The eighth edition of the Porsche Sound Night, which was originally intended to market a sound CD from the Porsche Museum, has become a major event. There was room for well over 3000 guests in the Porsche Arena. The days when the 911 tickets were sold after just a few hours are over; now a larger audience is being addressed. However, the almost informal character of the event, which was previously celebrated in the Porsche Museum, has been somewhat lost.
The evening was hosted by the well-known Austrian radio and television presenter Walter Zipser and the TV presenter and motor sportswoman Lina van de Mars, who skillfully passed the ball to each other so that there was never a dull moment. Anyone who was surprised to see a white Panamera drive onto the stage was then treated to a dance performance on the theme of "70 years of Porsche". The performers created the music by touching sensors attached to the car. This was perhaps a glimpse into the next 70 years. But now to the automotive rarities and the contemporary witnesses of their time.
1) Porsche 356 Roadster
(Herbert Linge - Walter Röhrl - built in 1948, 4-cylinder boxer engine, 1131 cc, 35 hp)
The model, which actually bears the number 1, was built in Gmünd in Carinthia in 1948 and received its first official registration in Klagenfurt on June 8, 1948. Herbert Linge, one of the first apprentices at Porsche, and later co-pilot, test driver, plant manager of the Porsche development department and also involved in the Carrera Cup for 20 years, told us that the master apprentice attached great importance to the correct execution of the curriculum and good results in the vocational school, so it was only later that he started working on the vehicles and engines.
The roadster, which looked as good as new, was driven onto the stage by Walter Röhrl, an original image, the great racing driver in the small car. The car with which the legend began to drive was a little nervous, he said, and it could have been a little longer, but with a little good will, anything goes. It's unbelievable what was created in 1948 with the limited resources of the time. An aluminum body on a steel trellis frame, the mechanics were from Volkswagen and the engine with revised cylinder heads & 10 hp more. It must have been a real experience to see such a car on the road just 3 years after the big disaster. "Classic cars are now my favorite cars," said Röhrl, "because there I have the feeling that I can contribute to the car driving well. With newer normal cars, I can no longer contribute anything, they almost drive themselves. I also have a 356 in my garage, but not the one I had as my first Porsche.
"Herbert Linge also has a "normal 911" in his garage, a "civilian Targa" according to him, which is still in use. The mid-engine, which was rather peaceful in terms of noise, was later followed by a much louder racing car.
2) Porsche 804 Formula 1
(Valentin Schäffer - Herbert Linge - built in 1962, 8-cylinder boxer engine, 1494 cc, 180 hp)
We all know that Porsche was the measure of all things in endurance racing for a long time. What is less well known is its brief presence in Formula 1 and its successes there, as the next car shows. In addition to Valentin Schäffer, the racing engine developer, also known as "Turbo Valentin", Herbert Linge also took to the stage, who achieved legendary victories at the 1954 Mille Miglia and, in addition to the overall victory at the Rome-Liège, had countless other successes to his name. Both have experienced and achieved a lot together over the years at Porsche.
"Back then, you had to start from scratch, and the materials weren't as advanced as they are today. Back then, we still spent hundreds of hours on the test bench and everyone was keen to make progress," Schäffer recounted. "I can't remember a team entering Formula 1 after us and winning in the very first year. We went on to achieve much greater success later on, which is probably why our early Formula 1 achievements have been somewhat forgotten. "Herbert Linge recalled: "At the Nürburgring, times of around nine minutes were a magical limit back then and with the eight-cylinder we naturally wanted to get under that, but it took a Gurney to get under nine minutes with the car and Gurney also won the championship race with this car."
Zipser announced the sound test of the eight-cylinder as "Christmas for the eardrums" and that was not too much of a promise. Linge added: "You have to say that the smallest ones make the biggest noise. You had helmets back then, they weren't particularly well padded, you had more of a nutshell on your head, which above all looked good. You sat right in front of this open engine, the fan wasn't all that quiet either, and if you'd been driving this car for an hour or two, you didn't even know whether you'd turned the engine off or not, and you had a humming noise in your head for a few hours ..."
