Porsche has written moments for eternity at Le Mans. Over the coming months, the Porsche Museum will be devoting itself intensively to the Heritage theme "The Porsche success story at Le Mans". The starting point is 1951, the year in which Porsche achieved its first class victory with the 356 SL. The triumph with the light-alloy coupé was followed by a further 107 class and 19 overall victories. 70 years later, "Porsche Moments" is now launching a new series dedicated to this glorious chapter in six episodes.
The team is paying tribute to the many historically significant moments at Le Mans in the media, internationally and at the Zuffenhausen site. "In the new 'Porsche Moments' format, we are highlighting special moments from our past in which - from today's perspective - we wrote company, product or racing history. We recreate these moments as authentically as possible with contemporary witnesses and invite our fans to relive these special 'Porsche Moments' via our social media channels," says Achim Stejskal, Head of Porsche Heritage and Museum. Le Mans winner and endurance world champion Timo Bernhard will host the episodes. In Zuffenhausen and Weissach, he meets exciting contemporary witnesses on four wheels and two legs.
Cars and personalities
For the first episode of "Porsche Moments", Timo Bernhard invited a companion whom he himself has not seen for two years: Fritz Enzinger, Head of Motorsport at Porsche. Enzinger led the brand to three overall victories at Le Mans. The reunion in front of the historic brick building of Plant 1 is like a meeting of two friends - it is as if the two had brought the legend of Le Mans to Zuffenhausen. "Trust and friendship are important for success in racing," explains Enzinger as he climbs out of the 356 SL.
"SL" stands for Super Light, the coupé weighs just 680 kilograms thanks to its aluminum body. Almost 120 kilograms less than the steel-bodied 356 coupés produced by Reutter in Stuttgart from November 1949. "Wilhelm Hild from the Porsche factory team gave the 356 SL the nickname Alubüchsle," Enzinger reveals with a laugh. Internally, the vehicle bore the designation "Type 514 Porsche Sport for Le Mans 1951".
The beginnings
From 1948, Porsche built 44 Type 356/2 coupés in Gmünd in Carinthia, Austria. Eleven more bodyshells were sent to Stuttgart and some of them were later built there. The vehicle in the first episode of "Porsche Moments" is the historical godfather of the class winner, completed in 1952, one year later than the original winning car with the number 46. "Just imagine, a vehicle with less than 50 hp drives 2,840.65 kilometers at Le Mans with an average speed of 118.36 km/h. In 1951!
Beforehand, it travels to Zuffenhausen on the road and then drives back to Zuffenhausen on country roads after the race," says Enzinger. The winning car was driven by French Porsche importer Auguste Veuillet and his compatriot Edmond Mouche, two drivers for a 24-hour race, which was the norm at the time.
Departure on June 16, 1951
The meeting of Bernhard and Enzinger in front of the brick wall at Plant 1 is symbolic of Porsche's path to its first class victory at Le Mans in Zuffenhausen. The team originally started at the Reutter building. "Nowadays it's unimaginable to drive to Le Mans with the competition cars on the road," says Bernhard about the adventurous eleven-hour journey on June 16, 1951.
"Departure was at 7:15 in the morning, Ferry Porsche said goodbye to the team," says Enzinger, showing historical photos and entries about this moment in the diary of the chief designer at the time, Karl Rabe. A year earlier, at the Paris Motor Show, racing driver Veuillet and Charles Faroux, Race Director of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, convinced Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche to take part in Le Mans in the first place.
Setting the company in motion
The road to the first class victory on June 24, 1951 proved to be a long one, as two of the three competition and training cars had already crashed before the race. All hopes were pinned on the remaining lightweight and the performance-enhanced 46 hp four-cylinder boxer engine. "When you win with Porsche at Le Mans, it gets a whole company moving," recalls Enzinger. "It was certainly no different when I won my first class than it is today. Le Mans is simply a magical place." Enzinger cites the victory in 2015 as his favorite Porsche moment in France: "We dominated from the first free practice session, an indescribable feeling. The tension reached its peak when we crossed the finish line."
Timo Bernhard's personal Porsche moment is the overall victory in 2017. "Winning three years in a row is only possible with the best team. We were people from 21 different nations - and we were all pursuing the same goal." Speaking of the same thing: Fritz Enzinger has always stayed in the same hotel room since 2014, 424, a tradition that is reassuring. Another tradition for Porsche is the transfer of technology from motorsport to series production. This is still the case today and has never been any different. "Race tracks are development laboratories for the brand's technologies. Innovative solutions have to prove themselves under the toughest conditions at Porsche, only then do they end up in the road car," says Bernhard. "On the return journey, when the engine of the 356 SL was run in, the Porsche had about 4 hp more, according to reports," says the 40-year-old.
Roadshow over six months
In addition to the "Porsche Moments", the sports car manufacturer is organizing a roadshow from June 2021 until probably January 2022 to pay tribute to Porsche's success story at Le Mans worldwide. The plan is to stop at 14 locations in ten countries, including France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the USA, China, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.
Porsche enthusiasts can look forward to static and dynamic performances by more than 20 original winning cars from the historic collection. In all Porsche Experience Centers worldwide, there will be so-called "Heritage Corners" - in keeping with the roadshow - which are dedicated to delving deeper into the history. Classic car events are also planned, for example at Monterey Car Week in California. Depending on the pandemic situation, it may also be possible to use drivers of the time, either live or virtually, to give Porsche fans and motorsport enthusiasts an insight into exciting experiences.
The Porsche Museum posted the first "Porsche Moment" with Timo Bernhard and Fritz Enzinger on Instagram back in June 2021. Five more episodes will then follow every Wednesday, as the "Porsche Moments" format continues in Weissach. There, Timo Bernhard meets protagonists and contemporary witnesses such as Norbert Singer, Walter Röhrl and Hans-Joachim "Strietzel" Stuck. The following models will also be on display: 917 KH (1971), 936/81 and 924 GTP (1981), 962 (1987), 911 GT1 (1998) and 919 Hybrid (2017). Many exciting anecdotes await, making the legend of Porsche at Le Mans tangible and illustrating the historical significance of each victory. The roadshow will be followed very closely on the company's social media channels, which will provide one or two special insights.
Behind the glass partition wall, which provides a view of the workshop in the Porsche Museum, interested visitors can also follow "The Porsche success story at Le Mans". The roadshow will make a stop there and six Le Mans class and overall winners will be on display.
