Porsche Moments Revisits Automaker's Checkered Le Mans History

Reliving the Past

Porsche has a long and illustrious history at the iconic Le Mans circuit in France, and it's one that the automaker revisits on a regular basis. Le Mans is also the focus of the latest Porsche Moments series, where host Timo Bernhard hangs out with legendary drivers Walter Röhrl, Hans-Joachim Stuck, and Norbert Singer, reliving some of Porsche's best moments from Le Mans over the years.

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In-Depth Look

Since 1951, at least one Porsche has appeared in the starting lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Porsche has racked up numerous records and highlights at the race track on the River Sarthe, including 108 class wins and 19 overall victories. This summer, 70 years after its first class victory, Porsche is focusing on a special subject - "The success story of Porsche at Le Mans" - and over the course of six episodes, the new Porsche Moments series takes an in-depth look at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

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Historic Highlights

In the first episode, host and Le-Mans winner Bernhard talks to Enzinger, who led the brand to three overall victories at Le Mans as Vice President of Motorsport. For episodes two to five, Bernhard is joined by Röhrl, Stuck, and Singer. The two racing drivers and the engineer share their historic highlights from the 24-hour races in northwest France. "It is an honor for us to bring these personalities together with the vehicles that wrote history with them at Le Mans," said Achim Stejskal, Head of Porsche Heritage and the Porsche Museum.

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Multiple Legends

In the second episode of Porsche Moments, Bernhard and Singer meet up in the historic motorsport workshop at the Weissach Development Center. Joining them is the 917 KH - the car in which Porsche celebrated its second overall Le Mans victory exactly 50 years ago. "I can still remember well how the car was pushed onto the scales back then and weighed just under 780 kilograms," Singer said "The 917 KH was an absolute lightweight due to its tubular space frame made of magnesium. Luckily it had an oil tank with a capacity of 55 liters. So we added 20 liters of oil and weighed it again. This time with success."

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Long Standing Record

Singer talks about the magic of Le Mans back then and remembers how there were neither pit lanes nor timekeeping in those days. "The vehicles were parked somewhere behind the truck. Those were the days. During the race, we could inform the drivers only by means of boards because there was not yet any radio communication available." Regardless, Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep drove an overall distance of 5,335 kilometers at an average speed of 222.3 km/h. This astounding distance record wouldn't be broken until 39 years later, by a team including Timo Bernhard in an Audi R15.

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Night Driving

The third Porsche Moments episode focuses on the 936/81 Spyder - the overall winner from 1981 - and the class-winning 924 GTP Le Mans. The then-reigning World Rally Champion Röhrl and Le Mans winner Jürgen Barth started out on a secret mission four decades ago. Their Porsche 924 GTP Le Mans was a prototype of the future 944 with a newly developed 2.5-liter engine, which was scheduled to be delivered nine months later. The driver duo finished seventh after 24 hours and won both the GTP class as well as the prize for the shortest overall pit stop time. "When I think back to Le Mans 1981, I immediately feel 40 years younger. The competition overtook me during the day, but at night they only saw my tail lights," Röhrl said. "At the time, motorsport was the best place to test developments and to gain insights for series production."

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Watch It Now

The Porsche Moments series can be viewed on the Porsche Museum's Instagram and Facebook pages now. The final episode was broadcast from Weissach with Porsche's Head of Motorsport, Fritz Enzinger, and focuses on the 919 Hybrid, in which the automaker achieved three overall victories in 2015, 2016, and 2017. 

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