3) Porsche 917 KH (short-tail race cab)
(Hans Herrmann - Richard Attwood - built in 1971, 12 cylinder 180° V-engine, 4999 cc, 630 hp)
Richard Attwood, attending the sound night for the first time, joked that he had been to the factory in Stuttgart several times before, but that Porsche had its own arena was new to him. It looked like they were getting everything they wanted, which must have something to do with the performance, he joked, earning his first laugh from the audience.
Hans Hermann remembers: "It was a fantastic car. I have to say that in 1969 I narrowly lost out to Jacky Ickx, who we'll see later, and who crossed the finish line one and a half seconds ahead of me in a GT 40. Unbelievable, by 1.5 seconds - back then, the gap at the finish at Le Mans was given in laps, not seconds! Piech said: "We needed a car with which we could win overall victories, and in 1970 we succeeded.
Then it was time to present the car with the unusual paintwork. When asked whether he would like to drive the car in a race again, Richard Attwood said: "In my mind, yes and maybe it will work out next year at Goodwood for the 917's fiftieth birthday." But he is certain: "This is the most beautiful engine you'll hear tonight!"
In one of the most prestigious motorsport magazines in England, the car with the eye-catching paintwork was voted the public's favorite, "the most famous and most glamourous sports car ever". There is nothing to add to that. Hans Hermann, asked by van de Mars about "the comfort of the racer", simply said: "As a racing driver, you put up with anything in a fast car. It was insanely hot, it was tight and you mustn't forget that we were driving at 384 km/h on the straights in practice in 1970 (applause). But we wanted to drive for 24 hours and be the winner at the end, so we changed the gear ratio, but it still went 360 km/h".
Zipser summed up: "It's nice that we have so much space this time that you can see the cars in motion, that's something completely different from just seeing them standing still, but that wasn't possible in the Porsche Museum. "After the sound check, the car, which was used as a "race cab" in Weissach, probably the fastest cab in the world, left the stage to rapturous applause.
4) Porsche 911 Carrera RSR Turbo 2.1
(Manfred Schurti - Gijs van Lennep - built in 1974, 6 cylinder boxer engine, 2142 cc, 500 hp)
An incredible body, an incredible vehicle, and great drivers who had driven it back then. We were looking forward to meeting Gijs van Lennep, who had been European champion in this vehicle, as well as Manfred Schurti from Lichtenstein. He said: "It was really something very special to be allowed to drive this car, especially for someone from Lichtenstein", and when asked about his birthday on December 24th, "it's a bit strange to be a Christ Child all year round. Only as a child you have Christmas and your birthday on the same day with just one present ... and as a teenager you have a bit of a problem throwing a birthday party with your girlfriends, but now I always invite a bunch of people and nobody comes. The Swabians would say that everyone has to carry their own baggage."
Gijs van Lennep, the 1971 and 1976 Le Mans winner, explained how the car's black rear spoiler came about. The Turbo had the large rear wing and Dr. Fuhrmann then said: "It no longer looks like a normal road Carrera, we have to paint the wing black, then it won't be so noticeable." "The only difference with the road car was that there were no seats in the back of the racing car, just a 120-liter racing tank. In the production car, the tank was at the front. There, however, the series tank was empty, which resulted in a completely different road holding and therefore the tank moved to the rear, even if this led to a weight distribution of 70% rear and 30% front." "However, you had to learn to drive these first turbos. There was a lot of turbo lag, and when you accelerated it took a long time before the turbocharger really got going. So you had to accelerate at meter 20 when you needed the power at meter 50, but you can learn that too."
Asked about the second place at Le Mans and the then still untested turbo engine, the racing driver says: "The engineers at Porsche are so great, they had built a turbo engine that ran right to the end in the first race at Le Mans. We only had a small problem with the gearbox, we lost 5th gear. On some sections we could only drive at 230 km/h, others passed us at 300, but they were in the pits for 45 minutes and so we came second." These are the stories from Le Mans that the public loved.
