Daily Slideshow: 1967 Porsche 911 R Recreates Legendary Alpine Effort
50 years after two friends set out on a record-breaking endurance effort, a pair of new friends set out to recreate it.
It All Started With an Ice Cold Beer
It was a crazy idea fueled by, like many crazy ideas, beer. Swiss race-car driver Rico Steinemann and his racing cohort Dieter Spoerry were smack in the middle of the 1967 racing season, enjoying a cold one when they had a grand thought. What if the dynamic duo could set out to break the endurance world records for seventy-two and ninety-six hours, for 15,000 and 20,000 kilometers, and 10,000 miles (16,093.4 kilometers)? Those records had once belonged to Porsche and yet fell to Ford and Toyota in the years since. By the time their beer was gone, the plan was set in stone.
Making a Dream a Reality
Unsurprisingly, Porsche was on board with the idea. In a day and age before computers and advanced technology made gathering data incredibly easy, racers had to actually go out and test ideas to see if they worked or not. BP Switzerland officially organized the attempt, and Firestone came on board to supply the tires. And since the effort would take four days, the duo recruited Swiss drivers Jo Siffert and Charles Vögele to assist in the record-breaking attempt.
911 R to the Rescue!
At the stroke of noon on October 29, Siffert began the attempt with the first of a series of one and a half hour sessions behind the wheel. But after repairing a pair of broken shock absorber piston rods along the way, the Porsche 906 lost the front left spring strut pivot point on the tube frame. And thus ended their first attempt. Rules at the time dictated that the team would have to wait 48 hours before another attempt was made. But instead of reusing the old race car, the team phoned Porsche and arranged for a pair of 911 Rs to be sent down - one as a racer and one as a parts car.
Too Loud for Sweden
Hilariously enough, the Swiss police wouldn't let the Rs into the country because they were "too loud." So one team took a long detour around Switzerland via Lyon, Grenoble, and Turin on the way down to Monza. The other, a more direct route through Austria and over the Brenner Pass. Both cars eventually made it, one was stripped for parts, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Aging Gracefully
A journey this epic was well worth recreating, maybe minus the many troubles along the way. Plus, Porsche collector Johan-Frank Dirickx and journalist Bart Lenaerts weren't about to try and set any new records on their journey. This trip was about reliving history and enjoying the incredible scenery along the way. The weather was also more agreeable than the torrential rain faced by the original team, making this a much more pleasant experience. And according to the duo, the 911 R felt as good as it ever had on those Alpine roads. Even if it is 50 years old now.
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