acquired it, it had been somewhat battered.  After deciding the restoration was impractical he stored the car for about 15 years. In 1998 Tuffli sold the car off to Terry Hefty of Denver Colorado, who then shipped the car to Thomas Vintage Cars in Boulder Colorado for a detailed restoration.

After having the car restored Hefty learned that he was uncomfortable with the driving position provided by the car.  So in 2006, it was again sold, this time to Paul Howells in Britain.  Howells raced the car a few times finishing fourth in the 2008 Le Mans Classic.  In 2010 it was then sold to Duncan Hamilton Ltd., located about 50 miles west of London.

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For Sale Again

With quite the pedigree and history going for it at this point, the car is once again listed for sale at Historic Cars. The car is now fully restored to a Concours standard and is about as good of an example of a 906/Carrera 6 that you can find today. With no price listed, one can only wonder what the price tag could be at this point, though past history and examples of 906/Carrera 6's shows that in 2015 chassis 134 sold for 1.98 million at auction.

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