5) Porsche 935/78 "Moby Dick"
(Jacky Ickx - Norbert Singer - year of construction 1978, 6 cylinder boxer engine, 3211 cc, 750 hp)
For the first time at a Porsche Sound Night, Jacky Ickx, the Formula 1 runner-up, 6-time Le Mans winner and Dakar winner, was also present. He was accompanied by Roland Kussmaul, the Porsche racing engineer responsible for 16 overall Porsche victories. After enthusiastic applause from the audience when asked about his countless victories, Ickx thanked Kussmaul and his colleagues, "because without the right team, the right mechanics and without dedicated engineers you don't win". and he enjoyed driving for Porsche.
Addressing the audience, the racing driver said, "enjoy the sound night here, once we're all driving electrically, it won't be any fun listening to the whirring of the drive". In motorsport it is unfair, he said, "that the driver reaps the glory and the rest of the team only has the consolation of having contributed to it. But they were fantastic too!" Kussmaul was responsible for the "Moby Dick" and many other racing cars, a great engineer who received the applause he deserved that evening.
And then finally the Porsche 935/78, called Moby Dick, drove into the hall. JP Kraemer was allowed to drive "the hero of his youth". 750 hp from 3.2 liters of displacement, achieved by bi-turbocharging - that was a real house number in 1978. When asked whether he wanted to take the car with him or whether he would rather see it in a museum, Jean Pierre said: "There is now the 991/935, which would probably be the more attractive option for me."
A statement that not everyone in the audience shared. When asked about the double rear window of the 935, Norbert Singer said with a grin: "With the third generation of the 935, we understood how to interpret the regulations (enthusiastic applause from the audience from those who knew what this meant), which developed over the years 1976 to 1978. They had already thought about what the successor to the Moby Dick might look like, and even a variant with a ground effect was being tested.
"This 935 engine remained the basis for all the Porsche 956 and 962 racing machines for the next 10 years. Jacky Ickx "only had to drive" the cars, others took care of the regulations. Norbert Singer, who loves desserts, also owes his inspiration to his wife and her excellent roulades. No matter how, through what and where he came up with his ideas, they made racing history.
The engine was the first four-valve engine from Porsche to be used in racing, with a water-cooled cylinder head, while the cylinders were still air-cooled. It was not until the mid-eighties that full water cooling was introduced. When asked about the car's top speed of 360 km/h, Ickx said: "The car is a rocket, but they didn't give it to me for Le Mans, it was too fast for me. I was given a different car." "The best ambassadors of a brand," said Ickx, "are its fans, and the hall was full of them that evening. And without the fans, but also without the amateur drivers, there would be no racing," he added.
6) Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar
(Peter Falk - Jacky Ickx - built in 1986, 6 cylinder boxer engine, 2849 cc, 400 hp)
Now the Porsche 959 Paris Dakar took us into the desert, and another contemporary witness took to the stage in the form of long-time race director Peter Falk. He saw the basis of the Porsche legend in the fact that almost every car designed by Porsche was also used in the race. But how did the "959 Paris Dakar" come about in the first place? Jacky had won the Paris Dakar in 1983 with a Mercedes G and knew that Porsche was working on the 911 with all-wheel drive. "We had an old prototype and the CEO, Mr. Bott, had a 911 with all-wheel drive." So Jacky Ickx asked: "Couldn't we enter three cars in the Paris Dakar next year?" and offered to help organize it.
Mr. Bott was surprised, called Mr. Falk and Mr. Kussmaul to him and asked them: "Can we put a finished Paris-Dakar car on its wheels within a year so that we can take part and win?" Mr. Kussmaul, responsible for rally development, was not one to mince his words and replied piously and freely: "Mr. Bott, if we can get your car as a test car, then we can do it." The boss was "not amused", after all it was his favorite car, but after a while he said: "Here you have the key." Without this step, the Paris-Dakar car would probably never have existed. At the time, the Paris Dakar was "reserved" for Land Rover, Toyota, Mitsubishi and other brands with experience in all-wheel and off-road driving, and Porsche was initially ridiculed for attempting to go off-road with a sports car.
