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Porsche 910 and 909 Bergspyder - Caution, fragile!

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Created on March 25, 2022

Text:

Karl Ludvigsen (Übersetzung: Paul Krüger)

Photos:

Corporate Archives Porsche AG

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Josef Mayrhofer

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Corporate Archives Porsche AG

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Josef Mayrhofer

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Porsche 910/8 Bergspyder (1967) - Gerhard Mitter in the open Porsche prototype on the Gaisberg in 1967

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The first version of the 910 Bergspyder still quite close to the long-distance coupé. Here Rolf Stommelen is driving it in the 1967 Schauinsland race, where he was once again beaten by Gerhard Mitter.

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As the competition from Alfa Romeo, BMW and Ferrari became ever stronger, Porsche built the Ollon-Villars Spyder with Lotus wheels and chassis parts in 1965.

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The heart of all 910 and 909 mountain Spyders was the two-liter, eight-cylinder Type 771 boxer engine, which was derived from the 1.5-liter Type 753 Formula 1 engine.

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In the Ollon-Villars Spyder, Porsche combined Lotus chassis technology with a tubular frame of its own design.

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Gerhard Mitter (left) and Ferdinand Piëch at the premiere of the Porsche 917 at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show

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Gerhard Mitter took second place in the 910/8B at the 1967 Gaisberg race. The hoods had different colors to better distinguish the cars. Mitter's hood was red.

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Rolf Stommelen (with green hood) won the Gaisberg race in 1967. In the spirit of maximum lightweight construction, not even the rear-view mirror (on the windshield) had a housing.

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The front view of Stommelen's racer clearly shows the concave hood, which was intended to generate downforce as a kind of integrated spoiler. The headlights were barely larger than five-mark pieces.

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Gerhard Mitter in the "Minirock Spyder" at the 1968 Schauinsland Race. The rear spoilers connected to the rear suspension were new, an idea of Ferdinand Piëch.

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The handling of the 1968 Bergspyder improved enormously thanks to Peter Falk's ingenious "Z-bar"; shown here on a patent drawing.

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The new Porsche 909 during test drives in Hockenheim. The front nostrils serve to cool the brakes; an oil cooler sits on the rear fender. Almost as interesting is the rare Mercedes-Benz 230 S Universal in the background.

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Porsche dispensed with headlights altogether on the 909. To keep the weight of the remaining electrical system as low as possible, all cables were made of conductive silver.

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This perspective shows the mid-engine positioned far forward and the transmission/differential unit behind it.

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Without front cladding, the 909 reveals its ingeniously simple design. The body skin rested on small tubular arches.

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Porsche took lightweight construction to the extreme with the spherical titanium tank. Pressurized to ten bar, it was intended to make the fuel pump obsolete.

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The connection between the wheel suspension and spoiler is clearly visible here. The further a wheel deflects, the steeper the air dam is positioned.

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The GRP body of the 909 was so thin that it was translucent. All suspension parts were also made as thin as possible and had toothpick dimensions.

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Onlookers were skeptical about the fragile-looking tubular construction that the 909 concealed under its body. But then again, it didn't even weigh 400 kilograms.

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Informed only about engine speed and oil temperature, the driver of the 909 had the anti-roll bar virtually on his lap. Even the gear knob is made of lightweight balsa wood. It is interesting to note that the 909 still has a horn according to the switch console on the right.

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Although it was only used for a short time, the development of the 909 provided valuable insights that would later be used in the design of the 908/3.

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A film camera was installed on Stommelen's car during training for the 1968 Gaisberg race. Stommelen coped best with the radical handling of the 909.

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This photo taken by Gerhard Mitter at the Rossfeldrennen on June 4, 1967 shows the road conditions on which the mountain racers were racing.

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The side panels, which did not reach any lower than necessary, earned the 910/8 Bergspyder from 1968 the nickname "Minirock Spyder". Here Gerhard Mitten sits at the wheel.

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Gerhard Mitter was European Hillclimb Champion three times in a row from 1966 to 1968. Here he is waving from the cockpit of his 910/8B after his last title.

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Mitter also drove the 910/8B in the 1968 season (here on September 22, 1968 at Mont Ventoux), which he preferred to the new 909.

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Rolf Stommelen drove the 909, as he did here at Mont Ventoux. He finished a close second behind Mitter.

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Porsche 910/8 Bergspyder (1967) - Rolf Stommelen in the open Porsche prototype at the 1967 Gaisbergrennen

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Porsche 910/8 Bergspyder (1967) - Rolf Stommelen in the open Porsche prototype at the 1967 Gaisbergrennen

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Porsche 909 Bergspyder (1968) - Rolf Stommelen at the Gaisberg race in 1968

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Summary

Weight is the enemy. Under this old Lotus motto, Porsche set about developing a new racing car specifically for the European Hillclimb Championship in the mid-sixties. With a body as thin as a lace doily and a tubular frame made from slightly thicker knitting needles, the Porsche 910/8 and 909 Bergspyder taught both their drivers and their competitors the meaning of fear. This article tells the story of how these featherweight racers came about and shows them in many historic pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

Lightness at (almost) any price
The Lotus-Porsche
A white miniskirt
Successful first season
Porsche dominates the mountain
Under the spell of the Z
910 is followed by 909
The spherical pressure accumulator
Quester remains third

Estimated reading time: 12min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The establishment of a European Hillclimb Championship for vehicles with a maximum displacement of two liters in 1957 opened doors for Porsche owners and Porsche itself. The Porsche RSK and its successors dominated the scene in the early years, but Borgward and Ferrari kept them on their toes. As the regulations for sports prototypes were quite loose, lightweight construction rather than performance was the key to the battle against the altitude meters. The series became a testing ground for Ferdinand Piëch's ideas on weight reduction. And the man had a lot of ideas! Ten years after the first edition of the championship, Porsche began work on its hillclimb cars after the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June 1967. The performance potential of the two-liter, eight-cylinder Type 771 was almost exhausted, so the focus was on making the cars lighter by any means possible. This included the use of materials from space travel, which were so expensive that certain limits had to be set.

Welcome to Zwischengas!

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