The 11 had already been in the desert before, but with 310 liters of gasoline and two spare wheels, it was getting tight in the 911. Two sleeping bags were also packed just in case they did break down. When asked about the speed of the event, Ickx said: "230 km/h in the desert, I tell you, it's really fast! "Vanina Ickx drove the car onto the stage and agreed with van de Mars: "The car's clutch is really nasty and harder than any thigh workout in the gym. The original car is still ready to go after 30 years". When asked which of the cars her father had won in she would like to take with her, she said that the 959 Paris-Dakar would be her first choice for trips into the desert, but Moby Dick would be at least as appealing.
In the competition vehicle, the engine output of the car had to be reduced to 400 hp, a concession to the poor fuel quality on the rally. "The desert," said Ickx, "looks flat but has waves like an ocean. You drive over 6 dunes and every time afterwards you think, I should have stayed on the gas and at the seventh dune you go flat out and there's a huge hole behind it" ...Something similar had happened to Porsche a year earlier, except that there was no hole but a rock crouching behind the dune and had torn out the front axle of the car ...The third car at the time, piloted by Kussmaul, did take part in the rally, but was a service car, equipped with as many spare parts as possible. Despite the immense weight of the vehicle, it reached the finish line in sixth place, an achievement that cannot be overestimated. "40,000 km without major repairs, 800 km/day, that was quite a challenge," said Ickx. "There were only 18 of us in the squad, 6 in the cars, 6 in the service truck and 6 in the plane and we drove 14,000 km without any problems, without any major repairs. When you sit with the others in the evening and look at the stars, you don't see 3,500 stars like at home, you see 10,000 stars and then you really start to think. How small our place on this planet actually is." Ickx was a philosopher, commented Peter Falk.
7) Porsche 962 C
(Hans-Joachim Stuck - Derek Bell - built in 1987, 6 cylinder bi-turbo engine, 2994 cc, 700 hp)
"If you look at this car next to today's racing cars, you have to say it's the coolest thing there is, right?" Striezel Stuck opened the conversation to applause. His favorite sport "squeezing the popometer" was appropriate for these cars and in Le Mans at up to 380 km/h. Stuck: "Those were still cars for men, there was no power steering and no automatic Playstation gearbox. If you drove over 360 km/h at Le Mans, this interrupted center line became a continuous line and then you knew you were going really fast.
Why has Porsche won so often at Le Mans? "Because they built a car for the drivers, there were no wings torn off, they arrived, you didn't have to fight with the steering wheel on the straights like with other cars". Striezel Stuck's enthusiasm for the brand was written all over his face.
"There was," said Stuck, "and is nothing better than the 962 C. The combination of performance, downforce and tire width is simply brilliant. Thank you for letting me drive it." Two-time sports car champion and five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell had nothing to add.
8) Porsche 911 GT1
(Norbert Singer, Stéphane Ortelli - built in 1998, 6 cylinder turbo boxer engine, 3162 cc, 550 hp)
Norbert Singer, the magician of aerodynamics, had meticulously kept an eye on the interaction of the individual parts of the car. "If everything on the car doesn't harmonize with each other, then nothing works," he said. "And if the driver doesn't feel comfortable in the car, then it's not really fast in the long run."
For Ortelli, one of the most beautiful Le Mans cars ever. You could see it in his eyes. "It was a really fast car, when I drove it really slowly, it was 80 km/h. In the Porsche curve, it was the fastest car ever back then."
"I later drove faster cars at Le Mans," said Ortelli, "but not with this comfort and this beautiful design, the GT1 is the best Le Mans car I've ever driven. I am very grateful to Norbert Singer's team at the time for building me such a great car.
The car was the first Porsche carbon monocoque, carbon brakes were already in use and the optimized Motronic was very important for fuel consumption, it all fitted very well," Singer recalled of earlier times. "As far as the vehicle design was concerned, we stayed on the safe side. Some people think that the most important thing at Le Mans is the long straight. That's not true. From Mulsanne back to the pits, there are two really fast corners, the Porsche Chicane, which go at 240 km/h. If the balance between drag and downforce isn't right there, you lose exactly what you previously gained on the straight. And I think we've got the right combination there."
9) Porsche 911 Carrera 2 Cup
(Olaf Manthey - built in 1993, 6-cylinder boxer engine, 3600 cc, 275 hp)
With the Carrera Cup, Porsche was a pioneer for the various one-make cups that followed later. Launched in 1993 to accompany Formula 1 in the supporting program, it became one of the most successful one-make cups in the world. And the fastest, because although Lamborghini and others competed with more power, they could not match the pace set by Porsche. Porsche always remained true to its policy of staying as close to series production as possible. "That," said Manthey, "is a simple recipe if you have the right basic product. With the 911, Porsche naturally has the right tool for this".
Roland Kussmaul joined him on stage. When asked about the quietest car of the evening, he simply said: "It's a road car, so the exhaust sound couldn't be what it should be. But the exhaust was worth it, because today there must be 10,000 Porsche 964s driving around with that loud exhaust."
(Standing ovation) The great thing about the car, which was a cup car and a road car, is that it was possible to simply drive straight over the curbs. Drivers like Toni Hezemanns, when asked about the fourth destroyed rim, said: "If it's faster, you just have to drive like that. "However, Manthey's entry into the Carrera Cup was not as smooth as one might expect. In 1990, the first year of the Carrera Cup, he was driving a BMW M3 in the DTM and was asked if he would like to drive a car in the Carrera Cup. However, after 5 laps of testing on the Grand Prix circuit at the Nürburgring, he got out and said: "You can drive the car yourself!"
A road car with slicks is not a DTM driving machine. He was persuaded to drive the car after all, perhaps also because of the prize money.
But the change from the DTM car to the 964 was a big one. Manthey described the 11 as a diva. "You have to know how to handle it. If you're brutal with the car, you'll never be really fast with it. If you understand that and know how to implement it, you can also drive the car to victory". The resulting connection continues to this day, but all beginnings are difficult. If you want to see how the cars were driven with full commitment and at the highest level back then, you should watch the legendary YouTube video from the 1993 Porsche Cup, which shows the race between Uwe Alzen and Altfrid Heger that decided the championship.
10) Porsche 911 GT 3 Cup
(Roland Kussmaul - year of construction 1998, 6 cylinder boxer engine, 3600 cc, 370 hp)
"The 911 GT3 Cup, based on the water-cooled 911 Carrera, was the big step towards building a real racing car without road approval. In the occasional DTM support races, the car was only a few seconds away from the DTM cars, which, however, cost a whopping DM 500,000 instead of DM 150,000. The cars were really good and still are today. For example, at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, there are perhaps 20 Cup cars taking part. In the first 10 hours you don't see any of them at the front and in the last hours they are in the top ten. Kussmaul likes the cars! Jean Pierre Kraemer would prefer to drive the car straight away, as he immediately felt comfortable in the driving machine.
Above all, however, it was easier to drive than the 964, which was still air-cooled. Kussmaul could only confirm the latter. The UPS lettering was reminiscent of the junior program that the logistics company had financed at the time and from which well-known and successful racing drivers such as Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb and many others had emerged. The former, however, had had great difficulty finding his way around. During the first test, he always drove over the curbs on the right-hand side and the distance on the left was too great. Okay, he didn't have a driver's license at the time and had only known formula cars where the pilot sits in the middle ...
11) Porsche 911 GT 3 RSR
(Stéphane Ortelli, Marc Lieb - year of construction 2004, 6 cylinder boxer engine, 3598 cc, 435 hp)
Marc Lieb, one of the drivers of the car, had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and was victorious at Daytona, Spa and the Nürburgring. Before his visit to the Porsche Arena, however, he first had to travel the Stuttgart-Bremen-Stuttgart route, as he wanted to be present at an important field hockey game for his son. He takes his parental duties really seriously, but that is a tradition in the family. He started his Porsche career in the 996 GT3 RSR, so the car is a very special vehicle for him.
As a native of Stuttgart, whose father had already worked for Porsche, he was already toying with the idea of joining the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer in his karting and formula racing days and then managed to become a works driver at the age of 20. Stefane Ortelli drove the car onto the stage and let the engine roar to the delight of the audience. Together they had won the 24-hour race in Spa, supported by Norbert Singer as strategist in the pits.
Back then, they had competed with the small GT2 car against the big GT1 teams and won. Well, it rained for 18 of the 24 hours, which helped, but you have to manage that first! In Daytona, the team once again competed as "David against Goliath" and took the win. The car was kept fit with regular upgrades and was the first car to be fitted with a sequential gearbox. A total of 27 customer vehicles were built in Weissach, all of which were used quite successfully.
"You get a fright in the racing car, because without good earplugs you can't stand it for more than an hour." "A hell of a noise", as Ortelli said, "but I just love this music, it deeply touches my heart", what else is there to translate? But you didn't just hear the engine, you could literally feel the almost 9000 rpm that the engines were already turning back then, right into the cockpit. Only the narrow restrictors that could be seen in the engine compartment did not meet with Lieb's approval, as they had cost a lot of power. Open, the engine delivers around 500 hp and is simply great fun.
12) Porsche 911 RSR (Type 991)
(Marc Lieb - year of construction 2017, 6 cylinder boxer engine, 4000 ccm, 510 hp)
We take a leap into 2017, Vanina Ickx piloted the next crowd favorite onto the stage. The last Porsche she drove in a race had a sequential gearbox in 2011, but a lot had changed in the 2017 car, which took some getting used to. When she heard the sound of the racing machine, however, her racing instinct kicked in again and she would have loved to take off in the car straight away. For the first time, the engine had been consistently placed in front of the rear axle, creating space for a sophisticated diffuser - the path from GT car to prototype was no longer a long one. The ingenious work on the aerodynamics also made this car the measure of all things in GT sport, whereby the fans were not neglected. The centrally converging exhaust system produces a unique sound, especially in races.
Bringing back the historic design of the "pink sow" at Le Mans was a real hit with the fans, and the matching T-shirts sold out quickly. The inside of the pits was also "retro", only the drivers were not really enthusiastic about the pink overalls ...
13) Porsche 919 Hybrid
(Andreas Seidl, Marc Lieb - built 2017, 4-cylinder V turbo engine, 2000 cc, combustion engine 500 hp + electric 400 hp)
Andreas Seidl, Head of Operations at Le Mans, described the 2015 double victory at Le Mans as his absolute highlight. The prerequisite for the complex development was to attach the decision-making level directly to the board of the AG so that important decisions could be made quickly. The fact that not only the development came from Weissach but that the works team was also based there made many things easier in the further development of the racing car. The agreement to consistently push the vehicle concept to the limits of what was feasible was also indispensable. Although this caused some durability problems in the first season, these were overcome and the team was actually able to win in 2015.
Expectations of the team were very high after the problems in 2014. However, the car had only been tested for a maximum of 6 hours at a time in 2015, so they hoped to at least make it through the night without any problems. Incidentally, getting the race car with Marc Lieb into the Porsche Arena was not quite so easy The turning circle of the car did not suit the comparatively narrow arena.
With maneuvering assistance from the museum team, however, this was quickly done. The steering wheel that controls the high-tech racer cannot be understood without detailed instruction. The boost that can be triggered there requires careful consideration in order to have the additional electrical energy available at the right time. Energy management is a highly complex subject, Hans Hermann simply said: "I wouldn't want to drive it any more, I just love the normal combustion engine."
When asked about the old days, he said: "We used to get little money for a big risk, today the risk is thankfully low and there is a lot of money for it. I should probably start racing again ..." The effort that Porsche has put into the 919 Hybrid is almost unimaginable. Two dozen engineers and mechanics were not enough to look after the car during the races. To name just one example: before the start, the engine is filled with fresh, preheated oil. The cooling water is also pre-tempered, as the engine cannot be started when cold, the machine's tolerances are so tight.
In order to compete in qualifying with as little weight as possible, even the amount of oil in the oil tank is kept to an absolute minimum. A special test rig was built for this purpose, which simulates the oil distribution in the tank depending on the race track. This allows the smallest possible amount of oil to be tested at which the lubrication of the engine still functions. If you want to get a feel for how fast the car really is, a Grip YouTube video with Matthias Malmedie conveys this impressively. The Sound Night 2018 ended with a brilliant "final concert of all the vehicles", with satisfied faces all round from the visitors, many of whom are sure to be seen again in 2019.
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